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.

A Turning of the Tides

Today when I got home I will admit that I was not in the best of moods. I realized that I have 5 meetings scheduled over the next 2 days (this is after already having 2 meetings today), 2 paperwork deadlines that fall on the same day (which is tomorrow, if you were wondering), plus 2 private lessons that would fall an hour later (thanks to the 2 hour after work meeting that I have to attend but am not getting paid for). I'm running on less sleep than I would like and when I laid down to rest today (in the 30 minutes before the first of those 2 private lessons started) it took the cat a whooping 5 minutes to mess something up which prompted me to get up, clean up the mess, try and lie back down again, and have the student arrive 10 minutes early. Then after the lesson I had to go to the post office and mail some packages. Minus the 2 international packages which can only be mailed at the counter. Which means they aren't going to get mailed until Friday because, did I mention? I have to be after work every afternoon until 6!

Just as I was coming home from the post office, preparing myself to retreat to the farthest corner of my bedroom closet with a pint of ice cream, curl into the fetal position and devour some Ben and Jerry's while rocking back and forth, just before that moment arrived, I opened my mailbox to discover this...
Life is good.

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...