Quickie picture post

I don't really have time for this, but I'm doing it anyway. Look.


It's DONE! Dried and everything. Oh man I love it. With a deep violent passion.


Isn't it the prettiest thing, well... ever?

OMG!!!!! The day has finally come!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone who has ever ever ever read this blog, (since, oh, August or so) needs to sit down. Right now. Oh, wait, you're at the computer, so probably sitting... just making sure. Are you ready. Are you sure? Ok, here's a picture for you. See this?

This is a picture of my addi turbo lace needle. Why is this a big deal? Well, I bought this needle about 3 or so (is that all????) months ago. Since the day I bought it, it has been occupied. What has it been in? This.

This is my love, the most beautiful thing I've ever made with my own two hands. This, my friends, is my finished Icarus.

*squeal* Ok, when I bound off the last stitch, I may have hyperventilated. Only because I stopped breathing for a few minutes. I've never been so proud of anything in my life (except maybe, maybe, the raising from birth of my puppy... seriously. Anyway...), especially since I didn't use LIFELINES!!! So I feel like I can announce it to the world now! It's so beautiful.

And so BIG! It is officially... not the right dimensions. It was supposed to be 72'' and it's supposed to be half of that down the middle. Mine is 39'' down the middle... and 88'' across. EIGHTY-EIGHT INCHES ACROSS THE NECK!!! That can't be right. *remeasures* No, it's right. Holy... That's like... 7 and a third feet! That's insane. Angie was right, I DEFINITELY should've taken out a pattern repeat. Especially considering the whopping 520 stitches I just bound off... Here it is soaking.... and yeah, the dye bled a little, but that's ok, it's GORGEOUS!


Want the stats? Ok, it's Miriam Felton's Icarus Shawl, which I purchased from mimknits.
I made it with the suggested yarn, Jaegerspun Zephyr, in the color Claret, bought from Sarah's Yarns which is an incredible store, and I got the yarn at a really decent price, I'm happy about that as I'm on a budget... good yarn at a good price? Sweet!

It's not blocking as perfectly as I had hoped, as I didn't have the money to buy blocking wires until, well, today, and I wanted to wear it to Thanksgiving, just to show it off, so I didn't have time to wait for them to be shipped.

It took me nearly an hour to pin it out. But I'm happy with the results, even if the top edge is a little scalloped... it's ok. I'm not going to claim by any means that it's perfect according to pattern...

But I'm going to say that, to me, it's the most perfect, beautiful thing, EVER! I love it!

Please, feel free to comment and tell me how beautiful it is! I can't hear it enough, I assure you. Yay!!!!!!!!

Stalling

Yeah, I'm still not done with Icarus. I'm not sure what my problem is. I'm just not motivated enough to finish it. I'm 3/4 of the way done with row 3 of the 4 edging rows. So I have half of row 3, row 4, and the bind off. I should be able to finish it in a couple of hours at the most. Maybe I can hunker down and do it today. *crosses fingers* Anyway, instead of finishing it, I've been stalling with other things. First up? My mom's Christmas socks (Man I hope she doesn't read my blog... I don't think she does... but one never does know... mom, if you're out there, avert your eyes please, and LEAVE ME A COMMENT so I know...) Oh hold on red cabled hat is done soaking, need to get it out.... Oh man I have to share this with you guys... when I put the hat in the wash, it stunk like dogs and the water was clear. Maybe a little cloudy because of the wool wash (which I got from the Loopy Ewe...) but otherwise clear. Now look at it.

Eeeshk! It's okay though, the hat is still red... weird, right? Anyway... back to what I was saying before we were rudely (not really... not the hat's fault, now is it?) interrupted. Right, socks. Ok, now mom, avert your eyes. Actually, just go away. Go on, get out. :) Love you! Anyway, the socks.

I'm doing a few rounds on them a day right now, but tomorrow I'm going to work on them for an hour or so and finish the first one, and hopefully start the second. No, definitely. If I don't I won't. You all know me. I have the worst case of second sock syndrome... but look, a heel!

And please, for goodness' sake, do NOT click on those pictures... I haven't shaved my legs in a few days and you do not want to see that...

Anyway, and then today, I decided to do Nancy's scarf. Twenty-five minutes of soaking, a half hour of pinning, and 90 pins later...

It's officially blocking... and people were right! Wool wash is INCREDIBLE. I hated the feel of this scarf before but I can already tell I'm loving it from now on. My blocking method? I soaked it (Instructions for the wool wash says 15 minutes) for 25 minutes because I wanted it to be nice and soft. Before blocking, I threaded that white strand through both sides, to help with the blocking (and it did, a little), and then I stretched it out to 5 inches all the way down (which really opened up the lace, I bet you can see it a little better if you click on it. Please ignore the dog hair...) and blocked it to death. I also used a spray bottle filled with the same wool wash to make sure it was nice and wet as I blocked it, so it stays. Finished size? 5 feet, 11 inches. Before blocking it was... um.. ok I can't find it. Well, it was... I think like 65 inches? Now it's 71 inches so... sounds right. Anyway, that's where everything sits now. I'll try to blog before Thanksgiving, but if I don't, then Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

Rewards

Ok, first of all, before I say anything, I have to say this. GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!! We beat Michigan 14-3... Even though our offense wasn't great (Except, of course, for Chris "Beanie" Wells-OSU Had 229 rushing yards, and Wells had 222 of those!) our defense was awesome and we managed to hold them. It was a pretty good game. Anyway, on to other stuff...

