Happy Birthday to me!

Pattern: Hey, Teach! by Hélène Rush
Source: Knitty.com
Yarn: Cotton Ease by Lion Brand in Almond
Needles: US 9

Sunday afternoon, I decided I wanted to finish Hey, Teach! so I could wear it tonight to my birthday dinner. So, I cast on for the left front panel, finished it Sunday night, cast on and started the right front panel that night, finished it and the sleeves the next day! Yesterday, I knit up the neckline and button bands and sewed up the whole thing. I fell into my bed finally at 3.30 this morning. *falls over* But it's finished! And just as I was about to sit down to sew on the buttons, mom took pity on me (I'm the birthday girl!) and beat me to it. All I had to do was steam blocke and model. *g* I think I may finally turn into a gauge touter because my gauge was so spot on, I didn't need to block any of the pieces to stretch them to their proper size! I'm quite proud of that. Ooh, and check out the fantab buttons I got!



All in all, I love this cardy, and I am very happy with this yarn. I think if I had it to knit again, I'd try a DK weight yarn in a larger size to dress the sweater up a bit more. As it is, I may do just that at some point as I'm always looking for elegant, classy looking sweaters. And this pattern is definitely that.

WIPs

I spent the weekend working on the back panel of Hey, Teach! after fixing my SIL's Little Lace Shrug (from Pam Allen's Little Silk Shrug pattern). This was actually helpful in that both use cotton yarns. I added a bit of length to the shrug which allowed me to incorporate the decreases in the edging that the pattern calls for, but I can't say I'm particularly pleased with it. I should've used a stretchier bind off and perhaps omitted the final decreases in the bind off row itself. The opening is tighter than I'd like, and I have a narrower back than SIL does. I think I'll talk to her and see if she can bring it by again this weekend so I can fix that row.

I've learned quite a bit about the inelasticity and drape of cotton with these two pojects which is quite useful. I seem to need to see these things in practice rather than read about it in a book or magazine. I swatched for Hey, Teach and got gauge on size 9/5.5mm. In the stockinette this looks fine, but the knit stitches open on the 1x1 rib, which is slightly annoying (you can see this in the pic if you click on it--it'll give you the larger size). I'm hoping a bit of blocking will help this, but perhaps going with a size 8/5mm needle and working a larger pattern size would've helped with this? I'm not sure. The same thing happened with the cotton blend yarn I used on the Columbine Peaks socks, again in the rib portion. Has this happened to anyone else?

cookies for me!

Finally! Eris is officially finished and at it's new home!!



After blocking and getting the zipper in professionally (I know, I'm a cheater; what do you want? my sewing machine protested strenuously and would not cooperate!), I'm finally seeing the back of this project. Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled with how it turned out; I'm just glad I don't have to look at it and feel guilty about not having it done. *g*

In the meantime, I've gone back to the Charm Wrap for myself since I'll definitely be needing it come November. I finished the left front panel last weekend and I cast on the right front panel last week. It's coming along. I need to take some progress pics. As a treat to myself for finishing the indexing of my Jane Austen notes, I'm also going to cast on Knitty's Hey, Teach! tonight. I went and returned the unused skeins from Eris and got store credit, so I picked up some Cotton Ease in Almond--a very pretty pale yellow. Gauge swatching will commence momentarily! Hmm, I seem to be on a cardigan kick. I can't help it. If this knits up quickly I may just start on that Yaquina Bay cardigan I've been meaning to get to for months now.

Woohoo! I'm so excited! I get back to my writing tomorrow! .... Indulge me, I'm sure I'll be tearing my hair out in a week, lol.

an FO and a holy cow!

Columbines are DONE! I took the Subway series weekend opportunity to finish that second sock.



Oh, and please to note today's temperature.



And I got the visiting fellowship to England! *does funky chicken* Guess I better finish Charm Wrap. :D

heat wave

It's summer. All past mini heat waves tried to warn us. Now, there's no going back. Last week and over the weekend we averaged at 107 Fahrenheit. That's about 43 Celsius. Gorgeous clear, blue skies, beautiful sunshine, and baking heat. Somehow, I don't think this should be allowed. How can you enjoy summer weather when it's this baking? Today, we're at a cool 98 degrees. Excuse me while I adjust the fan.

All this means that progress on Eris has halted. I did finally rip out the cuff on the first sleeve last week (at night, thankyouverymuch!) and added another two inches to the sleeve, and reknit the cuff over the weekend (again, at night, and with the A/C running). All that's left is closing the cuff, knitting the entire second sleeve, a bit of pseudo-blocking (acrylic, you do what you can), and the zipper (which looks closer to being sent out to be put in that sewing it in myself). I'd really like to be done with this already so I may suck it up and work on it this week. Maybe.

Last week I went to Angels Stadium to catch my NY Mets vs the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim .... excuse me while I roll my eyes yet again at that unnecessarily long team name, we'll just call them what they really are, the Anaheim Angels, yes?



