Its done! My first sweater is finished and it fits, AND it looks great! Jered helped me post pictures of it, under the WIPs section. Check out the finished pictures of Salt Peanuts. I am so proud!!! I handed out candy tonight after seaming Salt Peanuts all afternoon. I still need to steam the seams a bit and I think they are a little on the bulky side, but I think thats just the nature of the yarn.
While I was handing out candy tonight I worked some more on the cable sock and am now working my way down the foot. I hope to have the first sock done by next week. I will take more pictures of the sock when I get the chance. I am having a hard time organizing the coming week, with the election coming up on Tuesday and a bunch of papers due in the next three weeks, not to mention a group project and all of this due before Thanksgiving Break… I am not looking forward to it!
I have to go to the County Commissioner’s office tomorrow to pay the county taxes on my car, hopefully won’t be too expensive, and hopefully I will have done it in time, Virginia is crazy about that. Tomorrow I have an hour after I get off work to work on my paper and other homework things, I’m hoping to get quite a bit done. I feel stretched so thin lately! I can’t wait till Thanksgiving Break, I really need a break and I definitely need Christmas Break! The sooner December comes the better, I can’t wait to get more knitting time!
I’m going to wear Salt Peanuts tomorrow, I don’t care if its hot. Ha!
Halloween Peanuts October 31, 2004
Turning our Heels… October 29, 2004
I haven’t blogged in almost a week, and I haven’t worked out in almost a week, I think I’ve been busy. Wednesday I had to take my Beetle to the shop and it is all broken, very expensively…that put a big fat damper on an otherwise good week. Then Thursday morning we locked the keys in the car while it was still running. All of this stress caused me to knit frantically during every free moment I had. This rush of knitting productivity got me passed the turning of my sock’s heel. I have not worked on much of my homework which is a bit of a problem, but I can tell I’ve needed to knit because I know how much it calms me down. At this stress rate i will have the socks done by the end of next week!
I’m writing my family assessment now and hope to finish that up and get started on my reading for group and my online posting. Grad school is way more work than undergrad ever was, I know I was expecting that but somehow I am still a bit surprised. That and I really wasn’t expecting my car to poop out on me. A 5 year old car should not have a clutch that just falls out, and a compressor that gives up. I guess thats the way life is, you do so well and then you’re destined to hit a bump in the road. At least I have my knitting! (And a very sweet fiancee to keep me sane…)
Pictures! October 24, 2004
Check out the Work in Progress section for pictures of all of my recent projects, finished and in the works. I am blocking Salt Peanuts and it looks so good! I can’t wait to get it all seamed up, even though I’m dreading the actual seaming itself. I am going to try and post a picture of Floyd at the end of this post to see if it works. I’ll post the rest of my pictures in the Works in Progress Section.
Felting Success October 21, 2004
I felted my very first thing!!! I finished up the cat bed for Floyd and it turned out GREAT! I was seriously surprised how well it turned out after felting. Before washing it I was relaly doubting that it would ever look anything like the other kitty beds, but when I pulled it out of the wash it was perfect! Floyd hasn’t discovered it yet but i’ve placed a little cat nip mouse inside it and I hope he finds it to his enjoyment. I am so proud! I actually felted something!
The stripe pattern looks so much better now that its felted too. The wrong side had that typical multi color wrong side look and the felting really helped. It kind of looks like a purple and green target ad 
I will post pictures this weekend, promise!!!
I am so glad its Thursday! Happy hour time tonight!
Felting and Blocking loom on the horizon… October 18, 2004
I finished the cat bed, and I have to say i’m quite impressed. I wove in all the ends last night and Floyd promptly sat his cat butt in it and took a nap. I was very happy he took to it so quickly, I was almost expecting him to sniff and then walk away. My parents are going out of town this week so I have to keep an eye on my little sister and brother and go stay over at their house for the next 5 days or so. This means I have access to a washing machine… time to Felt! I have never felted anything before, but I am going to follow the directions on Wendy’s website to see if I can teach myself. I have also never blocked anything, so I am going to start with the cat bed (good practice for when I do my sweater). I am really going to try to take and post some pictures of my finished stuff tonight, then i’ll see what they looked like before felting and blocking.
My second class tonight is cancelled because of midterm exams so I will be getting home about 3 hours earlier than i normally do (yay!). I usually hate mondays, but tomorrow is actually going to be more stressful for me than today!
