COMIN' ALONG

I'm still working feverishly on my Shallows scarf.   I have a deadline of September 30th, but not sure I'll make it.  The KAL ends that day and there are some wonderful prizes.   I don't really care if I don't make it by then, because it's such a great pattern, the beads are going on quite well and I'm enjoying it.

CONFUSED KNITTER??

Do you think this looks like a confusing mess?? Well, it is, except to me.   I have 3 projects I'm knitting on at a time:

1. The cream Cafe au Lait mitts
2. The purple Shallows scarf (for the Neckwear KAL going on right now)
3. The camel Buttoned Up Pillow which is very boring and with "cheap" acrylic yarn which is like knitting with rug yarn!

I knit on one for a little bit, then move on to another one when I get bored, read a few posts on Ravelry or my email, then back to a little more knitting.  I've never done this before, but maybe it'll work.   Glad I don't have animals in the house or they would be dragging my yarn all over the place.  The yarn for each project is in it's own project bag.  And, oh yes, I received a skein of yarn from CanteringCrowColorworks in Washington state - 100% BFL fingering weight - color Mermaid, which I'm pondering what to knit with it (for myself).

WEDNESDAY WIP's

This is where I'm at on the fingerless mitts - blocked one and a ways up on the 2nd one.  This is like knitting a pair or socks - you have to start the 2nd one right away (or you have SMS "second mitt syndrome"). 

Today hubby and I did a quick trip south to Casa Grande.  I shopped at Michaels for some inexpensive yarn to make a pillow cover for a pillow on my bed.  I finally came up with these two-color combinations: main color will be taupe with a cream colored band across the top with buttons.  This is the pattern picture: 

These are the two colors I'll be using: 

This will be a fun knit to take to "knit meet-up" where I can knit and not pay a lot of attention to what I'm doing.  Sometimes lace knitting is difficult to work on when everyone is sitting around talking!!  I'm sure you've all had this happen to you - go home afterwards and have to rip back everything you did at meet-up because it's hard to keep count!

KNITTING PROGRESS

This mitt is coming along nicely.  Just have to finish the thumb of the first one and start the second.

We here in Arizona had a 100-year storm this morning.  Heavy rain came as a result of Hurrican Norbert off the Baja, California coast.   Rainfall was anywhere from 3 inches to 5-1/2 inches in a 6-hour period.  Our normal annual rainfall so far this year, was 2.5 inches and we don't get much over that for a whole year.  Lots of closed freeways, etc.  This was the I-10 freeway.

MONSOON and KNITTING

We had a monsoon storm this evening - blowing dust, high winds, thunder, lightning, but we didn't get a drop of rain (which we could use).

Sooo, I stayed inside and did some Christmas knitting.  A pair of fingerless mitts coming right along.  These are Cafe au Lait Mitts by Paula McKeever.

FROGGING GOING ON HERE

After another try on the Bluet Cowl for the KAL, I gave up very frustrated.  Sometimes there are just things that don't work and this was one of them.  The yarn will be nice to knit any number of other items.  Knitting is supposed to fun and relaxing and this cowl was anything but that.

So..........I looked through my projects for something easier to work on and selected a pair of fingerless mitts:  Cafe au Lait Mitts by Paula McKeever.   

I've already knit the first 5 rows of ribbing and it's going along so smoothly and rapidly, making my frustrations go away.   If the rest of the pattern goes just as well, I'll probably knit more than one pair of these - with Christmas coming up, mitts work well for grandchildren who live up north!!

Do you ever feel there are certain patterns you just can't seem to connect with and get frustrated trying?

HOW I'VE SPENT MY WEEKEND

I don't seem to have accomplished a whole lot this weekend.    I did get caught up on some bookkeeping chores and cleaned off my desk so that I could see the wood again (except for where it was covered up with my current knitting project!

But, the knitting project is not going so well.  I joined up with the Neckwear KAL with designs by Bonnie Sennett.  Cast-on date was September 1st, and lasts until September 30th.   First off, I had trouble getting all 190 cast-on stitches going the same direction so that I could join in the round.  After accomplishing this, I started the very first row, which is 5 sets of a 38-stitch repeat!   There are so many different stitches-techniques in these 38 stitches it's making my head hurt.    The very first set/repeat I ended up with 39 stitches and couldn't find my error, so had to rip back, and my join came undone.  So now I have to count the 190 all over again - get them lined up and join again.   Grrrr!!!!   It's sat in the same place for 2 days now without any work being done on it.  Maybe yet this evening I'll start over.

The pattern I'm knitting is the Bluet Cowl and the picture is beautiful - so here goes nothing.   Wish me luck.