The days go streaming by

Take today, for an example. At 5:30, my dearly beloved children head off to church (along with two other neighborhood munchkins), and they return at 9:00. That's when I update my blog. But ... when do I sit down to blogdom? At 8:30 -- after dropping said children off at church, getting groceries, and raiding a friendly neighborhood library.

The photos I was going to take today in wonderful, natural light? Just got taken.

The poncho is moving right along. The lace and I have never become fast friends. Sunday and Monday night were designed to build character. Just about the time I was ready to cease knitting and head to bed, I realized I'd made an error (nicely and consistently, over 75% of the rowly) two and a half rows back. Gotta dislike those plain knit rows that disguise pattern errors! So, I took a deep breath, placed a safety pin to mark the beginning of round (give or take a stitch), removed my needles, pulled carefully while counting back the rows, picked up the stitches, and started up again. Both Sunday AND Monday. Once was bad enough. Two gave me a bit too much character. Tuesday night saw no such continuance. I fixed it. I finished that lace pattern. Today I was hoping to finish the whole thing ... but it's not going to happen. Tomorrow it'll get finished. While I pack for Pella.

One nice thing about KidSilk Haze (or in my case, Super Kydd from Elann) is that is doesn't run, so picking up stitches is pretty easy. The flip side of this is that it doesn't run, which means it's entirely possible to knit 3 together, work the entire rest of the item, block it, give it to the recipient ... and notice a stitch looks funny, and discover that the knit 3 was really a knit one, fuzz two.

My Gull Socks are coming along nicely. I'm on sock one still, but will probably be on sock two before Monday. I suppose it depends on how nice Guinevere is to knit. If Guinevere is company knitting, the sock may well not even make it out of the bag in Pella, but if Guinevere requires concentration, than the socks will fly across my needles. My chipping-tipping Brittany needles. I finally gave up on e-mailing the company about their lovely guarantee, and called. Voila ... the needles will be shipped next Wednesday.

I've got yarn for projects coming out of my ears. The purple is the Meteor Twist socks. The remainder is for assorted Christmas presents and other miscellaneous such-like.

I have found a WONDERFUL book. The Greek Way, by Edith Hamilton. The book discusses why Greece was the beginning of civilization. Have you ever thought about why Greece was different from Persia and Egypt? Why the philosophers were Greek? What makes Greek Greek? I'm not even through the book yet, but I am making progress in it. I highly recommend it.


Civilization, a much abused word, is a matter quite apart from telephones and electric lights. It is a matter of imponderables, of delight in the things of the mind, of love of beauty, of honor, grace, courtesy, delicate feeling. Where imponderables are the things of first importance, there is the height of civilization, and if, at the same time, the power to act exists unimpaired, human life has reached a level seldom attained and very seldom surpassed. ~ Edith Hamilton

It's about time

I've been working on this poncho for 18 repeats now. And guess what? finally, and at last, I can actually TALK while working on the pattern. I still have to hold the book in my lap while working, but I'm not moving a sticky from row to row as I go through the 20-row repeat. I have never - barring the Faux Russian Stole and its 90+ row repeat - had this much trouble memorizing a pattern. This isn't even memorized. I can just work it and talk at the same time. Two days ago, I couldn't even work and listen. I've got two more repeats to go before I pick up stitches along the straight edge and start working new patterns in the round. Hopefully those patterns will sink into my memory more quickly.
When I'm not in a place to work on the poncho, I'm working on some simple socks. The bag (with partial doodle mitten) contains the yarns I'll be using in mom's Fair Isle Mittens, which will be started after I finish Guinevere.

Then there's the blue/purple vest in a Fair Isle book I have that is giving me sweet dreams. And the Unst Lace Stole...

Now, for some Finished Objects. There are the Tessellated Socks (which look much like single tessellated socks, but there are two of them.) The Mosaic Socks have striped toes and heels, and use Koigu. That pattern also never made it into my head. Am I getting dense, or am I just tackling harder things?

Lastly, here are two of the three teddy bear sweaters I made while muttering about the Mosaic Socks. The third was made in WoolEase, which was wonderfully drapey and soft to the touch. The two made out of stash acrylics could double for boards, any day. I can literally hold one sleeve by the ribbing and the other sleeve will point straight out. The pattern came from August 1, 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day. Or at least, the pattern for the blue sweater did. The other was was altered so I could knit it in one piece, instead of four. Or two, if you count picking up stitches and knitting sleeves on as 'one piece'

When life speeds up,

blogging slows down.

Wednesday night is my normal blogging night. Last Wednesday, I had respite. The previous Wednesday, I was at a retreat. And the previous Wednesday to that? Respite again. It's just not happening. And the fact that I can type three times faster than Blogger accepts characters is getting annoying.

I have oodles of lovely photos to share with you. But, I'm not making time to upload them today. Or even download them from my camera at the moment. I just want to make a quick post to show I'm alive, sort out my projects, note a few other things, and vamoose to go knit.

I'm alive.

Projects! (This is the fun part). Today, I ordered some yarn from Elann. Two days ago, I ordered some yarn from KnitPicks. I have a new box of KP yarns and color cards since my last blog post. Things are picking up on the 'projects to knit' calendar, but nothing is of great artistic merit.

• Socks in KP's Volcano Twist (on the needle, 2nd sock)
• Socks in KP's purple/black Essential twist
• Socks in KP's Buttermilk Risata
• Socks in KP's Petunia
• Socks in another colorway I forget
• Wrapped In Tradition poncho (WrapStyle) on the needle, Elann's SuperKydd in Pomegranate
• Guinevere wrap (WrapStyle) in Pomegranate
• Fair Isle mittens from Folk Mitens (at least, that's what the spine of my book says)
• Lacy baby blanket for baby show (in Swish Superwash, natural)
• Hat for dh, of unknown yarn and unknown design.
  

I have a Fair Isle vest in the back of my mind for me, but Im not going to be starting it any time soon, as you can see, so it's just stewing. As is what I shall do with the Misti Alpaca Lace I have. And when I shall begin the Unst Lace Stole (or similar project). So much to knit, so little time!

In that so little time, I've been enjoying Herodotus' Histories. Why didn't I read them when I was in school? My dh has started back to school, working on a master's degree. And my children have started back to school, under their usual teacher (me). The first week is done, and it improved greatly from start to finish. It had to. Monday began with 30 minutes of wailing, and Friday ended with glee because all the work for the day had been tackled after school was finished on Thursday, and it was a Free Day. Free to sit in the car for 2 hours, go to a doctor's appointment, wait there for 2 hours, then drive home for 2 hours. And go to Half Price Books.

Enough of waiting for Blogger to catch up to my typing. Time to go knit!