Strange March

This has been the weirdest couple of months. Easter is March 23. Daylight Savings Time began March 9. We are all discombobulated by the wonky calendar in our house this month. No one can fall asleep at their regualr time, and getting up in the morning is even more difficult than usual. The kids can't figure out when they need coats and when they don't, so lately they have been erring on the side of non-caution. (Then they come in 45 minutes later complaining that it's too cold to play. Well, duh, I say. Did you consider wearing a coat, perhaps?)

Cat Crazy Girl has her oral biography report today. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Saint Elizabeth of Hungary:

What did she do? She died. And people who prayed over her grave were healed. That's it. Oh, and she wore clothes that are difficult for me to duplicate. We couldn't have chosen someone with a simpler costume? Someone who actually did something? Apparently not. But C. is so excited to give her report today. It's very cute.

I am cruising along on Inishmore. Two sleeves are done, and I have started the back.

It took one entire skein of yarn to do just the ribbing on the bottom of the sweater back--that's how yarn-greedy this twisted stitch, cable-heavy pattern is. The back should take quite a while to do. I just started the charts for the body, and the directions say to just keep going for about 25 inches. That's a long way. While I'm working on it, I will be pondering whether I can do this sweater as a cardigan. The knitted fabric is coming out so dense and warm, I think it would be much more useful to me as a cardigan than as a pullover. The question is how to do it. But, like I said, I've got plenty of time to think about it. The back should take several months, and I'll probably take a break from it over the summer.

In the meantime, I did a bad thing. I joined the clapotis club. It's my LYS's fault. I stopped in there and saw the most beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn: Kraemer silk and silver, that the shop owner had kettle-dyed in a semi-solid rust brown. I succumbed and bought it. The color was so rich and warm, and the sparkle gives the yarn a little something extra. I was kicking myself, because I thought it would have been gorgeous made into Jeanie, but I had already started Jeanie with something else and I'm not going back on that one. Then I started thinking about a clapotis, and before I knew it I had cast on and I went back to the store to join in on their clapotis knit-along.

This project is flying along so fast! It is so easy, the stitches move so fast, the yarn is gorgeous and I am enjoying watching the shape of the project progress. It's very relaxing to knit, with a rhythm to the stitches that is almost hypnotic. BUT I don't think I am going to have enough yarn! I have to go back to the shop and see if they can dye another skein for me. I hope they can!

Meanwhile, I finished the bellamoden mitts, and Cat Crazy girl took 'em. I actually don't mind; I think I would prefer them a little looser. Mathboy asked for his own pair. I'll have to find a nice masculine yarn for him and make some simple ribbed ones.

More of the Same

The problem with knitting large, slow projects is that it's hard to show progress in pictures. I keep knitting and you'll have to trust me that the project gets bigger, but you just can't really see it.

I have two big projects going right now: the Inishmore sweater and the Jeanie shawl. Unfortunately I found in the last week that it is difficult to go back and forth between the two because they have such different "hands," if that makes sense. Inishmore has me working twisted and cable stitches in aran weight wool on small (size 5) needles. It requires a very heavy knitting hand. Jeanie, however, is all ribbing, with dropped stitches, using a fingering weight silk/wool blend on big needles (6's). Because of this, I find that Jeanie requires a delicate touch (for me, at least) and concentration. Both projects are slow going. And it is very difficult to get my hands used to the different projects when I move from one to the other.

I don't have a new picture of Jeanie because it does not look much different from the last time I photographed it. Although I spent a lot of time on it last week, I only have a measly 2 or 3 more inches to show for all my work. Currently, the shawl is about 12 inches long, with about 58 inches to go (plus edging). This weekend, I decided to put Jeanie away for a while and to concentrate on Inishmore, which seemed more appropriate for the cold February weather.

I neared the top of the first sleeve and did some measurements. To my surprise, I found that I was meeting the gauge set in the pattern, even though my swatch had indicated that I was getting less stitches to the inch. I don't know why I was surprised--swatches lie all the time, right? So. I had cast on for the small size sleeve because I thought my gauge was big; since my gauge is correct I adjusted to do the medium size. Luckily, this was pretty easy to do with a sleeve. Actually, that is why I did a sleeve as my first piece. I love it when I do something right. :o)

I finished the main part of the sleeve, and left the middle stitches on a holder to do the saddle later. I want to do the body pieces first so I know how long the saddle will need to be.

Then I started the second sleeve. Why a sleeve and not the back or the front? I have no idea. I was on knitting autopilot and, for unknown reasons, I did a sleeve instead.

I also did some work on a smaller project: the bellamoden fingerless mitts. I finished one, and even figured out how to make a thumb, although I did not enjoy it very much. Tiny rounds of 14 stitches. It was very strange.

