Water, Water Everywhere

They don't call this city Fort Rain for nothin'. And now the rain is getting into my house. I'm used to it seeping over the sill of the Florida room (which is basically just an enclosed patio), but tonight I noticed it dripping down the brickwork of my fireplace. I'm afraid to look in the crawl space. *sigh* The joys of home ownership are greatly exaggerated. IMHO.

Once I got started on the falling leaves shawl last Sunday, I just could not stop. Until today, that is, when I finished the knitting. No mean task, either, as I used a picot bind off. Following the instructions I found at knitty, each picot involved 14 moves, which was still much simpler than the instructions in Vogue Knitting. Now all I need to do is weave in ends and graft the corners and figure out how in the world I can block Plymouth Encore, which is a wool-acrylic blend. Maybe a little starch will help?

And I have been playing in Ravelry, entering a few projects and yarns and books, adding a few friends, joining a few groups, etc. I am trying to work out in my mind how I am going to blend blogging with Ravelrying, as they seem to overlap. It is almost like having two bank accounts and trying to keep track of which one is for what. Maybe once Ravelry is open to the public, it will all fall into place.

Oh! I almost forgot - Knitting Off Broadway has a website now.

(Is anyone else having trouble activating the spell checker in Blogger? Pleeze excuse any speling errrors you may find!)

I Must Be Sick

I finished up Jason's Thuja socks this morning (pix below), then cast about for something new to knit (ha ha - pun intended!) and could not think of anything. I already have some socks on the needle and nothing else came to mind, so I actually picked up some UFO's to work on. Gasp!

My original intention was to reseam parts of Elizabeth's outfit. The good thing about mattress stitch is it is invisible. That is also the bad thing, because I could not see where to pick out stitches. Figuring I would do more damage than good, I decided that, since Elizabeth is a doll, the knitting police are not going to arrest me for just letting the not-quite-right seams lay.

So I picked up falling leaves shawl. Remember that? I barely do. The last time I worked on it, the problem was how to graft the two halves together. Going further back in memory, we recall that since the falling leaves pattern has direction, I knit the shawl in two halves, so the leaves will fall from each shoulder. I researched different methods for joining the two halves, then today whimped out and just used kitchener stitch.



It may not be the "right" way or the best way, but I think it will look okay, once it is blocked.

Next problem was the edging. Some kind of lattice work seemed appropriate, so that is what I am experimenting with right now.



Again, I think it will look okay, once blocked.

Here are Jason's new socks:



Pattern: Thuja from Knitty
Yarn: Art Yarns Supermerino
Needle size: US6



Since the pattern called for three 50g balls of yarn, I was more generous with the cuff and leg than I might otherwise have been.



I love this yarn! It is soft and springy, with no funny spots. Everyone is going to want some Art Yarns socks.

Bad Yarn Day

I woke up early this morning and decided I might as well get up and knit over coffee. Last night I had finished the top on one Jaywalker sock, so I started catching up on the second. One thing I like about this pattern is the stitch increases at the needle ends hides my laddering between DPNs. One thing I dislike about the pattern is the double-decrease in the middle of each needle, which is where I screwed up this morning. My eyes were not focusing yet, so I set that aside to fix later and picked up the lace shawl... and dropped several stitches there as well. Ok, maybe it was too early to knit. At noon, I picked up cream-colored sock #2 and started working on the 2x2 ribbing for the top. I happened to glance at sock #1, though, and realized it was done in 1x1 ribbing. Fortunately, I had not gone far on #2, so I ripped that out and started over. Friday night is no-knitting night - I eat popcorn and watch a movie instead - and it looks like I really need a break.

On a different topic, I brought The Happy Hooker to work yesterday for a coworker, and she reciprocated by giving me a copy of her Patternworks catalog. While leafing through the catalog, I saw a photo of a model wearing a crocheted scarf that looked just like a scarf in THH. Hmmm. When the coworker returned my book, I checked it out: not only was it the same scarf, it was the exact same photo! I can see the pattern designer selling the pattern to two different publications, but how did the same photo get in both?

And topic number three is, The Opnionated Knitter: Elizabeth Zimmerman Newsletters 1958-1968. I must have read something about this book somewhere, probably in relation to the Baby Surprise sweater, and checked it out of the library, but I think I may have to purchase it. After all, it has a pattern for an Adult Baby Surprise sweater, among other timeless designs. So many projects, so little time!

