Review of a good book

It's kind of a blur, but I think I finished Yarn Harlot: the Secret Life of a Knitter on Friday morning. I practically ate it up - it was really, really good.

The book is basically a series of individual stories (grouped into topic categories), covering interesting events and aspects of the author's knitting life. The stories range the gamut of laugh-out-loud funny, sad, eye-rolling, poignant, meaningful, informative, all that good stuff. It's a wonderful read.

The only thing I didn't like about the book is actually a testament to how good it is. 'One Little Sock' made me cry and cry and cry. It's still haunting me, actually. So, some advice: if you are pregnant, DO NOT READ 'ONE LITTLE SOCK'. Heck, I would also recommend avoiding it if you are the parent of a baby who is still in the SIDs-risk age range. It is a beautiful story, extremely well-written, but it is very sad and upsetting.

So...all in all, a highly recommended read. I can't wait for her third book. :)

Striped socks for moi

On Friday's morning commute I cast off for sock #1. Oh, the triumph. When I arrived at the office, I whipped it out and tried it on while my computer was booting up.

It took me over a minute to force the thing over my heel. Not good.

So I shall have to frog the cast-off and re-do it more loosely. I only hope that I made the cast-off tail long enough that I won't run out of yarn during the re-do!

PonChew

Friday at lunch I knit the body of the poncho. This took longer than I wanted. I started out with a fancy-schmancy cabled design with some moss stitch edging. Halfway into it I held it up to admire my handiwork and discovered that the variegation of the yarn (and the brightness of the colours) completely obliterated the cable.

Riiiip.

So instead I just went for a plain stocking stitch dealio with YO increases. Unsurprisingly, it knit up super-fast. It fits Chewie very well - he tried it on. Now I'm working on the fringe.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

Friday I made some good progress on the second sleeve. I'm close to finishing the underarm gusset. Flushed with this success, I really hoped I was going to get a lot of time to work on this over the weekend.

Hahahaha.

Firstly, I was planning to get in a lot of knitting time on the way to an SCA event on Saturday. However, we discovered on Friday night that DH was far too tired and busy to go to the event, so I was on my own with DD. And as much as I wish I was able to drive and knit at the same time, it just ain't so. And the amount of pre-planning and packing I had to do to make going to the event possible ate up my knitting time on Friday night.

Sunday, my MIL and BIL were planning to visit. This meant hiding the sweater away so that BIL would not see it and ruin his own surprise. (Sadly, only my MIL ended up coming - my BIL has just stopped doing a nightshift job and discovered that morning that he was completely jetlagged and feeling too awful to come. But by that time I'd already pulled out some other knitting, so the sweater lost out again.)

The second part of Sunday was devoted to attempting to finish a weekend's worth of household chores in a single afternoon. (No, I didn't succeed.)

Result: I am so not done half of the second sleeve. But I'm definitely getting there.

Secret Garden cardigan for niece

I wanted to make absolutely sure that my next attempt of this project would actually produce a garment big enough to fit my niece. To that end, I've been emailing my SIL to get an idea of the right measurements. It turns out that although my niece is tall enough for the 4-5 year size, her chest will probably be swimming in it. Sigh. However, as I told my SIL, better too big than too small. I know she's gonna grow, but she sure as heck ain't gonna shrink. :) So I decided upon the 4-5 year size (the cardigan is for the child's third birthday, by the way - she came out at 10lbs 1oz and just kept going) and cast on this weekend. I'm not quite as far along as The Schedule says I should be at this point, but I'm not too badly behind, either.

Things are going well.

Not fast enough

Last night on the subway I took out my knitting, and discovered that a woman right near me had also begun to knit. I caught her eye and smiled, and she smiled back. She told me my project was beautiful. :) I thanked her and asked her what she was making. She didn't really seem to understand what I was asking, so I pointed to her work. As near as I could make out (she didn't speak much English), her son will be having a baby soon, and she was making something for it. It was a pity we couldn't chat about knitting, but it was an entirely pleasant exchange. Smiles of appreciation are universal among knitters.

