Tag Archives: knitting

FO: colorblock bias blanket.

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Tada! I love how this turned out, and I finished it in time to give it to M. and J. on Sunday. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to attend their wedding next month, so it was nice to at least get to give them their present in person.

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The blanket, folded.

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Boh, napping.

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Happy dog, after a walk that got cut short by a downpour!

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Stunning sunset.

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More napping.

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Farmers’ market flowers.

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Boh with a ball of yarn that’s attached to colorblock bias blanket #2!

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Yep. This one is also a wedding present.

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I’m absolutely loving these colors together. Hoping to make some serious progress on my overdue wedding knitting this summer. (You know, in addition to making progress on my dissertation…)

 

colorblocking.

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So I didn’t cast on another Turnstile right away. Still thinking about the next color combination, and I also realized that I should really get working on some wedding knitting. (Some folks have been patiently waiting for longer than I care to admit, and others have no idea a wedding blanket is in the works.) Anyway, I came across the Colorblock Bias Blanket by Purl Soho, and decided that this might be a great candidate for a wedding blanket. (I do love the pinwheel, but I’m looking to mix it up.)

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I’m knitting it out of greys and greenish turquoisey shades.

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I’m not following the yardage estimates for the pattern. Instead, I’m using what I’ve got as a guide, and hoping the size of each colorblock feels right.

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I’m so pleased with how it is turning out.

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I like this so much that I might want to keep it — but it is going to be a gift.

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I even brought it to the porch yesterday to work on with my coffee.

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And this guy. Just had to show you this napping pose. That ear! I love it. Happy Friday!

FO: turnstile.

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I LOVE this. And I can’t wait to make more. I might cast on another TODAY.

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I snapped these pictures very late last night. I figured I’d kitchener the two ends of the tube together right after dinner and then have plenty of time for other things.

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Wrong. The grafting took hours — in part because I haven’t kitchenered anything in quite a while, but also because to kitchener many many stitches you need to have a pretty long yarn tail, and it kept getting caught on the other needles, tangled, etc.

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But worth it? Totally. The stripes are addicting, and I anticipate wearing this (and any others I might make) a lot. My handspun eternity scarves might be the knitwear I wear most frequently, and I think this pattern (or some variation on it) is a great way for me to use beautiful sock yarn. (You know, because I’ve realized that I mostly wear socks with boots, so you can’t see them.)

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In other news, I took this dog on a great walk. It was clear we were going to get pretty muddy — this is a before picture.

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Doesn’t this picture just look like spring? So much growth in the woods.

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Happy dog.

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We were muddier than this toes/paws picture lets on. And we were quite content. (Though Boh needs to work on actually sitting on the blanket I keep in the back of my car for post-walk muddy dogs. He just moves it out of the way…)

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Also, we’ve reached that point in the spring where I can put on a fleece and take my coffee out to the porch. See that new french press? My dear friend D, the person who goes with that adorable dog who visited us last month, remembered me saying that my beloved stainless steel french press was on its last legs. The mesh ripped, so my coffee was rather gritty. That was a year ago. So when D came to visit, he brought this: a bigger press, which is stainless steel on the inside, but has an insulated bottom and handle so I don’t burn myself on it. And the lid has a screen, so there’s no chance of coffee grounds getting into my coffee. Also, no spillage while pouring, which means I can bring it out to the porch. Perfection.

 

around and around (turnstile in progress).

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First of all, to give you a sense of the kind of excitement happening around here, this is what I did last Saturday night. I took whatever was left in the bottle of rye (not much) over to my friend M.’s house, she made me a (delicious) Manhattan with chocolate bitters, and we both proceeded to continue writing our dissertations. I’m not complaining; it was better than attempting to keep putting words on the screen at my house…

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This face pretty much captures the general malaise that is the end of the semester.

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Lila in action. I like it over the top of other layers like this.

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Snapped this picture for my mom, as this dress was a present from her last year. And also because this is my professor costume. (Thanks to K. for that description.)

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Boh! I know it looks like he’s growling, but I actually snapped this at the tail end of a yawn. We took a walk in the arboretum earlier this week just before the skies opened, so we had the place to ourselves.

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And, as my post title suggests, more turnstiling.

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I really love the stripes.

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Snapped this yesterday while writing on the porch. (Handspun eternity scarf number 2.)

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This guy brought his ball and his bone out to the porch, but spent most of our time out there looking at me and pleading for belly rubs. Tough. Life.

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A new section — back to orangey-red and yellow stripes, and after that, one more solid orangey-red block…

 

turnstile progress.

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While Lila was blocking, I may have cast on something else: turnstile. Warning, folks: this pattern is addicting. There’s something about the helical stripes that makes it impossible to stop. And the pattern provides some amazingly effective advice on how to switch colors for super smooth striping.

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I chose three colors I love, and cast on.

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And pretty close to immediately, it was time to start striping. (It certainly didn’t hurt that I was binge-watching Veronica Mars at the time.)

