October 18, 2009
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!
October 12, 2009
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.
October 10, 2009
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.
October 4, 2009
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.)
October 1, 2009
Counter set at one, new skein of yarn (in a different dye lot, but that’s a whole other kettle of potentially fishy problems): must mean I finished chart d! There was a short moment of jubilation … followed by the big pile of FAIL that was to become chart e.
I’m four stitches short. Somewhere, in among those 640 stitches, I made a mistake. Now I have to find it and fix it. Oh dear. It was a Gob Bluth kind of moment.
Last night, I just went to bed. Alice, of course, had other ideas and we were up again playing a bit before she would settle down. It’s hard being a kitty on your own all day.
I just might have been a bit distracted by “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” That lucious golden mane totally prevented me from keeping up with the chart. The being tired from indexing and class and reading probably had nothing to do with it. My weekend goal: less interference from the TV, more concentration on the knitting. Or homework.
Edited to take out the whine. Maybe I’ll just have to stick to straightforward projects until I’ve got a bit more time and engery …
September 30, 2009
I might have been listening to Huey Lewis & the News when I took this.
Even minimum-wage Hallmark-in-Wal-Mart job gave me a ten minute break. So I can take silly pictures while indexing, right?
September 29, 2009
How can I tell I’ve made progress? It’s not really a trick question: the row counter keeps moving up and my skein keeps getting smaller. Also, because Alice says so.
With the semester in full, overwhelming flower, there just isn’t much time for knitting of an evening. I’m resigning myself to slow and steady progress on chart d (the neverending chart of much repetition).
Continuing my Konstanz nostaglia tour 2009, here’s another of my few photos (why didn’t I take more pictures? I never learn.):
I know I took this in December before heading to the Northwest for Christmas, realizing I didn’t have any photos to show anyone back home. It was dark and cold and the trees didn’t have any leaves. This is some kind of bandstand down by the lake; I loved the inexplicable pods sprouting out of the pavement.
September 27, 2009
I finally faced facts and ripped. It was painful: over 20 rounds at 320 (ahem.) stitches per round. But like so many painful decisions, it was the right one. My marker placement was just not behaving and though it didn’t seem a problem in this chart, I wasn’t sure what would happen when it was time to move on to the next one. So here I am with my marker correctly placed and much (re)knitting ahead of me.
It’s been a busy weekend and there hasn’t been much time for other knitting. The office sock is patiently awaiting Monday and its chance to shine as my “just-X-more-minutes-of-reading/indexing/thinking-and-then-you-can-knit” reward.
The German yarn helps. Lately, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve really been missing Germany. I don’t know why, but I always feel so at home there, even though so much is difficult, strange, and frustrating. (As in: basic life skills are hard to acquire in a foreign language.) A facebook friend from high school is visiting the area where I used to live … I wish I were there, in my favorite cafe (well, not on a Sunday) with a trip through some bookstores, a visit to the yarn store, and walk around the lake later in the day. Or just watching my drunk neighbors throw things.
Of course, I’m romanticizing a bit … and life could be just as alternately stressful and boring as it is here. But it always had that exciting zing of being stressful and boring in a foreign country. And there was always something strange and new to see out of the bus window.
See, I’m an example every time I wait for the walk signal! (And because I am afraid of old German women scolding me in a dialect I do not understand, I wait for the walk signal every time.)
September 25, 2009
Boring sock progress in action: Friday afternoon in the office addtion.
Perhaps I’d be more reliably, and continuously, productive with an office-mate?
September 25, 2009
Or so I have decreed.
People, it has been a week. In fact, that seems to be the main characteristic of all of my weeks lately. Thursday limps to a close and all I can do is sit on the couch and watch A&E “real life” crime dramas. Today we had the added tired-making bonus of a (very productive) writing workshop. News flash: I cannot write a book review. It was all done in the nicest possible manner and with the most uplifting, forward-looking, hey-you’ll-get-it enthusiasm, but, of course, it never feels that way when it’s happening. Perhaps more so when one is in the paradoxical — and uncomfortable — position of being both an “advanced” student (in terms of years accumulated: this is the start of lucky number 7) and an absolute rank beginner (in terms of intellectual growth and development over said years). I feel self-consciously experienced, completely overwhelmed, and utterly unprepared.
All I can do is quote Michael K. to myself: Homegirl is tired.
Especially after managing a spectacular trip and scraping my knee for the first time in forever on the way to school this morning. The day began as it ended: public embarrassment that leaves a nasty sting. Seriously, I haven’t had one of these since there was someone around to put Bactine on it for me. I don’t even own any Bactine. And Alice was not too interested in assisting the patient.
But at least there was sunshine in the apartment this morning! I managed a few photos of some boring sock progress before heading off to meet my doom. (Also, the humidity: not helping.) The eagle-eyed among you might notice a modification to the ribbing. I wasn’t happy with the density of the fabric I was getting on my usual US2/2.75mm needles; in going down a size I was afraid that the sock would be too small, as it’s only worked over 60 stitches. A little quick math and hey presto!: 70 stitches on size US1/2.50mm needles. With ribbing to match: k1 * p3, k2 * to last four stitches p3, k1. So far, so good.
Now, if only reading Tom Paine — or writing a functional book review — were as easy breezy I would be a superstar.
