In which I do not go to the great lakes fiber festival

or make any progress on the FPS.

The FPS isn't a big issue - I did the color work on the last sleeve of my skye tweed sweater and got to maybe elbow length. Then in a fit of impulsiveness, cast on the strange yarn from Japan, and made a scarf over the weekend. It's nothing incredible, but the yarn isn't anything luxury level either. I think I did better justice to it than the garter stitch it was designed for, so I'm satisfied.

Great Lakes - well, I don't know what happened to that. I'd really been looking forward to it, and then, well, I didn't realize it was memorial day weekend for one. So the combination of having to go alone (some would have gone for company, but they are not 'yarn people' and I felt a little mean subjecting to so much) and not having anything that I needed *right now*, and honestly, the gas prices, and I just didn't. I regret a little - I could have picked up some unique lace or a starting spindle kit, but ah well, the weekend was good as it was.

2.5 more patches of FPS last night

and that's all I have to say about that.

Well, almost, but I couldn't resist channeling forest gump for a moment there. I would have posted the pictures last night, but M absconded with my camera and cable to take pictures of one of the houses we saw. Once he told me where he'd hid them, there was no longer time (or light) for photography. I will try soon, but

note: The pictures I did post yesterday were from that one day when I did a bunch of my FOs. They really are rather lacking, both in subject (the front? the garment laid out flat so you can see the somewhat atypical construction method?) and in general quality. I attribute this to a combination of inexperience with the camera, and the fact that man, it was really dark that time of year! I intend to get better versions of them too.

But comments! I feel a little bad for not noticing them for so long, I gotten used to not having anything show up since it was so new, and sort of stopped checking.  to answer  5elementknitr's question, I've oogled Habu on websites, but never seen it in person, as it isn't carried locally. This stuff is no Habu, definetly more on the novelty than luxury end of the Japanese yarn spectrum, but as a gift, I feel obliged to do my best with it.

I don't think I ever mentioned why I was receiving Japanese yarn to begin with. It makes a lot more sense in context. I sent my friend in Japan my first handmade socks (STR medium, I did get pictures, and need to blog them) around the beginning of the year, and this was the (unexpected) return package.

and, of course, houses. Since I've got houses on the brain nowadays. This weekend we saw two more, one that was nice, but not what we were looking for, and one that just might be - except - it needs at least 20,000 worth of work. Refinished floors, new kitchen, and all new windows are the big(est) items.

It would be a great place for us at a great price with it done. but.
a) That's, um, a lot of work. How much do we really want to do all that work?
b) Other people may not think it's as nice as we do. It is an older house, with a lot of attributes that (while they don't bother us) aren't good for resale. Like smallish bathrooms and master bedroom. It's also on a 50mph road in sort of a commercial district. It backs up to a subdivision, and has a big yard so you don't really notice, but 'Industrial Parkway' just doesn't have that ring people are looking for, and the road is likely to get busier. So there's a real concern that even if we get a good price, we could still not be able to resell it.

So, we're thinking.

It also needs a heck of a home inspection. Do the outlets have suitable ground? (1960's construction, there isn't any on the plates, I've heard conflicting things) Do the well & septic work? does the plumbing leak? does the furnace work? How many things are made of asbestos? It's a bank repossession, so nobody knows.

Tough call.

FO: White circle shrug

This is the second of three iterations of the circle shrug concept. I know, start in the middle why don't I? It is, however, the best looking of the three. I found the idea in the craftster forums, and created my own pattern for it. It's a very simple recipe, essentially a folded rectangle which you pick up stitches from the long edge of and knit around for a ruffle. In this case, the rectange is the 'english mesh' lace pattern from some washcloth pattern somewhere, and the ruffle is my own figuring (I'm sure someone else has devised and name it before, but I haven't seen it).
Stitch pattern (roughly):
r1: k2tog yo p
r2: k yo p2tog
It's essentially k1p1 ribs with yo's in between and is completely reversible, which was the desired attribute.
Due to the heavy drapey nature of the yarn, it doesn't need blocking beyond laying flat to dry, which is nice.

