This, my friends, is what is known as a Very Silly Picture. This is me, dancing like a fool, at Winterlude this past February. Friend Patrick, who is a very good photographer indeed, took the shot while I was being ridiculous in the park for the amusement of those around me. Fortunately, more people were looking at the ice sculptures than at me, or I might have been photographed whilst blushing bright red.

The great part about this picture, at least for the purposes of this blog, is that I am covered in handknits. The Winterlude Hat(tm), the Stripey Striped Scarf, the Fleeps… and, though you can’t see them, I believe I was wearing handknit socks at the time. And the picture wasn’t taken to show off any of those things. No, it’s just a candid shot of me, wearing lots of things I knit myself. And one thing I spun and then knit, which shows up surprisingly well in pictures even if the contrast is a little dim in person.

I’d like to have enough handknit (or crocheted) stuff that all my friends’ photo albums have pictures of me wearing stuff I made myself. It would also count if I learned to sew and was photographed wearing clothing I’d sewn. That’s next on the list – once the craft room is set up, I’ll have a place for the sewing machine and can re-familiarize myself with its ways. I have a simple skirt in my wardrobe that I’d love to be able to duplicate. After that, who knows where my skills might branch out?

Not a single stitch. I was having too much fun visiting family, eating a ridiculous amount of food, joining good conversations, and, well, having no need to hide in a corner with yarn.

However, I did discover that my cousin Sara knits, and we had a good laugh over our matching Stripey Striped Scarves. Seems that we used at least two of the same colorways, which is pretty funny. I got to show off the Fleep-Tops, too, because it was cold enough to require gloves at night.

But now that I’m home, and I have the whole day ahead of me to spend as I wish, I think I will spend at least some of it with yarn.

Although yesterday was Wednesday, and therefore not necessarily a Spinning Day, I couldn’t keep my hands off the new spindle. I’m starting to get the hang of getting it going at high speeds without introducing a wobble, and for the most part I’m drafting while the spindle is still spinning. If the yarn breaks, I have to do a park-and-rejoin sort of trick.

Today, however, I must get back to knitting. My plan is to first get through the heel of the second Toe-Up sock, so that the project becomes portable again. After that, I’ll put fingers onto the Fleep-Tops. I should be able to finish both the gloves and the socks before Winterlude. Not only does that mean I’ll have a new pair of warm wool socks to wear in the winter cold, it means that I’ll be casting on a new project with which to travel!

Actually, there’s a distinct probability that I’ll be casting on two new projects. Part of my travels are by air, which calls for a sock – small, portable, fits in my usual purse – and part will be a road trip, which calls for something bigger than a sock, because I can only knit on a sock for about an hour in the car before getting a headache.

It took an unsurprisingly long time to decide what socks I’d be working on. First I thought I would do another pair of toe-up stockinette socks. After all, I can practically knit those in my sleep! Then I thought no, I want to do something with a little more patterning to it. Nothing too complex, so I could still work on it and talk at the same time. Finally I settled on the Thermal Socks, which use the stitch pattern from the Thermal Sweater from Knitty. I’m going to use Noro Kureyon Sock yarn for them, but I still haven’t decided if I’ll work them top-down or toe-up. Given Kureyon’s propensity for knots, I will definitely be re-winding the yarn into two even portions before I begin.

For the bigger project, I am considering this Wavy Razor Shell Scarf in Noro Silk Garden. I have three skeins of it in beautiful soft blues, grays and purples. The only change I plan to make is that I will knit the scarf with five points, not four, because I agree with Grumperina that four is just not a good number. I don’t know why odd numbers of points look better to me. Anyway, I will be re-winding this yarn into balls as well, not only to check for knots, but because the scarf is knit in two parts, from the middle out. Two of the balls I have are from one dye lot, and the third is from another. I’ll start the middle of the scarf in the middle of that third ball of yarn, and no one will ever know!

The trip to WEBS yielded these additions to the stash, and I think my new camera did them justice. The rocks in my front yard are great to take pictures on when it’s sunny out.

