When projects aren't what they seem

I've been putting off posting because I have restarted the same project four times. I get about 20 rows in and it all falls apart - either I don't like the way it looks, or I messed up and go to unravel it stitch by stitch and mess that up, or I just completely mess up.
I am working on the lacey scarf project I told you guys about forever ago on and off these past two weeks and I have nothing to show for it. It's currently waiting to be frogged...again. This time around I missed a stitch, backed up stitch-by-stitch, and somehow messed up my backup and now I'm going to have to start over because I don't think I can fix my secondary mess up. I will complete this project. But it's helping my 'cannot have more than one project going at a time' issue.

I cast on last night for a gift for my cousin's son in Michigan. It's a little raglan sweater. I have a little beanie made for him, but I'd like to send something more. I pulled the pattern off Ravelry - it's the Toddler Raglan Hoodie by Megan Goodacre and looks like this:


Photo is Megan Goodacre's from the Ravelry website listed above.

I have a few rows done in a light grey color, but I'm thinking I might undo what I've done and cast on with some wool I have in my stash. I'm using acrylic right now (Lion's Brand) and I'm thinking for the sake of softness and cost effectiveness I may stick with what I'm using. We'll see what I decide.

Last weekend I decided in a flash that my fun self striping socks I made for our Girl Scout meeting in November needed to go to another home - a good friend of mine had a birthday and it seemed perfect for her. I have a feeling this will be the case as I complete projects - they have a particular intent but find better applications. She was very very happy to receive them and thought they were fantastic. We did a small girl's night (by small I mean three of us, but not small in the amount of fun we had) out. It was great.

Minus the fact I was sick. Late last week, we had a conference for work and I picked up some super-duper cold bug that is still sort of kicking my butt. I spread this super cold to Jamie and he was super grateful considering he just started his new job. 

So, that's what I'm doing. I'm working away on stuff, just not with lots of results. I'll keep ya'll in the loop when something gets finished.

Slacker

Last week was rough. There's a lot going on in life and the blog got kicked down to the bottom. So, I have not been posting everyday until you guys are caught up and I apologize. (Not that I have a huge following, but still, I put a promise out there to the world and dropped the ball)
So, we're going to catch you guys up.

During the search for things that don't exist, we were driving by a store that sells yarn (yes any store that sells yarn is a reason to stop) and I was feeling despair and I was weak and Jamie felt bad for me. So he sat in the car while I went in search for a pick-me-up of the wool persuasion.

 I found this. Perfect for the November meeting project. I know a particular someone who'll love this Girl Scout Tie-Dyed color yarn.

 And here's number one almost finished. I have completed this pair and they are currently being stored with the helmet liner until November. When they'll make the trek to a distant land.

I also found this for a scarf project that I plan on making for my Aunt. It's her favorite color. And she's one of the few people I know who live in a cold enough climate to knit something like this for.

 It's going to look like this when knitted:

(I stole this photo from Google - linked from someone's flickr account)

I have also cast on for another coaster for the nerd room. It's not very far along. It is sitting on my couch still looking just like this:

I will make this last one and maybe a makeup one that is more squarish to make a set of four. Then I will start knitting the other logo. Set of four for those also.

I also bought some wool on my depair trip to the yarn store. It was on sale and it was all I could do to keep myself from buying every skien they had. But I didn't. I bought two. I believe another pair of Girl Scout socks will come out of one of those skiens.

Other than that, I have been organizing our stuff in boxes around the house. Including the yarn stash box. It has been upgraded to a 56qt tote. I see another upgrade sometime in the future. Should work for now. I have just a bit of room at the top of it. Must knit faster to justify adding to the stash.

In search of things that don't exist

This is a non-knitting post.

Just thought I'd get that out there.

As I've mentioned before, I am in the process of attempting to update/redo our master bedroom. I have started laying flooring and trim in the closet as a practice piece.

Background on why I needed a 'practice piece': In 2006, when Jamie and I moved from NB to my childhood home, after my father passed away, we did a mad dash re-do of my old room because I refused to move into my childhood room let alone let a grown man live in a girl's childhood room that was decorated in sort of a horsey theme. It was the first major redo I've done as an adult (this redo thing comes from my mother and she did as much as she could to every room in the house) and needless to say things were less than perfect. We payed someone to lay the flooring but did the wallpaper, painting, panelling repair, and trim work ourselves. Hanging trim is sort of an art and I was a very novice artist. We are still living in this room until we get the master finished and it is less than perfect. I'm sure no one notices immediately the flaws in my trim job, but I sure as heck do. I also hung a small amount of trim in our kitchen when I repainted 1-2 years ago. It was an improvement from my childhood room, but definately not ideal.