So, vital stats (I honestly remember all of these - wow)
yarn: gedifira 'big', a cotton acrylic blend 3 balls. I bought this for a tube top, then realized that was a bad idea, knit another top for which it was entirely too heavy, and finally it found a home here, for which it is very suitable, soft and drapey.
needles: size 8 bamboo circular. The plymouth one with the joins I don't like, which is why I remember it.
gauge: er, it's lace. One repeat of the english mesh is 2 inches across and 3 inches tall. One repeat of the lacy rib is 1.5 inches across.

close up:

Strange yarn from Japan

I received a box from a friend of mine in Japan. Among other (mostly tasty) things there were these two skeins of yarn.

I would say they're around fingering weight, and very oddly made up. They're several different kinds of yarn wound into the same skein. Here are some more close up shots, since we know that's what everyone really wants.

I ripped right into skeining the first one before I thought about documenting the unique form it came in, so part of the one type of yarn is wound into a ball already.

Here you can see the three distinct types of yarn, the pale purple two-ply, rainbow-ish novelty, and a small amount of white feathery novelty. The purple and rainbow have about even amounts, (which is hard to tell now, since the purple's all wound up, but trust me) and there's only a very small amount of the white.

Finally, a close up of the purple, to see the composition. The plys are definitely distinct, and I'm guessing at fibers. Possibly wool and silk, possibly wool/acrylic and rayon. The only tag was a little stub that said 'home spun'. Not even anything in Japanese.

The dark was considerably less photogenic, but it looks like equal parts black/rainbow in the vein of this one's white/rainbow, and some natural colored slubby cotton. No third yarn in that one.
The two skeins were tied together too. So, I'm wondering, what to make with this? I get the impression it might be some sort of a kit, intended for use in a single project, but I can't think what. Anyone ever seen/heard of a presentation like this before?
If I don't get any feedback, I'm thinking a length-wise scarf, so I can use the parts up evenly. I'd like to do a lace pattern rather than just garter like my Kochoran scarf, but I need to figure out something simple enough not to fight too much, and that won't object to having it's beginning & ending dictated by when I run out of a yarn type.
Oh, yes, and the rest of the stuff from the box from Japan. Tasties.

(actually, there was a little more than this, including some slubby black wool, but it's been redistributed around my house more than I wanted to gather back up again)

Our herbs have finally sprouted. Well, most of them. And I'm not sure how well they'll make out starting just now, and not getting a heck of a lot of sun. But we have basil.

and oregano.

To give you a sense of scale as to just how tiny these things are, here are the full pots. Basil is on the left. The oregano seeds looked like dust.

The parsley is visible at a somewhat more reasonable scale.

We also have one thyme, a little mint, and a second pot of oregano. But honestly, they look about the same, and I'm already getting kinda heavy on the 'generic green sprouts' pics as it is, happy as they may make me in their wee-ness. No Lemon Verbena yet.

the good, the bad and the ugly

No, really, we watched that movie this weekend. *well, part of it. Do you know how long that movie is? Er, neither do I, but we watched until we thought 'man, this is a long movie' then checked, and were around halfway through. So we're finishing it this afternoon. It took me a while to figure out the dubbing scheme. I was almost positive parts of it were dubbed, since they were using the same two voice actors from 'bubba's budget dubbing' that I recognized from all the kung-fu movies. But then, it's Clint Eastwood, and he doesn't speak Italian, does he? It can't be dubbed. That and there really isn't much talking to begin with. So I was befuddled for some time. Apparently, it was released in both america and italy, so half of the scenes were done in each language, and dubbed to the other.
Apparently people like M know this.
And young clint eastwood isn't bad looking either. He reminds me of hugh jackman, or at least, according to M, he has the same two facial expressions, 'stern', and 'slightly confused'. Those work for me.