One ball of Lang Jawoll Color Aktion should be more than enough to make fingerless flip-top mittens with nice long cuffs, which I’ve been wanting for a long time. Mittens will keep my hands warmer, but there are those moments when I’ll really need my fingers free. I doubt these will be done by Winterlude, even if that’s when I’ll really need them. There’s a stew competition I attend every year which is held outdoors, and the bulky winter gloves I was wearing last year made it impossible to hold my spoon! The fliptops will also be good for driving, although I do plan to buy a new pair of lined leather gloves this year. My old ones are worn out, and leather is one of those things that knitting just can’t replace.

I’ve wanted to try Silk Garden for a while, and when I saw Everyday Autumn’s Razor Shell Scarf I knew I’d found the right pattern. I have three balls of the Silk Garden and she only used two for a scarf that’s just about five feet. I might decide to make mine a five-pointed scarf instead of three, because I like scarves that are both long and wide. My general rule is that a scarf should be at least six inches taller than its wearer. I’m planning this one for next winter, as I’m not feeling any shortage of scarves; I’ve already knit three for myself! The Razor Shell scarf seems like it might be a little more dressy than the ones I made before. Sometimes I need to look a little more sharp – what’s better than a Razor scarf to accomplish that?

Last night I went to SnB for the first time in six months. It was so good to see everyone again! I’d like to try to get back there more often, if possible. The timing and location aren’t so great for me, but I love being surrounded by two dozen awesome knitters. I got one pattern repeat done on the baby blanket while I was there, which is half of what I’d hoped to accomplish. The pattern row wasn’t too hard to do even with all the conversation and distraction, which pleased me.

I gave some thought to the sock design I’d like to make up, and I think the lace pattern I originally had in mind might not work. The pattern is a multiple of 24 stitches plus one, which would mean having it repeat three times around the sock. How would that work over the instep? I’ll swatch for it just in case, but it might not be the best of ideas, so I’ll go to the design class armed with a couple of different stitch patterns.

Pirate-Husband continues to be awesome. I took out the yarn that I’m going to use in the sock design class, and was fussing with the scale and ball-winder. “What are you doing?” he asked. When I told him that I was splitting the skein in two and winding it up, his first response was “But the class isn’t for three weeks! Should you be winding the yarn up now? It isn’t good to have it under tension.” I love that he knows these things about my hobby and that he’s so supportive, but I reassured him that three weeks of being wound up wouldn’t make much of a difference to the yarn.

The first Bloo Sock is almost complete. I hope to get it done tonight so that Michael can try it on this weekend. I am a little anxious for it to fit well, so I can knit the second sock without worrying that I’m just going to have to rip it all out and start over. Anyway, I’m meeting up with him in Philadelphia to do touristy things and drink beer. The women at SnB last night were recommending Philly yarn stores to me. I may try to resist, as I’m still supposedly on a yarn diet!

I feel like such a dork saying it, but omg! people are making the armwarmers! I saw someone on the LJ knitting community recommending them, and someone on a UK knitting forum did the same, and someone on Ravelry has cast on for the pattern too! I should probably relax a little bit, but I can’t help squeeing just a little!

It’s still not cool enough to wear the Stripey Striped Scarf, but I’m sure it will be soon! I’ll try to get some pictures of its public debut, possibly under the trees which are just now starting to turn pretty colors.

My wrists have been hurting, so I’ve been trying to knit and type a little less. This is frustrating, but I’d rather take a few days off knitting than have to take a month off after I really overdo it.

And lastly, I know this isn’t exactly knitting-related, but in about ten minutes the realtor is going to pick us up and take us to see our first bunch of houses. I’m *so* excited!

