52 days

Well, it isn't blocked yet, but the knitting is done! I'll be blocking it when I get to my LYS, who have kindly offered me use of their blocking board. DONE! YAY!

So what's your point?

38/56 points completed so far. Maybe I should actually work on this outside of Sunday knit group, and it might get done a little faster.

Snip

Total cutting time: 6 hours. This includes realizing I had messed something up and changing one of the colours I was going to use. Don't cut without food in your system, people. One's reading comprehension takes a nosedive if you are running on fumes. :p

Since I am certainly not beading...

And since I'm burnt out on beads, I've started working on a quilt that a friend of mine asked for. I've had numerous folks ask how long it takes to make a quilt and I tend to look at them blankly, as I've never really kept track.

Well, I'm going to track this one, just for shits and giggles.

Basic stats: Queen size (oy), 8 colours, relatively basic pattern, insomuch as it doesn't have any fiddly cuts.

The timing thus far:
Background: 2hrs 40 min
Print 1: 30 min
Print 2: 40 min
Total: 3hrs 50min, and I still have 5 more colours to cut. I have a bad feeling about this tracking thing. (Update: I did the border colour and that took 10 min, so I'm up to 4 hours just cutting half of the fabric.)

I was really hoping to get this bad boy cut out entirely today, but I also have to go get my fat ass on the recumbent bike, and then I TA from 6-10. So, we'll see what I get done post bike/shower, if anything. If nothing else, I'll have to clear off the kitchen island (which is a perfect cutting surface!) before I wander off to observe newbie massage therapists take their first class. More names to learn!

Meh.

Not bothering with a photo today, as I didn't work on the blasted thing at all this week, aside from at knit group. It looks just like it did, but with 9 more points.

At 27 of 56 points. Sigh.

3 days short of a month

So, remember how I mentioned that "looking down" was a thing? Yeah, that was a bad thing. I totally buggered up my neck and upper back with the first 8 points, and have barely been able to knit at all this week. Thus, I'm at 18 of 56 points. This week, with my general lack of Things To Do (tm) should allow me to make further progress.

Lesson learned: Beading must be done at a table, or I screw up my neck. I'm disappointed with this week's progress. Meh.

3 weeks

So, beads were a thing starting two days ago.

They take a lot more time, concentration and general "looking down".

But they sure are pretty, aren't they? They better be, because each point has 50 of them. There are over 350 beads done, out of about 3000. This is going to be a long week.

Knit a few more inches of my mom's endless sock, and haven't worked on the giant ninja sweater at all. (Sorry, Dave.) The only other really active projects are the weather scarves:

January! The high was 62F (See the red bit on the "high" scarf?) and the low was -7 (that really dark blue chunk; it was -6/-7 for 3 days in a row). I'm really enjoying these concept scarves. Such a neat idea!

Today, I head into my LYS for an anti-Super Bowl party and deal with lots of little beads for many many hours. Should be fun, for odd definitions of "fun". :)

2 weeks in...

I'm on row 30 of chart 3. It looks a little pinched in due to the lifeline between chart 2 and 3. This is on both a 47" and 32" needle to try and show off the progress, and it still isn't big enough. Oy, vey, this thing is going to be a monster once its blocked. I'm still debating the whole "do I really want to put 3000 beads on the edging of this or not" thing. It seems weird to wait until the very edge to add in sparklies, and I can't help but wonder if it'll weigh down the edges or not. Enh. I still have a bit of time before that. :p

Strangely enough, not a ton of progress on other projects. :> I've turned the heel (toe up) on my mother's knee high sock, so that'll be basically blind knitting from here on out, thankfully.

New beginnings

2013 has started with getting started on one official knit-along and one "Ooh, what a neat idea! I should totally modify it!" year-long project. Oh, and one ninja giant sweater that the recipient has asked there be no photos of so it'll be a surprise. I'm just going to drop some numbers on you: 6'6" tall. 58" around. (Cue quiet sobbing.) The sleeves are done, but just the bottom ribbing of the torso (about 3") took 7 hours. Now I know why I don't usually track how long projects take me. (Also, the second knee-high sock for my mother. Scads of slightly variegated black 2x2 ribbing...>_< )

The KAL is the Evenstar shawl, as the manager/daughter of the owners of the yarn and fibre shop I spend oodles of time at has been roped into knitting one for a friend's wedding in July, and she decided she was not facing this on her own.

Cast on 1/13/2013. One week in and I'm on row 30 of the second chart. I plan on posting my progress on this on a weekly basis. And no, I have no real idea what I'll do with it once I'm done, but sometimes, spec knitting is fun, too. I had originally swatched this in red, but it was almost a cobweb weight, and I decided not to do that to myself on this shawl. Stash diving came up with this wonderful Lacey Lamb in off-white. Super soft and sqwooshy, and a pleasure to work with.

The other neat project is the "My year in temperatures" scarf that my sister-in-law told me about and is doing. But, because I can't leave well enough alone (and I live somewhere where there are some pretty interesting temp changes over the course of the day), I decided to knit two scarves; one for the highs and one for the lows. I also don't like the look of garter stitch, so opted for a 1x1 rib. Oh, and since I'm using fingering weight instead of worsted, I'm doing a back and forth for each day, so it'll hopefully get to a decent length. I love how different the days look when compared to each other!

 

High vs Low

Pictures of things that have been finished!

 My tattoo was finally completed on 11/2! 24 total hours under the needle. Oy, vey.

 Longitudinal socks, with my always adored Zauberball, were knit sometime in September, I think.

 Just finished up this Nyan cat scarf this morning for my friend Megan. It is stupidly cute.

 Men's size 11 Longitudinal socks, finished on 10/28 for a classmate who always loudly admired my hand knit socks, and had the presence of mind to actually *ask for a pair*. He was proudly wearing them last Tuesday and declared them to be the best socks ever, and wondered how much another half dozen pairs would be. I made a o_O face.

 Yggdrasil blanket, on the needles for years, was finally finished! Yay!!!

 I broke out my dyes to mess with some yarn for the first time since I moved to CO.

This was the 4th place prize for the Hot Summer Knits yarn crawl I participated in! This would be the yarn that is dyed in the picture above. I need to do more dyeing!

And then there has been a ton of spinning. I'll get photos of that up eventually. I participated in the Tour De Fleece back in June and have fallen firmly back in love with my wheel. Whee!