Knitting, you want me to talk about knitting? I'm up to tier 11. Are pictures really necessary? I probably have a tier and a half left on this ball of yarn.

I finally got my skye tweed order from webs from way back when. They aren't really that slow at filling orders. Apparently the first time I thought I ordered it, I never clicked the 'make it so' button, and thus spent the next month and a half wondering where my yarn was. But it has since been actually ordered, and come in, and of course, I had to see if the different dye lot would match well enough (it does, you can't even tell) so I finished one of the sleeves. I'd forgotten how rough this yarn was to work with. Almost sticky. One sleeve and seams to go. I should really get different yarn for seaming it too.


one sleeve done


I also finally got buttons for the handpaintedyarn sweater. They did have them at Hobby-Lobby. They're nothing special but they should work. Unfortunately, I think I will now finish the fair isle first, since I have yarn for that. But by-golly, when the time comes, I have buttons.


pretty good match

stiff

Busy, busy weekend. I think I knit, one triangle? 1/3 of a block? Something insignificant. I will try very hard to take pictures when I get home.

Busy, but good. We went on an off-trail guided hike at one of our local parks to see some old-growth sycamores. No pictures of those. Honestly, I was a little unimpressed by the sycamores, they look pretty much like other big sycamores. Yeah, a little bigger, but not so much that it's truly astounding. There were buckeye and box elder trees down there which were quite large given they are typically understory trees. Those were more interesting, but not terribly picturesque. (they looked like trees, in particular, trees without leaves)

The weather was gorgeous, sunny and breezy and mild. Perfect. I did manage to pick up a sunburn hiking through the leafless woods. We are finally developing that elusive 'green haze' on the bare trees. It seems long overdue.

The lettuce sprouts, however, are not thriving. They aren't exactly dead, but they're not getting much bigger either. There probably isn't enough sun. Too bad.

Lest you think a simple hike could prevent me from progressing on fps, we also ate and saw pan's labyrinth with friends we hadn't seen for months. (My vote was for grindhouse or 300. I was vetoed), weeded garlic mustard out of my MIL's yard. There wasn't much, and it was quite satisfying. And went to a housewarming party for one of M's friends. And in-laws are a good drive away. So busy. But good.

I'm not sure if the stiffness is from the hiking or the weeding. I didn't get it until today, but it's all in my derriere and thighs.

Finally, pictures! (from the back porch)

'The Lump'


stretched out some - note tier 7 otn

Housing

I only knit one more patch (well, two half-patches) on fps last night. I think I've done four or five since the last post. Maybe a little more. I'm on the 6th tier. I figured it takes me a little over an hour to do a patch. (ah the precise timing achieved by knitting with the t.v. on) This leads to very easy math on how long it will take me to finish.

I am very carefully avoiding doing this math. I don't want to know. I'm pretty sure it will be something obscene like over 100 hours. I don't need to be aware of that sort of thing.

I'm completely digging the nupps too. They are my good good fast-patch friends. I had a devil of a time with them on the swatches and failed first attempt, but here, they're great. Even a little on the loose side if I don't think about it. The trick is looping the yo's over my index finger and holding them out until I knit the stitch after the nupp. Good stuff.

Anyway, on to the title of the post. Ever since the Germany thing fell through (yes the Germany thing fell through, so sad), I'd been nervous and postponing searching for a house. We'd done some preliminary looking before, but kept on the conservative side of what we thought we could afford, which resulted in houses I didn't particularly want to live in.

Well, tonight my dad called, and announced that he had fresh-caught trout which nobody else in my family wanted to eat (crazies). After dinner we talked some finance. (my Dad's profession) and re-examined how much we could probably afford. The new range yields much more promising results.

