We have reached the insanity levels at work. This time of year is never fun but there comes a point where it is beyond all control and you just have to do your best to tread water. I don't know how often I will be able to post but I'll try to make it at least 3 times a week.
As for what's on my needles, I finished the scrub sack for the husband. It came out pretty cool, he seems to like it. I have cast on for mittens for my little one with the super yummy cotton cashmere blend I picked up at school products for a song. I haven't really done any work on my sweater but I have faith it will be done soon. I am doing the mittens for travel knitting and the sweater will be my evening knitting. It may take longer this way but it's the only way I can get moving on the Christmas stuff (the mittens and hat set are a present).
Speaking of presents, we have 3 babies expected at my job. We decided today that the knitters in the store will knit squares and we will put them together to make blankets (of course one of the expectant moms is one of the knitters lol). I have lot's of plans for baby stuff to make. They are all due in late winter early spring so I should have time after the holidays to make some nice sweater sets or something.

Blackout knitting...damn I didn't do any!!! We walked from my job in the Village up to 125th st, the streets were too crowded to pull out my needles. Then we crammed on a shuttle bus to take us across the bridge to the Bronx, definately not enough room to knit there. Then we crammed onto another bus and by the time I got a seat I was too exhausted to think. When we got home a little over 5 hours after we started I collapsed into a heap on the living room floor with the rest of my family (hey it was the coolest room in the house!) So I feel cheated.
On Friday I did some work on SFKB. Then we went to the park with the kids and my best friend, Bel came out to join us. She and I spent some time knitting on the bench. I was working on the honeycomb scrub sack for the husband, she was working on a scarf. That was fun. We got a pizza and made it a picnic.
Then we all came back up to the house where Bel and I drooled over the new Knit Picks catalog. We also checked out Mary Maxim where I had her pick out some yarn for her sweater (I'm not so good with the secret keeping). That was it. My ISP went out over the weekend, a day after the blackout so I couldn't work on getting my pictures up. All in all not a very productive weekend, but at least it was pretty relaxing.

So tired...must... stay... awake... to post on my blog...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well I was hoping to talk about adventures in short rows tonight but upon looking at my half done sweater this morning I decided to measure my favorite tank top for length. Once I did I discovered that I would need two more inches than originally planned to make it the length I like. So I need to go a bit further before trying the short rows.
Meanwhile I am seriously thinking about making the sweater that my best friend asked me for over a year ago (when I was still sweater-phobic). I am not sure why I feel accomplished enough to tackle this now considering I have not even finished the sweater I started (and technically never will since it has mutated so far from when I started), but what the hell you gotta take the plunge sometime.
It's a cute hooded sweater from the Spring 2002 Interweave Knits. It's actually the cover picture. They made it with Garnstudio Karisma Angora-Tweed but I don't think I will. I think it's time to hit the yarn shops and start fondling!

I've decided that it's no crime to not blog on the weekend. There are never enough hours in the day anyway. I'm about halfway done on SFKB. Tomorrow I will start playing around with the short row shaping. It may or may not work with the style of this sweater but I figured it was a good project to play with since it's sleeveless and quick to knit (so if I have to frog it back it won't take me forever to knit it back up).
Now I'm looking for a beret pattern to knit up for my 10 year old cousin for Christmas. I'm sure everyone is quite impressed with all my early holiday planning, now let's see how much of it actually gets done.
Didn't really get to do much work on the web site to get my pictures up. But hopefully it will happen soon. I did finally get my e-mail link working on this page so I can say I achieved something.

So yes I am a horrible blogger, I mean my first week and I've already missed two days! Honestly it's been insane at work and I must admit I have been happily obsessed with the new Greg Rucka novel Fistful of Rain. If you have never read Mr. Rucka then run, don't walk to your local bookstore and pick up Shooting at Midnight absolutely one of the best books I have ever read, with one of the coolest characters around, and I am not just saying that becauses she's a tough white chick from the Bronx (like me!?!) although it helps. His other books starring Atticus Kodiak are great also, Shooting is a spin off from that series. The new one was completely different. It's about a rock star who gets kicked off her tour for being an alchoholic and the sinister things that happen when she gets home.
Obviously not much knitting has been going on. I'v done a little work on the SFKB but not much. I do like it better now. Last night I started a scrub sack for my husband using a honeycomb slip stich that I got from Liz Maryland's Crafty Bitch Stitch of the Week. But I'm not crazy about the way it is turning out I think I will frog it and switch to the trinity stitch.
I hope to get some work done on the blog this weekend including getting some pictures up. I have web space from the University I work for so I am hoping to get them up on it. We'll see how it goes.

So I'm riding the train home last night, knitting away on my Brisa and I take a really good look at it - and it hits me- I don't like it. I think I was trying too hard to like it because I really wanted to finish my first sweater, but this is why knitting is so cool, I can take the things I like about the sweater, discard the things I don't like and voila! a new sweater is born. So when I finished dinner last night I frogged it back to the ribbed portion. From here I will continue in plain stockinette until I reach the bust when I am going to attempt to try Bonne Marie Burns' short row shapping lesson, we'll see how that goes. Then back to the pattern for the straps. Thus the birth of the sweater formerly known as Brisa or SFKB as my husband like to call it.

I've never really been one to follow a pattern slavishly so I'm not sure why I got so caught up in doing it on this one. I suspect it's because I am more than a little intimidated by making a piece of clothing. Gauge matters so much more, measurements are very important etc. Most things I make I have a bit of leeway with one way or the other so I'm not as afraid to experiment.

As a consolation to the wonderfully gifted designer of Brisa, Theresa Vinson Stenersen,(like she's crying over my opinion) I really think that it's the yarn that makes me dislike the way the sweater was turning out. It's a beautiful light blue, very soft and a pleasure to work with but I think it is far too limp for the lace pattern. It needs a bit more stiffness to it to hold it nicely (though of course that may have been solved in the blocking but I'm not that patient right now).

Now I need to get to work to finish it. I've decided that I am going to wear for the first day of classes here at work. It is so insane and stressful that day that I think it would very empowering to wear it. Besides my co-worker ( and 1 of my official knitting proteges) showed me the scarf she is making for herself out of the merino lycra blend that we picked up at School Products. It is a lovely red colorway and it is so gorgeous that I can't wait to start the hat and mitten set I am making for my toddler cousin for Christmas.

So I have finally gotten around to starting my blog. Let's see how disciplined I am about posting! So currently I am working on Brisa from the Summer issue of Knitty. I got a little frustrated at one point and put it down. I then made a child's hat and mittens set to send to Afghans for Afghans. Which will not arrive in time for their August 1 deadline. I'm just glad they can use it for another shipment. I am using Sonata from Elann for my Brisa, I finally picked it back up yesterday and have been plugging along. I am in the ladder lace section but the holes kind of drive me nuts so we'll see if this thing manages to stay out of the frog pond. It's my first sweater so I have high hopes.