It is super pretty though. The yarn is gorgeous and very soft. Although the name of this colorway is "Iliad," it reminds me more of a wild garden in full bloom. I am creeping along on the second one. But Inishmore is addictive and I am spending most of my knitting time working on that.

In other news, Rudolph is enjoying his new window perch.


The kids and I also got a little carried away last week on one of those weird days when it felt like April or May outside and did this:

We planted our seeds. And they came up already! Holy smokes! They were supposed to take 2 or 3 weeks to come up, not 3 days! Looks like our first lettuce and broccoli crops this year may end up in pots by the kitchen windows instead of in the garden.

They're not ready. In case there was any question.

Kids these days want everything. I know I sound like the biggest curmudgeon when I say that, but it's true. Ipods, laptops, cellphones ... they want it all. Frighteningly, the kids is this area seem to be getting it all. Cat Crazy Girl talks about girls in her (3rd Grade!!) class with their own cell phones. Mathboy's best friend casually advised us that he was getting the new video ipod for Christmas. Now, I do have the new video ipod myself. But I'm not 10 years old.

If anyone needs evidence that the elementary school generation is not ready to Have It All, I offering the following evidence:

Cat Girl and Math Boy have been enjoying trekking through the woods in our neighborhood this month. They found an area where some young boys were clearing the woods for their own golf course, and check on their progress frequently. They also found a horse farm that adjoins the back of the woods, and they can watch the horses from the fence.

It's all very sweet and innocent; they cross no major streets and they are not that far away as the crow flies, so Rich and I have been OK with it. But they do tend to lose track of time, and it is a pain for us to go looking for them. So last Sunday, when they asked if they could go, I said that I wanted them to bring my cell phone with them. Cat Crazy Girl was very excited that she was allowed custody of the phone--maybe she was deluded into thinking it was the first step in getting her own?

Admittedly, the phone had seen some better days, but it worked. After their walk in the woods?

Not so much.

It was about one hour into their excursion when the house phone rang for the first time. "Hi Mom! It's great out here today. We played with the boys at their golf course and we're going to see the horses."

"OK. I want you guys to turn back for home in about ten minutes. Got it?"

Muffle, muffle. I hear "We shouldn't have called," murmered away from the phone, and then a resigned "OK, Mom."

Ten minutes later the house phone rings again. "We're coming back now."

Five minutes later the phone rings again. "We're at the golf course."

Five minutes later. "We're crossing the big stream."

Five minutes later: "We can see the house." At this point, Rich and I are kind of tired of answering the phone. We remind them that the phone was supposed to be for emergencies.

Five minutes later, Mathboy comes running in the house. His first words are, "I'm sorry about the phone, Mom." I assume that he means he is sorry that they called so often. If only that were it. But no. I see Cat Crazy Girl dragging her feet homeward across our big backyard and I know the phone is NO MORE.

Apparently, Cat Girl was so worried that something might happen to the phone while they were crossing the various little streams in the neighborhood woods that she actually thought it would be safer to THROW THE PHONE over the streams rather than carry it in her own pocket. Eventually, at the last crossing of the day, in the woods close to our house, she made a bad throw. Plop. Mathboy never stopped her. Smart they may be, but the judgment is lacking--you know?

The phone eventually dried out well enough to turn on again, but it was still messed up. So it turns out to be a happy ending for me, because I wanted a new phone anyway.

Now that I have a "cooler" phone ("Oh, Mom, lots of girls in my school have that phone"), Cat Girl covets it even more than before. It's nice to have actual evidence to use to support our refusal to get her one.

And I'm not letting either one of them touch my ipod.

Close Encounters

It's still close enough to the beginning of the year to make some resolutions, so I thought I would take stock of my stash and my UFOs with the aim of DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THEM in 2008. Actually, I made clear progress in 2007 and January 2008 in both of these departments. As long as you don't count my Inishmore supply of Tivoli wool, I definitely had a net reduction in the stash over the past year, knitting up and selling more yarn than I acquired. I knitted up several pairs of socks, and loads of scarves and hats were gifted at Christmas.

As for the unfinished objects (the UFOs), I made progress there as well. I started and finished the Lopi within a 12-month period. After careful consideration, I frogged 2 would-be sweaters that had been in limbo for well over a year: a denim cardigan intended for Rich, which had been cast on in the Summer of 2004 (I think), and a pullover intended for Mathboy, begun in 2005. (I actually took a good look at Mathboy's sweater, and realized that he had already outgrown it, even though it wasn't even half-finished. And there, in a nutshell, we see the danger of knitting for children.)

