There are NOT Enough Profanities....

...to describe what I'm feeling. Remember that Double Ear infection/sinus infection thing I had just before Christmas? Yeah....the fucking thing is back. Antibiotic resistant infection. FUCK!!! The good thing is that I made it to the Doctor before it got really bad. (thank goodness for my best friend who was willing to drive me to urgent care at 8am on a Sunday morning when she was out until 5am the previous night) Right now it's just my sinuses and a middle ear infection. I'm on even stronger antibiotics now.

My knitting mojo is back!

First, let's talk about how Christmas went....

We had a good one here. On Christmas Eve, FIL gave his presents to the kids, and his gift to DD was a little doll house that she LOVES. On Christmas morning, when she came out of her room, she ran past her stocking, past the big pile of presents, while yelling "MY DOLL HOUSE!!!!!" and she ran to the doll house and happily played until meanie Mommy and Daddy told her to open her presents...lol. The boys both have been playing with their new toys non stop as well. I don't think any of them received anything that they didn't absolutely love :)

My Hand knit gifts were well received this year. My Mom absolutely LOVES the afghan I knit for her. So much so that a few hours after we arrived back here at home from visiting her house, she called me just to tell me again thank you for the blanket and she just kept going on about how pretty it is and she asked me a million questions about how long it took and the construction details. I love that my mom loves the afghan. My sister, Jammie, loved the Baboons Ass socks. My other sister, Dawn, loved the Montego bay scarf. She put it on after opening it and wore it around for a few hours. She absolutely LOVES how soft it is (merino/silk blend). Baby Talia is only 4 months old, and as soon as her Mommy helped her get the sweater out of the box, Talia saw it and started crying....lol. And as for Laney and Morgan's sweaters, Look below:

Here is my (sleepy) Miss Morgan trying on her sweater.

and, here is my Laney Belle trying on her sweater. (and my dad fresh in from doing yard work in the background chomping on a cookie)

I hope everyone also had a good Christmas.
~

As soon as my Christmas knitting was finished with, and the last button sewn on, I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. I was free to knit whatever I wanted again! Such a liberating feeling!! So, either on the 23rd or 24th (I'm not sure), I started a pair of Anastasia socks for my best friend's Birthday gift. Her birthday is coming up on January 2nd. I am using some discontinued Regia Strato Color that has been sitting in my stash for a LOOONNNNGGGG time. I think it's been there for at least a year and a half. The ball band says the color # is 5747. I have sock #1 completely finished, and on sock #2 I'm done with the toe and I'm either 4 or 6 rows (I can't remember) into the first pattern repeat. Not shabby for only a few days work.

I have also rescued my Icarus shawl from my UFO pile. I haven't really done much with it, so it still looks the same as the last pic I posted of it. Icarus became a UFO so I could concentrate on Christmas knitting, so its been waiting patiently since October for me to return to it. Also, I have 3 skeins of STR lightweight in Korppi waiting to become an Adamas Shawl.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who emailed or left comments wishing me better. It really meant a lot to me. I am doing A LOT better now. I still can't hear out of my left ear, and I still get a little dizzy occasionally, but that's it. I can actually function now! YAY!.....lol I had a few days where I could function just fine as long as I could sit still, and on those days, I managed to knit (and finish) a Halley's Comet Hat for my niece, Morgan; and I finished the Baboon's Ass socks for my sister, Jammie.

Here, you can see DD modeling Morgan's hat, it's a better pic of DD than it is of the hat :) Instead of a rolled brim like the pattern specifies, I did some 2X2 ribbing. To make the hat more of a toddler size instead of adult , I went down a needle size. The yarn I used is Lion Brand's Cotton Ease in the Berry color. This hat took less than half of the skein, and was a really easy, really quick knit. DD saw that there's a flower on the top of the hat, and she asked for me to knit one for her, so I let her into my stash and she picked out a skein of Violet Cotton Ease for her hat.

This second pic, is the finished Baboon's Ass socks. It's a crappy pic (pun NOT intended), but I didn't feel like being persistent in getting a better one...lol. The pattern is Monkey socks by Cookie A, and I used Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in Burgundy.

