Rainbow of Happiness

I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, but I can barely tear myself away from knitting the Rainbow Ripples blanket to stop in and blog about it. I am LOVING this project.

It seems like only last year when I was here, knitting this very pattern and lamenting and agonizing about how bloody bored I was. I thought I'd never finish. Now, here I am, same pattern, similar yarns and I do not want to put this baby down. Maybe it's because it looks spectacular.

SEE!?! It looks spectacular!! I attended the Gilli Hook knitting guild meeting with this blanket and lovely women, complete strangers, came up to me to tell me how gorgeous this blanket was. Even my own sister, a non-knitter, gasped when I showed it to her. She loved it. I'm clearly on to something here.

Maybe it's the change in colors? Even the massive amount of end weaving can't make me love this project less. I'm going to have a hard time parting with this project, so I'm going to need you to tell me to cut the chord when the time comes. (What does a childless woman need with THREE baby blankets? This is getting ridiculous!)

I was hardly able to rip myself away from the project last week, where I set goals of turning the heel on my sock and blocking my blanket. None of that happened, too enchanted was I with the color progression on my rainbow masterpiece. This weekend I couldn't allow myself the same inactivity... and so I quickly whipped up a February hat for the hat pact

and also a section for the WCOBB blanket "Spring Flowers".

(You can tell how distracted I was because I knit garter ridges.... only because it was fast and I could get back to my and only true love, Rainbow Ripples.)

I keep waiting for the novelty to wear off. To wake up one morning and feel this overwhelming sense of gloom over having to knit one more stupid row, of a stupid 2 row repeat pattern. But it doesn't happen. I actually wonder how early I would have to get up to sneak in a row or two before work. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE TO SLEEP AND HOW I WOULD NEVER DREAM OF SACRIFICING ANY OF THAT TIME? The sheer fact that I am thinking of committing the unspeakable act of getting up early to knit this speaks volumes about my enchantment with this project!!! (I suppose we could credit it in part to listening to "The Hunger Games" which has also gripped me recently...)

The one little thing that worries me- that sits in my brain reminding me that I am only a mere mortal, and despite my knitting a little piece of magic, I worry it's going to be short. I'm looking at how much yarn I have left in the colors and I don't think I could pull off another repeat. So that leaves me a little nervous. Hopefully next blog post won't be me here wailing to you here about just how short it is. BUT- this week we focus on the positive and talk less and knit more.

Back to the blanket....

Slow Progress

Blog fodder has been hard to come by lately- there really isn't anything super exciting to talk about. Also, progress has been slow, mostly because husband and I have shifted our weekend focus to finally getting furniture for our house. It means Sat and Sun day long sojurns to various furniture places in Calgary, but eats knitting time like crazy.

Fear not, there are some things to discuss!

The Football blanket is OFF the needles, but I have discovered a rather unsettling problem. It's too small.

My calculations and gauge (DESPITE A MASSIVE GAUGE SWATCH... grrr) are off- and this blanket is considerably smaller than what I normally give to friends.

Adding an extra batch of squares would throw off the Z in the middle pattern and most borders with crochet seem to be better suited to little girls. I think I've decided to do a similar border to what I did with the white blanket; wherein I pick up stitches along the various edges and add some length. I'm still not sure what stich pattern will compliment, but I really neeed to get this thing cased. My goal this weekend is to weave in the remaining ends and block the blanket, so I know exactly what size I'm working with.

Making it hard to focus on finishing up the football blanket is the fact that in a fit of starteritis, I cast on a new blanket. Rainbow Ripples, which blessedly uses STASH leftover from the last rainbow adventure, could not wait to get going. It started like this last Monday:

And by this Saturday it looks like this:

I've knit this pattern before and while I found it rather boring, it does go rather quickly. The only downside (and it's huge) is that it leaves a mess of end weaving to get done.

*sigh* I need to make a friend who's only joy in life is to weave in ends. That way I can just hand off that duty to them! Second goal for the weekend is to get the first color reapeat on this donezo and weave in the ends. I refuse to allow myself to start knitting the next red row until the ends are woven on the first section of colors.

I even found a little time to get some purse sock progress this last week- thanks to a glorious few days at my parents while I was taking a course. (I am moving back home. Being an adult is a total scam. It's much better when you're parents insist on catering to your every need! *Thanks mom and dad!)

This little pattern is really great- it looks complicated but it's relatively simple. I'd love to have a cute pair of socks to model for you eventually. (Do you like how I've NOT committed myself to a timeline here?) The other goal for the weekend is to get the heal flap finished and the heel turn done.

I know that slow and steady wins the race, even though my progress is slowed by the distraction of other things going on in my life, by setting these small and acheivable goals, I should have something finished to show off here eventually. The greater goal is for March 1, to cast on my first Stampede project of the year. I need to start or I'm not going to get 2 out the door. It's easy to focus on a project when there isn't the distraction of other things guilting you into knitting. I just need to sit down and hopefully find the time to get a couple of things finished.

So to recap, the weekend goals are:

1) Weave in the ends to the football blanket and block it
2) Get a whole "rainbow" repeat done and woven in on the new blanket
3) Knit the heel flap and turn the heel on the Pointelle socks.

Think I can do it?