So this is the state of my knitting. According to Ravelry, my total stash is about 150 skeins of yarn. Wow, that sounds like a lot. It also does not include any of my dishcloth cotton. So, wow. Out of the total, 42 skeins are the Tivoli wool I am using for my Inishmore (the 23 Leslie and Frank bought me for Christmas, and another 19 I got off eBay in case I need more).

Here are the UFOs, in order of age rather than beauty:
1. The ecru Denim Cardigan for me. My slog. Every time I have myself nearly convinced to give up on this, I remember how much time I have put into it so far and I think about how nice it would look if I could just force myself to work on it some more. I washed one piece of it a few months ago and was entranced with the way the piece shrunk, the yarn softened, and the stitches all tightened up. After that, I could not bring myself to throw it away, but I couldn't bring myself to work on it, either. It has a special Rubbermaid tub all to itself in the closet. This year, I pledge to make a decision about this sweater once and for all. Either I finish it, or I build a ceremonial funeral pyre for it in the backyard. It will not be on this list in 2009. I have no new picture, I don't care to take one, anyone who really wants to see one should go here.

2. the Knittery cashmere socks. Cast on in July 2007, on the floor of Barnes & Noble, next to the Manga section (which is surprisingly large--what's up with that?), where I found a corner to rest in while waiting for Harry Potter #7. Currently halfway up the foot of the second sock. What's holding me back? I hate this yarn. But I do think I would like the finished socks, so I don't want to pitch the whole project.

3. the Solstice Slip socks. Cast on in September, I am currently halfway up the foot of the second sock. What's holding me back? The stitch is annoying, and the yarn (STR lightweight) is not my favorite. It keeps kinking up on me.

4. Rich's socks. Cast on December 2007. Currently 2/3 of the way up the foot of the first sock. What's holding me back? It is hard to see where increases need to be made for the gusset because of the striping of the yarn, so I keep messing up and having to rip back. I need to knit these in better light that I usually have available in the evenings. I also need to figure out how the heel will work out, and am planning to adapt Cat Bordhi's heel from the Salish Sea socks. This requires thought, concentration, and probably a pencil and paper. So ... it's laziness that is really holding me back on these.

5. Cat Crazy Girl's Jitterbug socks. Cast on January 2008, adapting the Slippery Socks pattern and using Colinette Jitterbug yarn. Currently close to finishing the first sock. These are coming along nicely, now that I made the decision to do only the front cabling pattern. But I do need to have a chart to work them, so they are not exactly mindless knitting.

6. Inishmore. Cast on January 2008, starting with a sleeve. I am almost to the saddle top of that sleeve. This is a beautiful pattern. Although the charts look very complicated, they actually make a lot of sense, so I can knit without needing to look at them. The only thing holding me back on this is that the actual knitting is hard on the hands. Working this yarn, in complicated cables, on a size 5 needle can be tough. I don't work more than a few rows in any given day. This will take a while. I don't have a picture because it pretty much looks the same as it did when I last photographed it, just, uh, longer.

7. Jeanie. So pretty! Cast on at the end of January 2008. So far I have about 8 inches done. This is slow-going because of the nature of the knitting involved: it's all ribbing, with half the stitches being twisted, cabling every 6 rows, and dropping stitches every, um, 12 (?) rows. The yarn I am using (Handmaiden Mini Maiden, a wool/silk blend) doesn't like to come undone very easily (how's that for irony? the one time I want stitches to drop they don't seem to want to drop), so the drops take time, too. This project, like Inishmore, is a long-hauler. I hope to have it finished to wear this summer during a family wedding weekend in Maine. Isn't it cool?


8. New "Quickie" project: Fingerless Mitts, compiled from a few patterns I found on Ravelry. Bad me. I really just wanted a small, simple, non-sock project, so I cast these on this week. I was completely seduced by the pretty yarn, bellamoden, unable to exercise any self-control in the face of these beautiful colors. I am doing a simple cable and ribbing pattern, and I'll figure the thumb out when I get to it.

It looks like a flower garden, doesn't it? Nice spring colors to be playing with in February.

So that's all--a full accounting. 8 works in progress is not that bad, when you think about it. Well, four are less than a month old, so maybe my issues are more about casting on than failing to finish.

Lopi No More!

It's done! I finished The Lopi, but I don't have a picture of it yet. It's fine. Not great, not horrendous. I am disappointed in it, though, because I had high hopes for it. So. At least it is done and I can move on to other projects and other yarns. I have put all the lopi yarn I have left up for trade on Ravelry, and I may put up a sale listing on ebay. I want it gone. Now.

The Salish Sea socks are finished.