So, as far as Christmas knitting goes, all I have to finish is both sleeves on Laney's cabled Sweater, 1/2 a sleeve on Morgan's hooded sweater and the buttons on both sweaters. Since these sweaters are for a 2 year old and a 3 year old, the sleeves are pretty short and wont be a problem to finish. And, buttons in this house are never a problem...lol

I doubt that I'll be posting again before Christmas. So, everyone, have a happy holiday! Have a great time celebrating with your families, loved ones, and SO's!

weeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ok, so it turns out that what was thought of as a run of the mill ear infection, is really both an inner and an outer ear infection. The pain got so bad that my best friend (who is the BEST BEST BEST best friend in the whole wide world) took me to the ER at 3am on Sunday morning. Apparently that cold I had last month that I thought was just a bad cold, was really a sinus infection. And that never getting properly treated, is what caused my ear infections. So, now I'm on strong antibiotics, ear drops and pain meds. The pain meds caused the title of this post. They make me a little stoned. I may feel good now, but this really sucks. I can't drive (even if I weren't on the pain meds I couldn't drive. the fluid in my ear makes me really dizzy at unpredictable times). I need to go grocery shopping. DH is going to take me tonight, But I really hate feeling like I can't get things done.

Big Road Bump....

I was making really fantastic progress on the sweater for Morgan, I finished the 1st sleeve and the hood, only one more sleeve and buttons to go. On Laney's I still have both sleeves to finish, and buttons to sew on, and I still have about an inch and a half to do on the Baboon's Ass socks. It kills me that I was making such great progress, and I have to take a few days off from knitting. I have an ear infection in my left ear. I'm managing the pain pretty well, but if I spend a lot of time upright, I get dizzy(even while sitting). Plus the drainage is grossing me out. No knitting yesterday. I was in too much pain. No knitting today. I'm too dizzy. I hope I can knit some tomorrow. Christmas is in 10 days. I can do this. Really, some sleeves, some buttons and a sock toe. I can totally do that in 10 days. Hopefully I'm not out of commission for too long.

Would you like to know something interesting? This is the very first ear infection I have EVER had in my life. None of my 3 kids have had ear infections either. I've always known I was REALLY lucky (especially with the sinus issues I have). I know that babies Eustachian Tubes are smaller than adults are, and that alone makes babies more likely to get ear infections and I just keep thinking how awful it is for a teeny lil baby to have to go through this. Poor babies.

And, here are the pics....

the ones I mentioned in the post below. I forgot to get a pic of the Baboons Ass socks, but if you've seen one ass, you've seen them all.....LMAO! (cheap joke, but worth it) Below you'll see the pics of the cardigans I'm making for 2 of my nieces for their Christmas Presents.



I'm using WOTA Bulky for both of them, Grape and Sky for Laney's, and Mauve for Morgans. I bought 3 skeins of each Grape and Mauve for the sweaters (the Sky is leftovers from another project), and for Laney's, I'm 3/4 through ball #2 and working on a sleeve; and for Morgans, I am almost ready to join ball #3 and I'm still on the body. I'm thinking I *may* have to end up using some of the grape for sleeve cuffs on Morgans sweater (the pink one).

A Pic-less update

I just realized it's been a while since my last blog post, so I figured I would do a quick update now, and I'll probably be able to post some pics tomorrow. I've been working a lot on trying to finish up Christmas gifts, and REALLY REALLY REALLY craving the sensation of casting on a new project. However, I have promised myself that I wont cast on anything new until I finish the Christmas gifts. This promise is EXTREMELY difficult to keep because I have my new STR Ravens (Korppi and Tlingit) sitting in my knitting bag begging to be knit. Anyway..... I'm getting close on the Christmas gifts. I just finished the body and started the sleeves for the Cabled Raglan Cardigan for my Niece, Laney; I am past the sleeve separation and working the body of the Hooded Raglan Cardigan for my Niece, Morgan; and I am about 90% done with the Baboons Ass (Monkey socks made with Red yarn) socks for my Sister, Jammie.

DH is out of town right now, visiting his Mom (Hi Nancy!). So, for me that means a lot more knitting time in the evenings, IF I can stay awake. Last night I started dozing off in the middle of purl row on Morgan's sweater and, miraculously, was still knitting(purling) when I jerked back awake...LMAO.

WOOHOO! I'm on a roll.......

But I doubt it'll last long......

I finished another Christmas Gift!!! This sweater is the hooded baby sweater I knit for my niece, Talia. You may remember my model, Floyd. This sweater is a 6 mos size (can you believe Talia will be 4 mos old at the end of December! It still feels like she was just born!). I used 1.5 skeins of Patons Decor yarn in the colorway 'First Spring Varg'. I've gotten to the point with these sweaters that I don't use a pattern anymore, or else I would link you to the one used.



This means that out of the 6 gifts I had to knit, I have 3 down and 3 to go! and one of those 3 is already about 80% done!

The #@%&ing Afghan is Finished!

Knit from the center out, I bound off 808 stitches last night. It started by following the Kerry blue shawl pattern and then I decided to change a bit after a while. This small afghan measures 52" on each side. This was a relief to BO. Now, I only have small projects to finish for Christmas, and it all seems SOOOO much more manageable now.

