So Close!!

So, I am about 95% finished with my sweater. All that remains is the seaming, weaving in of the many (many) ends, and the blocking. Which can all easily be done by Tuesday at midnight.


Do you guys realize that I have (essentially) finished this behemoth of a sweater ON TIME? Even, like, EARLY? I don't want to celebrate early, but I can't help it. To help me celebrate, let me let you into my world a little with a few helpful numbers. Perhaps you can appreciate it a little more:

(Disclaimer: all numbers are approximate)

Hours of knitting/sewing:
Body: 50
Arms: 12
Neck: .5
Letter 'S': 10
*Seaming: 1
(*Since I haven't exactly seamed up the sweater, that's just a guess.)
Total: 73.5

Stitches in sweater:
Body: 30240
Arms: 12960
Neck: 1350
Total: 44550
(That brings it to about 606 stitches per hour...)

Right, well, since it's 1 AM, and I have stuff to accomplish tomorrow, I'm off to bed.

(...I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to knit other things again.)

Is that an S?

I will give my mother a stern talking to for giving me a name with the curviest first letter in the whole darned alphabet when I finish this sweater.

(It's not quite finished, but it will be soon.)

The One-And-Three-Quarter Sleeved Wonder

(I know... the title isn't nearly as catchy as last night's. But that is the way it is right now. See?)


I'd say that that picture shows the color pretty true, unlike most of the other ones I've posted on the blog. It's a lovely blue, right?

I continued to knit to the Harry Potter movies tonight (I watched what was left of #3, and all of #4 and #5) and while I did spend a lot more time munching tonight, I didn't knit nearly as fast. I just wasn't as motivated tonight. (Some of the demotivators sounded a lot like, "I am so sick of this sweater" and "I need ibuprofen/I hate my uterus.") I also had to pick up the stitches along the edge of the shoulder this afternoon, whereas yesterday I had already done that. (Excuses, excuses. I know.)

As far as I am concerned, I am still on schedule. Tomorrow I have grand plans of stopping at the bank and visiting Stephen (my newest step-bro) and depositing my paycheck, and then heading off to the Knitting Nest for some more good knitting time.

(For now? I'm going to bed to nurse my nasty, selfish uterus who insists on being the center of attention once a month. I suppose I should humor it for now.)

The One-Armed Wonder

This morning while Emma was not sleeping (very strange baby - completely skipped her morning nap today!) I was looking at my knitting bag and really considering whether my Tuesday (!!!!) deadline was too ridiculous, and whether I had waaaay overestimated myself and my speedy knitting abilities with it. I had already worked two inches of the arm, and was beginning to think that, despite the fact that the arm does decrease from 96 to 42 stitches, it was going to be more work than I had expected. I dunno why I assumed that the arms would be less knitting, but it does appear that way, right?


Well, I guess the arm is less knitting, because where it took me 20+ hours to knit each body piece, it only took me 5 1/2 to knit a sleeve.

I think I might have done something wrong with the decreases, but it doesn't seem to have been a real issue. Instead of having a 22" sleeve, I have a 24" sleeve, and I prefer my sleeves long anyway... I enjoy cuddly hands. And plus, in the spirit of the Weasley Sweater, I think that overlong sleeves would TOTALLY be something that Mrs Weasley would do.

Things remaining: Other sleeve, neck, letter, and seaming.

Things are looking up. If I finish the sleeve by tomorrow (and maybe the neck too?) I can go into the yarn store and get a quick lesson on the duplicate stitch and seaming on Saturday and have the thing definitely done by Tuesday.

I suppose this means I should get all of my anger out at the sweater tomorrow morning. At least I have Emma to cheer me up.

(I do love that picture...)

Meet Alexa

My technological family grew today!

Yall remember Lawrence , don't you?

Because Lawrence broke my backpack this last semester (his beautiful 15.1" is too much for my puny little backpack to handle) I decided toward the end of the school year that I would buy a netbook, which is a computer designed for on-the-go internet access. (A lot of people who travel a lot use it to check emails and such.) It's not a full-blown computer and isn't supposed to replace a computer by any stretch, but it is ultra convenient and perfect for my needs. While I don't travel all the time (gee, I wish!), I do take notes on my computer, so having a 2.5 lb device like this is perfect for me.

So... without any further ado, meet Alexa!


Alexa is a HP Mini and came from Best Buy.



She has a pretty design on her (just like Lawrence, except he's got more of a parallelogram pattern going on instead of the swirlies) and has a 10.1" screen and almost has a full sized keyboard (it is 92% of one, anyway.)


Have I mentioned how small she is? She fits in my purse!

(I love her already.)

More Sweater!

You want more sweater?

Here, have more sweater!! I have plenty of sweater!

My sweater is coming along nicely and (more or less) on schedule. You seem to remember that I had planned to pick up the shoulder stitches this evening... well, instead I finished the front. There will be plenty of time for picking tomorrow morning.

You can see now that I didn't lie the other day and that there is a front AND a back to the sweater. Look at the front!


(Yaaaay, front!)

And here's the two seamed together!


(Yaaaay, body! And a good shot of my camera strap...haha.)

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On another (completely unrelated) note, I went to my UT transfer student orientation today! I am very glad I could go, because I got to meet with advisers, check requirements for my major, and make some decisions. Oh, and sign up for classes.

Tentatively, my schedule looks like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
10-11: Mythology
1-2: Government
2-3: British Literature

Tuesday, Thursday:
8-9:30: Chemistry
12:30-2: Psychology

Pretty good schedule, right? I'm happy with it. The only thing I'm hoping to change is to move Chemistry to a later time. But who knows? I'm a morning person, it may stay there.

Bob and Weave, (Well, Knit.)

Last night, Mom, Mike, Duncan, Stephen and I went to:


to see Bob Schneider. He was doing a bluegrass show and we all enjoyed the music. It was kind of cool - he did a lot of his usual music, but added other instruments and gave it a different beat, kinda countrified it.


I left early (I had woken up at 4:45 that morning, and I was dead on my feet... I needed sleep!) but Mom called me when the Batman song came on and I got to hear it through the phone! It was awesome. The Batman song is my favorite!

We all enjoyed the show.


I sneaked a picture of Duncan over my shoulder.


And then Mike was mean to me.


And Mom and I took pictures of us taking pictures of each other.

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In other news, my sweater front is coming along nicely.


I know it looks suspiciously like the back (because it is exactly the same as the back... at least for another 6". It is simply riveting knitting, I tell you.) but I swear. It is the front! I am working quickly toward my deadline of midnight on the 14th... and at the moment at least it looks like I'll make that deadline!

My plan (cause I KNOW yall want to know!) is to knit at least 6" of the front today (I have a foot left) and to, by Monday, have the front completely finished. On Monday, I plan on picking up the stitches on the shoulders and working both arms. By the next Monday (hopefully before) I'll have the sweater seamed up and I'll be able to get the letter sewn in for the midnight showing at 12:01 on the 15th.

So there.

I think I can do it.