Ascending and Descending

Whoa! it’s been a week. Not for knitting — no, not so much for that. All I have been able to work on knitwise was blanket squares, and not so many of those. But as I walk through my evolving work-and-study schedule at school, I’m finding pockets of time that I might be able to use for work that requires more concentration, like the DNA Scarf.

I’m definitely in the right spot at work. I sat down this morning to start a blanket square, and by the time two other people had entered the break room, we were having a lively conversation about knitting, crochet, and the lost art of lace tatting. Not one person has wandered in, watched me work for a split second, and commented cheerfully, “Knit one, purl two, huh?!?” Which is refreshing.

As far as school goes, I got through my first astronomy lab (fun) and my first astronomy quiz (got almost everything right), and emerged from the dizzying Chapter One of the precalculus book and its extremely dry review of linear algebra and entered the peaceful and friendly Chapter Two dealing with functions.

[f(a + h) – f(a)]/h, anyone? Come on, it’s fun! And eventually it’s going to have some cool purpose, I just know it is.

Ascending and Descending, M.C. Escher (1960)

I haven’t exercised this week unless you count repeatedly climbing (and descending, let’s not forget descending) several flights of stairs and crossing acres of campus to deliver Extremely Time Critical campus-mail envelopes. I volunteer for that job every chance I get. The air is crisp, the sidewalks aren’t too slippery, and the way I walk, it’s aerobic. And I’ve been drinking very little soda (until the headaches creep back into my temples, then I have just a teensy bit), mostly having flavored green tea water. It tastes better than I’m making it sound. Zero calories, lots of hydration.

So I was pleased to weigh myself on the Wii this morning and see that I had finally met my incremental goal. It took me about three weeks to lose two pounds, but I did it. The next goal is to lose two pounds by two weeks from now, and by healthier means than by catching a bit of the stomach-bug that’s apparently making the rounds of the house. Jack had an awful day of it on Thursday and stayed home from school on Friday too for good measure; Colleen stayed home from school on Friday as a sort of preventative attempt; Tommy has it now and let’s just say we’ll be washing a lot of bedding today. Poor critters.

Resolution Update

1. I am publishing this post on Saturday as I promised. Check.
2. Knitted about three blanket squares. I need a recount on that particular project.
3. I rehomed a hand-knitted sweater this week. Unfortunately, it was Tyrone, which I absent-mindedly put in the regular wash, thinking the wool was Superwash. Oops. Yep, it felted and would no longer fit my heartbroken five-year-old. (Who promptly insisted I had to knit him a new sweater, RIGHT NOW.) I passed the sweater along to the owners of the local coffee shop where my knitting group meets; their little boy just turned one year old. Anyway, in all other areas, clutter abounds. There is work to do here.
4. Doing well on my Precalculus homework and Astronomy work. The first Precalc exam will be February 10; the first Astronomy exam should be February 14.
5. I met my incremental weight-loss goal of two pounds and have set my sights on the next two pounds.

Xtra pictures of the SOMA cube

Well, you did guess that starting a post title with X was going to be tricky, didn’t you? I can’t believe I got this far and nobody commented on it. Almost all the ways through my ABCs, and it’s only mid-July. That degree in English Literature is sure coming in handy!

I got the game pieces assembled, but I need to do a lot of sanding before I can call them done. Right now they’re more like portable splinter dispensers.

The seven SOMA pieces

Now, let’s make a cube.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

You can also place the last piece differently and make this pretty configuration.

The Crystal

And here are all four cubes, assembled. Sanding is next.

Four cubes

Whew! I don’t know when I’ll get to do the sanding. We have seen a couple of yucky bugs and it’s time to give serious attention to de-cluttering the house so we can have it sprayed.

Knitwise I haven’t done anything with the lace scarf in a few days. I guess I got tired of being so good at un-knitting it. But I have added two stripes to the current Doctor Who Scarf, and Fringed the second Pinstripe TenScarf on the 11th.

Next to get attention: Casting on for the second Noro sock, or attacking Tyrone. Maybe with scissors.

