Deep Breaths

Folks, it has been a whirl-wind month for me here. I've been traveling, planning a party, going to work, doing homework (kind of... not always), and trying to make time to sleep and eat at regular times. Sometimes there's not enough hours in the day. But I still made time to make things!

I'm making my mommy some socks for Mother's Day, and I've finished one and a half so far! I'm only aiming for 2, so there's a pretty good chance she'll actually get a pair, which I think is a good goal. I discovered today that I was supposed to put the pattern on the back of the leg after the heel... too late now! This is a horrible picture, but I think the yarn is too dark to photograph well. I'll try harder when the pair is finished. I may need to go buy some sock blockers.

I'm participating in the Jimmy Beans KAL this month, which is a mystery KAL, so I have no idea what it's going to be. The clue this week is really strange and I haven't finished it yet, so this is a picture of where I left off last week. The colors look nice, I think. I guess I'll just keep hoping it turns into something I want to wear/use.







I've also been trying to use up ALL of my fiber from last year's Wool Market. I know this year's Wool Market isn't until June, but I figure I'm going to need all the help I can get to make this goal, so I pulled out the 8 oz of alpaca that I purchased last year, because it's the largest bunch I have to spin.

It started out looking like 2 very large balls of sliver. They turned out to have a lot of VM in them, so I don't think I'll be getting any of this stuff this year, but it's always nice to find out what you do and don't want.

I spun 3/4 of the sliver into singles, despite the VM. They're a very pretty color, I must say.

And I've plied approximately 4 oz of the singles into a VERY fuzzy 2 ply. If I wash it and the VM comes out, this could turn into something nice and soft. Not sure what, yet.









Apparently to make up for the fact that I've been busy and going out of my mind over a certain BRIDAL SHOWER BONANZA weekend, I've purchased a large amount of yarn for cowls. It's really not my fault, I ended up browsing Jimmy Beans because of an email they sent me, and there was a free cowl pattern that looked really pretty, and a bunch of kits they recommended and... well, I bought the yarn, not in kits, but one of each color.

Looks like EVERYONE is getting a cowl for whatever occasion arises next. At least the colors are pretty? I might need some more of the white, though. I'll wait until the first of the month, though. It's gonna be awesome. Ish.

And then I went and visited Caitlin, and she gave me a little bit of a yarn tour near her house (we got lost looking for a yarn store that may or may not have been hosted out of someone's house. We really don't know, cuz we didn't stop, we just kept driving.), and I fell down when I encountered Three Irish Girls in person. The colors were awesome and we're lucky I escaped with only 4 skeins of the stuff.

I'd blame Caitlin for allowing me to go crazy, but we all know that there's no way she could have stopped me. At least I escaped unscathed from the quilting store we visited.

I also worked on a sweater all last weekend, but it's in the other room and it's not going to photograph well right now. Suffice to say I made an impressive amount of progress, but not quite enough to allow me to wear a new sweater during the CRAZY weather we're having.

In future, I would like to avoid all this craziness. However, being realistic, knowing myself as I do... it's not gonna happen. We'll just leave it at that.

Sweater weather

The weather is getting cooler, my friends. Cool enough that I could wear handknit sweaters, if it weren't for the fact that a) I'm on medication that makes my skin super sensitive and the sweaters I knit last year kind of itch and b) I still don't have any sleeves for the new sweater.

It's really a shame that I don't have any sleeves. I totally would have worn that sweater today, if it were done. But I've been intimidated by the need to blend 2 dye lots. Caitlin finally took charge and ripped the sleeves back to the ribbing and rethreaded them on to the needles. I just re-started them last night. There's going to be lots of untangling, I can already tell.

Let's not focus on the negative, though. Let's focus on the fact that I'm on a roll when it comes to finishing right now!

I finished knitting Mariah's chuppah. I had to go out and purchase more foam floor mats so that I had enough to block the thing, but now it's all stretched out and nearly dry. Next step, fringe. Again, not dwelling on the negative.