Mini Milestones

No finished objects yet, but I've reached these milestones:

* Finished one cream-colored sock and started sock #2
* Completed another pattern repeat on Falling Leaves lace shawl - one more to go!

Also, the afghan has only 8 rows remaining. I just may glue my but to the sofa and finish that tonight... or on Sunday while watching football.

From what I hear, November is National Blogging Month. Is that true? Is there really a month honoring blogging? Why?!? People are promising to blog daily for the entire month. I don't even floss daily. But while I will probably not formerly participate, I am secretly hoping that some of my favorite bloggers take the opportunity to blog more often. During the summer months, several of them fell out of the habit, and they have yet to pick it up with any regularity. And you know who you are! Get typing!

Progress

It seems like, in every blog I read, the author is either going to Rhinebeck and/or publishing a new book and/or has a nasty illness of one sort or another. All I have experienced lately is the latter, but maybe Rhinebeck next year. I read Clara Parke's description of how, as a child, she wanted to be a writer but she didn't know what she would write, until the obvious occurred: a book on yarn. So maybe someday, my subject will be revealed to me as well.

Meanwhile, I continue to knit. The lace shawl is progressing, the body of another vintage bag is done, the afghan crawls along, and somehow I ended up with two pairs of socks on the needles at the same time.

The worsted weight cream-colored socks I started over WW are progressing nicely, except since I am using US5 needles and ribbed the entire top, I am using more yarn than I expected and will have to buy another skein.



I may turn them into IU socks by adding a crimson logo, then gift them to my son.

But the socks that are enchanting me right now are these:



The pattern is "Jaywalker" from MagKnits and the yarn is Austermann Step (color 12, if that helps you). I bought the yarn long ago in a yarn store far away (okay, last December, at the Yarn Basket in Fitchburg, MA) before I even knew how to knit socks. I like the zigzag pattern, and the striping is subtle enough that, even though the socks won't match because I am knitting two at a time from either end of the skein, they should be fine. These are for my daughter, but if they turn out too big for her....

Amazingly, it was just last March when I took a basic sock class, and since then I have knit 8 pairs. I also took a lace shawl class that really stretched my abilities, and I swore I would never do lace again, but here I am with another lace shawl on the needles. Never say never.

One Down, How Many to Go?

Today, Knitting Daily posed the question knitters hate to hear: How many UFOs do you have? At first, I smugly thought, Not that many. And I guess I don't have that many, since "many" is a relative thing.

Here's my list:

• Afghan (crochet)
  
• Falling leaves lace shawl (yarn used to be for a baby blanket)
  
• Cream-colored socks
  
• Aloe-jojoba socks
  
• Vintage handbag #2
  
• Denim blue Fat Bottom Bag (needs lining)
  
• Brown Fat Bottom Bag
  
• Orange baby hoodie (abandoned)
  
• Ribbon yarn tank top (abandoned)
  
• Ballband washcloth

Ha! Finished that last one tonight:



Details:

• Pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting
  
• Size US5 needles
  
• Lion Cotton in turquoise and sunflower
  

Da Bums

The Cubs were swept (swept!) out of the playoffs. Now I can abandon baseball and focus on the Colts. (Who said, "I don't know much about football, but I know a tight end when I see one."? Sylvia?)

I'm beginning to think of the Falling Leaves lace shawl as my football shawl. The family room is a bit dim, so the cream-colored yarn is easy to see. I should have it done by the end of the season.

This dishcloth is done, though.



It's my just-to-prove-a-point dishcloth.

For a brainless project (and after seeing one knit by qutecowgirl), I started this scarf, but after three or four starts, I abandoned it. One complaint was that the photos with the pattern make the fabric look like some kind of waffle stitch, with stockinette stitches in the center of the waffle. But that's not what the pattern yields; I should have paid more attention to the photo at qutecowgirl. I went with the pattern on size 8 needles, but didn't like the results. Tried again on size 6 needles. Nope. Tried to make a waffle stitch without success. Finally gave up and started the Math Geek scarf from Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar. Interesting pattern but it doesn't work with the yarn, either. I originally bought this Paton Classic Wool merino for a crocheted scarf and the yarn seems determined to be nothing else. I don't feel like crocheting right now, though, so it's back in the stash with you!

The Schaefer socks are progressing nicely, though.



I like doing both at the same time. The heel looks like a birds-eye pattern. Between that and the textured rib and the stockinette, the colorway is just enthralling.