In search of inspiration.

You may recall that I used to knit. I say “used to” because I haven’t been inspired to pick up the knitting needles in months. Oh, I’ve fooled around here and there with some green alpaca I bought while up in Seattle (it’s supposed to turn into a scarf someday), but I’m not making any real progress on it.

Part of the problem is that it’s hard to be inspired when it’s 80 degrees outside. In FEBRUARY. Part of the problem is the wool sensitivity that I developed over the past year – if it’s not cotton, cashmere, or alpaca, it’s not coming anywhere near me, unless it belongs on my feet. And another part of the problem, I think, is my tendency to get bored with anything that takes too long.

I may have stumbled upon the perfect solution today, though, while browsing Flickr – socks! They’re fast. They’re small, so cashmere ones won’t cost big bucks. And they go on the feet, which means that I can knit them out of merino and not get a rash!

The Handknit Socks + Shoes pool is full of all sorts of sockly inspiration (as well as some really fabulous shoes). Now all I need is a really easy, first-time-sock-knitter pattern.

Got one? Let me know!

 

Yay!

I’m on Ravelry! Now I just need to, uh, get back to doing some knitting. Perhaps this will be the perfect motivation.

 

WIP report.

Considering my newfound infatuation with crochet, I thought I should take inventory of my numerous unfinished knitting projects. In order of oldest to most recent, they are:

• Windy City Scarf from Stitch ‘n’ Bitch in Cascade Pastaza
• Misty Garden from Scarf Style, true to pattern in Jo Sharp Comfort Kid Mohair

• Another Misty Garden, AKA my Fiesta Scarf

• Branching Out, v2.0
• Flower Washcloth from Weekend Knitting
• Koigu fingerless gloves from One Skein (Size 1 needles, people; I can be forgiven for neglecting this one, can’t I?), suffering from Single Sock Syndrome (one down, one to go!)

• Fetching handwarmers

The oldest of these dates to late 2005; the most recent to a month or so ago. I suppose it could be worse!

~ ~ ~

To the person who came here by Googling “skinny people secrets” – uh, sorry to disppoint, but you’re not going to find anything here. But promise me that when you do discover that secret, to please share it with me!

To the person who came here by Googling “middle management when company is bought out” – do I know you?? Do you work in South Pasadena??

And lastly, to the person who came here by Googling “shoe debt los angeles” – are you my long-lost twin? Were we separated at birth??

 

Craftovirus.

Thanks, all, for the well-wishes – I’m much better and am attempting to go to work today. We’ll see about that.

While at home, though, despite the ugh, there has been a bit of crafting. First, a new tablecloth:

And a use for some of those yo-yos I made – tablecloth weights!!

And, I’m one down, two-thirds left to go on a new pair of wristwarmers:

Yarn is Blue Sky Alpacas sport weight; pattern is, of course, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I just can’t get enough of these – it’s the only wristwarmer pattern I’ve found that actually fits my freakishly small (5" around!) wrists. Not that the rest of me is freakishly small; just my hands, wrists, and feet.

Along with the crafting, there has been much sleeping and DVD watching. Season 2 of Six Feet Under; Season 1 of Project Runway, and 5 out of 6 Thin Man movies. All in all, if it wasn’t for the ugh part,  it would have been a perfect weekend.

 

Sweater weather.

It’s here! Sweater weather, that is. It’s actually been cool enough, at night and in the air-conditioned workplace, for me to wear a sweater indoors. Heaven, I tell you. Heaven.

Of course, I’m getting bored with all of my clothes and have begun to dream of – are you sitting down? good – actually knitting a sweater for myself. I’ve been contemplating the Sienna Cardigan from the Fall IK for some time. You know, the cardigan that’s going to magically transform my life into something chic and European?

And this post actually provides great inspiration for a first-timer. All that seaming sounds a bit tedious, but oh well – as all grad students know, sometimes you have to go through hell to get what you want!

The Winter IK preview is also full of good stuff. Particularly the Nantucket Cardigan:

Cables! Seed stitch! 3/4 length sleeves! It’s everything I love, all wrapped up in one nice little cozy place.

One of them, if not both, will be mine. In nineteen days – 19 days! – I’ll be free of the lib school grind, either for good or until January. And that means only one thing: knitting. And lots of it.

 

Weekend ambitions for the procrastinator.

Remember poor, long-neglected Branching Out v2.0? Well, I plan to make some significant progress on her this weekend, in between errands and chores (hello, laundry), personal-trainer appointments, and putting in some overtime hours at work.

