New windows, starting to write down the pattern

Before:

And after:

And the beginning of the pattern for October - so far this is my size (small) but I want to do med., large and x large in one go when I publish this.  Like anything worth doing in life, it's a process.

Pictures of October

Look, pictures of me with no head!  And that super dorky action shot in the middle, that's just awesome.  And yes, I'm not blind or crazy so I do understand the side of my work with trees is more scenic, but this side has windows so I can pose my dorky, awkward self.  It's nice little sweater, comfy as anything, I'll work up the pattern in various sizes soon.  I have to admit I'm sort of proud of this design, for something that feels like wearing a sweatshirt to work it's fairly flattering on someone within spitting distance of 40.

FInished!

October is DONE!  I'll get someone to take a snap of it on soon.
I want to design some cabled mitten next . . . I have some pine Stroll that I wanted to make socks out of.
Oh hell, here we go AGAIN.

I need an intervention.

And at the end of the day

We have many clean sweaters - sun and wind make wool smell awesome - and this:

Sick day

So last night included a lot of emesis cleanup including floor, rug, walls, couch, bathroom and even the cat.  Today we're hanging out at home, watching all the Harry Potter movies in order and drinking coke and eating toast.  So far, so good.  See, we have a very forgiving cat - a coworker says he must have an "inner dog" to be so nice, and I tend to agree.

And what else can you do on a quiet day at home when it's sunny and breezy out?  You can launder your sweaters.  And even though it still looks like a pile of string, October is on it's way to being finished.

Some stuff, finally

Hope everyone has had a good couple weeks!  I've been sidetracking by doing things that are boring, ripping out things and playing with beads.  Oh, and this guy, Mr. Speedy we saw in our back yard this morning:

And, finally I'm getting ready to start putting October together - just making some final adjustments on this fella.  I promise that I will do something more picture worthy or better written soon, life has been busy and not super inspired (but perfectly nice):

Things I'm done with

Just a quick update:

Nixonland
Ripping out the Roses pullover.

I feel rather liberated.  But boring.  And nothing to take pictures of.
High ho.

Dude, we're breakin' up!

This is what my spouse says when I do something dumb.  And I do dumb things a lot.  (FWIW, my version on this theme when I'm about to die from the absurdity is to tell him "I quit.)

So, Roses and Ivy, it's over.  I screwed up the neck placket placement and was in the process of fixing it.  It was tedious and fiddly, but God hates a slackard, but then I thought "I'm not sure God's too pleased with folks beating their heads on a wall for no reason either". Then, I suddenly realized I hated this stupid thing.  The gauge is too loose (4's for fingering weight, I don't think it would wear without puckering), I was in fear it would be too square and wide to look good on anyone . . .  So what am I doing???????
Long story short it was like waking up one morning and wondering why in blue blazes you've been working so hard to keep that overweight social reject mouth breather with body odor and laundry issues from breaking up with you. 
Guys, your friends were right - let it go.

Another weekend

So, once again, we spent Saturday going hiking and then had BBQ for dinner.  Still slowly slogging along on Kinsale and October.  I also finished my bag - totally ripped out the embroidery I'd been doing and went with a new color palette, which is much better, I think.

The flower is a trillium, maybe?  It was a free form thing I did for fun.  I've been wanting to make a bag for a while.  It's a little Christmas-y for me, but someone will probably want it.

Now that it's hot weather, I should do that white peacock shawl and dye it before I don't have the sun to set the dye for me.  Sigh.  Good thing I never try to diet, I'd fail miserably!

Not sure I like this, but

My stupid mystery project!
I like the bag - 40 sts. cast on st. st. with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride on 8's, folded over, sewn rogether with a strap on it.
It's the embroidery I'm not sure about..  Tough to do on knit fabric.
After I go for a walk maybe I'll rip it back out and try a cross stitch design instead.  It's not a bad little bag, but I want to make it not quite so, well, charcoal.

This must be a metaphor for something

All I can say is this sweater looks like how I've felt a few times in my life.
And it (and those times) is not pretty.  But I'll Steve Austin this puppy, you'll see.  I'll take action photos so you can see progress.
Sort of like one of those horrible reality TV shows about people getting plastic surgery . . .
. . . only for knitting, and not really gross, and without all those scary issues.
So actually, not really like one of those shows at all.  Which is for the best, I don't like reality TV or elective surgery at all.

But you'll get to see progress.
And this little number down here - it's not a swatch and it's now about half done.  Well, the main knitting is half done.  Mystery project!

Oh my word, I'm an IDIOT

So, first of all, lovely weekend.  Hiking and BBQ yesterday, today we played outside.  Watched some movies, very nice and low key.
And this morning I finished off the body of the roses pullover.  I was all proud of myself, then I noticed it - points if you can see what I've done wrong:

Yup.  Bad math on the side panels to either side of the neck placket.  The left side is about 15 stitches wider than the right.
Swearing, sighing, hair pulling, none of these things adequately express my annoyance with myself.
So, rather than rip out the whole yoke, I'm just going to fix my math and rip down the middle of the front, recenter the neck placket and fix it that way.
I'll take pictures on the work in progress so everyone who reads this can laugh and be psyched they're not me.
I'm also playing with a quick side project, we'll leave it a mystery for tonight.

Yarn diet - or what do you do when the romance dies?

So I'm thinking that this yarn/new project diet I've been on is getting me down.  When you get into that space of looking at your knitting in the evening and go "meh" and then watch Mythbusters or something silly all night without knitting a stitch.
But my resolution to use up my yarn is really weighing on me.  All that random yarn that I have and it's hard to get inspired to plan a new Fassett sweater without wanting to buy a ton more stuff to flesh it out.  And that's just counterproductive, now isn't it?  You're really taking it too far when your attempts to use up older yarn results in purchasing almost as much new yarn. 
And I'm me, so I have these issues where I'm prone to creating strange, arbitrary rules for myself - seriously, my family thought I was kind of touched as a kid (they weren't wrong, I just have learned to hide it better in public now).  My excessive devotion to self created games makes me turn this using-up-yarn-exercise into a dare with myself where buying new yarn is NOT ALLOWED - read, failure.  So there's all my old yarn, taunting me with it's boring-ness.
Then last night I saw this.  Vivian Hoxbro, you're really COOL.  I love this sweater!  The shape, the cables, the small amounts of bright color against the stony neutral panels.  And the shape, I really like that.

I've never done modular knitting, but I'm reasonably sure some research and I'd be up and running.  Now I have a fire going to finish my three before I can start something new.
Thanks designer-I've-never-met, you made me excited to knit again.