Cat bed for Floyd October 17, 2004
Friday night while surfing aroung on different knitting blogs I found Wendy’s pattern for the kitty pi bed. I had some left over wool yarn and started it up, and I am almost done! It’s been a fun easy knit, perfect for watching star trek with
This weekend has flown by. Last night I worked on my paper for Theories class and finished the first draft. That lowered my stress level quite a bit and allowed me to all but finish the kitty bed.
Yesterday we went out and bought canvas, which I’m hoping will work for blocking my Salt Peanuts. I am ashamed to say this, but I have never blocked anything before, so I am very new to this! Canvas seems like a good idea because it should dry quickly. I also got some foam core just in case the canvas doesn’t work. Has anyone tried this?
I’m baking walnut carmel brownies right now and they smell darn good. Does tomorrow really have to be Monday?!
Salt Peanuts Knitting Done! October 15, 2004
Last night I finished the knitting on my Salt Peanuts sweater! It feels good to have it done and at the same time I am kind of sad to see it done. I hate seaming and am not looking forward to it, there are quite a few seams to sew not to mention weaving in all the ends! I am going to have to pull out my Vogue Knitting book to learn seaming techniques, as this is my first sweater and I spent enough time working on it to merit a thorough seaming job! I can’t wait to wear it. I have been browsing knit blogs and have seen a few finished Salt Peanuts that have been modeled by actual people (not scary waify girls) and the sweater looks great!
I did my family interview tonight so I now have two papers to write. My theories paper is due November 8th and my family assesment is due November 2nd, I’ve still got a little bit of time but I won’t be un-stressed until I have them done.
I think I found the caterer for our wedding today. I found this place called the Catering Company of Williamsburg and I was highly impressed. They pretty much take care of everything for you, including setting up your tables, and they let you bring your own alcohol! Its a completely customizable catering company so we would be able to plan our menu to our liking. We are going to go by there tomorrow with my parents so that Jered and they can see what it is like before we make any sort of commitment.
I’ve set my posting so that anyone can comment on my posts, previously I had it so that only blogger members could comment, but now anyone can. Please do! That way I know that people will actually read this blog At least until I become part of a knitting web ring!
Back to the Daily Grind… October 13, 2004
I had to go to work today, which on any other Wednesday would not really be that big of a deal, but having Monday and Tuesday off really threw me off! I only stayed about 5 hours today and got to meet with my advisor which I really needed to do. It is pouring rain and its gotten rather chilly outside, the perfect weather to knit by. I am hoping to post some pictures of Leo, Salt Peanuts and the lone sock tonight.
Leo Sweater October 11, 2004
So I got my yarn in the mail for the Leo Sweater I am making Jered. I’m not sure if it will turn out quite the way I was hoping. I was looking for a yarn with a similar gauge that was much cheaper than the schurwolle that the pattern calls for so I got Endless Summer -Lara Cotton. I just started the sweater and it feels very thin, but it looks allright so I suppose I’ll just keep plugging away. Has anyone had a similar problem with this sweater? Maybe it is just a thinner sweater and I am worrying over nothing.
This week I have Monday and Tuesday off which has been extremely nice. I have a bunch of papers to write by the beginning of November and i’ve already been able to finish one of them. It is weird not going in to work and class, but weird in a good way! I am getting pretty burnt out with my schedule because Mondays and Tuesdays I seem to go all day (literally from 10 am until 10 p.m.) and then Wednesday-Friday my week is just a few hours of assistantship work. In some ways I like that my week is top heavy, but then Mondays and Tuesdays are freakishly awful.
The nice thing about having a few days off is that we were able to give the apartment a thorough cleaning, which it desperately needed! I still have to do laundry, but that means more knitting time 
Esther’s Test October 10, 2004
Now that I know this blog works I can get started with the fun stuff! First a little about me: My name is Esther and I’m a grad student studying counseling. I live with my fiancee and our kitten Floyd, its quite nice being the only girl in the house!
We just recently moved to the East Coast from Kansas and we are still adjusting to the lifestyle out here, not to mention the humidity!
I have been knitting a few years now and have only just recently (within the past year or so) branched out from simple knit and purl projects. Now I can’t get enough of intricate lace patterns, cables and anything else that might be a challenge. I find myself with less time to knit now than I had in undergrad, but it somehow has made it more satisfying when I do get a chance, and surprisingly I find that I actually knit more now that I have less time.
I hope to soon post some pics of the projects I am working on right now. I’m a gemini so I often have more than two projects going on at once
Currently I’m working on finishing up the Salt Peanuts sweater from Inteweave Knits (I’m on the last sleeve), a cabled sock from Knitting on the Go, the Leo Sweater from the Fall issue of Knitty and probably some random neglected project that I am forgetting. More on my WIPS later.
