Cardigan Adventures

The child is sixteen. The child has not worn Mother's hand knits since she was 11, because they are "dorky".
The child has a good social circle. The child has a few good friends that find Mother's knitting skills fascinating.
The child finally realizes that a bought cardigan of her liking can cost upwards of $ 80. The child also realizes that Mother could make that said cardigan for about $ 24. The child also realizes that it would make Mother very happy to knit again for her offspring.
The child peruses Ravelry and Google and comes to Mother with the wish for a hand knit cardigan. The child wants an oversized cardigan in soft wool that she can snuggle up in. The child also has found six different cardigans; each one bearing a feature to her liking, but no cardigan that combines all of them into one.
The child challenges Mother by saying: "But you can do that, right Mom?"
The child knows Mother well, because Mother says:" Sure thing, honey. What color?"

The child replies:" A gray? Maybe heathered? Kinda grayish, pencil lead color?"
And so the cardigan adventure begins.

College

Interesting thing this College experience. First of all...I love it. I have never been a Math Whiz...but I seem to have a knack for Statistics. I'm actually helping other students. As my brother put it:" Who'd you bribe to get an A in Math?" Thanks for the vote of confidence there, little brother.
College has also taught me to not care. What other people think of me that is. I grew up in a home that was very much upper middle class and my Mom put a lot of weight on what the neighbors might think of us.
Growing up in this rather restricted home made me .....well....almost a conformist. I had my rebel outbursts, but mostly I did what was expected of me.
Now...at the tender age of *mumblemumble* I finally realized...I don't care what other people think.
I knit. So what?
I love Heavy Metal music. So what?
I hate what people are doing to this planet. So what?
I rather support a local Wolf Sanctuary than any human cause. So what?
I got a nose piercing. So what?
I quit a nice paying job to go back to college and took a part time job which I love. So what?
I tell you what. I am me. I like who I am.
Deal with it.

APA format and a great cardigan

APA format shall be my nemesis forever.
Apparently you need to find a dead cat and swing it around your head three times by the light of the full moon (which will be hard, since the paper is due on Saturday), UNLESS it is a Tuesday. In that case you italicize only the year, not the name.
What?????
I wish Microsoft Word had a button that says APA or MLA. I could just write the damn thing and push the button and voila! APA paper.
I would also like to know who came up with this crap. The last time I wrote a paper it was in pen on paper. And I got points for putting my name and the date correctly in the upper right corner.
My paper was AARP style! Old school. Literally.
Sighs.
The cardigan is coming along nicely. The back is finished and  spot on with the measurement. I am halfway done with the left front. I made a few adjustments to the pattern. I didn't want the cardi to end at my waist. So I added 3 inches to the length. That will look a lot better for my body type.

The pattern is really easy to follow.
My de-stash is not going so well though. I started the year with about 205000 yards in my stash. So far I managed to turn it into 211000 yards.
Ebay is my achilles heel. That's for sure. There are some great deals to be had.
The sample knit for KnitPicks is going well too. I have about 60% of the stole completed. The sooner I het that baby done the faster I get paid. And I want some spending money for Madrona which is approaching fast.
I will meet with one of my Ravelry friends there for the first time in person and I am looking forward to that. A lot.
I might even be persuaded to take some pics.
We'll see.

The year of the sweaters

Well, what do you know. It is 2013.
No resolutions this year, because I don't keep any of them longer than 24 hours anyway.
I want to knit more sweaters or cardigans this year though. I have cast on the first one: The Wave Hello Cardi by very talented designer Melissa Monday.The pattern can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wave-hello-knit-cardi
Bulky weight, pretty straight forward, should go fast, right?? WRONG!!!
Since I learned my lesson on the Kiloran top,  I swatched this time. 11 st and 16 rows should give me a 4x4 inch swatch. And so it does. Success!
I still have a 39 inch chest and the cardigan is supposed to have no ease. So size L (40 inch chest) it is. The swatch says so after all, right?? WRONG!!!
Cast on the amount of stitches needed for a size 40" chest. This should give me a width of 22.75 inches  for the back of the cardi.
Cast on the required 80 stitches. Knitted 6 rows. The back is 28 inches. Say what?? Okay. So how many stitches should I cast on then? Wait a minute: Math shall be involved. Since 80 stitches gives me 28 inches, x should give me 23. A little math determines that I should cast on for a size S. That's S. You read that right. 68 stitches.
I have knitted the entire border with 68 stitches now and it is right on the money. How a swatch can be right there and then the actual garment is way to big I will never understand.
But hey....I'm a size S!!! I'll take it.

In other news: I went back to college and me, the forever math challenged, has an A in Math so far. I am rather proud of that. It is entirely besides the point that we are learning statistics. It is mostly text right now. And I am good at that.
In history I blew my first quiz to smithereens with 1 point out of a possible 5. I made a conscious choice to pay my rent instead of buying the book for that class. A decision I can live with. I will be able to catch up quickly by the end of the month.
My English professor is simply wonderful. He understands that there are people like me that do grammar intuitively without really knowing the rules or mechanics of it. His class is so far brilliant, even though it is on Saturdays at 8 AM.
He is worth getting up at an ungodly 6 AM.
I shall keep you updated on successes an failures.