Early onset

In graduate school, I studied Alzheimer's disease, albeit at a somewhat oblique angle. That is to say, I studied something else in the context of AD. In any event, I am somewhat familiar with some of the symptoms of dementia, including the loss of any ability to form new memories. And I think perhaps I am suffering from some of these symptoms, because somehow I completely managed to forget that I signed up for the IKnit London (not just) Sock Club.

And when I say forget, I don't mean that it just slipped my mind. I mean that I saw an announcement of a party for the start of the club and thought "I wonder if I can still sign up for that..." Imagine my surprise when I arrived home after a looooong day to find a package waiting for me on the doorstep, and it wasn't from Adrian, as I expected. This was what was inside:

A lovely little project bag and a skein of Gorgeous Crimson Yarn - perfect for May of Project Spectrum! Plus not one, but two patterns. One for a pair of socks (Tantalus) and one for a pair of glorious fingerless mitts called Ambience, both by Janie B. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the mitts, simply because I'm working on a pair of lacey red socks at the moment. Those socks are slowly moving along - I reknit the leg of the first one adding four stitches and going up half a needle size, and they fit much better now. I managed to get through the toe on sock #2, which will be joining me on a bit of a road trip this weekend, so I hope to get them done soon. After which point, I will never knit with Cascade Fixation Ever. Again.

gratuitous yarn shot

FO: Boo's Elephants

My copy of Interweave Knits Summer 2011 arrived in its belated fashion last week (it goes through a corporate forwarding system from Houston), and as I paged through it the first time, I wasn't so impressed. But the girls were yelling at each other and the dog was chewing on a dirty sock, so I had to leave it and go deal with the chaos. And when I came back, I discovered in the very last section the perfect sweater for Boo, the future veterinarian.

A vest! With elephants! What could be better? So last Thursday I cast on, and today I've got this:

Pattern: Baby Elephant Vest by Melanie Rice, Interweave Knits Summer 2011
Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, 100% mercerized cotton, 205 yds/100 grams, 2 skeins in a lovely periwinkle that I picked up at the Yarns2Ewe Christmas sale many years ago.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4.0 mm.
Gauge: ~5 stitches per inch in stockinette on larger needles
Start/finish: 12 May - 16 May 2011
Comments/mods: the modifications were many and huge with this sucker. To start off with, there was no way in hell I was going to get 6.25 stitches/inch with this yarn without making a bullet-proof, stand-up-by-itself sweater. So I threw gauge out the window (always a dangerous idea!), swatched a bit, found a fabric I liked, cast on for the smallest size (21" chest), and hoped for the best. I used the measurements for the Boo-sized sweater (27" chest) for the length to the underarm and the length of the armholes. That was the first major modification. Thankfully, the FO ended up at just about 27", so win-win.

Major modification #2: worked in the round instead of in pieces. I hate seaming, so I did this sucker in the round. I cast on the appropriate number of stitches with 2 extra (for seam stitches), and worked the garter stitch band back and forth. Then when I started the lace pattern I joined to work in the round. The two extra stitches (one on either side) were purled every row to make a nice side seam and to hide the jog that happens with garter stitch in the round.

Major modification #3 (which isn't actually so major): instead of casting off and seaming the shoulders, I kept the stitches live and used a three needle bind off to finish. Ta da! No seaming! Well, except for the bit at the hem and the neck band and armhole edges. But still, not too bad...

Are these not the cutest elephants you've ever seen?

And Boo seems pleased.

 

So that's May's sweater done. And it's not the one I was planning by a long shot. Maybe this will be a two sweater month???

May is for Red

May 1st was the beginning of the fifth round of Project Spectrum, the brainchild of Lolly. Originally started as an exploration of color, before moving on to inspiration from the cardinal elements and the four directions, she's gone back to the color wheel. May's color is red, followed by green, blue, pink, yellow, cyan/aqua and black/white/grey. My goal for Project Spectrum is to end up with either a spinning or a knitting project for each month/color, and to do some photography. The photography might end up here or on the other blog, so check there if you haven't seen any project spectrum stuff.

