the solution to my problem of UFOs is...

....to pick a bigger project. Or so it seems. The Map-ghan is taking up all of my time and energy. I'm seriously going to have to stash it if I'm going to get anything else done. I'm working on that on football days and the Leaf Tee (trial version with acrylic before making Michelle's final version with Debbie Bliss Cathay) on non-football days, but I find the itch for the map-ghan on every day. I started Russia yesterday, and am almost done with North America! I'm about 80 rows shy of finishing one panel...in five weeks. Crap. I'm seriuosly going to have to bust out some maniacal knitting with this thing if I'm going to finish it by Christmas.

On to other topics besides knitting...the other thing that consumes my hours...the great House Hunt of '08. I'm working with two girls at work now to get some progress on this since the family friend clearly has other priorities beyond helping us. Sue said to go ahead and do it without the friend, and she was the one that suggested her, so off I go!

I've found of couple of properties with Potential (capital P). Several are fixers, but that could be all we can afford for now. Still no clue on that. Will find out from Laura tomorrow hopefully.

I'm addicted to looking for houses, and I doubt rehab exists for my obsessive watching of the market. Oh well. Everyone's gotta have a hobby, and this just makes me a little bit more well-rounded beyond just knitting! (GASP...life beyond knitting?!?)

Holy map of the world, Batman!

So...after being 2/3 of the way through my football "weekend" knitting, I'm a little overwhelmed. I got 48 rows done on the Mapghan and there are 337 rows in each panel. The boys did the math for me...each panel consists of 27,971 stitches...which means for all four panels, I'm at 111,884 stitches! THAT'S A LOT...holy crap.

I've gotta walk myself through some more math here, so bear with me. I'll probably finish another 10-15 rows tonight, so let's round and say I finish 60 rows for every four games I watch (though I didn't knit straight through on Sunday, and probably could have finished more rows). Anyway....60 rows for four games...337 rows for one panel. It's going to take me 22 games to finish one panel. I don't have that much time, so I'm going to have to buck up and really start knitting like a maniac on football days.

*BIG SIGH*

Took a little downtime...

This week I finished the striped afghan for Suzi and then took two days where I didn't touch my needles...HOLY CRAP that was hard! Thanks to the Football KAL for making me wait until game time to cast on the Map-ghan. I'm super excited about this project...I just hope I can finish it on time. I'm not going to count my yarn-winding as knitting time, though, so I'll be able to do some of that tonight.

SPEAKING OF WHICH! So I used a yarn-winder for the first time ever last night and it was officially one of the most fun things I've ever done. Not really, but it was pretty awesome. How bad would that be if the highlight of my life was a yarn-winder...which is not to say that yarn and notions are not allowed to rank up there, but yeah...

My chocolate is sending me messages. Sounds funny, I know, but check this out:See what I mean?!?!!?

A variety of interpretations here...but who's to say it doesn't mean giving in to knitting my KAL project on non-game days....is it Sunday yet?

In the meantime...in the world of WW this week does not exist. I "x" it. :) Good to be able to do that every now and then. Back on plan next week. I hit my 20lbs last week and it felt GOOD!

And back to life as we know it...ah, cubedom, how we love thee!

if you give a mouse a cookie

or if you give an AM ravelry...she will wants lots more knitting stuff.

Bored. wtih a capital B. just discovered this...JMN! :) my initials....



and now that's the background photo on the crackberry.

----interruption for a nice little lunch at COI with Michelle-----

Mmmmmmm....food.

Gonna work on the tie for Tyler tonight. Maybe I'll get close to finishing it so he can wear it tomorrow! That would be awesome.

I love that typing and blogging sounds exactly like typing and emailing!

Why I should not estimate measurements

so....my squares are actually 7" by 7". Hahahaha! This is great news.

which means my quilt needs to be 7x10...only 70 squares at 2.5 squares per shirt...28 shirts. and yes, i had to go to the calculator for that adventure.

I finished up Terrell's hat last night. It makes me happy to have given him something to remember us by and hopefully enjoy back in Detroit.

Goal for tonight is four to five more squares and have a few more balls ready in time for the knitting group tomorrow.

Tyler's patchwork t-shirt quilt

SO! the adventure truly begins. I began cutting up t-shirts yesterday for Ty's Christmas present. I'm hoping it will be ginormous and fantastical. The only foreseeable problem is the fact that most of his shirts are the same color, and when cut into strips, it's going to take some very creative knitting to make them identifiable. So far I've cut up three of his shirts and one of mine. I'm thinking it's going to be 9 squares across, and 15 squares long. Each square is about 5"...so that makes a good size quilt. Shit. I just did the math and realized that takes 135 squares. at 2 squares per shirt...I'd need 68 shirts. I guess it's not going to be that big. Damn. Well I've got about 20 shirts, 40 squares, 8x5...at 5" each (can you tell that I am not a math major, sitting here and talking it out to myself) 25" wide and 40" long equals 2 feet wide and 3.5 feet long. That's a pretty weak quilt. Shit. Looks like I'm going to have to raid his shirts for this thing! At least I know I've got another 5 or so that I can donate, which gets me up to 50" long.

List: Things I Should Have Thought About Before I Started Ty's Quilt.

getting craft happy

tis the season...to start thinking about projects for Christmas! OH YEAH!

Dad- slippers for real this year...Lopi phd boots. Just gotta learn to knit with two circulars.
Mom- cubbies blanket that I've already started
Krisitie- blanket for real this year...the wicked challenging world afghan
Hanks- John Deere fleece blanket
Michelle- sweater...just gotta find a good pattern
Lloyd- sweater with a delicious bass on it.
Rilo- dog sweater
Tom- ef if i know.
Suzi- Pretty in punk blanket found here.
Lucas- Animal blankie...the uber project thanks to KnitPro.