Quasi vacation

Yes! I'm actually on a little break from school now due to the holidays. It's so nice having a little more time to myself - but I say that it's really only a quasi vacation because I'm still trying to get work done during this little break. Specifically, I'm trying to finish up on the last few lectures for one of my classes. So far so good, I have about 3 lectures or so done out of the 5 I need to finish. Plus, I'm in the midst of working on papers (mostly mine for publication - not my students). So, it's a quasi vacation indeed.

However, this break has allowed me to do a little more knitting than usual, check out some of the knitting stores in the area that I've been meaning to get to, and get in some much needed exercise. I'm out of shape a bit because ever since I took up knitting, if I have free time, the free time that used to go towards working out has gone towards knitting. Has anyone figured out how to get that balance? How do you motivate yourself to workout when you'd rather be knitting.? Are there actually people who knit while working out - I've heard rumors that such people exist - but I'm wondering if it's really just a myth...because if you're knitting and working out at the same time, it seems to me that you'll just end up doing a shoddy job on both. However, on my quasi vacation, this is all much easier because there's enough free time to go around for both...but under normal circumstances, I hate that I sometimes have to choose.

So, how about that knitting? Well, the shrug is going quite well. I love knitting it - it's so much fun and I just love that yarn. Here's my current progress:


I'm currently working on the sleeve and have only about 2 inches left on that. After that, I can start decreasing and get on to the collar. So, the end is very much in sight.

Not so for my vintage sweater. I've had some drama with that one. First, it seemed like a lifetime before I finished up with the k1p1 ribbing on size 2 needles. Now, I've switched onto the actual pattern and size 3 needles - and it's just gotten ugly. Yes, this pattern is definitely kicking my butt. But, I shall prevail! Basically, early into the stitch pattern, I forgot one stitch and it threw off the entire pattern - everything seemed a little off. So, I had to rip out several rows back to the ribbing and start over. I'm now respecting the pattern - taking it more seriously and putting in stitch markers at the repeats. What's annoying is that the repeats change with every row - so I have to keep moving the stitch markers after each row. All in all, this is going to take forever. But, I know it will be worth it when it finally is finished. So, here's where I am so far:


It may not look like much - but there's a lot of agony in those few inches. Can you see the stitch pattern at all? Cables AND lace! It's my first time with cables - and although it was a little awkward at first, I've gotten more used to it. So, I'm just taking it slow and steady - a few rows each day. I just would like to finish it by the end of the summer so that I could actually wear it in the appropriate season...but I'm going to try to be patient.

Here's a question for you who may have worked with similar patterns - I'm about to start increasing - the pattern says to increase at the end of every 12th row, working the new stitches into the pattern. I'm concerned though that by adding a stitch it will end up throwing off the entire pattern. How can I add in a stitch properly without throwing everything off? Something tells me that I'll just insert that lifeline already and just try it out and see what happens.

That's it for now - have a great holiday weekend everyone!