Friday, January 11, 2008

all the news that's fit to knit

Howdy all!
Well after nearly a month of no posts, I have a great deal to report on, but no camera with which to do it. So you'll have to bear with me until I can figure out the picture situation. With the notable exception of seeing my beloved sister and my favorite niece my holidays were the absolute pits. I can't go into detail here (it's simply too horrid to publish, even in a blog only one person reads), but suffice it to say that I have to seriously re-think my holiday plans for next year. On the positive side, as I noted, I got to see my sweet sister. She's definitely on the knitting road folks, and I'm so proud! She learned to knit in the round in under an hour! I hope she's working away on that hat and those mittens right now. I also helped my niece finish her first knitted piece ever, a little flower to pin to her messenger bag. My heart swells with pride people! I'm representin' the knit! It helped my mood considerably that dear sis bought me the yummiest skeins of koigu. mmmmmmm koigu. Thanks to you my dear *HUG* And. And! my lovely gf bought me a swift. Finally a swift! It's a tabletop "nifty swift" from Aurora (sorry, couldn't find link to the company) and I love love love love love it. I have already used it about a dozen times. so nice! It accommodates most skeins and doesn't need a clamp. Now I just need a ball winder....
In knitting news I have ripped and re-worked the intarsia on the Weasely sweater twice and still hate it, but I'm almost done, I just have the shoulder grafting and the sleeves left to do. But I may run out of yarn and I already bought out the LYS of this colorway. sigh. I may have to order some from the internet. I hate doing that, as I would much rather give Linda my business. But the sweater must go on! I loathe intarsia. I keep pulling it too tight and it looks messy and puffy. icky icky poo.
In other news I am down to the body section on my handspun merino top-down raglan. I need to spin more in order to finish it. I LOVE this pattern, so easy to follow and modify. I've started a second one in cascade 22o heathered green that I'm nearly done with. just the bottom ribbing and the sleeves left. I should finish it this weekend. My mother gave me a lovely gift certificate to my LYS that bought me more than enough yarn for this sweater, the last skein left in the store of Elsepeth Lavold for the Weasley, and a set of dpns for the sleeves. happy happy joy joy. There, I just dated myself (more or less) for anyone who got the Ren and Stimpy ref.
As far as I could tell all my friends and family liked their holiday knits. I'm not sure I'm going to go that far next year. Sooooooooo much lost work time, but I learned so much from doing them.
Now that we are back and I have the remainder of January off from work, I will not be blogging that much. Why, you ask, when I will have all that free time? Au contraire my sweets, I will be even busier working on the dissertation, the four grant proposals I'm writing, and taking research trips around the country. I also hope to get the article out soon! This is particularly sad as we finally joined the 21st century and got DSL. I can finally upload pics without it taking an hour. Now, if only I had a camera with which to take said pictures....Can you tell I'm counting the days until tax rebates? But I should save that money for Maryland Sheep and Wool. Fleeces, beautiful fleeces!!!!!!!!!!! To use with the new drum carder! So wish me a busy January. Don't worry, I'll check in occasionally, but after I finish the Cascade 220 top-down I may not be knitting that much this month(GASP) ok, so I might be, but I'm trying to balance it. really.
In February I will be starting a KAL for the amazing snuggles project. Not only will it use up all the horrid acrylic in the group stash, but it's an incredible project deserving of all knitters' attention. Check it out. I'm off to do multiple LOC searches! yay DSL! TTFN

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a great line - I'm representin' the knittin'. I LOVE it!