What bugged me was how freakin' SLOW my knitting was compared to hers. She was managing at least a stitch per second by my guess. Sadly, I wasn't at a good angle where I could really get a look at exactly what her hands were doing, but MAN, I wish she'd known English better so I could have gotten some tips!

I should point out that the speed thing with me is not about ego (well, not all about ego, anyway). The real deal with my 'need for speed' is that the faster I knit, the faster I can finish projects. And the faster I can finish projects, the faster I can start other projects. And the more projects I can get through in less time, the less chance there is that I will die before I finish all the knitting I want to do. That is the real driving force.

Another thing that didn't happen fast enough for my taste was the delivery of the Yarn Harlot's new book to a bookstore near me. I called Chapters/Indigo again this morning and at last, at last, at last, they said there were six copies in one of the downtown locations. Woohoo!

Need I mention that there are now only five? :)

Twenty-two days into the month in which it was released before I could get my hands on a copy. Sheesh.

And now I can't read through it fast enough. :)

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

Yesterday evening I finished sleeve #1. Hooray! I am now just three days behind The Schedule on this project. (We shall not speak of my other current projects, which are weeks behind The Schedule. But I digress.) I'm now about an inch into sleeve #2 and hope to have it half done by the end of Sunday, which would bring me right back in line with The Schedule. I think this is do-able.

Poncho for Chewie

I am starting to refer to this as 'the PonChew'. :)

(Sorry.)

I think I've decided to make this out of the same variegated yarn which I'm using for my (so-called) striped socks. For one thing, the colours in the yarn are vibrant, so that will give the piece some bling. Also, one of the colours in the yarn is a green which will coordinate beautifully with Chewie's handbag.

(Yes, he has a handbag. What of it? He also used to have matching pumps until my co-worker William lost them. Chewie is very stylin'.)

I will definitely have yarn left over from my socks, but not enough to make anything significant, so knitting tiny crap like a poncho for an action figurine is a great way to get rid of the leftovers. And finally, I am almost finished the first sock. When I'm done, that will be the perfect opportunity to start on the PonChew.

And hey, if you thought socks were portable, I'm sure that will be nothing compared to this. It's basically going to be nothing more than a swatch with a hole in the middle. I'm almost embarrassed to call it a whole project by itself, actually. Perhaps I shall give it an air of legitimacy by adding fringe.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

Recently, as I was switching between the 3mm and 2.75mm circulars on my Stornaway project, a truth hit me, giving me a sick, sinking feeling in my stomach. The needles currently in my Hillhead project - which I used during all of Saturday's knitting on it - were only the 'placeholder' needles I had stuffed through the stitches in order to free up my only 3mm circular for the Stornaway sweater.

Damn.

So all my Saturday knitting was useless. I'm going to have to rip it out and redo it with the correct size of needles.

I know, I know, I only knit one row on Saturday. No big deal, right? The problem is that I cut one of the yarn strands when I came to the end of a row in order to make a colour change for the next row. Since I used way-too-small needles, this is going to mean that when I redo the row, the colour whose strand I broke is not going to last me for the whole row. Crapola.

Striped socks for moi

Top ribbing on the first sock is very close to being done - just a few more rows, I estimate, and then I can cast off. After which I get to...uh...make the second sock. Woohoo.

I must not lose my focus. I must not succumb to Second Sock Syndrome. I must remember how delighted my footsies will be when I put on the new socks. I must remember how unwilling my footsies will be to share one sock. I. Will. Be. Strong.

Poor leisure-time-to-knitting-time ratio = cranky knitter

So it's been an interesting past four days - no blogging, very little knitting. But much socializing, and a fair bit of not-feeling-very-well.