As with The Lopi, I'd have to say they're fine. Not great, not horrendous. I did not enjoy doing the leg, and I don't really like the look of it either. But, other than that, I do feel that knitting them was a worthwhile educational experience. The gusset was an interesting exercise. I also really like the round toe, and the heel construction was explained so well that I truly understood what I was doing and why. I'm going to try to apply what I learned in doing the heel for Rich's socks and for the second of the Knittery cashmere socks, which have returned from the hibernation basket to my active project bag. I frogged what I had of the second sock and started over, using Judy's magic cast on this time. I still dislike the Knittery cashmere yarn, but I have to admit that the sock is looking good so far. I'm looking forward to doing the heel this time, now that I know what I am doing. I'll get a new picture of that eventually.

Because I am insane, and very possibly a knitting masochist, I cast on for this:

Isn't it pretty? It's a sleeve for Inishmore, by Alice Starmore. I have wanted to do this sweater for ages, but always put it off because it would involve buying a ton of aran yarn, and because I was concerned about gauge. But then Leslie and Frank gave me a bag full of gen-U-wine aran wool from Ireland for Christmas, and it just seemed to be the most perfect yarn for this sweater!
I am still having gauge issues: even though I went down a needle size I am still getting 5 inches instead of 4 for the designated number of stitches. But I threw caution to the wind and cast on a sleeve, just to give it a try. It's a boxy design, so I am hoping I can fudge things to make it work. I'm doing the small size in hopes that this will help to make up for the extra inches I'll be getting. I also expect I'll have to make some changes to the patterning on the body. We'll see.

I expect this will take me a very long time to do. The twisted stitches, although beautiful, do slow me down a bit. They're also a bit hard on the hands. But it is sooooo pretty.

Holding pattern

I keep plugging away on the Lopi Monstrosity. Well, at least for a while I did. I got about halfway up the second button band, when I decided I needed a break. This is how it looks right now:

I can truly say that it is nearly done. All I have to do is finish this button band, sew it on, do the top band, and stash all the ends. This really isn't much when you consider the totality of the sweater. But I find myself unable to pick it up. Sewing the button band on is not a fun job, with the way the yarn keeps breaking. Plus, I am pretty unhappy with it. I know I'll wear it when it is done. Frankly, we definitely are experiencing Lopi-worthy temperatures this weekend. This sweater would have been appreciated by some of the folks at Lambeau Field last night. But I am annoyed. I am not happy with the way the colorwork turned out. Clearly, I am not meant to be a knitter of colorwork. I need to remember this for the future. Stick to texture, Sydney.

So, I've been taking a break. First was the palate cleansing Lobby Dishcloth by Kay Gardiner. Mmm, cotton. Mmm, brighter colors. Not brown. Not scratchy icelandic wool. Mmm.

This was fun, although there were far too many ends to tuck away to make it the perfect palate cleasing project. I had never done mitered squares before, and I liked them. They were easy and different. I kind of messed up the edging: I wanted to do an applied i-cord, but ended up doing something that looks almost exactly like your basic crochet but was a heck of a lot more work. Oops. Oh! Look: there's more colorwork. More oops.

Next up, I returned to the December kit from the Rockin' Sock Club: the Salish Sea Socks.

The first sock is done, and I learned a lot while making it. This method of making the toe is very different from anything I had done before, and it looks really cool. I also am pleased with the way the heel turned out, even though it was rather slow-going. The explanation in the pattern is so clear. The lacy, cable-y gusset on top of the foot is way cool, too, although perhaps a smidge too big. I even like the wavy edging on the top. I'm not in love with the pattern for the leg, however. I am looking forward to using some of these techniques in my own future projects. But first I need to do the second sock.

Lopi Purgatory

This sweater is driving me crazy. I am so over this yarn, this pattern, and everything about this sweater. Did you all know that Lopi yarn has no elasticity to it at all? That its single ply will, at times, just shred or rip apart while you are knitting it? For no apparent reason? No? YES? Why didn't someone tell ME? I have decided that doing colorwork, back and forth (knitting and purling), with this particular yarn, on circular needles, could be a very effective form of torture. Does the C.I.A. know about this?

This is the only project I have been working on for the past week. I finished the second sleeve last weekend, which meant that I could start the yoke. Silly me--I thought that meant I was nearly done, so I decided to concentrate on this sweater until I finished. After all there were just two charts, totalling 32 rows, plus a couple transition rows with decreases so the number of stitches would go down. It should be done in a week, right? Wrong.



I forgot how much I dislike colorwork. I hate stranding. I am not very good at it. I am veeeery slooooow at it. I'm also not too fond of circulars, but when you're working 295 bulky weight stitches, you need circulars. I am veeeeery sloooow on circulars. Combine colorwork and circulars, and now you've got me down to knitting at a snail's pace. Even worse: because this is a cardi, I had to work the chart back and forth on the circs. Does anyone like purling while stranding? And, although it may be hard to tell from these pictures because my color choices were not the greatest, there are 3 colors to keep track of here, not just 2.