I've found that I'm drawn to idiosyncratic old houses more than I am to practical things that might do anything positive for the resale value (or cost of heating) 1838 brick farmhouse with three chimneys that look like they could actually heat the place? original 1914 art-deco looking woodwork and a crazy sliding door with beveled glass that looks like it came off a barn? I'm so there. So what if it only has 1.5 baths?

knit knit knit

So the spinning urge has passed, though I still think the rovings are oh-so-pretty. So have the starting urges. I did make good progress on FPS. More on that latter.

I also did make it to Michaels, but they sell no buttons. Now where-to? I might try Hobby-Lobby - I think they had a real fabric section, while Michaels does not, but it is the same sort of store, which lowers my expectations. Or perhaps Wal-mart? I heard they're closing their fabric section, but have they yet? They're close enough to make checking less painful.

I'm up to tier 4 on the FPS. While that is nominal in the course of how long it will need to be, and less than it sounds like since I'm making it narrow, I feel like it's solid progress. Total of 8.5 squares if I remember right. It's almost longer than it is wide.

I did my first standing up & knitting at the social security office today. Wasn't in line long enough to do much, and didn't get any comments, but I felt cool to have an intricate project there. (I'm such a nerd) and it was helpful for the standing part that it was lightweight. I did feel like I was hunching more than I do when I knit while seated.

I also worked on it a little at my parents', where we stopped over the weekend to do more potting (a.k.a. steal more pots), borrow their grill (a.k.a. make them dinner) and M fixed the computer. My mom asked if I was making it for her. While I'm pretty sure I want to keep this one, it makes me happy to have a willing recipient for lace, since I'm not sure how much of it I could wear myself. (who are we kidding here, I don't have *any* lace FO's yet - always planning ahead...) She says she likes shawls even though other people tell her they look like an old lady, and that maybe she is getting to be an old lady.

We also watched V for vendetta. (again, to show it to my family) and I'm still quite fond of that movie. While the current-politics slant is done with a bit of a heavy hand, the material does at least pre-date today's specific political clime by a good bit, and was allegedly even more political. I love how well the title character was done, quite a feat given you don't see his face. Makes you think about the technical aspects of movie-making involved in making that work. Also, I think the 1812 overture is a spectacular backdrop for blowing up buildings. Which, I guess is what it was designed to be, except for with ships. The emotion there is such an effective foil - far superior to fireworks. Family liked the movie too, which surprised me a bit, I was expecting it might be a little too dark for them.

itchy fingers

I want to start something. I want to acquire more yarn, and start doing something new. Like learning to spin. With stuff like this



or this,



or even this.



and make a lumpy bumpy beginner yarn into a lumpy bumpy bulky hat. I think any of those would be enough to make a hat. Of course, I'd have to buy a spindle, but it sounds like fun.

I also want to buy every different kind of lace yarn I've ever seen.

Particularly sundara's pure silk (regardless of the fact that it is currently un-obtainable), and some petal-pink KSH and cast on a half-dozen different shawls & scarves in all the fancy patterns from my barbara walker books. This one is particularly silly, since I just found my FPS pattern, and am absolutely gleeful to be working on it. So gleeful, apparently, that I want to do other lace. Lace is largely lace to me now, starting a second pattern would bring nothing good, other than making me lose my memorization of the first pattern.

I even want to swatch and start the lurking monster of the long-planned cable&lace denim cardigan design project. This is theoretically a good thing, since I've been trying to drum-up motivation for that beast for some time now. Now that I'm in a startin' mood, I worry that I don't really have enough yarn for it, particularly if I swatch (which I must do - it's a cable-sample homegrown design for gosh sakes). So I'm stuck. Particularly since there ain't no more of the yarn available right now.

But the *real* reason I'm not starting anything, is because my inner granny (thank you mother of chaos) wants to finish things. She wants noticeable progress on the FPS, because it is fun. She really, really wants to work up the body of the handpaintedyarn sweater, since it would go so fast you know. And then it would be soft and cuddly and wonderful to wear until this coldsnap breaks. Or even better, karma might break the coldsnap to perfectly coincide with finishing the nice cuddly sweater, so that I couldn't wear it until next year. Which would be even better. Because then it wouldn't be cold.
Ahem. Back on target. The thing is, in this case, I really do agree with my inner granny, and I don't even resent her for it like I usually do. I will try *very very* hard to get myself to Michael's this weekend and pick up some buttons and ribbon for the sweater so I can finally cast on with an appropriately sized knit-on button band.

