weight

It’s time to do something about this. Truth be told, even though I worked on the Seattle socks, and thought about doing something about the other socks, I’m feeling done. I haven’t finished an actual pair of socks in months. MONTHS, people. I put them all out, these unfinished socks, and they weigh on me. I don’t love them. I just don’t. Most of the work was done while I was sick, and the quality of the work is sort of… lacking.

Meh.

Is it horrible to say, hi socks, I know I actually 100% finished one of a pair on two of you, but really, I’m just not that into you. And don’t want to spend the entire rest of the year slogging on you.

Even if you’re stockinette. Or 2×2 ribbing.

What was I thinking, btw, making a wool ankle sock out of FELTABLE YARN?

Gah.

Achoo and other words

Bellamoden Technical Services reporting in for the ill Fraro. She has a sinus infection (thankfully nothing like the ones when she was still part cyborg), but is starting to feel a bit better. She’s asking me to pass along that she misses everyone terribly, and will be posting soon!

Picasso is loafing mightily too. Matisse would also be photographed here, but he’s off sulking from recent reports.

six of one half a dozen of another

The idea isn’t unique, but nevertheless, I’ve written it down - basically you cast on 44 stitches on whatever gauge suits you best (I did 8mm, here) for a giant drapey tube of a scarf, with a whole assortment of double stranded yarns, one strand a basic wool, the other strand a mohair or alpaca halo concoction.

For specific details, this will help. Knit in the round until you’re tired of it, or until you have a huge scarf. Leave the ends open, or seam them shut. I seamed them shut, because of the nasty way the grey Rare Comfort Mohair basically haired up the reverse stockinette side. Wear. Et voila!

Blocking? Probably would help, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Wearing it NOW because it’s COLD and it goes with yesterday’s hat and my new pink coat. So. I feel so coordinated now! My giant woven wrap goes with the green that’s in the hat and scarf, so. Oooh.

Is it possible to have too many scarves? Apparently? I don’t think so.

detour

A little bit ago, I saw the 70s ski hat on the purl bee. Now, I’m not much of a refugee of the 70s, so I’d never seen this kind of hat before. So no nostalgia there for me… but you know, I loved it! Lined! Simple! Oh! Easy fun different top!

And this weekend, instead of knitting the other 38 things I probably should have been finishing up, I whipped up this hat.

I love that lining. RYC cashsoft 4 ply, double stranded for cushy soft warmth. It’s a great hat.

Would I make another one? There’s already one on the needles… hatmania 2008, here we come!

24640

Halfway done with the step ribbed stole! I still love it… and it’s working out great colorwise isn’t it? Unblocked, it’s 30 inches long and about a foot wide. I still have tons left… I don’t think I even hit 50% usage on the yarn yet… we’ll see. I might make it longer, but I plan to single crochet around the whole thing and then reverse single crochet to finish it off nicely, so…. will have to weigh the yarn and calculate accordingly.

It’s hard to believe this thing will have the same number of stitches as a sweater! And that it has more stitches already than the wavy scarf. Why did I even calculate this? I don’t know. Because wavy was my first real scarf… and I knew I could do 1848 stitches in one day, back when I knitted it. Years ago(!). And that wavy had 10 repeats. This wrap, on the other hand, requires 1584 to do two inches. And on days when I really can sit for more than ten minutes at a time, I knit roughly 5-6000 stitches.

And I’m a total geek for stitches, I guess. Marvel marvel! Hopefully soon, very soon now, it’ll be done and worn with my wool coat. Just in time for two feet of snow, I’m sure.

resurrection

I cast on for both feet of this pair of socks in November. November 2006, that is. gulp

I’ve given up on the short-row heel, at least the wrap and turn method. HATE. So I did the next best thing, given I’d had two feet worth of socks. Why rip them out? I didn’t want to make a sole heel flap. Didn’t want to mess with learning a new heel method. Meh meh meh. Just want to knit knit knit and finally finish this pair of socks.

What to do?

Enter the afterthought heel. I can hack that! And it is plain knitting. YEAH.

I’ll add a black 3×3 rib cuff to these, and do the heel in the black, as well.

Only thing… can I fasten off the heel, like you would do with a hat? Or do I need to um. Figure out how to kitchener left handed? Which you know, has gone SO well in the past.

Oh well. Bus knitting! Stockinette! And someday someday, a pair of Seattle socks….

appetite

I know, it’s just a crappy picture of a mess of pasta in a paper bowl with a plastic fork. It’s monumental though, I promise you. Truly…. this is the first meal in 20 months I actually cooked. That, sadly, is not an exaggeration.

Of the many things being sick has taught me, among them “wow, it really sucks to have an equilibrium, how do hearing people stand THAT” and “how many of the doctors in the er can one see?”, is that it is possible to be hungry but uninterested in food. (That I’m a bit more pudgy than I’d like at the moment isn’t a reflection of a desire to eat - it’s grammafood combined with a not enough exercise. See exercise coming soon to a Rebecca near you!)

Hopefully it’s a good sign for the coming year!

excitement

It’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned the blog minion - but that’s okay. The most important thing is that he’s visiting me next month! For three weeks!

And he has an incredible sense of humor. You can tell. He told me one day that he had a hunk of meat, I asked him to prove it, and here we are.

It’s probably not a picture fit for framing (he says the hamburger in a tube was COLD) but hey, it makes me laugh. A lot.

Maybe you too?

He’s brave for letting me post it on the internets.

first steps

Have you seen The Knitter’s Book of Yarn? If you haven’t, run, don’t walk and grab one! I love this book very much, despite the fact the cover is orange. It’s so instructive insofar as all the different types and spins and preparations of yarns, so it’s great for that. But there’s also 40 patterns in it! All that for $20? Jeebus. Best deal of the year!

Enter the Step Ribbed Stole. It’s hyooge, aiming for 16″ wide and 60″ long, and I’m knitting it with both Brooks Farm Harmony and Brooks Farm Duet. I’m alternating two rows of each, because while they do look exactly the same (can you tell in the picture? I can’t. I can’t tell in person either) and are spun the same way, Duet is 55% mohair, 45% wool, while Harmony is 55% mohair, 22.5% silk, and 22.5% wool. Go figure. So I thought it’d work out better this way.

I’m now over 2 feet into this thing… and while it hurts my brain to realize it’s gonna have 48k stitches, I love it! It’ll go well with my lavender wool coat, and the fabric is wonderful. Thank you, Karen, for foisting them on me! I definitely think I need more of this….

begin

Man, it’s shaping up to be a great year already! I am not going to bother with a recap, except that I knit tons of scarves, hats, and socks, and two sweaters and a blanky, and that’s not too shabby for being pretty sick most of the year.

Onward and upward!

This is the almost garter scarf that I wore as a neckwarmer under my alpaca neckwarmer which was under Tiphanie’s scarf which was under my huge cashmere/wool/silk woven wrap.

That sounds like a bit much, right? Well, it was -2 this morning. Without wind chill. Thank goodness I had my new coat in my second favorite color, rated to -20. I was a happy girl.

As happy as you can be at 7 am and -2, anyway.

Goals? Knit. Dye. Sleep sometimes. A few more sweaters, finish some lingering socks, a couple of blankets…. it’s all good.