Pretending to write

Don’t tell anyone, but there’s nothing to see here today. That’s right, move along, just move along folks.

Well.

There are actually a couple of reasons to make a blog post. The first Good Reason is that I’ve finished three items since the last blog post. You would think that finishing three items would yield more than two liberated needles, but that’s technically correct (the sock was on scrap yarn while I waited for more project yarn to come in).

I finished the Clayton Prayer Shawl and got all the fringe on. If I did my math correctly, there are 60 yards of yarn for just fringe. I took it to Late Night Knitting and had my friend Dale-Harriet model it in a test fit, since she’s about Elfriede’s size. She said it fit perfectly and she was keeping it, and I’ll admit I had the tiniest clench in my chest as I tried to think of what yarn I had enough of in order to make another one of these. But she did give it back.

Then I sat down at Late Night and cranked out the rest of a Windmill Dishcloth. The ladies in the B. G. R. wouldn’t let me present it as finished to the rest of the store until I had seamed it up and woven in my ends. I got it up to the front of the store at 10:01pm, too late to ring the “FO” bell. Rats. But I started it Tuesday, finished it Friday. No complaints and I will make many more.

Then I sat back down and pulled out the Spiral Rib Anniversary socks. These were the socks I started months ago in February in Universal Deluxe Chunky Tweed, a yarn so staggeringly popular that I had to list it as a different yarn in my Rav projects because it wasn’t in the database then. (It is now, and I got to contribute a nice picture of it! Woo hoo! I have now had sixteen minutes of fame) I took a look at the pattern, realized I had not noted any of my pattern changes on the actual pattern, shrugged, put it back on the needles, and carried on for two pattern repeats. Then it was almost 11pm, so I packed up, drove an hour to get home, pulled it out again, and did two more repeats and the toe, seamed them up, and wore them to bed. I finished at a little after 1:30am. (Oh crap. As I write this, that’s still TODAY.)

I spent most of today overhauling the tiny little space in front of the master bedroom closets. It was starting to look like a Grade A Packrat had taken up residence there. You know, the old lady with the stacks of magazines and the boxes she’s planning to reuse and all the detritus of the Hoarding Life? It’s the kind of reorganizing project you can never impress anyone with, because you never have the guts to take a “before” picture. You would just be so ashamed.

It looks much better now, and could actually be used for Knitting Things. And you can open the curtain and the window and close them again and stuff. I still have various items scattered all over the bed which I will have to get cleared off before midnight, but that’s OK. Small stuff.

The second reason for writing a blog post tonight is to have written one. I want to post more frequently, but the only way to do that is to sit down and do it. Sometimes you don’t think you have anything worth recording, but you have to sit down anyway, start typing, and see what happens. Sometimes the words come alive under your fingertips and all you have to do is try to keep up. Sometimes it’s just crap and stays crap. But if you’re not at the keyboard, you don’t know which one it will be. The words won’t have a chance at all, and they’ll likely creak with rust the next time you try to let them out.

Anyway. Three projects finished, photographed, and added to the FO page for the year. Two circs liberated. One package of dpn’s briefly brought out, then returned to storage. Mark your score cards accurately because I won’t be repeating myself.

Current projects: Season 12 Doctor Who scarf (just started), Season 16 Doctor Who scarf (half done), double-knitted scarf. I probably won’t even pick up Retro Rib until July (WIP month). But I’m on the verge of casting on for a lace scarf/stole, and another Sideways Ten Pinstripe scarf for some lucky Whovian friend. Good God, what is it with the scarves? My Rav Projects page is full of them, and it doesn’t have all of them, and it’s not like I jump for joy and do backflips when I’m making scarves. (I’m more or less thinking OH JOY. ANOTHER FREAKING SCARF.) But I sure have made a ton of them.

I might have to break up the scarficity with some charity squares — Shawn of the Comments (Shawn4Equality on Rav) is helping coordinate some 12 inch squares for an Admirable Effort. He should really give the details himself; maybe I can persuade him to write a guest post. I haven’t had one of those in a while.

