Finishing & trying: Win and Win

My day has finished up earlier than expected, so I'm heading home to knit.

I didn't finish my abandoned sweater, but by knitting along with the knitting olympics, my oh my did I win anyway.

The first week of the Olympics saw the finishing of two gift projects (photos/links to be inserted here later), as mentioned in the last entry. I made headway on two new pairs of socks, zipped halfway through an indulgent bit of scarf for myself, AND that was the portable knitting.

I finished knitting the single cable sweater with Rowan Bramble and had it blocked and half seamed by the closing ceremonies (Torino time).

AND by the end of NBC's late night Sunday broadcast, I had reclaimed, as self-challenged, the peace fleece & Noro sweater. Both sleeves have now progressed up through to the elbow, the body is within two inches of the underarm. Today I found some good resource patterns on Knitty for working out the shoulder questions (raglan, drop, etc.)

These weeks could not have seen any other type of knitting challenge in the home of towering textiles, but this indeed was the perfect match. I did finish things, and like walking the marathon, I'll enjoy finishing the rest while I get there.

The packages landed, I'll wear the Bramble this week, and I can't wait to get home tonight to get over the elbows on the Peace Fleece. Congratulations to the knitters who gave it their all. I'll enjoy admiring the projects and stories I'll find over the next weeks. And I'll enjoy that kind of knitting intensity when school is out. The past 16 days I gave the knitting what I had to give, and that suits me just fine.

Can't post - Must knit

What a crazy week it's been. I've done a little mid-day blog hopping to see the Olympic projects and updates. Impressive knitters, the lot of them!

Me, I'm tooling along. Worked a bit on a sweater. Finished up a pair of socks since I couldn't be at home with the sweater on opening weekend. Packaged up the kid poncho and the grab-bag socks for mailing. (From the sounds of it, I could be keeping fine company with the assortment of FO and UFO knitting teams!) Did some other small knitting on jury-duty day. (Knitting in the assembly room only, but since that's the ONLY place I WAS, I got a bunch done.) Since I couldn't be at home to see much of the Olympics this week, either, I soothed myself with a little extra sock knitting, two types, both (ahem) for me.

No pictures today. Must grab a bite to eat and then go to a rehearsal where I will be knitting one of those portable projects, WISHING I could get home soon enough to work on the sweater.

Can't stay. Must knit.

Remembering and forgetting

Such a goofy day today is.

I left home feeling like a packhorse, toting everything I needed to transfer to work today hoping I was remembering everything. I remembered the tote bag with work projects needed for the day, vowing to remember not to take so much tomorrow if I won't actually use it. This was the case last evening, and the bag was impossibly heavy. SO.

I remembered the items I promised I'd photo for some knittyheads. I remembered my lunch and supper, packing a lovely thermos of squash soup and a container of two not-quite-ratatouille filled spinach tortillas. On my mother's recent visit, she brough leftovers of some basque influenced recipe using thin slices of celeriac. We tote food a lot. (Hey, she was going to be away from home for more than a week. Waste not, etc.) I must say it made a lovely little lunch, now that I've wolfed down the tortillas and saved the soup for supper.

Where was I? Oh, I remember.

I remembered to bring some knitting for some between things waiting I have later this evening. Remembered to turn off the stove, lock doors, etc.

Forgot to dress for winter. Hat? Scarf? Boots? Snow?!?

But I do have the moment to act upon remembering to post this yarn for a knitty's perusal. Extra bonus? I actually have yarn pR0n for a Wednesday.
This would be CTH Glitter Alpaca Java:



This would be CTH Glitter Alpaca African Grey



And I was careful to be candid with another knitty about whether or not she'd want these very small metal dpns. She's declined and was glad for the candour which helped her determine her needs - but I'm posting them anyway - because I couldn't BELIEVE how tough it was for me to consider parting with them. I am SUCH a keeper and rememberer. I like that these vintage needles lived for a long, long time in Minnesota. They probably heard a lot of Swedish or Norwegian. (Found them in St. Peter.)

They also serve as an interesting and stained reminder of exactly why stainless steel was such a big deal. (That's a half strip of staples, snagged for hasty effort to provide scale...)

And I've remembered to bring the niece poncho to mail, but I've forgotten the card. Ugh.

Athletic metaphors on my terms

I've been bemused by the swoosh of activity to prepare for the Knitting Olympics. Nothing like a finite time-table for a creative challenge. Heck, that's why I like the regular rhythm of theatre tech weeks. I was hesitant to jump in, though, as I DO have a tech week that will overlap the first week of the Olympics.

What to do? Look for more athletic metaphors.

Yoga's my kind of athletic engagement. Hiking ranks there, too. I am a process fiend. So an Eddie Along is my kind of Team Olympic participation.

I'll be tackling, then, an abandoned sweater. This will be a sweater I started a good while back. It will be a sweater which had the challenge of an engaging process. It will have been put aside long enough that it has been moved into safe keeping - a plastic box or a large zip bag - and stored temporarily with the stash. I have four candidates. There's this bit of beaded Cambio, for which the knittyboard KAL has been deleted for want of recent activity. This photo was in May. I'm twice as far, or more.

