lunch blogging

This has been a tough week. Grad classes started up again and I am completely wiped out. I went to class three nights this week and, to exhaust me even further, I had stuff to do between work and class each and every one of those days. My eye has been twitching since yesterday!

I'll only have class twice a week from now on. This week was an anomaly but, as you might guess, knitting has taken a bit of a back seat as I start up with homework again. On Monday afternoon I tried to get some Muir done before things started up and ended up destroying the previous two days' worth of knitting by having to rip back to my lifeline. *sigh* This weekend is booked but I might be able to get some knitting done in the car. Hopefully actual knitting content will be posted soon--I do have some!

Update on yarn saga

The extra ball of yarn from Eat.Sleep.Knit arrived in yesterday's mail. I held it up to my sweater and it's much better than what I had but I'm not sure it's quite the same as the others either. *sigh* My plan of action:

1. Rip left front of cardigan back to where I joined the dark ball of yarn. Secure stitches with waste yarn.


2. Knit up the rest of the sweater body.


3. Use leftovers from sweater body to complete left front of cardigan.


4. See how much of the sleeves can be knitted with remaining leftovers.


5. If needed, use newest ball of yarn. If not needed, return it for a refund.

Wish me luck!

What to do?

There. Do you see it? One of the balls of Malabrigo is totally darker than the others.

I was happily knitting away with it--and yes, I noticed it seemed a little darker when I joined the new ball--when all of a sudden it was completely obvious that I would never wear the sweater like this. And ripping back and alternating rows for a while wouldn't solve the problem because the sleeves would still be way too dark for the body and one side of the cardigan front would have odd dark stripes in it.

I emailed Eat.Sleep.Knit to see if they have any balls of yarn closer in color to the rest of my sweater. Since someone might ask, all 4 balls of Malabrigo Merino Worsted are Stone Blue #99 and all of the labels say "15 02 04" so they should match. This must just be one of the downsides of handpainted yarn...

OTN

February Lady


I haven't knitted this in a while. I worked on it some yesterday and today and the body is now more than 1/2 done - it's 12.5 inches from back of collar to bottom of back.

Muir is officially out of hibernation. I can't believe it's been over 9 months since I last put her down. She came to work with me on Friday and I did 2 rows during lunchtime. I had no trouble following the chart or completing the stitches, but it's slow going. It took me about 20 minutes to do 2 rows. Some of that was reacquainting myself with what the chart symbols meant and making sure I had the right number of stitches on my needle (always 125). I did 2 more rows today and am on chart 3 of 13, row 5.

Bijouterie. Well, my first attempt was unsuccessful. I think I bought the wrong kind of wire. I contacted Romi and asked her for reputable online places to buy the materials and she wrote right back and told me about Earthfaire, which sells a kit just for this pattern (minus beads, which is fine since the ones I bought will be fine!). I ordered it last night and can't wait for it to arrive!

FO: Midnight Socks

"Have you seen my socks? Where are my socks?"

My husband kept laughing at me because I have must said that to him about a million times this week. I was madly knitting to try to finish my Midnight Socks in time for my mom's birthday and had been bringing them into odd places to get just a little bit more done--and then forgetting where I'd put them down. (I planned to gift them today.)

What really ended up being funny was the fact that the birthday trip is now postponed to wintry weather. Oh well! At least the project is no longer hanging over my head. My mother will get them next weekend instead.

Pattern: "Vivace Socks" by Elizabeth Sullivan
Source: Ravelry (my method) or this link
Started: November 26, 2008
Finished: January 8, 2009 (Sock #1 was finished on 12/30/08)
Size: Women's medium
Yarn: 1 skein [80% Superwash Merino Wool, 20% Nylon; 400 yds per 4 oz skein] of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering weight in the Midnight Colourway.
Needles & Gauge: 8-10 stitches per inch on US #1 (2.25 mm)

It usually takes me forever to knit socks so 1.5 months isn't bad. And one sock in "13" days--mostly 6--is even better (even if my right pointer fingertip hurt from the way I hold my needle while knitting). For a while there I thought I wouldn't gift the socks but after I got the foot of #2 partially done they started growing on me. I really like them now. I finished most of the toe decreases by the time I left work on Thursday (love knitting at lunch instead of doing homework!) and finished it up that night at the monthly knitting guild meeting I rarely get to attend (see comment about homework), and finished and washed the pair when I got home. Yay!

