Thursday, February 7, 2008

knitting faster than I can blog

So I finally have a new camera and it is relatively foolproof. I don't get bright green or magenta backgrounds all the time any more. This is good. The good also includes images of the many new knits that I've finished, started, or still have in progress. First, because I loves them, my precious, I loves them I do. Ahem. First, I have mittens. Lovely mittens made from start to finish by me. The wool was a gift from a friend. The donor sheep, Elmer, is no longer with us due to his rather aggressive personality. *sniff* So Elmer lives on through these mittens. This was the first fleece to go through the new carder! Wooo hoooo! Part of the reason I hadn't done anything with the fleece for more than a year (other than scouring it. I'm lazy but I'm not THAT lazy) was the horrid thought of handcarding it all. But with the Strauch, done in minutes. Minutes! Fluffy batts of goodness. The yarn is a Corriedale mix, spun very loosely with a woolen draw, 2 ply. I dyed it with food coloring in my crockpot. The stranded pattern is German in origin, from an antique knitting book. I made up the mitten pattern on my own and I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it, but they're done, they're warm and I actually have at least a month of wear left in them before Spring hits.
I have finally finished my "special socks" with the back gusset for my ginormous calves. The second sock was months later in coming and I'm afraid I didn't quite match gauge, but they're done. The yarn was Auracania but I've lost the ball band, so I have no idea what the colorway was. I've been wearing them around the house to keep my feet warm. Mom would be proud, especially since she spent most of the holiday quite distraught that I wasn't wearing anything on my feet. See Mom, I've got 'em on now!
I have cast on and half-finished the Baudelaire socks by Cookie A. Since I saw this pattern about 6 months ago I have been dying to try it but was a bit too scared of the lace. Not to mention the whole toe-up thing. But no more fear! I'm using the AMAZING Koigu my darling sister bought me over the holidays. It's so yummy and these photos don't do it justice. It's a fantastic mix of acid yellow and green, with flecks of brown, deep green and blue. I lurves it, I do. One sock done, with the toe of the second well on its way. I had to add some stitches in the purl section on the sides to accomodate my calves so the pattern looks a little wonky, but I couldn't help it. I also added a reinforced heel since I tend to blow those out fairly easily. The one advantage of toe-up is that you don't waste any of that scrummy yarn. I had about 8" left from the first skein. 8"!!! LOVE IT.
I've also finished the Cosmic Pluto top down cardi in Cascade 220 Heathers. I'm overall pretty happy with it, but it's a bit snug. Also it still needs some buttons. I NEEDED to wear it so it got the buttons that were absolutely necessary. The others will come in time. I swear. In order to take advantage of the new intel on overly snug sweaters(ie that sitting around home writing while eating huge slabs of homemade bread and not exercising doesn't exactly make the pounds melt away), I've frogged my handspun Cosmic and will re-do it with an asymmetrical front and a shawl collar. Notice that fab necklace? My sister made it for me as a holiday present. She's so talented! It has two other charms she cut, fired and then glazed in lovely shades of blue. This one (my favorite) is called "frog pond." I ask you, how could I not adore that? Also, how did she know it would match almost everything in my wardrobe? *blinking innocently*
I'm also slowly working on the Weasley for the gf. I'm not happy with the intarsia but I'm tired of re-doing it. Twice is enough.
My next cast-on, much as I want it to be for the other Cosmic or the Vinland socks by Anti-Craft, will be for the Plimoth plantation stockings I should have started months ago. So there's my picture-heavy update. In the future I'll try to do more regular posts than this semi-incoherent brain dump. I'm also working on grant apps, will teach this summer (hopefully) and have to present a chapter to my diss group this month, so knitting may slow down a bit. Hah, who am I fooling?

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