A Day Late

So I know that I promised on Monday that I would post pictures of the Presto Chango baby sweater on Tuesday and then yesterday I didn't do it. But I had a good reason. I was out doing something very un-Melissa like. I went to a musical. By myself. And guess what...I had a good time.

Being in education I'm bombarded weekly with offers for discounts on 100s of things I neither want now use. But late last week I got an email from my big boss (the head honcho of the whole county) that there was this offer for free tickets to a local playhouse. On a total whim I thought, Why not? I should live a little. Get out, see some stuff, go places. So I sent the contact woman an email and bam! I'm hooked up with free tickets.

The musical was entitled The Dinosaur Musical. The name says it all. Think prehistoric family fun. I'm not sure I would have paid to see it on Broadway (I mean, there were 2 fart jokes in the thing) but it still made for a better evening than sitting on my bum at home. Plus there was a free reception before hand with cheese and wine (for free!) and I ran into an old friend of mine from college and we spent most of the night catching up so I really wasn't lonely being all by my lonesome.

But now I'm here to post some pics. The Presto Chango baby sweater as it currently stands.
Close up of the front panel.
Close up to see the yarn, which, by the by, I loved working with. Can I say that enough?
And a picture of the front panel alone but with with a very off color, I wanted to show some of the detail a little better.
Blocking the front panel is going to be the best part. I think the lace pattern will really open up and look nice. And it's generic enough that it doesn't look too feminine so it should do well for a boy or girl (though for some reason I imagine this as a boy's sweater, don't know why).

Outside of finishing a few little projects (blocking, seaming, sewing on buttons), I have nothing major planned. I think I may spend a little time on the pink sweater but I'm kind of biding time until next month. See, I limit my yarn spending to between $40 and $50 a month and I usually hit that in the first week. This month I bought a really expensive skein of Be Sweet Magic Ball. Next month I'm getting a ball winder, a skein, and some DPNs off eBay so I can wind yarn and start working on some other things I have planned. Until then it will be me and sweater and black holes of knitting.

Almost Done

I finished the front panel of the Presto Chango baby sweater but for some reason the Google server isn't letting me upload my pictures. The sweater is impossibly cute and I can't wait to show everyone. Of course, it needs to be blocked, the seams need to be sewn in and I need to pick out some cute buttons (maybe I can finally pick up buttons for my baby booties while I'm at it). The finishing bit is always the hardest for me. I want the project to be done but I know that I have to take the time to do it right so it will wear nicely. I'm also having a dilemma choosing what to work on next. I have about 15 projects queued on Ravelry but that's mainly because I'd forget about cool things I want to one day work on if I don't put them on there. Not in my queue is an unoriginal hat, my cousin's Christmas gift, a toddler sweater, and my pink sweater. All that it means is that I will probably find something I think is impossibly cute sometime in the next two days and cast it on because I happen to have the needles. Oh well :) Anyways, updates and pictures of the Presto Chango sweater tomorrow!

Awww! Looky!

My Presto Chango baby sweater is coming along really well. I've got the main body finished. It needs to be blocked and then the seams sewn up. But it looks so cute already!
I started on the falling leaves removable front. Let me just put in the disclaimer that you need to remember that there are buttons holes on the thing. Don't forget them (like I almost did) and blow right past them (like I almost did).
And this morning I finished the child's sock (yes, it grew even bigger...from baby to toddler and finally to child sized). The toe is now square but I think if I kept knitting the thing would have been big enough for me to wear.
I don't understand why nothing has really worked with this yarn. Maybe it's just so crappy that any thing you make with it is going to be a little off. When I ripped back and re-knit the toe the yarn actually got stickier and rougher. I hope that when I wash it it will soften up and be ok.

A (K)Night's Tale

This afternoon was all about relaxing. I took a nice little nap and then tucked into some knitting. Penelope helped me work on the Presto Chango sweater while we watched A Knight's Tale on tv.

I will guard your yarn for you.
Aren't I cute?
Ok, stop knitting and pay attention to me.

I got a lot done. I'm on to the front panels so I have about 6 inches to go until the main body is done and then I'll do the removable front panel. Here's a fuzzy close up of the seed stitch border.
I also did a little work on the blue sock. I'm not too happy with the toe though. Way too pointy for my taste. I'll rip back and fix it tomorrow. My goal is to have non pointy toes on my socks.
Ugh! Pointy toe how I loathe thee!
I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow relaxing and just being at home. It will be the first weekend in about a month that I won't be doing something or going somewhere. This week was crazy busy every evening. Tonight was the first night I haven't had to be rushing off to do something.

Finally Some Knitting

I know it seems like I haven't been knitting much lately with all the traveling but I have been. Take a gander at the Presto Chango baby sweater.
I got a lot done on it last night. Instead of doing as the pattern suggests and knitting one side of the sweater front and then the other I'm knitting them both at the same time using 2 balls of yarn. Words cannot express how much I like working on this. I'll be sad when this one is finished and I send or give it away.

Meanwhile the baby sock is well, a baby sock.

Blue and rib-y. I'm still not a fan of the yarn but I like to knit socks so it's going well.

