The surgery was a success!

My Haruni shawl is back on the needles! Armed with a "repeat of chart A's worth" of yarn (can we make that a unit of measurement?) and Kitsune's tip that I can do a bind off with zero yarn left over, I'm confident that I can finish this.

I really benefitted from the fact that I'm working with Qivit, I think.  When I pulled out the needles, the yarn stuck together on it's own but still unravelled when I tugged gently on the end. 

The End is Here!!

I couldn't work on my Haruni shawl for a long, long time.  It sat in my bedroom, in it's awesome case, forlorn and alone.

But then I decided to just go for it. 

And here we are.

I knew I wouldn't be able to make it, and I was right, I didn't...

Only hope now is to frog back and make the overall shawl shorter.  I'm going to go back one repeat of the chart, and if I mess up I'm just going to wind the whole thing up into a cake and cry.

It's a dark, dismal day and I've been feeling really down. I still have a lot of stuff I need to do though, for work, sadly... It will be really fun to do but I'm setting everything up. Lately at work I have just felt like Henny Penny. People want me to do things, (things that shouldn't even be my problem, really, since they're not even remotely connected to EHS) but no one wants to lend a hand and help me do them, and when I feel overwhelmed, of course the only thing to do is work alone at home on a Saturday night.  But the feeling of getting it done will be really good, just like the feeling of finishing this scarf. 

So I'm going to do it ;) (Both the work and the knitting.)

PURPLE Caps

Despite not being able to knit too much, I've made some caps for the NH Children's Fund CLICK for Babies Campaign.  It's a campaign to prevent child abuse by educating people about the period of PURPLE crying, which is a normal stage in a baby's life where they cry a lot, a frustratingly lot.

I only made 4 caps, and one is terribly small - almost too small to donate.  But hey, maybe some super tiny baby will get it.  Who knows.  

I improvised two of the hats, but for the other two I used the Berry Baby Hat pattern.  They remind me of little eggplants! 

I failed the goal of this, which was to make a ton of hats... but 4 hats is better than nothing, and hopefully 4 little NH babies will look adorable in them.  Next year I'll get started earlier, and make the whole month of September baby hat month!

In Orbit

For the past week I've been at a conference for work, and it's been fun! Yesterday, at the closing, the person talking said "We're all in orbit now, but soon it'll be time to come back down to earth and get all this good work done back home!"

I've kind of felt in orbit.  My hands don't hurt so much (probably because I'm not using my laptop all day!)  So I've been knitting a little more.  My carousel socks are looking good!

 

I plan on doing the toe, heel, and cuff in white.  My only regret right now is not using white yarn to join the spiral.  Wouldn't it just pop like that? From what I have of yarn, though, I might be able to make another pair with the yarn that I have left over after this.  So then I'll have two rainbow socks, and maybe by then I'll be done with rainbows!

Striped Scarf

Ages, ages, and AGES ago I bought this Crystal Palace Mini Mochi yarn because I saw a beautiful project on Ravelry and wanted one too. Well, while I was sick I cast on for it.  The yarn has been in my stash for a long, long time and it finally gets it's moment! 

It knit up really quick, and the colors really look good together. I used 113 (Tropical Ginger) and 109, which I think has been discontinued. All I did was cast on 50 stitches on size 4 needles and work in a K1P1 pattern until I was out of yarn. One skein of each color like this made a scarf that was about 4.5 feet, which is a little short but I didn't really want to work in K1P1 rib anymore.

I ended up with 1 extra skein of each, and I gave them to my friend Tricia - maybe she'll make a scarf like mine! I would love to have matching scarves. It's kind of like a knit along. But not. Because they might sit in her stash forever and ever, like this yarn did.

Anyway, I love this scarf! So much that I took a selfie in it.Cherish this moment. Also, I'm not wearing any makeup because I camped all weekend.

P.S. - My new apartment has so many places to take photos of projects, haha.  Once all the pictures are up and everything is set up I will have to post photos.  I'm trying to get everything all set up but... it's been kind of slow because I tend to half-do a project and then go and watch TV with Dan.

Bird of the Summer

WOW.  It's been a long time since I've posted or blogged, sorry.  It's been a long time since I've knit, or made any progress on knitting.  My wrist has been achey and despite promising to share a table at a convention in November, I haven't really done much... at all.  That's made me a little bummed out.

But I have been going to knitting group (Tuesday nights at the Books A Million in Concord!) and so have had some itty bitty progress.  

I finished Dan's socks today.  They fit well everywhere but the front of his ankle (opposite the heel)  His foot is just so big there! I don't really know what to do - just some more experiments, I guess. But he is happy so that's a win, I guess.

I've also finished the second quarter of my afghan.  This afghan has been such a good project.  I'm kind of sad that when it's done it's just going to go into my hope chest, but I made a promise to myself so I'm going to keep it! Blerg!

That's all.  I've been working hard and watching "Friends" in my new apartment, and not really accomplishing much of anything.  A few weeks ago we hiked, but not a big mountain.  My ankle is still recovering - can you believe that? Six months and still at 99%... depressing stuff.

Hope all is well! It's hard for me to read other people's blogs, because I just feel bad about not knitting, and I get more gloomy, so I hope everyone forgives me!

Playing Chicken

So... this was originally supposed to be posted 2 WEEKS AGO... but for some reason I messed up and it didn't.  I haven't worked on the shawl since, and still need help :(

I haven't played chicken since the seventh grade, and even then I didn't really play, just watched two kids kick each other on the monkey bars. I just didn't see the point in fighting with someone for some arbitrary title of more stubborn.

But, here I am, right at the end of my shawl.  This is a point where I should be knitting furiously, excited to see what it will look like when I'm done.



Instead... I feel like I'm racing against myself.  This is all the yarn I have left!



This sucks.  I just know, deep down, that I'm going to run out.  It just depends on when.  I started out with supposedly more than enough...

So, I have three options:
1.) Knit until I run out, then finish the shawl with a contrasting color.  This is not really an optin because I don't want to do it :/
2.) Knit until I run out, figure out that limit, and then frog back a few repeats of the main lace pattern and make the shawl a little shorter.
3.) Frog back a few repeats of the center lace pattern now, and just hope that I picked enough yarn.

there is another option, I guess,  which would be to frog the entire thing back and knit something else... but I don't really want to do that.

So... what should I do? 

Hopefully I make a decision one way or another... Or it'll be like that sweater that has been neatly folded on my desk for like six months...