We had pretty good seats--I could ogle David Wright to my hearts' content--and I even took some knitting with me for a little Stitch and Pitch action. Of course, without the play-by-play from the announcers, I found concentrating on the game absolutely necessary. The poor second Columbine sock stayed in my little green knitting bag, still unfinished. It was a compelling game!! The Mets had the lead through the 5th until Oliver Perez decided to pull an Oliver Perez and gave it back and the go ahead run. It stayed 4-3 until the top of the 9th when D. Wright came through (and made me love him more!) by smacking a base hit that brought Jose Reyes home to tie it up. Damion Easley won it for us with a solo homerun in the 10th. Game over. Gripping baseball, I tell ya!

On the way out of the stadium, we saw this:



The Angels' 2002 World Series trophy. Ain't it purty? I'd never seen the WS trophy this close-up. It was pretty thrilling. I rooted my heart out for this team in the 2002 series, Rally Monkey and all. Please to ignore the fact that I'm a die-hard Mets fan; I'm a transplant, I have my California teams too.

So, knitting has mostly become focused on small, light projects that do not smother me in heat adding yarns. Like the Lace Ribbon Scarf which is coming along nicely.



Pretty, no? I'm happy with it so far. And considering I've still got about 3/4 of that sock yarn skein left, I'm going to be at it for some time still. And I'll be casting on the Luna Moth and Seascape shawls soon too.

For now, though, it's back to Emma and the dissertation. And staying cool.

a pimp and a post

Pimping!!: Susan is giving away Manos del Uruguay! You read that right. Go to her blog to enter, and hurry! She's choosing winners tomorrow. :)

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I think I must be the slowest knitter in creation. Eris is *still* on the needles but at least I can say I'm at the cuff of the first sleeve. I had planned on working on it today but it's been very warm here and the thought of having that very warm cardigan on my lap is not very appealing right now. Must wait a few more hours. As for my mom's socks, I finally CO the second sock on the flight home from Salt Lake City last weekend. And the Charm Wrap is pretty much hibernating, though it is turning out nicely.

Knitting's taken a bit of a back seat the past few weeks as I've worked on the dissertation and the temps have gone up and down. Last week I did an intensive course on course design for university level classes. This week, I've been working on the portfolio for that class, which is due next Friday. I decided not to redesign one of my previous courses, since those are mostly freshman/intro level classes where I've got to meet departmental and institutional requirements with students. So, I decided to create a course for upperclass English majors (primarily) that grows out of my dissertation, in essence. It's on women writers of the Romantic period, but rather than look at English and American Romanticisms separately, which is what's usually done, I've designed it so that we'll examine British and American writers together. This way, students will be to examine how women writers built on each other's ideas and arguments, and hopefully gain a better appreciation for Romanticism, learning that the ideas didn't happen in a bubble and stop at a certain place on the nineteenth-century timeline. Anywho, that's the academic ramble of the day. :D

Next on the knitting front are some KAL and swap projects--and I'm keeping myself to my stash (it minimizes later guilt :P). I was thinking Hew by CanarySanctuary for the color KAL with the SPEW group, but I'm dithering again and reconsidering Endpaper Mitts, which I've had queued for-eh-var. But I was also thinking I'd combine the color KAL project with the Master & Commander RAL/KAL project, since that's 'Mediterranean'. Bah. I'll make up my mind eventually .... by Monday, lol.

Anywho, the food's on the barbie, so I'd better take myself off. The temp's cooling, the Mets game is about to start, and the pundits are still spinning from Hillary's speech this afternoon. Say what you will about her, her run at the White House is just as amazing as Obama's. I hope people remember this year's historic presidential campaign--so many gender and color barriers and prejudices being shattered. More still need to come down, but these steps sure do make me proud of my country.

what a pain in the ....

hands. Hah! Were you thinking anything else?! My hands have literally been in agony this week. I'm knitting Eris on size 5 (3.75mm) needles and have been working a boatload of stitches - 399 at the end of the yoke; 275 once I divided sleeves and body. I think if my hands had a mind of their own, they'd've strangled me by now. I've been wearing my wrist brace at night and throughout some days the past few days. Yesterday I even wore it while knitting the last few rounds of body just before the waist shaping. Several breaks were taken. Much massaging and willing the hands through the last stitches. Ideally, I'd like to have this cardigan done by Mother's Day next Sunday, but I think it's probably a safe bet that I won't. We'll see. I'm going to attempt some waist shaping today but may have to switch to Charm and it's larger needles. Or icon making. It might do some good to indulge my Photoshop fix.

season of fruitfulness

I know, I know. Wrong season. But I've had such a productive week I'm a bit overjoyed. Monday I received word I'm a finalist for a rather competitive fellowship, and that kicked me into gear on the remaining fellowship applications I've had on my to do list. So I spent the rest of the week working on those, tracking down my professors for recommendations, and generally spending a lot of time on the computer. I even got to chat with a few of my friends whom I haven't talked to in way too long. It was really good to reconnect. I also found an Austen group on Ravelry and joined in on the Northanger Abbey discussions. I also posted a few more discussion posts to the Austen RAL I'm leading which started getting a few responses again. If you can't tell, I'm feeling re-energized and ready to pick up the dissertation work again come next week.

