Blog Silence… Must Mean Something is Going On
The funny thing about blogging, at least for me, is that I blog when I have time. I don’t have a schedule, I tried that and failed miserably. Then, whenever there’s a blog silence, I think to myself every week or so that “I should really put something up” but then the silence continues because somethingelse comes up. Because as it turns out I blog when I have time. I’m writing this on the train, on my way into work. (Now, it’s a few days later now, and I’m just getting back to add photos and edit.)
But the catch is I almost never seem to have free time, but I don’t have free time because I’m busy (at least part of the time) doing the things that I would be blogging about. Of course a lot of the time is spent doing boring non-blog related or blog worthy stuff (laundry anyone?). But some of that time is spent knitting and designing, and making or doing cool stuff, like decorating my new apartment. (Yep, I moved. Again. For the third time this summer.)
So if I were blogging in my limited amounts of free time this last month, there would have been nothing to blog about. I’m mean my last post was just a picture of a lot of boxes and a “sorry, can’t blog, I’ll do it later.” But now it’s been a month and a half and I haven’t blogged, and I feel terrible. So I’m sorry my poor neglected little blog.
But on the plus side I did get a whole heck of a lot done.
I moved. Again.
I finished a bunch of stuff.
From bottom to top. Kora. Asymmetrical Bluebells. Eirwen. Ghosts & Mirrors. and Very Berry. I’ve written about all of these before mostly under different names, or under no name. Except for Very Berry (which seriously needs a new name), it was done so quickly that I never got a chance to blog about it.
I started some stuff.
Another sample for my Arrowhead Stole in Tosh Lace colorway lapis.
A new hat that I’m working on, probably with some sort of cable design.
And I (sort of) made a smidge of progress on one WIP.
Only a few more rows to go on the shawl with a thousand beads.
I bought also some stuff.
Melissa Leapman’s book Continuous Cables, which I mostly got for the stitch dictionary at the end of the book. I think I’m going to play with some of these cables for the hat that I’m working on.
A skein of Manos Lace in “L2435 Aivina Aqua.” For another geometric lace stole with a garter stitch border along the same lines as Ghosts & Mirrors.
Two skeins of Wool Candy in “Gothic.” For an asymmetrical (not so) little something of a shawl.
And a skein of Scrumptious Lace in “Cherry.” Just because it was pretty.
So, so long and until next time my little corner of the Internet. I’ll try to get back to you soon. And I’ll try for a bit more balance between creating and writing about it.
Bring Out Your WIPs
I pulled out all my active WIPs the other day as part of an effort to clean, organize, take stock, and wow are there a lot. I’m still trying to figure out when I cast all of these on, and when I knit on them, because knitting time has been scarce the past few months (that whole graduating thing really got in the way.) But anyway there are a lot.
1. 
The Not Quite Argyle Sweater is still on the needles. I’m past the waist decreases, into the bust increases, and it’s getting to be time to figure out the armhole and neckline shaping. I’m thinking set in sleeves, with a V neck, but I very well might change my mind.
I also finally knit the turned hem, and now just need to sew it in (the red dots are just the waste yarn from the provisional cast on) I think one or two strands of embroidery floss will be the easiest way keep the seam secure yet invisible.
Knit out of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk, knit on 3.00mm and 2.75mm needles for the body and hem respectively.
2. 
I haven’t shown this since I cast it on in January, but now it’s a huge blob of yellow yarn and blue beads, instead of the little blob it was then. Same pattern as Ponycorns and Rainbow Fragments, knit out of Madeline Tosh Prairie in Chamomile, with a bead placed on every-single-yarn-over (all 8,888 of them.)
3. 
Ghosts & Mirrors is slowly crawling along. I haven’t been working on it quite regularly enough to memorize the stitch pattern, but maybe I’ll watch a movie and work on it tonight or tomorrow evening. Out of Bittersweet Woolery’s lace weight, same stitch pattern as Mirror World.
4. 
The first new shawl of the summer. A striped circular one, with an easy to memorize stitch pattern. The orange is Madelinetosh lace in ‘citrus’ while the gold is Sweet Georgia in their merino silk lace color ‘dutch’ on US 3/3.25 mm needles. This is the first time I’ve worked with Sweet Georgia, and it’s really shiny (due to the silk), I’m not sure how I’d feel about it on it’s own, but the Tosh Lace does a lot to keep the shiny under control. The color combination actually remind me a lot of the colors I used in the Malus domestica (the apple tree) sample (which I just realized I never blogged about, oops!), only brighter, more summery, and less fall shades.
