Goal accomplished!

I've finished the body of my cardi!  I got the crochet edging done last night at Knit Night, and this morning I bought buttons.

 I got all the ends woven in(there were a lot of them) and the buttons sewn on.

Now it's time to start the sleeves!  I think I'm going to Magic Loop them, so they go more quickly.  I was going to do them both at the same time, but I don't have a long enough needle for that.

I went to the gym this morning and worked my back and legs, and did 20 minutes on the elliptical.  That 20 minutes burned 180 calories!  So I probably burned about 200 with my whole workout.  Not bad!

Back to knitting!

Another step closer!

Today I rented a tiller from Home Depot, and tilled up the ground where I'm going to build my garden.  Wow, that was a lot of work.  My back and arms are really sore.  But the ground is broken up and ready for the garden boxes and good soil. ☺ I'm exhausted, but hopefully I'll be able to find the energy for knit night.☺

I've almost finished the body of my cardi!  I still need to finish up the garter stitch border and bind off, then do the crochet edging.  I think I'll bring along another project to knit night, so I can work on something else after I finish that.

I lost a friend yesterday.  Her name was Amy.  She had been in the hospital for the past week and a half, due to complications from influenza A and B.  Her heart, lungs and kidneys stopped functioning.  She was hooked up to several machines that were doing the work for those organs, so her body could fight off the infection.  And she was improving.  But yesterday she had a massive stroke, and died.  She left behind a loving husband and four young children.  Please be praying for her family as they deal with this great loss.

Knitting and exercise and gardening, oh my!

I finished the waist cables on my BBSweKniMo project!  Hooray!  I decided to only do 7 repeats, instead of 8, because I have a short waist(along with the rest of me).  So now I'm doing stockinette, except for the rope cables at the front edges. ☺ I've come to the conclusion that I won't get this project done by the end of the month, so my goal is to get the body done.  I have to do a few inches in stockinette, and an inch or so of garter stitch, and then add a crochet border and buttons and buttonholes.  I'll do the sleeves next month, I guess.  I'll be glad to get this sweater done, even though I won't be able to wear it until fall.  I started designing it so long ago that I'm just ready to have it done.

I've been thinking about socks.  Socks are nice, quick projects.  And I have a gazillion sock patterns printed, and lots of sock yarn to go with them.  So I think I'm going to set another goal, of knitting one pair of socks per month.  That way, I'll have plenty of them when cold weather comes back.  I loved wearing my handknit socks this past winter, but I only have three pairs, and none of them are superwash wool, so I have to wash them by hand.  I think I'll start a KAL with my friends in the Bunker, if any of them are interested.  I love our KALs!  I'll bring up the idea tonight, when we meet in the chat room for our virtual Knit Night. ☺

Oh, my goodness, I totally forgot to post this yesterday!  I got an email from Stacey at Knit Picks: they like my Julia Lynne cardigan!  So I'll be knitting another one of those as soon as the yarn support arrives.  I can't wait!  I'm still waiting to see the pics from their photo shoot of my Evellyn Anne blanket; I'm not sure whether they'll want me to replace my pics in the pattern with theirs, or just use them for the "additional pictures" on the site.  If it's the latter, that pattern might be up on the site tomorrow; if it's the former, it'll probably be another week.

I went to the gym this morning.  I didn't want to.  When I got there, I didn't want to exercise.  While I was exercising I wanted to stop and go home...until I reached the 15-minute mark on the bike.  When I was done, I was glad I was done.  I have yardwork and knitting and laundry and cleaning to do.  Haha.

Speaking of gardening...we were speaking of gardening, weren't we?  I peeked at my sprouts again, and saw that I have cantaloupe and pumpkins and cucumbers sprouting too!  Nothing yet with the lavender, but that usually takes longer.  I started my tomatoes yesterday: Big Boy and Red Cherry and some seeds I saved from really yummy yellow tomatoes.  And I started my Texas Bluebonnets too.  I love Bluebonnets, but since it's the State Flower, it's illegal to pick them where they grow wild.  This way, I'll be able to pick them and bring them inside.  I haven't started digging yet; I'm waiting on the utility people to come mark the underground cables and such, to make sure that I don't cut anything. 

Movin' right along...

I've finally gotten a new pic of my cardi!

This is the first half of the waist section.  I'm going to do four more repeats of the cables, then switch back to stockinette for the hip section.  After that....a border of garter stitch, and a crochet edging...and the sleeves!  I'm planning on magic-looping the sleeves, maybe doing both at the same time, in order to get this done by the end of February.  I love how this sweater is looking so far!  It has a little more negative ease than I had planned on, but it should be perfect when I lose a few more pounds.

