I am the awesomest person ALIVE!

So I was knitting like a crazed woman-imagine me knitting with my hair flying back, lips bared in a teeth grinding grimace, sparks flying from the tips of my needles-because I had to make The Sweater Challenge and I didn't want to end up being a hobo and crocheting (see previous post to understand this reference). So in between working, doing a s#!tload of glasswork and all the other things people need to do to survive (yeah I know this totally destroys your theory about me being an alien-I do need to do the basic human things to) I managed to finish the sweater 5 minutes ago. Now I thought this meant I finished it with about 15 minutes to spare before I was onto the 5th day. But apparently I am a total freak and got my days mixed. I knit it in 3 DAYS! I guess I found that rift in the space time continuum after all...now to make my certificate and find a frame...
Off to bed, you can see pics tomorrow.

Knitting Like There is No Tomorrow

So I started the 4 Day Challenge yesterday (the knitting one, not the All-Bran one). I will post pics tonight when I get home from work. Yes I am blogging from work-but it's lunch break so that makes it OK in my books.
I believe I will make my 4 day deadline. Especially since I totally cheated and modified the design...I did the patterning on the front, but I have changed the bottom half of the back to stocking stitch. There were 2 reasons for this besides laziness (believe me I am not undermining the power of laziness to make me modify a design, I just want to point out that in this rare instance there are other considerations).
Reason number 1-the lace part of the pattern is charted. I don't care what anyone says I hate charts. I can make them work for colourwork, but they are the bane of my existence for lace. It doesn't matter how many times I do charted lace, I will screw it up over and over again. I constantly miss yarn overs. All the time, so that when I get to the next row I have the wrong number of stitches. It doesn't matter that I have identified the problem, believe me I had a "Eureka!" moment when I realized I was making a consistent mistake, because I thought that meant it was solvable. It was not. I still do it, I make the same mistake over and over again-thousands of times to the point of insanity. I bet just reading about my lace chart trials makes you want me to not knit lace.
The second reason why I switched to stocking stitch on the back of the sweater is because the pattern doesn't show up that nicely with the yarn/needle combination I am using. So I decided it was too much work (there is that lazy thing again) for something that doesn't look that great.
The cool thing is this pattern is super easy to modify-so I can make cardigans galore in all colours and sizes inexpensively and quickly. I am going to buy some machine washable/dryerable acrylic (barf) and knit my stepdaughter one, it should knit in less than two days. If she lived with us I would use wool, but since I don't do her laundry it has to be safe for some rough treatment.
Tonight is pool night so I should get some good knitting in between games!
I am going to Fibres West this weekend in Abbotsford. I am super excited and for once glad that my paycheque was late! It's easier to save money for yarn if I don't have my impulse buying fingers on it!
Speaking of paycheques, I am getting my paycheque today and going to the store to buy a whole bunch of stuff for the local Women's Shelter. The Women's Shelter in Kamloops is run by the Y. I encourage anyone who can to donate money or items to your local Women's Shelter. It's a great way to make a really positive impact on your community. I always try to add a few frivolous things to my donation to go with the neccesities-chocolate, pretty jewelry or makeup. It's such a horrible time for women (and often their children) so I try to add something to brighten things up.
Also I just noticed that the plastic lids for disposable coffee cups are recyclable...

Sans Camera

So I have one sleeve left to do on my sweater! I would prove it to you but it appears that I have misplaced my camera...but really, I am not lying.
A couple things about this sweater-if I did it again I would change the sleeve decreases-they are super visible and not particularly attractive. One of the things I did with this sweater is rather than change the needles to make gauge, I knit a larger size. This ended in more knitting for me (I had to go 2 sizes up) but I think I like it better because if I had done it to gauge it would have been knit really loose. However...apparently when I knit with dpn's for the sleeves, rather than the circular for the body...well...apparently then I got gauge exactly...which means the sleeves are rather large...I can't quite bring myself to rip it out and do smaller sleeves-but I think it might look OK with the style of the sweater to have large flowy sleeve-and I am trying really hard to make sure I am not just saying that to make it less work for me...
I always have a million things for my "next project" and one of them is a top down raglan cardigan in a bulky yarn. The sweater is called Wrenna from "French Girl Knits" by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. Check it out here if you have a Ravelry account. It is a super awesome pattern book. It's all lady like stuff that even a butch tom-boy like me would wear! I love the book and plan on knitting several of the patterns in it. The sweater is only 400 yards. Did you hear that? FOUR HUNDRED! I am labouring under the misconception that I could knit 400 yards in like 2 days. After all the sweater I am knitting now is 1200 yards and it will take me about 20 days...hold the phone...the math doesn't really work for that does it? I am pretty sure I will find some crazy rift in the space time continuum that will allow me to knit a sweater in 2 days... OK maybe that's crazy. Lets try for 4 days...I can knit a pair of socks out of 200 yards in 2 days easy so maybe 4 days isn't crazy...even if the sock was stocking stitch and the sweater is lace.
So that's my challenge. A sweater in 4 days, barring any huge complications. Here's the plan. I will start the sweater when I know I will have some good solid knitting time. I will knit and knit like a mofo. If something crazy comes up and I miss a whole day of knitting I am going to minus that day off my total knitting days (and I don't give a damn if that's cheating-it's my challenge, I can do what I want *this is me sticking out my tongue*). I will try to write a note every day of the 4 day challenge outlining my progress (or declaring it a dead day). If I succeed I will make a certificate for myself and put it on my wall next to my University degree. It will say something like "Let it forever be known that Caroline the Great succeeded in knitting a sweater in 4 days. I also expect a whole bunch of praise from my readers (all 2 or 3 of you).
So that's my challenge, what do you think?

...I don't even want to think about what will happen if I fail-I would lose all credibility, I would lose the respect from my readers, I would quit knitting and fall in to an ever decreasing spiral of depression and loneliness...I might take up crocheting...than as the slow spirals sinks down I wouldl ose my jobs and be forced to live on the streets going by clever hobo monikers such Dumpster Dick and my life would be over as I know it...but let's not even think about that...