I’ll take better pictures once I get some more knitting done and can spread it out on the needles a little easier.
5. 
The second new shawl of the summer has been getting most of my attention lately. It’s a simple pattern, with sections of garter stitch interspersed with sections of patterning. Knit on US 8s/5.00mm needles, out of Tosh Merino Light in ‘composition book grey.’ In this picture I’m partway into the first pattern section (if you look closely you can see the pattern starting to form), but since I took the photo I’ve gotten to the second pattern section, so it’s even more scrunched up on the needles. Maybe when I get to the end of this ball I’ll thread the piece onto waste yarn, spread it out, and take some better photos.
6. 
This is the original swatch for Zodiac le Plume, that I’ve picked up and started working on again. It’s going very slowly. One row here, half a row there, so expect to see this project come and go progressing only tiny amounts each time. Of course the fact that its on US 1/2.5 mm needles certainly isn’t helping progress.
7. 
For spinning I’ve got two things going at the moment. First the braid of polwarth I got at Rhinebeck, from Happy Hands Yarns, in ‘landslide.’ I’m fractal spinning it into a lace weight that will probably turn into a shawl sometime in the future.
This is half the fiber all prepped and ready to go. I love how the spots of color are mixing and blending into the black and brown background.
8.
Second, the singles of the Fibernymph Dye Works BFL, colorway “Incarnation, the lighter” braid are done, and are waiting for me to decide how to ply them.
I was originally going to do a lace weight gradient 2ply by splitting the colors apart, plying them against themselves, and somehow blending them in between. But I’ve been going through my stash and realizing exactly how much lace weight I have, so I’m thinking about three plying all the colors together for a three ply barber-pole, or maybe Navajo plying to keep the gradient but have a thicker yarn. Either way, I’m not sure. (You can see the blue-purple better at the bottom of this post.) If you’ve got an opinion let me know.
On the plus side, if I finish all this up I’ll be all set for The KnitGirllls Stash Dash this year, and mostly caught up on this years 12 Shawls in 2012 challenge, but we’ll see how those go.
Post Thesis Haze
Things have been sort of (read: completely) crazy around here. My thesis performance went up Wednesday night, so that’s now finished. And the next couple days I’ll be focused on relaxing and picking up all the balls I dropped over the last few weeks. Including, but not limited to, laundry, cleaning, knitting, blogging, and reading for other classes, before I start focusing on the written portion of my thesis.
I think, I’m going to try and gather a bunch of the photos of the performance and accompanying exhibit into a post, probably early next week. Even though there’s no knitting, there are pretty dresses, and who doesn’t like some pretty every now and then.
Anyway, even with the thesis monopolizing my life I have gotten some knitting done mostly in bits and pieces, a podcast here, 15 minutes there. (Much like this post in fact, a sentence here, a paragraph there, so if it sounds a bit disjointed and abrupt in places, that’s why.)
Both the “Big Orange Blob” and the second pair of potato chip mittens are off the needles.
I’m going to try to weave in the ends, wash and block them both over the weekend. Since I spent the morning cleaning, I now have the floor space to block a shawl again.
Ghosts & Mirrors is coming along. I’m finding that it takes a special level of concentration, so I’m not spending much time working on it. But since it’s only 100 stitches or so across, the small amount of attention I have given it, really shows.
I’m into the bust increases on my Not Quite Argyle Jacket. Even though I probably won’t get to wear it until fall at this rate, it’s still a fun, and semi-brainless knit that I can pick up and put down easily, which I exactly what I need right now.
And finally you haven’t seen this before, but I’m probably about 2/3rds or maybe 3/5ths through this braid of Fibernymph Dye Works BFL, colorway “Incarnation, the lighter.” I’m planning to do a gradient two ply, so I’m spinning all of the colors separately. I’ll then ply each one from a center pull ball, probably with a section between each color where one ply is one color and the other is the other color to smooth the transition.
Well, that’s all for now. I’ll try and get the thesis post up, and maybe FO posts for the mittens and big orange blob next week.