While I was sitting here pretending to write, I wrote over 900 words. Now I’m off to Rav to talk Shawn into writing some. Be back soon!

P.S. Keep voting on the WIP poll, or encourage a friend to help you stuff the ballot box. I think you only get one vote each but who cares. I’ll look at it at the end of June to see what’s in the lead, and that’s the project I will dedicate myself to after Tyrone has been finished.

P.P.S. Hey, that’s almost 1000 words! I wonder how many I’ll need to type before I get to that magical glorious round number that will look so impressive on my stats page. Does WordPress count how many words I’ve typed? Ye gods!

One more FO

I did it, I finished something!

This was a summer scarf I made from yarn I scored from the thrift store. Once I opened up the ball bands, I saw evidence that the yarn dates to 1988. And now it’s not two skeins of old lost yarn any more, it’s a something, an object I can wear on chilly summer nights.

The pattern, Le Nuit, is available free on Ravelry and almost nobody is making things from it. But it’s a quick and easy lace, and I’ll be making more scarves from it. Watch out Christmas list.

Knitwise, I’m almost done with the prayer shawl and hope to be between 99 and 100 percent done with it tonight. That means that I will either be partially finished with the fringe or completely finished with the fringe. All that’s left right now is the bindoff, weaving in three ends, and adding said fringe.

There’s a Ravelry event coming up in July — WIPs Wrestling, timed to coincide with Wrestlemania or something. Frankly, I care not what it is paired with, as it’s a great motivator for finally finishing some of my long-shelved projects that are on the verge of haunting my dreams.

This means you, Tyrone.

Tyrone and at least one other project. I won’t cast anything else on during July unless I completely liberate all the needles. But, completely by accident, I noticed a “poll” option here at WordPress. So I’m going to let all six of my loyal readers vote on which of my long-avoided projects should also be finished.

Just as soon as I figure out how to add a poll. Hang tight folks.

A-ha!

Giving up

Okay, okay, I think I get the message. You want me to finish Tyrone.

Right?

That’s fine with me. I even have a Ravfriend in Alaska that promised over a year ago to help me through the decreases. (I’ll be in touch, Birgie.)

Here’s what is currently on the needles and has to come off first.

Number One. Retro Rib Sock #2. I’ve done the cuff and the first pattern repeat on the leg. Just 16 more repeats to churn through before the heel flap. And all that that entails. Since it was my January Sock Club selection and it’s almost March, I’m starting to feel a bit of pressure. We don’t want my gauge to change, do we?

Number Two. Spiral Rib Sock #2. Snuck this one in on you, didn’t I? I started this one last Friday at Knit Night, severely modifying poor Garry Aney’s perfectly fine spiral rib pattern in bulky yarn. If I hadn’t bought self-shredding bamboo dpns to make it with, I would have finished the first sock even sooner than Sunday morning. It’s too bad they won’t fit my husband as I had intended (it was going to be an anniversary present — who knew there was a wool anniversary?!) but they will fit me. And my feet are cold.

Number Three. Norm’s Scarf. This was supposed to be a Christmas present. And it’s really sailing along right now. It’s super easy (every time I say that I have to go back two rows, but so far you can’t tell) and I’m sure it’s more than half done. Norm’s a great guy and deserves this scarf while it’s still cold outside. (If it doesn’t get done until spring, I’ll make his wife a matching scarf in baby blue. You heard it here first.)

Number Four. This is the super important one, more important than either of the socks. It’s a blanket for Logan, Connor’s little brother. The deadline is Easter, and I started it last night. Cast on 171 stitches and knit three rows of the Ann Norling “Baby Blocks Baby Blanket” pattern. It shouldn’t look very babyish in dark blue and bright red!

Number Five. Doctor Who Scarf, Season 16. But it’s just listed here for the sake of the order. If it had to come off the needles before I worked on anything else, it just wouldn’t be fair.

I thought about becoming a monogamous knitter on Logan’s blanket for Lent… but next I thought my brain would explode. We don’t want that because then we would never get the socks done, would we?

So.