I got my reward yarn in the mail today. It's Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn, and the color is "cool fire" and I LOVE it. Deeply. I may never buy any other sock yarn. I dunno, most of their colors aren't really variegated enough for me but that's ok. I love love love this color. It's my reward yarn for when I finish Icarus. I'm not even going to wind it into a ball until I get Icarus bound off. I'm halfway through my third row today. When I finish this row I'll have 10 rows of Chart 4 left, then I have the four edging rows, and the bind off. The end is definitely in sight. If I can do all the rows I'm supposed to do today and tomorrow, I can finish it on Monday! Wooohoo! I'm so excited. I'm tempted to go work on it some more... but I'm not. :) I'm gonna blog and then look for a pattern for a baby blanket, and for a sock pattern, so I can immediately cast on on Tuesday for new projects. Would you like to see my reward yarn?

It's so.... SMOOSHY! I love it! Anyway, today I also got the two circular needles I need to try to knit a sock on two circs. I'm really excited to try it with my mom's socks because then I might actually finish them... things move sooooo much faster for me if I use a circular needle than a dpn. So, I'm off to finish my work on Icarus for today so I can move on to something else!

Finished a Christmas present, on to some others

Last night I finished a Christmas present hat. I have some pictures of it! Wanna see?

And I swear it's SCARLET not Orange, RED dude... No matter what the pictures tell you. Here's a modeled picture.

I pretty sure the person I made it for has a bigger head than me. Hopefully... Otherwise it'll be in their eyes all winter. The stats are listed on this post, if you wanna know them. Don't feel like retyping them here. Anyway, here's a picture of the cables.

Aren't they pretty? :) So yesterday, when Dave got home from work, he had a surprise for me. He said he knows how much I want to have a baby, so he bought me this.

Yarn! I was so excited. I mean, it's acrylic and I'm a bit of a yarn snob, but it's ok for a baby, I mean... at least it'll be washable, right? He also got me a skein of Bernat christmas cotton lol, which I'll be using to make dishcloths for everyone.

And that picture, my dears, is my sister's Christmas present. Sorta. Underneath of it is my list. Here's how it breaks down.
-Aunt Joy- Done but needs blocked.
-Nancy- Done but needs blocked. (So far so good...)
-My cousin- Done but needs washed.
-Angie- about 90 percent done
-Dave's mom- about 25 or 30 percent done
-My mom- About 25 percent also (I'm switching from dpns to two circs. I LOVE circular needles, sooooo much faster....)
-Becky- maybe like, 10 or 15 percent done?
-Linda- Haven't bought the yarn
-Emmy- Have the yarn but not a pattern. :) It's ok though, hers can be late, I'm buying her clothes.

Hmm.. keep your eye on the counter in the sidebar. Eeek. I swear it's moving faster than it should be...

Also, in Icarus news, the faeries haven't finished it, but I'm getting there. I have 20 rows left and then the bind off. It takes me 35 minutes to do a row. I figure if I can do 5 rows a day for the next three days (four counting today) then I'll be done with it in time to wear it for thanksgiving. Oh dear god, all the knitting... I need to get off the computer lol!

Time to make a change

Sorry it's been a few days, but my friend was over and I was too busy to blog. :) But never too busy to knit! I've made a new pledge. I'm going to do at least two rows on Icarus every day. I did my two yesterday, but not today yet. I'm going to do them probably after Dave goes to bed. He goes to bed at around 9... I go to bed at like, 2:30, so... lots of knitting time lol. I've mostly been doing Icarus, and my sis's secret project, and the red hat. Remember me talking about the red hat before? If not, go ahead a look, it was just a few days ago... anyway, it looks like this now.

Ahhh! Ok, no it doesn't. It looks like this...

Er... sorta. Only not so bright and... fake looking. Here, maybe on a different colored background...

Eeek, I give up. Use your imagination. It's a hat. Nuff said. Anyway, after I finish a few Christmas presents, I'm going to make these gloves for myself.

I really like the ones on the left... but I like the ones on the right too! I'll probably do... hmm... well I don't know yet! I guess you just have to stay tuned to see which, if either, I do. See the little ladybug shaped thing? That is a little game that was in my cereal this morning, and i beat it in like 20 minutes. It's real easy. It was in my Sugar Smacks. Yummy. Anyway, when I went to get the camera, this is what I saw in the living room.

And this is what I saw when I got back to the office (where the little yellow chair is...)

Apparently they're quite comfy lol. Anyway, a couple weeks ago my friend Emmy and I decided to take a picture of this sign, I'm not sure if anyone that reads this besides Angie will appreciate the humor but here ya go.

Ha. Funny, right? :) And I also wanted to share this because... well it's important. If you like this song go to Itunes and buy it, every penny they make from the sale of this song goes toward aids research and stuff, to help mothers and children in Africa. It's called "Great Divide" and if you think "Ew, it's Hanson" then.. well, when was the last time you heard their music? Ten years ago? Trust me, it's A LOT different. Just give it a try. Please?