Pix Now?

Yes, finally. I added photos to this page, and here is a shot of the Neverending Afghan:



Hopefully, Blogger will continue to upload photos.

Today is moving day. I mentioned the theme song from "The Jeffersons" to a cow-orker who then looked up the lyrics and sent them to everyone in our department. So now all of us can have that little ditty running amok in our brains today.

I haven't had much to do at work the past few days, so I have been catching up on blogs. Some of the authors are really out there. Makes my writing feel constipated. Pass the Konsyl, please! I wish my internal editor would just shut up.

Knitting: finished the Magic Stripes socks, started some simple mittens with the Lopi. Pix forthcoming (knock on wood!)

Daylight Saving

Well, yesterday's wish did not come true, but that's okay. The Colts were handicapped by several key players being on the DL, which impacted the passing game. (Don't I sound knowledgeable?) Once everyone is healthy again, the Colts will be impossible to beat. (Knock on wood!)

If Daylight Saving Time is so great, why don't we stay on it year-round? Changing the clocks back and forth is hard on us biologically and psychologically. So that is my wish for today, that the whole world abandon the clock-changing habit. Time is just an abstract concept anyway.

On the crocheting front, I finished the neverending afghan! The fringe alone took nearly an entire skein. Photos forthcoming.

Knitting progress: I am about halfway through the feet of the Jaywalker socks. For some reason, they have been a bear to knit, with many dropped stitches and much mental confusion over which row I am knitting. I feel like I am in the homestretch, though.

Next weekend, I am flying east to visit my dad, which leads to the what-do-I-take-to-knit-on-the-plane debate. Last time I flew, I think I crocheted dishcloths and knit socks on bamboo needles. Maybe a final pair of Magic Stripes socks and/or a crocheted scarf? I don't want anything too complex or too big.

Go, Colts!

Today's wish is easy: that the Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots. Both teams are undefeated this season. The Patriots are favored, and actually, it would not be a bad thing if the Colts lost, because they have a history of becoming complacent. But still.

I am rethinking the IU logo for the cream-colored socks because I did the tops in 1x1 ribbing and I'm not sure how that will work. I may try it anyway, but am not too confident it will work.

The neverending afghan has 6 more rows to go? Maybe? I hope? Or maybe I will just stop and consider it done.

The Neverending Afghan

Did you ever have a project that, no matter how much you work on it, just will not progress? Everytime I measure what I am now calling the Neverending Afghan, it seems there are always 6 more rows to go. It was the perfect thing to work on tonight, though, with the ghosts and goblins ringing the doorbell every 2.5 minutes.

I did manage to get through the gusset on one Jaywalker sock, which seems to have exhausted me on that particular pattern for now. Also, even though I can guess what the foot holds in store, I cannot find the instructions. Since I grew tired of my livingroom looking like a cross between a yarn explosion and a petting zoo, I rearranged things a bit. The TV and the rabbit switched places, and the yarn is shifting to the family room, which now looks like a cross between a yarn explosion and a petting zoo, plus there's the breakfast bar from hell. Horizontal surfaces in my house fill up quickly. Anyway, the Jaywalker instructions disappeared during this flurry of activity.

An alternative to the Jaywalker is knitting through the homestretch on the IU socks, which is b-o-r-i-n-g, so I will save it for lunchtime at work because my job is even more boring.

Maybe the lace shawl needs some attention.

(Can you tell I am doing everything in my power NOT to cast on a sweater, the red- red-red yarn for which is calling me as I write? All that is really holding me back is trying to decide whether to follow the pattern and make it with a zippered front, or to listen to my aversion of purling and knit it in the round.)

Best Laid Plans

The plan was to finish crocheting the afghan while watching football. After watching the Colts struggle through the first half, I decided to take a little nap. Well, I must have needed the rest, because I woke up just in time to see them win by a huge margin. I also measured the afghan and realized I was not quite as close to finishing as I thought.

I also worked on turning heels on the Jaywalker socks, but that has not gone very well, either. The yarn I am using, Austermann Step, has aloe and jojoba in it, which makes the needles very slick, which makes it easy to drop stitches. And then there is my short attention span. Even though I use sticky notes to help me keep track of row counts, sometimes I forget to make a mark for each row. The result is a lot of tinking around.



But I am enjoying how well this self-striping yarn works with the Jaywalker pattern. Since I am working from both ends of the skein, the stripes are reversed.

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