Lent, for me, is going to be an attempt at 40 healthy days. Healthier eating, more exercise, better attitude, the whole thing. Take time for myself, be nice to others, the whole bit.

I should really kick it off by mailing out my swap packages tomorrow. Brandy in Texas, the lace kit came in and I’ll send you some goodies, too. Cate in Florida, I didn’t forget your spindle. Claire, I just need to find the right size box for the newspapers. And my secret Rav swap downstream partner — I’ll prep the package today. Jules, I owe you a bunch of goodies but don’t have enough yet. You’re an angel!

Fiberrific

I wasn’t planning to write a post tonight, but I’m overdue, and besides, everyone is asleep. I might as well strike while the kids are sleeping. Who knows when one of them will have a nightmare and come running down the stairs? (I never know; without my glasses I can’t read the bedside clock. My daughter swears I lift the covers for her without even waking up.)

After the Marquette scarf got done and the first sock of the pair got done, not much knitting has been taking place. I started plugging away again on the Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf, but I haven’t cast on for the second sock yet. I was going to do that tonight, but then this German wine kind of got in the way of doing a good job of it. (Then I was going to watch two episodes of Torchwood, then one episode of Torchwood, but then it took forever to get caught up on Ravelry, so here I am.)

I did, however, cast on for a new project. That’s not as terrible as it sounds. It’s really something I promised as a Christmas present, so actually it’s about time I cast on for it. It’s a simple scarf, but I considered several stitch patterns before I found something I liked. And once I did, I loved it. I think I may have finally found a scarf that knits itself. I’m using the Baby Cable Ribbing pattern from the first Barbara Walker book. It’s an easily memorized four-row pattern that you could knit in the dark if you had to. I started the scarf two days ago, haven’t put in much time on it really, and it’s fairly galloping along. I don’t think it hurts that the yarn is 100 percent Merino either.

So. I have the Scarf, the Second Sock, and the New Scarf all going right now. (As soon as I get the Second Sock going, that is.) There’s another pair of socks lined up one the Retro Rib pair are done, but I promise that as soon as one of the Scarves is done I will start working on a WIP.

And you can vote on which one it is! Shall it be:

Tyrone, the striped bottom-up sweater stuck at the raglan decreases? Since October 2007?

The Irish Hiking Scarf in cursèd yarn from Mystical Creations? Three skeins (at least) to go!

The Gullwing Lace stole in silk yarn I bought for myself last Mother’s Day?

Or, the Denim Sweater I started in November for NaKnitSweMo and didn’t even finish the crew neck? I might have enough yarn for the whole sweater, but I’m not sure.

Every vote counts. Each commenter can cast as many as ten votes — all for one project, or split them up however you like. Clearly, my own inclinations toward the next project cannot be trusted.

———

In other news, I have registered for a spinning retreat being taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. Naturally, I am preparing for this by spinning up fiber that I am dealing with by the seat of my pants. This works fine for the Wookie fiber, which I would love to spin up and ply so I can clear off all my bobbins, but a few nights ago I decided to card and spin up some huacaya alpaca fiber samples. I got the majority of it spun, but then something happened with the take-up and the twist was just not getting into the fiber to make it strong enough to be singles. After a half dozen tries at dragging it back through the orifice to try to draft more fiber on it, I decided to leave it alone and finish when I was calmer. So now, I just hope to finish the huacaya, and prep and spin the suri samples, and possibly do the rest of the current bag of Wookie-wool before it’s time to hoist Maggie into the van and head to Columbus (Wisc.) for the retreat.

Is anything else going on? Well, Leah went home on Top Chef. About time. I am really getting to enjoy Fabio’s screen time, and Stefan’s skills.

Doctor Who is done airing the 4th season for the American audience, and true to form, they absolutely sliced and diced the season finale so they could promote Ashes To Ashes. Which even the Brits didn’t like. So if you watched the finale last weekend and wondered what all the fuss was about, ask me and I’ll give you links to where you can see what aired in the UK.

But Torchwood is coming back on soon, so I’m trying to catching up by watching Season 2 on Netflix. Trying and not succeeding tonight. Maybe tomorrow….

