Regaining the habit of blogging

Well, the weekend came and went without a post, and that was mostly due to me forgetting about it. I have simply gotten out of the habit of thinking about blogging, so while I am thinking about it...

The finished Fair Isle Sampler Hat. I opted for the tassel instead of the pompom on the end, but this tassel is a little wussy. I will need to make a beefier tassel for it before I wear it. I mean, I want this sucker to induce tassel envy when I am done.

Then there are the socks for my Mom...

in a very seasonal color combo. All hail Trekking 143. These lovely picot edge socks brought to you by Claudia's pattern. I think she would also approve of the color choice. I sure hope my Mom likes them.

Then there's the in progress stuff. I am still going to town (slowly) on the Paistu Mittens, no in progress pics yet, but I have to say that I freaking heart color knitting. I have also gotten half a sleeve into this...

which will not look nearly as good on me as it does on this model, but there we are.

So that's the wrap up for now, more to come soon. ish.

Fox in the henhouse.

Todays' plans were all cancelled by 11am and I found myself with a free day. Knitch, the new LYS on the block is about 3 blocks away from my TCM practitioner's office, so that was the first stop in my newly liberated schedule. It is a really wonderful place, and like last week I went right after acupuncture, which leaves me really woozy for a few hours after. That must be why I found myself leaving the shop an hour later armed for a brand new battle. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Don't ask me how this happened. I am not a spinner. At least this morning I wasn't. Now, though, I think I just might be. Plus, there is something delightfully perverse in being a chickengoddess and spinning on a spindle named the Fox. Actually there's a really good reason why this happened. Next weekend I am helping with a demo for a library down in Fayetteville. Their summer reading program has adopted a medieval theme this year and the SCA group I belong to agreed to do a demo for them. I had originally planned to knit in the round, which is perfectly medieval, but it is too freaking hot to have a bunch of wool in my lap. I also thought that knitting would be mighty boring for kids to watch, but spinning (even bad beginner spinning) would be more interesting, and I could let kids try it too. Anyway, I am having fun practicing and I can see where I might like to take a spinning class at some point.

So that brought me to lunchtime, after which I picked up the old Fair Isle Sampler Hat and went to town. Made a good bit of progress and man, I am loving the colorwork.

Wish I had a few more days like today, but alas, I must return to my regularly scheduled insanity. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Koyaanisqatsi

Many thanks to all of you who have been sending notes of condolence and good wishes. It is so nice to know that you all are out there thinking of me from time to time, checking the blog and being patient with me.

Things have been better.

They are, however, looking up. Remember my partner with the stress-induced vertigo? Her being out left us 3 pharmacists down, and almost gave me a case of stress-induced quitting. But I really do love my job, and that became my mantra until she got better and we hired two new pharmacists who I think will really work out well. So there. Now I can breathe again.

But enough about me working, lets get to me knitting. And dyeing. First, lets have a lovely shot of the finished yard from our last dyeing installment. It came out darker than I had planned, darker than the picture. But I really really like it. I even named it.


I am calling it Blood and Souls. Yes, yes, from the books about the ridiculously depressed albino superhero. What can I say? I had an Elric phase. And the color really is more blood-like than the picture. I was going to call it the Bloody Baron, then I remembered that he's a ghost and his bloodstains were silver, which totally wouldn't work. Blood and Souls it is.

In further non-knitting news, there has been much backyard improvement thanks to mother nature and DHL. First, from the water garden we have the exciting news that my asiatic lotus has five buds. I didn't get one flower last year because it was a baby, but this year it is very happy.

Two of the three buds. Down near the water there are two more buds just starting! Bonus!

Second, from the back forty, DHL delivered my eglu about a week ago. I'm just waiting on my chickens to arrive. This picture's kind of blue, but it was just about to rain when I took it.

Last but not least, I have been knitting. In dribs and drabs, surely, but knitting did happen. I went on a bit of a starting binge. First, because two colors just weren't enough for me (it seems)...

The insanely long and cool Fair Isle Sampler Hat from IK Fall 2004. Yes I am tired of weaving in ends already.

And last because when charts were too much for my brain there's nothing like the instant gratification of Trekking XXL...

With a picot edge. God, I am such a follower. But I made my own decorative stitch markers, so neener neener neener.

And where, you may well ask, are my previous WIP's? They're still there, I've just been fickle as hell. And in the true spirit of someone who's largely too busy to knit, I have still managed to buy. But that will be another post for another day. I have to dye more yarn and update my template now.

BTW, koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi indian word which means "life out of balance". I thought that pretty well summed things up. It is also a movie I really like.

Three days of slacking and I still finished Coronet!

I am the slack knitter. Right now we are playing host to my parents until they return to N.O. and start the cleanup/rebuilding project. So I started Coronet Friday and worked on it in odd moments over the weekend and still got it finished by last night. I changed up a few things. First, I didn't want to do it with the flip up band, I just knitted it straight. I used a different yarn and had to change needle sizes to get gauge. I didn't wait for Grumperina to post her instructions on picking up the stitches before I forged on ahead, and then I reversed the direction of the knitting to do the hat knit side out. Then I went crazy and put a row of 6 5-stitch i-bobbles a la Annie Modesitt just above the band. This was really interesting because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I got something bobbley out of it, so I didn't do it completely wrong, which is pretty surprising. So here is yours truly, looking a little Blair Witch, but there you go - oh well, it is the season for it.

I think I am going to make another one now, the right way, do the flippy cable band, drop the bobbles (I like them for this hat, though) and make it red. Just because.

Pattern: Coronet
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino Aran Color 325702 - 2 50g balls
Needles: Aluminum dp's size 6

W00T! Cable Enabled!

Instead of slogging through a frustrating Forbes Forest scarf, I decided that maybe a single cable project would be a gentler introduction to the world of cables. I chose Coronet from the Knitty site and achieved almost instant success. Instead of aggravation, I have a lovely and addicting pattern going, and I am enjoying it so much that I'm sad it is so short. I started the band last night and I'm nearly done. More than just learning to cable, I also had to learn about a provisional cast on (which I sort of figured out myself and I might not have done it right, but the end product will work just the same so who cares) and I will soon know the joys of grafting and picking up stitches. I await Grumperina's instructions on picking up stitches "the pretty way" so that I can learn the pretty way from the beginning. We'll see how that goes, but so far here is the cable band.


I am using Debbie Bliss Merino Aran instead of the Lambs' Pride the pattern called for and so I have had to switch to size 6 needles to get gauge, but that just means I am already riffing off a pattern which is pretty cool considering how new I am to knitting. I am considering making other changes (get a little confidence and I go wild), so we'll just have to see how this all turns out in the end.

To be continued..........