There's this monster. Training will call for frogging and swatching. It may be an over-reach.

There's this little friend from the summer. I'd puzzled over stripes through chest, armscye, and sleeve, so I paused to puzzle more.

And there's an aran sweater of long-ago frogged for re-sizing delphinium blue Galway. The pattern has been lost in the boxes I must purge, through two moves, mind. I'm starting to lean toward using this vintage Brunswick pattern. This could be a mighty two week goal, but I'm worried about the time available in that one tech week.

In the spirit of the Olympic endeavour, I'll pick up with the flame and go for the 16 day stretch. In the spirit of Eddie-ing along, I'll enjoy the process and knit as I'm able.

Here's to all the teams and the pursuit of so many grand goals!

A blogger's (silent) poetry reading

My mother will be sharing these words aloud this week with children.
I hope they have snow.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Found this at My Fashionable Life.

Hot Water Bottle Happiness

This December saw the demise of my faithful red hot water bottle. It had to have been 15 years plus. The rubber gave out. Fortunately the water disaster was in the kitchen, after filling, rather than in the bed! But do you think I could find a replacement? I ended up caving and purchasing a microwavable bag with a stretchy interfacing-type fabric with a strip of hook & loop tape for closure. Not fully satisfactory, although I have worn it around my head on a dismal sinus day or two this week.

After seeing a post at yarnstorm, I was determined to try again to find one. My local family pharmacist (whose store is quite anti-chain, I should mention) was delighted to hop to and seek one out for me. They found two. I was torn. Red economy with a 10 year warranty or for 3 dollars more an awful tan with a lifetime warranty. I left aesthetics at the door and plunked down the extra 3.

So now....where does one find a pattern for KNITTING a COVER? I'm forever using a towel wrapped around it. Something to look for in weeks to come. Years to come - it is a hot water bottle with a lifetime!

Bramble Cable

I'm on to the sleeves. This is front and back. I stitched up the shoulders, as I wanted to get the yarn free from the neckline addition. The hem and cuff detail may be an interesting experiment, as I probably won't have very much extra yarn to fuss over.

I've included both photos, as monitors vary. All I did was zoom in a little, I swear.

Men have big feet. Well, some.

Yes I am soldiering on with the grab bag socks. Nearly done with the heel. I was distracted. (Don't tell!)

One more niece knit

Sh. Whisper. It's a poncho. A few inches away from a nice three needle bindoff to connect the side edge with the live edge.

Hey. It's for a kid. She wants it.

Here's to a hasty knit

I think this little bit of bramble on the great big bamboo needles should be pretty zippy.
I've done a provisional cast-on and will knit an alternate, same-yarn version of the lightweight ruffled edging from the bottom down. Same will be done with the cuffs. Choices may depend upon the amount of yarn I'll have left! It will be close, but that's the thrill of the sale purchase.

I think I'll like this choice of sweater longer in this yarn than I would have done with the T.D. corrugated sweater. I'll save that one for a different yarn.

PS. In the end, it wasn't horrid thoughts of aging that finally changed my mind. I decided I didn't want that asymmetrical neckline to go with a wintry sweater that might require a layer. Neckline dilemmas galore on that one!

Happy Middles

I'm in the middle. There's no denying it.

I'm old but not.

I'm back in town but not fully unpacked.

There are pics in the camera, but the camera's no here.

I have 5 things on the needles but I really want to work on the 6th quick knit project that I started just for me. Might as well BE in the middle of more.

And as much as I think I might be able to carry off the assymmetrical corrugated rib in the Teva Durham, I'm just not sure. I may be too old.

I'm frogging the start (despite last night's contented approval of the swatch) and moving on to the quick knit that I found in a back issue of VK with the nice red v neck, the big clean cable. I'll be doing something different with the designer's kid feather weight ruffle at the hem and cuffs.

I can still do a nice v and a bit of a flare (and a bit of flair!), but assymmetrical AND chunky AND offbeat colors? (Yes, I found some Rowan Plaid locally at half price. I caved.) I'm too {(old)}.

Eek. Happy Middle-Aged Day to me! There shall be wine and dine and knit. Still chunky and fun but maybe not TOO off beat here in the middle.

A necessary bandwagon

Witness it here. I'm about to jump on a knitting bandwagon.

I left the cats unattended a little longer than is my habit. I had the lovely new fountain and the gravity-operated food dispenser in place. All had worked for the holidays, for another weekend away, and this was the third departure. I worried a bit. Senior kitty is about 15 years old. However, this year has been personally taxing (their own lives, that is) for several friends on my rotation of cat caregivers, so I thought I'd not ask more of them.

When I came home from this third absence, I held my breath (as I now do) to be sure two cats come to the door to meet me. I was met by indignant scolds from senior Miss Thing and some New Invented Fun: someone had discovered the swinging door to the kitchen.

Mind, we've lived here a fair bit, and to be truthful, I don't know if somecat has already done this trick for the cat sitters. The upshot was that one cat was on one side of the door - no food, no water - and the other cat was on the opposite side - food and water but no litter. And who could tell exactly when this happened - the morning of my return or the day after I left?