Knit, knit like the wind!

I’m not sure how this happened. I was perfectly happy with working on (or not working on) my few Christmas knitting projects, then everything just exploded.

I cast on for a Marquette-colored huge lap blanket for my husband. This is supposed to be finished in time for the tip-off of the first game, November 8. So far, this looks doable.

I pulled out project yarn for two three additional Christmas projects. One of which “needs” an orphan ball of white mohair, how does my mind come up with this stuff? Oh yeah, they might need to be done by Thanksgiving.

I swatched for (and thus internally committed to) the NaKniSweMo project for November. (Upside Downers from Patons! In Plymouth Encore!)

I decided to finish two lap quilts for Christmas presents. One is in the quilting stage, and the other has a half-pieced top. They’ve been dormant for a year and a half.

I have two freelance clients hoping I will get work done before Thanksgiving.

Did I mention we’re going to Ohio at Thanksgiving? One knitting meetup, one possible child handoff to the ex and his family, a huge family meal (not at Mom’s house!). But, at least eight hours of driving each way, so prime knitting time.

Le sigh. But I’ve been sneaking various podcasts into my brain, so even though I’m not caught up from when I loaded up the iPod about two months ago, at least there’s progress. I’m scared to sync the thing up with the computer. You have 32 new podcasts. Would you like to download them now?

On the plus side, I’ve been taking a lot more photographs of my current and past projects for my Ravelry records. If you’re Rav-enabled (now there’s a Freudian slip!), there’s a lot more to see there now. Please come and visit! I even rescued a picture of the Packer Hat from the blog and reclaimed it on my hard drive. Flickr is helping me save it now. (Is there a way I can post my WordPress media library contents to my free Flickr account and thus save all my previously blogged photos? Hmmmm?)

Over and out, it’s time to cast on.

Scarf complete

It’s done, folks, my Series 12 Doctor Who Scarf is done. Just need to add some fringe and it’s perfectly complete. Right now it’s very busy keeping my neck warm and trying to stop my sniffles.

Yes, I’ve come down with something, but I’m happy to have a nice long wool scarf to make me feel better.

Let’s see if I can show off a little.

Doctor Who Scarf 10/23/08

My goodness, it appears to be letting me put a picture in.

Well, what else is there to talk about? I have a day trip to the house tomorrow, to help pick a new real estate agent, shoot some pictures for a possible magazine article, and have a mini meetup with a Ravelry knitter. Then we’re off to pick up the kids and get them back home too late to go to their school Halloween party. That wasn’t the original intention, it’s just probably the way it’s going to work out. My daughter asked me this morning why we “never go to Halloween parties.” Sorry sweetie.

Last Sunday we dressed the kids up and took them to their great-grandparents’ house for a practice trick or treat. We ended up with a World War I flying ace, Little Red Riding Hood, a skeleton, and a cowboy. And no cameras. Sorry! I hope they will allow themselves to be the same things again at another time. They looked good.

I’m a little under the weather right now, but have the perfect piece of mindless knitting to work on. It will probably be someone’s Christmas present, but I don’t know whose yet. I was working on it last night at a Girl Scout (okay, Daisy Scout) meeting and a five year old came up, stared at my hands, and said, “Will you make one of them for me?” She was a little scary, but I offered to teach her to knit and she said yes. There’s a “big brother” of one of Tom’s daycare classmates who’s also watching the progress, so now I may have sufficient social pressure to complete the project.

 

Pastel Triangle Shawl

I like working on this, but now that the Scarf is off the needles I can finish the socks and the Christmas knitting.

However, this morning I learned about NaKniSweMo, National Knit a Sweater Month, in November. Do you think I can do it? Do you think I should try? I already have the pattern, the yarn, and the needles.

Ravelympics, Day Twelve

Finally, some progress. Last night the gods smiled, the angels sang, two cans of Coca Cola kept me alert, and I got some knitting done on the second Rose’s Wrist Warmer. I was feeling pretty good about this all day today until I grabbed some heavy pans while preparing dinner and got so much pain in my left hand I thought it was broken. My very first thought was d@mm!t, there goes the wrist warmer. But it seems much better now. I’ll just knit s-l-o-w-l-y and perhaps my hand won’t mind.