I should probably stop by old navy and attempt to buy more jeans while I'm there. (almost) all of mine have holes in the butt.


disclaimer: all images in this post are saved to my own account (no bandwidth theft) and were taken by their respective creators, who have been linked to. I take no credit for these tasty, tasty things. The images serve to advertise exactly what I have been dreaming over, which I consider fair use. However, if they are your images, and you disagree, comment and they will be removed.

hahahaha

Found the FPS page. With the guitar music. I was so close to buying a new one.

Need to make...

this

Snowflake Scarf

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas, Alpaca Worsted, 4 skeins, natural and light blue
Gauge: 14 sts, 16 rows per 4"
Pattern: My own
Needles: size 8? bamboo.

This is one of my favorite projects. It's also My mother's, for what that's worth. This yarn is incredibly precious. You touch it and can't believe something so soft came from a living animal. That said, there are some guard hairs that I notice on my very sensitive neck. Not enough not to wear it. Also, one (not terribly long, though grandted double-thick) scarf like this will set you back $80. Phew.
It is beautifully warm though. Just long enough to really wrap across your face once. And quite good at hiding beginner's DK eveness issues. Also, it has a cable construction, and really hasn't pilled in two winter's worth of resonable wear. It does leave some fuzzies on my black wool coat, but the scarf itself is doing quite well.
Appoligies on the pictures - the coloration of this is incredibly hard to capture for some reason. It's subtle and pale, but not nearly as blurry and grey as these suggest. Most pictures that showed any kind of contrast either washed the whole thing to white so you could barely see the patten, or made the blue a strange brilliant cyan. I need to get better with the camera.

Progress on Many Fronts

The temperature here has finally crested freezing, after nearly a week of nasty, terrible snow-spitting misery, made all the more keen by the gorgeous 80 degree days that followed it. It isn't exactly balmy at 40F, and we probably won't have any lilacs, or many other early spring flowers here, and it's forcasted to be rainy and grey for the next, well, ever. But at least it isn't nasty-cold any more.

We're trying to grow some lettuce on the patio this year, and even after going un-watered through the 80-degree honeymoon, and left outside through the first sub-freezing night (before we realized that it was going to *stay* like that) it's not dead. Most of the problems seem to relate to itty-bitty lettuce seeds floating away in lightweight peat soil, and redistributing themselves to non-ideal locations. And they probably need thinned, but I'd like to wait until the mix seeds differentiate themselves somewhat, so I don't end up with all one thing.
(The two big containers are spinach and romaine, the little ones are a mesculn mix)

M's been great this weekend getting presents under control and put away, which is fortunate, since I've been grouchy and tired, and generally hard to motivate to do anything but sit. It still isn't done, but it's making progress.

Also making progress are the sleeves on the handpaintedyarn sweater. (in case you can't tell, that's almost a full pair there) There's been some pooling even with the alternation, some of which I find fascinating and beautiful, some of which I find, well, tolerable enough to not be worth ripping things out and trying to break the yarn to fix it.



Which leaves me dangerously close to having to make a decision (read: figure out) how to do the button band. I sense a stall coming on here...

and I still can't find the rest of my FP shawl pattern

losing everything

So, as a follow-up to my mysterious yarn shortage (I have finally bitten the bullet and ordered more - and needles 5 balls should be enough for sleeves, right? They were only 4$ each...) I have also lost 1/2 the pattern to the fps. Including the part that explains the part I'm on. So no work on that.

otoh, I have started on the sleeve for the handpainted yarn sweater. Started with sleeves, as I have yet to completely determine how I'm going to do the button band. Right now, thinking 1x1 rib on a smaller needle, with grosgrain sewn to the back. But still pondering.