This pattern also became really, really irritating. First, there were the ever unhelpful vague directions like "decrease 58 stitches evenly throughout the row, resulting in 237 stitches." What? Couldn't they even try to come up with an amount that would divide evenly into the total you are starting with? Would it have killed them to give you some idea of how to do this evenly over the row, like k2tog k2, k2tog, k3, repeat, or something like that? Apparently this is knitting torture--we're supposed to figure it out for ourselves.

Then I took a good look at chart 2 and noticed 2 things. Not only were the contrast stitches put in the wrong row in the chart (they had everything shifted down one row), but, I mean, come on. You want me to carry a strand of yarn for this? There has to be a better way.



I decided it was a good time to learn the duplicate stitch. See the difference between my versionb above and the picture? I just knitted the white block and embrodered the brown on top after I finished the body. Much better than knitting it into the body and holding that brown yarn behind the whole time. I really think if I had tried to do that I might have thrown this damn thing in the fire. So here's my duplicate stitching. Looks good, doesn't it?



Then, just when I thought this pattern could not annoy me more, I realized that it had me starting with the same color yarn on different ends of the chart. What's that all about? Talk about adding insult to injury--why did they have to do that? They know we have to work this thing back and forth. They couldn't pick up the brown on the same side of the sweater they last used it? No. Once again, this is knitting torture. Cut the ball and reattach it on the other side. What's another 2 ends to weave in, right? There already are so many.



After all the cursing and complaining, I finally finished the body late last night. But am I done? No. I still have the 2 button bands and the collar. In seed stitch. My favorite.



Not.

I think I need my next project to be a dishcloth. Unless... is there anything smaller than a dishcloth? A webkinz hat? No, that requires shaping. A webkinz scarf?

What We Did on our Christmas Vacation

1. I finished all my Christmas knitting on time. All told, I made 3 hats, 2 pairs of socks and 3 scarves.

2. Cat Crazy daughter threw up all Christmas Eve night. Around 3 a.m., after ridding herself of every drop of Gatorade we had allowed her at 2 a.m., she quite touchingly made Rich promise not to let her throw up all over her presents in the morning. Poor thing. Fortunately, that was the end of the upchucking. She enjoyed Christmas Day, although she was rather weak and was napping by lunchtime.

3. I finished my Inside Out socks from the Rockin' Sock Club. This was the first kit they sent me. In late February. Roughly 10 months ago. I whipped through the 1st sock, but then lost my momentum on the 2nd for various reasons. I did not really like the yarn color. Also, I was dreading doing the cable/rib leg, because it was so hard on my hands. So it just ended up lying around half-finished for months.

Then, the last shipment from the club arrived last week. (I love this kit, by the way, and I am looking for ward to doing this one.) The kit contained a "report card" where they gave you grades for how many pairs of club socks you finished during the year. I was horrified to realize that I had not finished a single pair of club socks. I was a Sock Poser! Suddenly I was consumed by a need to finish this pair, and so I did. I wove in the last end the evening of December 31.

I can also report that I am halfway up the foot of the 2nd sock from the Solstice Slip kit from June (on the right, above), so my GPA is improving.

4. I decluttered and scrubbed the master bath 'til it shined. I don't have a before picture--it was too frightening to record for posterity--but here is an "after:"

It's amazing how much you can fit in the cabinets and drawers once you throw away all the expired medicine and the creams and lotions that you hate but don't want to throw away because of what they cost. Look at all that counter space!

5. In a similar vein, Rich decluttered and scrubbed the home office. Amazingly, we did these things after our Christmas company left. Most people clean before the company arrives, don't they? Here's the office, and the boxed up clutter, waiting to go up to the attic:

Lookie! I see the rug, and the desktop. Woohoo!

6. In a totally geeky slugfest, we watched the extended versions of all 3 Lord of the Rings movies (we did spread them out over a week or so) with the kids. It was Cat Crazy daughter's first time seeing the movies, and she did very well, consider how complicated and scary they can be. Yes, we showed PG-13 movies to our 9 yo. We are bad geeks. But I don't think she's been badly damaged, do you?

Her spelling can be creative at times. And her Balrog doesn't look too scary, does it?

7. Cat Crazy daughter beat "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on Guitar Hero III on her 2nd try.

This is news, because it took her about 18 times to beat "Slowride." Like the way Mathboy is shadowing her here, as if he could will her to hit the right keys? If she could just pass this song, it would be his turn.... In a side note, I think fuzzy leopard slippers are going to be The Next Big Thang for Guitar Heroes around the world.

