Join Together

The sleeves and body of Forestry are united. At this point there's quite a lot going on--cabling, decreasing at the raglans, neck shaping. Let's hope I keep on top of it all.

In the Words of Emerson Cod

Oh hell no!

Sunday Sewing Bee

I had some friends over today for a little sewing. I finished the Blue Star quilt top.



I like how some of the blocks look like a star and some are Xs and some are crosses. I guess it's not really finished. I still need to add a border. I also basted and started quilting my 30s star quilt. It was great to get going on these projects again. I hate having all these half-done quilts lying around.

Forestry is growing and growing. I've finished the body up to the armholes and started the sleeves, two at a time. I'm racing to get this done because I want to knit all this.



Churchmouse Yarn on Bainbridge is doing a show on the Elizabeth Zimmermann Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan. It's probably my favorite knit ever. I wear mine several times a week and always gets loads of compliments on it. I want to knit this new one in time to go to the show at the end of February. It only took me about a month to knit the first one. I think this one should go even faster. I had this new colorway in mind for a very long time. In fact for so long that when I pulled out my color notes to get my yarn I discovered that most of the colors I had selected were no longer available. I picked new colors on the fly last week at the shop. This is good old Cascade 220. I realize looking at the photo that the two darkest reds in the center are much, much too close and I need to swap one of those suckers out for a darker shade.

My greatest achievement today--and quite possibly for the year--is this.



This is my coffee table. Please notice that there is nothing on it. Not a single thing on it or on the shelf below. Nothing. I believe this is the first time the top of the table has seen the light of day since it got dragged into my living room. Thank goodness it doesn't require oxygen or sunlight to survive or it would have shriveled up months ago. Now do we want to take any bets on soon it will be mounded up with crap again?

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

After staring at this photo for a long time the granny squares have started to stare back at me. That's not right.

Happy New Year!

If you're up late then these videos will seem really funny.

Disgruntlement Pays Off

Seattle to use salt in future storms

Of course, now it won't snow for another two years.

Oh Noes!

My computer isn't working right now. Posting may be sporadic until I can figure out what's wrong.

ETA: Everything is okay now. Phew.

LOLKnitting

see more puppies

Deep in the Forestry

Sorry for the funky photo. It was a super-gray day.

I'm off and running on Forestry. It's very easy and straightforward once you read the errata and get over the fact that all the stitches you do on the right side are called left-something-or-other and everything on the left side is called right-something-or-other. Kept reversing those. It also features the dreaded "work as for left front, reversing all shaping." Man, I hate that. I knit through Velvet Goldmine and Where Angels Fear to Tread yesterday. Just saw that Horse Feathers is on Hulu. Going to go watch that now while I knit.

You Know What Swatching Leads To

When I listed my possible NaKniSweMoDo choices (which have already started to change a lot) a commenter, Mary, pointed out that the Nature Wool I was thinking of using for Drops 103-1 is too thin to knit at 4.5 sts/in despite what the label says. Reading a bit more on the label I saw that it contains 242 yds/100 grams. That makes it it thinner than Cascade 220. Definitely too fine to knit at 4.5 sts/in. I wasn't worried. After looking at the Drops sweater I didn't think I would have any trouble changing the gauge. So I needed to determine my gauge. I swatched. I really, hardly ever swatch. I know, bad on me. I decided that on 6s I got a fabric that I liked that was 5 sts/in. I went back to my list and studied my queue a bit. Forestry jumped out at me. I didn't like it at all in the magazine. That belt...shudder. But seeing some completed sweaters on Ravelry and Veronik Avery's own photos of the sweater I really fell in love with the design.

So I cast on.

Three times.



I decided to knit this in one piece. It's just a raglan so no need for seaming. I also am solidly between two sizes and my gauge is a little iffy so I changed the numbers slightly. I had a *ahem* difficult time getting my ribbing pattern established. But the ribbing is done now.

I also pulled out some of the Noro Cash Laine I was thinking of using for this sweater. I haven't swatched it yet.

But then, I saw this scarf. I love a good stashbuster. I wanted to use up all my worsted-weight scraps. I started this the night before last. I found the pattern instructions really impossible to understand. I've never done linen stitch before. I ended up looking up someone else's better-written linen stitch instructions and it's going fine. But it's super boring and I hate knitting scarves. Also my scraps are mostly gray or green so it's not really popping.



And sometime last week I had a hankering for a sock project. My leftover Puck's Mischief from Selbu Modern was still sitting out. I started Retro Rib from Favorite Socks. It didn't grab me. For whatever reason the pattern didn't click for me. It's a very simple pattern but I couldn't get into it's rhythm. So I cast on for a heavily-modified Gentleman's Sock for Evening Wear from Knitting Vintage Socks. Much better but I've hardly worked on them.



I even got in a little knitting on my Sock Yarn Blanket while we took the kids to see Tale of Despereaux last night (Very scattered, uninspired movie. Our younger son enjoyed it but overall it was meh.)

So right now I'm all over the map. I'm hoping to pull myself together and focus a bit. Not my strongest suit.

Snow, Snow, a Thousand Times Snow

I took this picture to illustrate just how much snow and ice remains on my street. It did rain a bit yesterday and things started to melt. But now it's snowing again! Really hard. Sigh...