WIP Weekend

So this has been a very busy week. I won't go into all the gory details of the work week - no need to entice another migraine nor bore you to death on the trials and tribulations of my work life at the moment. Let's talk about happier things shall we?

I happen to be one of these people who have a difficult time focusing on something if the areas around me are out of sorts. I also tend to keep lots of lists for just about everything. Even though I'm addicted to the list making, it can also make me feel really overwhelmed when I'm not able to cross things off quiet as quickly as I'd like to and therefore result in OBD (Overwhelmed Breakdown Dysfunction) where nothing gets done! So I've taken today to work on a few WIP as well as a few chores around the house. See it works like this: 30-45 minutes of house cleaning then 30-45 minutes of WIP knitting. So far the house cleaning is proving to be an improvement. My pantry room hasn't been this clean and organized in months, every dish in the kitchen is finally clean and put away (we don't have a dishwasher by the way), the floors have been swept, the bed sheets and bathroom towels have been changed, and 1/2 of the laundry is finished, folded, and put away. As for the WIP, behold the wonders of my needles....

Alright so I'm not as proud of this one as I am of others. But someone gave me this yucky Patons Divine and Patons Brilliant and asked me to make them a scarf from it. Thank goodness they don't read this blog because I really hate it. And it wasn't pleasant to knit either. Neither yarn is nice to touch. The pattern was easy enough. I got it from the Knit Handmade Style book by Janie Flew. It's called "Two-toned Ruched Scarf". I think I would have liked the pattern if the yarn wasn't so yucky. The best thing I can say about this FO is that it's over with and I can now hand it over to the person who requested it and I'll never have to see it again.

Crankiness over. Let's move on to more pleasant WIPs, shall we.

This is my "Casual Bag" also from Knit Handmade Style book by Janie Flew. I just love it! One side of seaming down, one to go. And then I'll have to take a side trip to learn how to crochet because the pattern calls for crocheting one round at the top of the bag. I'm thinking this is to keep the ends from rolling down like you see here. Hopefully I'll learn in time to have it all ready to go when the leaves officially start turning around here. What a great addition to my fall wardrobe!

The mailman tried to bribe me this morning. I think he knows I have my Knit1Tea2 package all ready to be sent and I just need to get my butt to the post office to mail it off. He reminded me of my love of mail (and set in the guilt for not mailing my swap partern's package already) when he brought me this:

I had included this in Stacey's Passionate Purple Package and absolutely fell in love with it. I'm finding it very interesting reading about the history of knitting in Part 1 of the book. And there's a cool section that illustrates various knit options. Oh, and the patterns in it are great too! My plan for a few knitting breaks from now is to go through it and bookmark all the projects I want to make. Which reminds me, I really need to make a list of all the projects I have already that I want to work on as well as the yarns that I have that I plan to use with them and the yarns I still need to search for. I should also check in on what projects I'm thinking of as Christmas gifts and see how far along on those I am and what still needs to be done. Oh, the list making! I guess you could say that I'll be "makin' a list and checking it twice!"

One more WIP for now and then I'll have to get back to some cleaning so I can get back to knitting again. Over the summer I discovered The Loopy Ewe and fell in love with so many sock yarns. (See the post regarding my first order here.) I've finally decided on the pattern I'm going to use on the Lorna's Laces Tuscany sock yarn... well I think. I've already knit and frogged 4 or 5 times now and switched patterns twice because I didn't like the way the colors were working with the pattern. But finally I think I've settled on Mad Color Weave (at least I hope so!) So here it is so far:

Bad news is that I think I've already made a mistake and will need to take some time later this weekend to really sit down and concentrate on it. The pattern seems a little complicated at first but I'm hoping that it'll all make sense once I have another inch or so and things will go a little easier. But I really dig the finished look from the pattern. Wish me luck!

One more thing before I go (I hear the dryer calling me again). My friend Sarah from WW has started her own knitting blog. She's the one that I had the deal going on with over the 6 lbs and the Tofutsies yarn. She's lost her 6 and has earned her Tofutsies! Yeah, Sarah!!! And now she's starting her own blog and getting into the on-line knitting world. If ya have a moment, stop on by her blog and say hello. She's asked me for the pattern for the Steeler scarf I'm making for my sister-in-law so I think I'll post about that later this weekend. I think it's my first official me-written pattern. Nothing too fancy. But all you Steeler fans out there will want to check back and take a peek!