I'm so glad to be home tonight even though I'm beginning to bake in my apartment. The AC hasn't been working for the past 2 weeks and they were supposed to come and fix it today. I'm thinking they forgot. I had to baby-sit after work which was nice because I love kids (naturally) but I still didn't get home until around 8:30. I'll probably head to bed early tonight.

One final note: I haven't forgotten about my big announcement. There is still a few people who I need to tell personally. But just know that it has to do with my job and I'm very excited about it!

Even When It's Bad, It's Still Pretty Good

All day today I have been pondering the problem with the baby booties that I started last week. As I posted yesterday, the one that I had started was destined for the frog pond. But something kept me from doing that last night. I don't know what it was. The more I thought about them though, the more I thought, "I can conquer these." I've frogged things before but for some reason I wanted these booties to work. Maybe because they are baby things and they're little and I should be able to handle little sock things, right? Or maybe because the instructions were vague (to me anyways) but everyone else seems to get nice results. What was I doing wrong? So, being the stubborn one that I am, I ripped back to the ribbing and tried again. And this was the result:
Notice anything weird? Like how the sole smooshes out sideways, like I seamed it in the wrong direction? Well, I was just following the instructions.
The foot from the top looks like it could almost work but the bottom turned out terrible. I thought I just Kitchener stitched it the wrong way but then I realized the decreases had to be in the wrong place. I have no idea how they got this way. I'm terribly frustrated with the instructions though. I'm a very literal thinker. If you say, "Turn left in front of the school," there had better be a road in front of the school, not off to one side or slightly ahead or behind. Maybe I'm just a moron and haven't figured out how to read a pattern yet. I can't bring myself to kill this masterpiece yet. When I do it will probably be ripped back to the ribbing and turned into a sock or something.

Thankfully the Presto Chango baby sweater is coming along well.

I didn't work on it tonight but I got a lot done yesterday after a minor setback involving a knot in the middle of the thread and an extra stitch. All fixed though and looking adorable.

I must say though that as much grief as knitting can give me, as bad as the baby bootie turned out, and peeved as I am at the instructions, I'm still really happy I tried. I didn't hate the process. In fact I loved it. I hated the result but not the actual knitting. I heard a saying once that sex was like pizza, even when it's bad it's still pretty good. I guess knitting is the same way.

Hoopla and Knitting

What causes this much hoopla and presentation...

Fireworks and...
an elaborate lights show.

Why, University of Georgia gymnastics.

Mom, my aunt, and I went to Athens yesterday to watch the meet and have dinner with my bro and his girlfriend. This is a little of what we saw.
Are people's bodies supposed to bend like that?

I used to be able to do this actually. I was a gymnast for 6 years.
Look at how high she is!

There was also some knitting. These are some booties that I had started in hopes of having them finished for a baby shower on Saturday morning. As you can see, that didn't happen.
In fact, I don't really like these booties. I don't like the little ridges on the insole. And I'm still not 100% sure that all the instructions are correct. If they are, they are rather vague to me. When I divided up the stitches like it said to, half the stitches were purled and half were knitted which was not going to work out.
I'm going to frog them. The yarn was scratchy and sticky. Boo :( But from the looks of things at the shower little Elijah will be just fine without them. The Presto Chango baby sweater is coming along much better. And I really like this yarn. It's so soft to work with.
I need to update my Ravelry page and also figure out how to make my bloglines account work. Hopefully I can get everything running smoothly in the next couple of days.

I Must Be Doing Something Right

I know there aren't many things I'm good at. I'm a good conductor but until Robert Spano or Donald Runnicles keels over I don't think I have a shot at that career. One day I think I'll be a pretty kickin' mom seeing as how I've been preparing to look after children since the day I was born. I also feel I'll be a pretty good wife. But seeing as how I'm missing a few important steps to having those things I have to find something else to be good at. In which case, I think I'm a pretty good knitter. When I'm knitting everything just feels right. Even when I'm having to rip or fix or, heaven forbid, invest in some heavy duty thinking I feel like I'm doing something good. I think some of it stems from rarely knitting anything for myself. But even then, I just feel like knitting is a step in the right direction. Now if I could just find a way to make money off this I would be set (and believe me, I'm investigating it). In the meantime, some knitting...

Remember the zig zag scarf? Notice I've only done 2 repeats of the pattern...yawn...

Welcome to the frog pond zig zag scarf!
It was reincarnated as a T-Strap Baby Bootie. There will be another one soon.
I love this pattern. It took me about an hour and half to knit the whole thing. I like to work with that Bernat Chunky yarn (colorway: Nature's Way) and it turned out too cute for words. In the future I think I'll make them using a smaller needle to get closer to the actual suggested size. However, being an anti-swatcher I don't mind at all that they are more a size 10 months than 3 like I had planned. You can see all this...and more!...on my Ravelry site.

Also, I received my new yarn from WEBS. Thus, I bring you...yarn porn ;)

More Jaeger Roma yarn in Leaf so I can make the Presto Chango baby sweater. The best thing...this is the same dye lot as my other Jaeger Roma so I have more than enough for my project.

Some Rowan Biggy Print for a ear flap hat for myself from this book.

And finally some Susan Bates needles for various knitting projects.

Tonight I felt like dinner was overrated so I opted instead for this:
A Glamour mag and Ben and Jerry's Phish Food ice cream. Delicious :)