stretching

Thank you all for your advice on the socks! You were all very enthusiastic about me finishing them, and I intend to do that as soon as I have time to sit down and do a sewn cast off. And I have to rip out the cast off on my first sock and sew it too. Right now it's too tight and I don't like how it binds around my leg.

I have been working on my show. I guess I might've said that, but in any case, the show has opened, and I am emerging. This play was a lot of work due to its low budget. The producer and I did most of the construction and painting, and we both put in some very long hours last week. Look at what you can do with some old Ikea Billy shelves laid on their sides!
I'm glad it's over, but I only got a handful of photos for my portfolio, which is too bad.

I spent part of today spinning a little, for the first time in weeks, and sewing on some buttons. I promise to have some finished shots of my Alpine shrug soon. Maybe I can wear it tomorrow for our Super Bowl party.

While working this week I cast on and knit another cabled baby bib, since I know 6 people who are pregnant and due in the next 6 months. I must have reached that age, because I'm sure that 7 months from now, I'll still know 6 people who are pregnant. The bib is for no one in particular yet, I'm just stocking up. I'm a little concerned about the button being a choking hazard. Any advice from those of you with kids?

confusion

I have been really busy. In fact, I am still really busy. And tired. I have forgotten what it feels like to be deprived of sleep. I almost put the milk away on the cereal shelf this morning.

This will all be over by Thursday, though the big push is today, to paint my set and dress it fully. It is coming together nicely, and I'm thankful to have a career that involves creating imaginary worlds. All day long. It's like playing with a dollhouse with your friends, but all grown up.

I am not sure what to do about these socks. I loved the first one, but I am really disappointed with the color repeats on the second one. I am tempted to rip it out to the first green and gray repeat (right after the heel), cut the yarn to prevent the second green repeat, and do it over. I could have prevented this by reskeining 1/2 of the yarn, so I could knit the same direction (and not from either end), thus preventing mirrored repeats.What do you all think? Christopher says that I have a lot of projects that I want to start (how does he know??) and that I should just finish the socks and move on. I'm less sure.

looking ahead

I stayed home yesterday to watch the inauguration and work on a grant application. I also finished my Alpine shrug while watching the speech. It's currently soaking (it needs major blocking), so I have just this one photo of it, a little preview. Anyway, the inauguration. I can't remember having watched one before, though I remember the excitement of Clinton being inaugurated when I was in high school. The whole ceremony reminded me of a wedding, strangely. The introductions, the processions, the chatter about what people were wearing. Even lines were flubbed.
I actually thought that something would change at noon yesterday, but when I looked outside, it was the same. I say this because on election night at 11pm, my street was filled with cheers and gunshots, and though somewhat frightening, it was also very exciting. There weren't any cheers yesterday, just some woman walking down the median.

I found this photo on Facebook. It was taken by a friend of a friend, and seeing it made me rather emotional. He said that I can post it here, so here you go. I hope the love lasts. I'm afraid that our expectations are too high, that we can only be disappointed...

winter

I've been a bad blogger recently. Clearly posting a YouTube video is a cop out, if that's the only post of the week.

I honestly don't have much to report. I've been slowly working my way through projects, though nothing is done enough to show. My mittens need one more thumb, my second sock needs a heel and ankle, and my Alpine shrug (which I may not have even mentioned, it's been so low priority) has been picked up again and I'm seaming it together. The shrug is one of those projects that nearly knits itself, the yarn is so thick and the garment itself is so small. Besides seaming, I just have to do the neckline, find and sew on a button and I'll be done.

I've been social. Last week I spent an afternoon walking around the Brooklyn Botanical Garden with someone I've been wanting to know better, the wife of a guy I went to high school with. It was a beautiful afternoon, the last semi-warm day of the week, and it was also really nice to be out. I didn't take very many photos, but I did get this:
Yeah, it's a great blue heron, in BROOKLYN. Who would've thought?

