We Have Armhole Shaping!

Okay, prolly boring to those who have knit garments before…

But, I am stoked. The thought that I’m down under 100 stchs per row helps too! :-)

I had knitting tea today at the LYS and I got a ton done. I did 7 or so rows before the shaping, plus the shaping. I still have a few more rows of decreases. I need to take a closer look at the neckline shaping as I’d like the back to go up higher. I often have pain patches and such on my upper back/neck that I’d like to be mostly concealed. I’ll have to see if I can just plain knit for say 3-4 inches before starting the shaping instead of the 2 inches the pattern calls for. We’ll see how adventuresome I get :-) Mom is giving me heck for not following patterns, but so far it has always turned out. And, I already didn’t follow the pattern because I didn’t do as many increases for the bust area as I’m terribly pear shaped and even though this one hits at the high hip, there was still a decent discrepancy. This means I should have 3-inc ease throughout the entire tank (*knocks on wood*).

Unfortunately I probably won’t make anymore progress today. Partially to rest my wrist and also because I have other work that needs doing :-( Nah, it’s okay work though…

Hi to those peaking in from the Knitting Blogs ring, my traffic has more than doubled the average of the past month! I hope you come back!

I really am making progress…

Okay, so my progress is much slower than I would have hoped. With my ample size we’re talking only 4 rows completed in about 30 minutes. And, I can only knit for an hour before I have to take a break. I wish things were going faster! But, I’m only a few inches from starting the arm hold shaping. I’m hoping to be there by bed time tonight.

There it is, a whole lot of st st!

If I hadn’t have been almost done with my increases I think I would have been highly tempted to rip and do it in the round ala Theresa’s directions. I’m pretty sure I’ll end up working a second one. Perhaps with some added patterning in a central band or maybe just some yummy stripes. That one I will definitely do in the round. If for no other reason than my purling rows take me about 20% longer to complete than my knitting rows :-P

Both DH and I have been wiped, partially from allergies so we ended up staying home this weekend so Easter was just like most any other weekend when we decide we want to hang at home. It probably meant less knitting time I would have had 6 hours on the road if we had gone to his parents’ house, plus I tend to knit a lot when I’m visiting them because it is the only way I can stay awake after having to take muscle relaxers to get through the car ride, LOL!

We did get a fair bit of snow between snow until evening on Saturaday and then more snow arrived last night after we had melted Saturday’s offerings. I’m not complaining one bit though as we need the moisture so terribly bad. Yes, it would have been nice if it has been in a non-frozen form, but we’ll take whatever we can get!

Here’s today’s gratuitous puppy pic…

“Mom, would you put down that knitting and that darn camera and give me some attention?? Please??”

Serious Knitting in my Future…

Wheee! My final printmaking lesson has been written and uploaded so now I only have two color-themed art journals for a round robin that have to be mailed around the 29th to interrupt my knitting time. Of course, I probably still have to be kind of careful about my dainty (HA! all 8 inches) wrists so it’ll be good to have other less repetitive wrist motion activities to break up the knitting with. I’m hoping to really soar on the Shapely Tank and SIL2′s Sigma.

I cannot express how glad I am that the printmaking class is done. I’m getting really great feedback on it, but it was like pulling teeth each week.

I have a shorter reading time for book club and I need to get through both Angels and Demons and DaVinci Code before May 17th if I recall the date correctly. So I’m thinking I’ll be doing at least DaVinvi Code from Audible.com so I can get embroidery and knitting done while I’m reading. See, I burn audio books from Audible.com to CD for my mom since she is blind and has very questionable internet service and my dad doesn’t have time to be burning CDs for her. I’d do Angels and Demons on CD as well, but I don’t think they have that one unabridged and I’m about 50 pages in already.

What are you reading?

Stalled Knitting

I haven’t picked up needles in a couple of days. I thought Wednesday night I’d be able to get a fair bit done because we were having friends over for Chili and Best In Show, but I ended up helping one of our friends with her resume and we all chatted until midnight instead of watching a movie.

Now, I’m in a huge crunch to get my printmaking class lessons done in case we get to head to Monument to the in-laws to celebrate Easter and March and April (including mine, next Thursday) birthdays. That said, it seems I can probably back off a little on the stress as by tomorrow morning when we are to be leaving they are saying Denver will have 4-8 inches of very wet and very heavy snow. My vote will be to not fight the snow. We gave our gifts to SIL3 to take down as she is leaving early this afternoon and should beat the snow.

Did you see Chris’s lovely looking Shapely Tank? That looks so lovely! If I’m not mistaken, I think that is our first completed tank in the KAL! WTG, Chris! Oh, and now the KAL has it’s own blog. Check it out!

Her comments have confirmed that while I’m *very* happy with my short rows I think I’ll make what is on my needles right now be the back because they can only get better right?

So it’s not a complely boring, picture-free post, here is a print I made yesterday as an example for my class. It’s a combination of monotype and drypoint printed on muslin.

Swatch and Sew

Aside from a bunch of swatching and returning of yarns this weekend to get set up for the Sigma Tank for SIL2 I didn’t get a lot of knitting done.

I’m also dealing with cracked callouses on my right index finger and left thumb. For the last several weeks I’ve been so proud that I had developed callouses, well I’m not anymore! I’ve been treating them with pure Shea Butter everytime I wash my hands and they are improving.

See my owie?? :-)

On Monday no one showed to the SnB :-( Despite the fact that I had people vote on when/where I’m not too surprised, though I was disappointed. I also knit for a while at book club. Though I’m having to be very mindful of how much knitting I do on the Shapely Tank at a time. So, I got about 15 rows (~2 inches) more done.

I’ve been doing a bunch of sewing instead this week. Partially to give my callouses time to heal a bit but also because I’m in this art journal round robin and one of the journals I have to work in are actually just pieces of fabric that are to make up a signature in a fabric book. So, I’ve been playing a bit with that. Though I have to say I’m not as comfortable working with fabric in a unique and artistic matter as I am with say acrylics or watercolor so I’m feeling it is all pretty pedestrian. Yesterday’s spread was a bust as only one out of a dozen or so people knew what it actually was I was making. I’m hoping added some additional elements on top will make it okay. It is supposed to be “play” and not high art so I’ll include it no matter what. If you want to take a peak, see my Live Journal.