Last night I finally finished the Stripey Striped Scarf! I could have kept going; there are three smallish balls of Kureyon left over. I might make a Stripey Striped Hat of them, but the scarf was definitely long enough. I didn’t measure – it’s well over six feet, quite a bit taller than me! I tried to get good pictures:

Here we have the by-now-infamous stripey striped scarf, hurtling towards completion. I may have already mentioned that there’s 12-15 inches of scarf left to knit. It was up in the 90s yesterday (that’s ‘hot’, for you Canadians) so it’s nowhere near time to be wearing warm wool scarves… still, I’m looking forward to having it done. At the same time, I will miss the fun of seeing what colors come next and how they play out against each other. Maybe I’ll have to do something stripy again soon.

As my wrists allow, I’ve been working on carding the green roving. I thought it would never end, but I finished off the last of it after taking this picture. Pirate-Husband helped some, which surprised me a little, but he said he found it to be relaxing and meditative. Maybe I can get him to card for me in the future? I took a cardboard box, lined it with a black plastic bag, and put all the rolags in it. It’s full to the top, so it’s a good thing I’m out of wool that needs to be carded! Next up is, of course, the Eight Pounds of Alpaca – but I think I’m going to hold off on carding that until I’ve spun some of what I’ve already got. First, the roving from MD Sheep & Wool. I think that would be the best to practice on. Then, the green stuff… and THEN the alpaca.

There in the sidebar, thanks to Casey over at Ravelry, is now a neat little thingie (yes, that’s a technical term, ‘thingie’) which shows my current WIPs and their progress. It also links back to the project page on Ravelry, but unless you have an account, you won’t be able to see that yet.

I gotta say, even though the site is still in beta, I’m absolutely loving it. There’s an incredible feel of community over there. Eleven people have queued up the armwarmers pattern. It’s so cool that I’m able to see that! I can’t wait for people to start knitting it so I can see the different projects.

Last night, between re-installing my printer (don’t ask) and poking at the html and css on the blog, I put another few inches onto the Stripey Striped Scarf. It’s got about another 12 or 15 inches, and then it will be DONE! I’m sure I can get quite a bit of it done at SnB tomorrow night. And then… then I can start something new again! Whee!

It is too dark now to take pictures and have any color accuracy, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it…

I wound up the next (fifth) ball, the one with the beginning that closely matches the end of the knotted (third) ball. The outside, which is now the end, is nicely purple. While I had the ball-winder going, and since I’m so close to needing it anyway, I wound up the last (sixth) ball. Amazingly, its beginning end also matches the end of the knotted (third) ball!

The nicely purple end of the fifth ball goes fairly well with the nicely purple end of the fourth ball… so I’m going to re-wind the fifth ball so that the purple end is now the purple beginning. I can’t believe how well this is working out, considering how randomly I picked these balls of yarn!

I proofread this before posting to make sure I had all the balls of yarn right. Hopefully it’s not too confusing, and you can follow along. I’ll try to get color-accurate pictures when there’s some daylight!

Here we see the Stripey Striped Scarf, moving past the salmon and sugar snap peas into the blue of night and the pale grass of morning. I am loving this scarf. It’s mindless knitting. It’s going to look so good when it’s done. It’s… what’s this? What the heck has happened to my yarn? There is a knot. In my Kureyon (third ball). What happened to my slow gradual color change? This goes “green green green KNOT pink pink”! That’s not right at all! Augh! What to do? I briefly consider that I have about two feet of green before the knot; I can untie it and gradually felt the pink in. That will mimic the color shift, right? Of course. No panicking. I get ready to felt.

Then I realize that the next (fifth) ball might have a matching section. I pull it out of the basket and stare. The shade of green just before the knot in the first (third) ball is so very close to the shade of green which begins the next (fifth) ball, though they are totally different colorways. This is just too cool! The scarf is already almost 45″ long, and the next two balls (fifth and sixth) plus the as-yet un-knotted bit of the fourth ball should bring it well up over 72″ unblocked (or, IMO, the perfect length for a scarf). I’m not going to worry about the non-matching end of the third ball of yarn. After all, it had one knot – how can I trust the rest of it?

