Photoless

So my husband pointed out to me that I had not done a post in a while. This happens every time I kill the batteries on my camera. The camera shuts off automatically except when it is plugged in to the USB port. So about 50% of the time when I am uploading my pics, I kill the battery.
I resist posting when I have no photos, but this time I am going to break tradition because I don't foresee myself getting around to getting batteries anytime soon.
So...did I start knitting Tiny's Sweater? No. The whole plan is for it to be designed in time for our trip across Canada. I plan on taking about 3ish projects with me on the trip. The Tiny Sweater, something else (perhaps a horribly complicated lace shawl?) and socks/mitts which only count as one project even though I will probably do more than one pair. Our trip is going to take up most of August so that's a lot of knitting time!
My current projects are the Lady of the Lake Sweater in "Ruby" I special ordered it in that colourway. It's the most amazing shades of red.
I am also knitting the Triinu scarf (rav link) from Knitted Lace of Estonia. I am usually a hater of charted lace, but Estonian Lace makes sense. The charts are easy to follow and pattern in such a way that eventually you don't really need to chart because you know what happens next from looking at what you have already knit! It's very intuitive and I love it. I think it works this way because up until this century most Estonian Lace patterns were not written down and families had samplers of stitch patterns to use as guides. I am developing a somewhat unhealthy obsession with nupps (apparently prounounced to rhyme with soup, but I can't quite bring myself to say "noup"). A nupp is where you knit and yarn over several times into one stitch increasing it by 5-9 stitches. The next row you purl all those stitches into one so it doesn't really increase. It makes a lovely little blob and everytime I make one I feel like a freaking knitting genius!
So that's whats been going on in my knitting life...for all you people that missed me oh so much.

reCHARGE!

There is something about knitting, when I get it right, that makes me feel like a freakin' genius!
Seriously...it's the greatest feeling. Conversely getting it wrong makes me feel like a dumbass...but I digress.
I have been in a constant state of working/volunteering for several days now. Lack of sleep is making me stupid and tired. I am too tired to cast on anything and I am between projects.
I should have gone to bed but instead I did this:


Apparently I am absolutely insane despite the fact that I failed math three times in highschool I decided doing the maths for Tiny's sweater would be relaxing.

A little background on the Tiny Sweater. My husband decided that if I knit him a really complicated time-consuming black-hole-of-knitting sweater he would wear it. Basically he wants a sweater with cables. Not that cables are difficult, but they certainly aren't as fast as stocking stitch when you are doing mixed cables. I received 20 balls of beautiful icelandic wool as a gift. Which was fantastic because my husband is by no means a small man (we measured his chest to day, it's 53") and the idea of purchasing enough yarn to cover him made me feel faint. I started seriously looking at the "you are guaranteed for a loan" admail...I figured if I got decent yarn at a decent price the sweater would cost at least $150. So this gift of yarn was heaven sent.

I then could not find a single sweater that I could imagine him wearing. I surfed and surfed. I showed him a couple patterns with no interest on his part. I then decided (on the advice of the lovely Barb Brown) to do a "vanilla sweater" and add cables. So it took me a surprisingly long time to find a plain sweater for a man that was the right dimensions. I decided if I was going to the trouble of knitting this sweater I would do it in a style I like which means raglan seamless construction.

After much searching I found the perfect vanilla sweater, I then sat down with Tiny and perused a cable book with him. He was very obliging despite his lack of interest in looking at knitting books (after all the sweater is for him). He picked several, I actually made him pick more than I needed so I could have some design leeway.

Today I was too tired to knit so I sat down with some books and started to math things out. The yarn I am using is far heavier than what is called for in the pattern, so I started with that. I also want the ribbing to match the cable, this was the hard part...I also am doing way more cable on the front so the back actually has less stitches than the front to compensate (damn I hope that works...) It took me over an hour to figure out the math and the ribbing and I am proud to say I have written the first row to the first pattern I have ever written!

Here it is!
Cast on 108 stitches and join for knitting in round, pm at beginning of round.
Row1" *k2, p2* 4 times, pm, p1, k4, p8, k4, p1, pm, p2, k2, p2, k1, pm, p3, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p3, pm, k2, p2, k2, p1, pm, p1, k4, p8, k4, p1, pm, *p2, k2* 4 times, pm, *p2, k2* 8 times, p2, pm, p1, k9, p12, k9, p1, pm, *p2, k2* 8 times, p2.

Dudes, I lined up the ribbing on the first try.
Yeah...I'm awesome...You know...aside from the part where I have been working on this sweater for months and haven't cast on yet...

Oh by the way, I am going to knit this sweater with these...
Jealous?

Zombie Burn

Warning! This post is kind of gross!

So my sunburn blistered today...I got burnt on Saturday and it blistered today. It's really gross...no you don't understand REALLY gross. I am not squeamish in any way, I have poked livers heavily affected with cirrhosis in the morgue. I have eaten muktuk. I have plucked chickens and killed and gutted fish. I used to eat catfood and match stick heads (when I was 5 or 6 years old, not recently psshh that'd be gross). I have helped pull a breach calf outta it's momma. I think dead animals are "interesting". But this sunburn is...well it's GROSS.
It blistered and was oozing which I didn't think was tha gross although it did sting. But I was sitting in front of my computer wondering what that SMELL was. It smelled revolting, like death or infection. I can only describe it as what I imagine zombies would smell like...I looked around checked my feet (seriously it's sandal season it's entirely possible that my feet smell like death.)
When I realized the smell was me, well then I got completely grossed out.
I wonder if I have ebola, or maybe necortizing fasciitis...or maybe I am slowly turning into a zombie and this is just the first step of my "death". I guess if I stop blogging you'll know that I have departed for a life of (or death of) eating human brains and groaning uncontrollably.
I might actually start liking the song "Thriller"
It's times like this that I really miss Herman the Spider. I feel like we have a lot in common now...

Ouch

I got sunburnt this weekend...I mean REALLY sunburnt. My face isn't too bad, it's my shoulders and upper chest (the part that's covered in clothes). My husband had a ball game this weekend and I watched his game while sitting in the sun industriously knitting away. It was a double header and when we wandered over to the beer gardens I had to endure the quick double glances and winces from passersby. Not to mention all the "I thought you were Native..." comments.
Seriously it's been 4 days since I got burnt and I am still super ouchy. The only good thing about it is I got Knitter's Tan. Because I was sitting in my chair with my arms bent knitting, the crooks of my inner elbows are still white. It looks kind of stupid but I am trying to treat it like a badge of honour.
The tank top I am knitting is too big, of course. I have to stop thinking that I am gigantically huge. I couldn't bring myself to frog nearly two weeks of non-stop knitting. Plus it's linen/cotton and kinda splitty the first time around, I imagine it would me much worse the second time. I am going to finish it and wear it anyways. I'll just pretend it's supposed to be all loose and flowy. The irritating thing is I have add 3 inches to it and it is JUST long enough. The pattern increases in width but not in length, how silly is that? Luckily I noticed this and acted accordingly.
I am desperately resisting the call of other projects...