I wore this today, under lots of other layers, because today was the day we discussed my paper at the department colloquium. I was hoping that those in attendance would agree, at least a little bit, with the argument I make in the paper. I don’t remember much that was said, but I think it went well. (And when I am ready to return to this project, I now have a big pile o’ notes and comments to paw through.)
Time to decompress with some knitting!
(Sudden Saturday onset, as a result of sunshine and a 100 degree reading on the sick-and-tired-of-all-this-work temperature scale. I’m hoping it was only a 24-hour bug…)
Here’s the first bit of my wurm hat. I decided to cast on the medium (100 st), and I’m using a size 5 circular, instead of 4s for the hem and 6s for the rest of the hat — not for any good reason, but because I was able to locate a size 5 circ. I love the color transitions, and I think this is going to be a fantastic yarn match for this pattern. I’m a little concerned about my turned hem — about a third of it is really smooth and well-lined up, but there are places where it feels a little wonky. I wasn’t super meticulous about this, but I did rip back a little bit to try to improve part of the hem row. I think one of the issues is just that the variation of my handspun makes it hard to have even a perfect 1 to 1 match up result in a folded fabric that lays perfectly flat. I can’t exactly see how it will look on my head without taking it off the needles, so I’m just going to go with it for now and trust that it will look fine — or that I can block it into looking fine.
I also cast on simple things, by Mary-Heather Cogar of ravelry fame, whose gorgeous sunset photos help me deal with my southwestern withdrawal. I’m using Blue Moon Socks that Rock mediumweight in the Gypsum colorway, and I love how this feels in my hands. This yarn was a gift from Laura, and I am excited to be able to wrap these colors around my neck. This is going to become my in-the-bag knitting…if I put it down long enough to place it in my bag.
Yesterday Boh and I took a nice long walk along the creek and reservoir near my house. I think he is still sleepy from all the sunshine and playtime — he didn’t move when I pulled up the covers.
And here’s where he was about fifteen minutes later. I ground the coffee and got my french press ready, snapped a few photos of yesterday’s knitting, and then went back into the bedroom and found this. Sweet, sweet dog.
Alright. Time to get to work!
Special thanks to Boh for his assistance.
I LOVE this. I was initially a bit anxious about how bright and crazy this might look all knitted up, but there was no need to worry. I can’t wait to get this in the mail. Officially, we’ve got a few more weeks of winter (and probably at least a few more unofficial weeks where this is going), and I’m hoping this hat will provide a dear friend of mine with some warmth and happiness during the slow transition to spring!
Details:
Seaman’s Cap, by Brenda Zuk, size M, knit out of Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino handspun in the Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds colorway. I think I used about 140 yards of squishy heavy worsted to knit this hat. I used size 7 needles for the whole thing, mostly because I was too lazy to find 6s for the ribbing.
And now I can cast on something else in handspun! (This is yesterday’s skein of sour fig, already caked and ready to go.)
Boh decided that he wanted to pose alongside my finished skein of Hello Yarn shetland in Sour Fig. This is 201 yards of 2-ply, and I have a second, smaller skein of 85 yards. This stuff looks to me to be mostly sport weight, and I’m wondering if it would make a nice wurm hat. Thoughts? (Too variegated? I am also craving another set of mitts.)
Yesterday also involved this:
And this:
Friday. I managed to eat ALL of that apple crisp last night, this morning, and as a late lunch today. Boh and I just took a nice, sunshine-filled walk around the neighborhood, and I’m hoping that I have energy enough to do a bit more work this afternoon.
I got home from campus this evening and just could not find the energy to tackle anything in the work pile. So I started simmering some black beans in the crock pot and sat down at my wheel.
This is the second bobbin of Sour Fig, shetland from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club. I don’t know what I will make out of this yet, but it will be for me!
The beans weren’t tender yet, so I decided to start plying.
And when I filled my bobbin, I wound the yarn onto my niddy-noddy, counted up my yardage (201!), gave the loop of yarn a bath, and hung it to dry.
It is late. Like, way past my bedtime late. But I’m here, sipping a mug of tea, listening to Nanci Griffith (“I been sifting through the layers, dusty books, and faded papers…), and slowly planning the work I’ll do tomorrow.