Then, I finished Abby's long socks. I have a shorter pair that still need doing, but they're pretty, right? The cable is seriously cute. I just hope they fit her, and that she likes them, and that they aren't too itchy... but they're done! Really done, not waiting for anything else.

Pretty good, right? Let's hope those positive feelings carry over to the sleeves. I really want a new sweater, and I ordered a bunch more kits in the mail... Cute hats and mitts or mittens. They're fun colors too, as opposed to navy blue that has to be blended. But they are not sweaters, and I think we can all agree that it is definitely sweater weather right now.

Setbacks

Hons, I ran into a big problem on the blue, cabled sweater. I ran out of yarn. Then I thought I wasn't going to be able to find the same color, let alone dye lot. Fortunately, the lovely people at Jimmy Beans Wool found me the right color, but not the right colorway. It's Malabrigo, so I figured that would be the case. But it's really a different dye lot. So now I need to rip back a bunch of sleeve, so I can blend in the new skeins unobtrusively. Lame.

Those little stubby things at the top? Sleeves. They're not that stubby in real life, but they're certainly not done. In lieu of working on this doomed sweater, I have started a whole bunch of other projects. Cuz that makes sense, right?

Abby asked me for a couple pairs of socks to wear with her boots, so I started some cabled socks. I got all the way to the heel, started to read the pattern more closely and realized that there were supposed to be cables on both sides of the socks, instead of just one, like I was doing. Since Abby doesn't know this, and they're kind of large socks (she wants them to reach above her knee), I'm not gonna rip back. I'm just going to do the other sock the same way. Except, you know, with the cable on the other side.

Then, I wanted to knit something else for me, something that wasn't a sweater, you know, but would keep me warm as the weather gets colder. So I started a very pink cowl. It's very shiny, because it's made out of the new Knit Picks yarn line "Galileo." The pattern is the September Cowl, which I thought was really pretty, and large, and will keep me nice and toasty. I hope.






I've got a couple more things that could probably stand to be finished (I'm looking at you, mystery mitts and chuppah). But I've had a stressful couple of weeks at work and I don't really think I should overtax myself with knitting, do you? Dealing with all these setbacks has been bad enough.

What's in this bag?

Man, I am a bad blogger. Admittedly, there hasn't been much to post about. But still, I could make more of an effort, right? I'll work on it, I promise. Perhaps when I get better internet, it will be easier to remember to post more often.

As a catch up, let me tell you that I'm officially employed as a full-time engineer. Which means that I've been working on finding more permanent housing. It's nice that I was able to stay with friends this summer, but I'm getting a vibe that they love me, but they'd love me more if they saw me a little less. Which is fine, because I think I could really get behind having my own place. I've found an apartment (I move in on the 30th), and I'm working on furnishing it. I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much work has to go into equipping the entire house. I've always had roommates to share the burden. And all of the furniture I used to have now belongs to my sister... But it's been fun to pick out all new stuff, and visualize what I might want in my new place.

In knitting news, I've been working on decreasing the number of UFOs and WIPs. I don't have as many as some people I know, but there's certainly some that could use attention.

I finished my second pair of "work" socks. I call them that because I take them to work with me, in case I get some free time. Except I stopped taking these to work, since I offered to take the clapotis off of Caitlin's list.

Which reminds me, I finished the clapotis too. Yay! The colors were nice, and I found out that I wrap my purl stitches a little bit differently than Caitlin does. Which is why my stockinette looks different than it should. Always a worthwhile lesson to learn.

Last, but definitely not least, I finished the Highland Triangle! This is a terrible picture, I'll post a better one when I get it blocked. That might have to wait until after I move into my new place. But trust me, it looks nice. And it's great to have gotten one of my effing shawls off of my to-do list. There's 2 more (turns out), but only one of them is gonna get any attention any time soon.






