yipes! stripes!!!

i've been notified that i have failed to post pictures of the sweater with the stripe!

i'm mildly obsessed with the 90's....mainly the music (ie, some grunge and alt college rock (ie, toad the wet sprocket, spin doctors, hootie, better than ezra, etc)) and chest stripe men sweaters.....i myself owned quite a few of them back in the day....so, when knitting this sweater for my man, i thought "hey! why not a stripe too!" because, he has a penchant for chest stripe sweaters hisself....

soooooooo here's where its at with the sweater....i have since done a few more inches of the merlot heather....i'm probably about halfway done with the body now? i don't know....and i think i'm going to keep the stripe to the body, not on the sleeves.....and my fear of it being big enough has subsided...it keeps growing width wise as i knit more....

yeah

here's a pic....

yay labels!!!!

since i decided to knit for people this year for christmas, i thought i'd be fun if i had labels for them....

so, i was searching, and my sister said that the ones i found looked kinda fuddy duddy...and so, since i know she likes to look stuff up, i told her to find and make some for me...and that she did!

the only requirements were that it has my name and that its handmade/knit....

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

they finally came in the mail yesterday! i had no idea what she had them look like, i didn't want to know....so, here's a crappy cell phone picture of them

yayay!!! aren't they fun???
i'm excited!!!! i was thinking of putting them on the scarves caddy corner??
speaking of scarves, found out we're not exchanging with one side of the family!! yay!!! one less scarf to make!!
is that bad? that i'm excited about that? they give crappy presents... ohwell...
i've decided i'm not happy with the scarf i've knit for my boss lady, so when i get home, i'ma frog it and see what else i can do with it....other than that, i'm done with 2, and more than halfway done with 2 others....
and i'd like to knit a hat for my sister maybe or something, on account she got me the labels....and i should finish the armwarmers for my coworker, or knit her something else...oh yeah...she covets my ribbon drop stitch scarf...done, that's easy to make....

someone remind me next time i want to knit for presents, not to do it! rather, don't let me start as late as september....i should start in jan....

ugh...back to work

the sweater curse

maybe the sweater curse has nothing to do with the mechanics of your relationship, but maybe it has more to do with you're trying so hard to make sure its the most perfect garment ever in existance that everything seems to go wrong, or you're so hyper paranoid that it won't fit that it seems like nothing is right....and you get so frustrated about it and take it out on your bf then he dumps you even though he doesn't even know you're knitting him a sweater...
i just looked up what wikipedia has to say about the sweater curse, and it breaks it down into possible reasons why there might be a break up due to knitting a sweater....the main reason for the curse that i've heard most is this:
Catalyst for analyzing the relationship. Giving or receiving a significant gift such as a sweater may cause either the giver or receiver to evaluate the relationship. For example, the gift may seem too intimate, too domestic or too binding to the significant other. It can be seen as a signal that makes them realize that the relationship is not reciprocal, prompting them to end the relationship before it involves obligations.

now, i don't think this applies to our relationship....i mean, he had asked me once to knit him a sweater, and he loves the stuff i've knitted in the past...and we've talked about getting married, so, i don't think the whole domesticity of it will freak him out, so i know that this reasoning behind the curse won't happen, and our relationship will be intact....

but then there's this one:

Misdirected attention. The knitter loves their sweater a little too much, and pesters the significant other about the sweater instead of working on their relationship.Alternatively, the knitter loves to knit too much, and spends too much time with their knitting instead of with the significant other.

i haven't seen him much the last couple of weeks, but not because i've had to knit, i just knitted because we haven't seen much of each other...he works til later than i do, and with other stuffs going on, just hasn't worked out...i haven't said to him "oh i can't see you because i have to knit" but...when i'm over his house i always bring my knitting with me (obviously not said sweater, but i have other things to get done) and he says it doesn't bother him, but ya know, if he's playing halo, what am i going to do? i mean i'd play (he got me a pink controller....) but i'd rather knit....and he made a comment that i think he's boring because i'm knitting, which he quickly retracted....he said he loves that i knit and loves when i knit...i mean i feel like i'm ignoring him sometimes when i knit, but i'm not, and he knows i'm not....and he knows i love him, and he also knows that i'm an idiot and decided to knit presents, but he only thinks i'm knitting scarves....