Color shifting saved, I am going to go wind up the next (fifth) ball of yarn. This is just awesome.

Two days in a row, I’ve come home from work and been sucked into the glory that is the Stripey Striped Scarf. “Just a few rows,” I tell myself, “to see what the next colors will be. Just a few more rows before dinner.” Right now, pale pink is playing off of a beautiful fresh green. Was it coincidence that tonight’s dinner was salmon and sugar snap peas? Perhaps not.

This is just a few ounces of the eight *pounds* of fleece currently awaiting rotation through the freezer. I am thrilled to have it; I just need to decide what to make! Alpaca mittens would be nice, or maybe those fingerless gloves I keep thinking of – or maybe convertible fingerless glove mittens! Yeah!

Unfortunately, pictures of this green roving don’t do the color justice at all, though I tried and tried. I found two bags of the same color, but they were obviously two different dye lots, so I’m going to card them together and split the difference. It’s very tightly compressed right now and feels a little bit rough. Originally I was thinking of making a hat with it. If it still feels rough when I card it, I might have to change that idea, or make a lining so it’s not too itchy on my head. Here’s an older picture of me, from two years ago, but there are my eyes… and there is this roving. It’s incredible. I’ve never found anything this color before, so if I’m ranting a little, please forgive me!

Another thing I bought at Pennsic is this cobweb-weight silk/cashmere blend. It’s the same as the coppery brown stuff I already have, and bought from the same person. She says she keeps this and several other colors in stock, or I’d've been tempted to purchase two spools of purple as well. it’s amazingly fine. I spent a long time in front of the tent just admiring the different colors and gently touching the yarn.
When Pirate-Husband picks out a pattern of lace that he likes, I’ll put the project in my Ravelry queue. I’m certain that I will be able to make two cuffs for him by next Pennsic. If I make it three times the circumference of his wrist, it should ruffle nicely from the cuff of his shirt and look really spiff!

Speaking of lace, here is the Ostrich Plumes progress, gently pinned out this time so the pattern shows up better. I’m still not sure how long I should be making this, but I’m developing a reputation for dressing however I please and still pulling off the look – so I’m confident that it will look good whether it’s short or long. I’ll just wrap it around my neck and go. How could it be bad?

The Stripey Striped Scarf ought to be finished before autumn, since I really want to wear it with my gray coat. I am so pleased with the way the colors are playing out! It doesn’t seem like it should work, then for some reason it does. It may sound egotistical to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway: one of my motivations for finishing the scarf is to hear other people’s reactions to it when I wear it.

And now, the Jaywalker. By some miracle, I got the second sock to start in almost the first place as the first sock. I think the color is only off by two rows. I’m going to start the heel in the same place so that matches, because no one will notice if my socks are an eighth of an inch different in height, even me, especially if they slouch a little. I love that the tip of the toe and the tip of the heel have that tiny little bit of light blue in there. If both socks have that, I shall be very pleased indeed! Once the Jaywalkers are done, I’m going to go back to the Pomatomus sock and make a mate for it. After that… well, I really want to start designing my own socks. I’ve been really inspired by the patterns that Wendy has been coming up with during the Summer of Socks, and I’ve had some great ideas (at least, I think they’re great) for patterns of my own.

And I decided not to take any pictures of the Ninja’s Sekrit Yarn Gift. She’s just going to have to wait until I see her in person!

On Wednesday, I took my scarf to the Stitch ‘n Bitch and had a much easier time multitasking. Other women were also commenting that they find it difficult to knit and converse at the same time, especially given the involved sorts of conversations that we often have. I found a few mistakes on the Jaywalker. Though I didn’t think they were worth going back for, I didn’t want to make more mistakes, so I brought the scarf. I’m about halfway through the second two balls now, and everyone loved the thing.

