Tag Archives: peace fleece

before blocking and buttons.

Posted on by
3

complete-on-bed

blurry28thirty

full-length-awk1

Hooray! I’m going to dunk it in a warm bath with some wool wash and lay it out to block and dry, but had to take some celebratory pictures first. I also managed to place a few bids on vintage button lots on ebay before heading to class — they may take a few days to get here, but this way I’ll have oodles of mismatched buttons to play with in the future!

storm

It is snowing right now, though none of it has accumulated yet. Apparently that may occur overnight. Here’s a shot of the first rain-into-snow storm cloud approaching on Monday. I know it isn’t quite as dramatic as the out-my-front-door pictures I used to take in the desert, but it felt good to dash back inside for the camera last night. I haven’t done that in awhile!

I’ll conclude with pure cuteness:

cuteness

Awww. I’ll do a wrap up post with specs/mods once I get 28thirty blocked and buttoned. I’m so excited!

28thirty weather.

Posted on by
3

I had forgotten what a tease spring can be in certain parts of the country. Clearly I need to just enjoy sunshine and flip-flop weather when it comes, and stop expecting that it will stick around. The only positive thing I can see in today’s rainy yuckiness (and the week’s similarly cold and rainy forecast) is that I may actually finish my 28thirty in time to have a weather-appropriate day to wear it out of the house. I’m past the left elbow now, and steadily approaching the wrist!

leftsleeveclose

leftsleevealmost

Soon. Very soon. I still haven’t found my reading mojo, and I wonder if this sweater is holding it hostage. I mean, I’m getting my regular reading done for class, but it is time to tackle my writing projects for the semester, and while I’ve acquired quite the pile of library books, I seem to find other things to do (like scrubbing the top of the stove) when I should be systematically note-taking in order to get a handle on my papers.  Sigh.

As part of yesterday’s “cleaning trumps reading” mentality, I washed a bunch of handknits, and thought you might like to see them drying all over my apartment — above dog level, of course.

washing-handknits

washing-handknits21

Also, while making a quick, mission-driven stop at my LYS to pick up a specific yarn for a future project, I impulsively snatched up a copy of the Spring IK, as the Whisper Cardigan has been calling my name on Ravelry. I dug through my stash, and discovered some gorgeous Knitpicks Shadow in Redwood Forest that I bought on sale last year sometime.

whisper-excitement

This will be perfect for spring! I’m not quite ready to cast on yet, but when I do, I think I’ll be using some of the more popular mods — ribbing the sleeve cuffs and keeping an eye on sleeve and body length, and ribbing the lower edge of the body to limit the rolling. I have a few other projects to focus on before I start this, but I am excited about this sweater!

Time to devote my attention to (a) my mug of coffee and (b) preparing for my first class. Hope your week is off to a good start!

friday.

Posted on by
2

bohbone1

bohbone2

Just in case it was unclear, that is Boh’s bone. Let’s move on to my sweater:

sleeve2-28thirty

I can already tell that this sleeve is going to move much faster. With the right sleeve, I was trying it on after every couple decrease rows (see my modifications in an earlier post) in order to find a sleeve circumference that worked for me. With the left sleeve, I know to work down to 44 st and then work even until the wrist, where I did a few more decrease rows and then the basketweave cuff. I’m not the only one around here who is excited about 28thirty!

bohinvestigates-28thirty

Remember my Sunday Market Shawl? I dug it out this week because I had a few lectures to attend, and I am almost through the first ball of yarn.

sms3

I’ve been rather appalled at the disrespect for the person at the front of the room at the larger events and talks I’ve attended this year, and I certainly don’t want to be lumped into the category of undergrads who stay only long enough to write a response, or who text and facebook/watch movies through most of a talk, only to make lots of noise while leaving during the already harder-to-hear Q&A. I understand that sometimes people need to leave early, and if you’re thoughtful about it, there’s absolutely no problem. It is this consumption mentality, the idea that these opportunities are bought and sold and thus devoid of the need for basic courtesies, that has been driving me nuts lately.

