wish fulfillment.

If we go with Freud and agree that every dream is indeed a wish fulfillment, then I just might be dreaming.  Because the first installment of a dream project arrived yesterday.

The  addictive, entirely too expensive, non-sensically named, yet utterly divine kidsilk haze in two neutral shades: Jacob (631) and Elegance (577).  Government names: brown and green, respectively.

This is my reward for making it this far at NewGraduateInstitution: for turning in writing assignments pretty much on time, for getting up each morning and trying again, for starting to learn that finished is sometimes good enough, for recognizing that it’s hard and I won’t get it right every time, for making mistakes, for digging my heels in and sticking with it.

It’s also a project I can knit while reading.

p.s. Verra Yarns, where I ordered this from (and fellow Washingtonians no less), were super fast.  The package arrived pretty much the day after I placed my order.  Instant mohair gratification.

do you see what i see?

Yep, owls!  It’s amazing what a Saturday devoted to knitting can accomplish.  I needed a rest after a grumpy and scattered week — let’s just say the transition back from an insufficient though lovely October break did not go smoothly — and thus declared Saturday a Day Off.  I knit, revelled in the EcoWool, watched Netflix instant television, ate Halloween candy.  And repressed the fact that I have a make-up seminar to attend in, oh, about an hour.

There are still a few ends to weave in and a good blocking wouldn’t hurt.  Not to mention some button eyes.  But the best news: EcoWool is apparently an inexhaustible source of wooly goodness!  I have about a skein and a quarter leftover … perhaps Stripes! will become a reality a bit sooner than I thought?

owls like the dark, right?

I hope they do — because it doesn’t look like today is going to get any brighter.  Obviously, I should just bust out the Sozialismus socks.  For some wooly illumination.

But focusing on the good news: I finished the body and am working on the first sleeve.  Also, notice the extreme depletion of the first ball of EcoWool.  Progress!

And though dark, it’s still not quite cold enough for such a wooly monster of a sweater.  I’ve got time.  (For that at least; the end of the semester is approaching with disconcerting rapidity.)

rayon vert

Because souvenir yarn is the best yarn.  I had trouble finding Indiana-based wool (I’m sure it’s out there, but we only went to one yarn store: the very nice and well stocked Yarns Unlimited), so I went with something pretty: malabrigo sock in rayon vert (854).  It’s making me think shawl thoughts.

Also: huge brunch with friends and adorable new baby + 5-hour drive home + laundry + cat maintenance + extreme tiredness = don’t attempt to finish turning the heel, fool.

(gentleman’s plain winter socks from the toe-up in Crown Mountain Farms sock hop, color: I’m Free.  Now on hold, awaiting a new heel.)

A weekend with friends, though = best way to celebrate ever.  (There was bubbly.  And so. much. food.  Can I just say: who knew Bloomington would have some of the tastiest Pad Thai around?)

where have I been?

Whoah.  Two posts in one evening.  I know how to party.

It has just dawned on me that my lameness has exceeded all bounds: I forgot to blog about the awesome contest I won.  Ooops.  That is truly lame.  Especially as my mother raised me to write thank-you notes in a timely manner.

So you might have been following the Friday giveaway bonanza over at Loumms.  Lots of great stuff spread out over six weeks of contests and sock-knitting fun.  Turns out, I got lucky and won the big ultimate giveaway bonanza.  Super double dog awesome.  Thanks gals!  (Even though the bonanza is over, the sock patterns are fabulouso and worth the click.)  Pretty yarn is coming my way!  Woohoo!!

that’s Frau Magister to all y’all

I don’t want to brag … but I kinda do.

A piece of paper might seem like a meager reward for six of the hardest years of my life.  Perhaps some would say it was not worth it at all.  Or that I should not too readily admit to just how long it took me to get this particular arrangement of letters attached to my name.

But I don’t care about that right now.  Because more than anything, this is the tangible proof that I made it through.  And I didn’t always think I would.

So thanks for sticking through with me … the blog has been an important, if at times neglected, source of support, community, and relaxation.

ETA: I know it makes me sound like a supreme cheese master, but really: I don’t know if I could have done it without this very non-academic outlet.  Knitting — and a forum in which to share the fruits of my wooly labor with other like-minded individuals — really made the difference in an otherwise isolated and isolating couple of years.  Yay for (internet) fiber friends!

Frau Magister is where it’s at for this evening.

action wool!