There’s another SnB scheduled for this coming Wednesday, but I’m not sure if I’m going to go. Pirate-Husband will be out for the evening, which gives me a chance to sit and curse at the sewing machine. I started this miniature quilt experiment, see, which was meant to become a pillow, see, since our couch pillow recently split along one seam… but I’ve never quilted before, and while I can use a sewing machine, I do tend to get incredibly frustrated and no fun to be around while I’m using it. Therefore, sewing is something I prefer to do alone. Very, very alone. With the music turned up. And lots of cursing. I do want this thing to be finished before my two-week electricity-free vacation.

Today I brought my sock down to my parents’ house and knit while visiting with family. I’ve finished the gusset! Actual progress has been made! A milestone reached! Just the foot and toe remain… and, oh yeah, the second sock of the pair. I wore my first pair of Jaywalkers with my new paisley skirt and received lots of grandmotherly compliments on the construction, the softness of the wool, the beauty of the colors, etc. etc. etc. She was amazed that my handknit socks are machine washable. Ahh, the wonders of modern yarn technology.

Pictures soon, really!

Just what I needed, eh? Here are colorways 178 (left) and 215 (right), which will keep the Stripey Striped Scarf from being too short. Woolwinders didn’t have more of either of my first two colorways; not too surprising with Kureyon. So I picked two others that I thought went together well, and would match with what I had. Another woman in the store commented about Kureyon’s colorways; I forget what she said exactly, but it was like, “that’s nice.. that’s nice.. what the hell is this color doing here? ahh, that’s nice again.”

At first I thought of putting the two new colorways together in the middle of the scarf and having the ends match. Then I realized there is no matching. Each ball starts in a different place in the colorway, and who knows how things would line up? I was also a little concerned that there would be a really obvious break where I changed colors. So here’s what I’m going to do: The new 215 will be paired with the old 148 for the middle of the scarf, and then the new 178 will be paired with the old 185. This way each duller color is paired with a brighter, and no two colorways go together twice. Maybe I’m overthinking this just a little! I’m sure it will look perfectly fine – and perfectly hideous – no matter which way the yarn goes. And by hideous, I mean fantastic. This thing is just too cool!

The Stripey Striped Scarf has gotten to the end of the first two balls (or very close to it, anyway) and is ten inches short of what it would need in order to end up as long as I want it to be, which is more than six feet. So it’s on hold until I can go buy two more balls of Kureyon. I never thought purple and orange would look this good next to each other, but there it is, looking good.

Now, I do have two balls left, one each of 147 and 158. But if my LYS doesn’t have those two colorways, then I want the odd two to be in the middle of the scarf, and the ends will match. Maybe. My thought is 147/158 – x/y – 147/158 again might look kinda neat. The only thing that worries me is the sudden color change instead of the nice gradual one, but that would happen anyway if the skeins don’t begin at the same point in the colorway, right? I’m not going to waste perfectly good yarn to make the colors line up, not in this case. It’s supposed to be garish, after all.

So the scarf is waiting, just in case I find different colorways of Kureyon that I like. Too bad; it’s a great sit-in-front-of-the-computer-and-knit project. I guess I’ll just have to work on some lace.

Oh, and although I wasn’t going to, there were several requests at the SnB for a picture of my niece. Here she is at about four hours old – it will be a while before she fits into those pants, I can tell you, and even longer before I can start to teach her to knit. All in good time, little girl, all in good time. Muahahaha!

The Stripey Striped Scarf is coming right along. I’m almost at the end of the first two balls of yarn, and I’m noticing that the 1×1 ribbing takes up a lot more yarn that I thought it would, and uh… I may need to pick up another two balls of yarn. I’m going to wait until the first two balls are really finished, and measure, and imagine another few inches for blocking. But I really like long scarves, 6′ at least, and this just isn’t going to make it. No way.

On the other hand, I like how the colors look a lot better now. So what if there’s a bit of green and red and bright yellow next to each other? So what, purple and orange vibrate together? There’s a good bit of pleasant purple on purple and green on purple and light green on dark green. And and and. I love color; it’s one of my main reasons for knitting. Not to mention the textures. And, oh yeah, the functional useful product. And, oh yeah, it’s fun, too.

