T for Tedious

I appear to be drawn to tedious projects lately. Looking at my WIP, two items are on US 4 needles, one is on US 3 needles, and the other has a lot of embroidery needed to finish. The scarf is the only "quick knit" on 11s, but I haven't worked on it in weeks. Yet I wonder why I'm not making better progress on these pieces.
The only project with advancement today is Sonnet.

I've finished the first box stitch band and am back to the garter stitch. I've used nearly a whole ball of yarn and my wrists are feeling it. I'm definitely getting circulars this weekend. They should not only speed up my Sonnet knitting, but will also free up my straight needles to cast on for Haiku. I know I have no will power, but when all your projects are tedious, having several of them keeps it interesting.

Birthday Goodness

I had a lovely birthday today. Michael took the day off from work, made dinner, and watched Charlotte. I received a couple of movies which I'll be able to enjoy more once Charlotte's in bed. (She likes to turn the TV on and off when you're watching it.) I did get to knit and listen to a new CD while she played with her toys. Thank you all for the gifts and phone calls. I enjoyed catching up with everyone.
Here are the knitting goodies I received.

Once I have a better idea of how Sonnet will turn out, I think I'll pick out a shell for it from the Vintage Knits book. Charlotte decided to find a sweater for her as well.

Speaking of Sonnet, I redid the neckline (It looks much nicer now.) and have started the box stitch.

Slowly but surely a sweater is taking shape.
The only shape the back of Charlotte's sweater is taking is that of a square.

45 rows down, about 75 to go.

Ribbit

My progress on Sonnet stalled out today. I've only done long tail cast on, so, being lazy, I made up a cast on for the neck instead of consulting my Knitting Workbook. Then I screwed up the third row of the box stitch and had to pull out the row. The sloppy cast on was bothering me, so I decided to go ahead and frog back another couple of rows and fix that as well. Currently, I'm trying to collect all of my original stitches back on the needles while holding a teething 10 month old who cries if she's not in my lap. Plus, as much as I love the yarn I'm using for this, its soft fuzziness doesn't make for easy frogging. If you want to see some real progress, check out Jackie's Sonnet.
Here's a sweater that I have made some progress on.

With storm closings, Michael had a four day weekend so we had a big house cleaning. The house was looking cleaner, however, there wasn't much time for knitting. I say the house was looking cleaner, because it wasn't long before tornado Charlotte came through.

My First Knit-Along

The FCEK sweater project has been postponed indefinitely. I'm using the venice yarn I'd set aside for it on Sonnet instead. Here's my progress so far.

I'm very excited about this project. The pattern allows you to use any yarn you choose, so you have a pattern which you can fit to your yarn stash rather than trying to fit your yarn stash to the pattern. Plus, this will be the first project I have ever made for myself. I also plan on making a matching sweater, Haiku, for Charlotte. I'm not sure if her's will also be in blue or if I'll use my pink venice yarn. The yarn is fairly fine (8 st per in on US 4 needles), so this top will turn out to dressy. I'm making the small, so it should be somewhat form fitting as well. Depending on how it turns out, I might try to make a matching shell to wear under it. Charlotte and I could have matching sweater sets! I've joined the Sonnet Knit-Along which you can find by clicking the button under my links. It will be fun to see the finished projects because no two sweaters should be the same. The reason why this decision has led to no FCEK sweater is because I can no longer obtain the venice yarn. I bought all that I could find when Michael's clearanced it a few months ago, so I have to make due with what I've got. If I have enough yarn left over, than maybe the FCEK sweater will happen.

The blocking really made Charlotte's collar behave. Here is a picture with the finished collar embroidery on one side.

The meetup Wednesday night went alright. Here's what I accomplished on Charlotte's blue sweater.

Enjoy your weekend.

The Calm Before the Storm

Today was a beautiful fall day: sunny, blue sky, nice breeze. A little too warm for Charlotte's heart hat, but she cooperated enough for me to get a couple of pictures. Here she is modeling the finished product.

No progress on the jacket currently.
This is one of the new projects I'm starting.

The sweater is from the Fall 2001 issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting. I'll be using Passport Yarn Co. Venice yarn for the body and Rowan Cotton Tape for the waist and cuffs.

Most of this sweater will be made on my knitting machine.
I'm attending a knitting meetup tonight and, since I don't currently have a project on the knitting needles, I need to add one more new project to the list.

This baby sweater is from the Debbie Bliss Knitting Workbook. I'll be using Lana Grossa Klimatika yarn for it.

In other news, the new issue of Knitty is out. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this publication, it is a free online knitting magazine with lots of great patterns.

Also, for those of you interested in charity knitting, Michael's is accepting squares for Warm Up America and Wendy of wendyknits is still accepting catnip mice.

Currently, we're preparing for Hurricane Isabel. Mike's out hunting down batteries. We're around 30 miles from the coast, so we're expecting to lose power. The storm's supposed to hit around midday tomorrow, so chances are very good that it'll be a few days before I'm posting again.

Sewing Time

Here is Charlotte's jacket, all sewn up.

I've even finished the sleeve embroidery.

I need to do a little blocking on the body of the jacket and the collar before I start the embroidery there.

Here also is a picture of Charlotte's hat.

The heart is completely formed now.

The hat needs a couple more rows before it's sewn up.

One Sleeve On And One Sleeve Off

As you can see, I've only attached one sleeve to Charlotte's jacket. The other sleeve is sewn up, just not sewn on. The jacket is big on Charlotte now, so she should get plenty of wear out of it.
Also, here is an updated photo of Charlotte's hat.

You can see the stitch pattern starting to form the heart shape.

Fringe

After about 1000 pieces of fringe the poncho is finally finished.

As you can see, Sloan was very interested in this project. Samantha, the poncho is boxed up and, after tomorrow, will be on its way to you.
The temperature here has started to drop (tonight will be in the low 50s), so the next project I start will be a hat for Charlotte. The pattern is from the Fall 2002 issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting.

Here is the yarn I will use.

Other projects coming soon will be a hat for me (I've borrowed Michael's for now.) and a gift for Remington.

Poncho

After a long weekend of watching videos, the Poncho is all sewn up and ready for fringe.

Here's a closeup.

Samantha, expect a package at school sometime in the next week or so.

I also got some work done on Charlotte's jacket. The collar is finished, and one sleeve is sewn up.

Michael shortened the dowel for the quilt shelf, so currently I need to sand the rough edge down before it's nailed in. Once the shelf is assembled, I'll cover the nail holes with wood putty, sand the whole thing down, and start painting.

Maybe Monday will bring some finished projects!