many moons.

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A year ago, I began Thermal. It was to be my first sweater, and I was very excited. I ordered the recommended yarn (KnitPicks Gloss) and printed out the pattern. As I was still a new knitter, I was sort of afraid of color. I’ve since broken myself of that (see bright green Bolero Jacket for proof), but I remember struggling with the color decision. I eventually concluded that I would be most likely to wear my first sweater if it was black. I’m sure you’re all cringing because you already know what I failed to realize: knitting a sweater in fingering weight black yarn is akin to poking yourself in the eye repeatedly.

Enter my progress:

A tangled skein and several errors in knitting direction resulting in ripping and starting again (I didn’t quite get that it is easy to tell which way you are going). I have a solid inch of the twisted ribbed bottom hem of the sweater. And you know what? The knitting is even, and quite pretty! I am going to keep this one handy, and perhaps in small doses, I can make progress on the black fingering weight sweater. (You know, even though I am more willing to play with color now, I will get a lot of use out of a black Thermal — if I can finish it, that is.)

My 1824 Blouson met a different fate last night. I have beautiful yarn for this project, and I love the shape of the sweater, but I fear all those dressmaker finishing details AND the 4 inches of the back I discovered in a knitting bag tucked away were not as pretty as I am capable of. My now-discerning eye was drawn to a scattering of small errors in the knitting, and I found no evidence of a gauge swatch. Ribbit! I still love the idea of this sweater, and am hoping to make something similar. Ideas?

Also, to avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome, I cast on Super Simple Short Sock #2 last night.

I posted my bed on craigslist on Sunday and sold it yesterday during my lunch break. Making progress over here! Time to go rent a storage unit so that I can begin clearing these boxes out of my tiny house…

ready for grafting!

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I know it’s dark, but I really like this photo — the randomness of the backdrop, the light streaming through the front door, the bright red bookshelf that is mostly empty now — it works for me. I realize, though, that you might actually want to see the sock, so here’s another shot:

I love this sock. It fits perfectly, and the yarn really makes the heel stitches pop. I can see several super simple short sock pairs (say that 5 times fast) in my future. You know, once I knit the mate to this one.

Another Monday morning sleepy dog picture for you — I absolutely adore how ridiculous Boh is when he is sleeping. We did a lot of frolicking this weekend — so much so that Boh refused to budge from the couch ALL DAY yesterday. I even had to coax him towards the door to go outside. He just wanted to lounge, sleep, dream (translation: twitch) and sigh. Life is hard when you’re a dog.

Life is also hard when you are a sleepy person who has to go to work on Monday morning…but I do think there is time to kitchener that sock to completion before I go.

May your Monday be filled with sunshine and coffee!

pinwheels and parties.

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Remember pinwheel blanket number two? The one I needed to finish in time for the pre-wedding party of two friends? Well, you can breathe easy. I finished it. (I mean, I may have blocked it in my car and woven in the ends on the back porch of a building said friends were standing in…but I finished it and they loved it. I’m hoping they’ll send me one of the pictures they took with it/me.)

I would have finished it earlier, I swear, except one of these two friends ended up coming into town and staying at my house on Wednesday to work with us for a few days. I couldn’t very well work on it in front of him, could I?

Anyway, the work we did required a road trip (with a slew of 7 year olds) to the base camp of the wilderness education foundation I work for. Though it was crazy, I did manage to snap a sunrise picture for you:

Looking northward, Friday, 5:50 am.

I did manage to find some evening quiet time to knit by the light of a cozy fire. My ankle socks (using the Super Simple Short Sock pattern by Radiant Twist) are progressing quite nicely. Have we talked about how much I love this yarn? (Yarn Pirate Merino Sock in Kalamata.) I really love how this project fits into the center zip pocket of my Namaste bag, which could be why they are moving so quickly…

Yep, there’s some pooling there, but I don’t care. I love it anyway.

I returned to civilization this morning, in a bit of a hurry to make progress on another big project: packing up my life. I move to base camp for the summer in a few weeks, and after that, I head to New Home to start graduate school. Didn’t make sense to rent my little house through the summer only to come back and pack everything, so pack up now I must. I think it will get easier once I actually go rent a storage unit this week so that I have a place to put all of the boxes I am filling. Today I’ve been working on the kitchen. See?

Off to pack some more and enjoy the evening light.

turquoise, untangled.

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Last week I won some tangled yarn from The Plucky Knitter. When the yarn arrived, I sighed with happiness. This yarn is stunning, and in one of my favorite colors. Exhibit A:

I snapped these pictures after I typed “Exhibit A” — pulled the jewelry right off my left hand. I am incredibly interested in turquoise, Navajo and Pueblo silversmithing and the way that value was and is assigned to their craftsmanship. I’ve heard it said that you can borrow more against turquoise than you can against diamonds at certain Southwestern trading posts. But I think I was getting ready to show you my pretty yarn…

Thank you, Sarah. Life is crazy over here, and I stayed up very late untangling this — I needed that meditative time yesterday, probably even more than I needed sleep. Now I get to daydream about what this yarn should become!

eye of newt?

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or partridge. (Why is it called an eye of partridge heel?)

The zippered middle section of my new Namaste bag is just begging to be used for a sock project. I’ve been meaning to cast on for a pair of Super Simple Short Socks by Radiant Twist, and that whole incident with my car window (in which the nutkin mitts were stolen) means that I no longer have a knitted item made from my first Yarn Pirate Booty in colorway kalamata. I have half or slightly more than half of a skein left, and figured it should be perfect for these ankle socks. I think this pattern is really going to show off how gorgeous the yarn is — and if I can keep up the momentum with these, they will certainly get a lot of use this summer.