Anyway, I think I might stop at the yarn store this coming weekend and just check what colors of Kureyon they have in stock. You know, just to check. Can’t have a short scarf, now can I?

The Stripey Striped Scarf is about a foot long already, and I’m much more pleased now with the way the colors are playing out against each other. Teal and mustard yellow don’t go together so well, but dark and light purple ain’t so bad next to each other, and the colors change frequently enough that if there’s one stripe I don’t like in a six-foot scarf, oh well! I would take pictures, but my camera is already packed for my trip to Ottawa. (Pirate-Husband is holding down the fort; I’ll be back Tuesday night.)

Saturday is Knit in Public Day, and I will definitely be in public, knitting. The Ninja and Iare talking about going to WestFest and knitting there, probably near the Spins and Needles booth.

Famous last words: “This ball of Kureyon has a lot less straw in it than usual!”

I ordered these shoes last week from a store in the mall, and I am so thrilled that they fit! They are just perfect for showing off handknit socks (shown – last year’s toe-up Plain Old Socks, Regia Canadian Colour 4743). They are also suitable for wearing to an office, when I find a job. Too cool.

This Stripy Striped Scarf alternates two colors of Noro Kureyon (147 and 158) in a 1×1 rib over 49 stitches on size 8 needles. I like to have a project going that doesn’t require a lot of concentration. I can take it to the Stitch ‘n Bitch, or watch TV, or have a conversation while I’m working. From this blog entry at BrooklynTweed I got the idea of slipping the first and last stitches on every second row to make a nice neat edge. It’s working quite well! One thing that had really frustrated me when I was working on the So-Called Scarf is that when I was alternating between balls of yarn (in that case, to keep from wild color changes between skeins), the yarn that was carried up the side didn’t look right. Slipping the first and last stitches on the second rows keeps everything tightly together, which looks a lot better to me.

The traveling sock traveled up to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit family, and began looking stripy too. I like the reactions that I get from different people when they see me working on a sock. It’s everything from “How long does it take you to knit a pair of socks?” to “Wow, I’d never have the patience to do something like that – but I do like counted cross-stitch,” to “How hard is that to learn? I need a new hobby.” Since I’m back home, the traveling sock has been returned to its resting place, awaiting Thursday’s airplane ride.

I got my Ravelry invite today, and as a result had to set up a Flickr account. There probably won’t be much there that isn’t here anyway, but feel free to check it out! Ravelry looks like it’s going to be a very cool community. When the site goes live, I hope there’s a personal page for me to link to.

Between the excitement of the niece and the holiday weekend, I didn’t get to do much knitting. But here is my (slow, slow) progress on the ostrich plumes scarf! It doesn’t look like much yet, does it? I do have pins, but they’re not very accessible at the moment. I can kind of get an idea of what it will look like when I stretch it out by hand, though of course it will have to be blocked for real after all the knitting is done. I’m considering a set of blocking wires; pinning seems like a real pain!

Now, what I don’t know is, how long should I make this thing? Originally, I was thinking that it would be something I’d wear with dressy work clothes, but the way the variegation is playing out, it doesn’t look too dressy. So now I’m considering how to wear a lacy scarf with less dressy clothes. I never thought of myself as a person to wear accessories. It’s a strange day when I wear more jewelry than my wedding ring and the stud earrings that I always forget to take out. Anyway, should it be a long scarf? A short one that I wear with a pin at my neck? A medium one that I can wrap around and let flow? If it helps any, it looks like it will be at least 14″ wide after it’s blocked.

In other, very cool news, I’m going to be in Ottawa on Worldwide Knit In Public Day. My plan is to take the sock and the Ninja to the Highlander, so that we can drink scotch while we knit in public! The sock is on hiatus until I actually start traveling, and is glaring at me from the corner of the desk. It looks so small and lonely. Maybe I’ll give it a few rounds so it doesn’t feel left out.