It's working out nicely, very soft, the alternating colors seems to be working. Very snug too, which was to be expected, the original sweater was in an acrylic blend, so the rib didn't contract much. This is 100% merino, so it does. Good snugly feel to it, but it's going to be quite trim. While this is generally a plus, I'm a little nervous whether the body will end up too snug, and pull at the buttons, and I should revert to the turtleneck idea. I still prefer the idea of a cardigan, even if I only wear camisoles under it, so maybe I can block the lights out of the body when I wash it and have it work out. At worst, I suppose I could sew the button band shut, and have it be a 'pretend' cardigan.

Sleeve.


Working on the thicker dpns is hurting my left ring finger, since they neither bend like my sock pins, nor have yarn cushioning on that part like circulars. Saw on the KR forums today a post about flexi DPNs. at http://knittingonthego.samsbiz.com/page/150ww/Home.html. May have to try those out. Pretty cheap too.

In other news, the 'other' sock yarn is not turning out to be as heinous of a colorway as I had expected. Still not my fave, but it isn't paining me to work on. I did forget to factor in negative ease for the leg, so it's a bit loose, but I doubt these will really be favorite socks anyway, so I'm leaving it.

I am not seriously out of yarn ... am I?

I cast on for the dreaded first sleeve of the fair-isle sweater, as it has proved itself to indeed fit & not be ugly beyond all wearability.

I did the color work at the cuff, I got started on increases and... I finished my ball of yarn. Went to look for the next one. I've been stalling on this project for sometime, so I don't have a clear recollection of where the yarn was, or how much there was left, or anything like that. Couldn't find it. Now, I have a small stash, so it's not all that plausible that something could successfully hide in it. There just aren't that many places. I tried to look up my order receipt to confirm that yes, I had ordered a reasonable number of balls of the stuff, and I should not be out after finishing *only* the body, regardless of how much longer than specified I made it. Couldn't find the receipt. Couldn't find the yarn.

I guess I need to face the music. At least there is more of it on webs, and it's on even better sale than before. How much yarn does one need for a sleeve and 7/8 anyway?

moved to the fair-isle

After languishing for many moons finished half-way through the color work on the front, we have:

It's amazing the sins a good wash can hide in colorwork.

Granted, the point of this project was to be a learning experience (and I did learn - I learned on *the last* row of color, that I need to hold the yarn wrapped around my middle finger on the bottom side, and the yarn wrapped around my ring finger on the top, despite how unintuitive this sounds). The technique on the color is nasty. Lumpy. Mess. However, the yarn (skye tweeD) is very sticky. Annoyingly so. Thank goodness it washes up decently or I'd have wasted a purchase. And it's not too ugly for it's intended purpose as a good, warm, work sweater. I did have to send the finished colorwork through the wash to be sure of that though.

and the back, just to prove how terrible I really did with this. Note the little ends in the middle? That's where I teased out a giant loop of extra yarn in the middle, then gave up and cut it and wove the ends in. This is also, cooincidentally, has better color than the others.

So why the fair isle? Well, the socks are finished. and Here

Is my progress on FP as of my last post on the matter. Not shabby. But wait a minute - where are the needles? Is this some strange needle-less entrelac? No...I got mixed up on when to do which triangles, and it's a rip-out. Except I could never reuse the yarn, so I just yanked out the needle in disgust, cut the yarn and cast on again.

But I've been less motivated. At least taking the mulligan off the needles allowed me to stretch it sufficiently to ascertain that it will, in fact, be wide enough. Unfortunately, it's not made any progress.

Oh, and I've been on a needle breaking spree.

