The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I’m sick. I’ve got this dizzy, foggy head thing, my eyes are really sensitive to light, my body hurts, my tummy hates me. Above all, though, I’ve got this ridiculous old man hacking cough that rips my throat apart. It hit me Thursday night, I was in denial till Friday afternoon. I let it really hit me Saturday morning, and I’ve been pretty much bedridden since.

Which means I’ve gotten a lot of knitting done!

Top Down Socks

I finished my socks using the yarn that promises one pair from one skein. I will easily get another sock from what is left of the skein, it is huge! I like how this knit up, the colors are really silly but they make a cute pattern. The knitting pattern, though, was bullshit. For example, they wanted you to bind off the toe, then seam it. GAH.

Back of Summer Sweater

I knit myself right out of yarn for my Summer Sweater. I just love knitting that pattern. It helped me concentrate on yarn overs instead of how it hurts to look more than 30 degrees to the right.

My First Sweater Pattern

I really didn’t feel like starting that second sock, so the next logical option would naturally be to start writing my first sweater pattern. I’m trying to write that knitting for less pattern book, and I figure it has to have a couple easily adjustable sweater patterns, at least a pullover and a cardigan. Here is the pullover. I might wake up from my final fever coma tomorrow and read over the notes I’ve been jotting down as I’m knitting this only to realize I’ve been writing in Greek, and I don’t even know Greek. It looks like English now but I slept through Before Sunset last night when I thought I just blinked, so for all I know I could be writing a pattern for a hat for Paul Bunyan. Is that marketable?

Sick People Food

PT has been taking very good care of me. He came home with two half gallons of ice cream, a huge bag of lemon mint Ricolas, took me to Handlebar, and for dinner tonight we made this amazing pea and radish risotto.

Pudge Rodriguez - Bare Belly Post Snipping

Pudge has not been being nice to me, however. This is her impression of me this weekend. Who does impressions of sick people? That is just rude.

Back to Hell’s Kitchen, my bed, and my Paul Bunyan hat.

Last night I accidentally finished the front of my Summer Sweater.

Summer Sweater Front

So, that took six days. By this rate I will finish my Sweater Club Sweater by week three. I know I wanted to pick out a sweater that was less of a chore than the sweater dress, but seriously.

Sweater Distraction

So I pulled out a ball of sock yarn I got from Joanns a while back that claims if you use size 3 needles and the pattern on the back of the yarn wrapper, you will get two socks. I’m testing the theory with my enormous feet. This project distracted me not only from starting the front of my Summer Sweater, but also the pounding the Tigers were getting last night. And you just can’t have enough socks!

The pattern is top down, not toe up, like I have been knitting lately. I realized I am completely and utterly a toe up sock convert. I love it so much! Knitting the ribbing last night kinda sucked, though I was baseball-angry to begin with and that could have had something to do with it. I won’t stop, but I can’t promise I won’t start the Summer Sweater front at any moment.

Can I knit two Summer Sweaters during Sweater Club? So much for a break.

Loving Frank Cram Session 2009 – I’m up to page 182! Which is halfway. With three reading days left I’m on my 60 pages a day pace to finish by Knitting Book Club Monday. I haven’t forced myself to read this much for a deadline since my Columbia days.

Remember back in 2008 when I had a beet off? I knew I was supposed to like beets but had no idea what to do with them? I put them in a salad and wanted to die. I cooked them up with onions and garlic and also wanted to die. But I just knew that beets and I would someday get along, I just couldn’t think of a way to do it on my own.

Beet Salad

Behold the Mark Bittman Beet Salad. What is amazing is that in the same picture you can see the fanciest thing PT and I have ever made. And maybe the most delicious.

With no food processor we just used a garlic press and chopped the walnuts. Without orange juice we used lemon juice. We roasted those beets, we mixed them up in the dressing, we did top it with some fresh Parmesan (AMAZING!), and served it over romaine.

Last night beets and I turned a corner. Thank goodness, because I really don’t want to live in a world where I don’t like a vegetable.

List of foods I don’t like:

Olives (including green and black, especially black)

The end.

Summer Sweater

Not only have I been making progress on Loving Frank, but I’ve been rocking out this Summer Sweater! Don’t you love the little leaves? I also love a sweater where I don’t have to worry about the sizing. It is supposed to hang! And with tonight’s impromptu car trip to the suburbs for a very special evening, I’ll be able to get even more done.

But more on that later.

First of all, I’m on page 79 of Loving Frank! I figured out that if I read 60 pages a day I’ll finish by Monday. Today I need to get to 120, so I’m well on my way. Lots of sex and shirt waist ripping makes for excellent afternoon reading.

Last night I got to thinking about the sweater I’m knitting for Sweater Club. I knew I had a half finished sweater I hated laying around here somewhere that I was planning on ripping out so I could use that yarn for the sweater. While looking for it, though, I struck gold.

Knit Picks ShineSport! Four Skeins!

I completely forgot I bought seven skeins of Knit Picks ShineSport like three years ago for a sweater, started it and seriously hated every minute of it. I have four of this Cherry and three Butter. It is the perfect yarn for the sweater! I found the light blue half finished sweater, too, but that yarn would have been a lot harder to work with. The Knit Picks is a cotton blend, which softens it up.

Can't Stop Myself

So I of course got really excited about the yarn and had to start the pattern. But I figured if I kept up with my reading I could reward myself with a tiny bit of knitting, right?

The lacy leaf pattern is really fun! I love the yarn overs and the three stitch decreases. It makes me want to knit it. (glances lovingly at the 11 rows already on the needle) It is a nice change of pace from the socks. Once you finish turning that heel its over, just ribbing for like 14 inches. (glances lovingly at her two pairs of pretty self stripped socks)

So, my next few days are pretty set. Knit through baseball, read while not knitting. I’m expecting another great series for the Tigers this weekend and it is a good thing since this pattern takes a little concentration. I don’t need to be screaming and throwing things AND trying to lace! No one deserves that.