Things that I'm avoiding? Mariah's chuppah (it's not doing anything bad, I just don't want it to turn into a hate chuppah. I'd hate to jinx their marriage), a lace sweater that I don't have the attention for, a chunky cabled vest which has a similar problem (both patterns have so many charts, I'm gonna need a whole table to keep track of it all), and the aforementioned shawl that is in disgrace.

On the list of things that will be getting attention: I just ripped out the start of a sweater that was going to be too small (points for noticing that before I got to the end?), some mystery fingerless mittens that I'm pretty excited about, except I'm pretty sure I can't take them to work (they're on double points), and some boot socks that my sister has requested (I just need to get her leg measurements... not sure how that's gonna happen, but I'm sure I'll figure it out). Alas, none of these are sparking my need to knit. I think I've just got startitis, but I don't want to indulge too much. Starting the mitts and restarting the sweater should count, right?

Bo-ring!

You know the really unfortunate thing about going to the wool market? It's given me a complete dearth of enthusiasm for the stuff I was already working on. I mean, the merino-silk that I had been spinning before I went? Please. That's so yesterday.

On the other hand, at least I only had 2 ounces left on the Crayons. So, it could have taken longer to finish. But I was really impatient to get to the good stuff. And by good stuff, I mean the new stuff. Because obviously new is better.










After I was done with that stuff, though, I kind of had a dilemma. I mean, how do you choose from all the new lusciousness? I was frozen with indecision. It's like a kid being confronted with all their new toys on Christmas Day. It's overwhelming, and you can't decide what to play with first. Unlike a kid on Christmas, though, you can't really play with one thing, then toss it on the floor and move on to the next thing. Fortunately, the indecision didn't last for long. I just grabbed the first thing that caught my eye and went to town.

The first braid to catch my eye was some polwarth/tussah silk from Dicentra Designs. It started out looking like the braid in the bottom of the photo above. Pretty, shiny, fits right into my usual color scheme... basically, it was perfect. I turned it into this:

Pretty, shiny, a little bit understated. It was a perfectly lovely spinning experience. Alas, it was also just a tad boring. I mean, this year at wool market, I made the effort to get out of my color comfort-zone, and the first thing I chose to spin from my haul was squarely in the middle of that comfort zone. Lame. I'll do better next time, I promise.







I also finished some socks. Did I tell you about my socks resolution this summer? I need to get rid of some stash, and I have a bunch of yarn set aside for socks, I need some knitting to take to work with me... it's just the easiest plan in the world. Anyway, pair number 1 for the summer! Sadly, I made the soles a little bit long for my feet, so they fit a bit awkwardly. I'll think of something to fix that, though. You'll see.







Next time, on "Dirty Words"... we learn about Lily's new desperate love for oatmeal BFL, we meet Lily's new socks, and get the real story on Lily's yarn addiction. Stay tuned!

What I've been up to

I realize I was going to post several days ago, but I kept putting off taking pictures. Anyway, here's what's been going on at my house:

The only knitting that I took to Europe was a shawl. A lovely pink shawl, made from Lush, an angora and wool mix. I started it around Thanksgiving, and didn't finish it until slightly after I got back, but I got a great deal of it done while I was gone. It still needs to be blocked, but isn't it pretty?

When I got back, and had finished the shawl, I restarted a pair of socks. Remember the pair that I started last semester and messed up? Well, this is the same yarn, different pattern. I love them. They're fabulous.

I made a resolution that I would make socks in my class this semester, but I've already broken it. I blame the package that came in the mail yesterday.

I got sweater yarn! The pattern is Velvet Morning, from the winter Knitty. It's in Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. I'm really excited about it. And I took it to class with me last night, because I apparently have some serious sweater lust.

I must also confess to some startitis... I have started another shawl, which I take to work with me, since it's not terribly attention-consuming, and I have had the yarn for a while. The yarn is Malabrigo lace, in Velvet Grapes, and the pattern is Off for a walk with Charlotte. It's going much more quickly than I thought it would, considering it's lace weight yarn.