so, i mean, those are 2 main points of the "curse" that stuck out to me, but i'm like, 99% sure if we break up it won't be over the sweater.....well, i hope we don't break up at all...

right now, my stress over the sweater is that i don't know if it will fit....the pattern was causing me problems from the beginning....when it got to the point with the increasing for the raglan increases (redundant much?) it said to do 36 sets of increases (which i took to mean 36 rows...) and then it said to have 113 sts in the front and 113 for the back, and 89 on each sleeve...welllllll....36 rows of increases does not equal those amounts of stitches on the needles....but 28 rows do...so i did that....and i finally got to the 113/89/113/89 and put the sleeves on scrap yarn, and added the 23 sts for the underarms...and the stitch pattern matched up...but i'm looking at it, and i'm not sure it will be big enough....i mean mathwise (taking the # of sts/5 (cuz i get 5sts per inch)) leaves me with about 54", which, according to Old Navy sizing is an XXL, and he fits old navy sweaters, but, it doesn't look big enough....granted the sts are bunced up on 40" circulars, and i've only done a couple of rows, but, i don't know, i wasn't about to slip those sts on scrap yarn at 1am....so i'm thinking i might do that when i get home, get a better grasp of what the sizing is looking like, then i might just rip out those last 2 rows, put the sleeves back on and increase for a few more rows....but i hate doing that...i'm not very good at it, and i don't want to pick back for 2 rows...that's a lot of sts.....i guess what's freaking me out is i had bought an xxl sweater from old navy for sizing reference (because all his sweaters were away for the summer) and i measured it up against what i had knit last night, and the raglan part is waaaaaaaaaaay longer on the old navy sweater....and that started to freak me out...i mean he's got pretty big arms....he's got pretty big everything, he's a big guy...but he's been losing weight lately, i mean not enough to drop from an xxl to an xl, but, i don't know..i just don't know what to do.....

so, it just looks small...like it would fit me...and i wear a men's l....but then again, i'm horrible when it comes to guesstimating and estimating and shit like that....i have no concept of thigns like that....like i have no idea conceptually how long a mile is or how big 54" should be....i can't do it....so its quite possible it will fit....maybe i just need to take it off the needles just to see....the pattern says this would be a good time to try it on.....

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'M GOING TO SEE MARY POPPINS ON BROADWAY NEXT WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

normally i oppose to anything christmas before thanksgiving, but, i already gave my bf his christmas present (xbox 360...he had surgery and was going to be laid up for 4 weeks with nothing to do, and a new halo game out that he didn't have the system for.....oh and the sweater is for our anniversary which is xmas....) and he got the tix for 11/17 which is before christmas but whatever!

I'M GOING TO SEE MARY POPPINS ON BROADWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm just a little excited, can ya tell??????????
i'ma go buy the soundtrack at lunch....

scarves, chest warmers and thread killing.....

so
nothing much to write to be honest....
i finished 2 of my scarves (now a total of 6 to be done...whatsamatta with me????)
so i have 4 to go...i finished the my so called scarf for my boss lady, and the one with bernat bamboo for a coworker....and let me just say, that yarn is so soft! i was out and about in ac moore one night and i saw it, and i felt it and it was soft and i had to have it...but i only bought 2 skeins....so the scarf is just about 4' long, but i think thats ok on account my coworker is just barely 5' tall....and she's not the type that does the wrapy wrapy with the scarf, ya know just behind the neck...so i think it will be ok....and the my so called scarf, i think it could have been a little bit longer, well, at least for my taste....its for my boss lady, she's only like, 6 years older than me, so she'd probably do the wrapy wrapy, which can be done with this, it doesn't hang that long, maybe to the chest....if she just wears it around once, it'll be ok, but its long enough to go around the neck, plus it is kinda wide....but it came out good....there are a few rows that are totally effed up....they happened when ya know, i put down the scarf for a week or so and picked it back up again thinking i remembered the stitch patter, and alas, i did not....ohwell...its not that noticable.....she won't tell, just me...and then i bought all this extra yarn becuase i didn't have enough sws for this one scarf i was going to make for my aunt, and i wasn't happy with the stash i had to make one for my other coworker, so at walmart i bought some more yarn, but then the next day i wasn't happy with that either, so i went back to michaels, and bought some more sws in one dye lot, and decided to use what i just bought (i bought like 4 skeins) and then what's to stop me from using that receipt to return the other 2 i had bought a while back in a different dye lot? different dyelots don't have different skus....and some other yarn.....so then i had these 2 yarns not knowing with what to do, so i decided to knit for my other aunt and my other coworker (who i owe armwarmers to....tee hee)....ugh...so, 2 done, 1 40% done, 1 cast on, and 2 still trying to figure out what to do.....