Knitting wise, I've got the Eris yoke increases almost done--now I just have to figure out why my stitch math is off. I've got 297 stitches right now and after the last bit of increases I should have 399. Except that my math tells me I'll be 22 stitches short. So, I'm going to have to recheck my math (again) and figure out where to drop in those extra stitches. What do you want? I'm an English major. :p

The other projects haven't seen any action since I've been working on Eris, but I did get a square for the remembrance blanket done last night at my cousin's baseball game. I'm looking forward to choosing some more of my stash yarn for the remaining squares. I tell ya, it's a very rewarding way to help bust the stash.

crawling out from behind the books

OMG I cannot let the knitting blog languish like this. I've been deep in the mires of the dissertation and haven't been online much other than for email and library use. I have made progress on my various WIPs though!

As predicted last time, The Black Sheep has long outstripped me on Eris. I'm here:



now with yoke stitches finally picked up (thanks to my longer cables arriving today!). And she's way over here:



(as seen on her blog). CORRECTION!! She just told me she finished it! *falls over*

LOL! Ah well. I thought the Knitting Gods had taken their vengeance when they killed her cables (I put her replacements in the mail Thursday). Meanwhile, I forgot my cousin's birthday was coming up so had to stop to knit these:



That's Peaks 'n' Valleys from Knit Socks! which I *finally* got right! I've now got Cat Borhdhi's Columbine Peaks on the needles (at the gusset) and am at the armholes on Charm. Hey, I had to do something while I waited for those cables.

Oh, and I finally broke down and bought one of those wraps-per-inch tools. It was driving me slightly nutzoid that my stock socks knit up a bit loose:



I used US 2s since those are my fave sock needles lately, but while I was knitting I kept thinking I should've been using my 3s (which I tend to avoid because of the kinky cables). Today I checked the wpi on that lurvly Valore and it came up to sport weight, so definitely size 3 material. I really need to start trusting my instincts. No matter. I still love those socks and am itching to cast on the rest of that yarn for another pair. I've definitely decided to have at least one pair of socks on the needles at all times. They're so addictive and enjoyable.

spring has sprung

I know snowstorms and bitter cold are blanketing a good portion of the country, but here, spring is making its appearance. Yesterday, I spent the day outside knitting. I finished a pair of stock socks, took pics with my phone, and now have no idea how to get the pictures off my phone and online. LOL. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually.

Strangely enough (or maybe not), I'm realizing that I find big projects much more satisfying than small ones. So, I've decided to cast on Eris. I'm even going to check my gauge to make sure I'm right! What a notion, eh? The Black Sheep and I are going to have a mini-KAL with this. I'm knitting the cardigan and she's chosen the pullover. 10 to 1 she finishes before I do since she's the cable queen; I plan on pestering her mercilessly with cabling questions to try and slow her down. MWAHAHAHAHA! :p

On a different note, I'm trying to find a good method for making a hank into a ball sans ball winder (grad student here!). The Pink Sheep gave me a lovely hank of merino sock yarn from Crash Into Ewe for Christmas in a special green colorway and, even though I love ogling and fondling the hank, I want to knit something out of it! Maybe I'll just have to watch Miss Marple and figure her method out, unless someone wants to take pity on me and offer some advice. *puppy eyes* Would you believe this is my first hank evar?!

stash resolution

My goal this year is to clear my stash of all the yarn I bought when I first started to knit. You know, the fun yarns and BIG and CHEAP skeins. Of course, this was my resolution last year which failed miserably. This year, however, I've decided to create stock gifts (like hats and scarves) and charity items which will hopefully deplete the stash come December. One charity I'm excited about is Project Linus. Not only do they accept blankets and quilts, some of their members on Ravelry are looking for yarn donations as well.

So, what charities do you like knitting for?

climbing out from under the books

Hi! My poor long-neglected knitting blog has suffered horribly from my traveling back to the US, the holidays, my brother's wedding, and, of course, the dissertation. But I'm back bearing FO pics!

The first isn't really new since it's of the wedding shrug BUT it's from the day of the wedding so hey, bonus! The wedding itself went off without a hitch which amazed and pleased us all, and everyone had a fantastic time.

And! after way too long, I've finished Mr. Greenjeans! Unfortunately, mom had to unwrap an unfinished Christmas present (about half of the second sleeve was missing as well as the neck and button band), but that's ok; she loved the color and yarn anyway and was much impressed with how my knitting skills have progressed. :) Then I had to frog the entire cable portion of the body and reknit it to fit her better. Not fun. But it's done!



I actually chose the button first and then the color to work with it. It's carved from a coconut shell! Pretty fitting since mom grew up with coconut palm trees in her backyard. And you know what? I love how blocking helps knits fit better.

Now I have to find yarn for another Mr Greenjeans since my cousin saw mom's while she was here for the wedding and fell in love with it. In the meantime, I've got three small projects on the needles, because I'm that indecisive, and have yarn for either Roam or Charm Wrap for myself. I'm leaning towards the wrap though. In the meantime, I better get my kntting ADD under control!