For this afghan, I used Caron Simply Soft worsted in Autumn Red, Bone, and Dark Country Blue. I'm not a fan of the colors, but I know my parent's will love it.

For more pics of this afghan, and so you can see the center portion, you can either look through old blog posts, look on my flickr page , or look in my project page on Ravelry (username: PurpleYarn). I'm having issues with blogger this morning and I'm lucky to have gotten this one pic to post....lol

busy, busy, busy.....

Now that Thanksgiving is past, the Christmas Knitting Countdown has begun! Today is November 23rd, and we now have just over a month to complete our holiday knitting. I have recruited DH to help out this year, but still he is only responsible for one gift (lucky bastard....lol). Here, I am posting progress pics of some of the Christmas gifts I'm knitting this year. I've already finished a Montego Bay Scarf for one of my sisters, and the Baboon's ass socks I'm knitting for my other sister haven't been worked on at all since my last progress pic posting, I'm not posting a pic of the scarf DH is working on, and I'm also not posting pics of the sweater I've started for my niece Morgan. It just has a few rows done and isn't very interesting to look at yet.
But, anyway......

First, we have a progress pic of the afghan I'm knitting for my parents' gift. One side now measures 50", well, it's a square so each side measures 50". When you consider that I'm only 62" tall, this thing is BIG. And, that also makes me very glad that my parent's aren't much taller than I am....lol

And here we have the hooded cardigan I'm knitting for my niece, Talia. I love the way this yarn is pooling. It's Patons Decor in the First Spring Varg colorway, on size US7 needles.

and this one is the new and improved Cardigan for my niece, Laney. I wasn't happy with the old one, so I frogged it and started this one instead. I'm using rev st st for the back panel, the front panels are cabled on a rev st st background, and the sleeves are regular stockinette st.

Everyone, I bid you good luck on your holiday knitting endeavors!

Progress Pictures

Just a quick posting to show off some progress pics.......

First, we have the afghan I've been working on for my parents' Christmas gift.

and, secondly we have the Baboons Ass socks for my Sister, Jammie's, Christmas gift.

that's all we have today, all I've been working on (knit-wise) lately.

7.212

On Saturday, I was bored so I decided to haul out my stash bin and all of my knitting bags so I could go through my Stash. I ended up not only organizing my Stash, but also taking inventory of it and then I created a spreadsheet for my Stash. I have a rather small Stash as of now.....it used to be double what I currently have, but I've been working on downsizing it a little at a time for the past year. Now, in this Stash inventory, I did not include the skeins of yarn intended for Christmas gifts or any other current WIP's that are on hold until Christmas knitting is done, this is strictly stash yarn. I made my spreadsheet have categories for brand / name / fiber content / yarn weight / yards per skein / #of skeins / colors and intended project (when it gets one). I also calculated my total skeins in Stash, total Stash yardage and I then converted yards into miles. I have approximately 12,693 yards of yarn in my Stash and that is about 7.212 miles. That represents 52 skeins of yarn, and 32 of them are sock yarn, enough for 21 pairs of socks.

When my Christmas knitting is done, I have a lot of socks to knit.

Deviating from the pattern.......

I'm making a lot of progress on the Throw. It's now to the point that I have over 410 (worsted weight) stitches all held on a 47"circ. It's kind of crowded on that needle. (see where the 'points' meet? that's the middle of the blanket, the blanket is now at 32" diameter) I also stopped following the pattern about 8 rounds ago. I'm into the Feather and Fan section now, and I've decided to change the rest of the pattern. At this point, it's just small, insignificant things I'm not doing, that you can't even tell I'm not doing . I'm going to continue in this feather and fan pattern for a few more inches, then I'm going to change to a dark cream color (almost tan, but not quite) and keep the F&F pattern going for a few inches, and then I'll switch back to red and continue for a few inches, and then I'm going to switch to a very pretty dark blue and do a garter stitch border.

Hats

I know I need to be working on my holiday knitting, but some winter hats needed to be made too. These 3 were made over the past week. The blue hat is for my oldest ds, using Knitpicks Swish Superwash yarn in the color Delft Heather. The little hat in the middle is for baby Talia (my 6 week old niece). I used the Odessa hat pattern from Magknits , omitting the beads, and using Cherry Tree Hill Supersock potluck yarn on size US3 dpn's. It looks teeny, but it stretches. A LOT. So, she'll get at least one winters use out of it. The pretty hat on the right is for me. I used the Fake Isle Hat pattern from Magknits, with Noro Silk Garden (#205) and Patons Classic Merino in Black. I still have 2 more hats to make (at least), One for DS#2 and one for DD.

and no, I didn't completely ignore my holiday knitting while working on the hats. I did complete a few rows on the throw for my parents and I finished the leg and started the heel for sock #2 for the baboons ass socks I'm making for my sister.

