Off the hook

This week has been a fairly decent one where my creativity is concerned. Eight years ago I started crocheting a shawl but I never finished it. I moved twice during that time period. The shawl moved from bag to bag; being stuffed into whatever space was available at the time. Fast forward to this week...what did I spy in my closet? The shawl! I sorted through my printed crochet patterns and what do you know, I still had the copy I printed out eight years ago. I didn't have enough of the cotton yarn to make it to the pattern's finished measurements. It didn't matter because truth is even if I had enough material I would have found a reason to wait another eight years to finish it. Instead I did a border of single crochet around what I had done so far. Very happy my fingers still remembered how to hold a hook lol

Dolce is completely finished and ready to be shipped off to my swap partner.

Sourpuss Mondays

Beginning my work week with a snowy walk to the subway station, battling between trying not to fall on my butt and seeing through fogged up spectacles is not my idea of a good time but in my almost 13 years living in NYC I've learnt that Mother Nature will do what she has to and so must I. This winter has been like a guest who doesn't seem to realize they are over staying their welcome. GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that I have gotten that off my chest we can chat about what I've done so far. My friend came over this weekend and I had her pose in the cardigan. It really helped seeing it on a body and not just moving from ziplock bag to my hand and back. It's coming a long.

I've also casted on a pair of socks This is my first time using the magic loop method. I made a list of knitting goals for this year and learning new techniques is #2 on the list. Making socks from yarn below

I've also casted on another Rikke in worsted weight wool. Until next time -Cee

Plates Aren't Just for Eating

Dolce being blocked over my dinner plate

Sunday catch-up

Is it just me or does Sundays take forever and a day to come but moves like quicksilver .... I could do with a few more hours before Monday begins. It's safe to say I am experiencing a case of weekend over blues.... Even though I haven't blogged in a few days I have been knitting everyday....PROGRESSSSS. Lady kina is coming along slowly but surely. I have completed the sleeves and the body is being worked on it. I've been singing the "I'm a slow knitter" tune a lot recently but it wasn't until a few days ago I realized that my limited progress has nothing to do with my speed but rather it is to be blamed on my current living room situation. Long story short our old living room furniture was thrown out last month. We ordered a new sofa, loveseat and chair which all happened to be on back order. Delivery was confirmed yesterday....I was thrilled....until I got home and was told that the chairs were taken back to the store because they couldn't fit through the passage way..... It is not fun in the least sitting on the floor without any back support while knitting. It is frustrating the amount of times I have started a row or two and couldn't finish without putting the needles down to stretch my back. I know some of you are probably shaking your heads saying " you could knit in bed" and that seems like a pretty good place to knit. Just not for me. I like my bed to be just for sleeping or looking at Netflix. Fingers and toes crossed that the new set that is supposed to arrive this coming Wednesday has no problems getting into my home. Besides knitting the cardigan I have been working on my secret swap

Unblocked Dolce:- as I type this the hat below is being blocked on a dinner plate

I hope my swap partner likes it. I decided to make her stitch markers

Hope you have a great week ahead of you.....remember there's a positive in every situation

Trip to michaels

It's 2:30 pm and I am on a local train heading to my little corner of New York. Today was an interesting day for me. Woke up feeling well rested and on top of the world. Decided to take a trip to michaels. This is where the day went wrong. Here's something you don't know about me:- 

I LOVE michaels. And even more than my love for michaels is my love for stationery. For the last several months I've been on a self imposed ban from michaels. I would ignore their daily emails. Wouldn't go to the store. I was doing great ..... Until today. I went in with a game plan. Ahh how naive I was to believe that a plan in michaels would be effective. But I had forgotten how much money I had spent on all those twice a month "I just have to have this one thing" excursions to the craft giant. I went in there believing that I would be buying some stuff for a Super secret spy swap that I'm participating in as well as yarn for a baby project. Just as I was about to enter the store I received a message canceling the baby knits request. My mind quickly went "oh guess this means I can now buy even more stuff" rather than check for the items for swap partner, head straight to register and leave. Nope nope nope. Instead I spent 2hours and 30minutes walking up and down the aisles. The layout had changed since my last trip. I don't know if it was during the trip down the yarn aisle or maybe it was the dive in the stationery section where I completely lost sight of why and who I was there for. Sighs. I had the best of intentions but "swap partner" quickly turned into "I need this in my life" and before I could tell you my name and today's date I was piling everything into my cart. It was just yesterday I went through a similar incident at my lys (local yarn store).
Hi my name is Cee and I am a selfish unfocused easily distracted shopper. I need helppppppp. In the meantime I am off to dream of a land where yarn and notions and stationery are free.

Originally written on 15th January 2013.................................................................

I am  coming across all the things I don't like about knitting a sweater.... .1) It TAKES FOREVER 2) it is taking ME forever 3) it is taking me forever ....you get the point....I'm a slow knitter. I have my moments and projects where the knitting gods are blowing good wind on me and I can finish in a day or two.....not the case with lady kina.....nope nope nope....i spent the last two days knitting it ...falling in love with the yarn, admiring my work feeling proud of myself every inch it grows. I'm looking at it and my eyes are saying it's right where the pattern says it should be (length wise) ...... Don't you have those moments where you swear your abilities extends to gauging measurements with just a glance?What don't even say no.....think back to the last time you were cooking something and felt you didn't need to measure the ingredients ....a dash here, a dab there...uh huh that's what I thought. I'm not the only one whose mind is playing tricks.....back to the sweater.....every time I knit an inch it disappears once the tape measure touches it. My eyes think I'm making more progress than I actually have so far. What's a girl to do instead? Take a walk into the realm of rationalization and come up with all the reasons why it is perfectly ok for me to buy yarn. Ugh don't judgeeeee...yes I went to the yarn store today and yes I bought yarn and yes I said that I wasn't going to be buying any yarn unless it was necessary but isn't a yarn sale the definition of necessary purchase? Plus I was having a bad day...the yarn was therapeutic ...Will take pictures later. In the meantime here's a pic of a fo that was completed New Year's Day.  See Ravelry page for details.

                                 

Not According To Plan

Hey blogland!!!! Happy 2014... It seems like forever since I've been online for more than two minutes at a time. Forever equates to two weeks in real time. Unfortunately for me and a few selected  verizon customers we were on the receiving end of some kind of cable outage that happened just before the end of 2013. Thank heavens for those kind souls who had open wifi signals :). It feels wonderful to be back in cyber world. During my forced hiatus I took it upon myself to create a New Years resolution knit list of sorts. To be honest it was more of a recycling of a resolutions list. For as long as I have been knitting I've been intimidated by the idea of making a sweater/ cardigan. I spend hours on ravelry perusing sweater patterns...reading them through to make sure they are simple enough for me to do....I spend even more time admiring the finished product of so many talented knitters and every year I say this is the year I join the club. But just as quickly as I give myself the pep talk I weasel out of it. Well.NOT. ANYMORE. I don't care how long it takes me I am going to knit a sweater or cardigan before the year is over. No quitting. No second guessing. No stopping. I have casted on Lady Kina. 

Yarn:- malabrigo worsted in azul profundo

I love the feel of this yarn. So soft and squishy. 

I just realized I made a mistake....two.....I'm still not going to stop. Back to the needles before the mojo disappears. Hope your New Years brings you everything you desire

- Cee