Lots of high school rugby watching and the fact that I was chauffeured around all weekend made for some serious progress on the second pinwheel. I’m up to 38 stitches between markers, and the blanket border begins at 44. Hoping to wrap this up and give it away this weekend, and I’m on track for that to happen, as the blanket has officially achieved “jellyfish” status. (Doesn’t it look like one?) It won’t be long now…

I am pretty sleepy this morning, even after a few cups of coffee. Stayed up super late last night organizing my life into piles and emptying my bookcase into boxes. This guy is tired too — not because he “helped” with all of the packing, but because we had a good frolic at the dog park yesterday morning.

It’s Monday, folks. I may look like this later today.

FO: rusted root.

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Excuse the mirror. I am super happy with the way this turned out. I wore it to work on Friday, out to lunch with a friend, and then to see Wilco last night. (Perhaps the best show I’ve ever seen. Period.)

Here’s one more shot of the neckline:

I also have a few goodies to share. These arrived in record time from The Loopy Ewe. My favorite bag was stolen a few weeks ago when my car window was smashed, so I decided to look for another cavernous bag to haul around with me. I settled on the Namaste Malibu, and I love it.

This bag is deceptively large — I can easily imagine a sweater’s worth of yarn tucked into one side — and the center zip pocket is the perfect size for a sock or a dishcloth in progress. Since I was already placing an order, I picked up some gorgeous Shibui sock yarn in honey. (It matches the bag.)

WordPress was a bit cranky last night, so it has taken me roughly 10 hours to actually hit publish. Planning to do some frolicking with the dog this morning before heading up to Santa Fe for more high school rugby and touristy fun stuff. Maybe I’ll remember to take some pictures…

business time.

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I have no idea why I’ve had a little boy’s tie hanging in my closet. No idea. Until now. I’ll say it again: my dog is ridiculous. Alright, onto a bit more knitting.

Rusted Root isn’t quite dry, but I tried it on anyway last night, worried that it was relaxing too much, and instead, I think it will be perfect. No modeled pictures yet, but perhaps tonight — I’m going to see Wilco, and depending on the weather, I may debut the sweater. (By the way, I recommend Wilco wholeheartedly, in all forms. You won’t be sorry.)

I did put a little package in the mail to my mom yesterday, and because she has no idea I have a blog, I can share it with you now:

I took yesterday afternoon off to catch up on life a bit, and I wove in the ends while sitting outside in the parking lot of the laundromat. (Details: Peaches and Creme cotton, size 7 needles and a basic grandmother’s favorite dishcloth pattern worked corner to corner.) I also ran to REI to take advantage of their big sale (Boh has managed to search out and destroy several pairs of my socks over the last 14 months), and since I was already nearby, I went a bit further to the yarn store. Tough weeks mean treats, in my book, and I settled on seven skeins of cascade 220 heathers in a pretty deep blue/purple/grey — intended to be a long sleeve version of Wicked.

Took everything I had last night to pick up my second wedding present pinwheel instead of swatching or just casting on for Wicked or 28thirty. Must make progress on WIPs…or at least the pinwheel, as I am attending (and helping with pie-baking for) a pre-wedding party next weekend. Happy Friday!

okay, now it’s rusted.

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Victory! (It only took 7.5 months to complete.) It has been said a gazillion times already, but this is a fantastic pattern. I can’t remember why or how I lost momentum with this one. I literally had about 3 inches of the body left to knit before the ribbing on the waist, sleeves and neckline.

I made one sort of intentional modification: instead of picking up the same number of stitches for the neckline ribbing, I picked up about 15 fewer, ostensibly to stop the rolling and to help the lace lay flat. The overall fit is accurate, in that I made the medium (36-39) and I have a 38 inch circumference. This baby is blocking now, and because of the cotton in the yarn, I’m confident that it will relax ever so slightly. Modeled FO pictures once it is dry.

I haven’t posted a sunrise picture in awhile — the sun and I are about neck and neck these days in terms of rising time. The days are growing longer on both ends now, and I love it. Here’s what I saw this morning when I took the dog out:

Also, hooray! I won some tangled yarn from The Plucky Knitter! This is the first time I’ve won anything and the blogosphere, and I did a little dance at the mailbox when this arrived on Monday. Thank you, Sarah. Before and after pictures of our detangling adventures are on the horizon…

rugby and not quite rusted root.

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Quick post this morning — aiming to have a real FO post for you soon! I have finished the ribbed waistband and one cap sleeve of Rusted Root. Another sleeve, a few rows of neckline ribbing, and a good blocking are all that I have left to do. I am super excited to finish this. I started this sweater in September with a minimal understanding of ease and shaping, and despite this, I think it will be the perfect size. Here’s a quick look:

Also, I need to share more Boh ridiculousness with you. I brought in the rugby ball bag this weekend, and yesterday he became very interested in the contents. I got out a ball and he alternately chased it and ran away from it for a good 45 minutes. More affirmation that he really is MY dog. I took a pretty funny camera video, but I don’t see the format supported here in WordPress, so I’ll just share an image and leave the goofiness to your imagination.

thank you.

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You guys are great. Thank you for all of the kind comments and happy thoughts you sent my way this week. Some dear friends came to town for the funeral (all day yesterday), and while the circumstances were terrible, it was so nice to catch up in person.

No knitting to share just yet — I was a bit too frazzled this weekend to focus on anything but a few rows of a basic dishcloth.

I snapped this photo early on Friday. (Can you still say “snapped” if it is digital?) Morning light is my favorite, and I particularly love to wander this place while all (or most) are still sleeping…