Yeah, action wool! my sweet keister.  We all know things are pretty lame around here knitting-wise at the moment.  I won’t even try to convince you otherwise.  Though the pictures of sweet, sweet eco wool are meant to demonstrate some proof of progress and non-lame-itude.

It’s disappearing, though fast is a bit optimistic.

In between bouts with the index and some Sunday morning Le Show therapy, I finished up the first office sock.  It’s kind of a big pile of FAIL.  Instead of immediately frogging — which I might conceivably regret later — I put it in the time-out corner.  (Or the scary still not unpacked closet of hobby doom.)  I just started another sock and tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

If the sun ever gets around to shining in my apartment, I’ll take a picture.  I just couldn’t deal this afternoon.

In the mean time, I leave you with the waist shaping.  See: progress!

welcome to my weekend

Little book, big ball of wool.  And I spent most of the weekend with both.  It wasn’t quite as idyllic as it sounds, though.  That book is * hard * to read (hello, my name is Katie M. and I read only 6.667 pages per hour) and I might still have some lingering gauge issues.  (As an official member of the supa tight (TM) knitters club.)

I did make some progress on both projects.  Luckily, the OWLS is a bit more flexible; Jünger, however, has be ready to present on Wednesday.

In the end, I didn’t cardiganize.  Though I think it would be awesome, I just didn’t have it in me to figure out the right numbers, place steeks or button bands, and keep the shaping at the back.  It’s probably not difficult at all — and Ravelry tells me that many have successfully navigated the cardigan waters — but I wanted to get on with the knitting.

So far, I’m done with the waist decreases and am hoping that my decision to go with shaping will not come back later to bite me in the you-know.  The sweater is looking a wee bit small.  I do not like small when it comes to clothing.  But the last time I said that, I ended up with a cardigan boasting a 52″ bust measurement.  That is not my size.

But I’m going to keep on with the body.  The ecowool is knitting up super fast (small wonder on size US13/9.00mm needles), so there’s really nothing to lose.

Though fall is definitely approaching around here — the weekend was lovely and cool — the weather does not seem reliablely autumnal enough to require such a hefty sweater quite yet.

eco.wool

EcoWool is pleasing not only for its wonderfully wooly characteristics — sproingy, soft, lofty, sturdily natural — but also for the shear size of the yarn cake produced by winding upwards of 450 yards of bulky wool.  It’s approaching the size of my head.  And that can only be a good thing.

See, it’s huge:

Though I still have lots of projects on the go — girasole, I’m looking at you (action socks, not so much as they are an office/study-break/on-the-go kind of project); of lizard ridge we will not speak (how you doin’?) — I decided that my life could only be improved by starting an OWLS sweater immediately.

Of course, making the decision was the easy part.  I’ve since struggled with gauge (um, yeah, so I guess you don’t necessarily need to hold the yarn in a control-freak death grip … but it helps), fantasies of cardiganizing that pullover (too complicated for my very tired and overwhelmed brain), and, finally, with gauge.  Again.

I think things might be on the right track now.  We’ll see.  As today must be spent reading and not struggling with pullover maintenance.

action sock at rest

It’s a cool and grey morning here; thus the action sock had to make do with semi-optimal conditions.  Luckily, the Hundertwasser yarn is so BRITE and non-subtle, it practically creates it’s own illumination.

This is turning out to be a variation on Nancy Bush’s vintage madder ribbed socks: same stitch pattern, but I modified the ribbing, made the leg longer (I like my socks, like my women, tall and covered in bees), and went with an afterthought heel to preserve the craziness of the self-patterning.

In a way, it’s a shame.  Because, for me anyway, the fun of Knitting Vintage Socks is to be found in the different heel and toe constructions.  Sock knitting seems to have canonized certain methods: short-row or flap; wedge toe, whether grafted or from the toe-up; etc, etc.  And while this produces a very nice and functional sock, it isn’t always very interesting from a construction point of view.

Though if I’m honest, I don’t really like working the afterthought heel.  I find it fiddly and stressful: getting the stitches picked up correctly, getting the numbers to match, closing up the gaps … but I do love how it doesn’t interfere with the pattern.  So here we are.

At least this is pretty straightforward knitting, unlike the girasole-of-many-stitches.  Which is not difficult per se, merely unwieldy.  Especially when engrossed in the exploits of one Dog, bounty hunter.  But I found my mistake and can only conclude that one should not mix a new chart — however uncomplicated — with extreme tiredness and A&E reality television.  (Have I mentioned how excited I am about Parking Wars?  No?  Probably better not.)