So, all this being said, I want this project to look like someone who knew what they were doing hung the trim. And I started in the closet. We picked up two boxes of flooring, you'll remember. I needed one more to finish.
Weekend before last, Jamie and I went into town to pick up another box of flooring to finish the closet. Typically our local HD carries an entire pallet of the Pergo flooring that most closely resembles the flooring we put in our current bedroom (Pergo has since discontinued the exact flooring we used). We got to our local HD only to find there was no pallet and there was not a single box of flooring. We asked, someone called in to purchase the entire pallet.
So we went to the next town over to buy the single box we needed there. They had nine boxes, but all of them had crunched corners. I am not putting crunched corners into my 'perfect' remodelling job. The flooring gentleman was kind enough to explain that Pergo was discontinuing this flooring and it was on sale and being scooped up by the second. He offers to call around to find us an undamaged box.We waited about 30 mins while he called around.

All the while, Jamie and I are discussing what to do with the flooring in the rest of the room that is supposed to match the closet. I have already laid two boxes with the assumption that I am going to lay continuously into the bedroom with the same flooring. Do we buy the flooring we need for the entire project? Do we wait and see and hope that whatever Pergo comes out with also closely matches the other bedroom flooring because eventually the hall between the two bedrooms is supposed to also get the same flooring?

The closest store has six boxes in good condition and it's another 30 minute drive away. They'll hold them. We go. They aren't holding them, but we found a single box for me to finish the closet. We have to figure out what to do later. We can lay tile...cork...something else that is close...Jamie can call a local contractor to have them match what we have as closely as possible...none of these options are what I want to hear.
They are not what I was picturing in my head when envisioning this room. The flooring is SUPPOSED to match.
Match as in be the same.
My heart was crushing.
I was pouting like a little kid.
Jamie, bless his heart, was doing his best to assure me it was going to be okay.
We went home with one box of flooring.

And I finished the flooring in the closet.

I am a lover of closets. The place we rented in NB was the best rent house ever because it had an insane amount of closet space. Freaking loved it.
Jamie and I have been sharing a very small walk-in closet and it is seriously starting to wear on me. Things are hanging on shelves throughout the entire room this closet is in. Did I mention the said shared closet is not in my childhood room that we currently sleep in? No? Yeah, it's not.
I need a closet that sings to me when I walk in. The order and beauty of it brings calmness to my heart. I love closets.
I want my closet, this closet, to sing to me.

This past weekend, I finished the closet project. The baseboards, a small crown molding, and cove in the corners are hung. It is as close to perfect as humanly possible with super crooked walls.
I hung the Elfa system and Jamie was moving his stuff into it before I even had the system together on the other side. I think he was feeling a bit cramped in the shared small closet too.
Here's the finished product. It's a beautiful thing.

Read, Read, and Re-read...

The item at the very top of the list of "Things I Learned from Knitting" is: Read the instructions. After reading the instructions, read them again, and for good measure, re-read them.
Do I read my 'things I've learned list' let alone read the instructions for my knitting THREE times?! No. So, I will continue to do stupid things like this:

The above picture is the neck portion and the back of the head part. Do you see what's wrong with this? I didn't until I sewed the top of the head to the side of the head parts together. You see the stitch holders (blue and yellow thingys as the bottom) and the increase stitches about five inches above that? Yep, you'd have to have a cone head to fit into this puppy.
When looking at it, it's rather funny I kept faith that the pattern had to be correct and I just needed to push through. The problem was I read 5 inches from the ribbing, when the instructions clearly said 5 inches from the beginning of the entire thing (including the ribbing). I kept faith all the way through, shoved it onto Jamie's head (he's the test subject because this is being made for my brother-in-law), and realized very quickly that my faith in the pattern was misplaced faith in me being able to read the instructions clearly.
Frogging, frog, frog, frog.
So I got to start back above the ribbing.

And then I finished it. It's actually a pretty cool pattern. I used plain ol' acrylic Red Heart Saver and the elasticity of the bottom ribbing isn't anywhere near as good as it would've been with a wool product. I needed it to be durable, machine washable, and he's only going to wear it like once or twice a year. It seemed silly to go out and buy wool when I had yarn in the stash that would work.
Here's a goofy photo of the final product so ya'll can see sorta how it fits:

 My head is slightly smaller than a man-sized head, but you get the idea.

This project was fun, quick (would've been quicker if I would just read carefully), and satisfying. I have a Christmas present complete. Way super early, too. I have already cast on another project and working my way through it.
There is more to come tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

My, how time flies...

When you're busy as hell. It's September already and I haven't posted in a while. Let's start at the beginning with the sweater project. Here we are.

 Yep, not too bad from the front.

Pardon the bathroom photo - I was home by myself and needed to get a picture of this to post. The bathroom being the obvious choice due to it containing a mirror. Note the cowering dog in the bottom left corner. She's the one who thinks camera flashes are lightening, is scared to death of storms, and therefore believes she should also be afraid of cameras.

Things are always different depending on your viewpoint. This my friends, is of the inside of the sweater - is it really finished? Not so much. I have to tackle those threads badly, but they're on the back burner for now. Sewing all those in = nott fun. So....I will get to it when I get to it. It's still not cold enough for me to wear this thing so I'll have them sewn in by the time the weather cools off. Promise.

I have lots more to share, but I've got to go finish my closet project. I will keep posting daily until I'm all caught up.

Happy Sunday!