Lost

So I got an email this weekend from Karen over at Yarn is my Metier. What the heck does metier mean, btw? Dictionary.com says: an activity for which one is particularly suited; forte. Wow, that didn't make it onto my GRE word list... Gotta learn something every once in a while. Anyway, she's just made up a very lovely sleeveless mock turtleneck top that she's in the process of writing up into a pattern and is looking for test knitters. I had to turn her down though I felt honored being asked to test knit... that's definitely a first, so thanks for thinking of me Karen! Anyway, my guilt is kicking in, so I just thought I'd point people in her direction in case she still needs volunteers.

So the reason why I turned her down is because I have a bit of a project list that's due by Christmas. Here's my project role call through the end of the year:

1. Finish Hoodie Boogie Rock v1.0 for my grandmother
2. Modify Hoodie Boogie Rock to get v2.0 for my grandfather - no cables, probably just a seed stitch or garter stitch border and big chest stripe
3. Modify Petrol for my other grandfather to get a different gauge because for some reason 20/4=4 to me and I ended up buying a light worsted yarn when the pattern asks for heavy worsted
4. Finish designing an intarsia in the round hat for our friend DL. It's gonna be in GGH Samoa in dark pink (#99) with a chocolate brown (#95) skull and cross bones design on the front and DL RAWKS duplicate stitched onto the inside hem. This is DL and yes he's single, and no he doesn't usually look like someone's taken a smudge tool over his face... just respecting his privacy:
5. Have to finish unbiased 1 and make unbiased 2 for my future SILs.
6. Take a few valium because I'm starting to feel a panick attack come on already as there are fewer than 60 days left to complete this!

Speaking of La Cabeza Grande, here's a progress pic on Hoodie Boogie Rock v1.0. The hood isn't really that large, it's just a poorly photographed perspective issue. I still have to weave in ends and do the armhole and pocket edgings, but the main part of the knitting is done I'd say. Surprisingly, no major spaz attacks on this one, though I'm not entirely convinced it'll fit my grandma. It's zippered, so she can wear it open and I'm taking measurements this year to do better next year!

I did learn something on this project though. There's a good reason why hooded garments still have neckline shaping and pick up stitches around the shaping:

Those massive holes? Yeah, I think that's why. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that when weaving in ends it won't look nearly as funky and my grandmother will love my effort anyway.

But I saw that Wendy was doing a hooded vest as well over at Knit and Tonic and was having problems with her hood. This next shot is for Wendy:

No, I didn't just let out a big one, I'm just camera shy, and thank goodness for the hood because it's definitely a bad hair day. Anyway, I think that the hood came out ok, despite the little bit of a nipple or something at my crown. The trick to avoiding the sand people look is something I found in Vogue Knitting Fall 2005 issue: matched decreases at the middle back of the hood. I graduated my decreases since the back of my head isn't a continuous slope.

I just wish that I had seen one of the comments on Wendy's post above before I started all of this. There's apparently a free pattern that's not much different from what I came up with and I wouldn't have had to bastardize 3 patterns to get there. Oh well. I guess mix and match knitting can be rewarding.

Oh and the title of the post? Well, that's because of my weekend. I went for a walk on Saturday at Joshua Tree. It started out leisurely enough, but then we apparently made a wrong turn and ended up bushwhacking for the next five hours. After 12 miles, we finally found the car again and I lost my appetite from not eating all day and, according to my heart rate monitor, burning 2900 calories. I also lost the desire to hike in the desert again where the guidebook instructs you to follow the wash for a mile or so and shortly thereafter find the unmarked hard to follow trail until you reach what used to be a burn area. If that's the best description they could come up with, we should have known better! Anyway, here's the view of Fan Canyon, and the only picture we managed to take during 7.5 hours of hiking.