Two of the #0 rosewoods snapped in normal sock-knitting usage. I know, I could probably return them since I bought them a week ago, but really, I was taking a gamble that something like that would be structurally sound, and I lost. I figure it comes with the territory and I'll cut my losses and learn my lesson. I'll sand down the points on the longer pieces and use them for less strenuous jobs like stitch holding and the like.
Then...I stepped on the circular I'm using for the fair isle. You can see the (failed) attempts at a hot-glue fix in there. Think I've gotta bite the bullet and replace 'em. Which is doubly ironic, since one of the reasons I decided to finish the fair-isle was that it was on the same size needles as the handpaintedyarn I'd been winding for the past ever. (the other was that then I would have two sweaters with approximately the same complication level and intended purpose otn simultateously, which doesn't do me any good).

Jane Eyre

Apparently there's a Jane Eyre miniseries coming out a la Pride & Prejudice? I've no idea when this might be airing, and it's quite likely we don't get the channel anyway, but it makes me think. Particularly, this entry made me think. I generally agree with her commentary, but not completely. In my eyes, Jane Eyre is largely a useless book, except for as a set up for Wuthering Heights. While I haven't read extensively in this era, it's my understanding from High School literature classes that Jane Eyre was the archetype of a genre I like to refer to as 'English Heroines Lost on the Moor' there are a couple others of that vein I've read, and even P&P shares some common ground. But I ramble. The gist of the genre is that all grouchy rich men exist solely to reform and marry poor English heroines and make them rich and happy beyond their dreams.
Heathcliff turns this all on its head. Wuthering Heights without the context of Jane Eyre is just sort of morbid and depressing. With it, it's delicious, because to the bitter end there will be some people who just expect him to be Rochester.

I've started my Forest-Pathing. I kinda dig the seed stitch. This may be because I cut the obscenely large border down to two stitches. I think the seed stitch looks very neat and textured in the triangles, but the whole big border was overwhelming. I'm also knitting the border along with the rest, since there was no way in heck I was going to go back and pick up a two stitch border back and forth along the entire edge. For now that seems like this will work fine. Is there something I'm not thinking of which will bite me in the butt later? I also made it narrower by about half. (I'm doing 2-3 squares across, as opposed to, if memory serves, 4-5) I'm a little concerned that this will be too narrow, and I should have done 3-4. I'll make a call at some point. There is also a plan to attach an as-yet-undetermined edging after I finish.

I really, really meant to take pictures of last night's progress, but when I actually got in the vicinity of the yarn, I couldn't bear to not just work on it. So, I'll try harder tonight.

This weekend.

So, what did we do this weekend? Many things, my knitting corner is emptying out.
#1:
The big pile of yarn is completed:
7 skeins handpaintedyarn merino bulky "noches de otoño".
This color is actually pretty true. I love the interplay of green and purple into grey in this. I keep thinking of new names for it like "wood smoke" or "black pearl". I tend to do that when I like a color. The small skeins are from knots, I consider this turnout mostly reasonable. I'm definetly going with the alternating skeins on this, since there are subtle differences between them all, but only two that really stand out - and I think I can arrange even them discreetly.

#2:
This: (is a terrible picture. There is no light at all today, plus the only place I could set things up was far away, but you get the drift, yes?)

which is destined to become a forest path shawl.

I am in love with this pattern. I feel a little bad making it in alpaca from somewhere other than the 'alpaca yarn co' that I ordered the pattern from, but I think I'm forgivable since they didn't have a dark green color, which is what I had in mind. Truly, I was thinking a green merino, but my choices of green laceweight were this or zephyr, and this seemed closer to my vision, despite zephyr's glowing reviews. It works well in the swatch. The place I ordered the yarn from did send a sample card, and I ease my concience with the knowledge that I will probably order yarn from them in the future.

I definetly going to make a few changes to the pattern. I don't like the big plain border, so I think I'm going to nix it and knit a to-be-determined border on afterwards. I also *think* I'm going to make it narrower (probably 3 block wide instead of 5?), and possibly shorter too, since I have more of a need to a scarf than a full-blown shawl. I had a vision on my way home of it very skinny around my neck as an 'accessory' piece only a single block wide rather than a 'wamth' piece, and that tempts me. Logically, I have enough yarn to make both, but that will never happen, so I will probably nix the narrow idea, or make it in some other yarn (silk?) later.

