Pictureless Update

Has it really been a week since I last posted? What have I been doing? Well, too much. Friday night Mr Kiwi and I took a red eye out to his hometown on the opposite coast. The plane left at 1:30am (which was 30 minutes later than scheduled) and the doors to our connecting flight were closing as we ran off of our plane. So we got to wait 1.5 hours for the next flight. I didn't sleep too much on either flight, so there was a mix of watching Apollo13 on the laptop and knitting. It must have been amusing to see the two of us sharing ear buds watching a movie and swapping out batteries when we thought one was dead.

I have been knitting a heck of a lot as flights (especially long ones) will do that. I am still chugging away at the Gatsby Girl Pullover... would you expect anything less? As of last night, I am done with the main body and am working on the lace pattern. This is where things are going to start getting interesting, since I haven't exactly figured out where, when, and how I am going to break my knitting in the round so I can leave space for the arm holes. I'll get it figured out though. I never knew sweaters could go so fast! Almost 2 weeks of knitting this, and I feel like I have done so much!

Mr Kiwi's mom also knits, and it has been a blast talking about knitting with her. She wanted to learn how to knit socks, so before I left I bought and balled some sock yarn for her. Today we are going to a new yarn shop to get her some small needles and on we will go! Last night Mr Kiwi took pictures of the two of us sitting on the couch knitting our sweaters.

Of course since I am not at home I don't have everything I need to be able to post pictures. I have the camera, but no way to move the pictures onto the computer. There will be a picture ridden post when I get back though!

Gatsby Love

After frogging the Gatsby Girl Pullover on Tuesday, I cast on for it again on Wednesday night. I convinced myself that attempt #1 was practice, and for the real thing I would change the pattern to knit in the round. The front and back peices are exactly the same, so why not? The only thing I have to do is remember that even rounds are what they call "wrong side" and pay attention when it comes to the arm holes. I spent a heck of a time knitting this weekend, and have gotten pretty far. I am using RYC Cashsoft DK, and it is incredible. This yarn even makes my hands feel soft! No need for mosturizer, I just knit a while and my hands feel silky smooth. I am leaving for vacation Friday night and am trying to calculate how many balls of yarn I should bring. I was thinking 3, but since in one weekend I plowed through an entire ball of the yarn, I may have to bring a few more.

I've also been in organization heaven. Maybe a week or two ago I received my ravelry invite, and I cannot express how cool this site is. I can post my pictures, list everything about what it is I am making, add the books I have, list my to-do projects. It's fabulous!! Not nearly everything is up yet, but I'm having fun organizing and making notes for the time being. I'm gypsyknitter on ravelry.com, if you find me, say hi!

Ribbit

Last night I was beginning to wonder if the Gatsby Girl Pullover was really going to fit properly. Even after making a gauge swatch it seemed as though the top might end up being a bit too small. A few hours ago I ripped it all out (after being one row short of finishing the waist shaping) and decided to take a different approach. The pattern is written so that the back and front are knit in sections and seamed later. I am not so much a fan of seaming, so I decided to convert the pattern to the round. So far so good. Let's hope that's the only time I have to rip it out. :o) Also making the top in the round gives me a perfect opportunity to use a bunch of the stitch markers I made for myself. ;o)

Lots of Finishing and a Start

I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of my lastest finished objects. Here we have two hats, both made out of RY Classic Yarns, Silk Wool DK.




They were very nice to knit with, and super soft. The second hat I finished on Sunday in the middle of my Knit in Public stint. Of course I planned poorly and didn't think that it would be done and also had not thought of or brought a back up project. Being a one project gal, when I came home, I still had to take a moment to think... what now?

Remember these?




Yeah, that was a long time ago. I am happy to say that they are now finially finished, and what a relief! The unfinishedness of these Mitts haunted me. It had been so long since I touched them that when I first looked at them I had no idea where I was. This helped in the procrastination of actually getting them going again. However, once I figured out where I was it was pretty quick to just pick up and go. Since they are made for someone with smaller arms than mine, I had to have Mr Kiwi model them for me. He had just woken up from a nap and was not too thrilled with how I wanted him to model. He also complained of dirty hands and kept trying to hide them.

Last night I cast on for the Gatsby Girl Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2006. I have been waiting to knit this since it came out, but have just gotten around to setting it as a goal. Mr Kiwi also had a hand in it saying "You need to knit something that takes up more yarn out fo your stash!" Apparently using only one skein at a time to make a bunch of quick hats doesn't count as "stash busting". ;o)

Finishing!

Since finishing the socks last week I have made a lot of progress. Or at least it feels like it. In less than aweek, I started and finished a nice little hat that took only one ball of yarn. I also picked up and finished the Mt Tam mitts from forever ago! I looked at them and the pattern and thought "I have no clue where I am!" I had previously left the pegs in my counter board to remind myself where I was with each mitt, but when it travelled with me over the how many months, the pegs would fall out and eventually I just gave up. After figuring out where I was, it wasn't too long before I finished them last night; weaving ends adn everything.
I'll be posting pictures later today perhaps. With all this getting things done, I now have nothing on the needles. There are these moments right after finishing something whene I am forced to sit and think "...now what?" So here I am. With a knit group tonight that I really want to go to, wondering what I could and should quickly cast on to bring with me to StitchnBitch.....

SP and FO

I have a couple of things I need to write about here. First of all, I have to thank my Secret Pal for the package I received on Thursday after work. I had a nice little package with a card stuck inside along with 3 amazing peices of jewelry. There are two bracelets and a pair of turquois earrings. So cool!

Thank you pal! I am sure these will quickly make it into not only my regular wear, but also into dance costume peices. They're perfect! :o)

Thursday evening I also finished Mr Kiwi's socks. They were promptly washed and left to dry over night. The next morning they were not quite dry so he did not get a chance to wear them. This morning he asked if he could wear them, but I had not yet taken pictures. We just arrived home from a few activities and I let him put the socks on and model them. I don't think he is going to take them off for a while.


Instead of staring yet another pair of socks, I have cast on for a quick hat. I need some fast knits before delving into a huge project. Plus, it breaks down my stash, which is a major goal for the moment.