SnicklefritzKnits

What day is it again?

2006-12-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

It's been nearly a month since I blogged! I keep feeling guilty every time I do my daily blog-snoop and see who's posted when I haven't, but my head started spinning just about when I got back from Thanksgiving break, and it's still going. I'm thinking almost exclusively in lists these days - numbered steps in protocols in the lab, shopping lists, daily to-do lists, to-pack lists. So now, a list of some of the random things that are whirling out of my head, as a place-holder for when I can post something more knitting-relevant.

* I'm knitting like a madwoman, any chance I get. I have one long side of my Print O' the Wave for Grandma to knit the edging onto - 24 repeats in 4 days, plus blocking. ACK! And then there's the Pomatomus socks for Aunt Becky - one and a half socks still left to knit, with some worries about running out of yarn. Double ACK! I've broken my aversion to knitting on the subway - I actually do need every free five minutes for a round or two. I was self-conscious about people staring before, but it's actually not that bad. Yes, I'm knitting a sock, and I need to knit another before Monday. Wanna help?

* I can't wait until these are both done so I can get back to normal knitting. I started a scarf for Tim after seeing a great, simple one in Banana Republic awhile back. Simple Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, simple mistake-rib pattern. I cast on, knit about 6", and loved it, but I had to drop it. There are also still socks to finish for Sock Wars, and I haven't even thought about all of the things that I want to knit for me. I haven't knitted for me in at least a month.

* I love Christmas more than usual this year. I have carols stuck in my head all the time, and I don't even mind. I had a great time gift-shopping (online), and I can't wait to hop on a train to go visiting. I have half a million errands to run, things to pack, and ends to tie up before Friday morning, but it'll all be worth it to collapse on the train with Tim, knit a bunch, watch some movies, and (maybe) sleep.

* Mom and I had a good laugh the other night - great minds (or at least closely-related female minds) still think alike. She called to tell me that some packages I had shipped to their house had arrived. I told her what was in one of them - a 7" Hollow Ground Santoku knife for Tim. And she let out the most dismayed "Oh..." I've ever heard. Turns out she got him the same thing - a Santoku knife and also a good chef's knife. Awfully generous of her, but that's beside the point. We decided to just give him the chef's knife and decide which of the Santokus he likes best.

* I found a great new blog - Don to Earth, written by a Donald Crowdis who, at 93, is our oldest blogger. His posts are incredibly erudite and thoughtful, and it makes me wish that more of the elderly were aware of the blogging phenomenon. As my grandparents get older, I wish more and more that their good old stories and musings were really well recorded.

* It's lunchtime. I'm finally to a long-incubation step in my cochlea processing protocol, and it's time to chow. Manic holiday prep has come nearly full-circle - I'm back to basic instincts. Food, sleep, knit.

There'll probably be a really photo-heavy post before New Year's. Until then, happy holiday!

Hallelujah!

2006-11-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

I just finished what could be the most beautiful thing I've ever knit!

Pattern: Seraphim , from MimKnits
Yarn: Socks that Rock mediumweight in Jasper, about 2.5 380yd skeins
Needles: Addi Turbo size 5 circular
Started: October 9, 2006
Completed: November 19, 2006

It's done and blocked, and it's beautiful. It's light and slightly sheer, but very warm, so soft, and large enough for a nice, generous wrap around the shoulders. The color change from blending in a different STR dye lot looks much subtler now than it did on the needles, and I almost like it better with that shading than I might have if the whole thing were the same shades-of-mulberry color. I can't wait to see Mom's face at Christmas when she sees it.

This Christmas knitting thing (and knitting for others in general) is turning out a million times better than I expected. I've previously been a fairly selfish knitter, believing that knowing that I'd have to give it up would sour the knitting process. But I actually think that I love this shawl all the more because I'm giving it as a gift and I think that Mom will love it. It's one of her favorite and most flattering colors, and I can just see her wrapping up in it in cold hockey rinks or watching movies on cold evenings with my dad.

Have I finally discovered the secret of happiness for knitters who do more knitting for others than for themselves? I almost always knit for myself because it's so satisfying to make something that I know that I will love, but it looks like there's just as much pleasure in making something that will really suit someone else. Hopefully my other two Christmas knits will come out just as well.

Good smells are starting to come from the kitchen. Mom has discovered the wisdom of Mr. Alton Brown, who has gotten her more excited about cooking Thanksgiving dinner than she has been in years. I think she has a bit of a crush (not that I can blame her - you've gotta love a comedian who can cook), and I can't wait to taste the results. Until then, I'm off to lend a hand with the green beans, apples, and possibly the cranberries. Good eats and happy day to everyone!

Well I'll be darned

2006-11-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The Northeast
The South
Boston
The Inland North
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Contrary to what I always thought, there is a Philadelphia accent! I can count on one hand the number of times someone has told me I have any sort of unidentifiable inflection or accent, and I know I don't have any of the distinctive speech quirks that come with say, the deep south, Boston, or Minnesota. I can't really pin down anything that makes a Philly accent. The best guess I can make is a tendency towards "aw" rather than "ah" sounds in words like caught, dawn, on, etc. I knew a guy from central PA named Scott whom everyone teased for introducing himself as Scawt, but I never knew that was a PA thing in general. Whodathunkit.

Plodding along on Seraphim (nearly done the third chart), with minor progress on Print O' the Wave and random socks, but nothing exciting enough to photograph (especially since daylight photography hours come so dearly on weekdays). My goal is to have Seraphim done, if not blocked, by the time I leave to go down to PA next Wednesday. POtW and probably a few pairs of socks will keep me company on the train. I absolutely cannot wait - I desperately need a vacation!

The Seamless Hoodie!

2006-11-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Henry's Attic Prime Alpaca, color Mist Gray, 2 665yard hanks plus a bit of a third
Needles: Addi Turbo size 3 40" circulars
Started:August 22nd
Completed:October 30th

I'm so happy with this project! For one thing, I still can't quite believe that I managed to go from a vague idea to a sweater that I really love. I planned the whole thing, always with the tiny doubt in the back of my head that it would actually turn out as I pictured it. I also can't believe that I actually finished a sweater in time to wear it. My finished objects always seem to be so out-of-season (for example, finishing Arisaig in the middle of summer). I wore it yesterday, with no self-consciousness. I've never finished a sweater before that I've been happy to wear in public because I love it. It's always been because, gosh darn it, it took a lot of work and I'm going to wear it even if I'm not honestly crazy about how it looks.

Christmas knitting is coming right along. I'm waiting for a package from Blue Moon (any day now!) with another skein of STR for Mom's Seraphim shawl and some Beryl for toes, heels, and cuffs on the socks I'm making for my aunt. In the meantime, I started on the Print O' the Wave stole for my grandmother, in STR Star Sapphire.

As with most lace patterns, it took awhile for my brain to really link the chart to the knitted lace, but by now it's making more intuitive sense and I don't need to go back every other stitch to figure out what to do next. The yarn is mostly on the purple side of periwinkle, but it's making fairly regular stripes of a slightly more blue color that looks really pretty with the lace. I hope Grandma likes it!

The weather is getting steadily cooler, and I love it. I love the leaves, the chill, and wearing my scarves, sweaters, puffer vests, gloves, and boots. I wish it could be fall all year. The cats are super-cuddly; ever night I wake up to find that at least one of them has tucked him/herself in under the blankets with us. Snicklefritz likes to be surreptitious about it, and she always seems ashamed when I wake up in the middle of the night to find her snuggled in. But sweet, snuggly Bagheera never wastes time being coy.

Most nights he beats me into my side of the bed and I have to nudge him over to get in. No matter - he warms up the sheets for me, so I can't really complain.

Anticipation (as usual)

2006-10-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

My knitting attention span is terrible! No matter how great the excitement at the beginning of a new project, I can almost guarantee that it'll be second or third (or worse) on the priority list as soon as something new comes along.

I say this because the shawl that I was working on in exchange for my beautiful Slytherin scarf is winging its way back to its owner. Therefore, as I see it, a slot has opened up for a new WIP. And as I've discovered on multiple blogs lately, the preview for the new Winter IK is up, and I can pick two or three projects that I would drop everything for. These I could actually make as shown - same yarn, color etc.

Also cute are
I'm lucky this won't be in stores until mid-November! Hopefully I can finish a few Christmas knits, a few second socks, and maybe even start a sweater for Tim before this new set of distractions comes out.

I'm so excited for this weekend; Tim and I are driving down to Providence to meet up with my parents and my brother. The Lehigh U hockey team, captained by my little brother, is playing at the University of RI, and my parents are using it as an excuse for a weekend getaway. They're treating Tim and I to join them, which is really nice of them. I've been busy enough with work lately that the idea of getting out of the city and doing something unusual sounds killer. Plus, road trips mean good knitting time. By hook or by crook, I will finish my hoodie and have it blocked by the end of the weekend. Photos Monday (I hope)!

Marooned

2006-10-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

I've been stuck on sleeve island for weeks and weeks now, and hope is fading. Mirages of a fuzzy, perfectly blocked and perfectly fitting hoodie keep hovering just out of reach. Luckily the yarn supply is solid, and it's just a matter of time until I can escape. I had one weekend-long spurt after I discovered a method for top-down sleeve caps. I left it untouched for weeks, not feeling motivated enough to start sleeve #2. Even now that I have only about half a sleeve to go, I'm still cranky about it. If I just put my mind to it, I'd have a sweater by the end of the week, ready to wear right as the weather is really starting to chill.

On another maroon note, the Seraphim shawl for Mom has really come along quickly. It's always nice when knitting with a gorgeous yarn keeps you from minding endless 300+-stitch rows of plain stockinette.

I'm about halfway through the second lace chart, but I'm having serious fears of running out of yarn. I e-mailed Blue Moon Fiber Arts in the hopes that they'll have another skein from the same dyelot. Just in case, though, I'm stopping until I find out. If they have to send me a different dyelot, I want to have enough of my current skein left to blend with the new one so that the change doesn't show too starkly.

Shauna has finished and sent back my Slytherin scarf, and I completely adore it. The length is exactly what I hoped it would be, and the double thickness is so luxuriously warm. I love it so much that now I want to make one for Tim, although I'll have to acquire some serious self-discipline if I'm going to start another large stockinette scarf and finish it in a decent time period. Shauna, thank you so much! My end of the deal is coming closer and closer to completion. Even though I don't get to keep this lovely mass of black alpaca shawl, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it looks when it's done and blocked!

It's such a beautiful fall day here. The blue sky, the sun, and the yellowing leaves in Davis Square look so pretty together, and the air has really got a nip to it. Time to debut lots of recent knits - Arisaig, Knucks, my hoodie (if I can manage to finish it), and my brand new scarf. Snicklefritz and Bagheera are having a grand old time in the cold. They're doing a remarkable job keeping warm, whether they're tearing around the apartment after each other...

...or snuggling.

Smart cats.

Bliss!

2006-10-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

Oh, how I love Socks that Rock! I saved a little money, placed a fairly large order (for me), and counted the hours until it arrived. When the package tracking on Friday said it had been delivered, it slowed my day to a crawl. I absolutely couldn't wait to come back and dig in. The single skein of the green/blue is the County Clare colorway, to make socks for my aunt. I think I may try to stretch one skein into a pair of custom-fit knee socks. While I love the idea of making her knee socks, I'm skeptical about whether I ordered enough yarn. If I knit them toe-up, I'll be a little more comfortable. I think I may order a skein of some coordinating green color for toes, heels, and cuffs, both for interest value and to make the County Clare stretch a little further. Even with enough yarn though, I'm not completely confident of being able to get such a customized fit correct for someone else. I don't want to ruin the surprise by asking her to send me all her leg and foot measurements. Luckily, my aunt is just about my size (I think). Still, it crossed my mind that this lovely sea-green blend would make a fantastic pair of Pomatomus socks if I were to decide to play it safe.

The Star Sapphire color is destined to become Eunny's Print O' The Wave stole, for Grandma. Her favorite color is purple (for her amethyst birthstone), and I think she'll love this. I can really see the pattern looking amazing in this color, and the heavier-than-lace weight yarn should make something with some warmth. I think lace shawls and stoles are gorgeous, but I've always appreciated them more if they're thermally functional! I'm hoping it's something she'll actually use.

Finally, the Jasper color is for a shawl for Mom. I picked Seraphim, again because there's really something to it. It's large, and it's actually mostly stockinette, with a great lace edging. I can see Mom wrapping up in it while watching movies with Dad, at night when they turn the heat way down, at the ice rink for my brother's hockey games, or out and about if she gets dressed up a little. I first saw it at January One (the one there is so pretty!), and it was love at first sight. It's such a perfect combination of attractive and functional.

And the yarn is absolutely perfect for it. The mulberry color is ideal for Mom, and I love how the ever-so-slight color variations look. Plus it has a nice, tight twist so the fabric is smooth. I'm surprised at how well the mediumweight works with the recommended gauge. 5 stitches/inch on size 5's is actually no trouble. Normally I'm such a tight knitter that I have to use much heavier yarn than recommended to get the correct gauge. It's a good thing I decided against the heavyweight at the last minute; the shawl would have been way too bulky. The fabric I'm getting is light, and it'll be lovely to wrap up in.

I wish we had more long weekends. I got so much done in the last three days! I spent a few hours on the shawl I'm finishing, and I just have one more side of the square left to edge. One more week and it should be done. Second, I finally got out of my funk and started the second sleeve on my gray hoodie. I can't wait to have it done; it's so cute! And third, I got a really good start on Mom's shawl. I'm addicted to this thing - the sheen and the semi-solid color are just amazing. I think I'll be knitting a lot out of STR in the near future!

Killer socks

2006-09-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Yarn-monkey's International Sock of Doom, for Sock Wars
Intented Target: Stephanie, code name General Knitting Fiend
Yarn: 2 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color #108
Needles: Brittany Birch DPNs, size 5, now stained a pretty light pink from the yarn. Note to target: don't wash with whites.

Such a simple, quick pattern! The Supermerino is really nice yarn, and knitting it up in the broken rib makes a great, squishy sock. I'll have to make a few more pairs for Tim and I. Later, though. My assassin still hasn't contacted me, so I need to figure out what's going on. For all I know, (s)he already has my address and I'm as good as dead. If not, I may have more socks to work on. After that, knitting priorities are as follows:

1) Shauna's shawl, which I promised to finish and send back by Halloween
2) Alleviate the second-sock-syndrome - finish Swedish-colored Jaywalker socks and make my second PB&J sock before I get too into other things
3) Get over the knitter's block and do the second sleeve for my gray alpaca hoodie. It's almost cold enough to wear it!
4) Christmas knitting! This year I'm going to do it and do it right - so far I'm planning knee socks for my aunt, and shawls for my mom and grandma. Grandma has been in the hospital/nursing home for the last...gosh, probably coming up on three months now. She started with pneumonia, which weakened her so quickly and so badly that she hasn't walked on her own since she caught it. After that came various infections from the hospital. I can only imagine how upsetting the past few months have been for her. I'm hoping she can come home for Christmas, and although she and I aren't terribly close, I think she deserves something special this year. I'm thinking of doing Eunny's Print 'o the Wave Stole for her, probably in a nice wool sock yarn to give it just a little warmth. Same for my mom (who likes to keep the house on the chilly side), although I haven't picked a pattern yet. I'm seeing a large order of Socks that Rock in the near future!

But. All this is going to have to wait for awhile. For now, I have much reading to do. One of my PIs is conducting a mini-course on cochlear acoustics and auditory mechanics for the lab. The first session is on Monday, and I have a two-inch stack of articles and book chapters full of strange biophysics equations to wade through by then. Time to find a spot in the sun and dive in.

Recharged

2006-09-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how 48 hours away from home - out of the city and into some beautiful rural scenery - can get me out of a tired, cranky-ish funk. Tim planned an amazing trip. The campground was really well-kept and easy to get around, and we had a really prime site right by the brook and away from the road. The ever-present sound of the water moving over the rocks was so soothing, and it was just such a beautiful view. (Beautiful weather, too!) On Saturday after we got to the site and pitched the tent, we drove and walked around the surrounding hills for awhile. We stopped at a really pretty lake just off the highway. We sat for awhile on that jutting rock, dipped our feet in, and took a few deep breaths. I could have come home, well refreshed, after just that.

On Sunday we took it fairly easy. We had to shop for a few essentials, including a new air mattress - the one we had must have sprung a slow leak, because we woke up at least three times during the first night with our hipbones dug into the cold ground and had to re-pump. We had a delicious lunch at a local cafe, read and relaxed at the campground for awhile, then went to The Flume Gorge, a nature preserve in northern NH. We took the 2-mile hike up through the gorge, and it was absolutely breathtaking. It struck me that it's not very often that I get to see the sheer size and space of the great outdoors like that very often. It's hard to capture that with a camera.

Lovely as the weekend was, I was happy to come home after two days. It's hard to sleep in a tent! The first night would have been great but for the problems with the deflating air mattress. The second night, we had a new mattress, but it was just too empty. The weekend family campers had left, and there was no one to be seen. The pitch-black and the noises that you only seem to notice when you know you're all alone were just too much for us. We woke up in the middle of the night to sounds of something scratching and snapping around in the brush outside the tent. It was probably just a chipmunk or a raccoon or something, but it's hard not to be a little, well, terrified when you can't see even your hand in front of your face. Next time we'll have to stick to Friday through Sunday camping when there'll be plenty of people around.

Not much knitting got done over the weekend. I did get through the gusset on my Jaywalker sock, only to try it on and discover that it was a good inch too long. Other than that, the daylight hours were consumed by other things. Tim did humor me and stop at The Elegant Ewe in Concord on the way home. It was a little overwhelming! Their selection was awesome, and their staff projects were really impressive. The cool thing was that, for many of them, they had patterns and yarn kits available for sale. I didn't come away with as much as I thought I would. I did find some pretty, purpley Artyarns Supermerino for my Sock Wars socks and the size 5 DPNs to go with it.

I also got a little size 1 Addi circular, to use for a few gorgeous sock patterns I've seen recently. These (from Knitty) and these (from Eunny) look absolutely amazing. I've never tried such intricate, precise cabling before, but it must be so satisfying to get absorbed in something like that for a few hours.
Anyway... a cute little tape measure and the fall Interweave and I was all set. They did have some pretty, temptingly heavy skeins of sock yarn, but I just can't reconcile myself to the $20+ cost since the notion of the $6 dye-your-own skeins from KnitPicks came along. Besides, I already have the yarn for all the projects I can handle in the next few months!

And now it's time to do some unpacking, scrounge up some supper, re-do my sock gusset, and get to bed early. Tomorrow begins another crunch time in the lab. The June grant is getting reviewed in a month, and I have until Thursday at the latest to get a few essential bits of data to submit as a supplement. Luckily, after this weekend, I feel totally up to the challenge.

Swedish sock yarn

2006-09-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

After an afternoon of plastic wrap and dunking yarn into pots, I finally have sock yarn in my grandma's and my favorite colors - blue and yellow like her Swedish flag. I used Wilton's icing dye in delphinium blue and lemon yellow. They say that stuff is concentrated, but I didn't know the half of it! I test-painted one skein of wool that was lying around using diluted dye, spoons, plastic wrap, and the microwave. What a mess. The "clown puke" analogy that I heard somewhere in reference to really loud yarn definitely applies here. I had much better results with my skein of KnitPicks Bare Superwash Fingering Weight, dunking sections of it into a pot of slightly-simmering dye. I managed to get just about the right dilution, but even so, I had to be a little careful of how long I left it in. The dye absorbs in no time. It was interesting to see the blue dye separate out a little bit in places; there are small sections within the blue chunks that are more towards purple or more towards green. It's a nifty-looking effect. I dunked it in the blue, rinsed the whole thing in a sinkful of vinegar-water, then did the yellow.

I was so pleased that I couldn't wait until the alpaca hoodie or the second PB&J sock were done, and so I started these Toe-up Jaywalker socks, which I'd been wanting to try for awhile. The toe-up thing is especially useful here since these skeins of KP yarn are huge - 440 yards! These may end up being Jaywalker kneesocks - I'll have to figure out a way to work in some calf increases.

And now, it's time to pack up the knitting for a road trip! Tim and I are off for adventures in the great outdoors - camping up in New Hampshire for a long weekend. I'm so excited! The idea of hiking and working up a good appetite during the day and campfire food at night is so appealing. And there should be ample time for sitting by the fire and knitting. I can't make up my mind what to work on anymore, so I guess I'll tote everything along. The alpaca hoodie has come to a standstill. I've got knitter's block. I just can't make myself start the second sleeve. I can't wait to have it done, especially with no seaming involved, but new sock yarn is just so much more exciting. I have a Log Cabin square partially done, PB&J #2 to start, and my swap shawl to make more progress on.

On top of all that, I convinced Tim to make a short detour on the way home from the campground to go to The Elegant Ewe, a yarn shop in Concord, NH. It sounds like they have an amazing selection, including Koigu (which I've never tried) and the Artyarns Supermerino that I want to use for my Sock Wars socks. I'm psyched! It's been ages since I've been to a new LYS.

Photos of camping antics, WIP progress, and new yarn in a few days!

Lucky streak continues

2006-09-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the hoodie has a hood. And considering how heavily I was winging it, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. It looks a little bit Little-Red-Riding-Hood - somewhat close around the face but really wide and deep. The border is cute - I continued the eyelet columns from the body, and put a band of seed stitch on the outside to keep it from curling. It's gonna take some blocking, though. It has just a slight tendency to fold in at the edge, and I couldn't manage it well when I blocked the body out on the floor.

I was taking a deep breath yesterday and getting ready to start the sleeves, hoping that the sleeve caps I plotted out would work right, when I discovered a way to cheat. It's a tutorial on how to knit top-down sleeve caps. Basically, you pick up x number of stitches around the sleeve, then start with the top 1/3 of them and short-row down to the armpit. I started one last night, and so far it looks good. If I have to rip it and start over, somehow it seems less horrific this way. I think the fit can be pretty easily adjusted just by tweaking the total number of sleeve stitches and the number to start with for the short rows.

I'm still shaking my head at how little frustration I've had with this so far. I thought for sure that I'd have ripped back so many times by now that I'd be ready to bag it and stick with someone else's patterns. Either that or I'd accept a whole bunch of imperfections to avoid ripping back and wind up with a sweater that I hated. Maybe I actually will try to polish up a pattern to sell. If I can finish my version soon, I could try to get it into the next Yarnival issue to search out some test knitters for different sizes...?

I almost can't wait for this to be done, though; it's been totally consuming. I'm starting to itch to make that other PB&J-colored toe-up sock and make some more progress on my Log Cabin blanket. (I really don't want it to become one of those interminable UFOs that just never gets done - I want a blanket, darn it!)

And Sock Wars is almost here! I ordered some dye-your-own superwash sock yarn from KnitPicks and some blue and yellow icing dye from Wilton's. I keep looking for sock yarns in pretty periwinkle-yellow colorways, but so far I haven't found anything I really like. I've never tried hand-painting yarn before. If it turns out well, I may have to keep it for myself and find something else to attack my sock target with.

Progress!

2006-09-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed at how quickly this sweater is going! At 7 stitches/inch, I thought it would take forever. I stayed home on Wednesday to kick the cold that had been circling around, and I finished the body and started the hood. I'm so pleased with the fit - form-fitting, with just the right amount of ease so as not to be uncomfortably snug. The magenta yarn at the neck is holding the eyelet stitches that I carried over into the hood, which went really smoothly. I always seem to have a problem when picking up stitches around necklines with gaps, loose stitches, and puckering, but everything looks beautiful. No holes at the neckline angles, no struggling to find the best stitch to pick up to fill the gap. It's almost too good to be true, how smoothly the design is coming out - is it too much to hope that the rest goes just as perfectly?

I'm about 3" into the hood, and so far it looks like a clown collar; the fabric really likes to curl and the stitches are bunched up on a small circular needle. The row of spaced increases that I did is also adding a little bit of pucker, but as I get further into it, I don't think it'll be a problem. I think the sheer size and drapiness of the finished hood will mask the slight ruffliness from the increases. The tricky part might be to figure out how to shape the curve over the head when I get to it, but I'll work something out.

Not missing the fun this time!

2006-08-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

I always hear about cool knitalongs or sock-swaps too late. I missed out on some great fun, like Sockapaloooza, any of its predecessors, and the BMFA Sock Club. But not this time! I was just killing some time blogsnooping ('cause I don't feel so hot and I'm just not up to reading science-y stuff today), and I discovered

It's the knitters' version of Assassin. (Wikipedia's descriptions of some of the versions of this game are a riot - I like the one where you "kill" someone by smacking them on the butt or spiking their food with Tabasco sauce.) Anyway, this looks like a blast - you kill your target by mailing them a pair of socks, knit to their size using a pre-specified pattern. They immediately post on the forum that they're dead, and mail their work-in-progress to their killer, along with the info on their target. There are some possible complications with mail delays, though - what happens if I mail my socks to kill my target, but get killed myself before my target can send me his/her unfinished socks? I'll have to browse the forum to figure all this out. Time to see how fast I can knit a pair of socks - fast enough to get to my target before my assassin gets me? We'll see!

Oops

2006-08-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

I have the yarn, I have six-ish inches of lovely gray fuzziness, and I've been too obsessed with working on this thing to pause to blog about it. I knit like a maniac all last weekend and in every spare evening minute this week, and I just couldn't bring myself to stop long enough to take photos. The yarn arrived in the mail last Tuesday night - pretty impressive since I placed the order the previous Saturday. Catnip Yarns on Ebay is fantastic for these natural fibers - the price was incredible. Anyway, I ran out the next day to treat myself some more. I needed a ball winder, because the idea of winding up nearly 2000 yards of sticky, fuzzy alpaca by hand is absolutely unthinkable.
And I needed a good long size 3 needle. Just so happens that the only such thing that Windsor Button had was a 40" Addi Turbo - darn! It was absolute torture, getting through the day at work with these toys sitting right there and yarn at home waiting to be wound. After the first two skeins, winding wasn't quite as much fun anymore - ball winder or not, there are still knots and lots of shedding alpaca to deal with. (I looked like an alpaca myself by the time I was done.) But it was so worth it for these nice neat center-pull balls. The sweater itself is up to the waist, and I think it's going well. I'm sort of winging the eyelet details; I was just going to do two columns of eyelets up the front, but then I got bored and started swinging them in for a diamond pattern. It'll take some thinking to get the columns back to their original width so I can incorporate them into the hood, but I'll figure it out. I might be just a tad large, but I can always seam it in or let it felt just a little. I think, just maybe, I'm going to love this.

My all-consuming obsession is waning a little bit by now, so I can get back to my other projects soon. I have a single sock waiting for a mate, a partially-done Log Cabin square, and a shawl that I actually have managed to work on a little bit each day. Plus I have a few skeins of sock yarn waiting to be wound up. I don't know what it is about this ball winder that's so satisfying, but it's almost as fun to wind the yarn as it is to knit with it.

I'm so glad it's the weekend. I've had no knitting time the last few days. It's been a fun week - I got to see a branch of the family that I almost never see, got in a few good workouts, etc. Tim and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine last night, and it was an absolute hoot. I feel like I've seen a few indie movies lately that didn't really excite me, but this one was fantastic. I haven't laughed so hard at a movie since Steve Carell's babbling scene in Bruce Almighty. This might be one of the rare instances where I actually buy a DVD. Anyway, fun as the week was, I'm ready for a rest. I have plans to watch much TV and hammer out another few alpaca inches. I have to catch the last episode of Project Runway, and I'm feeling the urge to watch some girly movies. I'll start with Pretty Woman, and probably move Mean Girls and Pride and Prejudice (BBC and Keira Knightley versions) up on the Netflix list. I also want to get to the Boston Public Library to finally sign up for a card. Huge untapped source of knitting fodder. I think I want to try Fair Isle, and a knee sock like the ones on Grumperina's blog might be a great way to start, so I'm going to try to find the book with that pattern, and maybe see if they have Mason Dixon Knitting, Scarf Style, and a few others...

...there just aren't enough hours in the day for all of this!

Successful swap

2006-08-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

I'm glad someone besides me thought that the UFO swap was a half-decent idea! Shauna was brave enough to take on my Slytherin scarf, and I got an amazing nearly-finished black lace shawl in the mail on Friday. My task in the next few weeks is to finish the lace border in a pretty, easy pattern. As someone commented on my original UFO-swap idea post, there are some gauge issues to watch. I discovered that I'm an incredibly tight knitter - I had to go up two needle sizes to get the tension to match what was already done, but with a little experimentation, there's no problem at all.

One of the best parts about swapping is discovering new yarn. This Joseph Galler Prime Alpaca that literally landed in my lap when I unwrapped the shawl on Friday is exactly what I wanted for the gray fuzzy hoodie that I've been obsessing over. I couldn't have imagined a better yarn in my wildest knitting dreams. It's incredibly soft, should be the perfect weight and drape, and it comes in 1/2 lb. 665yard hanks. I found a great deal on Ebay ($17.20 per skein) and promptly ordered three in Mist Gray. I'd drawn out a good draft of the proportions and shaping that I want, and I've been sitting here crunching numbers. If I can get this stuff to give me 7spi with a good fabric drape, the stitch counts and measurements will work like magic. I'm still a little scared of the sleeves, but with plenty of lifelines and a few tries, I bet I can do it. If it works out well and I'm feeling really ambitious, maybe I'll try to write a few different sizes, gather some test knitters, and possibly... sell it? Dream big, Liz, dream big.

Oh my word, I am so antsy to get started on this thing! If my order gets processed tomorrow, maybe Wednesday night I'll be ready to go. To kill the knitting time until then, I've been stashbusting. I finally dug into the KnitPicks Simple Stripes that's been sitting in my drawer for more than a year, and I tried out Wendy's toe-up sock pattern.
I am a toe-up convert. It's incredibly easy, and I love the concept of just knitting until you run out of yarn (or get sick of it and decide the leg is long enough). And I really like the look of the short-row heel better than heel flaps. On the next pair, I may try to slip-stitch the heels to add a little durability, but other than that, it's just lovely. I think I'll do a pair of toe-up Jaywalkers next - I have some fantastic Lorna's Laces in pink and orange Bittersweet that's burning a hole in my yarn drawer. This is what I love about knitting - even when I'm just "passing time" until my next big project, I still get a pair of socks out of it. I still have the second sock to make, but tonight I'd better start another Log Cabin square - I haven't touched it in a few weeks. It's already starting to cool off here (sweatshirts and wool socks are out today), and pretty soon I'm gonna need that blanket!

Knucks, and a new obsession

2006-08-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Knucks, Knitty Summer '06
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Jeans, 1 skein with plenty to spare
Needles: Size 2 circulars
Mods: Fiddled with the numbers for sock-weight yarn - much lighter and easier to wear.
Thumb, index, and middle fingers: 20 stitches each
Ring finger: 18 stitches
Pinky: 16 stitches
Connected fingers as in the pattern with paired k2tog/ssk between the fingers --> 62 hand stitches
About 22 rows even, joined thumb, and did the pattern's decrease row every 3 rows --> 60 wrist stitches
2x2 rib (twisted the k stitches - awesome way to tighten up ribbing gaps) for about 2 inches.

These went so fast, and they're exactly what I wanted for fall - they'll be warm enough for the nippier days, but I can still use my fingertips. And I love the blue/brown combo; they match my favorite jacket perfectly!

And as usual, my next-project plans have changed. The Basalt Tank is history; realistically, I'd never wear it. I was thinking vaguely of starting the sweater-coat I'd been planning, but I think I may be branching out and trying my hand at design. I was watching some show called Veronica Mars the other night (it actually wasn't bad), and the heroine was wearing a cute orange/brown/cream striped hoodie.

Somehow I got from there to the idea of a lightweight, soft, slim-fitting pullover with a nice large, drapey hood. Slightly scoop-necked, with some subtle eyelet details, in a fine, slightly fuzzy medium heather-gray yarn. Soft and comfortable for chilly days, but elegant - goes with pajama pants, pencil skirts, favorite jeans, and dressy pants.

I'm absolutely obsessed. I could barely fall asleep Saturday night; I kept wanting to get up and scour the web for the perfect yarn. I think it's going to be Indiecita 3-ply Alpaca - it looks just fuzzy enough. I petted some amazing angora at Windsor Button this afternoon, but it was a little too pricey. This, I think, will be perfect.

I'm a little apprehensive about the designing thing. I've been taking shaping and sleeve proportions from some old Vogue Knitting sweaters and reading some interesting articles on sleeve shaping. I may have to do some fiddling with my sleeve sketches, and probably knit a few test sleeve caps once I've got the front and back right. With some meticulous swatching and number-crunching, I'm hoping that I can come up with something with just the amount of ease and figure-flattery that I have in mind. I've stayed away from design before because I always thought that the arduous knit-frog process would take more patience than I have and send me into one of my frustration fits. This time I couldn't resist trying, and I'm hoping for some beginner's luck so that I can end up with what I want and not fling the whole thing out the window instead.

Non-knitting and good music

2006-08-03T13:04:00.003-07:00

Nearly zero progress since my weekend excitement over Knitting Nature. I decided I'd better finish my WIP gloves before I got too caught up in the book, knit happily until Sunday night, and I don't think I've touched them since. Mostly out of tiredness - every night this week I've either been out or too utterly exhausted/hot to do much of anything. Last night Tim and I finally went to see a show at Johnny D's. The band was The Duhks, and they were absolutely faboo. The music is something between Irish jigs, sea shanties, traditional folk, and bluegrass with some salsa and contemporary pop. It's hard to describe, and I never thought I was into the twangy, country-bluegrass style. In fact, I would have picked it as my least favorite sort of music. My parents are really into The Chieftains and other bands that do a sort of Irish folk-influenced thing, and they just love the Duhks. So I bought their most recent CD and took Tim along to the show, hoping to at least tolerate the music and get the band's autographs on the CD to send home to my parents.

It was such a good time. I think that live music of just about any genre would be a blast to listen to in a little music club like that; sitting right next to the stage just doesn't compare to the larger Madonna-esque shows (not that they aren't fun in their own right). But aside from that, I actually think I like their brand of music! Their banjo and fiddle players were so talented, and they were absolutely enthralling to watch. I was so amazed at how fast their fingers moved and how much energy and really good sound came out of it all. And their lead singer was so good... and rather cute. Maybe it's the all-female college thing, but I'm terribly prone to girl-crushes on really talented or smart women. Anyway, the whole night was great. They played a few songs from their upcoming CD, and I think I'm sold. I did manage to get the CD I bought autographed by four out of the five members, and I may have a hard time letting it go to send to my parents. Ah well.. one more thing on my Amazon wish list! And I will definitely be going back to Johnny D's often. Good food and good music, cheap, and right down the street from home. There are a lot of interesting-sounding acts coming up that I'm not really familiar with. But lesson learned: rule nothing out until you hear it live.

Who knows when I'll be able to finish this glove and get started on my Basalt Tank experiment. Busy tonight, busy tomorrow, and off to see Grandma and Poppy and go to the beach on Saturday. Maybe I'll bring the glove along. I've never knit on the beach before, but it seems worth a try!

Knitting principles?

2006-07-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a bit lately about what I "do" or "don't do" with knitting. And I've come to the conclusion that, as with many other things in life, making absolute declarations such as "I don't do summer knits" or "I don't do knitting books" is useless. 'Cause I just broke both of those resolutions in one stroke. With my $30 credit for opening an Amazon.com Visa card account, I ordered Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature.

I paged through the book in Borders a few weeks ago, and I don't think I ever would have bought it if it weren't, for all intents and purposes, free. There are a few patterns that are really clever that I put on my mental "would definitely knit" list, but all in all it didn't quite seem worth the $20+. But since it was (f.a.i.a.p) free, I think I really like it. For one thing, it's a beautiful book. Glossy pages, appealing colors - it looks great on the coffee table. And some of these patterns really are neat.

The Hex Coat, since I've really been wanting a comfy sort of sweater-coat. I'll probably shorten it by a few hexagons of the trim, just to make it a little more indoor-wearable, but other than that I think this may be one of the first patterns that I make verbatim, right down to the yarn (Reynolds Lite Lopi).

The Honeycomb Henley, for chilly weekends and work days with jeans when I don't feel like thinking about what to wear. I'm unsure of this one, which is why I'm mentally saving it for non-stylish purposes. I just can't picture what it'll actually look like, since there's only this one picture and I don't plan to walk around with my arms in the air all the time. A case of deceptive photography, I suspect.

The Phyllo Yoked Pullover, because I love love love the lace pattern. I even sort of love the color, although I'm a little shy about hot pink. Maybe a periwinkle blue, just to be safe.

The Basalt Tank is a maybe. I've heard some awful things about mistakes in the pattern and general difficulties in preventing puckering. But it just looks like a blast to knit. And the Rowan Cotton Glace that I frogged from the failed Prairie Tunic might just work. If it doesn't go, oh well. If it does, and actually turns out to be something I'd wear, great! So much for the "I don't do summer knits" statement. Although really, what designers are thinking when they design summer tank tops in wool and heavy-gauge cotton yarns is way beyond me.

Lots of other maybe's in here that I might tackle with a few shaping modifications and the right yarn. For now, I'm still trying keep up with the Log Cabin blanket. Four squares are done and seamed together, and I love the way it's turning out. I had planned 25 squares for this, but just 4 are big enough for a baby blanket already. I may stop after 16 or 18, but we'll see.

Today, finally, I have hours to sit and knit. I think I'll start on my second fingerless glove from the Blue Jeans yarn. The first one came out perfectly. I'll post my photos and notes-to-self on the pattern re-scaling when the second one is done. After these and a pair of socks or two (since I'm still trying to kill the sock yarn stash a little), I think I'll buy the yarn for this:

The Bonita Shirt from the Summer Interweave. Another project that I may make exactly as is - I think it's adorable. Hopefully it'll be done in time for it to be a pretty late summer and fall top to go with my favorite cropped pants and a jacket.

I suddenly find myself with a ton on my plate! Time to cozy up and get started.

It's here!

2006-07-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Wonderful Lorna's Laces loveliness - Shepherd Sock in Jeans. I found the squishy little package when I got home just now. Never again will I buy L'sL from anywhere but Birds'N Yarn on Ebay. Her prices are great, and the yarn was in my mailbox less than 48 hours after I ordered it.

Plan for tonight! Laundry, accompanied by my 3rd log cabin square. Home to cook for Doug's dissertation defense party tomorrow - tomato basil bruschetta and the coconut cupcakes from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook (which I've been dying to try). Ideally, this will all be done in time for me to sit down and start a Knuck by the time Project Runway starts at 10. Ready, go!

Neglected knitting swap

2006-07-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

I gave in to a random fit of tidying last night, and I came across my former mindless-knitting project, intended to fill the gaps between other (more exciting) projects - my Slytherin scarf. I started it over a year ago, knit with gusto for a couple of weeks, then put it aside. I had another fit of enthusiasm for it recently - I made a one-stripe-per-week resolution and actually stuck to it. The thing is about half done, but now I've gone and replaced it. The new Log Cabin blanket is great for mindless knitting while reading or watching movies, and it's nice for short knitting spurts since one strip of a square doesn't take very long at all. My one-Slytherin-stripe-per-week resolution has turned into a one-LC-square-per-week resolution which, incidentally, I'm not doing very well on. I think I'm averaging at least a week and a half per square these days. Point being, poor Slytherin doesn't fit in anymore. I'd love to have the finished scarf, but I just don't have the extra knitting time for it.

So I posted to the knitting community at Livejournal.com yesterday with an idea. I know there are all sorts of kit swaps going on right now (including a neat-sounding sock kit swap that I missed the boat on). What if I were to send this to someone, complete with the yarn needed to finish it, and this someone were willing to send me an UFO that they just couldn't finish in return? We could set a deadline and send the finished items home again. I think I could definitely finish a project that's "new" (to me) and that I knew someone was waiting for. If you have just such an object that I could finish for you and would like to knit about half of a Slytherin scarf, leave me a comment!

In other news, I think I have a good start for a pair of the socks that I've been obsessing over. I'm getting a skein of Lorna's Laces Sock yarn in Bittersweet from a swap, and I think I'll use it to start those Dragon socks from the Keyboard Biologist. But that might come in second to my other new idea. I've been vaguely thinking of making a pair of open-finger gloves in a lightweight yarn for cool fall weather when just a little warmth is nice. The Knucks pattern from the new Knitty turned out to be really easy to modify for a fingering-weight gauge, so I ordered a skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in a nice blues/grays colorway. I can't wait for this one!

Sock fit

2006-07-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's Friday afternoon, and it might as well be the weekend already. My experiment calendar is pretty empty today, and I've spent most of the day blogsnooping and half-heartedly working on some slides for lab meeting next week. It's sort of nice - the sun is out, and Friday afternoons are prime time for lab ice cream outings. But after hours of sitting and looking at pictures of people's fantastic knitting projects and the occasional adorable cat, all I want to do is get home to my knitting and my cats. I also think that I need a new small project. No sweaters yet - too humid for thick strands of wool. I'm thinking socks. I've come across so many socks in my knitblog explorations that I must knit.
First and easiest, I've got to use those two balls of KnitPicks Simple Stripes. I can't remember where I got it; the mauve-cream-brown combo (which seems to have been discontinued) isn't a colorway I would have picked, but I think they'll make cute socks. Plus I've really been wanting to try the toe-up pattern from WendyKnits. I have rather large feet for a girl, so I always worry about having enough yarn when knitting leg-down socks. I love the idea of just being able to go until the yarn is gone.

Second, I was just at Claudia's Blog and saw her pair of Here There Be Dragons socks by the Keyboard Biologist. They remind me slightly of Pomatomus (which I loved), and I love the heel and toe shaping. I also discovered a really cute, simple pattern for daisy lace socks on Tari's blog.

Plus, the pattern for Eunny's Argyle Socks looks like it's almost ready. That girl's designs amaze me. I really like the intricacy of the argyle weave - it makes them look so nice and warm. (How on earth, on the hottest and most humid day of the summer so far, am I able to think of warm wool socks and think "mmmmmmmmmm"?)

The trouble with most of this is that I'm going to need to boost my sock yarn stash, and I've sort of put myself on a yarn diet since there are other things I need to be spending money on these days. I do have two skeins of an autumny burgundy-green-orange color, but I just can't quite see it in any of these patterns. Maybe the dragon socks, but I'm really seeing those in something greenish.

Ah well. I will keep to my resolution of getting by on what I have for the time being. I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend. It's going to be hot and humid, and I doubt I'll want to do much more than sit around in my mercifully shady apartment with a fan on me. Especially after last weekend at the beach in Duxbury, which was great, but my sunburned back is keeping me in the shade for now. Besides, I have Friends and Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs waiting for me from Netflix, and I have a lot of catching up to do in order to keep up with my one-LC-square-per-week plan. I may get up just long enough to go out for a tasty brunch and go to the gym, but other than that, it's time to be a bum.

Playing catch-up

2006-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

I'm a bad blogger. Actually, that's not true. I got discouraged when I managed to delete half of my template and couldn't re-do it the way I wanted it. Posting to a misaligned, non-visually-appealing blog is discouraging.

I don't know what my problem was. Coding is not my forte, but after an hour or so of tweaking the other day, I think it looks fine. I don't know how I got so frustrated with it before. It's not a great work of art, but I'm finally pleased with how the whole thing looks.

Anyway, the knitting is good, and it's time to catch up on a bunch of finished items and the current WIP.

Arisaig got finished (awhile ago), and I was so happy with how it turned out. And really disappointed that I finished it just in time for non-sweater weather. I just couldn't bring myself to put it on for long enough to even snap a photo. I'm starting to sweat at the very idea.

Pattern: Arisaig, from the Fall '05 Knitty
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply Cyclamen, about 8 1/2 balls
Needles: size 2 Susan Bates
Mods: Nixed the ribbing on the body, 4 rows seed stitch at the hem (also on the sleeves), and the rest of the body in the lace pattern. Picked up stitches along the front sides and all around the neckline and did the same 4 rows of seed stitch. Buttons and loops at the tops and bottoms of both of the front pieces. Worked well! I actually will wear this on a regular basis; I'm just crossing my fingers for none of the "Awww, did you make that?" comments.

I finally figured out what to do with that skein of STR. I tried Jaywalkers, and I ran into the same problems with getting the leg portion over my heel. Much as the design is great to look at, the total lack of elasticity has proven too much for me. So...

Pattern: Pomatomus, Knitty Winter '05
Yarn: Socks that Rock in Lapis, one skein with some to spare
Needles: Size 2 circs
I love these - the pattern was so easy, and these went really fast. And the nice stretchiness of the lace is such a relief compared to the stiff stuff I was getting with the Jaywalker chevron pattern.

The last thing, barely worth mentioning, is the Prairie Tunic from the Spring Interweave. Despite my new dedication to gauge and swatches, the thing wound up too big. I stitched the sides in, and it still just doesn't look that great. The cotton I picked (Rowan Cotton Glace) may have been just a bit too heavy; the fabric is nice, but it tends to fold a lot and just hangs really heavily. I may wear it once or twice

And finally, my obsession of the moment - log cabin knitting. I'd been wanting to make another blanket - something nice to throw over the new furniture that we bought last year. I tried large stockinette squares and got bored, and double-knitting proved too frustrating. I flipped through Mason Dixon Knitting at the bookstore a few months ago and loved the color possibilities and the lovely geometric-ness of it all. I obsessed for weeks over yarns and colors and patterns, and finally came up with 5 colors of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and a nice diamond-pattern made up of the half-blue, half-green squares.

Two squares down, 23 to go. At one per week, I should have a blanket by Christmas. And this is such a relaxing knit. I adore this yarn. The colors (Columbine, Nymph, Rue, Spryte, and Banana) are gorgeous, the garter stitch fabric is nice and squishy, and I'm having the best time snuggling up in my chair with a square and a book. The knit stitch is really all I can do while not looking, so a project like this is perfect for movies and reading books (as long as said books can stay open by themselves). I'm totally in love. Hopefully January One will start her Log Cabin KAL soon.

One square per week might not leave time for much else, but Eunny just finished the most gorgeous half-sleeve sweater, and I'm crossing my fingers that she'll sell the pattern soon. The intricate cablework and bust shaping are amazing - my hat is off to her. Plus she used Cotton Fine, and considering how much I'm enjoying this cotton/wool blend, this is definitely the next thing on my list. In the meantime, if there's no pattern, I may start the Caftan Pullover from the spring IK. The yarn (Berroco Ultra Silk) is expensive, but it's incredibly light and soft, so I may spring for it.

My first STR!

2006-03-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

Isn't it gorgeous? Kellee at Obsession du Jour sent it to me for guessing her weekend destination city, along with a pair of lovely, delicate beaded stitch markers. Even better, this just happened to be the skein I was eyeing in a recent sock yarn stash photo. How lucky for me! I'm so excited - I've been dying to get my hands on this stuff for ages. Now that I know how awesome it truly is, I'm going to have to buy more. My previous attitude towards sock yarn was to buy it, then use it. Now I see why people just accumulate this stuff. I'm definitely feeling the sock yarn gluttony coming on. Thank you Kellee!

This came in the mail just now, just as I was about to sit down to start another piece of Arisaig. I finishd half of the front the other night, but now I think I'm at a good stopping place. Time to switch to socks for awhile. I have a sock in progress that I've been meaning to finish for months, and after that - I think this STR would make a gorgeous pair of Pomatomus socks. Fun stuff!

Faboo!

2006-03-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

I'm bored. My afternoon of TV and Arisaig and being weighted down by kitties was fun, but now I'm itching to get out and do something. I wish I had more Boston gal pals to call at the last minute to go to 80's night at the Phoenix Landing.

Hope is just about dead for tonight - looks like spaghetti, chocolate applesauce cake with cream cheese icing, and a couple episodes of 24. Which, don't get me wrong, is nothing to sneeze at. But in hopes of future exciting nights out, I started scrolling Ticketmaster for stuff going on next month. And I found that Matt Nathanson, one of my favorite singer/songwriters, is playing at the Paradise Rock Club, two days after my birthday! Absolutely awesome. The tickets are ordered and on their way. Really must do this more often.

Ecstatic Saturday

2006-03-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love today. It's my first weekend in awhile where I'm not committed to doing anything outside of home. Boston weather has taken yet another bizarre turn, this time for the better, so I dragged Tim and I out into the sunshine this morning to get coffee. Back at home now, it's turning into one of those amazing sunny Saturday afternoons at home. Tim is baking a cake, and I've been putting in some quality time on Arisaig, joined (as you can see) by Snicklefritz. Happiness is my favorite jeans, pink yarn and lace, and a sleeping furball in my lap. I guess I've been MIA since midway through the Olympics. I must now admit, I will never be a good Olympian. I was a complete traitor to my event. Not even a quarter of the way through the body of Rogue, I abandoned it for Arisaig. I'll finish it soon. Really. I think the problem is the color The only way I'll get through all this purple nonsense is by telling myself over and over that, as soon as it's done, I will throw it in a bucket with lots of blue dye and turn it to a decent periwinkle. But first I'm relishing Arisaig. I love it. I finishd the back a few day ago, and I'm a few inches into one side of the front.

Knitting or not, I'm so glad that I'm taking this weekend for me. Two weeks ago was the ski trip, which was faboo. (New word I picked up - I love it.) But we got back to discover that The Boss was not pleased that we all took off for *gasp* an entire weekend. She'd been pressuring us since Christmas to put in more weekend lab time. It made me mad - I'm willing to come in on a weekend ever now and then, but I can't believe she'd hold it against us for taking one weekend trip. But, out of guilt, I spent half of last Saturday in the lab. I got a weird result that made no sense, obsessed over it for the rest of the weekend, and absolutely dreaded going back on Monday. This weekend, I left the lab on an upswing last night and swore that I would use this weekend to attend to the rest of my life. So far, it rocks.

Knitting ADHD

2006-02-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

I am a persnickety knitter. (I know there is a Persnickety Knitter blogger, and if she happens to happen by here - I love the color of the Rogue you're making!) My particular brand of persnickety means rarely being able to sustain the excitement for a long project without getting caught up in something else. I need knitting ritalin. Sure, the purple Rogue is going OK - I add an inch or so every night. But as I was working along on Wednesday night, I caught the new episode of Project Runway, my newest TV addiction. Daniel, the absolutely adorable and very talented guy in the top 3, was wearing the most awesome argyle sweater, and I immediately dropped Rogue and started sketching patterns and brainstorming yarns and gauges. I finally came up with this:

Pale blue/aqua background with periwinkle and dark teal diamonds, navy blue stripe. The next thing I need is a decent pullover pattern with a V-neck that I can work this into. And a decent sportweight yarn - haven't settled on it yet.

And then at some point yesterday I snapped back to reality - I have two major sweaters in the works right now, plus a half-finished sock and the neverending Slytherin scarf. Plus I've been having terrible sock yarn cravings, eyeing Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock on Ebay. And I have no experience with multicolor knitting. Maybe I should just buy an argyle sweater...

Love day!

2006-02-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I'm one of those saps who submit fully to Valentine's Day. I know there's a large camp that preach that rampant consumerism and the candy companies created V-day in a spirit of pure greed. I don't know if that's true or not, and I have gotten sick of the repeated commercials from all the major jewelry chains and Hallmark, but come on! A day to find a new way to let someone know you absolutely adore them (significant other or otherwise)? Pass that up just because Hallmark is promoting some tacky light-up kitsch? Not me. I was a little worried for Tim's valentine's spirit - he's been railing harder than usual at stupid advertisements since we got that TV, and I wondered if the anti-Valentine shpiel wasn't far behind. I wouldn't ask him to do something he doesn't want to do just to make me happy, but I can't say I wouldn't be a little disappointed if he blew it off completely.

But I should have some faith - he always surprises me. There was the year of the kissing Donald and Daisy dolls with magnets in their beaks. (Just slightly kitschy, but I love them). And then last year he cooked me a fantastic chicken cordon bleu - no small task for a guy who can't eat chicken and thus can't taste along the way. Tonight will be fun - pasta dinner, wine, and probably some chocolate. And on Saturday we're going on the Boston Chocolate tour - I'm all excited. There's a chocolate buffet at the end that sounds like my wildest dreams come true.

Right on schedule, I finished the Valentine Thuja socks last night. While not all that much fun to knit, it was awfully nice to see them on his feet. He wore them all night and commented constantly on his toasty toes. I tried them on this morning, and I think I may have to make me a pair of these. Incredibly squishy and warm.

This means I can really put in the time for Olympic Rogue now. I got a good start over the weekend, but I should have finished the socks before the opening ceremonies. I may have to settle for the bronze. But I'm really pleased with it so far - the bulkier yarn is making great cables, and the provisional cast on made the hem fold-up so much easier. Seaming the hem up on Rogue #1 was difficult to manage, and it came out rather lumpy and messy. I'm loving this nice neat hem. The only thing I'm not completely thrilled with is the color - just a little too grapey. When it's all done, I may have to stick in the dye bucket with some Kool-Aid to add a little more pink to it. Time to kick this thing into high gear - if I'm good, I may still make it.

Mermaid aftermath and Olympic training

2006-02-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Note to self: Self, the next time you decide to take a mirror photo of some finished object that you're rather proud of, do it justice by cleaning your very dirty mirror before doing so. Aside from the mediocre photography though, I'm still basking in the glow of having made a wearable sweater. Mermaid is making her public debut today - the weather is perfect for wool sweaters. So far so good!

Just one more day until it's time to cast on for Rogue. The huge hanks of purple Eco Wool arrived Friday night, and I spent a solid two hours over the weekend winding them into balls. The kitties tried to help. Actually, they tried to roll in it, eat it, and generally do anything necessary to keep it from making it into ball form. Another note to self: buy a ball-winder so your 100% wool won't end up 95% wool, 5% cat hair. Anyways, the swatches have been made, and the pattern has been read over and I am ready to go. I think this time I'll have to try to do a provisional cast-on so I can attach the hem stitches right to the body rather than have to sew it up later. Can't wait!

In the meantime, I started two new projects - one quick and easy and one long and rather challenging. The long one is Arisaig. In all this winter weather, I've realized that I have too many chunky sweaters in neutral blues, whites, and grays. It's time I had something pink.

The pattern doesn't look too difficult, but I'm making it a little harder. I'm not too fond of the ribbed look - it makes the wrap of the lower half pull in too much. So I decided to make the whole thing in the diamond lace pattern, with a seed stitch border. After three nights of work on it, I only have about an inch and a half done, but I love it. I can't put this thing down.

I also made Tim a Thuja sock. I'd been promising to make him wool socks for awhile, so these will be a V-day present. They go fast - Cascade 220 superwash on size 6 needles. But I have to say, I'm not enjoying it much. It's partly that my size 6 circs are occupied (by the never-to-be-finished Slytherin scarf) and I hate knitting on DPNs, but I think most of my reluctance comes from wanting to work on Arisaig all the time. I'll be a little sad to put the pink stuff down tomorrow to start Rogue, but I'll live. I like cabling almost as much as I like lace. The socks will get done somehow.

As I was saying...

2006-02-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

Pattern & yarn: Mermaid #1 kit by Hanne Falkenberg, purchased from Juliepoolies. Medium size.
Needles: Size 3 (3.25mm) for body, 4 for icord
Started: Nov. 1st 2005
Finished: January 31st 2006
Next up: Thuja socks, Arisaig, and Rogue Olympic training!

It's February 1st...

2006-02-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

...and Mermaid is done! I came in just under my deadline - at 11pm last night, I blocked it and went to bed. I swear, that thing has been blocked more times than all previous projects put together, thanks to a certain kitten who I discovered pulling the blocking pins up with his teeth and then frolicking all over my hard work. Gotta buy that cat some more toys.

Anyway, it's absolutely lovely. Sadly, no photos yet - late at night in the bedroom mirror with my unmade bed and piles of laundry in the background just wasn't a good setting. Tomorrow morning I'll have some free time to tidy up and take a picture worthy of the FO.

Must remember to call Little Knits today about my Eco Wool for Rogue. I'm getting antsy - I placed the order a week ago, and my credit card hasn't even been charged yet. Oh well - still ten days to go. Plenty of time left for training/swatching and maybe even a pair of socks.

Are we there yet?

2006-01-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

Almost there - so close yet so far. The first sleeve went relatively quickly; the second is agonizing. I'm definitely looking forward to wearing the thing, but even more, I think I want the satisfaction of actually producing a wearable sweater. My few previous attempts (particularly Rogue #1) were disappointingly of the "Awwww, did you make that yourself?" nature. Not what I'm going for. Just one "Hey, I like your sweater - where did you get that?" would rock.

Anyway, it's coming along. The rest of today and tomorrow are all but free, so this thing is going to get done, darn it. I may actually meet my end-of-January deadline. After that, I'll have about 10 days until the start of the Knitting Olympics and Rogue. After hours of agonizing, I finally found a good yarn for it. Cascade Eco-wool comes in skeins of nearly 500-yards, in exactly the lavendar color I had in mind, and at a pretty good price at Little Knits. In a few days there will be photographs of large gobs of lovely squishy wool, the moment it arrives on my doorstep. I have my doubts about my ability to finish Rogue in 16 days, but it is supposed to be a challenge. And you definitely won't hear me complaining about having to budget for extra knitting time, or about having a finished (or almost finished) sweater in under three weeks.

Until then, I have the pleasant task of figuring out what to knit in the 10-day interim. I have the yarn all set to go for the USM pullover. Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply in Cyclamen and Strawberry. But part of me really wants to do Arisaig, from Knitty. The shades of pink just seem to suit it better, and it's a style I know I'd wear. Something about USM really appealed to me, but I'm not entirely sure I'm into the foldover neck thing.

I think I may have just changed my mind. Oh well - I still have a few days of Mermaid to think about it. And hey, if I still haven't decided, I do have a sock yarn stash waiting for me. Maybe I'll do another pair of Jaywalkers while I'm making up my mind.

Snow business

2006-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

I just realized something - Olympics are coming up! I can't believe it's already been two years since the last one - I remember watching them with the girls I babysat for the summer before starting grad school. It seems so recent... can't believe that was almost two years ago.

Anyway, I just came across a post by the Yarn Harlot - she has started a Knitting Olympics, in which one must cast on a project during the opening ceremonies on February 10th and finish by the closing ceremonies on February 26th. Mad cool idea. I don't think I can put off the USM pullover until then (the yarn is here and just waiting for me to finish Mermaid and free up the size 3's), but Rogue would do nicely. I think I can finish a Rogue in 16 days...

Still plugging along on Mermaid. I'm at that point in every project where the excitement of knitting it wears off and I can't wait for it to be done so I can wear the darned thing. And this one I will actually be wearing - I managed to re-block it perfectly, and it looks terribly cute. I'm considering wearing it as a vest until I finish the sleeves.

Counting down the minutes (about 60) until I'm free for the weekend. I've been unusually productive in the lab this week, but the constant movement is tiring. I'm half-heartedly planning to come in this weekend - with any luck I can finish a set of experiments that I've been working on for weeks. I could use a break after all the home-making activity last weekend, but oh well. I'm definitely budgeting for a few veg-and-knit hours, so I'll make it.

Yarn to swap

2006-01-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

Well, that Harvard Square trip was productive. For one thing, the Crate & Barrell gift card that Tim's parents gave us yielded a good haul - cast iron skillet, food scale, steak knives, and a pair of tongs. It took us about ten minutes to blow the whole gift card. Lord only knows what I'd do in there if I had unlimited funds.

I also went by Woolcott; I can never resist that place. I didn't really know what I wanted, but I came across the Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply that I'd been thinking about for the Union Square Market sweater. The Cyclamen color turned out to be perfect. Sadly, they didn't have the Strawberry that I wanted for the trim, but my next webstop is The Knitting Garden to take care of that. Can't wait to start this thing!

Stash purge
I've given up on thinking of things to do with some of this. I don't know how many people read this thing, but if anyone's interested, here it is:

Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton in natural and green; Malabrigo worsted in Lime Blue; pea-green fingering-weight lambswool from an unravelled sweater - quite a bit of it; and a hank of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Natural.

12 balls of Rowan Cork in Bug - a fairly bright lime green, all brand-new. Should be enough for a medium-sized sweater. (I was going to make Rogue out of it, but misjudged the color.)

2 balls each of KnitPicks Crayon in yellow and purple - also brand-new.

I also have about 2/3 of a skein of Lorna's Laces shepherd sock in Ice House left over from my Jaywalker socks.

Anyone?

Mermaid - the vest

2006-01-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

The body is finally done! The last few rows were agonizing, but they got done. Attaching the i-cord edging took awhile too, but it was a really cool method. The only downside is that I was a little overzealous with the blocking. Straight off the needles, it was nowhere near long enough. The blocking definitely took care of that, but now it's too wide - I blocked away all of the nice waist shaping. Oh well - re-blocking won't take too long. I am so pleased with this - such an awesome design. It's even set up so that seaming is fairly easy; you just need to follow the lines of the slip-stitched edging. I'm partway through the first sleeve - maybe I can actually meet my end-of-January deadline for this.

Lots going on, though. Tim and I spent the weekend prettying up the second bedroom. We painted on Saturday, and yesterday we went out and bought a 30" widescreen TV, DVD player, and media stand. We had a horrible time getting it in, though. The thing was much heavier than I thought it would be. Getting it up the stairs was an experience that I never want to speak of again. Tonight we're getting furniture delivered - I found an awesome deal for a couch and loveseat on Craigslist. And during the day today we're off to find bookshelves. I can't wait until this room is all done; I'll have to take a picture to send to my parents and show them what we did with their gift.

Off to Harvard Square for now - coffee and Crate & Barrell, then off to Target. :D

Whoa again

2006-01-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love ordering yarn. I absolutely adore the nice squishy packages that show up on my doorstep every now and then (maybe a little too often - ahem). If I had the money, I'd buy anything that struck my fancy in packs and just hoard.

Presenting the latest arrival: 12 balls of Rowan Cork in Bug, for my second incarnation of Rogue.

I'm a little boggled by the color - it really is impossible to tell on a computer screen. What looked like a nice leaf green on most color cards and online photos actually turned out to be more Kermit. I do need to take a look at it in daylight, though. I'm a little torn - I like green, but a slightly more muted shade would be nice. I wonder what sort of luck I'd have swapping it.

Come to think of it though, I was told today that I need a lime-green sweater. Michele, Misha, and Fang keep sweaters in the lab, since they always get cold. All are a shade of green that's awfully similar to this stuff. Doug remarked today that I'm the only gal left in the lab without a bright-lime sweater. No more! But first, I absolutely positively have to finish Mermaid. Tonight, maybe...just maybe... I can finish the body.

And hold everything - Tim just brought me a BLT for supper! Three cheers for bacon-bearing boys! I'm out.

Whoa baby!

2006-01-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

I just got completely overwhelmed by nice things! (Love it when that happens) I came in the door to find three things waiting for me on the coffee table. Here are two of them:

One of them was expected - I ordered the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool two days ago. I was hoping it would turn out to be the right weight for the Union Square Market Pullover, and sure enough, it looks like it'll do perfectly. I'm going to swatch it tonight to be sure, but first thing tomorrow I'm ordering the rest of it. If only I could decide what color to make the main body in. I chose cream for the trim, but I'm stuck between a pale mauve, periwinkle, and a medium green for the main color.
The other was a complete surprise - Wendy of Brilliant Disguise sent me a skein of my ever-coveted but never-bought yarn - Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. This is the stuff I always pet in the LYS but never managed to justify buying. Now to think up something lovely to make with it!

The third thing was an amazing gift from my parents. They sold my beloved dark green Honda that my brother and I shared in high school and college, and they decided to split the money between brother and I. Granted, being a third-hand car it didn't fetch too much, but half of the money they got for it still winds up being an awfully generous gift. Tim and I are a little blown away. We'll have to sit down and plan what to do with it.

Now that I've got this Silky Wool to work with, I can't wait to finish Mermaid. It's coming right along; I just finished the second underarm gusset and I'm working my way across the second half of the front. I kept procrastinating on the progress photo, figuring I'd work on it for "just one more night" before taking pictures.

Hopefully the sleeves won't take too long - I really want to get started on this USM pullover. Plus, the new yarn for Rogue is coming soon, and I know I'll want to dive into that. Time to get knitting!

To do, to be, and to knit

2006-01-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I completely missed the boat this year. Suddenly it's 2006, and I barely noticed. Tim and I realized at some point yesterday that yesterday, not today, was New Year's Eve, and neither of us felt like thinking up anything fun to do. We tried First Night Boston last year, but the hordes of kids with the plastic horns drove us back indoors. Sadly, we don't know anyone who throws NY'sE parties, and we're not quite equipped yet to throw parties ourselves. (Maybe we will be in time to have a 24th birthday bash for ourselves and my best gal pal in April, but that's another post.) Anyhow, we sat around in our new bathrobes, learned how to play gin rummy, and played poker with pennies until 2am. It sounds lame, but I'll take that over kids with horns any night. Whose idea was it to let kids use noisemakers in public, anyway?

So. 2005. It may have been one of my best years yet. No more college stress, no more long distance relationship, and no more "where am I going next" anxieties. Moderately successful first year of grad school, thesis project, and a few new close friends. I know the four years of college are supposed to be the "best years of your life", but I think my best years are going on right now. Career/school is good, friendships are good, and relationship is good. For me, that just about covers it. But there's always room to improve.

"Me" plans
* Recover from holidays. This means no more eating the cold leftover ham and various desserts straight out of the fridge with fingers.
* Recover gym habits. Swimming, weights, and at least one other workout night every week.
* Keep up with doctors!
* Eat a little more decently. No more Pringles binges.

"Others" plans
* Keep up my end of the keeping in touch. Call Wellesley friends just to chat & initiate the get-together plans rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
* Find a weeknight outing excuse (besides the gym). Perhaps a book club or evening class at the Tufts main campus.
* Call Grandma & Poppy more often
* Call Mom & Dad more often
* Have at least one party
* Be a better listener

Knitting plans
* Finish Mermaid by the end of the month. (Made good progress in the last few days - the body is more than halfway finished! Too sleepy for progress photo at the moment, but maybe tomorrow. Perplexingly enough, the perfect gauge that I had with my swatch has suddenly increased dramatically. Major blocking will be required. I am not letting this one get away!)
* Make a Rogue hoodie that fits. Rowan Cork in "Bug" from Ebay to be ordered soon.
* Union Square Market pullover. Jaeger Matchmaker Merino in Cyclamen & Strawberry, also to be ordered soon. (Absolutely cannot wait for this package to arrive - piles of soft goodness in pink & green - hurray!)
* In general - keep the number of works in progress to 3 or less at all times!
* Always swatch, no excuses.

And that should just about do it. I should drag my butt up off the couch and pack up my stuff for the dreaded Return to Work tomorrow. Holiday or not, I'm determined to get to the lab for at least part of the day. Vacation, sadly, is over.

Ice house, in more ways than one

2005-12-29T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Ice House jaywalkers are done! Ice House indeed - how appropriate. It's freezing in here. New socks and feet on the heater, and hallelujah - warm toes.
Pattern:Jaywalker, by Grumperina - September '05 MagKnits
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in Ice House
Needles: US 2 circulars/DPNs
Next up: Araucania hat, more Mermaid, and probably Rogue!

New music / post-Christmas post

2005-12-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

My brother gave me a CD for Christmas - James Blunt, "Back to Bedlam". It's absolutely amazing. I heard his first single on the radio weeks ago, - "You're Beautiful". It's fantastic; it seems to be about one of those quick chance encounters with someone who might or might not have been the one but who you'll probably never see again. I listen to it while walking through Boston, and for some reason it makes being alone in the crowd a little less lonely.

Anyway, I suggested the CD when my brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas. This guy was apparently a soldier in the British army who was in Kosovo during all of the violence there. He writes some amazing songs about it - the lyrics, along with his voice, remind me of sort of a modern-day Bob Dylan. There's one, not about the army, called "Goodbye My Lover" that has to be the most heartbreaking song I've ever heard about losing someone. It's one of those rare ones that makes me burst into tears because it gets me to almost imagine what it would be like to lose Tim.

Christmas was fun - for the first time in a few years I was actually sad when it was over. There were a few ups and downs having to do with family members that are either stressed out or just getting old, but all in all it was almost like the old times. I'm slowly coming to grips with the idea that, sooner or later, I'm going to have to be satisfied with good memories of childhood among that side of the family. They've always been such happy people, and very little seems to be able to change that, but it's hard to accept that it can't last forever. But the details are a story for my good old-fashioned pen-and-paper journal.

I'd missed Tim over Christmas; I didn't realize how much until he walked in the door of my grandparents' house last night, looking fantastic in the new sweater my mom gave him. We came home and opened our few presents to each other. He gave me the complete Calvin & Hobbes treasury. Snicklefritz and Bagheera got a few gifts too. Toys and treats, of course, but as usual, the ribbon and tissue paper were the favorites.

In knitting news, nothing new. My second Jaywalker is coming right along, and after I'm done with them I think I'll let myself start a new sweater. I'm torn between making another Rogue, the IK Union Square Market Pullover, the shawl-collar sweater from VK and about ten other sweaters. Whichever one it ends up being, though, this time I'm being careful. Swatching, measuring, and sticking to gauge. So far I haven't made a sweater that I'll actually wear, and that's going to change.

Finally, sunlight!

2005-12-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

Since I started this knitting blog, I realized that I don't actually spend much time in my apartment during daylight hours. Especially with winter solstice two days ago. It's hard to take good photos of works in progress and the occasional finished object by lamplight. Which is why I was looking forward to today. Yes, I could be at work.

But I've been looking forward to taking today off to wrap presents, listen to Christmas music, and knit. And also enjoy the natural light in here and take a decent picture of pretty yarn.

Speaking of the pretty yarn, I love this stuff even more than I did before now that I know how far it goes. You're looking at two skeins of yarn here - the first one made a full Jaywalker sock and the entire leg of the second. At this rate, I'll have enough left over for something else. I could always make a pair of ankle socks, but for some reason I don't want to do that. I'm sure there's something else to be done with 200-ish yards of sock yarn... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is most unusual. I'm not used to lounging around the place without Tim. Right now, it's kind of nice. Plenty of sunlight, cats flitting around (and chewing on the ribbons on the presents), and hours and hours of free time to knit. Last night, though, was strange and not so pleasant. When Tim left yesterday for the holiday, I had this vision of me as the aloof, independent career woman. Who kicks ass in the lab until late in the evening before kicking ass at the gym and returning home to a nice apartment to kick ass at whatever hobbies she chooses to pursue in her spare time. No thoughts about whether anyone will worry that she's late or regrets about living alone.

I was partially right - I did work late last night. It was a good feeling to get things done, but the work wasn't fun. I genotyped all day (not bad), but then Doug took Michele and I along to thin out the mouse colony and taught us to dissect cochleas out of mouse brains. The dissection part is fine (sometimes I think I should have been a surgeon) - the mouse sacking is not. Feisty little buggers - between the two of us, Michele and I got bitten, peed upon, bled upon, and escaped from. Three mice managed to get away from us and scurry all over the lab bench before Doug rescued us. While it was amusing to see my slightly intimidating PI scrambling after a runaway mouse, it was still not the most pleasant evening. I didn't leave until almost 8, and I just didn't have the time and energy for the gym.

But no matter - I still thought I'd be able to come home, relax, and enjoy some quiet and solitude. That lasted right up until I walked up to the house, saw the dark windows, and realized how much I like seeing the lights on when I come home and having Tim come out of his computer cave for a hug when I walk in the door and then ask when I want to have dinner. It ended up OK - I talked to a few people on the phone, finished the leg of Jaywalker2, and watched lots of TV. I even managed to go to sleep, alone in the dark, without getting spooked. And THAT is a major accomplishment for me. When I lived with my parents, they would leave me home to work during the summer while they went on vacation, and each time I nearly went crazy because my imagination ran away with me. The house is just too big for one person, and despite my rational side telling me that Harleysville is a very safe town and that no one could get in (since I double locked all the doors and windows and turned all the lights on), the silence with the occasional unexplained noise sent me over the edge.

Luckily I'm much less of a wimp here in my small apartment. There's enough city noise and the odd sound from my upstairs neighbors to be reassuring. Granted, that didn't stop me from checking all the closets and under the bed when I got home. But at least I slept.

Ta-da!

2005-12-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

Finally, the mittens are done! Here they are, washed and drying surprisingly quickly. And it's a good thing, too - just this morning I left my other mittens in the cafe where Tim and I had breakfast with Kieran, Sarah, and their boys. Now that's what I call convenient.

Pattern: Urban Necessity - MagKnits September '05, largest size
Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style in Fog (almost 2 skeins), size 6 needles
Notes: After thumb gusset, no increases for fingers, in fact eliminated the individual fingers altogether. 5 rounds stockinette after thumb gusset cable twist, then 7 rows k2p2 & bound off. Picked up thumb stitches & 2 more (18 total) on thumb, k2tog at base of thumb on 1st round. For mitten cap, cast on 26st & picked up 26 from back of hand. k2p2 rib for 7 rounds on free 26st, no diamond pattern, k2together 4x evenly around to decrease.

I have to say, I'm sick of mittens. I re-did these three times with three different patterns and 3 different yarns, and I'm so darned glad I finally have a set that fit so that I can move onto Jaywalkers, Mermaid, and then probably a new Rogue pullover in Rowan Cork. It's on sale on eBay for $20 a pack in a sweet green color. I made one in Cascade 220 - classic example of how I screwed myself by not swatching. I've calculated it all out, and if I can get the yarn to do 4 stitches per inch and make the smallest size, I'll have a nice, just-roomy-enough wool sweater. And in this weather, I need as many of those as I can get.

K-day!

2005-12-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

Finally, a knitting day! Every night this week I thought wistfully of the second Urban Necessity mitt that I need to make, the second Jaywalker sock that I just began, and poor Mermaid, who has gotten very little attention lately. But every single night this week was full - Christmas shopping, Christmas-party-clothes shopping, and various parties and outings.

Granted, it was lots of fun. I got to go to Lush - I got my 15-year-old cousin a few nifty things and, uh, got myself a few nice little treats too. Thursday was the neurosci department party (ate & drank way too much) and the boy's office party (more fun than I expected). Last night was the lab Christmas dinner and Yankee swap, and the best night of the week. Everyone brought a few silly gifts for the grab bag and drank lots of sangria and margaritas. I wound up with a travel coffee mug that you plug into the cigarette lighter in the car, a bag of superballs for the kittens, and a box of chocolates. Which were among the least silly items at the table. The boy, for instance, got a Chicken Little Pez dispenser, a glittery calculator, a flask of triple-distilled vodka, and an air freshener featuring Homer Simpson.

It's all been fun, but I need a break. It all starts again tonight and runs straight through Wednesday night, but today I have nothing to do but knit and watch Scrubs re-runs on internet TV. Got yarn, got chocolates, got the comfy armchair. 8 hours until the next party. Ready, set, go.

Sunday night and socks

2005-12-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

I had such a productive weekend! For one thing, I Christmas-shopped. As usual, I set out full of holiday cheer and motivation to find the perfect gift for everyone. But malls are miserable, miserable places. Gaudy decorations, really horrendous versions of perfectly good carols, and the ever-present "Mom, I want this!" chorus. I did manage to find a few things - necktie for my brother, chess strategy book for my cousin, and Great Big Sea CD to go with the concert tickets I got for my parents. Which takes care of about half my list. The other half I will be ordering online. You couldn't pay me to go back to that mall until well after the holidays.

I actually managed to get myself out of bed in time to go to the gym this morning. Getting to the weights class by 10:30am on a Sunday can be hard. Luckily I have Bagheera the feline alarm clock. Normally he wakes me up with a few loud meows and his fish breath. This morning he added a plastic milk carton ring, dropped neatly in the palm of my hand. He's obsessed with these - he's the only cat I know of who likes the ring from the carton more than the milk itself. He fetches them tirelessly, and I had to hide it last night so I could go to sleep. But at 7:30 this morning he found it, put it right in my hand, and squalled until I woke up and threw it for him. Not the greatest of timing - if he'd have waited until 9:45 or so I would've been happier. But I take what I can get.

Finished several things this weekend - I finally dug through the tangle that is my knitting drawer and pulled out the small things I'd been meaning to finish. My first Jaywalker sock, for instance. I adore it - the fit is perfect, and I love how the colors look with the pattern. Mostly, anyway. Severe pooling going on in the leg, but it doesn't look too bad. At least the foot striped well.

I also finished a plain old stockinette sock that I'd put aside for ages. It was technically done a few months ago, but as soon as I sewed up the toe I realized I'd misplaced the toe decreases. I hate (really hate) frogging anything, so I put it away and forgot about it. Today I actually put in a lifeline, ripped it back, and did it right. I also put the mitten cap on that first fingerless mitten - it came out really nicely. Sadly, my camera battery ran out after the sock session, so I'll wait until both are done to photograph those.

The only catch to finishing all of this is that I didn't really finish. I still have one more of everything to make before I can really call them finished. Which is too bad, because I can't wait to wear these socks. I could cast on for another mitten or Jaywalker tonight, but I'm a little burned out on DPN knitting for the time being. Tonight's gonna be a Mermaid night.

Definitely an urban necessity

2005-12-08T17:24:00.000-08:00

Especially now - it got cold, fast! I put everything on the back burner in order to make me some mittens. I almost gave in and bought a pair, but that wouldn't be any fun at all. Not to mention I always lose store-bought mittens. I have many, many single gloves sitting around with no mate. Maybe I'll be a little more careful with hand-made mittens. I really like this pattern - worsted-weight yarn, so they're nice and thick, and they go really fast. This one's partially done - it still needs the mitten shell.

Tonight, though, I'm going back to the Jaywalker socks. I turned the heel a few days ago, tried them on, and hallelujah - they fit! Now I see why everyone loves this pattern - it's really fun to knit, the socks fit really well, and the weight is thin enough that I can wear them under shoes. I will definitely be making more of these. I'll have to get hold of some of that Socks that Rock that I've been hearing so much about. I'm thinking pink.

I need something colorful tonight for some reason - today was not so great a day in the lab, and I need something cheery. Finally, I have plenty to do - Michele has a new project going with the ACh receptors and interactions with other synaptic proteins that's both exciting in concept and actually fun to do (rare combination, it seems). I get to do some cloning, which I tend to really like. But today I actually had something related to my project - an RT-PCR to confirm the APC knockout in the mice. It didn't go so well, which was a little disappointing, and I had a vague blech feeling all day. It was one of those mornings where the sheer effort of prying my eyes open and getting out of bed literally gave me a headache. It's so nice to be back home with some warm food, a blanket, some mint Hershey kisses, and my yarn and sticks. Tomorrow will be better. :)

Let's try this again (and again)

2005-12-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Jaywalker socks, take three. The first one (large size, #1 needles) was way too small. The second one (large size, #2 needles) was way too big. But this third one, the smaller size on #2 needles, is just right!

Or at least I'm 99.9% sure they'll be just right. Trying on a sock-in-progress on 4 DPNs is nearly impossible for me, but I think it'll be fine. This'll teach me to make sure my gauge is OK before starting a project. (Well... this and the three or four sweaters I have that don't fit because I was too gung-ho about casting on to bother with a swatch. Oops.)

(Lorna's Laces shepherd sock in Ice House, courtesy of a fantastic secret pal)

What grad students really do all day

2005-12-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

So my mornings in the lab usually start with checking e-mail and blog-stalking, which lasts for around half an hour... or until I decide I really should start the day's experiments. Today's session turned up

this:

I've watched it too many times, nearly fallen out of my desk chair, and identified too many similarities to my own furballs. The cat leaping into the bathtub, for instance - absolutely Bagheera. And the kitten climbing the pant legs to get to the counter - Snicklefritz's trick, which she still manages even at 18 months old and 10lb. Ditto for the pair of cats startling the bejeezus out of each other around corners.

Ever have one of those days when you just can't get home to kitty-snuggle? Definitely guilty today. Baggy started his wake-up call a little early this morning. Usually it's not until right before the alarm goes off that he starts squalling in my ear and butting me in the face until I pet him. At which point he flings himself against me and purrs loud enough to wake up Tim (no easy task). Today his timing was a little off - 5:30am! That's a significant dent in my sleep, but it's awfully hard to be mad at a critter who just can't wait for you to wake up and cuddle.

Thanksgiving knitting - Mermaid takes shape, and socks just don't like me these days

2005-11-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

I just got back last night from spending the Thanksgiving long weekend down in PA at my parents' house. What a zoo - after coming back to the States from Paraguay, my aunt Becky and cousins Julia and John have moved in with my parents. All is going well - the cousins are staying in my brother's and my rooms and are happy at school, and the three of them are just relieved to be back in the US again. Lots to keep me busy - watching movies every night with the whole group, girls' lunch out with Mom, and lots and lots of food. We celebrated my brother Andrew's 21st birthday - that's him blowing out the candles on a chocolate-chip cheesecake. And the day after that was T-day dinner with all of the good stuff. The side dishes always make the meal. Mom makes a fantastic carrot casserole and this delicious cranberry-apple-walnut gelatin mold (don't knock it 'til you've tried it). And Mom also makes the best apple pie I can imagine. I'm gonna have to learn how she does it - I'm craving it now that I'm back at home again.

Lately it seems that whenever I have a decent chunk of time to sit down and knit, I wind up having to frog several days worth of work. Exactly the case over the holiday, and again with a sock that just wouldn't fit. I joined the Jaywalker knit-along over at January One - lots of fun, gorgeous socks, beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn. So I spent the bus trip down and all my knitting-time for the next two days working on the first one. I thought it was going so well until I finished the 6" leg, turned the heel, and tried it on. Absolutely couldn't get it over my heel. Again! The same thing happened with those rib and cable socks. I was so upset when I had to frog the whole thing. I thought my gauge was just right, but I guess not. Tonight I'm starting Jaywalker version 2, on size 2's.

Lucky for me, I had Mermaid with me - very rewarding knit. I've finished the first armhole and started on the back. I'm actually enjoying this miniscule knitting on a sweater-size project. I'm coming out with very fine fabric that I can tell is going to be awesome to wear. After I'm done this one I think I may have to start that interesting-looking sweater from the last IK with the pinned-aside neck and bell sleeves - small needles, but it makes a gorgeous lightweight sweater.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a Jaywalker to start. :D

Ribbit

2005-11-18T10:58:00.000-08:00

So those Interweave rib-and-cable socks? I worked on the first one all day yesterday. I finished the leg, turned the heel, and finished the gusset. It was gorgeous - lovely cables, looking so nice in the "Redwood Forest" colors.

And then I tried it on. Or tried to try it on. It was too small - I barely got it over my foot, and there's no way I'm giving my favorite aunt a pair of socks that she'll have to wrestle onto her feet. I checked my gauge again, and it actually came out about a stitch under. So I ripped out the whole thing, grumbling the entire time. Luckily I'm learning to be patient about ripping back, especially for little items like socks and gloves. Still... *sigh* Once the disappointment has worn off, I'll have to try them again on size 3's.

Knitting hiatus

2005-11-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Back from Washington, DC, where I've been otherwise occupied since Friday. The Society for Neuroscience meeting was a lot of fun - lots to see and fun to be had, but I was really happy to get home last night. It's gotten cold in Boston - after a few days of 70degree weather in DC, it's refreshing to get back to "normal" weather. It's finally dropping down into the 40's during the day, the trees are almost bare, and I'm hoping we'll get some snow by Christmas. (I'll be regretting that by January when I'm sure I'll be ready to give anything for it to STOP snowing!)

I took my Slytherin scarf with me, with the best of intentions of knitting on the plane. Luckily, I had no trouble getting the needles through security. But I found myself on little puddle-jumper planes, and I was either too cramped or too nervous (or both) to do much. I managed about half a stripe (7.5 done, 11.5 to go) in the whole trip.

In other news, I officially have more projects than I can keep up with. There's the above scarf - having that done soon would be lovely, but I'm not counting on it. There's the IK rib and cable socks that I must finish by Christmas for my aunt. There's also the "fingerless whatevers" that I'm not even half done.
And then the simple socks that I need to rip back on because I completely messed up the toe shaping. After this mess is done, I'm tempted to swear off of projects that come in pairs - socks, gloves, etc. - for awhile. But then there's the killer Shepherd Sock from my secret pal that I'm itching to start with. And the striping KnitPicks sock yarn from a recent swap. Good grief!

Time to get started - I have five days of catching up to do! TV is on, warm socks and sweats, and I'm in the best sun-spot in the living room. The furballs are glaring at me, but hey - they've had the armchair to themself for five days, darn it. It's my turn.

Ravings of a VERY happy giftee

2005-11-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

My secret pal has struck again! I came home tonight to an absolutely fantastic package. Including:

* sparkly squishy balls for the kittens. Apparently her cats are nuts about them, and it seems that mine are too! Baggy is going crazy over them. Snicklefritz is a little more sedate - she's content to choose one and carry it around in her mouth.
* A nifty mix CD of her current favorites - very eclectic mix. I'm discovering that I love other people's mixes. The last person I knitswapped with sent me a great mix, and this one is also excellent.
* some pretty knitting notecards and Japanese gummy candy (which is delicious)
* The Knitting Pattern-a-Day 2006 calendar. I am in trouble now. 365 knitting patterns, including many nifty small hat-scarf-mitten sort of items. As if my current to-do list weren't enough. I'm going to have a blast with this.
* and the coup-de-grace - 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in beautiful sea blue and green. Hands-down the most beautiful sock yarn I've ever come across, much less owned. Deal-breaker yarn. So much for my plan to finish a mitten tonight, so much for Mermaid, so much for my scarf. So much even for the IK rib and cable socks I was going to start tonight for Mom-mom (out of the KnitPicks sock yarn SP sent in her last package). Tonight I'm starting MagKnits Jaywalker socks, which I've been dying to make but haven't had the right yarn for until now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have made my week, and it's only Monday!

Beautiful fall

2005-11-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

I love sunny Saturdays. I slept in this morning and woke up to lots of sun in my bedroom and red and yellow leaves in the window. It's 70 degrees out (it's Boston, don't ask). Tim and I will definitely be going out later to wander the Back Bay - I owe him a new french press since I broke the last one. Maybe some sushi, if I'm lucky!

Work ended on a good note yesterday; Michele came into the lab around 7, and I was the last one there. She just had to tell someone her "secret" - she finally has her entire model figured out. All of the mess of proteins she's been trying to piece together, and she finally found the missing link that explains nearly all of the lab's data for the past year. I was speechless. It gave me a new boost - after finishing that NSF grant proposal, I was a little burned out on science. Next weekend is the beginning of the Society for Neuroscience conference in DC. I'm hoping that'll boost my enthusiasm even more. The Dalai Lama is giving a lecture on the "neuroscience of meditation". Should be interesting.

Made a few inches of progress on Mermaid last night - a few stripe rows after the first gusset. This is such a fun knit, and the finished sweater is going to be fantastic. I'm finally getting used to the tiny knitting and getting only a few inches out of 2 hours of work. When this one's done, I may have to make another one. KnitPicks sells some awesome fingering-weight wool...

Today I have vowed to work on my mittens - around here you never know when the weather will get cold again!

Hurrah!

2005-11-03T21:50:00.000-08:00

At last, after multiple incarnations and lots of messing around with blogspot code, my new knitting blog is up! Named after Snicklefritz, my knitting helper, but not forgetting Bagheera, my yarn connoisseur. He has a particular penchant for Manos, bless his little heart.

Knitting content is coming soon, once I get my camera charged and make a little progress. For now, a preview:

Hanne Falkenberg's Mermaid, my current favorite. Progress posts upcoming!