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I love these colors, and I’m thinking this is going to be perfect for late spring and for all summer activities that include air-conditioning!

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Boh doesn’t seem to mind this project, either.

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I’m making the largest size (but in fingering weight yarn instead of sport), and I’m about halfway done. Here’s hoping I can maintain this knitting momentum!

FO: lila.

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Lila, blocking. The pattern called for blocking the sweater before knitting the neckline, and then my friend D. and his new dog came to visit, which is why it has taken me a few days to share this with you. (Pictures of his sweet dog, Honey, below.)

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None of my pictures of Lila do it justice. The lighting is terrible, and I’m including this shot so you can see the hemline, even though I think I’ll wear this over a tank instead of over a v-neck tee like this one.

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Again, awkward pose, but this shot has some of the best lighting in the set I snapped yesterday. You know, when I knit the neckline and then put on the sweater. And then didn’t take it off.

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This shot shows how pleased I am with the armhole/shoulder area of the sweater. This construction seems to fit my shoulders better than any top-down raglan I’ve knit. Hooray! I think I might block this one more time, a bit more aggressively, to get a smidge more length and a tad less width in the finished product, but I’m really happy with how this turned out. I promise to take better pictures the next time I wear it.

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And here’s Honey, perched in the window.

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And here she is napping with Boh after A LOT of playing.

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And here she is, absolutely out cold in my grandfather’s chair. Love her.

 

all lila, all the time.

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So that thing I said yesterday about balancing knitting and writing didn’t really happen. But it was the Friday of my spring break week, so I think it’s allowed. Yesterday I finished knitting the body of Lila and started the first sleeve.

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I’m following the pattern as written even though I’m a little worried that the length/style of this sweater might not be quite right for my shape. We’ll see!

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Boh set his head down on my needle case as soon as I unrolled it to find dpns for the first sleeve. Sweet, sweet dog.

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The garter stitch sleeve cuff.

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Serious sleeve progress.

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Checking the snugness (so far so good) after some knitting with my coffee this morning! Today I do need to write, but I’m hoping to reward myself with at least a few knitting breaks. Happy weekend!

cast on, can’t stop.

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I have no idea what happened, but on Wednesday night, all of a sudden all I wanted to do was knit. And so I started poking around Ravelry and my stash, and decided that Lila, a pullover with an interesting hemline, was what I needed to be knitting. Immediately. So I bought the pattern, dug out some special yarn (a bag of Schaefer Miss Priss worsted in a lovely variegated gray that I got for knitting a sample maybe five years ago), wound up two balls of it, and cast on.

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Well, first I swatched. And then I washed it, and decided my numbers were close enough to gauge that I could start the sweater and then confirm my sizing/needle choice in the morning. (Which worked.)

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I’d gotten this far on the garter hem by the time I went to bed on Wednesday night.

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And finished the garter hem and began the short rows on Thursday morning.

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And Thursday night, I’d knit several inches of the body. I haven’t had this “just one more row” feeling in quite awhile, and I love that it’s back. Here’s hoping I can balance knitting with some solid dissertation writing today. (And happy Friday!)

routine.

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First up, I knit a tiny hat for my best friend’s son. He’s just about six months old, and I’m hoping this will help keep him warm this winter.

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Boh’s ears have been particularly entertaining this week.

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Snowbird’s out-of-the-house debut! You can see here that the shoulders aren’t quite right; I think they are too shallow for my arms. But the most important part of Snowbird is that it covers my butt. Perfect for covering up for heading to the gym. (Boots because of the snow!)

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More sweetness, and a huge arugula salad.

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Yup.

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“Helping.” No matter that his ears are actually in the way.

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One ear up for couch lounging.

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And this series is from this morning.

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From a look of complete boredom–what, you don’t like my conclusion?

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To full-on, quite loud snoring. I love this dog.

the new year.

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This is what getting ready for a conference looks like, especially as I’m still working to put together appropriate academic “costumes” for myself.

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The conference I attended just after New Year’s was back in DC, which meant plenty of time to see dear friends. And admire bike racks outside coffee shops.

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No trip to DC is complete for me without Teaism. Its proximity to the museum I was working at last winter helped solidify it as the place for comfort food: really good chai, restorative spicy chicken noodle soup, amazing salty oat cookies. The polar vortex extended my DC trip, which mostly meant I ate more of all of the things at Teaism.

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I’ve been borrowing this sweatshirt for more than a decade. How crazy/wonderful is that? (Just when I’m visiting and cold.)

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A beautiful latte at the Tryst inside the Phillips Collection.

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And my lovely workspace inside Champ and N.’s fantastic apartment.

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The hat for P. wasn’t quite right (he tried it on in DC) so I ripped back and reknit it.

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I think it turned out even prettier the second time around, and I’m hoping it fits perfectly. I’m in between knitting projects right now — I need to find something simple and soothing to balance everything else going on in this week before the semester begins. So much to do!