for some reason i keep working on the scarves instead of the sweater for louie when i'm not around him....which makes no sense! i mean, he doesn't mind when i knit around him, so i should just knit the scarves when we're at each other's houses, and just knit the sweater when i'm actually home and not with him....but no! i keep picking up a scarf and starting a new one....do i think the sweater is too daunting? like, if i get all the scarves done i'll get the sweater done? i don't know....because they're less of an undertaking? i don't know.....but i've got about 8 rows of increasing to do before putting the sleeves on scrap yarn and just knitting the body.....which i mean, it is going quicker than i realize, i'm back at that stitch marker before i know it sometimes....or so it seems.....so, i hope it stays that easy for me....and ya know, i really think it has to do with the addi turbos....where as i normally prefer bamboo needles, only with the straights though, apparantly....the circulars, i guess i prefer anything but bamboo, so the yarn comes off the needles better...but omg i love the addis....i kind of want to go back and get every size and every length.....but that's just me....and ya know, its true what they say about the yarn....i was making this afghan for my sister's friend, using red heart and omg that yarn sucks! and it took me forever to do it....but i'm totally loving the knitpicks swish superwash....its so soft and doesn't feel like wool at all...i love......will definately use again, and it was affordable...i was going to use the cascade 220, but it was like twice as much, and i'd still need a lot of yarn on account i need to make an xxl, then i checked out the knitpicks superwash....and found the color, got it and i love it....
so its getting colder 'round these parts, and louie says to me the other night that he's going to break out his sweaters, and previously we were talking about the sweater curse and i said that i know he wouldn't dump me, but i'm probably not going to knit him one anyways, and then he said something about wanting a grey cardigan and i said a cardigan? not a pullover? and he says he never wears pullovers...and i go wtf!!! you have a whole bunch of them! and he said "those aren't pullovers, they're chestwarmers..." so then the curse wouldn't apply, because i'd be knitting him a chestwarmer, not a sweater...so, i'm in the clear!

ok, we got a temp at work yesterday.....and so i'm showing her how to do a report that i normally do but don't have time for during holiday, so she's doing this report, and thank God she picked up like it was nothing! our temps last year were wastes of space like you wouldn't believe....so she's sitting here doing this report on my computer, and i have a lot of other stuff to do....her computer isn't set up yet....and after a few hours of just sitting there doing nothing, i look at my knitting back which is calling to me, and i knit....her computer isn't set up yet, and i move too fast through the stuff i do that she wouldn't pick up on anything and she won't be doing it anyways, so i figure, let her do this report and get comfortable with it, and i'll do some knitting! and omg, i don't think i have ever been so upbeat at work...i looked to my work-sister and i said "omg if i could knit every day at work i'd be so friggin happy!" so of course now the temp has her own computer, and i'm sitting here trying to think of how i could knit....stupid me changed the layout of my cube, so now i face out (which was done to prevent people sneaking up on me while on craftster/ravelry/myspace (before we were blocked)/webkinz) but if i was facing in the corner like i had been, i could hide the knitting under the desk....and then last week we had a meeting in nyc, and so they bussed us jerseyites in, and i was knitting on the bus...and i was so tempted to knit during the meeting, but there were too many higher ups around me....but i totally could have gotten away with it....

