Monday, October 26, 2009

Sheer Sandwater Bliss

At long last -- well, all of two months' last, at least -- I have begun the final project from this year's Knit From Your Shelf Trek. The yarn has been sitting under my chair, waiting for my knitting queue to empty, and at long last...

It emptied.

Almost. I still have one buttonhole band to knit, but the buttons are getting shipped from CA today, so I obviously can't do anything with that.

And I don't want to work on a leftover blanket for two days straight.

And I just *had* to start a traveling project, but that doesn't count as a project to work on while I'm at home.

So yesterday, I cast on 312 stitches and began knitting. It'll be a rather large gauge swatch if I've miscalculated my needle size.

And this is our Fall Break week. A break week, a new sweater on the needles, and a corn stove. What more could one want? (Corn, actually. The fields are too wet unto the harvest. Dry out, ye!)

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Catching up on October

Much knitting has been going on (of course. What else do I do? And it's not summer any more.) Several things have been knit on the QT, but enough other things have been knit to make a decent post.

First, we have Ze Mittens. They go with the hat from my last post, and I can definitely see myself making more of these sets. A fun knit, easy pattern, warm results ... what more could one want?

Then we have the finished Lithuanian sweater. It looks best on the one person in the family who would never wear it. I love the yarn, and have a few skeins left over. Hmmm. Maybe I should make some mittens from it! (Although superwash wool isn't as warm as the unsuperwash varieties, perhaps global warming will make superwash mittens preferable? Maybe?)











There are also 5 pieces of a sweater sitting on the floor in front of our corn stove (running on wood pellets at the moment. Come on, weather, dry out so the farmers can get into the fields to harvest the corn so the elevator can sell us some!) They're dry now (the pieces, that is, not the corn) and I will be sewing them up and working a collar and button bands one of these October days. After I finish another QT project.

When I'm between projects or need something travelable, I pull out the modular sock thing. It's modular, made from sock yarn, and has (in less than two weeks of existence) been destined to be first a cushion cover (nope, too stretchy), then a blanket (nope, too ambitious and large), and for the past week has been a scarf. See, if I call it a scarf, I can make it 1x6 feet, and then slowly start expanding the 1 foot until it's a blanket! Right?

Lastly, there's Canis. Canis likes curling up and sleeping. He doesn't like it when anyone bumps him or moves him while he's engaged in this vital activity. So, one would think he would pick a quiet, out-of-the-way location.


Nope. He picks a lap. The lap formerly containing a book, which was being read aloud from.

Filia is hoping our next dog is a Shih Tzu. They're better lap dogs than crochety terriers.