Finally:

Wound up the next skein of sock yarn. The little one on the side is another knot orphan. This one annoye me more than the ones in the pile, since it is *so small* It is smaller than it appears in the picture, must be some sort of foreshortening going on.
I don't know if I like this colorway. It's from the same place as the FO socks, and again I think it could benefit from being more mixed-together, and shorter repeats. I'm considering zigzag socks for it, since the extra distance around would make the stripes narrower. I do feel obliged to use it up before buying more yarn. For now at least. That resolution may fade.

FO: 2nd Socks

Really, like, this is a current one I finished them yesterday.

yes, they're purl-side out. I decided I like the way it blurred the stripes together this way.
stats:
yarn: All The Pretty Fibers Pure Merino Wool "Aurora Borealis" 500 yds.
pattern: Sockulator V 8.75 long, 7.5 around. 2x2 ribbed cuff with increaces every 12 rows.
needle: combination 0 & 1 bamboo dpns. (all at the same time, not like one for the ribbing, I'm a few dpns short of a set apparently - it seemed to work)
gauge: 9.25 sts, 13 rows per 1"
thoughts: I'm not crazy about this yarn. The color is a little bright, and it changes significantly from one end of the skein to the other. It's also very thin, with many itty bitty plys, and the texture just isn't as great as the STR I used for socks #1. OTH, it was a) a gift. and b) it the picture, it looked absolutely fabulous, I so would have bought it myself, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting (btw, I was expecting more blurred colors and 'in-between-tones' rather than essentially three discrete colors in a striping pattern.
The fit is wrong. This is completely my fault, I just need to learn what size I like my socks.
But, all told, they're surprisingly servicable. The fit is manegable, and they're nicely warm. and I am so glad to be done with them.

Felted Tweed Sweater

Stats:
yarn: rowan felted tweed (color: melody). I don't remember how many balls.
pattern: copy of something I already had. While I tried to copy faithfully except for making it circular, it didn't quite work out.
needles: bamboo circular, size 1 (I think)
comments:
This was my first sweater. My first 'real' knitting project of any note. It's has flaws, but considering, I'm pretty proud of it. When I was unsure about how many balls of yarn to buy, the lady at the yarn store expressed disdain that it would be possible to copy something from an existing garment. That's crazy. I thought it would be easier than following a pattern, and it mostly was.
It's also exceptionally warm. Looking at the content (mostly wool, with equal parts alpaca and rayon) and gauge of felted tweed, I assumed it would be relatively cool, if not summer wear. I guess the alpaca goes a long way.
That said, the problems:
The gauge is a little off. I'm not sure where this came in, whether I measured the original wrong, or preferred the felted tweed at a smaller gauge that is specified on the label, it's really a mystery. For the most part, this works fine, it fits snuggly, but the ribbing expands, and it's 'fitted' rather than tight.
It's itchy. Not intolerably so, but I prefer an undershirt with it.
It shows bra-straps.
You may notice the sweater is a midriff, and while I am at that brief stage in my life where I can debatably pull that off, this matches poorly with the 'incredibly warm' point mentioned above. It also matches poorly with the idea of showing this off in front of conservative relatives & whatnot. I attribute this (the shortness) to a combination of the gauge problems, and being impatient to finish the darn thing. I've considered knitting more ribbing, then kitchenering the whole thing together to make it longer, but I think the ribbing would be disproportionate, so I'd have to go all the way up to the lacey bits. Also, that's a darn lot of kitchenering. Also, the needle I would need for it is currently occupied.

A closeup view of the colorwork:

(this was the last picture - by the time I got to it the light was completely shot. This is the best I could do. The color in the first is much more accurate)