Knitting in 2010

Yesterday, I sat down and matched my stashed yarn with patterns. My yarn stash was starting to get a bit out of hand, and I won't have as much money to spend on yarn next year. So. Here's a few of the items I'm planning to knit in 2010:

Tempest Cardigan made from Three Irish Girls Cian on Beckon and Backwards Loop on Kells




Harf made from hand-dyed, handspun yarn from The Vildish Twist




Joelle's Favorite Yoke Sweater from Three Irish Girls Alchemy on Finley

CHP Graduation Pictures

My brother graduated from the CHP Academy a few weeks ago! I, of course, had to bring my camera. Here are a few of the shots from the day:

Holiday Knitting Madness!!

I started off this holiday season without any plans for knitted gifts. Then with only 3 weeks left, I decided to knit two very simple scarves. Last weekend, I thought a friend needed a hat for herself and vest for her toddler. The hat is done and the vest will be today. The scarves will likey not be done time and I still have to attach the hood to the latest hooded scarf.

How about some pictures of recent finished projects?

Two Steps Forward...

I was doing so well. Knitting away, not ordering any new yarn, then BAM! Lots of yarn is on its way. So. How about a preview?

Georgia Peach on McClellan by Three Irish Girls. It's a limited edition and I'm a sucker for limited edition. Not to mention, it's totally gorgeous. I bought enough to make a lightweight, 3/4 sleeve cardigan.
Morgaine on Kells by Three Irish Girls. Love it. Had to have it. It's going to be a long sleeve pullover.
Knitosophy Discover by Dream in Color. I love quotes. I have a whole notebook full of them. One of my favorites is this one by Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." This colorway was inspried by that quote. Yarn inspired by one of my favorite quotes. There was never any hope.

Turkey day is around the corner!

And I need to lose 10 pounds. Still. Or at the very least, stop gaining weight and buy new pants. Regardless, neither of these goals will be accomplished when I do things like eat two donuts for breakfast. That is exactly what I did today.

So I have a plan (you knew that was coming, right?)

We are going to switch to light soy milk and low-fat & fat-free when possible. The bigger change shouldn't be too difficult (I hope). Before dinner, I'm going to eat a nearly vegan diet by avoiding most animal products and simple sugars. I am also making a conscious effort to eat more fiber. Hopefully this helps!

In a random note, I am apparently semi-vegetarian, meaning that I eat meat in less than half of my meals. I've always been this way. Who knew it had a label?

Creative Adventures

Yesterday I purchased:

Green Tights

Green Dress

Green Fabric

Ivy Garland

Halloween Makeup

Red Hair Paint

What could I possibly have planned? My first ever attempt to make a halloween costume!

Starry Starry Night

I think this might be the most gorgeous yarn EVER. It was a limited edition Three Irish Girls yarn and I'm glad I got one! It's called Starry Starry Night based on Van Gogh's painting.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I was doing really great with Jillian's 30 Day Shred workout. It was still kicking my ass, but I didn't feel like I was about to expire either. Then we adopted our new puppy, Piper. Prepping for her, and going to pick her up nixed two workouts. However, on Friday, I was determined to workout again. I just didn't count on Piper being an early riser. I also didn't count on the fact that having her around would sometimes require me to move a lightning speed to stop her from doing things she isn't supposed to. Hence why wear slippers on our tile was never a problem until now. I discovered the hard way (literally) that slippers are quite slippery when on tile and that tile is very, very hard. I took a pretty hard fall at 6am Friday morning that killed the rest of my day.

Now, I remember falling as a kid, but I don't recall that it caused back & ab pain hours later. I also don't recall it making me nauseous for half a day. I must be getting old. Needless to say, I didn't workout on Friday or at all this weekend.

Today is the day I will get back in the groove! Next summer will be here before I know it and I'm determined to make it to the top of Half Dome!

Half Dome - June 2010

"Half Dome is the ultimate Yosemite day hike - the one you can't die without doing, and the one you're most likely to die while doing."

I am going to hike to the top of Half Dome next summer. This is significant for a number of reasons. The first being that it will force me to get into shape. The second is that I have never been to Yosemite. I have lived within 2-3 hours of Yosemite for most of my life and have never gone. That's going to change.

I have started training yesterday. I don't have a lot of upper body strength and I know that I will need it to haul myself up those cables. So I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. I also need to lose 10 pounds. I tried it yesterday for the first time and it absolutely kicked my ass. I can already tell that this will be great training for Half Dome. There were lots of squats, lunges, and arm exercises with weights. I also want to start hiking on Saturdays for practice.

Yoga & Knitting

What could yoga & knitting have in common? Yeah, I don't know either. They are, however, two of the ways I chose to spend my free time lately. I recently finished my top-secret knitting projects. I can't post about them yet, but will as soon as I get the green light. They are awesome! I have also finished my sister's hat, which is shown here on my head.

On to yoga. I love yoga, but I also love to be lazy and eat junk. Lately, I've been really lazy and eating a lot of junk. Which has to stop because pretty soon my pants won't fit. I've decided that for numerous reasons, my pants being one of them, I need to integrate a daily yoga practice into my life. First thing in the morning seems ideal until I remember the previously mentioned laziness. So it happens as soon as I get home from work. I'm two days in, so far so good.

And hey! I can touch my toes with my feet together and my knees locked! I haven't been able to do that for a while, and Chris immediately squashed my excitement by showing me that he has always been able to touch his toes. He better watch it or I'll trick him into practicing yoga with me and tie him up in a pretzel.

Top Secret Knitting!

I am officially knitting my Top Secret project. YAY! And true to my predicition, I did not finish any of the previous mentioned projects prior to starting this one. Although, that had more to do with me getting distracted by a potential landscape overhaul than lack of knitting time.

As promised, here are the recent yarn additions that have arrived. They are (in order): 3IG Key Lime on Glenhaven, 3IG Passion Fruit on Glenhaven, 3IG Erin on Kells, Classic Elite Yarns Solstice Calais. Not pictured are my Top secret project yarn and a skein of 3IG Arboreteum on Lindon that has been given to Rowena.

Projects Galore!

I currently have a number of unfinished projects.

First, I have Ben's Naughty/Nice scarf. This is scarf #4 for me of this same pattern and I'm bored to tears with it. I knit the first half, then had to take a break and start something else.

So I started something else. My tiger eye's scarf in orange & black. This is awesome because it will work for SF Giants games, as well games for my alma mater (University of the Pacific). However, lace drives me batty. I'm always missing a yarn over or knitting two together, instead of three. I can really only do one full pattern repeat in a day or I start to get twitchy so I started something else.
I started something else. This time it is a Featherweight cardigan. 700 yards of laceweight yarn, all in stockinette stitch. Ahhh, monotony. Perfect for knitting while watching TV. Although this picture isn't current, the project is almost done. It is THIS close. However, I'm starting to run low on yarn (maybe knitting a project that has a yarn of requirement of 960 yards, when I only have 700 yards wasn't such a good idea?) and the project is starting to require more thought. That being the case, it wasn't the easy, mindless knitting I needed for airplane knitting so I started something else.

I started something else while in flight from Fresno to Dallas (are you starting to see a pattern here?). I started my sister's hat, using hand-dyed and handspun yarn from the Vildish Twist. It's awesome and Vilde is awesome. I knit this happily on the flight to Dallas and on the flight back. It was perfect airplane knitting.

There you have it. I currently have 4 projects on the needles, not to mention that I still need buttons for that baby sweater, so I can call it officially completed. You would think that I have more than enough knitting to keep me happy for a while, finishing up these projects, but no. I have a top secret project with a short deadline. As soon as that yarn arrives, it will become my obsession until it is finished. I am really excited for this project and can't wait to get started. While I (impatiently) await the arrival of yarny goodness, I will no doubt make some progress on the above projects but finishing any of them might be pushing it.

Tune in tomorrow for the most recent additions to my ever-expanding yarn stash.

A Preview of Things to Come

In the interest of full disclosure, here is a list (with pictures!) of the yarn that is currently on order and will be arriving at my house in the near future.

First, we have July's Stash Menagerie Club yarn - Glenhaven Worsted in Key Lime (3 Skeins) and Passion Fruit (1 skein)

Next, we have Kells Sport in Erin (2 skeins)

The next ones won't arrive until September, but I have preordered them. They are Finley in Alchemy (2 skeins), Zephyr (1 skein) and Starry Starry night (1 skein).

The Yarn called to me.

I tried to resist starting any new big projects. For the sake of conversation, we'll say a big project is anything except socks and scarves. I have a Special Project (SP)coming up that has a deadline. I'm not sure what I'm knitting yet for this SP, but I know that it will be a sweater of some sort and I'll have 4 weeks to complete it. The yarn is supposed to arrived in mid-August. Knowing that the SP will be my obsession for the weeks it takes me to complete it, I don't want to be burnt out on knitting. So last week, I read a trashy book, knitted the first half a Naughty/Nice Scarf for a friend, and had some friends over.

Yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore. This is my 4th Naughty/Nice Scarf and I'm so tired of this pattern. So I cast on another project: Tiger Scarf. It's a lacy scarf and lace takes quite a bit of concerntation. This will be an ongoing project. I was happily knitting when something called to me.

It was my skein of Dream in Color Baby in Beach Fog. It has long been destined to be a Featherweight Cardigan. The yarn was no longer content to be stashed, so I thought I would wind it into a cake. That would surely appease Beach Fog, right? I also made the gesture of purchasing the required pattern and writing down the required modifcations, but I don't think it's enough. I know that when I get home tonight, the Beach Fog will be calling to me to start my Featherweight Cardigan.

What's a girl to do? I can't resist the call of the yarn.

I really need to be more creative with titles

Anyway, here is my newest finished project! I'm really happy with how it turned out. It would have only taken a week or so, but we had a trip to Disneyland, a mild case of the flu, a concert and a trip to the beach in there.

Now I am working on Ben's Naughty/Nice Scarf!

Insert Witty Title Here

Here you go! A picture of me wearing my new top! I really like it, but I like the top I'm knitting now even better. It's knitting up really fast and I should be done soon.

Grecian Frog Prince Finished

I finished my Grecian Top in Frog Prince. It turned out nice! I don't have any pictures of me wearing it yet, but I'll be sure to take some in a few days. I love the cabled edging!

Gandalf and the Giant Peach

Meet Gandalf and his peach.

After he was done showing off, it was time to get down to business.

The peach never stood a chance.