5 Days of Seclusion

What do you have with 5 days of forced seclusion and when your manager refuses to let you work so you can stop getting sick!!

Pray.....a lot.

And knit of course.

Now that I've stopped long enought to take a breath - I realized my WIPs are totally out of control. Just ltake a look: and I don't even have all of them loaded. My goal this week is to complete Pi and Hemlock - and hopefully the Split Leaf Shawl (another WIP forgotten in a bag in my room) that I am going to give to a coworker that has been so sweet to take over my meetings this week so I can rest.

First of all - the family project is so close. I didn't expect us to get this far this fast. We are cruising. It would be done if I wasn't in quarentine.



I'm on the last section of Pi before the border. Each round takes around 30-45 mins depending on how medicated I am. I'm so excited though. I want to see it blocked!!! This has been the most exciting project *evah* I think. It's simple but so cool. I want to do another one - but I think I am going to do a Pi Are Square next. I've been trying to figure out the yarn.....



I restarted the Mystery Shawl with JaggerSpun Zephyr 2/18 in Basil. I have a cone of it - 5000+ yards. I'll be 90 before I finish it I'm sure. But it is perfect for this shawl. The Morehouse yarn because it was a singly ply and varigated, didn't really show the pattern as well as I would have liked. It made it look too casual. When I saw others on Ravelry or in the Yahoo group, it needed a more elegant yarn. You can never go wrong with Lace and JaggerSpun I have found. And this time is no different.



Hemlock is going along. I discovered a mistake I've been making I'm too embarassed to confess. I was being too cocky and not really looking at the chart closely enough. I'm back on track now.....



Poor Mr. Greenjeans - I love you and want to give you the time you deserve. You have to remain on hold waiting for the sleeves and body until I get past my Pi obsession.



I'm making this Split Leaf scarf in NatureSpun Sport - I so love this green. Yeah that I have a cone of it left for a much larger project. I just took a bit of it off for this scarf. My friend Liz has been so great this week doing her job and taking on mine so I can rest in peace. I'm going to suprise her with it in April. Shhhhhhhh.



Lastly - finishing the lace swallowtail shawl gave me courage to find my Hempathy version. I love the yarn, color and feel - I just got a bit mixed up on the edging and then stuffed it in a basket in my office and for got it was there - along with another shawl that I have no idea why I stopped knitting on. Sigh. I will have to take pictures and add it to Ravelry another day. But I did add the Hempathy shawl. I love this yarn and will use it again for something else one day.



That's enough for now. I am getting to the poing where I need to take another set of meds. And trust me, you don't want me to blog as high as these little babies send me. Why anyone would voluntarily take on this feeling, I don't know. My brain slows down the the pace of a snail, and I'm suprised my knitting hasn't been impacted - although I do knit slower.

Chat with you later.

Atlast, a Swallowtail

I've wanted to make this scarf/shawl forever.
I started out strong, and faded in the face of THE NUPP.
But at last I finished it.
Success at last.



Patiently waiting for blocking.....



Nupps, nupps, and more nupps.

Flu revisited

It's baaaaaack. Yes, the yucky flu 2008 came back, meaner and nastier this time. At first - it was just sleep and rest for me. I was miserable with fever and body aches. I'm starting to get over that - just a few moments of being unbearably hot here and there - but I've got no energy and little appitite. Maybe I'll loose weight? :) Let's hope for a bright side of this experience.

It's so great you can knit when you are sick b/c TV is really terrible. I can't stand realtiy shows or the talk shows and soaps now get on my nerves. Had I of known I would be housebound for a few days - I would have stocked up on DVDs. Thankfully there was some political drama on March 4 to keep me a bit glued to the TV, although I wasn't happy with the outcome and am afraid to see the Democratic race degenerate into negative nitpicking. All the nonsense drove me straight to www.barakobama.com to make a donation for a new day in America. Instead of just getting angry, I had to do my part to bring some common sense back into the discussion.

In the midst of the fever, the thought of so many UFO - Unfinished Objects - drove me nuts. So I was inspired to knit on some of the items hanging around waiting for the last few stitches.

First of all was my Malabrigo Loafers, which I stalled on during the first bout of the flu. They are a bit big and I'm thinking about slightly felting them, but don't want to over do it.



I love both of these colors independantly - having them together is growing on me. Not my favorite, but not terrible. They need a crochet flower on top, but I didn't have the energy. Maybe later.

I also rescued my Swallowtail shawl from the bottom of my bedroom yarn stash bin where it had fallen in it's little zip lock bag. I was working on this (and another SW that I'm not sure where it is actually) like mad when on vacation in August! But the nupps drove me crazy with the super fine JoJoland Harmony yarn. But for some reason this week it wasn't so bad, I blew past the last 6 nupp rows and am on the edging! Yah! This will replace my lost Flower Basket Lace scarf.



Hopefully - will wrap this up by end of the day.

I also have been working away on my SKP 2008 sock - my first toe up!! The gansey pattern is enough to keep it interesting, but it's not difficult. I like the diamond pattern and the little ladders on the side. I'm loving the handspun BFL, I have a few BFL hanks in my stash but this is my first time knitting it. It's sooooft. And the sock feels really springy. I can tell it's wool, but it feels different than my other socks. I love it. I'm glad I have another hank from this spinner in blue. Maybe by then I'll be good enough to make my own handspun sock yarn. What a refreshing change of pace for socks. Also - I love the subtle color changes, no set pattern, but very pleasing. I just love the way the yarn is behaving in this pattern. It probably wouldn't have been as nice in lace, so it was a good chose for a knit/purl pattern.



I didn't realize SKP 2008 would be a gansey pattern and had previously started (on a whim) another gansey sock - this time with the pattern in the cuff. I decided not to carry the texture down the instep and onto the foot as I was afraid moss stitch on the top of my foot would drive me crazy. I like this yarn to - it's a handpainted yarn, frogged from a failed scarf attempt. I'm trying to finish both of these pairs of socks this month. My green sock month!



I put the mystery shawl on hold to finish swallow tail. I hope to get back to it tomorrow.

I also have to cast on Mr. Greenjeans - but need to FU some of the UFOs and get them into my FOs. :)

Last note - on Stash Burning 2008 - last week was a mixed bag. I did so well in Seattle for a while. No yarn, just a bit of fiber. But I slipped up on Ebay. My friend Jill showed me her Kauni hat, and then I found some on Ebay. It has a shetland feel, and the slow color changes remind me of Noro but the yarn is a 2-ply (I think) fingering weight. Yummy. There is a pretty cardigan made famous by Yarn Harlot using this yarn. I'm not sure what I will make with this - it would be beautiful in anything fair isle. I also have some some really pretty lace made out of it. What you can't see in the photos is these babies are huge - the smallest one is 700+ yards! The largest is ~1200 yards. So many choices!

Yummmmmmmmm: