Sixty-four divided by four is?

Hey...

2011-12-31T18:41:00.002-05:00

Maybe I’ll dye my hair (the grey in it is starting to get to me)
Maybe I’ll move somewhere (but probably not)
Maybe I’ll get a car (mine is getting older, I have been thinking this...)
Maybe I’ll drive so far they'll all lose track (I road tripped a lot this year, I could do the same again)

Maybe I’ll sleep real late (yes!)
Maybe I’ll lose some weight (please?)
Maybe I’ll clear my junk (Goodwill needs my stuff, right?)
Maybe I’ll just get drunk on apple wine (not sure about the apple wine, but ok)

Hey, maybe I’ll learn to sew (it's an idea)
Maybe I’ll just lie low (definitely ok with this one)
Maybe I’ll hit the bars (brewpubs?)
Maybe I’ll count the stars until dawn (always a good idea)

Maybe I’ll settle down (pretty settled already, thanks)
Maybe I’ll just leave town (Again, probably not)
Maybe I’ll have some fun (YES)
Maybe I’ll meet someone and make him mine (or not, I like the one I've got).

Either way, I'll be fine and dandy, and I hope you are too. Happy new year.

My take on New Year's Resolutions, with apologies to Dolly Parton and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Who's that girl?

2011-12-17T12:15:00.002-05:00

I got up this morning and saw it was snowing, so I went for a run/walk, because I like my neighborhood route and it's no fun when it's icy and slushy, so I needed to do that a few more times before the snow makes me have a few months without.

I got up last Saturday, drove downtown, and ran a 5k in the 20F cold because I wanted to do one more race this year and I wasn't in town for the Drumstick Dash. That was my fifth race of that length since September, if you count the 3 mile Run Like Hell (and I do, it was a blast!)

I pay attention to my pace and time and distance, because I have to improve all of that to participate in the half marathon I already signed up for next fall.

I really don't recognize myself in any of those things, but somehow they're a part of who I am and what I'm up to lately. This all started with the 500 mile challenge, which ended in May with about 440 miles done. A year and a half after goading myself off of my sofa with that crazy goal, I get cranky if I don't get some exercise every few days. Which means I've got a habit of exercise, which was really the goal of the 500 mile project. And so now I'll try and get a spreadsheet going for next year, because 500 miles in 2012 sounds entirely doable.

The best part of this is the friends who have come along with me. Mandie, Jill and Bri have their own goals, but have been awesome cheerleaders and pacers for me this fall and all the way through. I'm enjoying learning to run with them and I'm excited to see what we do in the future.

Weekend with Amy

2011-11-15T22:46:00.003-05:00

In Nancy Bush's class at Sock Summit two years ago, there was a woman who identified herself as a "class-taker". I resolved a while ago to be the same way, and I think it's really really good for me, and I think I should do a more in-depth post about why later.

So when the Indianapolis Knitting Guild made arrangements to bring in Amy Detjen for a weekend workshop, I jumped to sign up without thinking. (In doing so, I made it so I missed a weekend retreat with my grad school math pals, and I'm still kicking myself a little about that - isn't it grand and terrible to have so many options for good times?)

Camnesia happened again. The only picture I have from the weekend is the one I sent my husband in reply to the "I'm in a happy place" picture he sent me from the racetrack in Phoenix. It's below:

It was fantastic spending the weekend with local knitters outside my usual group. There were several of my Thursday night pals there, too, but I got to talk some with several of the knitters I only see once a month or so. It was excellent to see Lana, who came from Terre Haute for the weekend. She's got a sock pattern in the Twist Collective that went live today!

Amy Detjen is awesome. There were three classes and a more informal evening session, and I learned a lot. Every time I spend time with Amy I leave seriously considering trying to move to Madison just to hang out with her more. I want to knit more colorwork and brioche and sweaters and everything.

Saturday Morning

2011-10-08T10:04:00.001-04:00

Most weekend mornings I wake up before my husband. This morning was no different. It's my nice no-pressure quiet time in the week where I can make myself breakfast, knit and watch tv or listen to podcasts, or read. I love a Saturday morning with a book.
Here's what this morning looks like.

My sweater's second sleeve is growing quickly. I'm hoping to have the garment finished by the end of the month. We'll see.

Living in the future

2011-09-19T23:03:00.001-04:00

I know, I've been a little quiet lately. I haven't had a lot of bloggy mojo, or spinning mojo either. I've knit a few things, but pictures haven't happened. So soon I'm gonna try and fix that. I'm posting this from my phone! Crazy, man.

Back to grading. Maybe I'll get a whole round in tonight on the sock I cast on this morning. Here's hoping.

Camp Camnesia

2011-07-26T21:36:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I trekked up to the middle of Wisconsin for Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp. I went last year, and it was exhilarating and empowering and I learned a LOT.

Same for this year. I split the drive up in two, stopping at my pal Kylee's house for the night. Kylee is the one who, five years ago, gave me a scarf kit at exactly the right time and started me down this whole knitting rabbit hole.

I had my camera with me in Wisconsin, but I forgot to pull it out. Every day I'd watch Amy Detjen adjust a camera over Meg Swansen's shoulder as Meg knit and I'd want a picture of that, but I didn't get it. It'll just have to be a mental photo, which I'm sorry I can't share.

Jessica logged a lovely moment from camp, though.

As happened last year, I came home with a heavily expanded project queue, including a pile of things from the new book Knit One Knit All. My sweater-in-progress is progressing, it's one that was added to the queue after last year's camp. Right now it's a twisty wad of stockinette on a big circular needle, but it'll straighten out.

Things finished

2011-07-17T19:02:00.002-04:00

Managed to do the photodocumenting of various projects today, so here's an update!

A pair of plain socks in Noro Silk Garden:

These started life as an office emergency project, a designated break when grading was crazy or other things were getting to me. They moved pretty fast, because the thickish yarn required a heftier needle than my usual - they were on 2's and I think 60 stitches around. After classes were over they became my track knitting, and we spent at least one day out at the speedway every weekend that cars were on the track, so they grew fast. They were finished on the Saturday of race weekend, so I just had to start a new sock on race day. That one will show up soon.

I made a little shawly thing:

This is the Little Colonnade shawl, in a nice MCN blend from Pigeonroof Studios. The yarn was the special colorway for Simply Sock Yarn's birthday kit last year, and it was lovely to knit.

And finally, my new favorite thing:

I finished this at knitting on Thursday. I've been sighing about it not being done for months now, and finally it is! This is my first handspun sweater. I finished the yarn last fall, cast on once the orange sweater let go of me in February, and now it's done.

Not really a modeled shot, but a "I finished it tonight and I couldn't wait till the next day for pictures" pic in the mirror in my closet.

I love it, can you tell?

Resolutions

2011-07-17T00:38:00.002-04:00

Well, it's pretty obvious that I am not particularly good at blogging daily. It's actually been a frustrating theme this summer, I can't seem to make myself do anything on a daily basis, whether it's eat right, exercise, spin, knit, or do a load of laundry.

I am reading pretty voraciously. I bought a Sony Reader a few months back, and the library's ecollection has become one of my most-visited websites. I'm working my way through several series of romance and mysteries, and I'm currently reading the campus book club selection, even though I can't make next week's meeting.

I'm trying to catch up some on podcasts, because I have a bad habit of getting behind on those. My very favorite that I tend to listen to as soon as I can after it posts every week is an NPR podcast called Pop Culture Happy Hour. I discovered it over Christmas break, and it's just fun. The Monkey See blog hosts it, and the blog (and its host) is a favorite as well.

I'm hoping to kick myself into updating my ravelry notebook in the next day or so, I've finished several projects that need to be documented. There will be knitting pictures then.

Trying new things

2011-07-03T20:29:00.002-04:00

One of the things I learned at Stringtopia was how awesome Jacey Boggs is. Jacey blogs and does other stuff at Insubordiknit. At Stringtopia she taught me corespinning and boucle. I still have to practice my boucle. I'm working on it. (Did I mention there wasn't much spinning right post-Stringtopia?) This is my class sample.

The other stuff she was teaching was awesome too. So when I found out she was teaching at Midwest Fiber and Folk, I signed right up. Cables and Crepes was the first class, and Thick-and-Thin and Coils was the second.

I'm going to start with the coils. Coils are AWESOME.

Here are my class samples. Jacey's very good at breaking down the various steps of these yarns.

Thick-and-thin and coils are both rhythmic. I really like them. And coils are a really nice outlet for the control freak in me. I can make them Just Right, and it's awesome.

Here are the coils I spun last week:

They're better. Imagine that!

I don't have my class sample from the Cables and Crepes class. I kind of struggled in there. Balance is very important in cabled yarn, and I'm not used to paying a lot of attention to balance, because sometimes extra twist in one direction or another is useful, and it takes a lot of imbalance to affect a finished knit fabric by biasing it.

But I was determined not to let my unsuccessful class sample keep me down, and I came home and spun this:

Which is pretty good in places, if not as consistent as I'd like. I'll continue to work on it.

So, to conclude: coils are awesome; cables were way harder than expected, but gratifying to get rightish. Jacey is brilliant and fun and I will definitely take classes from her again, and I bought her video so that if I want to try other things, I can see how she does it. (And holy cow, SO MUCH stuff to try in that video!)

squeaker

2011-07-02T23:38:00.000-04:00

It's still the second for a few minutes, right?

So, for the Tour de Fleece, I started today by going through my spinning WIPs and figuring out what was what with them. Today I spun a touch on three of them, two spindle projects and one on the wheel.

There are seven projects altogether, three on the wheel and four on spindles. Lots to do, but they should be plenty to keep me occupied this month.

Mid-year, the first of something

2011-07-01T08:40:00.002-04:00

Happy Canada Day!

It has occurred to me that I have not been blogging. And sure enough, today I looked and saw that I have posted a grand total of FIVE times so far this year.

People, this is unacceptable. I need to do Something. July, then, is going to be a blog effort month. I plan to ~~try and~~ post something every day. There should be things to post. I have experiences. The Tour de Fleece starts tomorrow, and while I haven't figured out just yet what I'm spinning for it, I'm going to spin for it, you bet. So there will be embryonic yarn pictures, at the very least.

Today, since it ended two months ago and I haven't blogged it yet, here's my ONE and ONLY picture I took at Stringtopia:

There are various things that should be noted about this picture.
1. Yes, that's a Sidekick. It's lovely and smooth and ooh. I kind of want one.
2. No, those are not my feet. Not actually sure whose feet those are. Everyone was told to "try the Sidekick," but we were actually spinning some gorgeous silk for Shelly, one of the amazing organizers behind this event.
3. There is a beer in that ice bucket. It is very likely a New Glarus beer, because the awesome Tracy (woolwine on Ravelry) brought a bunch to share. Spotted Cow was one of my favorite beer discoveries last year at Knitting Camp, and I will be bringing home some later this month. This means this is a picture from Saturday evening.
4. This is the ONLY picture I have, and it's blurry, and of something nonsensical. The whole experience was an amazing pile of information and sensory overload, and I barely remembered to take my camera out. There are other accounts that really cover this all so much better than I can or will. See Melissa's posts, or Iza's or Lisa's or Mandie's.
5. I have not spun as much since Stringtopia as I think I should have. Part of this was that I came back and had finals and finishing the semester, and then the last run at my 500 miles, then houseguests for the 500, and then I went on vacation. Which gets me almost to now. Except that this past weekend I went to Midwest Fiber and Folk, which was just as fantastic in the information and educational aspects. And now I'm going to go spin some coils.

Have a great July, all!

The agony of de feet

2011-05-15T12:57:00.003-04:00

Just kidding. Sort of. My feet are really not what's bothering me. I'm two weeks out from the Indy 500, and my personal 500 isn't going to be done in two weeks. I am 428 miles in. I walked 28 miles in the last week, and while I can try that again a time or two, it's not going to be enough to get me to the end. I'm tired from this past week, and I want to get things done this week that will require that energy.

Pictures are from the NCAA 4Kay, which Mandie and I walked (and ran a little) at the beginning of April.

So I'm keeping going, even though I'm not going to make it. The spreadsheet has been effective. Now I'm trying to figure out if I try for the same thing next year.

In like a Lion

2011-03-06T21:11:00.003-05:00

I'm on spring break now. It snowed yesterday.

I was talking to Mandie the other day about how I'm not in love with any of my knitting projects right now. She said "you get this way every year." Which, a quick blog check shows, is true. It's understandable. Winter is fading, so things like legwarmers and scarves seem silly to keep on with, but spring isn't really here yet, so shells and tank tops aren't reasonable either.

Anyway, that's my story.

But that said, I realize I've taken pictures of things and not posted them, so here's a quick photo dump:

Thick socks from Twisted Fiber Art Duchess in Ravelry:

And a lightweight sweater-in-progress:

it's going to be the Featherweight Cardigan, someday. That's my handspun green stuff, as seen last fall.

You would think that would be perfect for this interstitial time between winter and spring, and it is, but as it's biggish and slow and mostly stockinette (and I'm still in the yoke, so the rows just.keep.getting.longer), I'm going a bit stir-crazy with it at the moment.

But like I said, it's spring break! I'm planning on spending some good time with the above sweater, and I'm hoping to get past my funk by knitting some small stuff. I have a minor queue of baby things for deserving beloved babies born last year, today supplemented by the purchase of this book at the yarn shop. (Amazon says they don't have it till May, but knitting books are often available to smaller (LYS) retailers before they have wide release. I also want to knit Duck, which looks tough and like a lot of fun (seriously, it's a technique-heavy little pattern, and oh so cute!).

I'm still walking. It's going to be close, but I'm more than 300 miles along, and I'm hoping to walk a LOT this week as well!

Declawing Valentine's Day

2011-02-13T16:24:00.005-05:00

I really want to be one of the people who like Valentine's Day. Ostensibly it's a nice holiday about loving the people in your life. And I can definitely get behind flowers and chocolate. But something about the insane pressure and expectations that get put on the holiday really bugs me.

My now husband also feels that the holiday isn't all it's cracked up to be. So once upon a time, when we had been dating not quite a year, we were coming up on Our First Valentine's Day. We compared our ambivalent feelings about the day and came up with this solution: we were going to get each other the most stupid and disgusting holiday stuffed animals we could find.

I combed the mall in the town where I was in grad school and he went to Wal-mart. I got him a monkey. It's pink and pink. It's called Trembles. It vibrates and makes a loud screaming monkey noise and it cracks me up. He got me a snake. It's red and pink with a goofy smile and a heart pattern down its curly length. It cracks me up too. We exchanged them 8 years ago and have not come up with an equivalently awesome observance since. So we don't do Valentine's Day.

I don't think it's misanthropic for us to opt out of the holiday. We don't really, I buy chocolate and (my favorite) SweetTarts Hearts. And I do wish people would have a happy and low-stress day tomorrow in a treat-your-friends and treat-yourself kind of way.

And Trembles and the Love Snake wish that for you too.

Hey look, it's a sweater!

2011-01-22T22:36:00.002-05:00

I knit a sweater in May and June of last year. That one was quick, cropped, large-gauge, and all stockinette. I then started another sweater. Not the same. (Link to picture of summer sweater, as apparently I never blogged it, it was that quick.)

I started knitting Boxed from Knitty. Then I went to knitting camp and got the hare-brained idea to knit it with in-the-round set-in sleeves and a steeked v-neck, which is a totally Elizabeth Zimmermann thing to do - as in Spun Out 21.

The sweater first made a blog appearance after camp, back in July. I ignored it for a while and pulled it out in the fall - only to discover the Horrible Sleeve Incident, quickly followed by the unfortunate
too-large body issue as well.

It disappeared for a while around Thanksgiving, while I had a short sock affair and then knit some Christmas things.

But since Christmas, it's been my Thing to Knit. And on Monday, I managed to finish the knitting.

I have to say, the part where the sweater looked like that was the most disconcerting, because there's no trying it on, there's no second-guessing, there's just cutting it open and hoping everything's ok. I had done a steek swatch at Camp, cutting with crocheted reinforcement and then again with no reinforcement - knitting actually doesn't like to unravel sideways, it's a comforting thing.

That said, I referred to Eunny's Crocheted Steek tutorial as I got down to cutting things open, and then I did it.

It still feels nutty.

I wore the sweater on Thursday, when it snowed all day. The yarn is Malabrigo worsted, and it's deliciously soft and warm. I knit it on size 6 needles, at a gauge of somewhere between 5 and 6 stitches to the inch, and it's a beautiful dense fabric that I hope will hold up nicely. So happy that it turned out so well, and that it's done.

Equilibrium

2011-01-02T14:03:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about fiber, yarn, and stashing lately. Part of this has been that last year, I really didn't buy as much yarn. I did buy quite a bit of fiber. But to some extent I'm feeling like I'm reaching an equilibrium point with both types of stash.

Basically, a couple of times in the last year or so, I've gone through my fiber and yarn stashes and found things I didn't really want to have or to eventually use. I've tried to be honest with myself about what I will eventually get to, and what I bought because it was on riot sale. Both the yarn and fiber stashes could probably use another pass. Recognizing yarns like that in my stash has helped me stop from buying more yarns for the same reason. I also did some trading of club fibers for shipments that I really loved.

So, in that spirit, I'm trying for a zero-sum year with my fiber stash. I have a lot, and I'm going to continue being a member of the Spunky Eclectic fiber club, so that's 4 oz a month that's coming to me. So I need to spin/use/give away 4 oz of fiber a month, or more if I want to buy more. First up is finishing the yarns that didn't quite make it in 2010. Yay spinning!

New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T20:45:00.003-05:00

Last year I had a resolution that I didn't keep, and I'm a little bummed on that count - new handspun socks would be cool, although last year's are kind of amazing and I'm glad to have them still. I do have more handspun sock yarn, so next year, that'll happen.

On the other hand, I did do some awesome stuff this year. Favorite projects include the fantastic mittens I just finished, and several pretty great pairs of socks. I finished the green sweater that's now a wardrobe staple for me, and managed to win the Knitting Olympics.

One thing I realized this year is that the fun part of all this fiber stuff for me is in learning to do new things. I remember sitting in Abby Franquemont's spinning class in September and feeling the kind of mental exercise I used to get in Doug Leonard's coding theory classes. I definitely have decided to take more classes in the coming year, including another trip to Knitting Camp, if possible. I'm considering another run at Sock Summit, but we'll see. I also learned to weave, which has been fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that takes me.

Best wishes to all in 2011, friends. Thanks for reading.

Scarf in a Day

2010-12-28T21:25:00.003-05:00

I got a request last Thanksgiving for a red scarf. It wasn't gonna happen for Christmas last year, but I kept it in mind for this year.

Enough so that I had three different scarves' worth of red yarn floating around the stash by the time the fall semester started. I tried two or three different patterns, but nothing was working. I was totally going to punt it. But when I woke up on the morning of our Christmas trip, I packed the bulkiest of the red scarf yarns and size 13 needles. I cast on as we were leaving Indianapolis and had 2/3 of it done by the time I took over driving. The last third was accomplished in the evening and the next morning, making this an awesome quick project.

Scarf-in-a-Day:

CO 18 stitches.
Rows 1-11: (K1,P1) across.
Row 12: Slip 6 stitches to a cable needle and hold in front. (K1,P1) 3 times. (K1,P1) 3 times from the cable needle, then (K1,P1) to the end.
Rows 13-23: (K1,P1) across.
Row 24: (K1,P1) 3 times. Slip 6 stitches to a cable needle and hold in back. (K1,P1) 3 times, then (K1,P1) 3 times from the cable needle.

I did this with two skeins of Lion Brand Alpine Wool, and ended up with a scarf probably 5 inches across and a touch less than 5 feet long.

I'm kind of wanting to make another now. Fun!

LOOK WHAT I DID!!!!!

2010-12-17T09:17:00.002-05:00

I made mittens.

BEEEAUTIFUL mittens with seahorses and braids and happy star/rose motifs.

The fabulous pattern is from Torirot Design and is free on ravelry. I made some modifications - mostly in the cuff, and a bit in the thumbs, because I liked the longer pattern, but felt they needed to be pointy. In other news, I have opinions on mitten thumbs (who knew?).

I desperately love this feeling of awe and accomplishment that knitting can give me.

And I don't even mind that it's snowing now.

Something slow, but awesome

2010-12-11T19:02:00.002-05:00

Julie's blog is one of the first ones I heard about once I started attending my knit night. She's consistently smart and funny, and a really talented knitter. Her Watery Llama Scarf was my first clue that there was such a thing as a reversible cable. So when I found some seriously awesome blue yarn that could grow up into a perfect scarf for my father-in-law, her pattern came to mind.

It's not finished yet, but it's pretty fantastic. I modified by making it narrower, and waiting a little longer to start the cabling.

Yummy!

While I'm Showing Things Off

2010-12-08T22:29:00.002-05:00

I bought a sewing machine a few years ago. I think I had great plans for it at the time - maybe involving lining knit bags and steeking. Mostly it's been used for hemming pants and mending clothes, nothing really fun. But I have had this drawstring bag tutorial series bookmarked for a while. This Sunday I finally Did Something With It, and here's the result:

Bought the fabric at Hobby Lobby last year, the cord was leftover from my green grocery bag. It's a good start at this whole sewing thing, I think.

An accounting of the past week or so

2010-12-07T22:11:00.002-05:00

Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we had a replacement knit night. I was having a weird day, and Mandie had brought yarn. The orange sweater and I weren't getting along, and I wound up with this fantastic skein of bright green Yarn That Shall Not Be Named.

I wound the yarn that night. I cast on Thanksgiving day. Last night I had new socks.

This may be a speed record for me. They're good. They're very good.

'Tis the season

2010-12-01T23:11:00.002-05:00

We welcomed our first snow of the season this morning in Indiana. I say "welcomed," although I will admit my greeting was more along the lines of grousing.

The cool thing, of course, is that it's a really good time to be one of the wool people. I broke out the houndstooth scarf from this summer with my down coat, and after I finish my socks-of-the-moment, I have a mostly-finished pair of mittens to polish off.

I'm thinking about knee socks and legwarmers, hats and sweaters. Of course, it's also the last few weeks of the semester, so knitting is taking a backseat to work. Oh well.

Need a project roundup soon. Maybe this weekend.

Not knitting

2010-11-20T13:48:00.002-05:00

I bought a little loom in October. It's a Cricket, and it's all kinds of of adorable. First thing on and off it is this scarf:

Amy King at Spunky Eclectic has beautiful checkered scarf kits, and this one was called Cheeseburger. I love how the kettle-dyed effect of the yarn shows up in the checkers. I still have enough yarn for a matching hat, too! I'm looking forward to experimenting with weaving more. It's not as portable as knitting, but it's fun!

I finished the fingerless mittens from last time.

Appropriately matching-but-for-different-hands, and they're already living with their new owner, who likes them a lot.

Now back to the orange sweater. I have lots of tv on TiVo and dvd, and a few days off before Friday. It could totally still happen by the Iron Bowl.

Seriously?

2010-11-14T01:06:00.002-05:00

I've been having a lot of Stupid Knitting Errors lately. The Orange Sweater has been ripped out enough that I'm kind of amazed the yarn is still holding up. There was the Hideous Sleeve Incident, and the Unfortunately Giant Original Body. Never mind the usual stuff that happens with knit-purl patterns (oh no, I reverted to k2p2 instead of k4p2!) Anyway, after knitting nothing but the Orange Sweater for a couple weeks, I self-diagnosed with a pretty severe case of project fatigue, and went about looking for something else.

I started a pair of fingerless mittens for a friend a month or so ago. I knit the first one no problem. She tried it on and pronounced it Good. I went and cast on the second right away, but they soon languished after I finished the ribbing. I retrieved them from the bottom of my WIP basket this week. She asked for them back in the spring, and I said it'd probably be getting cool before I got to them. I didn't plan on making her wait this long though. Thursday night I started the thumb gusset on mitten number 2.

It was Saturday - two days and most of a mitten later - that I realized that I was knitting a second right-hand mitten.

Back to the drawing board. Or the start of the thumb gusset. Whichever. Either way, finishing these is my knitting goal for the weekend.

It's a Good Thing

2010-11-12T22:30:00.002-05:00

I have a friend who dyes yarn. She's also an amazing knitter and talented designer and a generally fun and interesting person.

But this week my favorite thing about her is that she tends to bring a big pile of yarn to knit night. And I had a long tough week and when she dumped out the pile to show off her week's work (and our Club choices for next month), there was a skein that made Thursday better.

Isn't she pretty? I had to bring her home and love her and pet her and call her George. Thanks Mandie!

Setbacks

2010-11-08T23:32:00.001-05:00

Well, here's a thing. I have this orange sweater, and after a week of furious knitting, (see last orange sweater post) I managed to get a second second sleeve that matched the first. I cast on the body and spent a week knitting little ribbed boxes. And then I tried it on.

That's the ease around the hem. Yeah, that's more than I wanted. Ripped some more. Current iteration of the body fits better. Now I just have to keep going.

200 Miles

2010-11-02T22:16:00.003-04:00

I walked my 200th mile on Sunday. It was the tail bit of a kind of epic week, I walked 17.8 miles over seven days.

It's starting to get really chilly. Wednesday morning last week it was 37. I did fine with a couple layers of sleeve and fingerless gloves. It's better when I do some light stretching to start - which I should have been doing all along, but better late than never, right? (Have I mentioned I grew up in Alabama? I do ok till about 45, but below that it's really too cold.)

I still don't have a full-winter plan, although the weather people are forecasting snow flurries later this week. I'm paying way more attention to the weather people than I used to, as well.

I meant this post to be a little more than "yay, 40% in! Dude, it's getting cold!" but that's all I've got in me tonight. 300 miles and about 200 days to go.

Where's a mathematician when you need one?

2010-10-25T22:25:00.003-04:00

Everybody look really close at this picture:

This photo was taken a month and a half ago. Do you see what it took me till last night to figure out?

That sleeve on the DPNs has a full repeat more stitches than the longer blocked one. 6 stitches more. THAT'S AN INCH or more. Without blocking, they look the same size. They're not. One has 54 stitches to start, the second has 60.

This is a major knitting error of the "Janet can't count" variety. I was really hoping to have this sweater knit by the Iron Bowl. We may be moving that goal back to whatever actual bowl game Auburn winds up playing.

Long-term projects

2010-10-24T21:48:00.002-04:00

Last November I made a fiber purchase:

I started this yarn in July, with great Tour de Fleece aspirations:

This week it's finally done.

From one pound of fiber, around 1500 yards of 2-ply light fingering weight.

Of course, now I need to knit it. Planning on a Featherweight Cardigan.

Minor update

2010-10-20T19:49:00.002-04:00

I've been walking, but not enough. Sinus/ear infection in September sidelined me for a couple weeks, but I'm back at it, baby. If I push it, I can make 200 miles by the end of the month.

Mandie blogged today, with pictures from Knitting Camp (remember that?). There are as many pictures of me as there are of Meg and Amy, which is flattering and a little weird. However, now I must have to have both of those sweaters. With waist shaping on both. For serious.

There's been other fibery stuff happening. Took a day of classes with the amazing Abby Franquemont, which has me spinning like a fiend again. Went to Corydon for the fall fiber festival this past weekend, and got my first taste of cotton spinning. Oh, and yesterday a Cricket came to my house. I'm hoping to get weaving by this weekend.

I'm going to go and ply some more yarn - that's been the story of the past couple of weeks - my Tour de Fleece goals are finally getting spun! And knit some on that pink sock I haven't touched lately.

Yesterday at Trader Joe's

2010-10-04T20:34:00.001-04:00

I pulled out my old knitted grocery bag for my few treats and frozen fancies. The cashier says "Oh, cool, did you make this?" and I respond in the affirmative.

"I bet you don't have kids." Um, no, but people I know do this and more and have multiple kids...

"Did you make your mitts too?" Yep, thanks. "Have a good day." You too.

I got out the door and realized that he hadn't mentioned the handknit sweater I was wearing. I'm going to take that as a compliment.

Something amazing and something else.

2010-09-14T23:15:00.002-04:00

So a couple Christmases ago, I coveted an awesome pair of socks knit by the Yarn Harlot. I decided to copy them, as they're essentially a stitch pattern shoved into a sock recipe, and I can totally do that. I just didn't get around to it. I had great yarn for it, though. Fantastic yarn - some of my first from Blue Moon. Those socks were totally Next for a year or more.

So when I decided to join in the personal sock club movement back in March, all my Next socks went in. There's still some awesome yarn in my cabinet for it. Like, more than there should be if I were on the sock-a-month schedule. Whoops.

These were the first socks I pulled from the cabinet. I love them. I finished them a week or so ago.

I love them. I'm almost afraid to wear them.

The second pair of socks from my personal club are far less precious. I stuck them in because I wanted a smattering of plain socks in the cabinet, and my work socks always wear through pretty quick. I kind of hated the yarn, despite the nice stripeyness. I finished them at a math conference this weekend and wore them the next day.

So there you are. A couple finished pairs of socks. And thus ends my Black Sock Phase. I'm definitely taking some time before the next pair of black socks. I started two pairs of socks this weekend - blue with sparkles and pink. Better.

Oh, sweet!

2010-08-19T15:12:00.003-04:00

What I just said when I realized that my average pace so far is higher than my pace needs to be to finish on time.

Average pace so far: 1.40 miles/day (113.7 miles/81 days)
Average pace needed to finish: 1.37 miles/day (386.3 miles/282 days)

So it's higher, but not by much. A minor travel cold knocked out the first few days after returning from LA, and work has interceded this week. I'm hoping to pack in a few consecutive long walks this weekend. Things are cooling off, thankfully, which is good for the walking, but are a reminder that Winter Is Coming and I should find Something To Do in order to continue walking during the cooler months. My weird class schedule should actually help - I have two free mornings for when it's hot like now, and two free afternoons for when it cools off, so I can walk during the afternoons when it's starting to get really cool.

I'm considering starting some Winter Walking accessories soon, but really I have five million pairs of fingerless mittens and just finished a really warm hat, so as long as I'm ok looking mismatched, I'll probably be fine. Meanwhile I'm knitting for babies. I finished the knitting of a Baby Surprise Jacket, and started a square shawl/blanket from Knitter's Almanac. The baby the blanket is for is four weeks old this week, and I hope to meet him in October. The Surprise Jacket's recipient isn't here yet, so I don't feel too bad putting off its seams and all.

And it's knit night, which is always good for productivity. Yay!

Vacation

2010-08-11T12:37:00.003-04:00

Clockwise from top left: Getty Center gardens - gorgeous!!! Creepy Circus Liquor Neon Clown was one of our landmarks between our hotel and Kid Brother's place. Dinner on Friday night was across from Warner Bros studios - Justin rode a bike across the lot to meet us on his lunch break. Birds of Paradise were the local shrubbery - we passed lovely ones outside an Olive Garden on a morning walk. Kermit and Piggy passed by in a Disneyland parade - we had just gotten off the teacups (Mom has the best photos from the teacups!). The roller coaster coasted under us on the Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. And lastly, the Pacific - Santa Monica Bay, really.

What fun we had! I walked a lot - my pedometer gave up the ghost and fell apart the last night.

Really, all that was fun, but the reason I went was this:

Happy fun times with Mom and Justin. Yay!

80 miles in

2010-07-30T13:10:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to wrap up July in a way that doesn't make me feel disappointed in myself. I had hoped to walk 50 miles this month. I didn't quite make it last month, and it won't happen this month either.

But maybe my expectation wasn't exactly reasonable. I went out of town for two of the four weekends in the month. Most Friday-Monday stretches in June, I walked 7-10 miles over that time. The Fourth Weekend I got less than a mile in, and the week after that was obliterated with work recovery from the trip. At Camp I walked more than the first trip, but still not as much as I might have at home. This week has had meetings keeping me from walking. The second half of the summer term has been rough. But it's almost over.

I'm trying to decide on a New Goal for August. I do want to get 50 miles in a month, and August may be the month, but maybe I should try and eliminate the sporadic non-walking I did in July. I think I'm going to try and walk a measurable and recordable distance (at least a tenth of a mile, preferably half a mile or more) 6 days a week.

Pictures of Knitting

2010-07-24T20:56:00.002-04:00

Look, it's a hat!

Brioche-stitch watchcap, or as EZ called it, "Prime Rib". Knit from handspun Falkland in the Spunky Club's "Zombies" colorway. What a pleasure this was! I still find the structure of the fabric mesmerizing. See, look:

Mmm. Yummy.

I'm past the sticking point on the first sleeve of my next sweater: it's orange and yummy. I'm not getting gauge, so I'm redoing the math to make it work - the yarn needs the tighter gauge, and I love the fit of my sleeve so far. Pullover in mmmalabrigo:

Orange. Very Orange. I'm hoping to have this finished for the start of football season (War Eagle!). We'll see. Stockinette is very good right now - but that's only 6 weeks off. Not sure I'm that fast - though I want to be. I can definitely get it done by the Iron Bowl, though, right? I need to crank through this, I've got at least 3 more sweaters I want to make rightnow due to Camp.

Need to talk about walking. Next time.

Away and back

2010-07-21T00:30:00.002-04:00

I went to Knitting Camp. I got home a little more than 24 hours ago, and my headspace is still there. I've been daydreaming of new sweaters all day. There are at least four competing for precedence, including the current orange pullover that I've decided to chuck the given instructions on and knit with a circular set-in sleeve and a steeked v-neck.

Meanwhile I'm knitting a handspun brioche stitch hat that I know I've knit enough to have three hats (I've frogged it a lot), but it's a fascinating knit and I don't actually want it to end until I have this odd bit of fabric construction pegged. Or till I've used up all of the wonderful yarn (it's ~100 yds of 3-ply falkland that I spun in October and it somehow never got blogged).

I know last year with Sock Summit not everything I learned was evident right away. I am entirely certain it will be the same way with Camp. Meanwhile I'm tracking down my fellow campers' ravelry pages and blogs because I desperately do not want to forget the amazing weekend I had. I want to return next year - actually, I want to return next weekend.

Anyway, if I'm going to have a better day at work tomorrow I need to get on to bed. I know there is more to say, and I will say it. And I'll have a hat to show by the weekend - unless it gets frogged some more.

Long haul

2010-07-10T14:33:00.004-04:00

Gentle readers, a pair of socks.

These socks were first seen in October 2008, when I decided it would be nice to make socks for my husband.

They were then summarily ignored until July of last year, when I realized the first one was too small for His feet.

I kept working. I have no clue or documentation of when the first was finished, but there was what I called a sock-and-a-half in May's piles o' stuff post.

And now they're finished. I have started and finished nine pairs of socks since I started these. I'm really proud of myself for not quitting on them. They're pretty great, although much is lost in the blackness of the yarn. This was more of a challenge than I thought it would be, and while I won't say Never Again, I'm definitely a little burned out on dark socks for a while. Too bad I have two other pairs on the needles.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

2010-06-28T23:46:00.002-04:00

Many Thanks to Peg, Melly, Sarah, and Paige for their suggestions.

I have been listening to podcasts - listened to a new one (Planet-IRL is pretty cool, race fans!) today. Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me and NPR's Sunday Puzzle are standbys. I definitely plan to walk with friends on weekends - once I get one free, this summer is kind of slammed. The "walk to somewhere" thing is cool, but the only place I ever go is Birmingham - which is about 500 miles away. I think a monthly goal may be worthwhile, though. I'm going for 50 miles in July.

But today I'm at 42.5 miles, and I'm enjoying the Hitchhiker's Guideyness of it.

Thanks, friends! I'm excited about what's happening with my walking!

Milestones, Baby Steps, and Black Holes

2010-06-21T10:12:00.004-04:00

Knitters talk of the phenomenon of the knitting black hole, in which you knit on your scarf or sweater or whatever for days and days and when you're done it's the same length you started with. I'm about to hit a stretch like that with the walking. I hit the 30 mile point on Friday.

I'm three weeks and 30 miles in, and I was proud of me, but so tired. I meant to walk on Saturday after weaving, but I was too exhausted, and stayed home, and then didn't walk last night either. This morning I set out intending to do a 2.5 mile Lap, but stormy lightning sent me home at the turnaround point - so only 1.67 miles were walked today. I'm trying to shake off the "but now it's not even!!!" annoyance and look at it like the knitting. If I only knit something when I can do a whole repeat, it takes me longer than getting a stitch or two in whenever I can. So maybe I'll even things up by taking another turn around the neighborhood loop on Wednesday, or maybe I'll just take a walk tomorrow morning and do the same length as today - it didn't take very long at all for a shorter walk.

Anyway, I'm looking for tips for the next 350 or so miles. Any ideas on how I can keep this interesting? I'm going to be walking elsewhere in July - two long weekend vacations will take me somewhere else and I plan to walk in both places. I have monthly goals to try and meet. Anything else I can do to make it fun?

Oh dear.

2010-06-20T18:04:00.003-04:00

I took a weaving workshop. It's a three-day intensive, and Peg and I took the first day a couple weeks early due to work schedules. Day one was all about learning weaving - the terminology and the capabilities and the various how-to's involved in operating the loom. We tried weave patterns and a bunch of different yarns in a sampler on pre-warped 4-harness looms.

Yesterday and today were the second and third days. We started with winding warp, and threading the loom. We wound on by lunchtime, and this is what I had:

I started weaving, and soon had this:

Peg came by and took a picture of me, and this one cracked me up.

What? Weaving is serious business!

Our fabulous teacher, Benita, has posted the wrapup of everyone's work in her blog (And FYI, she's doing another workshop next month!). I finished up this morning, and went home with instructions for a light fulling. If possible, I love the scarf more now - the weave tightened up and bloomed and it's just lovely.

I'm in so much trouble. I loved doing this. I think I need a loom. And another two or three days in a week.

Happy Feet

2010-06-15T23:03:00.002-04:00

A couple things finished in the recent past:

My Lost socks. Knit during the last season of the show, in Mandie's Oceanic colorway.

I wove in the ends during the pre-finale special.

I joined the Blue Moon Rockin Sock Club this year, and the second shipment was the one that first jumped on my needles. The pattern is Slip Jig, colorway My Wild Irishgirlie.

They're a little big, but that's ok, they're not for me. Such a fun and easy knit - these were finished just a few days before the 500.

That means that all the socks currently on the needles are some shade of black. Including the pair I pulled in May from my personal sock-of-the-month club.

So I'm thinking it's about time for a really brightly-colored sweater or two. Stay tuned.

Not there yet.

2010-06-13T10:26:00.002-04:00

I woke up this morning and I really didn't want to walk. I had clean walking clothes, and it was before it was hot, but I really didn't want to go. I was tired, and there will be other less-fun tasks happening today, so eh. But I went anyway. I had downloaded a couch-to-5k podcast, and while I started the walk with the most recent Popcorn Dialogue, I switched to the 5k thing about 10 minutes in. I was able to run about two of those intervals, and I didn't even try several of them. But the beat of the music was good for getting me moving. So that's something. I think I did get done faster today, so that's something to think on.

Ok. 22.5 miles is not something I want to walk for as much as 20 or 25, but it's a step along the way. Tomorrow I'm hoping to be 5% in. And there will be knitting content soon, I promise.

2010-06-11T10:46:00.006-04:00

I can apparently embed my spreadsheet in a post. I'm having issues doing the same with a sidebar widget. 7 Laps as of today. Realizing that branching out and extending the walk are going to be fairly natural. Yay for that, at least.

Are you having a good time?

2010-06-09T10:23:00.005-04:00

Another Lap today, and I'm fifteen miles in. Six Laps total since last Monday.

Classes started back this week, so that's been an extra pile of work and activity. My walks are kind of a respite, hanging out with myself and my thoughts and my music. I definitely was glad to have it this morning. I like looking at my neighborhood, saying hi to other walkers and joggers, and waving as people drive by. It rained a little today as I was getting toward the end, and I liked that too. It's part of the way the world works, and I'm not going to do this 500 mile thing if I'm going to let a little rain stop me.

The pedometer issue is still unresolved. I replaced my el cheapo with another el cheapo, but it's seriously sad and icky. When I wore it on my 2.5 mile Lap (calibrated the same as the old one), it recorded about 1500 steps and 0.7 miles. Not ok. I can live without one for a while, but I'll definitely want to figure this out before I travel over the Fourth weekend. Sarah suggested the Omron, which another friend wears daily for a health insurance discount, so that's definitely in the running. Tammany and Kristen do the Nike+ thing with the iPod, and my dear Pod is four years old and starting to show it, so that's an option as well, but definitely the priciest of them (but if I have to replace one anyway...).

Pushing Through

2010-06-03T18:30:00.003-04:00

Today I was going to walk. Yesterday was my first day back at work, and so I planned for an off day from the Lap, as I've been thinking of it. I wore my pedometer some at work, and some while shopping afterward. I'm still not sure whether to count that - I have a vague desire to only count in-daily-action pedometer steps in months that contain an R. (For whimsy, one might say.)

And this morning it rained and I really didn't feel like getting out of bed. So I went to work, and said "oh, I'll leave at a reasonable time walk when I get home, before knitting." Which is something, friends, I have said before many times. "I'll do it when I get home." And then I don't. I don't leave work on time, or I get home and sit down and stop, or I get sidetracked by an errand or two.

But today I didn't. I came home, changed into workout clothes, sat and watched tv for 20 minutes or so, and then went out. Stormclouds were threatening, but it wasn't raining, so I figured I would do the short walk if it got nasty out. I had deleted my playlist from earlier in the week so I just ran with my Defense playlist (made to psych me up for my dissertation defense four years ago), and went on out. It did not get nasty out, so despite some bargaining with myself about short-walk-or-long? I'm 3 laps in now.

(And I just checked my pedometer for yesterday's mileage and it's gone dead, so boo for that - need to get a new one before Saturday and the fiber festival.)

One lap down, 199 to go

2010-05-31T21:34:00.003-04:00

My 500 started a little before 9 this morning, and I walked 2.5 miles in about 50 minutes. I stretched after a little warm-up and afterward, and I'm feeling really good, except for a little sunburn, but that has to do with yesterday, not the walking.

So there are a couple new links in the sidebar. One is to Timeanddate.com, which is a fabulously geeky calculation website. It's a countdown to next year's 500. The other is to my google spreadsheet where I'm planning on tracking my mileage.

As to how I'm tracking mileage - here's my two major tools: Gmaps Pedometer and a fairly standard $5 pedometer. I haven't gotten the little digital pedometer quite calibrated, but it's less egregiously undercounting than it was two weeks ago, so I'm feeling better about using it. And truly, I'd prefer it undercount than overcount. The Gmaps tool will be used for pretty much everywhere I walk or hope to walk more than once. I've already measured 1.6 and 2.5 mile routes in my neighborhood, and the block around work is .5 mile.

I hope to check-in here every week or so, and let y'all know about any cool/fun walks I run across. This Saturday I'll be taking a couple laps around the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. See, fiber hobbies don't have to be sedentary!

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

2010-05-30T22:50:00.003-04:00

So this has been May, and while I've had some time to relax and not work and to think about life and goals and stuff. And to clean my house some. And meanwhile I've spent major parts of three weekends now at the racetrack. I live in Indianapolis, and a love I've learned from my husband is the race-fan love. IndyCar racing is pretty cool, and the Indy 500 is amazing. He's been watching and listening to races his whole life, and the way he gently turned me on to the sport and the event is a testament to how well he knows me.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and walk 2.5 miles in my neighborhood. Two and a half miles is the length of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track. This will be the first lap in my own Indy 500. I got back tonight from attending my fifth 500. And I have a goal to walk or run 500 miles before the next one.

I have more to say, but I'm going to leave that on the table tonight. Tomorrow will be time for details, and tracking, and all that. Tonight I'm gonna be the girl who will walk 500 miles.

Piles

2010-05-17T16:58:00.004-04:00

Here's a pile of socks.

March's Rockin' Sock club, my March self-imposed sock club in pinky-green black, my Lost Socks in Mandie's Oceanic colorway, and that black hole in the middle? There's a sock and a half there that were first seen in this pile of socks. Yeah, that was more than eighteen months ago. They're flat black, patterned, and not for me.

Whittling down this pile is one of my break goals. I think I've knit a full sock's worth since finishing the spring semester a week ago.

I've also spun this: 2-ply shetland. Yum.

Oh, and since we're talking about piles, here's a pile of handspun yarn:
This is the yarn, minus the shetland, that I've finished since March. Yum!

Meanwhile, I'm flirting with the idea of weaving. Stay tuned.

Spinning Round and Round and Round

2010-04-11T22:03:00.002-04:00

The Spunky Club group on Ravelry is having a Great Stash Spin-Up, where people are committing to spin down their stashes. The thread is really encouraging and inspiring, and so I've joined in. Here's what I've done since early March:

A worsted-weight chain-ply from Twisted Fiber Arts' Festive merino-silk fiber, colorway Circle. This should stripe and it's a yummy squooshy skein.

Two small skeins of fingering-weight singles, in Wensleydale fiber, colorway Cold Front. This was December's Spunky Club fiber, and it's a really neat yarn.

This is a dk-weight three-ply. I started it on my Sock Summit spindle around Thanksgiving, this is Bluefaced Leicester fiber from Spunky Eclectic, in the Diet Coke colorway. I'm so proud of this one.

And most recently, a fingering-weight three-ply. More Spunky Eclectic fiber, in the Panda base (merino/bamboo/nylon) and colorway Strawberry Fields.

There has been knitting, but not much to show lately. The mittens are stalled out while my brain is occupied with school stuff. Various socks, yeah. Spinning all kinds of good stuff as well. Yay yarn!

Down the Mitteny Rabbit Hole

2010-03-20T08:02:00.005-04:00

I will admit, post-Olympics, I had a bit of knitting ennui. There had been some lovely victories, and I couldn't see past them. I had some kind of bizarre anti-startitis where no new project was good enough. I spent a day on Chris's neverending black socks, and then it came to me: mittens.

I'm going to a mitten retreat in Chicago in May, and I really don't have all that much experience with full-hand mitten knitting. Fingerless, sure, but I've only knit the one pair of mittens. And honestly, I'm a little tired of them. The angora/wool blend I made them from is still amazingly soft and warm, but they're sheddy and felty and not as pretty as they were back then.

I found an amazing pattern for lovely faux-traditional mittens with Seahorses. And as I spent the start of spring break (as it seems I do almost all my school breaks) trying to manage my yarn stash, I decided to break into the Smooshy collection and use two colors of that. I had followed the Yarn Harlot's Frankenmitten saga last fall, and did something similar.

I started winding yarn on Wednesday morning. Saturday morning this was finished.

I'm afraid it's going to be a longer time before my happy mitten has a mate (or a thumb)- this week has been too brain-destroying to knit colorwork, and so a week later I'm through the cuff of mitten 2. But really, is it so awful to have a longer project when it's this lovely, and squooshy? I think not.

Finished!

2010-02-28T23:52:00.003-05:00

Right under the line, I suppose:

I cast off during the men's hockey gold medal overtime. At least, I started casting off then. Finished soon afterward.

Tonight after I finished some work stuff, I blocked it. Both of these are crappy nighttime pictures.

It's really pretty. I never stretched it out on a larger needle, so this was on a 16" circ the whole time, and I never realized how big it was getting or how striking the color striation was. I love it. Knitting it wasn't a joy-fest the way Shetland Triangle was, but part of that was the thick-and-thin nature of the handspun yarn - definitely imperfect and a little odd. Overall, I'm very pleased.

Olympics

2010-02-21T10:36:00.002-05:00

I cast on my Knitting Olympics project at Paige's Olympic Cast-On Shindig, during the opening ceremonies. Despite a cold that knocked me out for a massive portion of the weekend, I was here by Sunday:

Here I am, a week later:

It doesn't look like much, but I promise it's progress. I have 20 g of yarn left, and my calculations make me think I can pull off one more repeat of the main chart, and then the edging chart. I may just make it!

Knitting tv has alternated between the first season of The OC and the actual Olympics. I am learning about sports I've never really watched before. Moguls skiing is awesome. All the sleddy stuff scares the crap out of me. The skating is really cool - and there are parallels in technique to auto racing (esp. short-track) that makes me want to watch more of it.

Knit on, folks. Faster, Higher, Stronger!

Apparently I've been knitting

2010-02-14T20:34:00.002-05:00

Instead of blogging. Here, have a few finished things:

Socks. Garter Rib pattern, Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Jabberwocky. Love these. Warm, squishy, and fabulous. I've barely taken them off since I finished them Friday morning.

A scarf for my Mother-in-Law. Yarn is Malabrigo Twist, which is yummy. Pattern is Diagonal Lace Scarf, free on Ravelry.

And the most epic finished thing lately:

A cardigan, started in September of 08, it's finished, it fits, and it's warm and wooly and just what I needed for this snowy week. Pattern is Twist from Chic Knits, yarn is discontinued Knitaly, bought from a closing LYS. Woot.

That's it for now. There were a couple of other smaller things that got done too, but these are the biggies lately.

I'm working on an olympic project, I'll have an update on that soon.

New Year's Resolution

2010-01-01T01:48:00.000-05:00

I need more handspun socks. These are awesome.

Socks

2009-12-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

Socks for Steve - Patons Kroy FX in Cadet Colors, knit over 76 stitches on 2.5mm dpns.

Finished on Boxing Day, so not quite in time for Christmas.

Thinking about selfish knitting for January - also about finishing languishing projects. I dove into the WIP basket today and came up with several spinning distractions and a tangle of purple yarn that occupied much of the evening - and will probably occupy several more before it's vanquished.

I'm on a bit of an organizational kick. Last year the goal was to get my yarn stash entered into Ravelry, now that it's pretty much there I'm thinking of adding photos and making my Ravelry queue more reflective of my actual knitting plans. We'll see.

Not gonna make it

2009-12-24T12:48:00.002-05:00

My last bit of Christmas knitting this year is probably going to be much like the last bit of Christmas knitting last year - wrapped up and given on the needles, then finished later on Christmas day. It'll be ok.

Planning and dreaming of future projects... Thinking of spinning for some of the rest of break.

Have a merry merry Christmas, all!

Quick post

2009-12-13T09:21:00.002-05:00

Here, have a picture of how I've gotten through the last week or two. I have one more week (that looks like it's going to be nutty and full of grading), and Diet Coke in liquid and fiber form is my go-to for the strength to go on. (Fiber is BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the colorway "Diet Coke," which cracks me up and makes me happy. The grey and red are lovely, although when I was spinning on the farm in Alabama over Thanksgiving, apparently people looked out the window and thought I was carrying around a dead squirrel, which is also hilarious. Spindle is my sock summit wheel-on-a-dowel job from Abby and Denny's spinning class, and I love it.)

I'm working on Christmas knitting, including an almost-finished pair of Lepidoptera Mitts, which are really cute and take less than 50 g of fingering weight yarn (which means I could totally make a pair from yarn in my sock leftovers box, now that I think about it. Win!). I have overcome my distaste for twisted rib for them, because it really works in these mitts. The pattern is from Allison at Simply Sock Yarn, who is having an awesome giveaway for the next few days: The 12 Days of Sock Yarn. Today it's pretty Fleece Artist Merino. Go check it out!

New Boyfriend

2009-12-04T23:12:00.002-05:00

Right before Halloween, the Knitty Surprises went live, including the fantastic pattern My Vampire Boyfriend. The socks were gorgeous, and the writeup totally clever (the side cables are called "Bitemark Cables," and I had that elusive "OMG must cast on NOW!" reaction to it.

Thing is, I'm not really a vampire girl. I watched a few seasons of Buffy a while ago, and while I loved her and the Scoobies, I was "meh" on the vamps. I haven't caught the True Blood mania (although I'll probably check it out sometime) nor the Twilight love (I picked up the book over Thanksgiving break and I really don't get it).

So instead I went to the green. Mandie had just gotten me a skein of her Yarn That Shall Not Be Named in her Fangorn Forest colorway and it struck me as a totally blood-green color - you know, if I had green blood.

And so here, after a month of cable insanity, are my socks - My Vulcan Boyfriend.

I am so in love.

We now interrupt your regular fiber obsession

2009-11-22T13:41:00.002-05:00

I spun about 350 yards of laceweight singles this week. They're as soft and nummy as they look, and a little greener than the picture. I'm thinking a small triangle scarf, I've been jonesing to knit one for a while.

I have a pile of current projects and christmas plans that are coming along on my trip home for the holiday this week. We'll see if this trumps all that.

Quick socks and a picture for Carol

2009-10-17T23:05:00.002-04:00

Purple socks are finished. They are yummariffic and finished just in time, it got really chilly this week! The toe-up two-at-a-time experiment was a success, I definitely would have made them too long going one-at-a-time top-down (and they probably would have taken more than three weeks). I have more of the same yarn in a pink-and-green colorway, but got contrasting yarn for the heels and toes, so that should be awesome too.

Carol at Thursday's knit night said on Thursday as I was molesting my newest skein of sock yarn (from Sheepy Time, Mandie's Fangorn Forest colorway) said that she would like to see my green sock yarn, as I have a thing for green and she does too. As a stash shake was on today's calendar (seriously, thanks Yarn Harlot Calendar!), I thought a picture would be fun. Meet my green sock yarn.

I think it's time for some Very Green socks. Most all my green socks are variegated or striped somehow. I'm going to work on that.

Several Random things.

2009-09-30T23:10:00.003-04:00

Knitting
My current knitting obsession:

DK-weight hand-dyed self-striping socks. Yarn is from Twisted Fiber Art and is yummy, thick, and beautiful. I started these barely over a week ago. If this week hadn't been insane, they'd be each half finished. As it is, one's there. Stockinette was good sick knitting. And it was incentive knitting over my grading weekend.

Banned Books Week
Julie mentioned Banned Books Week yesterday, which sent me off to the bookstore that afternoon. I didn't know where my copy of To Kill a Mockingbird was, so I got a new one. And an awesome new bag (dollar reuseable bags are hard to resist, especially when they have the First Amendment on them).

I think I may have done a paper on banned books back in Freshman comp. Half the stuff we covered in the rest of my lit classes had been challenged or banned at some time. Most of the time the reasons people have for challenging books are hooey. And they often prove that people don't actually read.

To Kill a Mockingbird is an old favorite. My eighth grade English teacher gave all of her students who read outside of class a copy. I had well surpassed whatever goal she had, mostly because I read about half a million Star Trek: The Next Generation novels that year. I read it every year through high school and college, but have let the practice lapse. I find new stuff in it each time. It's awesome, and to me it's a bit of home. (My Alabama is not really like the one in the book, but there are things about it that resonate for me.)

Another challenged favorite is A Wrinkle in Time. People get cranky about that one because they don't like the way it talks about Jesus. I love the way L'Engle writes about faith, and even though Wrinkle is fairly secular, it's similar to me to the way that people think Lord of the Rings is satanic. Whatever.

Multiple Myeloma
Four years ago my father-in-law was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, which is a weird, scary, fairly rare blood cancer. He has gone through treatment including an autologous bone marrow transplant and several rounds of chemo. Steve's case was caught early - in an eye exam. Currently he's doing well and the cancer is not a threat. His doctor does a fundraiser every year in which he runs or bikes across the state. This year he's biking from Evansville to Indianapolis. The event is Miles for Myeloma. Check it out.

What, this old thing?

2009-09-18T17:52:00.003-04:00

Did I mention I finished this?

About a month ago, I guess. I was amazed by how much dye came out:

And blocking was kind of insane -

But it's done, and beautiful. I think I may wash and re-block again before giving it away in a little bit - I've gotten new tips on getting the dye to either stick or go away, so that's a goal. But I am terribly proud of it. I hope its recipient knows how much I love her.

Under the line

2009-09-14T18:25:00.003-04:00

According to Ravelry, I started this stole on September 15 of last year. I finished it a touch over two weeks ago.

Somehow it's awesome, and now that I have it I love it so... I almost can't believe I finished it, though. My knit night friends who saw this intermittently with me swearing at it and calling it my "knitting penance" probably understand.

It lives in my new and chilly office on campus, which is what it was cast on for - I had my first leafy green shawl at home, it made sense to have one for work. So now I do.

Sock Summit - The Residue

2009-09-13T21:54:00.002-04:00

So I've been back a month and still haven't gotten to this last bit that I want to say about the Summit. I was going to call it Knitters and Knitting, but that doesn't seem right. When I went to the local MAA meeting last spring we were asked what we hoped "the residue" was that our classes left in students' minds. In that vein, here's a month-later retrospective.

I finished all my class socks. Picture above is the three class socks and my class spindle. They're on my mantel right now.

In Abby and Denny's Spindle class, Abby said something about needing to be able to do something badly in order to learn to do something well. She was quoting Maggie Casey quoting someone else talking about something Not Spinning, but as I came back to school, that came back with me - if you're so afraid to do it wrong you never start, you'll never get it. It got incorporated into my first-day schtick.

Clara Parkes's class about fiber and yarn construction has been the most fun to find it popping up in my brain. There was a discussion in my house about sheets and fibers and thread counts that ended in a ridiculous display of fiber geekery on my behalf. I still love the term "intimate blend."

I signed up for Sockdown on Ravelry to be in on the Nancy Bush mystery sock. It looks awesome, but too small. I'm going to wait till it's finished and try and size it up a bit. I also bought her Knitting on the Road book, which has some gorgeous techniques.

I'm still very proud of myself for talking to people that whole weekend - starting with Vicki and Carin at the Denver airport.

The thing I want to try that I saw from another student is a pooling stole. That's so seriously cool.

I've been finishing things since I got back. Only started a couple new projects. The full-size socks that went to the summit are still in progress. The handspun ones need more spinning, actually. The giant black one is approaching the first toe at a snail's pace.

But here are my Sock Summit mitts. My hands were cold in Thursday's class, so my first night at the Summit I bought some Socks that Rock heavyweight and cast these on.

They're a simple improvised pattern, but I love them in my office in the mornings. I finished them the first week back to school and they make me happy.

More posts and more pictures coming soon. I've finished a few big things and made progress on others. Sock Summit may be past, but I'm having a good knitting fall so far.

Sock Summit - Portland

2009-08-19T22:51:00.002-04:00

(Note: this is more an "around" sock summit post, not much as to what actually happened *at* the Summit.)

Confession: I have a soft spot in my heart for anyplace easily navigable by public transit and walking. And downtown Portland was just that. Anytime we got directions anywhere, people said "and these are short blocks," which was funny, but true.

Chris saw more of Portland than I did, he went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Portland Zoo, the Japanese Gardens, the Saturday Market, and Chinatown and the Chinese gardens. He liked the market, but was most impressed by the Japanese Gardens and would recommend them to anyone who has an afternoon free in Portland.

As far as my sightseeing went, I went to Powell's. (Chris did too.) We hit Powell's Technical Books first, because it closed earlier and we had gotten a late start on the evening. I ran into some MathFest people there (I recognized them because they too were hanging out by the Combinatorics and Number Theory shelves - people were on the analysis aisle too, but yeah). Chris found a few things he needed, I found a small volume I wanted, and we went the next block to World of Books. And promptly separated and lost each other. I wandered the craft section, education, and literature and literary magazines. I still have no clue where Chris went. Thanks to text messages and good signage ("I'm in the blue room, where are you?") we found each other, checked out and went for food.

Food in Portland was mostly really good. We agreed that our one disappointing dinner was probably as much a function of mis-ordering as the food - the seafood variety plate always sounds good, but usually isn't awesome. We had an amazing meal at Henry's 12th Street Tavern after Powell's - maybe the best cheeseburger EVAR, and my Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar was excellent (99 beers on tap there - I tasted several and they were all good). I've been looking for that beer since I got back and I've been sorely disappointed. Conference fast food was had at Burgerville, which was also tasty. Our last dinner in town was at an all-you-can-eat seafood and sushi place, which was good, but kind of excessive. (Note: Chris ate only seafood until the day we left - after the sushi place, he was seafooded out.) Good local beer was everywhere too - Rogue, Ninkasi, and a couple others I don't remember.

Weather was lovely, we had a great time, we agreed that it's an awesome town and we liked it very much. (Chris also introduced me to pollen.com, where Portland was green for our entire stay. Indy, since we got home, is in the grip of ragweed season and is orange and red - Claritin is my friend.)

Next up is the knitters and knitting, and that'll be it for my Sock Summit diaries. I have an FO to show, and maybe another coming down the pipe soon.

Sock Summit - The Marketplace

2009-08-17T21:40:00.002-04:00

My first impression of the Sock Summit Marketplace was at Starbucks on Thursday Morning, where Mandie and I stopped to get caffeine and kill a touch of time before Walgreens opened. We started paging through the show book and realized when we saw the map that yeah, that giant lobby where registration happened? That was dwarfed by the marketplace. We took a peek at lunchtime and there were booths and color as far as the eye could see.

That evening it opened for two hours of insanity. It was overwhelming, so many people, sooo much wool, so much color. I wandered, a bit lost, for a long while. I got my bearings and found Carolina Homespun, where I got my class pack for spinning, and then I tried to get a feel for what else I could do there. I ran into Allison from Simply Socks Yarn Co., who recognized my name as one of her customers! (and right now I'm eyeing the new colors of mini mochi and the fleece artist bfl and having issues saying no...) I kept wandering back into the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, where I eventually bought a few mill ends of Socks that Rock.

I kept going back over the weekend. Before class, between classes, after classes... There were so many hand dyers and there was so much beautiful wool...

I know I didn't see everything. I know I didn't get everything. I spent the Tuesday after we got back favoriting etsy sellers whose booths I saw and liked but didn't buy from (and some I did buy from).

This is what came home with me - mostly.

Top row: BFL top from Crown Mountain Farms, four mill ends, two mediumweight, two heavyweight, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, in (I think) Obsidian, Muckity Muck, and Xmas Rock (which is becoming new fingerless gloves for me).
Bottom row:
Merino Fine in color "Mycroft" from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks, DK weight Merino in "Shock Rocker" from Stitchjones, Dream in Color Smooshy from The Loopy Ewe, sKnitches Velocity in "Birdhouse in Your Soul" from Simply Socks, and BFL sock yarn in "Fresh Fig" from Wool Candy. Not pictured is a gift skein from Lotus Yarns

Amazing time, so much yarn, and since I've gotten back I heard of things I never saw in there. Oh well. Next time, maybe?

Sock Summit - the classes

2009-08-14T22:25:00.004-04:00

I've been trying all week to figure out how to summarize the amazing time I had at Sock Summit. I started a blog post, trying to go chronologically and got halfway through Thursday before realizing I needed better organization. So today - the classes!

Knitting Vintage Socks with Nancy Bush
This was my only all-day class, and it was pretty amazing. Nancy Bush had extensive handouts about how Things Were Done (if you wanted a left-leaning decrease you didn't ssk, for instance - Barbara Walker confirmed later in the weekend that she did, as far as she knew, invent that particular decrease), and showed us nifty things throughout the Weldon's Practical Needlework books from which she sourced her Vintage Socks book. We made a funny little practice sock that had all the interesting things that exist in a sock - cuff, heel, toe, and none of the sloggy parts between them. It doesn't look much like a sock, but it's a great little yarn bra. This is where it was at lunch time - through the teeny heel flap.

I met some fun people in my class. There were a few things we were taught that I hadn't seen before, and some that I had. The nostepinne demonstration was kind of funny to me, in that Nancy Bush says what I say about yarn winding being a part of the process of knitting something new. The lasting impression I had was of Nancy's passion for and deep study of her subjects - she talked about stumbling upon and falling in love with Estonian knitting in a beautiful way.

This was the board at the end of class. Illustrations of left and right leaning decreases, knitting on four and five needles, and which way stitches should go. On the table there are socks from several of her books. Lots to see, lots to think about, and lots of fun.

Arch-Shaped Stockings with Meg Swansen and Amy Detjen
There are no pictures from this class. I didn't take many notes in this class. The class handout was one page, the actual class was large and fairly quiet, but oh, wow. This class blew my mind. Meg and Amy were a great combination, playing off each other beautifully, skipping from topic to topic with ease. The actual sock subject the class was ostensibly "about" was skimmed over, but the nitty gritty intricacies of the techniques one could apply to it (including some increases I'd never seen before, and a mention of intarsia-in-the-round) blew my mind. My notes include a quote from Meg: "The only thing that really matters in knitting is consistency." She had this amazing attitude of freedom and pleasure in her knitting - with the really cool stuff you could tell she was impressed by the cleverness inherent in it. Now I desperately want to go to Knitting Camp in Wisconsin - a long weekend with those two would be amazing.

Finding True Sock Yarn Happiness with Clara Parkes
This class began with Clara handing out tape, which was a little mystifying, but as soon as she started handing out fiber samples, it made much more sense. This class was Oh So My (totally geeky) Style. Clara is the founder of Knitter's Review and so she actually tests yarn for a living. She gave us some great terminology (all this week that I've been home I've been remembering things like "prickle factor" and "intimate blend") and a fantastic overview of fibers and yarns and the pros and cons of all different types.

As we were wrapping up, we discussed the ways to deal with different downfalls - a non-stretchy yarn could be overcome by using a forgiving stitch, and vice versa. One of the most memorable demonstrations was a pair of socks - one in a merino-tencel blend, one in 100% merino, knit exactly the same in a chevron pattern- in which the tencel one barely stretched at all, but the other was able to be noticeably stretched. She also gave us some tips on where to shop in the Marketplace, which was fun...

Paint Your Toes! Stranded Colorwork with Janel Laidman
The fun thing about this class was getting to see how Janel designs. She had her "enchanted box" of socks from her new book The Enchanted Sole and handed them around. The class was for beginning stranded colorwork, which was fine, I worked my teensy black-and-pink sock through part of the heel flap in our three hours. Decreases and structure in colorwork were addressed, and we were given resources to design our own full-sized colorwork stockings - plus a pattern from the upcoming book (Tree of Life - ravelry link).

Spindle Spinning Basics with Abby Franquemont and Denny McMillan
What a great time this class was!

One or the other of the teachers was spinning the whole time. We got Abby's funny (and very true) manifesto of "why society would not exist without spinning." There were a million jokes about kinky singles and slippery shafts. Denny says that we'll be comfortable in 15 trolley rides. I was kind of ok already - I have been more comfortable since I switched my homemade wheel spindle to a bottom-whorl after stalking Abby in Franklin. My spindle from the class kit says "right round" on it, which amuses me to no end.

My classes were amazing, but for all that happened in them, more happened outside them. Stay tuned, folks, more to come as I can process it.

Sock Summit

2009-08-10T13:49:00.002-04:00

That's Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Meg Swansen, Barbara Walker and Tina Newton. I was in the right place at the right time for my knitting fangirl self to get this picture, and really, this whole experience seems to have been exactly that sort of experience - right place, right time, and I feel so very very blessed to have been a part of all this. I have made new friends, learned new techniques, and wow. I just can't believe the amazing experience I had. More pictures later, Chris and I are going for one last Burgerville run before catching our flight back.

Preparations

2009-08-04T16:07:00.002-04:00

I am leaving for Sock Summit tomorrow. I've been off school a few days, so there has been much knitting and other preparation. Including the purchase of a new camera - Chris will be sightseeing on his own for much of the weekend and will want his, so I need my own for documentation of my yarny pursuits.

I think it'll do, don't you? The sock is a plain stockinette one, of the Sheepy Time BFL I spun back in april. I do hope there's enough yarn for that. But it'll do for plain knitting for travel and walking and for when my brain is too full to do anything else.

I need to get back to laundry and packing and all that jazz. No promises to blog during the Summit, but I'll have a summary once I get back, no doubt.

Yarn!

2009-07-13T20:10:00.002-04:00

New Day from Spunky Club - February shipment. This was totally my astronomy homework in the house cup. 3-ply, worsted weight, about 175 yards

And here's some green stuff: Daydreams of Spring from The Vildish Twist - the fiber was a gift from Melinda and this is about half of it as a two-ply fingering weight.

I'm still knitting black socks and red stole, but started and frogged some other socks, and it's time to knit for reducio again, so that's fun. Current knitting crisis is the need for plain knitting for the three hour movie I'm planning to see tomorrow at midnight. Half-Blood Prince. Good times.

Great plans

2009-07-02T00:35:00.002-04:00

It's July (how did that happen?). I have three weeks left of my summer class. This is the third and last month of the House Cup summer term, which means new classes and OWL-finishing time.

One of the classes has me thinking of spinning, so I think I'm also going to do the Tour de Fleece - spin every day July 4-26, with two rest days.

Other folks on Ravelry are doing WIP Wrestlemania, which I'm not saying I couldn't use, but I think I'm about full up on -alongs. So I think my only WIP wrestling this month (at least for the first bit) will be on the socks that started Sunday almost like this:

And ended Sunday like this:

Oh, Ravelry...

2009-06-27T01:14:00.002-04:00

I pause my TiVo-ed Daily Show to finish my post about my beloved shawl (which will only be mine for so long, so I need to fall out of love with it sometime, but that'll happen eventually - although the pattern is remarkably un-black-holey, so far), and I get sucked into Ravelry and realize that although I kind of want to do a blanket of sock yarn, what I really want to do is the EZ Knitters Almanac Grafting blanket out of sock yarn. Because that sounds way better to me than mitered squares.

And so now my boyfriend Jon Stewart is paused in the other room while I go read the pattern and sort through my bin of leftover sock yarn and reorder the sock queue to make the blanket more fun. Yup. Good times.

A little something

2009-06-26T21:29:00.002-04:00

This is my new obsession:

I'm in love with it. I like nothing more than snuggling up with it. I really don't want to finish writing this post, because I'd rather go hang on the sofa and knit it while watching whatever the TiVo's been hanging onto for me this week while I watched The Wire (Season 4 was amazing - heartbreaking, too).

Which is good, because it's my OWL for the House Cup, and I have a deadline of July 31 for it to be finished. (That's a nice soft deadline, my hard deadline is in early November.) At my current pace, being done by the end of July will not be an issue. So that's awesome.

...

Yeah, I just went and watched tv and knit for a few hours. That's all I got. :)

Crumbs, I know

2009-06-10T16:03:00.001-04:00

Here's a super-happy pair of socks.

Having a minor knitting lull lately. Started new plain socks, still working on a few other things.

Sock Summit Go!

2009-05-29T14:41:00.003-04:00

There was much frenzy and wailing and gnashing of teeth about the Sock Summit this week. I was in the crash, I had a fake success, and then I actually registered.

I was lucky enough to get a full slate of classes, and while I won't be taking Amy Singer's class (boo!), the Summit is so full of amazing that my teacher list makes me woozy. I just hope I don't make an idiot of myself in front of these seriously cool people.

Now I just need airfare and accommodations.

I'm a toe (or two, I may have had some premature toe action on the first sock - I've got to quit that..) away from finishing super-happy socks for The Cup, and I may post a progress pic of my not-scary laceweight stole.

We've got big yardwork plans this weekend, but I hope I can get a good pile of knitting done as well. Classes start back on Monday (when new classes for The Cup are posted) and I'm afraid my knitting time may be somewhat curtailed.

Crazy in my head

2009-05-26T00:27:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow at 1pm registration for Sock Summit opens. And I am going. I'm very nervous about signing up for classes. For one thing, my class list's associated teachers make me feel like a squeeing teenager. (OMG, Amy Singer! EEEEEE!) For another, every time I look at the class list I change my mind about what to take (just now I kicked my Friday AM plans to the curb twice in the last five minutes). Seriously, this event has me all kerfuffled.

I'm booking away on House Cup projects. I got some serious sock time in yesterday and today - my socks I started a week ago Saturday are on the second gusset - yay me. My lace stole has one end on a holder, and the other cast on. May get another row or two in before sleeping tonight, if I can tear myself away from the crazy-making website.

The Indy 500 was yesterday - hence the plain sock time, mostly in the car, but there during some caution laps and when the crowd started getting to me. Then watching the replay after - both last night and this morning. The stole, surprisingly, seems to be going better with podcasts and DVDs of The Wire - the latter in the later half of the lace ends, when they get more automatic.

Ok. Going to sleep soon. I promise.

House Cup

2009-05-20T11:48:00.003-04:00

I meant to do some cleaning of my house over the break. And some of that has happened - Mandie came over and helped me get my stash room under control, and Chris and I have gone through some boxes and we may well be moved in before too long (it's only been two years).

But mostly I've been knitting for the House Cup. Started 20 days ago, here are three little projects:

Wristers for Quidditch. Go Gryffindor!

A headband to keep my now-short hair out of my face.

And...

Rose's Wristwarmers, which have been in my queue longer than I've been watching Doctor Who, if you'll believe it. This pattern is the one that made me sit up and say "hmm, maybe I should get that show from the library..."

I signed up for an OWL, so there's a long-term project that's going to be started any day now. I also have a plain sock going that if the pair is finished this month, will be my Defence against the Dark Arts homework. (Actually, it'll be Defence homework either way. But I'm hoping to get them done, they make me really happy.)

I'm going to go clean up my house a bit and then myself some - and then I think I get to knit some more.

May Day

2009-05-01T18:31:00.003-04:00

So my friend Mandie of Sheepy Time Knits has this colorway I just love: Aurora Borealis. She recently started dyeing fiber as well as yarn, and so when I had the chance, I snagged a braid of superwash BFL in Aurora Borealis- and this is how it spun up:

There's a touch more than 200 yards of it, which isn't exactly what I was hoping for - I was trying for socks, and it may not be enough. However, I've recently had other ideas...

Meanwhile, I joined the Hogwarts House Cup and have been clearing the needles in anticipation of today's class postings. Here's a pair of finished socks:

Regular top-down with a short-row hourglass heel, Red Heart Heart and Sole yarn in Toasted Almond. Yarn bought and socks cast on in a post-Christmas "I have nothing to knit and my stash is 500 miles away!" panic.

Finished an unbloggable pair as well, and have made headway on my green things from last fall - am at armhole/shoulder shaping on the back of my cardigan, and have gotten back to the leafy green shawl which will someday be finished, maybe... This means I currently have exactly one pair of socks on the needles, if you can believe it. But that'll change soon enough - the Cat Bordhi group is meeting at Village Yarn Shop this weekend, and I'll need a pair for that!

Crappy Pictures of something awesome

2009-04-15T21:09:00.002-04:00

These are my new favorite socks. They're several months in the making. I bought the yarn at the flooded Hoosier Hills Fiber Fest last year. It's Lotus Yarns Nirvana, in the fabulously named colorway "I Wanna Be Sedated."

And now it's my newest pair of work socks. The stitch pattern is the ubiquitous Monkey, but the construction is Cat Bordhi's Sky architecture from New Pathways. These socks were first seen in October, and were just one sock's ribbing until Christmas, when this strange Frankensteining of two awesome designs occurred to me. There has been knitting and ripping and knitting and ripping (and there was a premature kitchener at least once), but they're about perfect now.

Something finished

2009-04-06T00:05:00.005-04:00

At Christmas I saw my cousin J and his wife A for the first time since they were married - three months before I was, so it had been more than two years. They announced that they were going to have a baby. I was so excited for them, and they were so getting handknits for their little one.

After Christmas the Mad Knitters had a holiday gathering with a yarn swap, where I got a pastel variegated fuzzy acrylic. It was immediately earmarked for their baby.

This is the blanket I made. The baby's name was Zachary, and he didn't make it. I won't ever meet him, but his mommy and daddy will get a blanket for him anyway. I didn't start it until I got the news that he was sick, and it wasn't finished until he was gone, but it was a labor of love - the only thing I could do for J & A from across the country, while my heart broke for them.

It's not much, but it's something. Something for Zachary, who was loved.

Drought

2009-03-27T00:21:00.002-04:00

How did I go a month without blogging?

I think I just haven't had much to say. I finished one thing since the last post. And it deserves and will get its own post. I'm working on several second socks. The knitting penance shawl is continuing, although my commitment to "knit a repeat every week" has faded some. There's a green sweater (remember?) that is still coming along, slowly.

I'm still knitting, just slowly. And I'm occasionally taking time out to detangle yarn for Mandie. She's also gotten me obsessed with Lost so I spent spring break slogging along on socks and watching tv over the internet.

So see, the reason I haven't been blogging? Because I'm working on the same projects I had in September. The first sighting of the current grey socks was in early October.

I have to finish something soon, right?

Squoosh factor is greater than perfectionism

2009-02-21T13:46:00.004-05:00

I'm still very much a beginner spinner in my own head. I don't consider myself a beginner knitter anymore, because I can generally take the needles and make the yarn turn into exactly what I want (it may take some ripping, sketching, figuring, and head-scratching, but I can do it). But spinning isn't that way yet. I can make lovely things, but in my brain I'm always comparing to what I wanted them to be. And they're not exactly the same. Yet.

This is my new pet yarn.

I'm keeping her in my purse and calling her Tinkerbell for a while. She's scrumptious. She's made of my first Spunky Club shipment, and she's lovely.

My perfectionist brain says "but she's so thick-and-thin! You're not spinning evenly enough yet!"

My perfectionist brain says "dude, HOW many times did the singles break while you were plying?"

My perfectionist brain knows that one ply was much denser than the other, and so there's a small ball of unused single on a tp core in my stash room, that I may or may not ply.

And my perfectionist brain says that that small ball and the the waste lost due to broken plies and her thick-and-thinness are evidence of failure on my part.

And then I look at her, and I pet her, and I can't feel bad.

She's lovely. I took her to a movie tonight, and she got held through the end of Benjamin Button after I ran out of stockinette to knit (four socks-in-progress, and they all require thought right now - bad planning.)

And I know that I did many of the things that I wanted to with her. I wanted a softly-spun two-ply - I didn't want to overspin and lose the fiber's original softness. In that I succeeded completely.

I wanted somewhere in the dk-to-worsted weight. Even with the thick parts, I'm there. The thin parts are heavy fingering, this got substantially fuller with a wash. And the evenness across the board is way better than my past thicker yarns.

I wanted the colors to line up somewhat, and while there's a lot more purple in that one leftover ply, it's amazing to see how the outside of the skein is mostly blues, the inside is mostly purples, and it varies in between. I didn't screw up Amy's lovely dye job.

I'm learning. I'm getting better, and this is evidence of that. Yaay. :)

Happening. Or not.

2009-02-20T17:46:00.003-05:00

A few things I've dug up from my knitting bag:

A project I'm calling "Janet is a squeeing fangirl." The pattern is Abby from KnittySpin, and I'm knitting it in Alpaca With a Twist Fino - although my yarn wasn't labeled such when I bought it from the booth at the fiber festival, that's what it is. It's yummy. If anyone can get me over my laceweight fear, it's Amy Singer. And as the pattern is named after the woman I think about stalking to her home in Ohio and moving in and making her teach me everything she can about spinning, so I had to try it. (They're both teaching at Sock Summit. I may get to go, and I'm so excited...)

The first of my second pair of Monkey socks. Yes, they're weird, they're Cat Bordhi-ized. And someday they'll be finished and I will wear them to work and feel smart. Someday.

And then the project that has come to be known as my Knitting Penance. Leafy green shawl, lovely in every way, except I can't seem to make myself knit it for hours on end, so I knit a repeat every time I take it out to Knit Night (well, almost) or another knitting gathering. It's probably close to halfway done at this point, and it's yummy and warm and has reached that critical black hole mass, but also the mass at which I say "this is going to be a great shawl!" and want to keep knitting it.

All these things have been holding for a bit. There are a few other things I'm working on more right now that are taking my attention away. One is spinning stuff, another is unbloggable, the other I'm not ready to talk about yet. But once they're done, these three are back to the forefront! Really!

In other news, Francie has a blog now, so welcome to Blogland, Francie! And the Mathematical Fiber Arts Exhibit at the Joint Math Meetings has pictures up, including my mathghan and some other really cool stuff.

2009-02-20T00:55:00.001-05:00

For the past 3 days, I've woken up thinking my alarm clock was talking to me about spinning.

I'm about to go to bed, and I haven't spun today. We'll see if the trend continues.

Mail is always good.

2009-02-06T10:35:00.002-05:00

Last night I got home from knit night and had two packages for me! Yaay!

First, I joined a swap on Ravelry: the Reducio Sock Swap. It's a Harry Potter swap where everyone exchanges tiny socks in House colors. This round, there was a Care of Magical Creatures theme to it. Check it out!

I got a niffler! With gold coins! How cool is that! And a bunch of other awesome surprises too, so bonus!

This is perhaps the best swap ever!

I had also ordered from Twisted Fiber Arts a few weeks ago, on Melinda's ~~prodding~~ suggestion. My order came yesterday, and it's seriously delish.

The yarn is the DK weight Duchess base, in the colorway Warlock. It's a purple/black/grey self-striping yarn, and it may jump my queue and make some super toe-up socks - because I want long socks and I want to use ALL of this yummy yarn.
The roving is a merino-bamboo blend in the colorway Firefly, and I'm psyched to spin this up. These both have beautiful colors, really neat subtleties in the dyeing.

It's been a bad week for knitting, too much work, not enough time, but I'm thinking excavating my knitting bag will be a post soon. I'm also going to join in the Cat Bordhi Sock Support Group starting up this Saturday at Village Yarn Shop. I'm looking forward to it. Have a great weekend, all!

A couple pictures

2009-02-02T13:27:00.005-05:00

These were taken in my middle-of-the-night post-Super Bowl GET STUFF DONE insanity last night. With flash, under the ott light. I didn't want to wait till today.

Finished handspun scarf:

(This is the thick and thin two-ply from early wheel dealings, not from three-ply Pink Stuff posted last week. Chris was confused as I took the picture. "You knit something from that already?!")

It is perfect for the monochrome Februaries we tend to get around here.

Orange sweater, some assembly required:

This got me cranking on the green cabled cardi I started in late September. Sleeves were finished before Christmas, and I didn't cast on the back till Thursday. Today it's all I want to knit. (And considering it starts with almost four inches of ribbing, that's kind of nuts.)

Julie commented on my yarn mileage from the last post and I wanted to add - Ravelry makes it possible to calculate mileage so super easily, and for anyone who has their stash entered. Download the stash as an excel file, find the "total yardage" column, add it up and divide by 1760, and there you are. Mandie warned me not to do this, and I can see why, but now that I have, I'm kind of fascinated. In that trainwrecky sort of way. I'm also motivated to knit the fair few sweaters that I already had yarn for.

Back to work with me.

Marathons

2009-02-01T01:41:00.002-05:00

I've been slowly entering my stash into ravelry over the past month. I'm still missing a bit, but tonight I added almost a whole shelf of my yarn closet plus the Mass Ave Bag O'Shame - where there are yarns that are not at all like yarns that I use, and yet I keep thinking I will use them. I bought them because of insanely low prices. And pretty colors.

Plus I went to Village Yarn Shop (I love that place!) today and a minor pile of some gorgeous vivid orange Malabrigo marched right up to me and demanded to come home with me. I said okay, because it was darling and charming, and I invited some of its silky pink friend to come along too.

Anyway, the upshot of that is, I now have a touch over 26.3 miles of yarn in my Rav stash, and that amuses me. There is still plenty to enter, too. Yeesh.

I'm trying to quickly knit tiny things for the Reducio swap - I let the impending due date get away from me, and while I considered abandoning my original idea there for a few days, I came back to it and am very glad I did. I love that this swap is something I can do in a last-minute weekend, though! Reducio Sock Swap = Best swap ever!

Pictures soon - I actually finished a project this week and depending on whether I run to Michaels tomorrow I may finish another, and once I find the camera charger, I definitely want to share.

Small Update

2009-01-28T11:13:00.002-05:00

Other stuff's been happening. Slowly, but happening nonetheless. But the camera died after one picture of yarn (and several of snow - snow day for me, or else you wouldn't get this picture till the weekend), so here it is.

Pink stuff. 3-ply, heavy fingering to sport weight, about 350 yds. It's not as soft as I would like, and yet it's fantastic. I am proud of me for this stuff.

Warm Memories

2009-01-16T12:10:00.002-05:00

(Jeez-o-pete, that's a sappy title...)

My math afghan just got home from its first math conference (at least its first since it was completed... I seem to remember a hauling box of brightly colored acrylic down to Boca Raton for the Southeastern conference a few years ago), and I was putting away the blanket that had taken its place in the interim, and I realized that its story needed to be told.

Once upon a time, I went to college. And I learned to crochet, primarily from old books and the free patterns available in the yarn section at the Terre Haute Wal-Mart. Sugar and Cream and Red Heart were what I stashed.

And so when I decided I wanted to make an afghan, I went with a free Lion Brand pattern. This one, actually. I was a poor college student, though, so I didn't use that spendy Homespun stuff, it was Red Heart Super Saver for me. Gauge wasn't even a thing. I used the same hook as the pattern called for, and so pretty early on I figured I would need more motifs to get a nice big blanket. I got as close as I could with the materials available to my sorority colors, and went to work.

These yellow and blue motifs were in my backpack everywhere I went. To class, to choir and drama club rehearsals, to Model UN and sorority meetings. To at least one math conference, maybe two. On the drama club trip to London. They went everywhere. And then I was done with school, and they went home with me to Birmingham. I crocheted these endless hexagons in the evenings after my nice inter-school job. And then there were enough of them.

And I started putting them together. Just FYI, seaming is easier if seams are straight. Even if you're crocheting things together. I put the navy zigzag stripes together and the yellow zigzag stripes together. And then I put the stripes together. It seemed endless.

And again, it ended. I was so proud. I had made an afghan with my own two hands.

Now I look at it, and it's very Michigan-y. It's actually more like my boyfriend's fraternity (Alpha Chi Sigma, a chemistry organization) would want, than anything I had wanted it to be. And I would probably die before I made anything like it today. But it's warm, and washable, and it's mine.

And last night, when I wanted something warm to cover my chilly feet after I got home from knit night in the terrible cold, I was glad I spent that time and energy eight years ago on this ridiculous old thing.

Oh fine, I'll post

2009-01-11T15:06:00.002-05:00

I feel like I haven't had much to say. I have been knitting since Christmas, but I've also been frogging - or deciding to frog, even if I haven't done it yet, some things. The things I've started aren't really looking like anything yet, and I had something cool in a sock, but I frogged it back to the start of the coolness, to make it more cool. So yeah. Not much to show.

I did take a few hours at the turn of the year to get my stash room a touch more organized. My sock stash had been sharing a bookcase with my fun books, and they were starting to have a hard time coexisting. So in addition to entering my entire sock stash on Ravelry, I moved it to its own place. Here's a book rack that hasn't been used since it lived in my dorm, but it's entirely full of sock yarn:

That's 12.18 miles of sock yarn, and I've managed to not add to it since then.

I've been spinning, too, and while that's still in-progress (I'm working on getting a lightweight three-ply of the same pink-and-purple stuff, and I'm on the second bobbin, barely. I've gotten a new spinner started - my college friend Melinda played with my wheel for a morning and then got her own!

I got 2 pounds of corriedale top with my wheel, and last night I decided I would probably never spin it unless it had some color, so I pulled out the kool-aid and vinegar. Here's 4 oz of roving, drying...

I love the color Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade gives you. I think this needs to be lace. Once the pink-and-purple is done.

Mostly for Mandie

2008-12-30T23:45:00.002-05:00

My kid brother made us watch this movie twice over our four days in Birmingham. This is the good part. (I managed to sleep through major chunks of it both times.)

Pictures!

2008-12-25T22:31:00.001-05:00

Camnesia again struck the hats from yesterday, but here is today:

The state of the socks as they were wrapped:

My kid brother and his blanket:

And the state of the socks this evening:

Taking a tie and calling it a victory. Oh, and Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T20:25:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, two boys under the age of ten played a mess of football in 70 degree weather wearing new striped wool hats. I win.

On Anne-trelac: Yesterday I woke up and had half a heel flap on the second sock and half of a foot still to knit on the first. This morning, I gave them to my mother with only a toe missing. By this afternoon, she had a complete (and awesome!) new pair of socks. They weren't done by Christmas morning, but they were done before Christmas dinner. I win.

(Again, project monogamy is amazing - why do I not do this more?)

In sad yarny news, something broke somewhere in my brother's afghan and there's a hole that I am now determined to patch before I leave town. Having left all the yarn for his blanket in Indiana (in retrospect, I vastly underestimated my ability to rise to the occasion of Christmas knitting and I will likely need more yarn before the week's out) I will need to hit Michaels tomorrow to fix it.

Merry Christmas to all.

Whoo hoo!

2008-12-22T19:29:00.002-05:00

Yes, my friends, that is a complete, clean, and ready to wrap Christmas present for my kid brother - also known as my finished Ravelympics project. Major help from Mandie and Paige made the seaming happen. They are awesome and I am terribly indebted.

Blue-and-grey striped socks were received by my fabulous mother-in-law last night, who again showed that she totally deserves them, because my in-laws gave me a delicious and exciting assortment of fiber-related reading material. I wanted to cast new things on right away, but I'm still working on other gifts, so I'm going to get back to it.

Whew. Okay then.

2008-12-09T23:15:00.003-05:00

Well, hmm. I keep meaning to post stuff, but more, I've been meaning to get some knitting done. I've had a pair of work socks all ready to wear but for weaving in a couple of ends since Thanksgiving. The great grey afghan seems (seams?) huger as Christmas looms nearer. I'm making good progress on a pair of plain socks that are a Christmas gift, but other than that, not much is happening. Except, y'know, work.

But as of tomorrow, I'm done with teaching new material in all five classes, and once I've got my Geometry/Trig final written, there's only grading left to do. Woohoo! (That's where we are in the semester. Grading gets a "woohoo!")

In that spirit, I updated my sidebar to cover my Christmas knitting goals. We'll see what happens there. Reality ~~may well~~ probably will come smack me around soon enough.

A note from Jake and other stuff

2008-11-26T00:09:00.003-05:00

I got a cute facebook thank-you from Jake today:

"Thank you so much for my new favorite hat! As I am a baldie, this is not only a welcome fashion accessory, but an integral part of my survival. Thank you for saving my life and making me look cool."

My kid brother's friends are as smart and nice as he is. I only regret I didn't get pictures of the hats, because I really like them. I'm on a bit of a jag, two essentially identical hats done (and in charcoal and gray!) and I could still make more, and I may well do so.

The weekend with family was awesome and now I want to knit for everyone for Christmas. I feel like I have not been working ahead this year. Last year at this point I had socks for Dad and a hat for Kid Brother and had only a pair of socks left to knit. This year nothing is finished. I have four giant seams to sew in kid brother's afghan, a half a sock that could be for my mom, one sock for my mother-in-law, ideas for a hat for my father-in-law, and no clues for dad or my new step-people. (I think probably the fact that I want to knit for more people this year is really more of the trouble...)

The hats may be the answer. If I can keep up the pace I had, I can get four hats in two weeks, and we're still a touch more than four weeks out.

Stay tuned. Things might get interesting in the next month...

Weekend

2008-11-23T23:02:00.002-05:00

Before I yammer about the knitting, everything came together as it should this weekend. Dad is out of the hospital and married, and I had a great weekend with family. I am now home and glad to be here and get to sleep in my own bed tonight, but I'm looking forward to returning for Christmas.

I took yarn for seven projects. Sweater, shawl, scarf, 3 socks, and a hat. I worked on one hat and one sock. I did show off the handspun, so the scarf wasn't a complete waste, but yeah, otherwise carried much more than was necessary. Kind of predictable, that.

Finished Jake's hat, and the second current work sock is well on its way to the toe. I will have new socks for work after Thanksgiving, so that's awesome.

I came home wanting to knit for everybody. I think I can be a bit controlled this Christmas, but next year may be insane.

Sigh...

2008-11-20T17:23:00.001-05:00

Dad's doing better. Should be out of the hospital tomorrow and be able to attend his wedding on Saturday.

So somehow I made a packing list and didn't include my knitting. This is bad. Situation must be remedied ASAP. Need nighttime car knitting and probably "please don't let me kill anyone" knitting. Whether I have those kinds of projects at hand, I'm not sure...