By George!

Remember back on Monday when I talked about having the flu? Ha! By the next morning my cough had progressed to sounding something satanic and I threw in the towel and dragged myself to the doctor. What I just figured was the flu was actually bronchitis, a sinus infection, a nasty throat infection, fluid behind both eardrums and a temperature of 102. Since then I've been on hardcore antibiotics and cough medicine and a decongestant. I'm starting to feel more like myself but I decided I'm tired of winter for some reason.

Normally, I love winter but this winter, as far as winters go kinda blows. It hasn't been that cold really, we had a lot of those weird days where it's like 50 degrees and warmer and hardly any snow whatsover. Friday was our first major snow 'event' but it really wasn't even an 'event.' I believe we officially need over 4 inches to have an event. This was less than that and today it's starting to warm up again, and you can already see the dirty grass through the snow. I hate that.
To make matters worse I believe my sweater sleeve is having an identity crisis. This is why I should probably be knitting with a pattern.


I rely too much on this 'try it on as you go' stuff. I swear I did the math at the top of the sleeve and thought I had my decreases down pat but I've decided that on this sweater gauge is just a big fat liar!!! I had one gauge while knitting the yoke back and forth, another gauge knitting the body in the round and now the sleeves are another gauge all of their own. This lead me to start out decreasing every 3rd row at the top of the sleeve, then changing to every 5th row in the middle and now as I'm nearing the wrist I figure I'm almost completely done decreasing, maybe I'll just do it one or two times more. For all the erratic-ness the sweater still actually looks decent on. If my notes are good enough and I can manage to duplicate this sleeve for the second one I might actually have a wearable garment.

Boy this post sounds cranky for some reason! I promise I'm really not in that bad a mood, it's just coming out that way. Well, in non-sick, non warm weather or sleeve crisis news the Oscars are on tonight everybody! You know what that means!! George is going to be on tv!!!!

Sigh... George I love you... Even when you played George on Facts of Life I knew you had only begun to tap into your hotness. And I loved Michael Clayton. I work with attorneys. Why can't any of the attorneys I work with look like you? Why can't they look like someone who might even qualify to carry your water bottle? That scene where you have on the shearling jacket and black turtleneck? You should wear turtlenecks all the time. You should wear a turtleneck tonight to accept your Oscar for best actor...


So look at it this way whether he wins or not, we'll probably get to see him in a tux so really, how bad can the 4 hour speechfest be if there's 30 seconds of George in a tux... Even if Juno wins, because let me tell you I've had a whole Juno rant these past few weeks.... Yes the movie was cute but best picture? No. I haven't been this irritated since Julia Roberts won her Oscar for Erin Brockovich. This is basically how my whole argument goes-Julia Roberts does not win Oscars, Meryl Streep wins Oscars. And Juno is a teen movie, as much as John Hughes has affected my life let's face it, teen movies do not win oscars. Heathers was a great movie. Never won an Oscar. The Breakfast Club was a great movie-no Oscar. So as much as I love Michael Cera-no Oscar for Juno. Sorry, hands off that statue Diablo Cody... That one is for George!

Racer

Somewhere between last week and this week I found I've tumbled headlong into what honestly feels like some type of horrible, Dickensian-era type of plague... Ok, I'm whining, I know it's just the flu but still I hate it. Fever, chills, sneezing and a lovely cough have all somehow yanked my 3 day weekend right out from under me. I slept all day Saturday and Sunday, and when I say I slept all day I mean I slept all day. No knitting, no socializing, no eating, no tv, just sleep! Today, I am feeling halfway human again. The cough still hangs on but I did manage to get up and about and get to the bank and grocery store. So by tomorrow I should have things back together, just in time to go back to work...