I have also been considering casting on other projects, but I've been trying to channel the startitis energy into spinning, to try to get the spinning stash under control. It really needs to be got under control... wish me luck!

Cravings

Do you know what I really wanted today? Sour Punch Straws. Any flavor would have done, really. I thought I would be able to find them at the 7-11 between where I was eating lunch and the place that I park for work. However, such was not the case. It was really very disappointing.

In order to cope with my disappointment and craving, I knit about 80% of a sock:

While I didn't actually finish the sock at work, enough of it was done that I didn't need to do much once I got home. Yay! So I've completed a pair. I'm not sure how I feel about them. They may need one or two repeats of the pattern to be removed. I worry that removing those repeats will make the top of the sock fit, but the bottom and heel of the sock be too short. Therefore, I've woven in the ends and am planning on wearing them around a little before I make a decision.

I also sent the invites for Shelby's bridal shower this afternoon! It was very exciting because, as I may have mentioned, I was getting a bit obsessive about them. I brought them to work with me, so I could finish writing things on the envelope and stamping the envelopes so they'd be as cute as possible. I posted a facebook status about being obsessive about "the invites," even. And apparently "invites" only means one thing to the facebook-verse: wedding invitations. I don't know why so many people assumed that it meant some portentous sort of invite, since it's not like I have a highly-active love life, but there you have it. This morning, I was forced to reassure several people that I wouldn't think of getting married in the near future. Ridiculous.

Also, it is finally time for you to meet Dj's scarf.

Nice colors, right? It's just a shame about having to carry the yarn up the side so much... you can see that on the edge of the scarf in the picture. I'm not sure what to do about that unattractiveness yet. Abby approves of the scarf, though. It's not done yet, although I bet I can finish it before the end of the day tomorrow. She put it on today and started making very satisfied noises about how cozy it is. She often has to go sit outside for long sporting events (Dj plays baseball. In Nebraska.), so she needs cozy clothing, and she prefers to steal that sort of clothing from her boyfriend. I suspect that she will get a lot more use out of this scarf than he will...

Anyway, that's all the knitting that's fit to print. And for those of you who are curious, I managed to find some Sour Punch Straws on my way home from work. Success!

New week, new work, new knitting

Hi friends! I started my new tutoring job today. I think I mentioned that I'm a tutor at several different schools, today I started work at the UCCS math center. It was pretty boring, since it was also the first day of class for many students, and therefore not many people are obsessive enough to come beg for help from the math center. Since there wasn't much to do, I knit half a sock:

Attractive, right? I think so. I knit the first half of the sock during tutor training (again for UCCS) last Tuesday. I can't even tell you how many people think it's fascinating to see people knitting in public. And how many people asked what I was knitting, whether it was a hat, who was it for, and then expressed surprise that the sock was for me! I suppose the sock looks a bit smaller off the foot than on, so that last part isn't as shocking as I like to think it is.

I can't even explain to you how clever I felt turning the heel of this sock. I mean, heels in general are pretty clever. But I was doing it from memory from the 2 pairs of socks that I've already knit. And it looked Just. Like. A Heel. While I was sitting surrounded by people whose qualifying feature is that they are good at math. I don't know why that last part made me feel clever. But it just did. 

I also cast on the second sock, in the hopes of staving off second sock syndrome. I am a frequent sufferer of second mitt syndrome for my fingerless mitts, so it's a technique that has worked before. But we shall see. I should have lots of time to work on it this week, since I'll also be working at the PPCC math lab, and I'll have class on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Who knows, I could have a new pair of socks before the end of the week!

P.S. Don't tell me how funny looking the sock is. I already know, and I'm not thinking about it. I have giant feet and as long as the socks look attractive on, what do I care if they look like they could hold the remote to every single one of your tvs?