Speaking of losing pounds...I haven't lost any more yet, but I'm workin' on it.  I went to the gym, worked my legs and did 20 minutes on the stair-stepper. 

And now, back to knitting!

Knittin' knittin' knittin'

I've finished the stockinette portion of my sweater!  After trying it on yesterday, I discovered that the three sets of short-rows I had done were enough, and all I needed was a few more rows of stockinette.  So on I go!  I've started the cable section, which will probably take a while. 

I've just sent off another design proposal.  This one is for my Julia Lynne cardigan that I designed in '09.  (Can you believe this pic was taken just a year and a half ago?  Kitty looks so much older now!)

After it was rejected by Knitty, I didn't have the courage to submit it anywhere else until now.  So I spent this afternoon reworking it and writing up a design proposal for it.  I've had pretty good luck with Knit Picks so far, so I'm optimistic.

I went to the gym today, and worked my chest, shoulders and back.  Then I did 25 minutes at level 4 on the bike.  I'm really feelin' it now...  Hopefully I won't hurt too much tomorrow.

Makin' progress

I made a few inches of progress on my sweater last night at knit night.  I need to try it on again, and decide whether it needs more short-rows in the bust area.  I've already done 3 sets of short-rows, but I don't think it's enough.  We'll see...

I went to the gym this morning, and worked my back and legs and did 25 minutes on the bike.  My back is still hurting too much to do Zumba.  After the gym, we went to the thrift shop, and I found a really nice gray dress, which is a little bit snug around the middle.  So I'm going to hang it up, and use it as my motivation to keep working on this weight-loss thing.  It should fit when I lose another 5-10 pounds, so hopefully in a few weeks.

Feelin better

I woke up in a little less pain than what I had when I went to sleep, so after waiting for the outside temperature to reach 33 and melt the ice, I went to the gym.  Worked my back and arms, and did 20 minutes on the bike.  Still not up to the level I was at when I went on my hiatus from the gym.  But at least I didn't gain back any weight during that three weeks.☺

Last night I finished the yoke of my cardi, and set aside the sleeve stitches.  So for the next couple inches, it'll be mostly stockinette, with just basic rope cables at the front opening edges.

Once I get below the bustline, I'll start the cables around the waist.  I'm not going to do any actual decreasing; the cables will create shaping by virtue of their natural "pulling in".  Those cables will be the same as the ones on the sleeves, but with a little bit of ribbing between each column.  It'll be easier to understand what I mean when there's something to see...

And now, back to knitting!

BBSweKniMo

I'm participating in BBSweKniMo.  Which is sort of like NaSweKniMo.  My friends and I in the Bunker liked the idea of National Sweater Knitting Month, but we weren't ready to start our sweaters right around Christmas.  I mean, seriously, Christmastime is time to knit Christmas stuff.  So February is Bunker Babe Sweater Knitting Month!  We're all knitting different sweaters, and we don't really have any rules. ☺We're BunkerBabes; we don't need no stinkin' rules!

♥

I was going to start my sweater on February 1, but I couldn't find the notes.  I had half-designed it two years ago, then frogged it because I hated the cheap acrylic yarn I was using.  I'm glad I had the foresight to take pictures, because after searching for hours on the first and second of February, the notes I had taken were nowhere to be found.  So, working from my photos, I created new charts, on my computer this time, where they won't get lost.  I had bought new yarn a couple months ago, Knit Picks Merino Style in "Hollyberry".  It's a lovely sport-weight wool.  I had to search for my needle....obviously I'm very disorganized these days.  I found it in a lace project, so I slipped that project to a spare needle, because I really wanted to use that particular needle for this sweater.  So after all this searching, and all this charting, I was ready to start....but then I remembered I hadn't knit my gauge swatch, or done any calculations.  Doh!  So I did that and got it out of the way.  It's a good thing I did; since I never did find my notes, I had no idea how many stitches to cast on.

♥

Anyway, here's the beginning of my sweater, after finishing up the first skein of yarn...

It's a top-down, seamless raglan, cabled, v-neck cardigan.  Those twisted-stitch cables are going to run the length of the sleeves, and there will be more of the same all around the waist.  The front edges will have basic rope cables.  And I'm thinking I might add a crochet border around the front and neck edges, to help control rolling, and add some buttonholes.  I hope I can get it finished by the end of February, because sweater weather won't last much longer than that around here.