side note, since ravelry, i've been spending less time on craftster....i was always mainly a lurker there, looking at everyone's projects, but, the few handful times i actually posted myself, i kind of got a rude vibe from people, but then i think it happens to me on most message boards, i'm such a thread killer, it always seems that whenever i post, the thread dies....but not like i say anything really that'll kill, i don't say avada kedavra or anything....it might just be a coincidence? who knows....but threads die when i post.....whatever

ok, i should do work or something......i can't wait for holiday to really start, even tho all the stores do stupid stupid shit all the time, it still keeps me busy.....
should i work? or try and figure out how to do some knitting without getting in trouble...hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

1 down....kinda

so, i decided to knit for christmas right?
scarves
for coworkers and aunts, because i never know what to get them, and to be honest, i'd rather not get them anything at all (at least the coworkers that is....)....and i have a whole bunch of yarn in 2 skein quantities that really aren't good for anything but scarves....so yeah....

i started a couple a couple of months ago, just to get a head start and to give me something to do at my boyfriend's while he was playing video games or editing some videos for work....problem is i kept starting new ones....so...i have 3 scarves on needles, and 2 where i know the yarn i want to use, but no idea how to use it (not to mention said boyfriend's sweater....oh and did i mention he asked me to knit him a scarf??? told him it'd have to wait til after christmas, altho he only thinks i have the scarves to knit....)
*breath* anyways
i decided the other day i needed to finish one thing so i feel like i can accomplish this feat in time (last year i was finishing up everything the day i had to gift them....and i only knitted like 3 things and they were a hat, a scarf and legwarmers, oh 4 things, and a dog sweater) so i decided to finish up the my so called scarf for my boss lady.....and i think i have a few rows left...i fell asleep last night knitting...sooo i think i can finish it off....then i think i'll finish the basketweave scarf in the bernat bamboo for my cube neighbor....she's little, so the scarf doesn't have to be that long, i think i've got a few feet done, and she's not even close to being 5' tall herself, so, i think a 4' scarf might be good....we'll see.....then i'll either cast on for my other aunt's scarf (i think i have an idea what it will be, but i know it will be in the patons sws in natural geranium....i only have 2 skeins in the same dye lot, and its hard finding a good pattern for that with only 2 skeins....but i think i found one) or else i'll finish my other aunt's argosy that i started in the plymouth encore colorspun....its awesome kinda variagated kinda not blue/grey....the scarf is coming out narrower than i thought...but it moved along quite quickly that i think that's doable....now my other cube neighbor coworker, i don't know...maybe i'll use up the rest of the vanna's choice i have in black or i was going to use the bernat camo i have in blue frost....either way, i don't have a good pattern for that...i was thinking of one i've used before that calls for bulky yarn and size 13s...it goes quick, so if i hold 2 strands together i'll be good, and there are yarnovers, so if i use the black it'll still be interesting, b/c ya know, black doesn't really show cables or nice stitches....
but i really need to work on the sweater too!
i have time...i have time i do...
i was thinking of gettig some chinese food containery kind of things to package the scarves...yay or nay?
oh snap!
my other coworker....she loves the drop stitch ribbon scarf i made myself....i do have some blackish incredible yarn that i can use to make her one...that'll be quick...but what i really need to do is finish her armwarmers i started a year ago....i'm so close to finishing them....
hi my name is danielle and i need help with time management and knitting
i also ramble alot
and i wouldn't be surprised if noone is even reading this, and that's ok
i enjoy typing and rambling and its fun for me

my first sweater....oh and other ramblings apparantly....

that's right, i'm currently working on my first sweater.....my first real sweater.....ya know, it meets in the front...not like a shrug where its open and put on like a jacket....this is something that needs be pulled over a head and arms put through like a normal sweater that's purchased at a store...
wtf am i doing???

not only am i knitting a sweater, but i'm knitting it for my boyfriend!!!

omg i have a boyfriend! (ok that's a topic for another day and another type of blog...ya'll don't really need to know my personal business...just know that after just about a year, i still get giddy when i realize i have a boyfriend....)

anywho....i don't believe in the boyfriend sweater curse...and neither does he....i told him about it and he was like "oh posh" (he doesn't talk like that, but i don't remember what he said, and that's the first thing that popped into my head) i knitted him quite a few things before we were an "official" couple....i first knit him a hat with some left over yarn i had from an afghan...i was bored and i was telling him how my ex asked me to knit him a hat (after we had broken up) and he never wears it, so he said if i knit him one, he'd wear it...so...i did...and he loved it (still does over a year later)....we went to a diner that night (yeah nj and their 24 hour diners) and he was showing it off to our waiter...

