quickie

I jumped on the bandwagon.

My very own Dolores Park Cowl. Keeping with the quickie aesthetic, I used a crappy Photobooth picture.  (Hello, shiny!)

needles: US15 circs

yarn: Garnstudio eskimo, 2.25 skeins (army)

started: April 29, 2008; 7:39 p.m.

finished: April 29, 2008; 10:42 p.m.

Not bad. A good knit to work on while reading; an even better knit to wear while reading. I do a lot of that, so it’s a nice accessory for cool spring evenings.

here I am …

… and I just might rock you like a hurricane. Depending on how you feel about socks.

For I give you:

finished madder ribbed socks [ravelry].

Here are the details:

pattern: Madder Ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush

yarn: Kaffe Fassett sock, Landscape Earth (about 33g/sock)

needles: 3.00mm circs

started: April 12, 2008

finished: April 27, 2008

I love the simple ribbed socks at the beginning of Knitting Vintage Socks — they’re so easy, quick, and yet so satisfying. Instead of getting busy on the CPH sleeves, I started another pair:

These are the lichen ribbed socks [ravelry] in some ridiculously colorful Lana Grossa Meilenweit (Stile: color 8004). Fireworks socks.

Both pairs are destined for my sister. She loves wool socks and I love spoiling her with handknits. An ideal situation.

Now that my house guest is gone, it’s time to get back to work. Sigh.

A sad, tragic, apparently pointless something happened to a friend and her family this weekend.  It’s not mine to talk about publicly, but I has left me feeling a bit disjointed.  So I’m all the more thankful for the fibery blogs that have been keeping me distracted, entertained, and thinking happy, creative thoughts.

I’m also thankful for my own little corner of the world and the wonderful people (and animals) who populate it.  May it long remain intact.  

 

ho hum.

So, my bathroom is still clean.  That’s the good news.  As for knitting, well, not so much to say.  I’ve been working on the madder ribbed mate: so far, so good.

ribbed heel

This shows the heel detail a bit more clearly: no purled seam stitch, worked over 30 stitches, instead of 31, with ribbing.  Perhaps not an über-traditional rendering of the Dutch or Horseshoe Heel, but I think it looks much neater.  The purled seam stitch interrupted the ribbing pattern (which was not carried down the heel in the original) and just seemed rather messy.  I’m happy with the mod.

That’s what I did last night.  Here’s what I’m doing today:

Yep.  Dissertation terror strikes again.  Maybe procrastination will inspire me to visit the gym.   

at least my bathtub is clean

Procrastination has reached new heights here at chez dissertation terror. I cleaned the bathtub this morning. I would classify this as dissertation terror alert: yellow.

image from wikipedia

Seems quite low, you say? Well, things can escalate quickly. One minute you’re cleaning the bathtub, the next you’re quitting grad school. Trust me.

But on to a cheerier topic: socks!

earthy!

One madder ribbed sock finished. I knit the specified Dutch or Horseshoe Heel* and Pointed Toe because it seemed a shame not to try out all of the nifty heel/toe combinations available in Vintage Socks.

Dutch or Horseshoe Heel

I was expecting to be a bit bored with the simpled ribbed socks, but actually, I enjoyed every stitch. Quick, easy-to-memorize pattern with the heel and toe construction adding a bit of low-impact interest, fun stripy yarn — what else does a sock knitter need? The perfect relaxation knit.

I see many more simpled ribbed socks in my future. Well, Lichen, Yarrow, and Oak Ribbed [all ravelry] anyway. A perfect way to work through some of my abundant self-striping sock yarn.

Pointed Toe

The only mods on the socks: I rearranged the stitches to center the ribbing and continued it down the heel. Instead of the sl1, k1, psso decreases recommended for the left gusset and toe shaping, I used ssk on the gusset and k2tog on the toe. The right-leaning decreases on the toe look a bit funny, as the spiral is veering left but I thought of that too late. And my left-leaning decreases — whatever method — always look a bit messy; despite that, it’s probably the way to go on this pattern.

Right now, I’m debating whether or not to rip back the toe and add a bit of length to the foot (not to mention left-leaning decreases on the toe). I seem to always err on the side of too short with socks, putting caution before fit. This time I’m afraid they might not be large enough for my sister as the Pointed Toe fits a bit differently on the foot. We shall see. That decision has been deferred until later this evening.

*Whoa. KnitWiki is awesome! I see new vistas of procrastination opening before me. Is it wrong that I covet Knit Visualizer software even though I don’t design stuff? I mean, I *could* design stuff if I had such cool software.

gestresst

So I got up 2 hours later than planned.  Then I thought, “oh, coffee!” and “look: it’s teh intarweb!” and here we are, still sipping coffee and sitting on the couch.  The cat’s mad at me because I’m sitting in her place, but I should be at the library anyway, so it doesn’t really count.  But the library kind of smells like feet and armpits, which doesn’t matter because the principle is the same: I should be at my desk with the computer in work position.  Yet instead of showering and acting like a responsible adult, I thought I’d read some blogs and take pictures of my knitting.  Maybe check out ravelry, too, because you never know what kind of late-breaking knitting news might have happened in the night.  Or what awesome patterns need to be knit. right. now.