Want to hear about the Mystery Knitter I met at Irish Fest? Of course you do! But first, some background.

In May of 2007, in cahoots with my never-met-but-sure-we’re-sisters blogger friend Lauren, I checked out a web site called Clanarans, which promised a sweater or sweater kit that corresponded to your Irish clan. Lauren was able to order sets for her surname, but for some reason “Dooley” wasn’t included. Not Irish enough for them? I don’t know. Anyway, I emailed them about it, supplying the English and Gaelic spellings, and asked if they would have it available someday. They wrote back and said, Not now, but keep checking. So, every few months I’ve been checking. Still no Dooley sweater.

So. Fast forward to Sunday at Irish Fest. I was at the Cultural Village anyway, so I decided to take a look through the tents and see if there was any wool. A few years ago, there was; lately, not. But you never know. I went through every tent, I tell ya. Nothing.

There was one tent left, which looked like it was probably selling T-shirts and jewelry. I decided to go in anyway.

Just inside the door were dozens of knitted wonderful things. Aran sweaters, baby bonnets, “longies,” mittens, you name it. I recognized the sweaters immediately, but a big sign behind their table confirmed it. Clanarans.

“You know,” I said to the woman on the left, “about a year ago I emailed you because you didn’t have a sweater for my name.”

“What’s your name?” she said, jumping up to check the list.

“Dooley.”

“Hmm, we still don’t have it. Tell you what, e-mail me with the Gaelic spelling of it and I’ll see what I can do.” She took out one of their flyers and wrote her contact information on it, then looked up at me. “I’m the sweater designer for Clanarans.”

Folks, she also had just finished four days of teaching a class on sweater design as part of Advanced Knitting during Irish Fest Summer School. She teaches you how to select cable patterns, allow for proper size and fit — the works.

Guess where I want to go next year!

It gets better. I pulled out my completed Rose’s Wrist Warmer for her to see. “You can do this,” she said. I felt that same warm rush I got in college when a professor told me I could write. My goodness, I’d been writing constantly since I was about eight years old and pretended to start a neighborhood newspaper. But the Validation by an Expert still gets to me, in a good way.

So, I’m going to email her, and keep plugging away at this. Four years ago I didn’t own a set of knitting needles. Three years I thought I’d only need one pair if I picked the right size. Now I’m afraid to count them. If you insist upon learning something…you can. You truly can.

Dear Robert Redford,

I just wanted to thank you for the part you played in my wonderful dream last night.

Wait — it’s not the part you think it is! While I’m sure that women dream about you all the time, this dream was different. Trust me.

Last night I dreamed I was attending my high school reunion. For the record, the place in the dream was not my high school, nor were the people in my dream anyone I knew from high school. It was just one of those dream situations. (I haven’t been to any reunion since 1990, either, but as we’ve already established, that seems to be beside the point.)

At any rate, through an elaborate sequence of events I can no longer remember, your mother presented me with box after box of… sweaters.

They were her own hand knitting, these piles of fine-gauge pullovers and cardigans. There were solid colors, intarsia, everything under the rainbow. I was amazed and delighted as I lifted one sweater after another out of the boxes, and honored by her gift. She seemed very happy to give them to me, too. (Had she and I met before, in a previous and unremembered dream?) Oh, and her short golden hair was just gorgeous.

I moved a few of the boxes of sweaters to my car, vowing to come back for the rest of them later. The rest of the dream has now vanished from memory.

Alas, by the light of day my van is sadly empty. But please give my best regards to your lovely mother and my deepest appreciation of her handiwork. Even if they were only the stuff of dreams, it was wonderful to see them and to have been able to run those smooth, even stitches through my hands.

Give her a hug for me, Mr. Redford.

Love, Beth

P.S. I think my mother would like to say hi to you, too — though I suspect that if she dreams about you, it doesn’t involve your mother’s knitting.