FO: Three-take Jaywalkers

Pattern: Jaywalker, in MagKnits, by Grumperina.

Yarn: Ruby Sapphire Yarn's Ruby Superwash Yarn, Nina Colorway.

Needles: Size 0 bamboo DPN's.

Time: Received the yarn as a Christmas gift, casted-off on May 3rd.

Mods: None.

Notes: I think I just assumed that I had measured my gauge at some point, and went from there. So these socks are a little...tight. Not too tight to wear, but they could be stretchier. I got to the heel of the first sock using the smaller-size pattern -- way too small. I began again, in the larger size, and didn't like the pooling. By the time I realized, on the third try, that the socks were going to be a wee bit small still, I had no other choice but to keep going.

I've worn them a few times, trying to get as much of them in before the summer hit. I love them, but oh my, the pooling! The pooling and I just did not get along. This project really drove home to me the idea of matching the yarn to your project -- I don't think the pattern or the yarn showed the other off particularly well, although both are lovely.

I also picked up a "farewell North Carolina" skein of sock yarn on my last trip to the Carrboro Farmer's Market (where Chapel Hill Creamery was sadly out of Carolina Moon!). Say hello to this little beauty, Three Waters Farm's fingering weight Merino, in Forest Floor. I couldn't help myself. I think this may be destined for Monkey-ness.

That's right, I'm leaving NC. Next week I head to back to the homestead in New Jersey, to finally fully move out of my parents' house. I spent my time after college traveling back and forth across the country, carrying only what fit in my Honda Accord. I should be there for a few weeks, catching up with friends and my favorite northeastern sights, as well as checking out all of those incredible yarn stores I've missed out on while away. After that, it's a blank slate. Maybe some travel, maybe to the northwest. At some point I hope to have a job -- but not too soon.

Amanda's meme to come!

Most recent podcast: NPR's All Songs Considered.
Currently listening to: Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope album.
What I should be doing: Applying for jobs.

There's a great future in plastics.

I am alive, and still knitting, although that has slowed significantly with the events of the last few weeks. Although I finished the Jaywalkers on the flight west, little further knitting was accomplished on the trip (I made the toe of a toe-up sock, and even that didn't turn out so well). Starting a new project proved to require more thought than one afflicted with car-sickness can adequately give.

Pictures to follow -- Jaywalkers, the start of Kiri, and the near-completeness of the Urban Aran, at least. There's been one new yarn purchase, as well. Ooh ooh! And I've been tagged by Amanda, so I've got a good excuse to blog in the next day or so.

For now, I leave you with the FO that took me two years and a lot of sleepless nights. Woot!

Most recent podcast: This American Life.
Currently listening to: Regina Spektor, Fidelity.
What I should be doing: Returning three-weeks worth of email.

Eye candy...Monday?

I have little to report given the craziness of the last week of school. I know that I lose interest in a blog if it doesn't update once a week. Or if it doesn't have pictures. Since my readership is so teeny, I figured I needed to post something, or I'd fall off the map. It's not like I'm knitting anything to draw y'all , so I appreciate you stopping in for anything I might post!

Photo by Jocelyn T. Please do not use or distribute without the permission
of the photographer -- it's not hard to get. (Not that I think anyone will, but I'm just sayin'.)

This picture is keeping me sane at the moment. My Master's Project is due this Friday, and I've got a lot of work to do. Lately it's been getting so that I can't see the forest for the trees (heehee, a little ecology aphorism for an ecology student). But pulling out pictures of my travels in my study area (western Washington) reminds me why I'm doing what I'm doing. And why I've been doing it for the past decade.

Knitting related: the Jaywalkers also keep me sane. I just get a row or two a day in these days, but it helps. I'm on the gusset of the second sock, plugging on to the toe. And then I can figure out which sock project to take with me for my week-long field trip to Washington and Oregon. Want to help? I'll post my options, once I've got it narrowed down.

Meanwhile, go look at my sister's blog. No, there's no knitting, but she's posted lots of fun stuff for you to look at. Look, two blogs for the price of one!

Most recent podcast: It's a Purl, Man, back episodes.
I've decided to venture into new knitting podcast territory, and this is the first 'cast I'm checking out.
Currently listening to: The Go! Team, Everyone's a VIP to Someone
courtesy of Dave's Music, Christmas 2004 playlist
What I should be doing: Pick one: Western Field Trip Paper, due in three days; MP, due in four.