I looked about the dainty kitchen for the mess I needed to clean. No mess?!? Why, no, the delicate and resourceful tom had pried open the wastecan-style lid of the food container and had used the kibble as litter. I kid you not.

So the cats are looking at me with a great deal of those "aren't we pathetic" glances. I anthropomorphize. Furthermore, they've been on top of me and up against me every moment I've been home, and in the tightest corners between me and other parts of furniture. And in shoeboxes, lately.

It's time for knitting some kitty pi beds. There's stuff in the stash. And the cats deserve it. Of course I'll have to figure out some clever way to do the fulling, what with current reliance on laundromats. However, limitations be damned: there are pathetic cats to be pampered.

Bandwagon kerplunk!

PS. This is also part of my necessary nesting campaign. Also on the docket: curtains for the bedroom so I can read in bed without being peered at from across the courtyard. Currently there's a degree of privacy, but the standard issue miniblinds don't cut it for me. I do a lot of lights-off changing.

The point, after all

For a brief moment I felt guilt at not keeping up with this visible journal. However, the purpose of it was to document progress, and despite my string of absences lately, I have been making progress.

The second of the grab-bag sock has progressed through half of the leg.

I started a hasty niece poncho for the daughter of dear friends of mine. She said her favorite color is black. She's all of 9. I found Tessin, a black with bright multi-color blips twisted throughout. It's washable enough for her mom, black enough to the request, with enough color to keep her from looking depressing. And as I'm knitting it on big old bubble gum pink 10mm pony pearl needles, it's an amusing contrast from the sock knitting.

Oh, right. And I've cast on a pair of self-striping socks for myself. If I keep them, that is. I made plans to give away the last pair of self-stripers before I'd finished the first leg.

I think I have something in my else in my knitting bag for this week's excursion out of town. A boucle. 200 yards. I don't think I took a photo of it - colorway is outrageous, and that sounds like I typed up a mention of it. Oh well. Knitting is more important than photos for the time being. This is about a scarf amount, and it is soft as can be. Debating whether to play with multidirectional squares or something more drapey. Will have to see what it wants to be.


I'm going to have to NOT look for yarn shop information for my out of town location. I coaxed myself into not shopping last week, since I'd placed an unlikely order from a year end sale. It arrived this week. Bigger than a breadbox? Bigger than my vintage microwave! I've ogled but not taken it home.

Okay. I have two hours of work I want to do and half an hour of work I can do before I'm on the road again and off to a theatre fest. I'll have knitting to amuse me while I'm between events. Progress report when I return.

The progress and the process are, after all, the point.

Grab bag socks

This was the progress of the grab bag sock as of New Year's morning.




I am happy to report that the first sock is done. I know the heather is stiffer upon knitting and softens up in the wash, as I have a pair of the heather with contrasting cuff, toe, and heel. With the double strand, it's about as tough as iron. I hope the softening will help, though I hope the iron-like quality will speak to the potential endurance.

The second sock has been cast on. I expect to have some time by the end of the week.

The Merriest and Happiest of Wishes!

Since there was very little traffic in to see my cheerful holiday kitsche, I give evidence that I decorated. The cats were put on strict notice not to mess with the ornaments.


The daintiness of the lace snowflakes, the lace and other angels is offset by the tacky-but-I-have-them multi-colored lights.


The most senior of kittens was most pleased with the winter addition of highly washable afghans.



Why yes, that is an odd little moose on the top of the tree. It may have been intended as a reindeer, but it was gifted to me as a moose and so it remains. Please ignore the sagging crack of old plaster walls, but this was the best cat-free spot in the room.

And despite some holiday absence, not an ornament was moved. Could this face have done such a thing?

The Maine Monster

The Monster has been in this state for years. Condition. This state of progress. (It has lived in about 5 of these US states, give or take.)

I had discovered Fassett's Glorious Knits.

I am thinking it's frog time. What do you think? I'll venture to guess that it will relax into a huge shapeless thing.

Black sparkly chemo cap

Made major progress after the third start was scrapped. Stopped this weekend at the yarn store and picked up a second hank (denser fabric and fuzzier) AND was advised to use a tubular cast on. Those knittyheads are a fine lot. (Thanks, Ms. Mitten!)
Of course, TRY and photograph black sparkly. I'm too inept. Had to show some progress, though. Will be trying to finish it up tonight.

It is big as a bucket.

I did once say, somewhere, that I needed to frog this hat which bloomed into a bucket bigger than my head. Proof before it's gone.

I'll be happy to have it reknit to a useable size. I miss it this winter.

Oh, these fancy cameras

I was playing with color a few weeks ago and forgot that when I took this first photo.










Vivid color and whatever was happening with afternoon winter light and safety glass gives us this.










Here we go. Better color, maybe. However, the watering can arrangement doesn't let us see the side view.

Wilde ... on the holidays?

When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as anyone who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. - Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest

Must be time to enjoy a piece of lovely holiday chocolate.