It's so itchy

I have an itch. A terrible, horrible itch. And no matter, not matter how much I scratch it, it won't go away.

I have an itch to knit baby things.

I don't know where this itch came from. It hit me about a month ago, and it won't go away! I want to knit tiny baby socks, and little baby cardigans, and small little baby toys that will be grabbed by tiny baby hands. And the worst part? There are no babies in my life!

It's almost cruel.

My best friends Katie, who is currently expecting boy #3 lives in Australia, so I can't knit baby things for her. My other best friend doesn't want another kid for a long, long time so she's out of the picture. A acquaintance/friend of mine is pregnant with child #2, but I never saw child #1 wear the cardigan I made for him, so I feel like knitting something for the second kid is going to be a waste of my time. Any other friends that I think would be knit-wroth is not having kids...I'm screwed.

I've been trying to scratch this baby-knitting-itch with other new projects, or by picking up projects I haven't worked on in months or years; like the lace stole I have about 25% done. Or the  worsted weight scare blanket that I've been working on since 2012. But picking these things up only satisfied me for a little bit....and then I want to knit little bitty things again.

Someone knit-worthy, who lives close to me, seriously needs to have a baby soon. I wonder if my Mom would be up for it...

Oh hey, this is still here!

Imagine my surprise when I flipped through my bookmarks today and saw this thing! Like finding a journal from high school tucked under your bed; just not nearly as painful to read through.

When I last left you I was a knitting college student. Now I'm a knitting paralegal. I finished college and am employed at the law firm where I did my internship. It's a great firm to work for, and I love my co-workers. Did I mention that I was hired right after doing my internship? Yeeeaaaah, pretty friggen great.

Does it give me more time to knit and spin? No. Have I finished ANY of the projects that I started at the beginning of the year? No.

In January 2013 I started a pair of socks that had little fishes all over them. They're supposed to be fish-argyle socks, but I refuse to attach a new color for the argyle stripe every 3 rows...that amount of weaving in I'd have to do would do me in. I'll add them as duplicate stitch instead....I'll revisit that thought later.

Remember the Tunic that I wrote about? I'm still on the decreases with that one. That's right, haven't even gotten to the body portion yet! And the thing is already really big at the bottom still. Like wear-it-with-my-little-sister kind of big. The ladies at my knitting group have said that the pictures look like the bottom is supposed to be bigger and flare out a little bit, so like an idiot I'm forging along anyways. We'll see how this develops.

I've completed one, count them ONE, skein of yarn that has been on my bobbins for almost a year now. It's boring brown and doesn't have much yardage to it...I think it's because I used most of the roving for something else...oh well. I'm working on "Three Feet of Sheep" roving right now for my Mom. It's a three-foot tube of merino roving, split into 8 differently colored balls. Instead of getting fancy and complicated I'm simply spinning from the top down. So far on the bobbin is a creamy pastel off pink color, a light pink color, a dark pink color, and now pastel purple.  Also on a bobbin is some red/orange/pink merino that I've been working on since Spring; but at least that one is getting done...slowly but surely.

And I don't even want to talk about the other projects that have been in my WIP baskets...since 2012. I feel a bit ashamed about that actually. For 2015 my goal is to finish all the WIP's that I have going right now, and then I'll pull out some of the bigger things that I've been wanting to make. Hey, maybe if I make myself give small monthly updates, via picture progress, I'll actually get them done! Sure that will be easier then posting regular random things....surely.

Hello, my name is Nici and I'm a liar

Remember how I said I would update this more frequently? And you guys would actually hear from me more then quarterly? And remember how posting tutorials might be my thing, so I have to write to you guys? Remember all that?

Yeah....sorry.

I partly blame the fact that there is nothing exciting going on in my life. At least nothing that I feel I should write about excessively. For the most part it's school, work, school, work, home renovations, school, more work, knit (hahahahahahahhaha!!!) and school.

I actually haven't even gotten all that much knitting or spinning done in the last couple of months. Why? because it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to do so with my current boyfriend. I could get more knitting done with a toddler, or a bag full of wet kittens. If we aren't doing something around the house, then he wants snuggles and cuddles and lovin's. Which I'm totally okay with, but sometimes I just want to knit! I miss my stash.

So I've started going to a knitting group that isn't too far way from my house. It meets up once a week, and sometimes I make it and other times I don't. The last two nights we had date night at the same time that knit group happened, and I'd rather romp around Tacoma having fun and making memories. But if we have nothing planned, I'm planning on being there.
It will probably also be the only place where I'll get any knitting done. Go figure.

I started this tunic a month ago, and I've been knitting the same 8mm ever since then. What I mean is that I keep messing up and having to start over. Let me outline it for you:

1. Swatch to make sure gauge is right, then eagerly grab new ball of yarn to get going.
2. Cast on not enough stitches and run out of tail.
3. Cast on stitches again, have too much tail, but don't care and tuck tail away instead.
4. Knit 8 mm and find out that your gauge is off. Instead of 20sts/4" we're getting 21sts/4"...not a huge difference, until you take into account the 37 3/4" you're working with.
5. Rip everything out, swatch with a smaller needle size.
6. Discover you're now knitting at 19sts/4", say screw it and cast on anways.
7. Knit the small size 'cause the medium size was too big. You want a tunic, not a tent.
8. Knit the first 8 rows, try to untwist the knitting, discover in horror you twisted the stitches somewhere along the way, and nothing is going to untwist them.
9. Rip out everything in a angry, mumbling fury of string.
10. Pick up the 216 stitches you need. AGAIN! and begin knitting AGAIN! in what you're hoping is going to be a correct manner.
11. Check the twist of the stitches every 2 inches until you're satisfied that you're knitting is not twisted somewhere along the way, and maybe this time you'll make actual progress.
12. Put knitting down and don't look at it for a week.

And that is where we are now. I got a row in yesterday while BF was watching a show on Netflix he's been wanting to check out for months. Sitting on the couch with gray yarn in my lap was a nice change. Maybe I should find more intriguing TV shows on Netflix for him to "find".

Speaking of getting knitting done, I have one more hour before BF get's home, and I'm mostly finished with my homework...so if you'll excuse me...*dashes to her stash*