Pattern: Super Mittens by Margrit Lohrer. Published in Weekend Knitting
Yarn: Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca Grande in Burgundy. Leftovers from my Carie shrug.
These super mittens were super quick! I can't testify to how they actually function but they are cozy and warm in my Central Florida home. The pattern was easy to follow, the yarn is yummy, and they look great.
Photographer: Michael Snead
Location: Snead home staircase
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Michael just finished processing his Savannah pictures and they are insanely great! I've picked out a few of my favorites...
Ruler at a cute home goods store. It was like an independent Anthropologie, it was awesome.
We saw this guy everywhere.
Church steeple near our B&B
My favorite ring shot to date.
All of the Aslan Trends Glaciar Del Cielo at Wild Fibre
Me sniffing flowers outside our B&B. I look a little intense in this picture. Tyra taught me everything I know.
The dining room at The Pink House, where we ate dinner our first night.
At the City Market.
Me
Self-explanatory
I have no idea what this is, but it's cool.
We recommend the 1895 Inn to everyone! We had a great time.
Those are just a few of my favorites. Luckily I also bribed Michael into taking a couple of FO Friday pictures of me and I've got 3 new knitting items to show off over the next few weeks including my Super Mittens, my Globe Trotter Socks, and my Juliet (at long last!). And if you want to see even more Michael Snead pictures hop on over to the wedding blog and see my hair trial!
Ok, so many of the items that I'm currently knitting are secrets and I can't show them too you. But I do have two current projects that will be the stars of today's WIP Wednesday.
The first is Snow White! She finally has her sleeves attached and we are not too far from the finish line. I did make a mistake when joining the sleeves to the body and had to rip about a day's worth of work! But I'm glad I caught the mistake before I finished it. Unfortunately I'm running out of yarn but I was able to order another skein from Webs as well as scooping up some other clearance yarns.
The second star is my Cotty socks! I love working on these socks. STR is the perfect accompaniment for this pattern. I can see why the Socks that Rawk ravelry group choose this pattern for their KAL. I can't wait to see all of the finished socks!
Next Wednesday I hope to have cast on for the Krista tee.
So, I did a bit of shopping while I was in Savannah. Our B&B is right across the street from Fabrika and I stopped in there to poke around. They had some great fabrics but of course, this caught my eye.
And I also had to get these great buttons.
And of course we had to stop by Wild Fibre(it's only a couple of blocks away from the B&B. They had a ton of Aslan Trends yarn which I had never seen before. Me likey so I bought 4 skeins of their Glaciar del Cielo in a pretty light green. I also bought two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. I just love this shade of blue.
We had a really great time in Savannah and it was just the vacation we needed. We didn't feel the need to see everything or go everywhere but we did get a lot done. I'd gifted Michael with a new lens for his birthday so we spent most of our time scouting out photo spots! We have to wait until our new PC gets here (next Monday) to load Michael's cards so for now you'll have to settle for some of my unskilled photos for now.
I have had unbelievably good luck with knitting contests lately. The first contest I won was IrishgirlieKnits' joy contest! She sent me this gorgeous skein of Socks the Rock and her wonderful Cotty pattern! And just to let y'all know, it's on sale this week! So go grab it.
I also won the Zoom Zoom pattern from Knit Quest. I'm such a lucky girl.
I suppose that winning these contests was the Universe's way of saying "Stock up girlie. You're going to be in bed for a loooong time." My dentist is 90% certain that my tonsils need to be removed. On Thursday I had a freak fishbone accident in which a salmon bone lodged itself into my throat. While the dentist was removing the ridiculously painful bone he said "Holy guacamole! You've got some big tonsils." (I'm paraphrasing) He then looked at my records to see that I have always had gigantor tonsils. So tomorrow I am heading to the throat specialist and more likely than not I will be in bed for the first half of July. They predict that I'll be out of sorts for 14 days, has anyone else had their tonsils removed as an adult? If so, how long did it take you to recover?
Ok, so actually maybe not. I still have too many projects in my finishing pile but I did get a couple of things complete.
The body for the tech guy socks is complete! I'm just working on the duplicate stitch now. Duplicate stitch is so easy, just like everyone said! I'm actually enjoying it.
I also started a pair of Susie's Reading Mitts and I've actually finished one of them. These babies are quick! And fun. We need to go somewhere cold this winter.
I've also finished putting together a baby package for my middle school best friend! She had her little girl 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping to send them out this Friday morning.
You may be thinking "Don't you have to work on Friday morning?" I do not!!!!! I'm taking Michael to Savannah for his birthday (which is actually the 19th but this weekend was most convenient) and we leave early Friday morning! Woot woot!