The pattern is really just plain old stockinette with a bit of a fancy cuff. I had some trouble tacking down the cuff while knitting, as directed in the pattern, but sewed it down afterwards without any trouble. Here are some close-ups. (Sewing, then inside of sock, then RS of sock)
I hope my mom likes them!
See old posts here.

What I've been up to

I didn't get much knitting done over vacation despite my intention of adding a few projects to my list of 2008 FOs. The only thing I made any progress on is Midnight Socks. I managed to finish the first one and get about halfway done with the leg of the second before heading back to work last Friday. Yesterday I knit on it a bit more and today at lunch I got up to the heel flap.

I'm disappointed in the way the socks are turning out and keep asking my husband if he thinks my mom will like them. He says yes but I'm not sure I like them enough to gift them... Let me explain. After I was well into sock #1, I read somewhere that hand-dyed sock yarns look best with textured patterns. That explains why Chaussettes de Montréal looked so fabulous (ribbing and cables) while this pair looks so....eh. Too bad I hadn't seen that info earlier!

I'll finish the project and then decide whether or not they'll go to my mom. (I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish them in time for her birthday on Saturday...) I tried on sock #1 and it fits perfectly and is wonderfully comfy so I might just keep them for myself if I don't think they're gift-worthy. I know I'll use them, regardless of how pretty they are. :>

As you can see, I was a very lucky knitter this Christmas. I got Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard, a cone dispenser (to hold cones of yarn), thingys to hold dpn projects-in-progress, point protectors, and a
Ravelry t-shirt featuring Bob in a pile of yarn. [After Christmas, I used gift money to buy the current issue of Knit.1, a color card for Knit Picks Swish Superwash, Kookaburra wool wash, and some sock yarn.]

My absolute favorite gift, which is not necessarily knitting-related, was the digital SLR that my hubby bought me!! As always, he picked out something fabulous and completely unexpected and I look forward to learning to use it better. I'd like to think that I have a decent start on that because I already have a "regular" SLR and took some photography classes before the whole 2nd MA/tenure thing started up again. Please excuse the two camera phone photos--hopefully the new SLR will mean more snazzy WIP/FO shots on the blog. ;)

2008 FOs

• Special Olympics Scarf


• Chaussettes de Montréal


• Toddler's Pullover


• Saartje's Bootees


• Maude Louise


• Ravelympics Socks


• Little Lambs baby blanket


• Dennis's Socks


• Classy Slip Up Socks


• Felted Ice Cream Pint Cozy


• Pullover for Penny


• NYE FO: The Silver Rose

2008 Reads

• My life, by Bill Clinton (audio)


• It itches: a stash of knitting cartoons, by Franklin Habit


• Medieval Europe and the world: from late antiquity to modernity, 400-1500, by Robin W. Winks and Teofilo F. Ruiz


• Rome, by M. Rostovtzeff


• The consolation of philosophy, by Ancius Boethius


• The lucky one, by Nicholas Sparks


• Animal, vegetable, miracle : a year of food life, by Barbara Kingsolver (audio) [!]


• The first urban Christians: the social world of the apostle Paul, by Wayne A. Meeks


• Selected Works, by Cicero


• Free-Range Knitter: the Yarn Harlot writes again, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee


• Plato's Republic, translated by C. D. C. Reeve


• Rome, by M. Rostovtzeff


• Ancient Greece: from prehistoric to Hellenistic times, by Thomas R. Martin


• Chasing windmills, by Catherine Ryan Hyde [#]


• Body Surfing : a novel, by Anita Shreve


• The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta (audio) [!]


• Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl" [!]


• The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, by David H. Richter


• Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee


• On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill


• Origins of the First World War, by James Joll


• Michelin Must Sees : Montreal


• Germany, 1866-1944 - by Gordon A. Craig


• The Declaration of Independence and other great documents of American history, 1775-1864 - edited by John Grafton


• Grounding of the metaphysics of morals, by Immanuel Kant


• Ornamentalism: how the British saw their empire - by David Cannadine


• 1848 : the revolutionary tide in Europe - by Peter N. Stearns


• A concise history of France, by Roger Price


• Meditations on first philosophy, by René Descartes


• The scientific revolution : aspirations and achievements, 1500-1700 - by James R. Jacob


• The foundations of early modern Europe, 1460-1559 - by Rice and Grafton


• Rewind, by Laura Dower [!]

* KEY: [!] = Highly recommend and [#] = Disappointing