I finished the hemmed edge of the body of the top down raglan this week. So far I'm happy with it, it flips a little but I'm hoping blocking fixes that. It actually doesn't flip when I put it on. I got a ways into one sleeve and then realized I don't have the needle I want to do the sleeves on magic loop so I placed an order from Knitpicks and in the meantime I'm working on the second sleeve until it gets too small for the 16 inch circular. So since I'm kind of in the middle of this long slog of stockinette on the top down raglan I thought I'd take some time and go over the origins of this sweater. It's kind of funny. Well, it all starts with my favorite sweater ever, this thing



I know it's not pretty. It is pretty old though. I think I got this in high school. My dad bought it for me at the mall for my birthday one year. And yes, don't ask me why I still have it and I still wear it on my mostly-staying close to home days. There's something about it, well it is soft, yes, and black which always appeals to me. But something about the slightly open neck and the ribbing also makes it at least somewhat flattering without being too form fitting. And I like that. So all my of knitting days I've always thought in the back of my head, that I should really re-knit this sweater someday. This one is totally pilly and fuzzy and it really wouldn't be that hard to knit- 2x2 rib. The only thing I think intimidates me would be figuring out how to get the ribs to line up for the yoke. I see myself inevitably completing a body and 2 sleeves that do not fit together in any logical way at all.

Once day back at Stitches East 2005 I thought I had it figured out when I saw a sample sweater at the Shelridge Farms booth. It was ribbed and long-ish, it looked like the right silhouette and the tag said it was Unisex. But it looked girly enough to me. It's not a ball gown or anything but I figured I could wear it with jeans and I didn't think anyone would call me 'Sir' by mistake. And I liked the yarn and the price and it came in my size so I kindly asked a salesperson if they had what I wanted in stock. When they gave me the kit this was the photo on the front.



Sigh.... Anyway, I guess after I brought it home and forgot what the sample looked like and kept looking at these photos I kind of fell out of love with the pattern. Nothing against the poor lad in the photo (because let's face it he looks a lot more like a 'lad' than a 'guy' or a 'dude') but he always looks to me like a younger calmer Rowan Atkinson for some reason.


And while I adore Rowan Atkinson I just don't think I'm up for wearing a calmer, younger version of his sweater. Even though it appears that perhaps the designer originally meant for this to be a women's sweater pattern after all!



The writing saying unisex was on the pattern when I bought it, not my writing. But still it's Rowan's sweater and I needed to go my own way. Anyway, the yarn is great and hopefully my top down raglan comes out ok. If in the end I totally hate it for some reason you know I could always frog the whole thing and knit myself a Racer...

First Football Free Weekend!

The Mitered Mittens are done!



Pattern: Mitered Mittens (for May) from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Almanac

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 1 1/2 balls

A few years ago (I've had that stuff this long, yikes) I waaayy overbought on the Cashmerino Aran for some Fetchings. This gray stuff has been sitting there forever staring back at me. Not only did this pattern give me a good opportunity to use it up, I really enjoyed knitting them and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Pretty happy because I still like the more colorful versions of these I've seen on Ravelry, the ones made out of Noro, etc. a little better. Also while the gloves look lovely off and just lying there when you put them on, the thumb does yank that center seam over to the side, since most of us don't walk around with our thumbs glued prettily to the centers of our palms. But otherwise they are warm and done, good and good.

The current traveling project is the Fine Cabled Mitts pattern from Knitspot. Using some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport I want to use up. Black is hard to photograph.



But take my word for it the pattern is terrific. This is the third of Anne's patterns I've made and I'm always so impressed how well written and easy to follow they are. Plus, going with what I have now, I think I'll just adore the finished product.

And the top down raglan is moving right along. I'm just going to do a finished hem at the bottom and the cuffs, I'm thinking I'll probably finished off the body tonight or tomorrow and then it's just the sleeves and the neckband and I'm done!



In non-knitting news it's the first Sunday of the New Year with no football. Also known as the first Sunday of the New Year I get to have the remote for the big tv and knit! Today I watched a few episodes of Everyday Food, the latest Project Runway and Lost from the other night. I'm really starting to like Lost even though I am a really, really late newcomer to it. I like the characters and the suspense and the surprises that seem to be popping up all the time. It's not Heroes, but here in the middle of February, hopefully close to the end of the writers strike, it will do just fine...