ETA: There are lots of thoughtful, engaged, respectful undergrads here, and I do not mean to suggest that the behavior I’m responding to is universal. I’m ranting about the handful who seem to think that basic courtesies do not apply in university lecture halls. (Hey, you! You’re making your friends look bad!)

I write all this to say that I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to knit at a lecture, and I’ve settled on sitting further back in the room, bringing only mindless knitting, and making an effort to connect to the speaker through eye contact, to make it clear to him/her that my hands are not distracting me from the content. So far, this feels like a reasonable approach.

One last photo:

bohgreenfleece

This guy is paying attention!

Hope you have a great weekend, and that spring weather makes an appearance wherever you are.

longer…

Posted on by
4

sleeve-is-longer

This sleeve is slowly lengthening. Why is it that the closer I get to completing this sweater, the slower my progress looks to me? This project is no longer appropriate for bringing anywhere except a designated knitterly gathering, both because of its size and because of the way I feel like my arms flail about as I tug on cables and untwist the sleeve along my way towards magic looping to the wrist. Whining aside, I love this and cannot wait to prance about in it. (Yes, I said prance.)

Because I have a serious problem with project monogamy, and because I had a lecture to attend yesterday, I cast on something new.

ishbel

It is true; I’ve caught the Ishbel bug. I’ve been resisting the urge to knit this for some time now: Lace is hard! Another fingering weight project when I still have socks on the needles? And then, after viewing many a lovely Ishbel, I saw this one over at brokeknits. I bought the pattern immediately.

I’m using some gorgeous slightly variegated deep purple Yarn Pirate fingering weight, and I’m hoping to successfully combine the small and large sizes — large st portion, small lace version, to use all the yarn. We’ll see how that goes!

A few more Boh pics that are too sweet and silly not to share:

boh-under-blankets

We may have fallen asleep here together on Monday night…

boheyesclosed

Someone is very pleased with his cookie. Time for me to get back to work!

becoming an armadillo.

Posted on by
2

mirror-close-up

dirty-mirror

sleeveinprogress

upclosesleeve

I am loving this sweater. Have I said that yet? LOVING. Now that I’m making progress on the right sleeve, I’m seeing the armadillo comparisons I’ve read mention of on Ravelry and the broader interwebs, but I think this is a good thing. I’m contemplating working the ridges as directed until mid forearm, and then going for straight stockinette until the cuff, but we’ll see how I feel when I get there.

Notes/sleeve mods:

As others have experienced, the sleeves for the non XS and S sizes do seem overly large. I’m knitting size M, and the 59 st sleeves were very blousy on me. I picked up 3 st to close the gap, and then knit as directed to the next purl ridge. I then skipped ahead to the decreases, and worked them every other row (including the purl ridges) until I got down to 44 st (close to the st count for an XS sleeve), which seemed snug over a button-down shirt-sleeve. I’m working the sleeve straight until my repeated trying on/admiring myself in the sweater seems to suggest that I need another decrease row.

I realize you may tire of pictures of this guy (or that it may appear as though I take the same photos of him each day), but I never do. Check out the posing I witnessed this morning:

posingdog

posingdog2

Sigh. I must admit, I did more knitting than reading today, and I really should try to get in another chapter before bed. I’m hoping for more signs of spring this week…

28thirty.

Posted on by
2

Boring blog post title, yes. Boring sweater? Nope!

28thirtyprogress

28thirty-closeup1

Other things that are not boring:

flowers

Homeless flowers from my neighbors’ wedding that I get to enjoy because they are honeymooning.

biscuits

Biscuits.

homeandtired

This guy. Also, I’m healthy. Finally. And today I have class and some meetings that I should’ve had last week. It will certainly feel good to cross those things off the ever-looming to-do list.

