On the Road Again November 23, 2009

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Time for my yearly trek back to Virginia and gorge myself on tasty turkey, gravy, and apple pie.  Yum yum.  The downside, of course, is that it’s a five-hour flight to said turkey.  Not to mention the time waiting for the flight in the airport and on the tarmac.  So there has been careful planning about projects, as you can imagine.

 

First up, my plain sock for knitting while talking to family.  This was yarn that I dyed almost a year ago but never used because I thought it was too plain.  Recently, I re-skeined it and over-dyed part of it to make it have stripes.  The purple is the new part.  I also have some hand-dyed light brown for the cuffs, heels, and toes.  No matter how I take pictures of this yarn, the color never turns out right.  Trust me that the purple is more… purple in real life.  I’ve learned my lesson, though, and I’m only bringing enough to make one sock on the trip.  That should guarantee that I finish the sock, right?

  

 

Next, I’m making a scarf for someone for Christmas. Malabrigo Worsted, in Loro barranquero.

     

 

This beautiful yarn will be a pair of cabled socks.  The Yarn Hollow Squish, Teal on Teal.

   

 

This merino/bamboo fiber that I bought at Weaving Works.  Only about an ounce; I just wanted enough to tell how the blend spins.  I dyed it myself with food coloring.  I’ll be spinning it on my new Mt. Baker spindle!

   

 

And one last-minute addition, Shibui Knits Baby Alpaca DK in Spruce.  Project to be determined soon.

 

I’m not worried that I’m not bringing enough yarn.  I am worried, however, that the projects I have won’t be complicated enough to keep my interest.  After all, the flight back is an hour longer… Maybe I should bring a stitch dictionary just in case…

The Battle is Won November 20, 2009

I have officially finished all the knitting on the Central Park Hoodie!

 

 

 

I dunked the whole thing in the bathtub yesterday with some Kookaburra and pinned it out to dry.  I even managed to coax another inch or so of width out of the body.  I did decide to redo the pockets.  I tore out all the lining and lengthened the steek.  This time I was much more careful as I sewed down the front; I think I managed to leave some flexibility in there.  All that’s left to do now is to sew in the zipper when it’s dry!

 

 

An artsy shot, just because I can:

One Year November 16, 2009

It has taken me exactly one year to finish these socks.

 

 

Yes, you read that right.  I dyed the yarn and cast on these socks last Thanksgiving.  While working the ribbing, I worried that I would finish the pair before I returned from Virginia.  I worried that I would not have enough sock to keep me occupied.  Now I know, these socks do not look like the overly-complicated knitwear that I normally gravitate towards.  These socks are plain stockinette which is normally not my cup of tea, except that I have mastered the art of the knit stitch without looking which has then led to knitting stockinette while reading.  These socks were meant to be knit while I talked with family and I brought other, more complex, socks to keep me from gnawing my arm off on a six hour plane ride.

 

I bet you’re trying to figure out how it took me a year to knit one pair of when I fancy myself a professional sock designer.  If it always took me a year to finish a pair of socks, I’d miss a lot of deadlines.  Did I lose them?  Did the needles break?  Did I forget to pack them on a trip?  Did goblins steal them in the night and hold them hostage until I promised them my firstborn?

 

Here’s the annotated picture of the socks, showing how much of the socks I knit when. 

 

 

As you can see, the socks spent most of their year in a strange limbo with one sock mostly finished and the other being cast on and knitted in two months.  These socks when with me pretty much everywhere this year, including New Mexico, a second trip to Virginia, ski trips, Idaho, the Sock Summit, even the theater!  Clearly, they were getting face time with me; I hadn’t forgotten about them but nothing was being knit.  I can’t even blame the yarn.  As much as I hated the way that this yarn looked in the skein (so much so that I didn’t even get a picture of it and apparently didn’t blog about it), I really like the way it knit up.  And it’s in my favorite workhorse yarn, Knit Picks Essential- er, they’re calling it Stroll now I guess.

 

I have now cast on another pair of stockinette socks with self-dyed stripey yarn in preparation for this Thanksgiving.  I will do my best to finish these in a more timely manner.  Look for a finished picture in June, maybe.

Lolcat November 12, 2009

 

The sleeves on the CPH are taking forever.  Other projects have been dumped.  Much coffee has been drunk.  Despite decreasing every 5th round, the sleeve is not getting any faster to knit.  I may not have found Yarnia, but I have definitely found a black hole.

Must… stripe… November 6, 2009

I’m getting the strange and almost irresistible urge to add some stripes to the sleeves of my Central Park Hoodie.  I think that if I don’t add these stripes I may run screaming into the street, flying the CPH above my head like some sort of demented surrender flag.  I believe the stripes will be neon orange, that’s the ticket…

 

 

(This picture is actually from yesterday; there’s slightly more right sleeve today and I finished the pockets.  They look awesome but due to a sudden temporary cessation of brain waves, they are just a tad too short in the height department.  My perfectionism and desire never to touch those pockets again are having an epic battle upon the shattered remains of my brain.)