Weekend

Finally all the Thanksgiving guests are gone, for which I am thankful. I haven't been on the computer for days, due to its constant use by people who have important research papers due, or some crap like that. Silly students, use your laptops! Anyway, I finished a shawl just in time for this weekend. Not one of the knit ones. I did not compete (I don't have full regalia yet) but danced in many of the open social dances. Monkey sometimes accompanied me.
It was WONDERFUL.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've had a lovely day today filled with cooking with my sisters and mom, hanging out with family and fancy dancing all over the back yard.
I am especially thankful this year, for many things including:
-Trileptal
-Being employed for the first time in 3 years, minus crappy summer jobs Marc did during law school. Go Air Force!
-Still having the Monkey. I've wondered several times the last 7 months.
-Knitting, of course.

What about you?

My boy is so sweet

In non-knitting news...
Today is Marc and my 9th wedding anniversary. (Wow, I'm older than you thought.) I could not ask for a better companion. We have been together since we were kids and our history is epic. I look forward to the next nine years and forever after that with much happiness.

I especially look forward to December 16th, which is my tentative move date to haul myself and the Monkey out to Florida to meet him there when he leaves Maxwell AFB. I miss him so much.

Shedir

This knitting for myself thing is kinda fun. Finished the hat on Saturday night, but have been crazy busy with family stuff and hardly get a minute to myself on the computer due to said family. Luckily I've had my spiffy new hat to keep me warm in this autumn weather. I love it! So comfy, exactly the right size and much quicker than I would have expected too. This is more than a little due to my adjustments to the pattern, explained below.

Pattern: Knitty's Shedir, from the Breast Cancer Awareness Issue
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes worsted in Sapphire Heather, one full skein plus probably 5 yards. An even more beautiful color in person.
Needles: size 3 oak dpns that I made myself (oooh, so crafty!)
I was knitting by the seat of my pants on this one. I started out by casting on only 112 stitches, enough for only 7 repeats of the cable pattern instead of 8. My half-assed, non-gauging logic for this was as follows: I always have to go down a needle size to get gauge. Always. I would not call myself a loose knitter, I never drop needles and my stitches are even and consistent, but to get gauge on the needles called for in most patterns I would have to cause the needles PAIN. I figured that if it was too small for me, I would give it to the Monkey. Too big for me, it would be the start of a sweater for the Monkey. Fortunately, like Baby Bear's porridge, it was just right. I only knit 6 rows instead of 9 of the plain ribbing, and then only two repeats of the cable pattern instead of 5. After that I did some measuring and calculating, and determined that 25 rows would be a better finished length for me instead of the remaining charted 31 rows. No problems. I removed lines 73, 76, 79, which are repeated rows anyway. Since I had only seven points in my star instead of the proscribed 8, I needed to decrease a little faster to avoid the conehead look. After line 81 I drew the tail of the yarn through and pulled the seven stitches closed, eliminating another couple rows and ending with the perfect length.
I'm short enough that I've received several compliments on the nifty star on the top already. I had no idea the top of my head was that visible.

Knitting in the Ghetto

My cable needle is pretty awesome. I started Shedir on Tuesday and it is just zipping along, especially since I adjusted the pattern so it would work with the needles I have. And if the monkey will just relax and have his quiet time (just because he doesn't need naps anymore doesn't mean I don't need the break) I should have a FO up by tonight.

Holy cow

Look, I am in no way a fiber snob. I knit with acrylic, I buy supplies at Walmart, etc. But when I call a local yarn store and no one, including the OWNER, has ever heard the blessed name of Saint Elizabeth Zimmermann, I am going to be a little shocked.

After

My mom, isn't she cute!
The hat, after felting. I've fulled a number of things, but this has probably been the most dramatic shrinkage so far. Possibly due to my not paying attention to previous projects. The yarn is pretty intolerable pre-felting, due to an unbelievable volume of fuzz constantly shedding. But the little wooly hooks grabbed onto each other very nicely in the hot water and no longer leap from the project to my eyeballs.
Pattern: Felted Cloche Hat
Yarn: Patons Soy Wool Stripes, around 1 1/4 skeins (110 yards per)
Gauge: around 11 stitches/4 inches on size 11us needles. To be honest, I didn't gauge very closely since fulling adds a lot of flexibility.

Pattern Modifications: Boy howdy. To start with, the pattern called for a strand of really...textural eyelash yarn to be knit in at hatband level. Easy enough to ignore. I also spread out the decreases in rounds 7-13 so they wouldn't exactly line up. Not rocket science. I also knit the whole thing flat, mostly because I have a beautiful pair of size 11 needles that I made and really love knitting with on the rare occasion I need something that huge.

Before

A teaser picture today, the pre-fulled hat for my mom. Started on Thursday, finished already! Which is what you get when you knit with bulky yarn on size 11 needles. Tune in tomorrow (or whenever the hat dries) for after photos, which will be a much more accurate representation of what my Mom actually looks like.

Multi-tasking

Aw crap.

My right eye has been bugging me for two days now, a mysterious cloudiness occasionally bothering me. Mostly while sitting at the computer. I attributed it at various times to tiredness, stress, a psychotic episode, or my lasic surgery.
I just figured out what it is.
Based on what I'm knitting right now, it is a single fiber of wool, silk, or soy. Probably wool, it is a little crimped. Occasionally, I can see it if I look in the mirror at just the right time.
Ah, the way we suffer for our craft.

Hat weather

Voila! Two hats knit for a good cause, modeled by Mr Incredible and PenPen. Ribbed tuques, knit from no particular pattern from some cute and soft acrylic because not everyone has the ability to carefully launder hand knits.
Today I rewarded myself for finishing another few rows on Adamas while the monkey took a nap with a handful of leftover Halloween candy. Really, the hour to myself while he was asleep should have been plenty a reward, but I wasn't about to deny myself the chocolate after my past several days.
Also picked up a couple skeins of Patons Soy Wool today, to full a hat for my Mom's rapidly approaching birthday. Finishing this by the 13th is a lot more realistic than my Mothers Day sock marathon knit though.

Babies!

Not mine of course. This morning I purchased some soft red and green yarn, to knit a strawberry baby hat for my expecting cousin-due at the end of the month. But I heard as soon as I got home that the baby was stressing, and they were inducing her. No way I'd take the chance of prolonging her labor, so the yarn sits expectantly by the phone, waiting for good news. It seems I'll have to work on some project already in progress, instead of adding another new one. The Adamas shawl is coming along swimmingly, and is getting quite large and therefore slow. I really seem to loose steam as obvious progress slows, and such is the nature of a triangular shawl. Must be vigilant!

Fixer-upper

Found the perfect place for me (stashed in my parents' attic for who knows how many years).
Constructed (poorly) by me when I was twelve, a birthday gift from my grandma.


It needs a roofer.

And a glassier.

The kitchen needs to be gutted.
A great fixer-upper for while I am still homeless (it turns out you can't knit constantly, your wrists just won't take it.)