Saturday night we went to the birthday party for a one-year-old of our acquaintance. At the party was Mel, one of the ladies I'd previously met at the Lettuce Knit SnB. Herein lies a vaguely interesting 'it's a small world' kind of story. A few weeks ago, my husband came home from a meeting of our local SCA group to tell me that our friend Tanya (mother of the birthday boy) knew someone who went to the Lettuce Knit SnBs. At which point I slapped my forehead and said, "Of course! That's why she seemed so familiar!" (I guess I'd seen her before at an event or a party at Tanya's.) I was therefore prepared to run into Mel at the party. She, however, was not so prepared, and apparently had one of those 'hey, my worlds are colliding' moments when she saw me. :) Anyway, much fun was had by all and the birthday boy is such a cutie. (DH says that I say that about every baby I know...but I always mean it. Each baby is lovable in a unique and wonderful way.) Oh, and Mel, if you're reading this...I apologize if my husband talked your ear off beyond the point where you might have been interested in the conversation. :) He is the master of obscure facts and details. One day he is going to go on Jeopardy! and make a fortune for us.

Sunday was spent mostly at my parents' place, at my dad's seventieth birthday party. Not a whole lot of knitting got done.

Monday woke me up way too early with a nasty headache that didn't respond very well to drugs. I did finally manage to go back to sleep, but my body was extremely unwilling to wake up when the alarm rang, and I was pretty woozy (and still headachy). I stayed home from work. It is a measure of how crappy I felt that I spent the day sleeping instead of knitting.

And after all that time, Yarn Harlot's new book is still not in stores around here. I could just spit.

Finally, today I discovered this. Please, gentle reader, if I ever start blogging about knitting up something like this, give me a virtual whack upside the head, will ya? Thanks.

Hillhead slipover for Grandpa

I mentioned previously that my grandmother seems to have a hankering to own something I knitted for her. But I think also she may be wondering why the only things I ever seem to knit around her are gifts for DH's family. The reason, of course, is that I want to surprise people with their knitted things and therefore do not knit gifts around the recipients. What no one in my family sees, of course, is that the only stuff DH's family sees me knitting are items for my family. :) However, if someone doesn't figure this out, they may have the impression that I never knit for their own. So, in an effort to subtly demonstrate that I do not love DH's family more than I love mine, I thought it would be a good idea to bring this project to my dad's birthday party to work on. I only managed to get about one row done the whole time, but hey, progress is progress.

Unfortunately, the reaction of one of my aunts upon hearing that my uncle (who wasn't there) is the likely recipient of the slipover was "My brother won't wear wool." Well, fine. If that turns out to be the case, I'm sure I could find someone who will appreciate the love and work and skill I'm putting into this thing. My dad, for instance. Nyah.

(Ah, family. I love them all dearly but lately there's been a rash of pettiness among us which is starting to cheese me off.)

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

One downside to my dad's seventieth birthday party was that my grandmother never ended up coming. This sucked on a number levels, not the least of which was that I was really looking forward to seeing her. Also, the reason she couldn't come is that she has some kind of cold, which includes a sore throat. This really concerned me, because she is almost ninety, is underweight thanks to the stresses of the last year, and is (of course) still grieving for my grandpa. It's possible that even a simple cold could do a serious number on her health. However, I called her last night to give her get-well wishes, and she sounded really strong and upbeat, so I'm feeling much more confident about her ability to lick this thing fairly quickly.

That makes the following news all the sweeter: the alpaca vendor got back to me today and said that they will soon be having more auctions for the 100% alpaca wool. This is great. I will be snapping that stuff up at the first available opportunity so I can get started on the shawl. Heaven only knows where this will fit into The Schedule...

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

My hopes of finishing sleeve #1 by the end of the weekend were dashed by all the socialising we did. (Not to mention the pre-socialising preparations...remember, I have a toddler, and with a small child, you can't leave the house without mucho supplies and A Strategy worthy of a military operation.) However, on the plus side, I have finished the decreasing and am only about two inches away from starting the cuff ribbing. So I think I'm catching up to The Schedule. Sadly, no pictures today, because I stupidly left the camcorder running after watching videos of my beautiful child, and the battery is dead, dead, dead. (Yes, I have a backup battery. It too is dead, for the exact same reason. Yes, I am a moron.)

NEW - Poncho for Chewie

This is going to sound weird. Bear with me.