I might even ply up the rest of this stuff tonight.
Here’s my lacy baktus, relaxing atop one of my sources. (I finished the paper, for now, and submitted it this morning!)
And here it is blocked and wrapped around my neck. At first, I thought it wasn’t long enough because the skinny tails didn’t quite wrap twice around my neck, and I didn’t like the way they were hanging. And then I realized that I could just tie a bow instead of a single knot, and those ends wouldn’t droop down.
Details:
I used size 7 needles, in order to get more drape and length out of my rather small skein of handspun merino/silk in the A King’s Ransom colorway from AVFKW. I think I used about 160 of 188 yards. (I began decreasing a tad early to allow for the variability in the yarn.)
This is such a great pattern for handspun or for variegated yarns — I will definitely be making more of these!
Ta-da! It turns out that all I needed to do to finish my languishing lacy baktus was to take it out of my bag and put it in the knitting pile near the couch. (Well, and knit on it for two more hours.)
In addition to my knitterly productivity, I spent some quality time with the paper I’m revising this weekend, and while it isn’t done yet, it will be ready on time. (Tomorrow.) I turned around in my chair sometime yesterday morning, and this is what I saw:
My sweet dog, waiting patiently for playtime.
I made the Pioneer Woman’s fancy macaroni on Saturday night as a gooey, hearty reward for my steady progress on this paper, and it was divine. (A bit too decadent for the regular rotation, but the perfect treat!)
Happy March!
As you can see, today’s post is also sponsored by the letter S. Despite yesterday’s whining about the snow day that was not to be, all of my students showed up for section. If things had been reversed, I would’ve picked snowshoeing over school, so they all get a great big high-five. When I returned home, a mountain of shoveling awaited me.
The door to my apartment is on the back of the house. I’d say my part of town got about 15 new inches of snow on Thursday and Friday, and then some high winds helped to create some substantial driveway drifts! I shoveled a winding path from the street, zigzagging around the cars in the driveway, and around the back of the house to my door. Every time Boh and I walk down it, I feel like I’ve created some kind of Olympic ice luge or bobsled track. I also had to dig out my car, which I did in two 1-hour chunks.
My friend T. did quite a bit of shoveling yesterday too, and she came over last night to commiserate with a bit of wine and some sour cherries, which we promptly turned into coffee cake!
T. is a teacher, and she used part of her snow day to defrost these cherries and pit them. (So even though I didn’t get a snow day, I certainly got to enjoy the spoils of a snow day project!) We made this coffee cake, and it was fantastic.
T.’s sweet dog, Coltrane, came over to play with Boh, and once we convinced him to get up on the couch, he decided to spend much of the evening lounging.
Best friends. (Though Boh was whimpering a bit at the idea that he had to share his couch with Coltrane!)
One last picture — I think I am subconsciously responding to all of the bright whiteness outside! A glance in the mirror had me laughing at my apparent attempt to wear all of the colors of the rainbow at once. Silly rooster!
Yesterday morning, here’s how much snow had managed to accumulate and drift under the overhang at my apartment door. It snowed continuously all day, and well into the night.
I can only get the door open this far. Usually Boh can nudge open the screen door with his nose, even if it is closed, because the door doesn’t close very tightly. Today, he needed help. In many places, the snow is deeper than my almost-to-the-knee boots!
I love the way the boughs outside my door droop with the weight of the snow. I also love running around with Boh in the snow — there is so much that he prefers to gallop, or hop sort of like a rabbit, rather than take one step at a time. (No pictures of that — we were too busy playing!)
Snow is part of life where I live, but because of the sheer volume that has fallen continuously over the last 30 hours or so, I was hoping that perhaps my university would declare today to be a snow day. Local schools were closed yesterday, and they are closed again today. I woke up to the news that my university is delayed: the first classes of the day are those scheduled to begin at 10:10.
What time do I TA? 10:10.
Sigh. At least my walk to campus will be beautiful. And it is snowing again.
Happy Friday!
Snoring.
Scones. (Recipe here — these are incredible. Score one more for 101 cookbooks.)
Snow. (I tried to capture the glow coming in my windows at about 6:30 this morning. Lovely.)
Seaman’s cap #5.
barefoot rooster 