The Sweatshop of Love Blog

My to do list this weekend:

1. Make entire fall schedule – check! It rocks, if I do say so myself.

2. Knit a cabled cowl – check!

I used some of the Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool that will be left over from the Vogue Cropped Jacket I put on hold all weekend though I’m SO close to being done with it!

I love this cowl, and it knit up with size 15s in like 4 hours.

3. Knit a Turkey Finger Puppet – check!

I wanted to put some kind of toy in the fall schedule, so I was searching around when I stumbled upon a really cute knitting blog called Team Knit, and this pattern for a turkey finger puppet. I instantly fell in love and knit it up and put it together in about 3 hours. The time consuming part is the tail. But EVERYONE should sign up for this class because not only is this little guy adorable but the class is free! November 11th, 7-9pm. Happy Thanksgiving from me to you.

4. Write fall schedule newsletter – check! Mostly written while knitting, which is a trick I’ve needed to teach myself that comes in handy almost every day.

5. Update website – check! Full list of classes looking hot. More Sweatshop love looking hot, too. The class list was a huge job since it was so empty this month.

6. Knit a Goldfish Toilet Lid Cover – not check.

Friday afternoon I thought it would be a great idea to put the Knit Pick’s Goldfish Toilet Lid Cover in my fall class schedule, meaning, ideally, I would need to knit one before my newsletter went out to make sure the pattern was good and I had a picture of it. Yeah. I’m a crazy person.

The problem was that the pattern calls for size 6s and DK weight yarn. I had size 4s and worsted weight, but that still didn’t do it, so I had to take 25 stitches off the pattern, basically rewriting the entire thing.

By Sunday evening, after spending 11 hours knitting and writing frantically, PT suggested I leave the house. We walked over to Street Side and got po’ boys and fries. We were both very happy with how delicious they were! It was my first po’ boy and I would order this sandwich again in a heartbeat.

By Sunday night I had finished knitting the lid itself and just needed to duplicate stitch on the fish. When I looked at the picture of the lid on the pattern I thought it was intarsia; I had never even heard of duplicate stitching. It’s basically cross-stitching over the stitches of the body of your project, which is genius I think, since I get annoyed with a lot of intarsia. I’ve always loved cross stitch so this has been really fun.

But, notice a problem?

I had that big orange skein of yarn I got at a garage sale I thought would be fun to use, and I started duplicate stitching the fish in whatever colors I had laying around in the goldfish family. PT says it looks like Pikachu. I think it kind of looks like Wilson. Whatever it looks like, it doesn’t look like a goldfish. It’s still going on my toilet, though!

I’m almost finished, not by deadline obviously, but still. Knitting an entire toilet lid with Pikachu/Wilson/Goldfish duplicate stitching in like 72 hours? Still impressive/ridiculous.

7. Blog – absolutely not. Lukily for me PT was free for some guest blogging so I got out of that one. He did such a great job! He also made sure I ate and drank enough water and that my legs didn’t atrophy all weekend, too.

8. Update Ravelry – absolutely not. I didn’t even look at it.

9. Update Sweatshop Facebook Page and Myspace Page – check! I don’t remember doing it, but it’s done so I’m not asking any questions.

Overall pretty good! I love being mostly self employed because if I worked for anyone else as much as I work for myself for as little as I make I would kill someone. But because everything I do is for myself I get up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning to knit a toilet seat cover and when I finally close my computer at 11pm Sunday night I’m so tired I could cry, but I’m happy because I love it.

Next up? Minnesota! PT and I are headed there Thursday, and I’m knitting up these cute washcloths from Purl Bee  as a present to PT’s mom. At least I’ve got a couple days to punch two of these out.  It should be a breeze after the knitting fiasco that was this weekend.

I’m determind to finish my toilet seat cover, though, and I miss my Vogue Cropped Jacket!

Man, I’ve caught fall knitting fever way early this season. Could that mean I will successfully knit everyone I know a present this year?

Only if I can keep my new issue of Interweave Knits closed!