8. Mathboy researched 23 questions for his homework for the upcoming Montessori Model U.N. project. He carefully divided the total number of questions so that he had a few to do each day, and did his daily allotment, no more or less. Funny, I think I would have tried to do as much as possible in the early days of the vacation to give myself more free time later. Whatever. It's done and that's the important thing. Go ahead: just ask him a question about Sweden. I dare you.

9. I learned Judy's Magic Cast On. It rocks! I am never going back.


10. I saved Tamriel from the dreaded Mehrunes Dagon.

"Holidaze"

I know I'm not the first person to use this word to describe the way I feel this season, but, this year, it seems especially appropriate. So far, this year has brought a frenzy of paper-finishing (I don't have a picture of that one, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you it completely consumed my waking hours for a few days), and shopping (again no picture, this time for security reasons, ya know), ...

and baking...


and decorating...


and posing...


and singing...


and knitting...,


among many other things. The only thing I really haven't been doing is cleaning, but that's coming up next.

Merry Christmas!

Knitting Lessons I Learned Today

1. Knitting socks in church is risky, even when you are not really there on official business, but just waiting for your kids to come out of choir. When you learn the hard way how loud your phone sounds in a church, and suffer the mortification of hearing the ring echo off the wood and marble, you will jump about 5 feet in the air. Just imagine the trajectory of the bamboo dpn flying out of your hands as you scramble for your phone and try to keep from dropping both it and your work in progress. I have to imagine, because I have no idea where it ended up. I was not quite up for crawling under the pews to look for it. Anyone have a spare Crystal Palace No. 2?

2. Vanilla Knitting has its place: Yes, sometimes you want to be challenged. You find yourself craving *yo ssk tbl yo p2tog* repeat, with maybe some short rows thrown in. Just like sometimes you want Chocolate Coffee Chip with a skor bar mix-in. But sometimes just plain ol' garter stitch can be very refreshing. And then there are those days when you just need to cleanse your palate with a basic stockinette sock in self-striping yarn, when the only thing your brain can handle is the basic knit stitch combined with, oh, lookie, the yarn changed color. Shiny!

3. Knitting Inertia is an insidious force: Once you put a project down, the amount of devotion and discipline needed to pick it back up again = the amount of your stash multiplied by the complication factor of the pattern of the hibernating project divided by how well you took notes on that project. It's so much easier to start someting new, isn't it? Sheesh, sometimes I think I would be better off ripping a thing apart and starting over.

Short Attention Span

Yes, I keep casting on. Not so much with the casting off, lately, though. Here is another Multidirectional Diagonal scarf, in a more traditional incarnation. This time I am using Plymouth Boku, a yarn obviously intended as a copy of Noro Silk Garden. It is not very soft, but does look very cool in this pattern which was clearly written for a Noro yarn.

One sock is done in the Pueblo Charade socks:

I also have about half the foot of the second sock done as well, I just didn't take a picture of it.

I decided to try to make a hat. I dug through the stash for a something approriate, found a cool pattern on Ravelry and cast on this:

Now, of course, I don't like it. It's really, really, really, tedious to do. And it is taking forEVer. I worked on it furiously for a couple evenings, then put it down, and I'm now watching it collect dust. Ick.

I also am on my third try in my quest to find a lace scarf pattern that will work for my Hand Maiden Mini Maiden wool & silk. The dark color, though, is making it difficult. My first try totally crashed and burned. The pattern had a 24-row repeat with every row being different--ssk's, purl 2 togs backwards and yo's on both sides of the work--and it drove me crazy. It was impossible to figure it out without looking at the pattern all the time, and the dark yarn made it hard to see what was going on. After 2 hours I had only 14 rows done and 3 of those contained mistakes that I could not find to fix no matter what I did. I enjoyed ripping it back. For my second try, I found a pattern I really liked and recklessly cast on before I realized that the pattern calls for 950 yards of yarn while my skein only had about 500 yards. So that got frogged too.

Now I'm doing the KnitPicks Candle Flame scarf, and it's OK. At least the rows make sense and are therefore relatively easy to follow:

Here it is, after one 36-row repeat. It's OK, but I'm not in love.

Now Mom has requested a hat for Christmas, so I figured that should take priority. Unfortunately, she wants it to be powder blue, and I think that may be the only color that I don't have in my stash! Oh, well, guess I have to go to the yarn store! Too bad. :o)

F.O.'s

It feels good to finish stuff. Lookie here:

This is the scarf I made for my brother, which is now stashed in my cedar chest for Christmas. I didn't do fringe. Not sure that grown men really go for fringe. I used Plymouth Suri Merino, holding two strands together, and did the Yarn Harlot's One-Row Scarf. It could not have been easier, and the large needles made for fast work. The yarn was great: reasonably priced and very soft.

