All work and no play

I have to be away. I have a work event, another work-related event, and some company. It won't be ALL work and no play, but I just can't play in this park for a little bit.

There will be some knitting though, if the trains and buses are chilly enough in this heat. I'm back to being car free. I am not excited about car shopping.

But is it bad that I bought little teensy bit of yarn in the town where the car died? After all, I will be taking public transport for awhile, and public transport means good knitting!

Back to the blog in a week or so!

Petit Pacquet

Such a lovely phrase - petit pacquet - a gift from my fine Knitty SP7 secret pal.


Beautiful chocolate. Will be holding off on this until Monday, by which time I'll be in some desperate need.


From New Zealand, Merino & Fur - some NZ possum! The yarn is amazingly soft. This will need to become something warm and snuggly.

Colourmart Cashmere - and I'm having trouble loading the photo of yarn beauty. This was a grey day, so until repairs, imagine what a wonderful teal the kingfisher cashmere is - because it is. This will become a lovely knitted accent - scarf, lace, something. Knitters with a mission may pooh-pooh the scarf, but I WEAR them. It is a signature accessory and a necessary indulgence, in my mind. (More on that another day.)


Little cinnamon sweeties from Greece. There were five, but one dodged the camera and hid in my mouth.


This is a wonderful set of indulgences. What a thoughtful and wonderful secret pal. My goodness!

What's in the knitting bag?

Still alternating socks in the little sock bag:

Big knitting bag is sharing its knitting storage territory with a big ceramic bowl in my dining room/studio/storage room. This sweater is hanging out in the bowl and I've been making some fair but slow progress on it.

The brown is creating a slip stitch dash that alternates with dashes of brown garter stitch. The multi alternates in longer stripes.

This is the high contrast photo of the side-ways knit slip-stitch sweater.

I was drawn to a garment I'd seen which had a less dramatic contrast than the photo. I'm liking the fabric. It's heavy on the garter ridge, but there's that little bit of something. Bought the yarn without a clue as to whether I'd find the pattern or have the right amount. I did find. I might have enough. We'll see how it goes!

What about that mistake?

There's the s-curve mistake on the cable.
My niece was right. I'll let it go.

Seed stitch swatch for a sweater

Actually, it's a double seed stitch - or double moss.

Working back towards making myself a sort of traditional aran knit with the blue wool pictured here. May actually use the vintage Brunswick cardigan pictured here.


Just want to find the Vogue Knitting issue(s) which had varied approaches to knitting selvages. I don't mind flat knitting, but I'm not much interested in making seams happen where the bumps and lumps of the aran textures aren't accounted for and prepared for.

That was a lousy sentence, but I'll be clearer another day.

Oops.

Here I finished the huge fuzzy feet, all delightfully pink and maroon, and I went and sealed up the envelope Friday before I had a chance to take a photo.

They weren't that glamorous, but it's not on that account that I won't open up the envelope. I'm just not keen on looking for more tape.

Meanwhile, I will upgrade my sock count. They count, even if they were fast. And wow, were they fast. That's a curious thing about knitting in the summer. Done is good. Just not in the mood for lots of detail.

You know, some time I'm going to have to take back the knitting reins. I used to cable a fair bit. I have two sweaters with varied sizes of cables upon them. One of them I wore even past the comical "why did I make the sweater out of THIS" point. That one is now officially destined for a new life. I'll get around to that story one of these days.

Oh, Gracie, look at the time! I have to go.

Big Hit, Little Mistakes, and Huge Feet

Item One:
The niece hat was a big hit. Imagine a huge pre-teen smile and multiple sets of huggy thank yous. She wore it the next day and the day after that, taking it off only when it got to be too, too hot.

Item Two:
I seem to be talking too much when I knit and visit. I found some interesting sets of mistakes in my socks. In the first Hedera sock I did something odd with picking up stitches, so the nice ridged line is a bit bumpy. I'm over it. It's in the heel. In the finished Jaywalkers, I neglected to read the part about slipping a stitch along the gusset, so I didn't do it on the first. On the second sock, upon discovery of my powers of selective reading, I experimented. I tried some with, I tried some without. Interesting. Didn't care.

And now I discovered, in the Nancy Bush Rib and Cable sock I'm doing, that I twisted a cable the wrong way. My niece, bless her, said no one would see it down there. She also said it looked cool. I did not rip back.

Item Three:
I needed a quick knit on large needles. I'm also desperate to whittle down some of that funny pink ombre, from which I made a knitted and stuffed glove for the knitablog. I'm making Fuzzy Feet for a friend who has been having a rough time. She also has a cold house, when it's not now and hot everywhere in the northern hemisphere. Boy that's fast. I started late last night. This morning I had the heel turned and the gusset about done before I ran out of that half of the hank.

I'd wound up the hank into two balls, using one and some of the second for the glove. This yarn came in one of those floppy skeins / loose hanks with a skein wrapper around the middle, and curiously it winds up into two separate balls of equal size. Wonder if that was for the convenience of the producer or for the knitter. It would certainly make it easier to mix up the striping/pooling that way, that is, IF I were actually worried about that with this yarn. It would be ideal for sock knitting. Look ma, no scale, no guessing.

I'll be winding up the next skein / hank this evening and womp along on the fuzzy feet. She has large feet. She hates pink - this is something that goes back to her high school days. I hope she'll laugh. If she really hates pink fuzzy feet, her daughter with even larger feet will get them.

They'll be doing the shrinking. I'd told her about the possibility. I may have hinted at the pink.

Those fuzzy feet are huge.

Time to drink some water. Everyone stay cool! (Eek. Sounds like a note in a high school yearbook.)

Cambio, for a Change

I haven't forgotten about this sweater. I have resumed beading. This is, however, a now & again knit.

I have to be very deliberate and knit at my desk, ideally early in the day while there is full daylight streaming in. Clearly it was getting too late in the day for decent photos or good beading, here.



I have a bit more beading to prepare before I can cast for sleeves which should look like this peplum.

Summer time blogging and knitting

Summer brings an odd assortment of knitting whims and a lot less computer time. Both are definably Good Things, Martha. Yesterday I dumped a bunch of photos on le blog, planning to come back and identify properly later. At the time there WAS no time for scrapbooking. I had to go knit and have a margarita.

Friday's edits to the thumbnails (click on through)include labels and some forms of sentences. First up is the yarn art: beautiful seasilk from my kind knitty sp7 secret pal. I think she worried about this package arriving and suiting. It is JUST BEAUTIFUL, I gush again.
  

I started a hat for my niece, who had brought with her a great orange bag when she last visited. When I learned that this was the new fav color, I pulled out a lone hank of sale mercerized cotton. She thought a hat would be fine.
  

I moved along quite nicely on that hat and finished it within days.

  

I did finish and block the Steel Penny amalgamated sweater. I took a tacky mirror shot, but the light makes the abdomen unflatteringly poochier than I care to view it. It may BE that poochy, but I prefer to live in denial. (I'll take another walk tonight, in an effort to give some reality to that fantasy life.) Now I just need the right weather for the sweater. Just warm enough but not too warm. There is some wool in that sweater.

  

I also finished the jaywalkers. At last. Won't block them, as they're for wearing and not for gifting. I'm ready for more pattern experiments. Can't say I want to knit that pattern over and over. Will know more once I've seen how the sock wears.
Still, I was tickled by the oohs and ahs the socks in progress attracted. It IS a nice looking knit.
  

Did I mention that when I was on a road trip I took care to pick up a little Ben Franklin cotton for "just-in-case" knitting. This, too, was a good thing. It was just the knitting I needed when we took breaks from helping a family member pack.