I figure if I post about it here first, it’s kind of like making a commitment – I’ll have to make some progress to report back with. Kind of like the personal-trainer appointments – if I have that appointment booked, of course I’ll go to the gym. I have to! But otherwise – nah. Later. Another day.

As for that laundry, I’m not sure if Mischa really wants me to do it – he seems to be telling me that for now, the dark load will have to wait:

 

Done, and done.

I’m done! Done with my summer semester project, that is – brief reviews of 40 resources for children ages 6-12, all of which I have read, watched, or listened to. And the minute I submit it – tonight, after giving it another once-over for conformity to APA style (boo, hiss), the summer semester will officially be over and done.

I loved my summer class – for a number of reasons I almost didn’t take it, but I am so so glad that I did. My only regret is that I didn’t take the other two kids’ lit classes when I had the chance. Oh well, guess that’s the point of a practical graduate education – to learn what you do, and don’t, want to be when you grow up.

Part of finishing up my project was to listen to a couple of audio books. As the only audio device I have to play them on is my computer, and the only decent speakers I have are my iPod headphones, well – that meant I was pretty much chained to my desk for a few hours over the weekend. Which, of course, was the perfect excuse to do some knitting – and voila, a finished object!

Please excuse the lack of photo styling, but I wanted to show my knitting in its natural habitat – laptop and all. It’s the Double Cable Scarf from One Skein, in Blue Sky Cotton. As usual when it comes to Leigh Radford patterns, I love everything about it – the yarn, the pattern. And as usual, I made a couple of mistakes, but kept on going anyway. The only sticky spot was the bind-off – I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to bind off in pattern – the purl stitches just kept dropping. WTF? So I just did a plain old knitted bind-off, and decided that symmetry be damned.

I’ve said before that I like to use knitting as a life lesson – I’m such an obsessive perfectionist in most aspects of life that it pretty much stops me from getting many things done. So with knitting, I just try to live with imperfection, and move on to the next project. I’ll definitely be living with my imperfect bind-off just as soon as the temperatures drop – but by next time, and there will be a next time for this pattern, I plan to learn to do it correctly.

 

ROFLMAO.

So I’m browsing my local lib’s OPAC, looking for children’s knitting books to review, when I run across this:

The text in the starburst – "Stop vacuuming and start knitting!"

My first thought was, "HA!" But my second thought – "Would cat hair work?"

 

Dreaming of autumn.

I’ve been trying to think about *anything* but summer. Of course, knitting comes to mind. Yes, I’m knit-knit-knitting away on my handwarmers, but thinking bigger.

Like maybe the Sienna Cardigan from the upcoming IK:

It’s orange, it’s alpaca, and it looks good on a chick with short hair – what’s not to like?!

I’ve never knit a sweater before. Partly out of fear of commitment – for instance, this sweater, at $14.25 per skein, and needing 9 or 10 skeins, well – that’s quite a big deal. And partly out of fear of disappointment – all that work, and I’ll end up with something that I get to wear for maybe two weeks total out of the year, if that. Unless, of course, I move north, but that’s another post.

But I’m really, really drawn to this sweater. So maybe I’ll do it. All the while, of course, realizing that I’ve been seduced by IK’s photography – knit this sweater, and you, too, can live a life like this one:

A cute haircut, an orange alpaca sweater, a glass of wine in a bar with a European atmosphere, and a cute boy giving you his undivided attention.

As I said earlier – what’s not to like??

 

Knittin’ better to do.

It’s hot, people. Hot!! Like 115-degrees hot. So like any sane person, I’m spending my time indoors, dreaming of winter, and knitting, of course.

Those are the Fingerless Garter Mitts from One Skein. Leigh Radford, I heart you! I want to make everything in this book – hell, I want to live in this book. Everything about it is such perfection – the offbeat-looking models, the quick projects, the yummy yarns. And the convertible Karmann Ghia that the model for this pattern is driving – yeah!! I know, that’s the entire point of "lifestyle" imagery, to evoke an ideal life, one that’s pretty much unattainable – the temperatures are never in the triple digits, and one’s vintage car doesn’t ever break down… It’s total fantasy and total manipulation, and still I adore it.

Those are size one needles, and Koigu premium merino sportweight. Toothpicks, folks, I’m knitting with toothpicks – and enjoying it! That is, if I don’t go blind and get arthritis.

And those LMKG wristwarmers? Done!

I do finish things, you know. Every now and then.