It's also been cold. Dinah has a new favorite spot, in her new cat bed right by the radiator. I don't blame her; I've been plotting what knitted thing would keep me warmest, and how I can make it as quickly as possible. Something big. A sweater? Or maybe I should pick up that coat again...

medieval tech support

I stumbled across this on Facebook today. I know I've seen it before, but I think it's still funny.

yarn karma

After an unsuccessful posting in the Ravelry ISO forum, I tracked down a knitter who had a partial skein of Koigu, and I sent her a message pleading with her to part with her yarn. She was happy to, saying that she didn't like having parts of skeins hanging around. Yesterday a fat envelope came in the mail from California. It contained 1/4 a skein of lavender Koigu, which will be plenty to finish my mittens. The yarn matches perfectly (which I was only slightly worried about, since I didn't know the color number and Koigu has like 10 lavenders or something).

I've also finished my first Noro sock. I love it, though I find the bind off a little tight and will probably redo it. And it's scratchy. But I love looking at it, and I am hopeful that it will soften when I wash it. I told Christopher that I don't think the second sock will have the same color repeats, which confounded him. He thinks socks need to match. (This coming from a man who has 20+ pairs of the same white socks, so he doesn't have to mix and match.)

In my last bit of yarn karma, on Wednesday someone on Ravelry contacted me about some pink Skye Tweed I had in my stash. I had bought it on sale from Webs at least a year ago, and though I loved the color I had no plans for it. This knitter had run out of yarn for a sweater she is knitting, and was desperate for my 2 skeins, since it has been discontinued. It really felt like I was being asked to repay my good yarn fortune, and so I mailed her the yarn yesterday.

Moral of the blog post: pay it forward!

little needles

For some reason, perhaps to counter the albatross of my abandoned Metropole Coat, I have been knitting on little needles. Back in November I started a pair of Vinterblomster mittens for myself, but I didn't like the color scheme and it took me a few weeks to remedy that and really get into it. It's become my subway knitting lately, and I love it. Except that it seems I'm now out of lavender yarn.I know where I can get it, that's not really the problem. The issue is that I have so much yarn that I can make just about anything I wish, and there's no excuse for buying more. Thus these mittens are knit from stash yarn. (never mind that I don't need more than a quarter of a skein of lavender -probably less- and I don't want to spend $13+ just for a few yards of yarn)

So that's on hold while I bother various people on Ravelry who I see have exactly what I need. Someone out there must have the end of a skein of lavender Koigu, right?

In the meantime, I've started a sock. It's on little needles too. Actually, I had to buy another set of #1 needles since the first set is being used for the mittens. (I'm sure there's some sort of logic in the fact that I refuse to buy yarn but that I'll buy an extra set of needles. They were on sale.)Like the mittens, the sock is totally addictive. I seem to really like how color patterns unfold, and Noro sock yarn does not disappoint. These are a little more mindless, and I'm amazed at how quickly it is coming; I started it on New Year's Day. Aren't socks supposed to take forever? Or maybe it's the second sock that takes a long time?
Anyway, I'm smitten.

Edited at 12:21pm: I have located lavender Koigu!! A wonderful woman named Hilary is saving my mittens and sending me 1/3 skein of her left over yarn! Oh, I am so happy!

Happy New Year!

We had a good end to 2008-- brunch with Christopher's aunt and uncle and cousins, an afternoon at the Coop doing a hurried make up shift, and friends for dinner and wine. Overall the day was friendly and open, with hope and good feelings for the future. This is a can of champagne that I received at my bridal shower more than 2 years ago. I broke it out last night for the celebration. It was rather gross but fun to drink.

Yesterday the Coop closed early, and therefore was mobbed. I watched as a friend of mine who works there kept her temper in check. I tried to assure her that people would be more considerate once the holiday season was over.

Why I like the Coop: I witnessed a shopper drop a jar of something (applesauce?). He immediately found a broom and swept it to the side, and then got a mop and "wet floor" sign and cleaned up the mess.

Why Christopher hates the Coop: A woman told me that she doesn't understand why the Coop stocks pork, when "pigs are our pets and friends."

We've been laying low today, swearing we'd do some organizing, cleaning and purging. It's slow going, and it's much more interesting to start a new knitting project or listen to the radio while lazing on the sofa. We're starting to make some progress. Slowly. Surely.

Have a good year!