I’ve got the blog-fidgets. I’ve grown weary of the layout, the color scheme, etc.
Not to mention the project pages are sadly out of date.
So I’m going to be fiddling with some things here over the next few days. A little trial and error, a little moving-things-around, etc. I’m not going to move or re-move anything, necessarily; just sprucing things up.
Stay tuned – and please, chime in to let me know what you like, what you don’t, etc.
I haven’t been quite myself these past few days, and have been home and mostly in bed.
This is the Peep, in his “being quiet around Mama” mode. Don’t worry, it didn’t last very long. He was running around like a wild thing moments later.
Despite at last having the time to put a serious dent in those sleeves, I haven’t touched my knitting in a few days. I finished the cuffs the other day, that’s about it. As it stands now, it will be a minor miracle if the principal knitting is finished before the opening ceremonies next week; there’s no way it will be completely finished and wearable by then.
Which hasn’t stopped me from plotting my Olympics project. I spent this morning poring through back issues of IK and my shelf-ful of knitting books.
Initially I thought socks, but then I’m still recovering from the Christmas socks, so no.
Then I thought lace, and then realized unless it was lace mitts, it would take more than 16 days.
But then mitts sparked something. And I thought – hey, how about some colorwork mittens? I’ve been wanting to try colorwork, Lord knows. Maybe mittens is the way to go.
So back to the research, this time also including Ravelry and Twist and the like…and that’s when I realized that most colorwork mittens are made with fingering-weight yarn. Not a 16-day event.
Hats though. I bet I could muddle through a colorwork hat in 16 days, even if it was made with fingering weight.
And right about then, I found this:
Frost Tapestry, by Robin Melanson
It’s from the Twist Collective’s Winter 2009 issue.
I bet I don’t even need to tell you what happened next. Pattern purchased and downloaded, yarn chosen and ordered. Done, Done, and Done.
I know I said hat, but I figure I’ll start with the neckwarmer and see how things go.
Did I mention it involves a steek?
Have a great weekend…
I finished the fronts of the sweater on Friday:
And the back is of course already done.
So onto the sleeves I go. I’m trying to get this wrapped up in time to start a project for the Ravelympics, although I haven’t joined the actual event, and likely won’t. I do like the idea of starting a project during the opening ceremonies, and finishing it during the closing ones (16 days), but I’m not sure if I want to add unnecessary pressure to my non-deadline knitting.
Also, after finishing the fronts, I didn’t look at my knitting again until last night. Which was short-lived, since Larry came home early from work with the the stomach flu, and he was generous enough to share it with me. I was asleep at 8, and then up pretty much hourly between 2 and 8am. Sigh. Good thing today was a work at home day…
I’ve been reading like a fiend over the past few days, though, and I thought I’d pass along a couple of good books for you:
First of all, have you read Possession? It’s one of those stories-within-a-story books, one of the best in my opinion. (I’m not talking about the movie, I haven’t seen it).
There seem to be more and more of these stories-within books coming out; most of the time when I pick a book up I don’t even realize that’s what it is. Some are better done than others, and these are two of my recent favorites.
The Broken Teaglass – Set at a dictionary company in western Massachusetts, this one is a mystery of sorts, when two youngish editors stumble across some odd, yet seemingly related, citations in their files. It’s not a funny book per se, but the author does take advantage of the potentially funny part of the dictionary business.
The Tenth Gift – This has more of a historical bent, like Possession. A woman whose life is at a crossroads is given an antique historical embroidery pattern book. The books has the original owner’s notes (circa 1625) in the margins, and the new owner is soon drawn into the story.
All three are available from your local library, saving your discretionary spending to be used at the shoe store, yarn shop, or what have you.
Here we are again, at the end of another crazy wack busy week.
How is it possible that I can string so many of these together and remain sane?
(Please don’t answer that question.)
I’m moving along on the sweater fronts – it goes quickly, but only if I actually pick it up and knit. I’m hoping to get some quality time with it over the weekend.
And I think next week may be calmer, so here’s hoping I can really make some headway. And regain some semblance of normalcy.
Maybe do some housework, even…naaaaaah.
Have a good weekend!
Sublime: The joy of wearing handknit socks. Truly, there is no comparison between them and store-bought.
Ridiculous: Forgetting which are machine-washable and which aren’t.
Remember these?
I made them on vacation back in the summer of 2008.
Except somehow I lost the ball-band, or conveniently forgot the yarn content, or just flaked entirely.
And so, for the past few months they’ve looked like this:
And although they’re nice and dense and warm, as all felted wool is, they’re too dang small.
Which really burns my arse.
Finally a couple of weeks ago I broke down and bought a pair of sock blockers from the Loopy Ewe. I figured I’d give the socks a nice warm soak, then put them on the blockers, leave them to dry, and hope for the best.
And wouldn’t you know, it worked like a charm; I don’t know how I lived without sock blockers all this time. The socks are still very dense, and the stitch definition has blurred into oblivion, but they’re still wearable. Cozy, even. I wore them twice last week, in fact.
And put them in to the wash this morning.
From whence they went to the dryer.
And so they look like this again:
Seriously, will I ever learn?
As in case you’re wondering, that IS my sari-silk belt up there in the sock-blocker photo. I tried my damnedest to felt that DOWN, using a combination of techniques that included hand-felting (for which I made a special trip and bought a plunger), washing in hot water, and putting it through the dryer. And in case you’re wondering, its dimensions have changed not a bit.
Saturday morning I ran a couple of errands by myself, then met up with CC and Veronica for brunch. It was delightful! I definitely need to get out without the boys more often.
On Sunday we did a little of this, a little of that, a few errands, etc.
All in all, a weekend of not much, but a wonderful weekend nonetheless. There’s still a lot going on behind the scenes, both at home and at work, but I’m really hoping things are beginning to wind down and I can get back into some sort of a routine soon. fingers crossed…
On the knitting front, I’ve reached the armhole decreases of the fronts, so I feel like things are totally zipping along with this sweater. I’m hoping it will stop raining and I can get some daylight photos tomorrow. At the same time, progress means that it’s getting too big to be a travel project, and I’m toying with the idea of starting a pair of socks or fingerless gloves to carry around with me…
I ordered our garden seeds yesterday, and so that’s one more thing off the list: green beans, spring peas, snow peas, lettuce, spinach, pumpkins, and watermelon. Everything is planted straight into the ground in spring, except for the watermelons which must be started indoors in May. Maybe the pumpkins too, actually, I can’t remember. But even so I think that should be fine, it’ll be a good little project for the Peep. We’ll buy seedling tomatoes and whatever else at the garden center when the time comes.
One little side benefit of ordering seeds, is that I now realize that we’re midway through winter. We’ll be wearing flip-flops before we know it, hahaha.