My department at work is a really, really cool group. We're about 35 people, we do stellar work, and we all get along really well. We do a healthy amount of fun and silly stuff - like monthly 'Focaccia Friday' lunches out at St. Lawrence Market, or inter-cubicle wars with Nerf-esque missiles. :) Another thing that got started - I'm not sure how - is the passing of the 'Chewie Award'. This is a trophy which gets passed along whenever someone is noticed being particularly fashionable and coordinated. Specifically, the trophy is a Chewbacca The Wookie action figurine wearing various kicky accessories made out of paper and tape. On Friday, I happened to be wearing a very coordinated outfit, which included a gorgeous lapis lazuli necklace (which matched my shirt) and matching lapis lazuli earrings. The Chewie Award, therefore, is now mine.

Where am I going with this? Well, the tradition is that a person who receives the Chewie Award must create a new accessory for Chewie before passing him on. I will, of course, be knitting something. And what is more fashionable for today's modern Wookie than a poncho?

I'm not sure whether to make it really blingy and use up some of my fun fur yarn, or go for a more classic look with mohair, or what. I would love to make him something sparkly, but I refuse to actually shell out money for this cause, so I am confined to my own stash. Stay tuned.

Striped socks for moi

Patient slogging does eventually pay off - I'm now working on the top ribbing of sock #1.

Things are looking up somewhat

Today is my dad's birthday. He's seventy! Hooray! I really, really love my dad. We made his day tonight when I got my daughter to yell, "Happy birfday Gampa!" into the phone. :) She was all stoked about it, too.

I went back to the Chapters/Indigo website today to look up the Yarn Harlot's new book, and lo and behold, the shipping information has been upgraded to '1-2 weeks'. Extremely heartening! So I phoned up my local Indigo (more stalking of the book) to see if they knew when copies would be arriving. The lady said that they had six on order. (I don't know what's with Indigo's buyers - I think they're insane to order paltry quantities like six or seven per store.) Unfortunately, she didn't know when they would be in. She recommended that I keep calling every day and, when they do come in, to place a hold.

Can you believe that? She actually instructed me to keep stalking the book. Now that is my kind of customer service person.

Moreover, the Yarn Harlot's latest touring schedule is up, and she will be making an appearance at the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival at 1pm on October 13th. Since this is within walking distance from my office, I am so there. I will have to show up to work early, leave later than usual, and probably shun all breaks in order to make up for the length of time I will be out of the office attending the fair. But it will be worth it. I will probably enjoy the festival itself as much as the harlot speech.

I'm doubtful, however, that I will be able to make it to the October 19 evening meeting of the Downtown Knit Collective, where Harlot will be speaking. That is right smack in the middle of my 'knitting vacation' week. Getting downtown would therefore involve a lot of travel, since I will not be downtown for work, but rather in the boonie suburbs, where I live. I suspect I shall have to content myself with going to just one spot on the Harlot Bookbookbook2 Tour, and be thankful for it - after all, there are tons of folks across the continent who are nowhere near any of her tourstops.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

Lots got done on this last night while watching the incredibly bloated 2-hour finale of Canadian Idol, and today. I have now decreased the sleeve to the point where there are two fewer cable patterns to work in each row. This is a nice time-saver. Not too many more decreases to go.

Striped socks for moi

It eases my mind greatly to know that, when the subway is ridiculously crowded to the point where I cannot even put my purse down on the floor and have zero elbow room to manoeuvre a large project around, I can whip out some sock knitting.

Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma

I am getting the sick, sad feeling that this is going to be my grandfather's slipover all over again, in that I will not get the shawl done in time for the intended recipient to enjoy it. My grandmother does not seem to be doing very well following my grandfather's death. Okay, admittedly, after almost 67 years together, how could you not do poorly following your partner's death? But I'm talking 'not doing very well' as in 'seems to be getting ready to cross to the other side' as opposed to 'really really sad'. So I don't know how much time I have to make this for her. Moreover, I suspect - from a comment which made its way to me 'through the grapevine' (numerous members of my mom's family don't communicate directly, it's very frustrating) - that my grandmother is secretly hankering to have something knitted by me.