Throw

This is a progress pic of the throw I'm knitting for my Parents' Christmas gift. I figured posting a pic of it on here might make me more likely to work on it and finish it. You guys will help keep me accountable for this thing, right? It's just starting to get big, and each patterned round is taking me approx. 40 mins to complete. Right now I have it on my KP Options 47" cord, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to buy longer cords before long so I can finish this throw. I'm using the Kerry Blue Shawl pattern from 'Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls' with a worsted weight yarn to make it large enough for a small throw.

Did I say I was going to knit a baby blanket?

Yeah.....well....Fuck that.....
I decided a baby blanket was entirely MUCH too insane for me to attempt right now. So, I instead knit this little baby sweater for my Cousins baby. I didn't really follow a pattern, but used a few different ones for suggestions. I ended up using a figure 8 cast on and then knitting the sides of the hood, doing a decrease row at the neck, and then continuing as I would for a basic top down raglan. It meets the measurements from yarnstandards.com for a newborn baby sweater. I used US7 needles with Caron Simply Soft yarn (one of my favorite yarns for babies; machine washable and really soft) in the color 'Raspberry'. My model is Floyd, my Daughter's stuffed puppy. Isn't he cute?

One down.....several more to go....

The Montego bay scarf I've been working on for a Christmas Gift for my sister, Dawn, is FINISHED!!!! excuse me while I go do a 'lil happy dance in celebration....
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ok...

This was a pretty simple and easy knit. The pattern was VERY easy to memorize, so that made it an easy project to take to work with me to knit during my breaks. I did learn something while working on this though......I DO NOT enjoy braiding fringe. If I ever do another project with fringe, I WILL NOT BRAID IT. I will simply knot the ends to help prevent fraying instead.

Last night, I decided to get organized for my Holiday knitting. I dug through my stash bin and got out all yarn intended for Christmas knitting, gathered my patterns and my Christmas WIP's, and I actually put all of it into a knitting bag (we'll see how long this lasts...lol) to keep in the living room. It's my goal to only work on Christmas knitting from now until I get it all finished. There is one exception though. My Cousin is pregnant with her first baby (a girl!) and I'm going to work my ass off to get a small baby blanket knit up in time for her baby shower. Which is October 7th. Less than a month away. I'm planning on doing an entrelac blanket, alternating tiers of color, and doing it in either a bulky yarn or worsted double stranded to help it get done quicker. I'm going to buy the yarn on Friday night. I'm waiting until then because that's during friends and family days and my employee discount it upped to 40%. This isn't entirely insane.....is it? I can do this, even if I'm weaving ends on the way to the baby shower....lol

I'm seeing RED!!!!

LOL....I just realized I MUST have a thing for the color red for Christmas gifts this year. Out of the 5 gifts I have OTN right now, 3 are red. One, is the Throw I've been working on for my parents' gift (which is collecting dust for now until I can get a longer circ). Second, is a pair of socks I'm knitting for my sister Jammie. And, number three is a cardigan I'm knitting for baby Talia.

This first pic, is what I have so far of the Baboon's ass socks I'm knitting for Jammie. I call them Baboon's ass, well, because it's the Monkey sock pattern with red yarn. I know....I have a weird sense of humor.

and this is the beginnings of another Daisy baby cardigan. This one will be baby Talia's Christmas gift. I'm using Knitpicks Main line yarn in the color Red Velvet Cake.

Remember those booties I made?

Friday night I got a new niece!!!! Baby Talia was born at 11:44pm weighing 7 lbs 12 oz! I went to visit yesterday and I put her in the bonnet and booties I made and took a pic. They fit perfectly, for now.

Where do your WIP's live?

In the past, I've tried keeping all of my WIP's in one location, whether it be a basket, knitting bag, or just tossed on the same shelf somewhere. It doesn't work for me. The more organized I try to become with my knitting, the less knitting gets done. The last part of the last sentence doesn't sound correct, but at the current moment, I can't think of the proper correction for it so it'll stay. So, Where do your WIP's live? Here's mine:

Behind the couch, next to my desk:

On top of the bookshelf:

Next to the t.v:

those are the main places I toss my WIP's. Occasionally, I do keep one, shockingly enough, in a knitting bag.....but not really. That's more of a vacation spot...lol.
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And here, last of all, we have a small FO! Yesterday, I knit up a bonnet to match the booties I made for my niece, Talia. (whom we are STILL waiting on the arrival of. send some labor vibes to my sister, Dawn. Her back is killing her!) I used the Top Down Bonnet pattern from Hello Yarn (also check out her rovings....drooooollllllll....)