Done

I has a wing span.
I has a finished shrug.
Check out all the details on my Rav page.
I'm going to go snuggle up and read a dyeing book.

Where's the Shrug?

Let's a play a game of hide and seek shall we?

The shrug is still lying on the floor of my bedroom. When I checked it was almost completely dry. I could have seamed it tonight but there was precious little time and I want to do this right. Which means I will have to take the time. Thankfully after my meeting after work (again) tomorrow night I do not have to teach private lessons (as I have for the last 2 nights) so I am really hoping the shrug and I will spend some good quality time together.

Also, if anyone reading knows how to upload a Ravelry button to your profile let me know. I tried to save it to my Flickr account and then use the magic formula from the Ravelry wiki page but it's not working. Any help for the technologically ignorant is much appreciated.

Blocking

I finished weaving in all the ends of the snezi shrug and it got a thorough soaking in some Soak. Now it's blocking in the bedroom. I decided to wait until it's dry to sew up the seams since I hear things can grow in the blocking process and I think this one did. Just check out the size of it on my bedroom floor.
Now the preferred area of drying is not my floor since,as you will notice in the above picture there is a cat dangerously close to the (nearly) finished product. She is refusing to step away though and trying to look innocent about being next to a slightly damp piece of cashmerino.
I shall sit as close as possible without touching it to annoy the human. Ok, maybe just the tail shall touch.

Just remember who feeds you cat.

A Brave Sock and the Sprint to the Finish Line

Part One: Braves Game

The fam went to the Braves games last night so I took a (brief) break from my Ravelympics project.That doesn't mean there wasn't knitting though.
I brought a Warm Woolies sock to knit on. I started this one right before the Ravelympics and had put it on hold until later. Considering that the snezi shrug has grown to substantial portions I left it at home for the evening. Above, my Aunt Becky tries to decipher how exactly you work on something that has 5 needles. (P.S. She gets to be on the blog because she was the only willing member of my family to allow herself to be photographed with the sock.)
I finished it just before the 7th inning but didn't have any small scissors or nail clippers to cut the thread and bind off. These are back on hold for a few more days.

Part 2:
This is my Olympic watching set up on Friday night. I was watching a pre-taped version of the women's individual gymnastics and Phelps winning his 6th gold on my computer while on the TV I was watching Phelps win his 7th gold and Dara Torres race in her qualifying round. If you think I'm dedicated you should speak to my friend SM who can give you some of the most random facts about the games from the depth of the pool to the cost of the fireworks for the opening ceremonies.
And this is the snezi shrug almost finished. I have to weave in (lots) of ends and sew 6 inches of seams on both sides but then it will be complete (minus blocking of course). I plan to have the whole thing ready to wear by Wednesday. One day to weave in ends and soak and 2 days to dry. Hopefully that will be enough time. I'm so looking forward to wearing this! And guess what else...I used all 11 balls of the cashmerino that I bought :::heaves big sigh of relief::: I really thought as I got towards the end that I might not have enough but it all worked out beautifully. I'm so proud of all I've done already on this project. I thought that I was crazy for picking such a monster of a piece to knit in just 16 days but the knitting itself took just 9 days! Stay tuned for the finished product in a few days. The next thing I have to tackle is the Slouchy Summer of Socks Socks That Shouldn't Slouch...

Day 5...no 6...Right...?

I'm still knitting on the shrug every night. I have a few pictures from earlier this week but they all look the same. Big and blue. Along the same lines of the big pink thing. Except this yarn is a lot nicer. I started tonight with about 18 inches done. That means I have 4 more inches before I begin the decreases and then it's a sprint to the end.

The variety of Olympic events I have been watching has been interesting to say the least. I usually get stuck watching the recaps since all the good stuff comes on after 10. I'm old and have to get up early for work every morning so I don't stay up to watch. In the last couple of days I've watched women's synchronized springboard diving, some men's and women's beach volleyball, men's volleyball, and women's cycling time trials (riveting). I finished watching the women's team gymnastics finals tonight. My friend AG graciously offered to record the competition to a cd for me since he knew the only thing I really wanted to watch was gymnastics and they weren't coming on until really late. I gotta say that silver is pretty good seeing as how we ended the evening...:::sigh:::

Back to work. Tonight's events are men's volleyball and more women's beach volleyball. I wish I could stay up and watch Shawn Johnson compete in the individuals for gymnastics but again with the being old and waking up early thing. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

Day 3, Day 4 and Day 1 (again)

Day 3 Update:
Total knitting time: maybe a few hours
Watched: women's rowing and the men's gymnastics team finals
Total knitting: 13 inches total length
Day 4 Update:
Total knitting time: about an hour
Watched: men's synchronized diving
Total knitting: 14.25 inches total length (pitiful progress I know)
The reason for the very little bit of knitting I got done today was because I was utterly exhausted. Today was the first day of school. I love my little sweethearts. They are so full of energy. And, of course, at the end of the day one of my babies missed her bus. I felt so sorry for her. It caused me to end up staying at the school to finish up stuff until almost 5:30. I'm so glad that I wrote up some detailed lesson plans last week though. One less thing I had to worry about.

