Put Some Levels in Warlock

Well, it's been more than a few days.

It's been 16 days, to be exact.

Jamie has come and gone and I haven't made a post about my sweater.

Ill tidings my friends.

Yeah, totes kidding. I had that thing done the Monday before their visit.

So, that means I made an entire sweater, start to finish, in 7 working days.

Not only did I finish it, but I didn't even have to mess with the 4 balls of yarn that I had double wound. 

At this point, I should probably confess to selling my soul to a wool demon. Which is totally cool with me because I get to make really pretty stuff really, really fast.

As for the particulars, I based my pattern off of the Speckled Shrug by Lion Brand on Ravelry. The pattern is a one-size-fits-all sort of deal, which meant that I had to do a lot of math and a lot of swatching.

I also decided to chart out a few lace patterns so I could keep myself from the unholy nightmare of 40 inches of stockinette.

I used 930-ish yards of Knit Pick's Wool of the Andes Bulky Superwash in the Briar Heather colorway.

I did 21 repeats of my lace chart and blocked this out to 60in x 40in. Also, left 8 inches for the armhole rather than 7 because I'm not exactly a tiny person.

And fun fact, this yarn was actually purchased to make a blanket a couple of years ago.

I like it better as a sweater.

There is a cost to this knitting madness, though. My family knows how fast I can make these now and the requests are starting to creep in.

Maybe my Wooly Demonic Patron please send a couple of imps to help.

Thirty

Today is the birthday of someone very special to me.

My dear, darling husband, John, turned 30.

It's something that has been weighing on him a lot. We both feel enormous pressure to have everything figured out and be completely settled. I mean, by the time you're 30, everything should be sunshine and rainbows. We should be financially secure, have a couple of kids, steady jobs, and enjoy our typical 'Murican life. You know, live up to everyone else's expectations.

That's probably the worst thing we could do.

So, I'm going to take a moment and talk about what he has accomplished.

John and I have known each other for 12 years now. I've seen him change from an awkward, unsure young person into a slightly less awkward, and slightly more assured adult. But what has never changed is his smile. Or his ability to make me laugh. And twelve years is a very long time to make someone laugh so damn much.

ACCOMPLISHMENT THE FIRST: Keeping my sides split and the smile cracked wide across my face.

He has developed a deep passion for learning. Especially for anything space related. His drive to seek out new life information and go boldly where no man has gone before research all sorts of subjects to improve his knowledge is amazing.

This, in turn, has made him into an amazingly patient and enthusiastic tutor for Alex. Her grades have improved like crazy since John started helping her with her homework. And no, he doesn't just give her the answers. They seek them out together.

ACCOMPLISHMENT THE SECOND: Being a wickedly smart person who enjoys sharing his knowledge and joy for learning.

John has never lost his enthusiasm for music in all of its forms. He's been a member of the Dominic Greco Band for over a decade now.  He is constantly seeking out new genres and styles of music. Seeing how excited he gets when he starts talking about a new band he found never fails to make me smile.

Also, and this might be a little personal, I find it highly attractive when the man is playing his trumpet. Feel free to make your own crude music-related jokes here.

ACCOMPLISHMENT THE THIRD: Keeping a childhood passion alive and burning.

As I have stated before, I suffer from a few different mental illnesses. It's been a long, hard road to navigate. I've had to learn how to manage it. And John has never once complained about it.

I'm sure he's gotten frustrated with everything. And wished that my problems could just disappear. But when it comes right down to it, he has always had my back. He has worked his ass off to make sure that he had a job to support both of us. He picks up the slack when I am having one of my bad days.

He has been patient with me, held me when I needed it, and offered all of the love and support that he can.

ACCOMPLISHMENT THE FOURTH: Being the best damned husband that I could ever hope for.

So,  John, the happiest of birthdays to you. You are an amazing, incredible, accomplished human being. And I am so very lucky to have you as my partner, my husband, and my best friend.

Many, many, many happy returns of this day.

And if you haven't figured it out, I love you, dorkface. <3

Confessions and Commitment

So, remember when I said that I wasn't going to be knitting very many Christmas presents? Yeah, the post right before this. I said that I wasn't going to stress myself out and try to get a bunch of stuff done. That I was going to concentrate on ME and make all the fall weather stuff I could.

My very first project that I finished after that post was a pair of socks that I intend to give as a Christmas present.

To be fair, I had started the grey one right after I finished my first pair of socks. And I needed a purse project since I finished Brass and Steam, so I tossed it in.

It wasn't my fault that I had a bunch of downtime and finished it super quickly.

And yes, this is a matching pair. The recipient isn't a fan of matching socks, so I obliged. Both are Kroy Sock Yarn, this one the Jacquard Slate. The other is the FX line in Celestial Colors.