I've also come to the conclusion that if I don't designate one night a week for spinning, my wheel will rust away and I'll go insane. Last week was spinning night, and I happily went off, on time for once because my MIL was in town, with two bags of Hello Yarn fiber to play with. I was beyond excited.

And then I got there and realized I'd forgotten kind of a critical piece of the spinning wheel – the mother of all. So I prepped all that lovely fiber, and then ate crisps and drank wine for the next hour and a half. The next night I sat down at the now complete wheel and got to work on some Wensleydale laceweight singles.

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club August 2010, Wensleydale, colorway “Heirloom”. I got 510 yds out of about 4 oz.
Spun at 7.5:1, short forward draw – no plying.
Finished with three rounds of hot water, cold water with agitation.

I spun this fiber in a color progression. First I separated out all the colors: chartreuse, orange, red/purple, pinky brown and brown/black. My idea is to knit a shawl with this yarn, with stripes of approximately the same size, so I started with the color I had the least of (chartreuse), and then went in order by weight to end with the brown/black. I'm thinking either Citron or the Holden Shawlette would work well, but I'm open to suggestions...

So for now, a la Yarn Harlot, Tuesdays are for spinning. We'll see what else comes off my wheel over the next few weeks, and also what else pops up in the red corner of the color spectrum.

At least something got finished in April

With all the rampant starting of projects (and willful ignoring of projects in progress - I'm looking at you River Run), I was sure I would end the month without any finished objects under my belt. Thankfully last week's 9 hours (cumulative) on the train to and from Scotland and a trip from London to Somerset yesterday meant that last night I grafted toe #2 of my April socks while getting all weepy watching Wills and Kate on the BBC1 highlights show last night*.

Pattern: Nornir by Caoua Coffee, the round 2 pattern for Sock Madness 5
Yarn: Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn, bought for cheap cheap cheap at my semi-local haberdashery in December
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm double points
Start/finish: 1 April - 29 April 2011
Gauge: I am steadfastly ignoring gauge in my socks this year because I'm largely knitting them for other people. These are for someone in the States, and if they don't fit the intended recipient, I'm sure they will find a happy home.
Comments/mods: No mods from the pattern, although I knitted the large (72 stitch) size instead of the smaller version. I guess I originally thought they would be for me, but the slipped stitch/ribbing pattern coupled with a slipped stitch sole makes for a fairly inelastic fabric. They might actually fit me, but they'd probably be a bit tight, so I didn't even try. Off they go for a present instead.

The pattern was very nicely laid out and clearly explained. The stitch patterns used do eat up a fair bit of yarn, and take some time. At least it seemed like it took a long time. The leg is 82 rounds long, but the stitch pattern compresses quite a bit, so they aren't very high.

The bad news: I'm in Somerset, 3+ hours from London, I will be here until Monday, and I don't have the May socks with me. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

* I was not terribly in to the whole Royal Wedding TM coverage by any stretch of the information, but was interested to see all the hoopla. Imagine my surprise when I found it all to be actually really wonderful - they were so sweet**, and I thought the whole ridiculous affair was fairly restrained as these things go***. Maybe that's a function of the Veddy British coverage that I watched - what was it like in the States?

** Must give huuuuuge kudos to Mrs. Wales, as the media circus has been unbelievable and I think she's nutso for having agreed to this whole thing in the first place. As an English friend pointed out to me, "Well, she must really love him." Amen.

*** My childhood memories of Charles and Diana's wedding includes a train the length of Westminster Abbey. That might be a wee bit exaggerated, but not as much as I'd like to think.

Stuck

I have found myself in a bit of a rut recently, hence the general blog silence. Sadly, this is not only a fibery rut, but also a major career rut that I'm trying to work out. There is more to be said on that, but I'm not quite at a point to lay down my thoughts on virtual paper, so it will have to wait. Instead, I will give you some images from our Easter weekend in Edinburgh.

We went hiking on Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park.

 

Girls in gorse

We saw some interesting people on the Royal Mile.

 

Weirdest spinning outfit I've seen yet

I bought a bit of yarn,

and a new ring.

And I knit most of half a sock in three days.

Life goes on...