And TA DA!

Anastasia socks in Misty Mountain Farm Jubilee sock yarn, the Virginia Creeper colorway. These are intended as another Christmas gift; I just tried them on for the photo because the pattern shows up better when there is a foot inside the sock.

I still love this yarn. The base yarn is very nice--soft and quite pleasant to knit with--but it 's not like it blew me away. I've worked with lots of yarn just as nice. The real attraction for me lies in the gorgeous colors and the shading. I love the way they work together. Unfortunately, my pictures just don't adequately convey how pretty this yarn is.

I also can't believe how much yarn there was in this skein. I have tons left over. TONS! I started making squares for the blanket Kay (of Mason Dixon Knitting) is making for Oliver's Fund. Two squares are done already and the yarn just keeps going and going. I think I can get at least another 3 squares with what I have left.

Since I finished these 2 projects, I am allowed to start something new, preferably a gift scarf, possibly another Multidirectional Scarf or Chevron Scarf, but I am having trouble deciding. I have a few skeins already wound into balls, and I am feeling ball-winding guilt. I really should do something with those first, right? But what?

Meanwhile, I returned to the Pueblo Charade socks, made with Cider Moon Glacier yarn. I turned the heel on the first already. Ah, the speed of sportweight.

These are another Christmas gift. This stitch pattern is very understated. I am very pleased. Still not in love with the yarn, though. It's the opposite of the Jubilee sock yarn: the base yarn here does blow me away. It's super soft, it flies through my fingers, and the fabric you get when you knit it has terrific stitch definition. Very nice. But the colors? Oy. My camera really darkens the copper color in this yarn. It's kind of ...hmm. Just imagine the contrast in color turned up about 3 notches and you have an idea of how stripy these socks actually look. Meh.

Nobody knows the Trouble he's Seen ...

It has not been a good year for Rudolph the Cat and doors.

Rudolph spends every night in the office, a very small bedroom in our house. We lock him in. It may seem cruel, but it is a comfortable room, complete with food, water, litter box, cat hammock. Rudolph generously shares his room with us, allowing is to park a couple desks, filing cabinet, the computer, a cushy office chair--oh, and a huge elliptical trainer--in there. We have to lock him in because he just doesn't behave at night. When we forget to lock him up, he spends tmost of the night howling: howling at the kids' bedroom doors, howling in the bathroom for water, howling at the back door to be let out. It's horrible.

The first thing we do in the morning is set him free. This morning, when I tried to let him out, the door wouldn't open. The knob turned, but the latch wouldn't open. I tried everything I could think of to get it open, without any luck. The kids were upset, but that was nothing compared to the cat's reaction. When Rudolph wasn't throwing his 18+ pounds at the door trying to let himself out, he was reaching his paw out to us from under the door as he cried, piteously, Let me out. (Or perhaps, I'm innocent!) Good God. CatCrazy daughter was beside herself.

The doorknobs on the upstairs bedrooms are your basic modern bed-and-bathroom doorknobs, locking with a pushbutton from the inside. When your child throws a hissy fit and locks you out of her room, all you need to do is insert an unbent paperclip or a No. 1 knitting needle into the little hole on the outside doorknob and pop! you can chastise your child face to face and avoid the more embarrassing yelling through the door method of discipline.

To be fair, we did have some warning that this doorknob was failing, and new doorknobs were already on my Home Depot shopping list. The doorknobs in this house are the usual level of quality and technology that we have come to expect from the craftsmen at Ryland Homes, the builders of this development. By this, of course, I mean that they were CRAP. Every time we have anything replaced or fixed in this house, the repairman looks at the item in something akin to disbelief at the sheer crappiness of it (either that or unabashed amazement at the item's having lasted this long). I figured it would be pretty easy to find replacement door knobs at Home Depot and that even the least expensive knobs available there would probably represent an upgrade. And, as I said, they were on my list--my long-term, yeah-someday-we'll-get-around-to-that list.

But I foolishly did not recognize the danger of this situation--I thought that if we had a serious problem we could always just use a screwdriver to take the doorknob off. Unfortunately, I did not notice that there were no screws on the outside of this doorknob, only on the inside. Oops. A screwdriver doesn't help you much when the door is stuck closed with you on the outside of it. This morning, the only living being on the inside of this door not only was without a screwdriver, he was without the opposable thumb and the necessary brainpower to unscrew this doorknob. So we were, in a word, screwed.