And actually, it was fun not having to knit two of the same socks. It only took me two days to finish up this one.

Now, lest you think that I am neglecting my fall projects, I have once again challenged myself to the impossible and knit something really bloody big in a very short amount of time.

I finally cast on my Autumn Lace Shrug late Sunday night. (Pattern is Speckled Shrug on Ravelry.)

Most of Sunday afternoon was spent swatching, charting out various lace and cable patterns, debating about whether or not I wanted to just do an all over pattern or have a panel in the middle, and winding yarn.

That night, I only made it through the first 2 inches of ribbing and was disheartened. This thing was going to take forever and I was never going to get it done. I sat it to the side, and figured I'd pick it back up sometime next to never.

Tuesday, though, I figured that I should at least get through the first chart repeat for the lace section just to make sure that I liked it. And that went super fast, much to my amazement.

Apparently, if you add some yarn overs and decreases to any project, I start burning through it. I took it with me Wednesday and Thursday to the various doctor appointments that I've been going to with my grandma. (She's okay. Just needs some minor knee surgery). I've been working on it non-stop. As of right now, I have nearly 16 inches of it done.

All in 3 (4 if you count all the prep work) measly days.

Which brings me to my challenge. Jamie is due up here next Thursday. We plan on going on a date Saturday. You see where this is going?

Yep, I'm trying my damndest to get this done before they get up here. And, by all the wooly gods, I think I can do it.

Which means that I should probably stop typing this and actually get some of it done today.

So, I'm going to end this as hastily and awkwardly as I can. Because that's what I do.

Be back in a few days to check in, assuming that my fingers haven't fallen off.

Three Times a Knitter

If my facebook memories are any indication, it was roughly about this time three years ago that I started down the path of my addiction...*ahem*...enthusiasm for knitting. I had been crocheting for roughly a year before that.

My very first finished project was a mug cozy that I don't even have a completed picture of. It was messy and my stitches were all twisted. The yarn overs in the lace (what? you expected me to start with something plain?) were practically non-existent. I improvised the button hole because the instructions made no sense to me. But I finished it, damnit.

I *do* have a picture of my second project, a simple phone case.

A photo posted by Ashtan Albright (@ageeksgirl08) on Nov 4, 2013 at 10:55am PST

Three years is a long time. Yet it's also no time at all.

I've come very far with my skills, but I see people who have been knitting for decades and can't help but feel like my own skills are vastly inferior.

But I also am feeling a little proud. This year alone, I've accomplished two of my biggest knitting challenges. I completed Celestarium and learned how to knit socks.

Which I'm wearing for the first time today because it's finally cold enough to need them.

I've also improved my knitting speed, which means that I was able to make more things for more people. Knitwear that I've made with my own two hands is adorning my loved ones. I guess that's something else to be proud of.

I also feel like I've become an accomplished lace knitter. Especially when it comes to beaded projects. I feel comfortable taking on almost any project with tiny, thin yarn and lots of charts.

Funkia is still my pride and joy, another huge accomplishment for me. I love showing it off, if that's not too selfish of me to say.

I do still have a lot of room for improvement. I haven't knit a sweater or a blanket. Or really tackled a lot of colorwork. And poor John is still waiting on his socks. But I'm quite optimistic that, just like my lace skills, I'll soon add these to my repertoire.

Then I'll become an unstoppable force of needles and wool. Heaven help you all.

Christmas Carnage

The weather has turned cold. Leaves are changing. We've hit October already.

And there are only 83 days left until Christmas.

I should be freaking out, scrambling around and trying to figure out how to knit that many gifts in such a short period. 

But I'm not. 

I've decided that I'm not going to knit Christmas gifts this year for the majority of my list. 

I know, I know. That makes me sound like a terrible human being.

But I can't keep doing this. 

It's so stressful trying to get a high volume of things done in a short period of time. I end spending all of fall and early winter, chest deep in tears and wool. 

And all for what? The majority of my family members can appreciate that I took the time to make them something, but don't really understand just how much goes in to things. And there are just so many of them to make gifts for.

When fall rolls around, all I want to do is make large, snuggly wraps, bulky cowls, oversized sweaters, boot cuffs all in every shade of neutral you can imagine. Yes, all for me. But I never get to. 

This year, I'm changing that. I've already got a sweater pattern picked out, some boot cuffs on the needles, and a bunch of squishy, fat wool ready for a cowl.

Now, bring on the cold and the PSL's. 

Well, as soon as I finish this dratted shawl for an upcoming wedding.

RANDOM BONUS!

I literally had no idea where to stick this in my post, so here you go. Just a hat I whipped up because I was bored. No, I'm not keeping it. I'm a muted tone sort of gal.