Sigh.

I just wish we didn’t go through this every morning.

Here’s some madder ribbed progress:

keep moving: nothing to see here, just a little boring sock progress

After working on the Gentleman’s Shooting Stockings — in fluted pattern over 70+ stitches — these are working up so quickly.  I just look at them and it seems they grow a little bit.  But easy ribbing over 60 stitches will produce those kind of results.  Especially on 3.00 mm needles.  I thought about starting over on needles a bit closer to the recommended 2.25 mm size, but these are fitting pretty well, so why bother?  For my next sock project I think I’ll try the tiny needles, even if I have to cast on more stitches to get a sock that fits.  Blast you, too-tight knitting!

Before they’re bundled up for the mail, here’s the GSS in all of their blocked glory:

I hope they fit.  The gauge is pretty loose and I think they might stretch like a mofo.  But at least they’re pretty!

now for some real knitting content

Socks!

I finished up the Gentleman’s Shooting Stockings last night; now they’re just drying out before being shipped off to my dad.

Maybe sock blockers wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

pattern: Gentleman’s Shooting Stockings with Fluted Pattern [ravelry] by Nacy Bush, in Knitting Vintage Socks

yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch Softcolor (507), about 1 1/4 skeins or 460 yards

needles: 3.25 mm circs

started: March 2008

finished: April 12, 2008

And instead of relishing my triumph and heading to bed, I started another pair of socks.  These promised to my sister, since the Charades ended up a bit small and thus found a home on my mom’s feet.

Armed with Knitting Vintage Socks, a desire to knit something for Project Spectrum: Earth, and a brand new audio book (Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toy Shop — so good), I cast on for these:

A little hard to tell in their current state, but these are the madder ribbed [ravelry] pattern in Kaffe Fassett Landscape Earth sock yarn.  So original.  But I wanted a quick, straight-forward knit, a travel project for bus and University use, in pretty yarn.  This definitely fits the bill.

Now on to my reading.

it’s official (thanks to the internets)

What American accent do you have?    Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you’re a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

 

So nice to get the correct quiz result.  I always feel validated for some silly reason.  Although “lowest common denominator” doesn’t sound very nice, does it?

procrastination

The closer the deadline for my prospectus draft looms, the more knitting I seem to do. Not an ideal state of affairs, to be sure. At least in seeking wooly comfort I’m accomplishing *something* — although not necessarily something that my advisers would accept as dissertation research. Sigh.

Earlier in the week, I got around to knitting up the CPH fronts:

Both were super-quick knits, as predicted, and once I read the directions carefully and placed the neck shaping on the shoulders neck, all was well. I’m loving cabling without a cable needle, a concept which I earlier found to be intimidating out of all proportion to its actual difficulty. I used Grumperina’s tutorial and am so glad I gave it a try. Her pictures and explanations are clear and precise; after a few tries I had it down. A labor-saving device, indeed.

The thought of starting the sleaves left me uninspired, so I got down to work on the second Gentleman’s Shooting Stocking.

more Shooting Stocking

I turned the heel without too much trouble, despite the bit of wine I imbibed, which I suspect didn’t help navigate the intricacies of knitting back-and-forth in pattern. Smooth sailing from here on, though.

In spite of all of my queued up patterns [ravelry], I’m remaining faithful to my unfinished WIPs. That might change soon, though, as I have one friend getting married in the summer — for whom I’m planning my very first lace shawl [ravelry] — and another expecting her first baby in the fall, a baby who will, of course, need some kind of knitwear. Not to mention the acquaintance who just had her first baby … This is how things snowball out of control. This way madness.

just a little something.

Not much going on here, knitting-wise that is. I’m spending my time trying to get fired up about my dissertation and worrying about various meetings with advisors. Oh, the inadequacy.

Here’s what I finished last night when I should have been asleep:

square nr. 10

Another step in my leisurely stroll toward half way done with the Lizard Ridge. This square is Kureyon 207, one of the newer Kureyon combinations, I believe. I love the colors and spent most of my time knitting the square turning over ideas about a cardigan or similar in this colorway. Kind of a wait-and-see game at this point, though, considering all of the crazy knitting plans [ravelry link] I have cooked up (or half baked).

Speaking of crazy knitting plans, I bought some more sock yarn. Like I’ll have time to knit it up in anything like the near future. I’m beginning to look at my German stash in terms of probable postage. Which keeps me knitting. But does not stop me from buying small bits of yarn here and there.

Lana Grossa bosco, color 3510

In a fit of Project Spectrum inspiration and dissertation terror, I decided I’d knit this lovely yarn up into a pair of socks for the Mr. B. Whether he wants them or not. Right. Only after the transaction was complete did I realize the folly of this plan. Dissertation terror gives no indication of abating, indeed until my prospectus is completed, defended, and passed, I do not plan on being a very happy or relaxed munchkin with endless time to knit.

Still, buying yarn is very calming.