Cable till you die - or your fingers fall off

Here is the finished front of Cromarty, and one almost finished sleeve. The sleeve is at the point where I need to cast off the sides and continue the saddle up the shoulder. I've never done that technique before; should be interesting. I really need to stretch out the front when I'm blocking; it's waaay to short for my taste. Or maybe not. Maybe when the saddles are put in it won't be so short. Check out the detail on the cabling. I can't wait to wear it and tell people oh-so-arrogantly: I made it!

Knitting on steroids!

I have a bit of a chest infection, so I have to use a steroid inhaler twice a day. I thought, cool, steroids! Maybe they'll make me knit faster like they make athletes perform better!
Alas, all that happens is that I get the shakes so badly that I can't even get the needle into the loop. Pathetico.

Feline Hazards

Let me preface this with: I am NOT a cat person. I'd much rather have a dog, but my days are long and cats have litter boxes. I am not one of those pathetic single cat women.
So, when the dumbest cat in the world, the half-brained Bronte, does this to my wool, it gives me even more reason to try and send her off into the big world on her own. I've tried, often, but she always seems to come back. Like that children's book, The Cat Came Back.
And why is it that I can give her a ball of yarn for her own little toy, but she needs to attack the stuff that I'm using? Are all cats this feeble minded, or just my idjit? I imagine that the whole Bronte clan is collectively spinning in their graves at having such a brainless twit named after them. If we could harness the energy from their spinning, we'd no longer depend on fossil fuels!

GRRR!!!

Again with the Turkish Socks. I've been working on them for a Very, Very Long Time. They're kind of my in-between project. Whenever I get bored of working on something, or I haven't started anything new, I pick them up and do a bit. Over the holidays at my parents I finally finished one of them. I was working on the heel, and then I tried it on. Bleearghie! I pulled too tightly across the instep after putting the heel stitches on a holder, and I could barely pull it on. My foot would have fallen asleep wearing them. So I pulled them apart down to where I put the heel stitches on the holder, and will start again. Maybe they'll be done in another 2 years...

Xmas prezzies!

Here's a pic of my darling niece in the vair vair marv Viking Hat. Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life? The hat, not the kid. No, wait, she's the cutest thing. The hat's a close second.
I made a spiral scarf for my little sister, but she had it on and off so fast that I didn't get a picture. I hope she liked it!
The socks for my dad turned out great, considering it was my first design, but I forgot to take his giant calves (we all inherited them, thanks dad) into account and add more stitches onto the ribbing, so I'm going to knit him a new pair and then I'll post a pic of those ones.

Prezzie knitting!

Knitting like a fiend for Christmas. Of course I can't post any photos, because the only people who read this blog are my family, and the prezzies are for them! We can't ruin the surprises, now, can we?
Finally the winter edition of Knitty is up and running. Lots of neat sock patterns, but nothing much else to catch my eye. I like the 'Aoife' sweater, but a bolero jacket is not for big girls. The sleeves are amazing, though.

Still here!

Long time no blog. Have been knitting, just not posting. Between marking, report cards, being sick, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Whaddaya gonna do? As I say to my darling students, 'Poor Baby!'
So here are the cozies that I've knit for my darling niece. Hoodie sweatshirt in cottonlicious (pattern here), cargo pants in 'Kim' - a rather bizarre string-like cotton/acrylic from Italy, and the baby Viking Hat in Kertzer's Northern worsted acrylic. Isn't that hat the greatest? I'm debating adding yellow yarn braids. But seriously, check out the site. There's also a cute cupcake hat I plan to do, as well. But first I think I need a Viking hat! I'm adjusting the pattern for myself right now.
And on the weekend I picked up some more wool (because you can never have enough projects on the go!) to do a requested Christmas dress for Avery, and the traditional socks for my Dad for Christmas.
Once report cards are finished this week, serious knitting can begin!