Well damn. I wasn't going to have a blog. I can't even keep up the three (THREE) that I have already. Not to mention I'm the world's slowest and most distracted knitter and will NEVER update, will NEVER get the pictures on the computer, etc. But it seems like a solid place to keep up with my knitterly projects, and work IS slow, and it seems like an addiction that's getting worse rather than going away, so maybe it'll happen. Or something.

So. An introduction, so you can see the mess I'm dealing with!

On the needles (and actively being worked on, if only occasionally):

1. Knitty's Tubey, made with alpaca from eBay; modified with 3/4 sleeves; size 3 needles, because eBay LIED and there is NO WAY that fabric would be anything but netting on the recommended size 6 needles. The arms are knit and need their ends woven in (and the seed stitching on the ends of the sleeves probably need to be ripped and re-done because it's a fierce kind of wonky). Am currently on the body, which I used to carry with me and work on while bored, but it's gotten a bit too big for my bag. Also, not encouraging as even with fresh yarn it looks like a rag. Also, k3p1 takes an ETERNITY.



2. Lace Leaf Pullover in Classic Elite Princess doubled, on DAMNIT I FORGOT WHAT SIZE needles. I was so close to being finished! So close! There was DRAMA, with the being SO CLOSE to finishing and then RUNNING OUT OF YARN. I bought the yarn on SALE for $4 and then had to buy one more for $10. It was a sad, sad day. There was pouting.

And then I decided that the body was too short and I UNgrafted the middle and it's now waiting on my chair to be knit more, then REgrafted, at which point it will be summer and I will have to turn my air conditioning to "Canadian winter" just so I can wear the damn thing.

The real tragedy is that it was actually going really fast until I started running out of yarn.




3. Scott's hat. I'd bought a skein of Knitpicks' Decadence in Twilight to see if it was anything like Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande. And they ARE, in that they're both yarn. Beyond that, no. No they aren't.

But Scott wanted a hat! I will knit you a hat, I said, for I am a knitter, and no self-respecting knitter will let a friend BUY a hat. Alas, I have no pattern/plan/ideas yet, because I've been distracted by all the knits listed below. I did cast on while on a flight to... Stockholm? and knit one row, put it in a bag, and haven't touched it since. The leaves are starting to fall. I need to get my butt in gear.

It's not even worth a photograph at this point.

4. A baby hat with Blue Sky Alpaca's bulky in polar bear. This pattern, actually. But I haven't bought the pattern because 1. it's super simple, and 2. patterns are for suckers. But I have until about January, when Miss Kat's baby is due. It's on the wrong size needles, though ( 10.5 when 13 is recommended), so it needs to be frogged. Since it hasn't, though, and since it's on a deadline, it still qualifies as being on the needles.



5. Knitty's Baudelaire socks, made with hand-spun brown alpaca from Ouray, CO; size 2 bamboo needles; modified for knee-highs. My first successful toe-up attempt. I'm not confident that this yarn will hold up to wearing in a sock-like manner, but here's hoping. The other problem is that the yarn has a bit of a halo and doesn't show the pattern very well.



Unfortunately, this project has been cast aside for:

6. Top-down, picot edge ankle socks from Wildefoote's sock yarn in Symphony that I picked up (and apprently dearly overpaid for) last Saturday. Plain stockinette, first picot edge attempt, as learned from Purlwise here. The new carry-everywhere project. The colors shown here are hilariously off. It's much darker than this. I thought sunlight was supposed to encourage color accuracy! Curse you, brain, and your lies!



But this, too, has been tossed aside at home for:

7. Norwegian mittens that I am designing myself because work gets kind of boring sometimes. They're for mom, for Christmas. Yes, I'm trying to start early. This is good because I always make things SO MUCH MORE COMPLICATED than I ever anticipate them being.

Me, pre-project: Designing my own Norwegian mittens? Easy!
Me, during project: Now... wait. That doesn't work. Hm, that either. Hoo! That's ugly! Etc!
Me, Christmas: Merry Christmas, mom! I burned you a cd.

During slow days at work I researched Scandinavian mittens, guessed at gauge, and excel'd a basic pattern, praying that I'd get 6s/in. When I was really sick of researching yarns (about a day) I ordered me some Telemark from Knitpicks in alpine frost and cream, and a skein of Alpaca Cloud in stream because I have this notion that these mittens deserve a baby alpaca lining, the inspiration for which I can't find, but I am confident that I'll be able to figure it out ("Look, I also got you a book!").

There's actually a baby mitten (possibly knit by my grandmother years ago?) that would be BRILLIANT to reproduce in an adult size, but of COURSE it's at my parents' home in Philadelphia, where I won't be until Thanksgiving, and who wants to wait that long to knit something exciting? I mean really.

I started the other day, and have this Idea for a 1x1 ribbed cuff (the straight cuff seems like it'd be less good for keeping out the cold), with the blue and white alternating. Blue, knit, white purl. Right?

WELL. I couldn't find a two-color cast-on online OR in my Vogue Knitting, so I just made one up. The first time I tried a slip knot in blue, then a slip knit in white, then CO a blue, then CO a white, etc. This makes a really small cast on, AND I realized, as I started working it with the white in front and the blue in back, that I'd just taught myself double knitting. Non-interlocking double knitting. Failure.

Attempt 2, interlocking double knitting. Nope, not quite, though I'm kind of keen on the double edge the cast on creates.

On attempt 3 I just made a slip knit with the blue, tied a half-hitch with the white around the top of the blue, then did a long tail cast-on with the blue, switching the yarns clockwise after each stitch. Turned out it's very

similar to this. Oops.

It's interesting, though. While casting-on the bottom is really open. I liked the way that looked. And then when I started knitting it closed up. Strange!

It's my first Real intarsia fair aisle project (everything I did while using acrylic doesn't count) and boy do I hate knitting with my left hand. I'd read about yarn dominance and thought it meant whatever color you held in your dominant hand would be the dominant color (subtlest styling EVER), but it turns out it's whatever yarn is carried underneath. So now I feel less bad about having the dominant color (blue) in my left hand, because by god I can't purl with the left for my life.

Unfortunately it's still so slow that they'll be done by the time hell freezes over. And with global warming that's not going to be any time soon.



Also, 8. I have more sock yarn heading my way. My sister-in-law, Karen, has commissioned me to make a pair of stripey halloween-style socks for a swap she's doing. I'm planning on the same picot-edged stockinette footies that I'm working on when I'm not totally submerged in the mittens.

My mom has promised that there's a package headed my way -- another birthday present. I'd sent her a list of mostly knitting related gifts. I hope it's sea silk, but more than that (what with that huge list of projects) I hope it's a swift. My knees/15lb dumbbell/doorknobs/chairs just aren't cutting it.

And I may be comissioning a friend to make a nostepinde! I've been using empty toilet paper tubes, and while handy and free, they're not very attractive. On the other hand, nostepindes look like dildos. Ah well. Six of one.