We're staying at the 1895 Inn again (we can't get enough of that place) but we're staying in a different room, the Sommerfield room.
We'll be eating some old favorites (Sixpence Pub and The Tea Room) and trying something new (the Olde Pink House). We'll definitely be stopping by Wild Fibre.
I'll be back next week with pictures! I hope that y'all have a great weekend too.
So I'm starting to get back into my knitting groove! I managed to finish my Flit 'n Float scarf. It looks awesome and was a ton of fun to knit. Here it is blocking (being careful not to straighten out the ruffles).
I'm also almost finished with Michael's tech socks. I've got some ribbing to do and also the duplicate stitching. They should be done in time for his birthday (the 19th of this month) and that's really all I wanted.
I've also made some progress on my second Snow White sleeve. I'm not excited to pick this sweater and knit on it lately. I think it's because I tried on and this is what it looks like. It looks really different stretched out. I knew it would but it looks very imperfect. My M1's look horrible. I think that it's my yarn choice. At the moment I wouldn't recommend that anyone use Valley Yarns Sugarloaf for this sweater. It's probably great for other projects but maybe not this one. Also my color choice now makes me think that I can only wear this sweater in late October.
You can see my little pooch that I'm trying to get rid of but it's not completely unflattering so that's a plus. I like the chest part of the sweater a lot. I think I just need to let the sweater grow on me. Mai, you should totally make this sweater. I think that it would be much more flattering with your body type.
I'm planning on knitting a little scarf/hat set for a friend of mine who travels a lot. Vote for which one you like the best or make a different suggestion in the comments! Keep in mind that the colors will be different than what are shown.
Set #1: My So-Called Scarf and Hat
Set #2: Shifting Sands Scarf and the Amanda Hat
Set #3: Ezra Cable Scarf and Greenery Hat
Set #4: The Prismatic Scarf and a ribbed hat
Set #5: Marijke Scarf and a plain hat
It's been raining for 3 days. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow (according to the desk guy at the gym). I love the rain so I'm a happy camper. We haven't been using the air conditioning and our retention creek is no longer dry!
However, it does mean that I had to take all of my pictures near the dining room table, the only spot currently getting natural light and not covered in wedding stuff that I need to put away.
Flit 'n Float
My Flit 'n Float is coming along, slowly but surely. I can't wait to block this out. There are a lot of charts with flit 'n float but they follow the same rhythm so it's not as bad as it seems. If anyone is intimidated by this pattern, I encourage you to try it.
I've turned the heel and I'm in the home stretch! Then it's time to duplicate stitch these babys. This will be my first time duplicate stitching but I've done intarsia so I think that it'll be easy peasy. I could just be kidding myself.
Snow White
I have finished the torso (it looks so skinny!) and am almost done with the first sleeve. I'll be slipping the torso onto some scrap yarn this weekend and seeing how it looks on. I want to see how much it stretches!
Thanks for all the support on my work woes. I've done a much better job this week of not letting it get to me. I did let one of my leads know how I feel about the situation and that others who are taking credit for my work should get none!
Also, if you're bored, go check out the wedding blog. I've got a lot of stuff going on over there and some cute pro pics if you scroll down enough. I LOVE my photographers!
I've been miserable at my job for the last 2 weeks. Which has turned me into an angry, non-knitting Nicole. Of course, this is not good. I've been blowing up at Michael over stupid, little things and I haven't been able to productively do ANYTHING during the week.
For the first time in a looong time (since October of 2004) I woke up this morning and wanted to burst into tears at the thought of logging in to work. Obviously something has to change.
I'm not looking for a new job yet. Instead I've decided to try to change my role at work and to change the level of how much I care what gets done. Basically I'm done with trying to speak up, of being talked over, and I'm certainly done with picking up other people's slack. I'm REALLY done with other people taking credit for what I've done (not so much taking credit away from me but saying "Nicole and I did this" when I did EVERYTHING). Basically I will finish my tasks as they are assigned but I am not at all invested in this project anymore.
Besides work everything is going super wonderful! We did a lot of fun things this weekend and were productive at the same time.
We bought my wedding ring! Our jeweler was having a massive sale and we got a really good deal on my ring.
Michael's ring, my engagement ring, and my wedding ring. Sorry that my fingers look chunky, I was retaining water this weekend.
We also looked at some houses. We're not moving anytime soon but it's fun to go out and look! And we stopped by Ikea to grab some closet containers and frames. And we saw Angels and Demons, which I thought was better than The Davinci Code. I haven't read either of the books though so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
So that's my life in a nutshell. During the week: stressful meetings, no knitting, crying and yelling. Weekends: super fun time and wedding productivity! But it all changes today. I will make my weekdays fun and productive and calm. Work can go fall off a cliff for all I care.
