I’m such a sucker for garter stitch.

The barefoot rooster made a couple of these awesome hats a while back.  I thought to myself, yes, indeed, that is a fine fine hat but I don’t really need a super warm wool hat.  Then it got cold in Nashville.  Then I saw this post: another super hero helmet hat.  And I thought to myself, today is the day.

So, I ball and a half of Rowan big wool in pepto-pink (#30, tricky?  looks like it’s been discontinued …) — that I once really thought I’d use for a sweater — and a couple of hours later: instant hat!  It’s bright pink and awesome and I’m wearing it to school tomorrow.

Another new project.

I feel a bit guily about abandoning the Earth Stripe so early in its fluffy mohair life.  In my defense, the wrap seems like the kind of project you have a relationship with: we’re going to be together for a long time, so we needed to set the ground rules.  Which included it being allowed to ignore the housework and me being able to indulge my wandering eye.  With the understanding that I would always come back home to the wrap.

So I guess Mara is just a dalliance.  But a very pleasurable, straightforward, and undemanding one.  Perfect for my seminar-addled brain.  I can knit while reading, while thinking, while taking a break … all without worrying about losing my place in the pattern or making a grave mistake with some mohair.

So I guess I could use all the green I can get.

athena, originally uploaded by katie:m.

Did you know that Nashville is one of the largest cities in the US, in terms of square miles (533)?  That’s bigger than L.A. (498).  Or that Nashville is home to the world’s only full-sized reproduction of an ancient Greek temple (the Parthenon, built 1895-97 for the state’s Centennial Exposition)?  Which also houses the largest indoor statue (Athena) in the western hemisphere?

Yeah, I didn’t either until a(n) historian came to visit.

When not learning about my new city’s wonders of trivia, it’s just knitting and writing.  And some eating.

Hope everyone who celebrated had a delicious Thanksgiving!  (We did.)

So the sock is back on track.  The frogging and reknitting were completely painless; it was only a heel, after all.  So much better than just finishing a sock that I knew would only lead to disappointment every time I put it on.  And this yarn is way too pretty for such an unsatisfactory sock.

I also changed strategies and went with the after-thought heel.  I’ve mentioned how much I dislike working it, but really: it’s the only way to go for my neurotic desire not — for the love of God, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph — to mess with the stripes.

As I remember, I liked working the dutch heel.  Maybe I’ll have to find some non-striping yarn and give it a try again?

The sock kind of brought out my reforming zeal.  For instance:

Look familiar?

I have a number of shawls that for one reason or another do not pass muster.  It’s not that there is something inherently wrong with them, it’s just that having made a number of shawls I’ve discovered what I do and don’t like.

And I don’t like small: I want to be able to snuggle with my shawls, wrap them around and get cozy.  They don’t all need to be as big as the Ishbel, but they do need a bit of heft to them.

So I decided to get busy with the expansion project.  And started with some therapeutic garter stitch.

So far, so good.  But how could it go wrong if Alice is on duty?

You know how some people have strong opinions about, oh, politics, religion, the environment, philosophy?  That’s how I feel about the whole Red Vines vs. Twizzlers debate.

There is only one right answer.  And that answer is Red Vines.

And not just because one brand and one brand alone comes in a 4-pound bucket.  Which is now sitting on my kitchen counter.  Oh no, it has to do with taste, texture, and overall objective goodness.

Also, thanks to the relative scarcity of Red Vines in NJ (thank you Target!  And Blockbuster!), they are great way to bond: I’ve had many a fond conversation with fellow transplants in search of some decent flavored licorice.

Earlier today I was getting all uptight about not having gotten enough done today, school-wise.  Then I thought: wait a minute, sure I take more time off now, but I also get more done.  There might be a connection.

So I thought I’d tell you about my soup.  To call it a recipe would be to greatly overstate its complexity: basically, I bought whatever soup-worthy frozen vegetables were available at Krogers, added some canned corn and squash (with onions!), chicken broth, chicken, kale, and whole-wheat egg noodles.  It’s delicious.

Though I do feel like I cheated on the cooking.

Knitting to share soon, too.  Luckily, the sock situation is under control and back on track.

Look at that heel turn.  Poetry in motion.  Or, um, wool.  No holes at the join (thank you picked-up and twisted stitches!), short-rows neat and tidy, perfect width for the heel cup.

But then, I tried the sock on.

Too short.

Argh.  I shake my fist at you, gauge.

But look what I found hiding in the project bag?  Some awesome vintage buttons.  More incentive to get started on a cardigan project soon.

Who’s the luckiest girl in Nashville?  That would be me.

Just look at all of the goodies that the wonderful people behind loumms (emmms and lou) sent all the way from what I feel certain Professor Welch would insist on calling “Merrie England.”  The project bag the perfect size for small projects — not to mention über-cheerful with its red flowers and blue birds (though come the zombie apocalypse …) — and even came with a matching lavendar sachet (genius!); the moth banishment hanging sachet is going in my closet this very minute (p.s. I <3 owls); the buttons are waiting for a special garment to adorn; the chocolate might not last the weekend; the book will provide an interesting study in the possible structural similarities of surviving the zombie invastion and making it through finals in Nashville.

Also, the yarn = so so pretty.  Which is kind of weird, as it’s named “zombie” and is featured in the final LYoS sock: “Dawn of the Dead.”  I think there’s a theory about that somewhere …

Right now, I’m just mulling over the possibilities.  And am thinking stripes.

Again, a big big thank you to Emmms and Lou for packing so much delightfulness into such a small package!

Photo 24, originally uploaded by katie:m.

It’s such a disappointment: I love this pattern, love the yarn, love how it all came together.  Except that it all came together a couple sizes large.

Part of the problem is something I’ve been kind of shy to mention, and since I’ve been knitting a lot non-fitted accessory garments hasn’t really been an issue; basically, I’ve lost a good bit of weight.  Like clothes-don’t-fit-anymore amount of weight.  It’s a good thing, it needed to happen, I’m a healthier person for it.  It just didn’t happen in the healthiest of ways: stress and paper-writing and despair, to keep it short.

And now I walk a lot to campus.  That’s the good part.

All of that to say that I’m not quite used to my new body.  And my 34″ bust measurement.

I never intended to knit the pattern as fitted as written, but, honestly, 4″ of ease looks mighty silly, not to mention baggy.  Especially with the waist shaping.

So, what to do?  I’ve been considering the options and I think frogging the body is the only answer.  Sigh.

My list of post-finals knitting keeps growing …