Happy Friday!

improving?

Posted on by
4

I am by no means healthy, but progress (in the form of a hacking cough) is occurring. The good news is that my nose no longer begins to drip the second I look down, meaning that yesterday I was able to do some of my wallowing in illness while knitting.

28thirty-close-up

28thirty-to-sleeves

Sickness trumps gift-knitting, so even though there are a few more WIPs to finish in the Christmas pile (Thuja for my uncle, that acrylic scarf for my mom), I decided that I could knit a few rows on my 28thirty yesterday. As you can see, I knit until it was time to separate the sleeve stitches from the body, and then I let my sniffeling self try it on before bedtime. I love how this is coming along, so much so that I think I am going to take it with on my mini-spring break weekend adventure to the Catskills. (Fingers crossed that my health is much improved by the morning.)

boh-and-couscous-soup

Yesterday I made a very simple couscous vegetable soup — saw this post over at everybody like sandwiches and decided that it was just the thing my sick self needed.

silly-dog-on-bed

This guy has been a huge help to me this week. Dogs know when you don’t feel good, I think, because Boh has been extra kind in the cuddling and quiet time department. He has certainly earned some frolicking time in the Catskills!

sweater weather.

Posted on by
1

The leaves are turning crispy, the sun is rising after I wake and I can see my breath when I take Boh outside in the mornings. It’s official: sweater weather has arrived. To celebrate, I’ve finally cast on for 28thirty. I’m using the recommended yarn, in the exact same color, grassroots. (This may be the first time I’ve ever done this.) I love all the flecks of bright colors against the cozy brown, and I love the wooly-ness of Peace Fleece. Here’s one more shot:

I don’t think I’ve quite recovered from the wonderfulness of my Fall Break — it has been tough to get back into the routine of reading all the time. Hence this post, when really, I should be finishing the book for the class I have this afternoon…I can’t help it. Moments ago, I snapped these pictures of the animal:

There are no words.

In other news, Friday morning, I had my first real-life encounter with a knit-blogging friend. We met for coffee and then found ourselves petting yarn in my local yarn shop. It was a lovely morning, further confirming what I already knew to be true: internet knitting friends are even cooler in real life. She has the photo-documentation of our meet-up, so I’ll link there when she posts. (Hooray!)

Also, I finished the forest malabrigo boy hat, but alas, spontaneously gifted it to the intended boy on account of cold weather. He seems quite pleased with it, and if I can convince him to pose for a picture, I’ll share it here.

Boh is whimpering at the door — time to go O-U-T-S-I-D-E — and then I must get back to reading!

umm, yarn alert.

Posted on by
1

Two things:

And

Right.

So, the first picture is Peace Fleece, from kpixie. Over the weekend, while browsing through other people’s queues on Ravelry, I saw 28thirty, by the Zephyr girls, and the pattern and this yarn became an irrational need. In order to get the colorway I wanted (grass roots), I had to purchase a kit for the Everyday Cardigan — so now I already have the buttons and I’m sure I’ll use this pattern one day.

The second picture is from the WEBS Anniversary Sale — I am quite proud of the restraint I exercised with this order. (Give me a minute to explain.) This box is overflowing with yarn already intended to become gifts: enough Cascade 220 to make three more pinwheel blankets for weddings (though eventually I want one), two sets of 2 skeins of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in manly colors, to become scarves for professors who wrote reference letters for me and provided guidance and advice during the application process, and then a bag of Ultra Alpaca in the colorway Yucca Mix, intended to become a cardigan that I hope will replace a commercial one that gets serious wear in my clothing rotation. All this, averaging under 6 dollars a skein!

That, my friends (in addition to my existing stash), should keep me plenty busy.

I am traveling for a mixture of work and play this weekend into next week — bringing the computer, camera and some knitting, so blogging may occur, but if not, don’t worry. No need to call in the cavalry!

Have a great weekend!