Back on Track?

OK, I'm seriously going to try to get back on track here. I'm joining a Ravelry Swap, and one of the main reasons I decided to join was that it required at least every-other-week blog posts! Hopefully, if I have a goal I have to meet, I'll get back into the blogging routine.

Knitting: I've been knitting lots actually, although no pictures to show of it, at least not right now. On the needles (ignore that outdated list in the sidebar):

• I have a Tuscany shawl for a co-worker who decided she didn't have the time to knit it. It's nearly finished, but I need to block it and see if it's large enough as is, since she has a very small frame.


• An Ariann cardigan (my second, after the first had a tragic washing machine accident). I finished the second sleeve last night and am ready to join both sleeves to the body and continue knitting.


• A couple of socks, one for me, and one for BHE. Nothing exciting.


• I've picked up Marihone again. Actually I finally pulled it out of hibernation so I could reinforce the armhole steeks while I had my sewing machine out (altering Sweetpea's school jumpers). Unfortunately, I think the body isn't as long as it needs to be. I don't know if I mis-measured when I put it aside, or what happened. I've got to finish this one though before she outgrows it! Once I add an inch or two more to the body, I'll knit the sleeves, and then be ready for the front bands and neckband or collar (haven't decided yet which it will be). I also can't find the upsized notes I made out, since it's been nearly a year since I worked on it. I can visualize them, but not their location :) I do have an Excel file on my computer with a lot of notes, but I also penciled in a few notes while I was knitting the body. I think I'll be able to figure out what I did and was planning to do.

Spinning: Oh yes there has been spinning!

• I re-spun some yarn I spun at Yarn School to add more twist. I think I ended up with almost 600 yards out of 8 ounces of roving. I need to check the WPI.

• I bought 3 balls of unmarked roving from someone at Yarn School and decided to spin them one after another, and then Navajo ply it. After I spun the singles, I decided I didn't really want such bold stripe changes, so started looking through my fiber stash and thinking about what I could do. I ended up ordering 4 ounces of dark blackish brown Jacob fiber from an Etsy seller to spin and then ply with my multicolored singles. The seller is supposed to ship today. Hopefully the fibers will be compatible. I really don't know what it was I bought at Yarn School, but it's definitely not a soft fiber. I don't know my fibers that well, I can probably identify 5 or 6 different types of wool. Anyway it will be good outwear fiber :)

I promise, I'll give more details on the knitting and spinning later, complete with photos! One big goal of mine is to finally get all my stash listed on Ravelry. The thought of it is a little intimidating, but I need to do it so I can have a complete idea of what I have!

I'm also still studying for the CPA exam, and hope to be completely finished with all parts by mid January. I had hoped to be finished with it all by Thanksgiving, but I didn't do much with it the first part of this year due to my firm's merger. Now that I'm back on it, it's too much to cram into too few weeks.

In other news, Sweetpea just turned four years old! Here she is with her new Polly Pocket Shopping Mall :) The pieces are tiny, but she loves dressing the little dolls. I bought her a couple of storage containers, and she's doing a great job of keeping it picked up and organized.

As you can see up top, We also started back to school, and now both are in the same school! Monkeyboy loves his new teacher and class, and can't wait to go to school everyday. Sweetpea has had a rougher transition, but everyday is a little bit better. Her biggest complaint is that "they don't let you sleep for a long time," so we are gradually moving bedtime up a little every night so they are getting enough sleep.