On a different note...
This is what happens when an 8 pound cat decides to "chase" the blind cords off the back of a chair. Luckily only one slat is permanently damaged.
The perpetrator looks strangely unconcerned...

Day 2

Day 2 update:
Total knitting time: who knows, maybe 8 or 10 hours? almost all day
Watched: some beach volleyball, men's gymnastics qualifiers, and swimming (in about 5 minutes), I also watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Total knitting: 9 inches from cast on edge (I don't know how many rows)

Day 1

Day 1 Update (from yesterday):
Total knitting time: About 6 hours
Watched: The entire opening ceremony
Total knitting: 26 rows

In the Vortex

It has happened. I have been sucked into some sort of weird knitting vortex. Not the good kind either. The kind where you lose your mind. Where you can't find anything to knit. Where the yarn is a bad color and all 100% acrylic. Where you knit according to instruction and end up with something that looks nothing like it did in the pictures. It's like some sort of jacked up Twilight Zone.

Example #1: I finished the first Summer of Socks (Rav link) sock last night around 11:00.
Looks pretty good right? Wrong.
See, in the first photo I'm holding the ribbing up to where it should be on my leg. The second picture is where it falls naturally. Now, I don't have a ton of experience with knitting socks. The others that I have made were out of regular old worsted weight and were an exercise in learning to make socks. This was my first "real" attempt at making socks. Someone please tell me that all socks do this. That when I block them (on my as yet unpurchased sock blocker) that they will come out just right. Or is this part of the vortex?

Example #2: My Ravelymplics shrug. I picked the Snezi shrug (Rav link) from Sensual Knits. Um, hello! Have you seen the size of that thing?!?! Let me remind you.
What was I thinking? Do I think I'm Super Knitter? That thing is huge! It uses like 800 yards of yarn! And I think I'm going to finish this in 16 days?!?! I can't even finish a sock in 16 days. I think I may have been on some sort of yarn fume high when I made this decision. Since I'm postponing knitting the other SoS sock until I can get the first blocked and/or find someone it fits (I'm trying my mom tonight) and since I have nothing else to knit on until the 8th of August (the start of the Olympics and the Ravelympics) I might have time to get everything ready to knit the sweater in the round I had originally given up hope of having ready to knit in time. Oh the irony... Which leads us to...

Example #3: As you know, I have been knitting for Warm Woolies for quite some time now. They have a little contest where if you send in 25 knitted items by the end of November then you get a gift from them: a book, patterns, needles, yarn, etc. I really want to be able to send in lots of stuff to them. Helping orphaned children is something I feel passionately about. And I love to knit. What a great combo! Last night I decided to have a look at how much I had knit for them already. Know what my total was? 8 pieces. 8. I feel into an immediate panic. There was no way (in my very tired mind) that I could get 17 pieces finished in 4 months. This morning I woke with a little clearer mind. If I make 4.25 pieces a month (or round up to 5) then I can meet my goal. This means I have to crank out a piece a week for the next 4 months. Minus 2 weeks for the Ravelympics. Don't get me wrong, somewhere in my twisted little brain I think I can make this work. Still...I'm getting hives.

Example #4: In the knitting vortex you are seized by sudden impulsive thoughts. Mine? I must finish all unfinished projects. And wash them. I'm tired of WIPs flying all around me that just need to be seamed (ugg) or have buttons attached or just be soaked, gosh darn it.
Thankfully I moved all these off the bed so I could get a little sleep last night. There is still more WIPs that are going to be attacked in the next few days. Never fear though. I'm nowhere near out of this vortex yet.

This or That

As I mentioned yesterday I will be signing up to be a part of the Ravelympics (Ravelry link). At first I thought I would make another Warm Woolies sweater and finish up my designing bits for my sweater in the round pattern at the same time. Kill 2 birds with one stone type of thing. And I figured that I could crank at least one out in 16 days. Then I started to realize that this might be a little difficult for the following reasons:

1. I just bought yarn for a Snezi oversized shrug (Rav link).
2. I think I bought too much yarn for the shrug.
3. I have to return any unused yarn in 30 days.
4. I must knit the shrug in 30 days then.
5. It has been a week since I bought the yarn already.
6. I would have to finish the pre-lim design bits for my sweater in the round pattern.
7. I would still need to purchase yarn for the sweater in the round.
8. I wanted to hand dye the yarn for the next Warm Woolies sweater in 2 shades of purple.
9. I would also need to finish a sock and half for Summer of Socks.

In order for any of the above to happen then...

1. The cat cannot make a mess anywhere in the house for the next week and half.
2. I cannot do laundry, buy groceries, or wash dishes for a week and half.
3. I cannot work for a week and half.
4. I cannot leave my house for a week and half.
5. There will be no reading or looking on the internets for a week and half.

...and that's just to get the first list done before August 8th.

In short, I think I will have to bid Team Charity a warm "Good Luck!" and join in on the sweater sprint event. Sounds like a much less stressful plan.