I want to make this for her before it is too late. I just don't know how to do that...without axing one or more deadline-driven projects for other people (all of which are important to me). Sigh. When did knitting get so complicated?

(Probably when all my friends started having babies willy-nilly...or when I realised that sweaters made great Christmas gifts.)

I am desperately hoping that my 'knitting vacation' week in October is so damn productive that I am able to carve out enough time to get an excellent head-start on this shawl. I may also 'turbo boost' the knitting by doubling the yarn to get bigger gauge. This would reduce the number of stitches needed to complete the project, thereby reducing the amount of time it would take to knit it. My only concern is that the bigger 'grid' would make the fair isle pattern look dumbass. But we shall see. I'll definitely be doing a swatch.

In anticipation of all this, I'm going to buy the grey alpaca for the project as soon as possible instead of sometime next year.

If only the sellers on eBay would cooperate! The yarn I want in the colour I want is, for the first time that I've seen, not up for auction (okay, there is one auction, but the grey looks a bit too beige for my purposes). I could get a half-and-half alpaca/wool blend, but I want the pure stuff for my grandma. I'll wait for the real thing. My fingers are crossed. Really, really tightly.

Things that piss me off

First of all, I have been checking the Chapters/Indigo website daily to see whether the Yarn Harlot's new book is in stock yet. I was kind of concerned because a few days ago, the shipping information went from '6-8 weeks' to 'temporarily unavailable to order'. (A bad omen.) Today I called up their World's Biggest Bookstore outlet to see when they expected copies (yes, I recently called their Eaton's Centre store to find out the same information...so I am stalking the book...so sue me). I was told that the release was delayed. They have no idea when they're getting copies. I am so mad. Especially when it's already out in the States! AUGH!

Fair isle romper for baby Marte

DH fortunately was able to return the un-needed four balls of white yarn. The piss-off was that the store had no yellow.

Anyway, I picked this up last night, hoping to get in a few rows before bedtime. As I worked, I was looking at the emerging left front and thinking about how it would all come together. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks - I had made a SERIOUS error in the shaping of the back. The stupidity of this error is so bad that I cannot bring myself to confess it in a public forum. Suffice it to say that it is far more serious than merely having to add another 1.75" inches to the back. Oh no, no, no...I am going to have to frog almost the entire back, right down to the leg join. All that beautiful fair isle...gone.

Faced with the sick certainty of this new knowledge, I lost the heart to continue. I put the knitting down and went to bed.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

This project is so far (knock wood) not conforming to the theme of the day. It is completely failing to piss me off. It looks terrific. Here is the completed neck ribbing, which I haven't posted a picture of before:

And here is what the sleeve looked like this morning before I left for work:

It's bigger now.

So help me, I actually sat down and did the math. I figured each sleeve will have about 23,500 stitches in it, and I've done about 11,800 so far. This puts me halfway towards sleeve completion, even though it doesn't look it. (If that statement confuses you, know that the sleeves are tapered. Therefore, the first nine-or-so inches of the sleeve take much longer to do than the second nine-or-so inches.) This means that I am now at the point where I should have been on Sunday night...which means I'm catching up to The Schedule. I may not be able to finish the whole sleeve by Sunday, but it will be pretty close.

(Don't think I don't know that the universe will take revenge upon my presumption for having said that.)

Fantasy vs. reality

A.k.a., "How badly I'm sucking at keeping to my knitting schedule." Let's take a look, shall we?

Fair isle romper for baby Marte

Fantasy: The Schedule says that by last night, I was to have finished the back of the romper and one of the fronts.

Reality: The first front is less than half done - I've only just finished the leg. However, at least I had the back finished...or so I thought. As I was working through the math for the first front, I realised that, thanks to a moment of true boneheadedness, I had stopped the back 1.75" short of where it was supposed to be. Well done.

There's nothing like a crappy moment of knitting error horror to ruin a good mood. I'd even been thinking that I'd be able to do the whole romper with just two balls of the main colour (yellow), since I'd "finished the back" and the leg of the first front and still hadn't run out of the first ball. But no.