Because I had to drive the kids to school this morning, we planned to go as early as the schools would let them in so that I could zip to Home Depot afterward and get a new doorknob. I also decided to get new ones for MathBoy's door and the bathroom door, as both those knobs were starting to give us some trouble as well, and I realized a preemptive strike was needed. I also hoped Home Depot sold whatever kind of implement of destruction I would need to get the old doorknob off the door, or, at least, open it.

The friendly sales associate at Home Depot had a lot of sympathy for Rudolph ("Aww, poor kitty!"), but little in the way of suggestions for me. No, they do not carry any implements of destruction that would help me. No, he had no idea what I could do. When I grumbled about the lack of screws on the outside of the door, he quite solemly advised me that this was because of "security concerns." I pointed out that the doorknob might protect against a burglar with a screwdriver, but a burglar with a paperclip would have open access. He had no answer for that.

Anyway, a locksmith visit, some cracked molding and a hefty bill later, Rudolph was freed. As the locksmith started to hammer the molding back in place, Rudolph took off like a cartoon character with the feet spinning out to the side. But he's no worse now for his ordeal.

There's nothing more soothing than resting in a bed of Webkinz. The new doorknobs were a breeze to install (the locksmith company thought they should do it to make sure it got done right, "hon," but I told them I could handle it. I am Woman; hear me roar. I can handle a screwdriver, dudes, thank you.

In other news, MathBoy earned his Brown Belt this weekend at his karate test.

He did very well. If he works hard, he could very well be preparing for a Black Belt test at this time next year. (N.B. Just noticed the lovely can of OFF in the background. This is the house of clutter. Sorry!)

I have no new knitting pictures. I've just been working on the same projects, and none of them are done yet. The Anastasia socks only have an inch or so to go, however, and the One Row Scarf is cruising along as well.

Happy November!

Needles are Flying!

I finished the Zig Zaggy scarf. The Knit Picks yarn I used, Andean Silk, is an extremely soft alpaca, wool and silk blend. It is so soft, in fact, that I thought it might be too nice for my son, who was the intended recipient of this scarf. I thought about gifting it to my stepfather instead, on the assumption that he might appreciate it a bit more than a 10 yo. In the end, I decided to give it to MathBoy after all. The color choices and the zaniness of the stripes seemed more appropriate for a 10 yo than for Bill. Here it is:

I am pretty happy with it, but not as happy as I was with the Chevron scarf. The whole thing got on my nerves by the time I was done. That often happens with scarves for me--I have a short knitting attention span. The Yarn Harlot said in one of her books that she has the attention span and the discipline of the average 3yo when it comes to knitting projects, and I think I am the same way. I love scarves until I am about halfway through them, then I hate them until they are done. This one in particular became annoying because of the color changes and the endless garter stitch. The striping, which seemed liked such a "fun innovation" when I began the scarf, became especially irritating. I was craving something more subtle.

That (combined with this week's 6 hours of continuing legal education) may be why I made such good progress on these socks:

Anastasia Socks in Misty Mountain Farm Jubilee sock yarn, the Virginia Creeper colorway. I lovelovelove this yarn! It is so pretty and very soft. The muted colors of this yarn really appeal to me lately, so I have been much more eager to work on these socks than some of my other, more brightly colored projects. I also love the pattern and am very happy with the way the socks are shaping up. These are going to be a Christmas gift, and I do hope I've got the sizing right.

I also started this scarf, which is intended for my brother for Christmas:

The pattern is the Yarn Harlot's one-row scarf. It is as easy as can be, reversible, and working up super-fast. I am holding together 2 strands of Plymouth Suri Merino (one handpaint, one plain), and using a 10 1/2 needles. This project is perfect mindless TV knitting, and I am really pleased with the heathery result of using the 2 strands of coordinated colors. Of course, I am not quite to the halfway point, which is about when I start to get tired of scarves. We'll see how happy I am with it in a few more days.

Meanwhile, I started another sock (remember that short attention span I mentioned). Here is my version of Charade, done toe-up instead of top down, in the Pueblo colorway of Cider Moon Glacier:

I like this stitch pattern very much, but, although I like the feel of this yarn, I am not in love with the colorway. It's hard to put my finger on why; it may be the intense contrast between the coppery color as opposed to the blues and the greens. This picture does not depict the colors withe perfect accuracy--the copper is somewhat lighter and brighter IRL. Oh well. Meh. I am making these for my mom for Christmas, but I feel a little bad about the fact that I don't love the color. Hopefully she'll like it.

Next up: I am thinking of doing another Chevron with this color combo:

Zen String Serendipity Sport in Aubergine and November. I can't wait to give it a try to see if these colors will work together. But I have to finish the Suri Merino scarf and the Anastasia socks first--I have more than enough projects going right now, even with my knitting ADD.