What we do for fun

So, sometimes I read other knitting blogs and see what they do on the weekends (other than knitting) and I think: "Ren Faire? Soccer tournament? Karaoke? Folk music festival? WTF? What a bunch of LOSERS!!!" To everyone I have ever thought that about, I apologize. I realized today that it takes all kinds of people.........



First, my getup:


Slimming, huh?
















Then there's my hairdo:



It really does help with keeping the hair out of my face, plus I'm tangle-free when I get home!










Then we meet up with 5,000 or so friends:


















Then listen to the governor tell us to be safe, thanks for giving money to the children's hospital, blah, blah, blah:


















Then we ride through the capital city and 3 surrounding towns and scare people. Fun stuff! The boy sure was happy though:
















And in the end, that's all that matters. He does fund many ridiculous yarn purchases, so I have to give him a little Joe time every now and then. Plus I get to see some really freaky people at these things. I have pictures of them, but blogger is being retarded, so I guess I'll post them later.

I can't believe I'm wearing something I made

Hopeful on
Originally uploaded by jennylewinsky.

I have made lots of things for myself. This is the first sweater, though; and this is the first item that has made it out of the house other than a scarf. The waist shaping looks a little wonky in the pic, but looks totally normal in real life. I used #7 Denise's, TLC Cotton Plus, and the awesome Hopeful pattern by Jenna Adorno. The only changes I made were I did a SSK instead of K2tog along the neckline, and I did a 10 stitch 2x2 rib for the little "napkin ring" part. I was worried that the ribbing at the bottom would enhance my ample hippage, but I steamed it into submission & I think it looks great. I will definitely make another one of these in the future!

In other news

Hopeful is finally done. It fits perfectly! I'll try to get Joe to get a picture of me in it tonight after it's done blocking. Here is one of the reasons Hopeful took so long:



The incessant begging for dinner started at 2 PM and I finally caved at 4 PM. He has me so trained.

Where do I start?

I guess I should start with this:















I got it Friday night from Joe. He took me to Carmen Anthony's & asked me during dessert. I have no idea what he said but I'm pretty sure I said yes. hehehehe.

Then there's Hopeful. Hopeful is trying to kill me. I finished the body in one week, so I was pretty stoked that I would finish the sleeves over the weekend. Not so much. It took me a week and a half to do ONE sleeve (my first time with this wrap & turn business, so it took me a while to catch on). And it came out like this:

Total dog shit.
The other one is coming out perfect.
GRRRRR!!!!

Look, Ma, I got gauge!

I hate gauge swatches. I am a total instant gratification knitter and they just annoy me. This is why I haven't really made garments before I guess. But I really wanted to make Hopeful for myself AND actually wear it, so I decided to at least make a little one. The bottom 1/2 is on 8s (4.5 st/in) & the top half is on 7s (5 st/in--what I was going for). I am not going to worry about row gauge because the pattern is written to go by inches, not rows. I have around 4 or so inches done & I still have gauge. Woo hoo!! I feel like a real live knitter!