DH's task list for today involves a lot of shopping, so he planned to return the four balls of white that I bought when I thought I would be making a white romper, and at the same time, buy me a third ball of the yellow (very nice man). However, I received a call from him at the store to tell me that since I originally bought the yarn with my credit card, and since he did not have my credit card, the store would not be able to credit my credit card with the return, and therefore the return could not be achieved. Crap. I gave him my credit card number. I didn't hear back. Hopefully this means the yarn was returned successfully, but I assume nothing.

Fantasy for this week: The Schedule says that I must finish both fronts by Sunday night. Hahahaha.

The only bright point in all of this is that (I'm sorry, I just can't be humble here) the design looks so freaking good knitted up, I can hardly stand it.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

Fantasy: The Schedule says that by last night, I was to have finished the shoulder straps, neck ribbing, and half of the first sleeve.

Reality: I did at least have the shoulder straps and neck ribbing done by the deadline. In fact, I finished them on the commute home on Friday just as we were turning into our street. However, it took me almost all weekend to pick up the stitches for sleeve #1 and by Sunday night only a few rows had been done.

Fantasy for this week: The Schedule says that I must finish the first sleeve by Sunday night. I'm not sure about that one. The sleeve certainly is coming along quite nicely - I think I've done over an inch so far today. So this might be possible.

Striped socks for moi

Fantasy: The Schedule says that I shouldn't even have cast this project on until 2007, maybe 2008.

Reality: The leg of sock #1 now measures over two inches. Like hell my feet will wait two to three years for superhappycomfortsocks.

Fantasy for this week: The Schedule says that I must continue to ignore this project. Snort. What else would I work on while waiting in lineups?

NEW! Cardigan for baby Howard-Schweitzer

Fantasy: The Schedule does not allow for new projects for impending babies until mid-late March 2006. The mother will just have to delay the birth.

Reality: Screw The Schedule. I will rearrange stuff in 2006 so that I can have this project done in time for a pre-baby shower.

Whence came this new project, you may ask? Well, this morning a friend of mine called me and told me that some friends of ours are expecting their first baby in March. This is wonderful news and I'm tremendously happy for them. I will be designing a cardigan for the wee one and the design will be for my still-hypothetical-but-it-has-several-designs-written-for-it-so-far book.

Night on the town

Tonight I'll be heading over to Lettuce Knit for an SnB! As usual, I'm excited. I have my Stornaway project and my striped socks project, extra food to fend off starvation, and am raring to go.

I was holding out a tiny thread of hope that I would be able to lay my hands on a copy of the Yarn Harlot's latest book for tonight, but even though Barnes and Noble has copies in their warehouse (or at least, I assume they do since the website now promises to ship the book within 24 hours of order placement), they are not in stock at the Indigo near my work. I called to ask. Seven copies have been ordered but it's unknown when they'll arrive. (Can you believe only seven copies, at a major downtown bookstore? They'll be snapped up before I can even get my ass - er, arse - down there.)

But all hope has not yet faded. There is a tiny, wee, ridiculously microscopic chance that Lettuce has copies in stock.

Yes, I live in a dreamworld. Harlot only just got her author's copy a few days ago. The last time she launched a book, there was a twenty day lag between Harlot receiving her author's copy and my own copy reaching my hot little hands. But somehow, this time the interval will only be six days? Yeah.

I shall have to console myself with my first ever ride on a Viva bus, tonight on the way home. Let's hear it for not having to rely on a bus that comes only once an hour. Heck, let's hear it for a bus with tables! How cool is that.

Fair isle romper for baby Marte

I got far enough up the back of the romper that I was able to start the fair isle motif. It's coming along well. I'm hoping to be able to finish the whole back by the end of Friday.

Stornaway sweater for BIL

Shoulder strap #2 is well underway - over half done. I expect to complete it tonight and get an excellent start on the neck ribbing.

Striped socks for moi

Over an inch has been done on the leg portion of sock #1. It's amazing to me that I don't find sock knitting to be ridiculously boring. But no, I can just keep going around...and around...and around...

