brown is not exciting.

It really isn't. Especailly in "miles of Stockingette" form. I finished the back of the Colette sweater yesterday. (Whoo!) Awesome. I cast on for the fronts today. I was going to take a picture, but frankly, I have a rectangle-ish shape and two strips of brown knit fabric. Not the most awe inspiring picture. Tomorrow, SotS pictures. Much more interesting.
I am please at how qickly I am moving through the NaKniSweMo project. I wasn't expecting to have the back finished until tomorrow - so I am cautiously proclaiming myself ahead of schedule. Very caustiously.
I have fallen behind the Mystic Waters Shawl. I knew it was going to happen, I just wish I didn't have to let it. Boo. Oh well, I am keeping up with printing the charts, and it will be a good reward project for when NaKniSweMo is concluded.
That's it for now. Just wanted everyone to know that I was, in fact, still alive.

Off and Running

NaKniSweMo is off! In case you haven't been reading my babble recently, NaKniSweMo (check out the button on the side bar) is "National Knit a Sweater in a Month". The goal is to knit a 50,000 stitch sweater entirely in November. Crazy, right? Maybe not. November is also NaWriNoMo - National Write a Novel in a Month. Now that's crazy. (I can say that. DH is giving it a go this year!)
Normally finishing a sweater in a month wouldn't be that hard, but his November I've got quite a lot on my plate. It will be interesting to see if I can actually do it. It's kind of like Survivor. "which project will outlast the others? Which one will make the cut? Which will not be set aside?" Tune in to find out...
Anyway...

I made good progress on day 1. I am a little over 8" into the back. So far so good. Today I will have little to no progress. (boo) I have to head into NYC for work, and then I am meeting a friend for dinner. Train knitting is normally a good way to get a big ol' chunk if knitting done, but I don't really want to cart it with me today. I'm taking the mittens instead. They need to get done too, and a good couple of uninterrupted hours will progress them quite far.
And, my parents are visiting this weekend. I don't imagine I will get much knitting done while they are here. Unless they decide they just want to sit and watch movies. Unlikely, but it could happen in some alternate universe I suppose. We are going to see the new show at LWT on Saturday night. Maybe we will go outlet shopping on Saturday morning. Mom would love it, and what makes Mom happy, makes Dad happy. He has found life to be less grouchy that way. hee.
cheers!

Out sick

I really did want to post to my blog, as I had a very exciting knitting weekend, but getting sick seamed to be a higher priority to my body. Blame them body, not the mind. I'm on the mend, so I'm back at work, and able to post once again.
I really need to get Internet access at home.
First up, I cast on for The Secret of the Stole, to be known as "SotS" from now on. The first clue went by really quickly, and I am in LOVE with the Lacey Lamb yarn. It is so wonderful to work with. It felt a lot like Misti alpaca when I was knitting, but the knitted fabric is so sproingy - this stole will grow a lot when I block it.
Onto the pictures:

The cast on edge has two points! The instructions say to knit them at the same time, one from inside the ball, one from outside. When you get to where they join together, break the outside of the ball yarn, and continue with only one. I decided not to do that. Mostly because I didn't want to screw with my ball integrity. All you lace knitters know what I mean. I ended up knitting the left point, breaking the yarn, then knitting the right point, and joining with the right point yarn. Same basic idea, and way less yarn tangle stress. It turns out that I had a good idea, since about half way through the first point I had a major yarn barf episode, and had quite a wad to untangle. It would not have gone well if I had two ends to deal with in the mess.

I tried to stretch the lace out a bit. Of course it is rainy and grey when I want to take pictures. It can't possibly be sunny. So far, the pattern in easy to knit, and not to fussy. We'll see what Friday brings!
On Saturday, I did a bit of yarn shopping. I know. I wasn't going to until Rhinebeck, but it was a 40% off sale! 40%!!! I want to knit Colette for my NaKniSweMo project in November, and was hoping to buy the yarn at Rhinebeck. Well, I was nervous that I wouldn't find any, or enough of what I liked. So, to the Yarn Garden Sale I went. I bought 15 skeins of Elizabeth Lavold Classic Al in Aged Oak for the sweater, and two skeins of Universal Yarns Pace, for what else, socks.

On Sunday I went to AcMoore's 25% off your whole order event, and bought half of the yarn for my Road to Golden Sweater. I got all the contrast yarn. They didn't have enough in any dye lot of the color I want to use for the body.

Then I got sick.
On Monday, I couldn't do anything that required movement beyond moving my hands while laying on the couch, so I did a gauge swatch for the Colette Sweater.

I think it will turn out nicely. It is a challenge for NaKniSweMo, as it has lots of pieces, and it has lace, so it is perfect for Lacevember. Now if only I can keep from casting on....
Yesterday I just putzed around with my gloves and my socks. I hate being sick.