LOST

I do watch LOST and is it getting good!

The title more refers to how I'm feeling at the moment. (Thankfully, "this too shall pass")

I load my photos of Madrona to do more posting about it. I look for my very important notebook that has all my notes I took in my classes as well as various contact information.

I was supposed to send one woman the link to Ruth's site so she could download the Kauni cardigan. Can't do it now.

I have photos of Janine's colorwork class attendee reunion. Some folks brought swatches of their original colorwork which was so inspiring. One woman's work was phenomenal. I was going to mail her when I posted on it...along with her name. Now I can't.

Can't find the blasted notebook.

I have searched ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Where in the hell is this damn thing??

It is LOST.

I want to practice what I learned in Judith Mackenzie McCuin's two classes - spinning a fine yarn and her spinning for sock class. Can't.

This is how I feel in general. I feel so disorganized. I feel like....like....

SO NOT PUT TOGETHER. (I can't even use improper american english!)

I think my Nihon projects exemplify how I feel about my life. They are all over the place. Some pieces finished, some not and some not even started.

I feel like I have all these pieces of me scattered all about. I feel spread thin here, there and everywhere. I'm tired. Exhausted really.

Had a rather big blowout with the sweetest husband in the world. He gains his energy by being with people. I gain mine by being alone. He thinks that I'll feel better if we invite people over for dinner or get out and about. (Remember he is retired also). I tell him I need to be ALONE. I don't want people over, I don't want to go on a walk, I don't want to be bothered. Remember I work all week - I am with people all freaking day long! He *got* it and I've been hibernating in *my* room all weekend. So lovely. Oh, just what I needed. No phone calls, just me, my knitting and Chase and Beanie. I did what I wanted when I wanted, I ate when I wanted, I took a nap if I needed. This was good because I don't feel quite so cranky!

I think part of it is the aging process quite honestly. My body doesn't do the things it used to so so regularly. Hormones are going a tad bit awry. Things I could count on like clockwork...count 28 days on the calendar and Aunt Flo would visit. This doesn't happen anymore. She visits *about* every 28 days but she basically visits when she wants. Also the allergies have kicked up in a big way which contributes to my fatigue and crankiness.

On to real knitting content(you are probably thinking thank god! finally!)

So here is my nihon homework:

Last week in class we learned the pick up for the v-neck. Some folks had one center stitch at the v-point, some had two. I had two.



Jean commented on this yarn. It is Berroco Ultra Alpaca. Personally I love working with this yarn. The interesting thing is I did my swatch, did all my calculations and knit to all my carefully calculated measurements. When I was ready to block my pieces, they seemed so long. I thought "I checked my calculations many times, how could this be?". Well Jean said that with this yarn you need to do a larger than normal swatch. Then when you block it, you need to hang it over a hanger - this will give you a truer guage. So...this sweater will be longer than I planned. It is ok. This is going to be a very cozy sweater!

The round neck cardigan. I am making progress on the back.

Right front - not quite done - need to calculate and knit the short rows for the shoulder slope:

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Here is a closeup of one of the patterns in the sweater. You can see the stitch markers that always cheer me up made by my friend Amy. Amy gave me the special cupcake with the flowers the day I was moderating Charity night at Madrona. This was a good luck charm! What a sweetheart! Thanks Amy!



Jean gave me a good suggestion about my button band for the cardigan. Use this pattern for the button band. Since there are holes in the pattern via a yarn over, I could just use this pattern and have built in button holes. See here:

Wouldn't little pearl buttons look cute?

On to my next Nihon homework - it is a V-neck cardigan. I finally decided on a simple pattern for it. This is knit out of Rowan Cotton Jeans - color Blue Jeans.



I have also been sock knitting. My inspiration is Ruth's mom. She knits one sock per day! Yes, one full sock per day. Once she finishes her one sock, she can then do her "fun knitting". Sounds like us Nihon Vogue'ers. No fun knitting until homework is done, NOT!

So I worked on my Serendipity socks. The next BMFA sock club installment is to ship soon so I wanted to get these completed. I finished the first sock with the toe designed for the pattern...it is a star toe. I'm not sure I'm going to like it. I'll block it first before I decide whether I want to change it. It is very wide and you can really see it from the side view of the sock. The toe from the front looks cute but not sure if it will feel bunchy when wearing in a shoe.





Then..I also need completely mindless knitting so I decided I can knit socks just in my plain old sock pattern(in my head). Now I can have something to do in meetings or when I'm in line at the store.

Socks that fit me I do on 2.0mm, cast on 64 stitches and just do plain old stockinette with my newly learned short row heel ala Priscilla Gibson Roberts. This sock is done in Julia's Vesper Sock Yarn. I have quite a few skeins in the stash. This is a very old colorway..neopolitan.



I know the sock looks kind of funny. I had knit the toe but realized the sock was just a tad bit too short so I frogged it. Note: I do a lot of frogging and not just on Nihon homework!

This was a very bad week for me so...I have added three more Vesper sock yarn skeins to the stash which have yet to arrive at their new home.

I also bought some Yarntini. Yes!! My big personal accomplishment this week. I actually have some Yarntini in hand. Do you know how long it has taken me to get my hands on some of this? Probably 2 years. I just happened to be on-line at the right time and the planets aligned just for me. I bought it at Sonny and Shear.

Here is Home, Hope, and Fig&Plum. So excited.



As I said, it has been a tough couple weeks. Our budget system is up and running but there have been some challenges. My co-worker and friend Jamie always tells me to go to my "happy yarn place".

That is what I did. Sock yarn is a good thing. You can never have too much sock yarn, right?