Joy infusion

Very exciting things happening this weekend. I'm really starting to get jazzed about knitting again. And the blog is much more colourful today, too.

Fair isle romper for baby Marte

Friday evening DH went to get the mail before picking me up, and what happened to be in our mailbox right before the long weekend but the royal blue sock yarn! Hooray! I promptly did a test swatch of the motif design and it looked fantastic, if I do say so myself.

I then sat down and plotted out all the dimensions I needed for the romper, and cast on. It went swimmingly. I did find myself without some of my notes at my parents' place last night - the notes that I needed to calculate some decreasing. However, I thought I was able to do an educated guess and forged ahead. A mistake. My educated guess was based on the premise that the motif swatch I did was 70 stitches across. Sadly, it was actually 74. (Yes, I should have actually counted instead of relying on my brain to come up with the right number.) This error means I'm going to have to do some ripping, but only about 4 rows, so not a huge deal.

So far I've finished about half the back. Since I'm going to try and sell this design, I'm not going to post exactly what it looks like here, but I don't think displaying a few miles of stocking stitch would be giving away the farm:


Work continues. It's going beautifully quickly. (So far.)

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

Thursday night I finished the first shoulder strap:

Unfortunately, I haven't worked on the sweater since, but at least I know I can do a shoulder strap in about a day. Next up: shoulder strap part deux, and then onto the neck ribbing.

Striped socks for moi

I have discovered that socks are an extremely nifty kind of project. I can work on them in just about any situation! Including just walking down the street. I walked around my neighbourhood for about an hour this weekend, mostly to see how long it would take me to get to the local bus terminal to catch a new public transit express bus line (twenty minutes - not bad) and took my sock knitting with me to see if I could walk and knit the sock at the same time. I can. This opens up huge possibilities! Walking is excellent exercise, and if I don't have to give up knitting time in order to exercise, there is a remote chance that I might actually - gasp! - become physically fit! Wow.

Anyway, not only did I make that nifty discovery, but I also finished the foot of the sock and am starting on the leg:

You know what they say about women with big feet...

...They knit big socks.

Striped socks for moi

I'm getting to that point where I need to know how long the foot should be so I can turn the heel at the right spot. So I measured my foot - my right foot, which was an uncharacteristically smart move (I'm righthanded and dominant feet tend to be longer, or so I understand). My foot is slightly over nine and a half inches long. Yes, that's right - I'm under 5'2" and I have a 9.5" foot. No one ever believes this, though, because my feet don't actually look that big. Even my brother - who lived with me for years and years and saw my feet and footwear on a daily basis - once called me up and asked if a friend of his could borrow a pair of my shoes because she had a job interview and nothing appropriate to wear on her feet.

"What size does she take?" I asked.
"Oh, about a five and a half," he said.
"Dude, I wear a size eight, eight and a half," I replied.
"No WAY!" was his response. "Man...you've got big feet!"

What can I say - it runs in my family. My mom, who at this point is probably the same height as I am, wears a size nine. My poor grandmother (my mom's mom), in her youth, had to endure what was basically footbinding, because her mother (a piece of work if ever there was one, if half the stories I've heard are true) thought big feet were 'ugly' and refused to buy her correctly-sized shoes. (Resulting in some very nasty foot surgery for my grandmother in later life.)

Fortunately, I've never minded my big feet one bit...until I realised it meant more work to make myself socks. :) It'd be great if I could just turn the heel right now. However, I still have about an inch and a quarter to go. Shouldn't take long.

Simultaneous striping and pooling continues.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (blue)

The back is done! The back is done!

I'm very pleased. Last night I began the left shoulder strap, and it's coming along nicely. I'm looking forward to working on it tonight, assuming no yarn comes in today's mail to distract me.

Romper for baby Marte

If the royal blue yarn comes in today's mail, I am so not getting anything else done tonight.

Lacy shawl for baby Muth

Got another row done on the commute this morning. What with all the increasing, it's getting harder and harder to finish one row in a decent amount of time. But I'm over a quarter done the shawl (pre-edging), so it's not like I'm not making progress. It just seems like I'm not making progress.