i don't have a picture of it :(

the next thing i knit him was an ipod cozy with the green lantern logo on it...he's a big comic book nut and loves the green lantern....it was kind of tricky...i had knit myself an ipod cozy, but he has a video one which is considerably thinner than mine, so i really had to do some creative adjustments to the pattern and it was my first attempt at intarsia or fair isle, or whatever (see? i'm such an excellent knitter i have full grasp of all the terms!) and ya know, it came out pretty damn good! it came out a little wonky on the one corner there, but, still, not bad at all i must say...i rock! well, he was impressed

then i knit for him a batman hat...which is currently coming apart...i'm not the best at weaving in ends....and the top has come apart...but then again, i think he pulled on it alot...

again i impressed him and myself....but i hate this picture cuz it makes my nose look huge!!!

anywho....

so...now that brings me to today.....he asked me once to knit him a sweater....i told him about the curse...oh now i remember what he said....well, not verbatim....he said something along the lines that the knitting is what kept me around (when we first met, he was dating around...apparently the knitting gave me bonus points, hence i beat out the hoes and landed me a man!) *ahem* i digress....so yeah....i know he'll love it....even if its not perfect, and i know it won't be perfect...but he won't know...

now i go into the story of the sweater....i'm not even near 25% done with it....the pattern is the adirondack pullover from thegarterbelt.com....which i found from ravelry.com....which this site is fucking awesome! i had purchased the yarn (19 skeins of the merlot heather swish superwash and 2 skeins of the camel heather for stripe from knitpicks.com) and i was going to use that random raglan sweater generator pattern thing, but i don't know the exact measurements for what size he'd wear...and his sweaters are put away for the summer...so i bought one from old navy because i know the clothes there fit him....but then i found this pattern searching ravelry for patterns people have used with the knitpicks swish superwash...and that pattern came up (this information comes in handy later on as well)
so....i cast on what i needed to cast on for the largest size (what can i say, i like 'em big 'n beefy....) and so, i did the first 2 rows, and then when it came to the 3rd row, i got all sorts of confused....i had increased on the 2nd row, and the 3rd row had to go back to the pattern stitch...what? how was i supposed to do that! so i sent a message to a couple of people that had already made it on ravelry and i was stupid super anxious and no one was writing back! i mean, how dare they! i have time to spend all day on it (instead of doing work) why doesn't anyone else?? :P so my sister's friend is a knitter and i emailed her, and i even posted on craftster.org...finally i got a response from a raveler and she was such a help! my mom and i had already kind of figured it out, but she definitely helped it make more sense....especially to when i got to joining the work and realized i had 2 extra stitches! can i get a wtf mate? ugh!!
so fellow raveler and i have been going back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out the math of this thing...and wow...its kind of confusing.....right now i'm still doing increases and i don't have much left to do before separating the sleeves and knitting the body....i just hope its wide enough....anyways....here are some progress pics:

this would be after a few more rows of increasing...and joining in the round.....i'm on good pace i think....

and here's some more progress of still increasing....so far so good seriously....i took care of the extra 2 sts and noone would be the wiser (well, unless you're a knitter and scrutinized...i think when i p/u sts to do the collar it'll be ok)

and here's a closer up of one of the raglan seems and the shoulder...yay! and its a little closer to the color? i don't know, its supposed to be merlot heather, but its kinda brownish...either way i love it

now i just need to work on it! which is hard because i spend almost allllllllllllll my time with him...and ya know, its a surprise......but i do have 5 scarves to knit, which i can get done when i'm at his house and he's playing halo 3...and knit the sweater on the rare occasion i'm not at his house....or on lunch break at work....i mean, i can do it, right? just over a month?
yeah...its also for our anniversary.....i hope that doesn't tempt the curse.....

alright, i reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally should get some work done....like work work, not knit work done on the sweater...but i have to do that too....

tee hee...like my sheets? they're disney cuties...got them from target....so what i'm a grown woman with a twin bed buying sheets in the kid section....