30,800 in 35 hours

Back several months ago, I undertook a rather large project. I knew it was big, but I was willing to take on the challenge. After 35 hours of work knitting 30,800 stitches, this is what she looks like so far...

Now, how do I know those statistics? I did the math. Yes, I know, I HATE math, but I did it (ok, I had some help)

First I timed myself on how long it took me to do one triangle from the picking up of stitches to the last decreasing join, result-15 minutes. My speed was not crazy fast Miriam Tegels speed but fairly quick. So, there are 20 rectangles per tier to give me 300 minutes, there are 7 tiers completed, that is 35 hours (give or take a few minutes.) Then to obtain my stitch count was easy. My rectangles are 10 stitches wide by 22 rows, 220 stitches per rectangle, 20 rectangles per tier comes to 4,400 stitches per tier and with 7 tiers completed that comes to a whopping 30,800 stitches! Whew, I am tired aren't you?

So, how much more do I have to knit? She wants it like 6 feet long. Unblocked here in the pictures, I have knit 1 foot, I have 5 more feet to go! Hmmm, I am tired of math, so if anyone else wants to figure out how much more time (estimated of course) and stitches I have to knit, that would be fun! Leave me a comment and show off your math skills by May 20th and I will pick someone at random to give a prize. And if you wanted to get real detailed, you can tell me how many rectangles I would need to complete each day from now until October 14, my bosses birthday to be done with the blanket!

Now before you leave me comments like "are you insane? I would never do that!" or "wow, I hope you are getting a raise for that!" or my favorite "Oh hell no! You kidding me, I would say good morning to my boss if I was not obligated!" let me tell you that my boss is a great lady. She gives me tickets (good tickets to boot) to see the Giants play often during the baseball season and is just a caring and fair woman. Besides, she bought all the yarn (and she bought more than what was needed) and said that I can keep the rest.

Ok, I am looking forward to all the comments!

Hellooooo???

Breaking the blog silence...

I have had no real good knitting to share, no other life altering news to share and so I have been a little silent. I am hoping to cure that very soon with some great knitting. I can tell you what has gone wrong with my knitting lately. The cardigan that I was knitting for my niece, well, my finishing skills are NOT good. I had no clue as to why I thought that knitting a child's cardigan in pieces with set in sleeves was a good idea and that I could do it no problem (right!) The individual pieces were not an issue, unless maybe I didn't think out the way I would do the edges the best way for seaming. Suffice it to say, I seamed it all together less the buttons bands and I am not sure even a good steaming is going to help. I did have her try it on, in the unfinished state and it fit pretty well, sleeve length was perfect, body length was great, the seams - FUGLY! So, she being a very smart 7 year old understood that Aunt Lisa was not perfect and I had to take the sweater back to attempt to finish it. What needs to be done? The entire thing has to be taken apart and re-seamed and I really don't have it in me to do it. I am not even sure if she will ever see that sweater again! But what did make me feel good, she ran out of the room to go and put her socks on that I knit her, brought out Sophie that I made her and told me that she loved them! She knows how to pat an ego...

Here are a few pictures that I took of my niece and nephew while visiting them recently.

Yes, they are cute, yes, they have the same parents (I get asked that all the time.) My brother (their father) and I were just like that when we were little. But here is the most recent picture of my brother and I together taken January 2009...

Left to right, niece Caitlin, Sensei, Me, Mimi (grandmother) Kelly (brother) Crystal (sister-in-law) and Josiah (nephew)

I will have to dig up a picture of the two of us when we were little as a comparison soon.