Ennui and new yarn

For about the next month or so, I probably won't be blogging that much (I say this now -- we'll see). I'm finishing up my final year of graduate school toward my Master's degree, which means that my time is supposed to will be taken up by finishing, presenting, and writing up my master's project. This process will, I hope, be minimally painful. What it will be, for sure though, is time consuming, leaving little time to knit and/or blog.

On top of that, I've hit a few knitting walls this past week, and my knitting-mojo is suffering for it. The Urban Aran awaits attention somewhat impatiently. I cannot, for the life of me, pick up the required number of stitches along the neckline. I'm hoping that this is simply a product of me not knowing how to pick up stitches correctly (see below), and not the sloppy decreasing job. To determine this, I will have to check in with my LYS. However, I did not buy this yarn from said LYS, which tries to reserve its help for its own yarns (understandably so), and so I will have to beg and plead and probably offer money (totally worth it). However -- this whole grad school thing makes scheduling all of that difficult.

I discovered my lack-of-picking-up-stitches prowess when I dove into The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques with five Urban Aran pieces spread across my lap. Somewhere I had picked up an approach that looked nothing like the example in the book. While the new technique made my attempts on the collar more attractive (if not accurate), it created a little wrinkle in my brain. If I had been picking up stitches incorrectly all this time...then the picking up of stitches that I have done on the capecho are... incorrect. And while picking up incorrectly on a sock doesn't really matter -- you still get a fitting sock -- picking up incorrectly on the capecho may have disasterous results. So disasterous, in fact, that after a brief look at the six pentagons I've finished, and a quick realization that to fix this I would have to frog five -- I put the pieces down. I folded them up. And I have not looked at them since. (Brenda Dayne's most recent blog post on why you should not try to alter a Norah Gaughan pattern in any way is not helping.)

The Jaywalker, in its third incarnation, is coming along. And although the yarn is wonderful, the pooling is...kind of hideous. I love them nonetheless, but -- you know how it goes. Frustrating.

All of this makes me itch for a new project. Which I don't really have time to do just at the moment. Hence, my knitting-mojo frustrations.

This, of course, did not stop me from picking up a skein of 50/50 merino/tencel fingering weight yarn from Mary Ann Pagano of Three Waters Farm, a local fiber artist. She sells her hand-painted yarns at the Carrboro Farmer's Market, where I've admired them for over a year. I finally gave in today (her friendliness and my project frustration were too much to fight) and picked this up. The colors are just -- iridescent. Purples, greens, some blue... almost too good for the socks I'm planning. I think I'll play with some swatches and see what it wants to be.


I'll leave you with this: Baby yarn! The picture is poor -- I only got one in on a recent fishing trip to a nearby farm's pond. I of course was more interested in the week-and-a-half-old lambs.

Most recent podcast: Cast-On, with Brenda Dayne.
(The podcast responsible for this madness by introducing me to online knitting culture.)
Currently listening to: Cider in Battle Ground playlist: No Lonesome Tune, Townes Van Zandt.
What I should be am doing: Waiting for pyramids to build in ArcGIS. Grr.

New spring growth

In good spring fashion, everything here is growing. I wake up every morning to the two large, bare windows next to my bed to gauge the day -- windy, wet, or warm. On Saturday, the branches were still bare. On Sunday morning, the canopy was covered in green. Lovely! Although I love the fall and winter, spring really is the best season here.

The knitting grows, too. I've made progress on the capecho -- those pentagons are addictive -- I've gotten five done (I seamed that one on the right up last night). With each additional pentagon I've been wrapping it around myself, checking the length, trying my best to keep the size in check. It seems to be working so far, as it looks like I'll need the full seven pentagons to get the right wrap-around width.

(Those stitch markers, by the way, are from Purl, the Penguin on Etsy. Love 'em.)

Not to be left out, the spring crop of lecture series has allowed for some Jaywalker time. That whole frogging thing to avoid the pooling? Yeah. That was a fair waste of half a sock, because that pooling wasn't going anywhere.

Ooooh -- and a squee update. Super fast shipping over at Fearless Fibers. Here it is! Look at that red! It's the perfect scarlet for a Rutgers fan at Duke. Now: what to make...

Most recent podcast: KEXP Song of the Day.

Currently listening to: Alexi Murdoch, Time Without Consequence.
What I should be am doing: Waiting for pyramids to build in ArcGIS. Grr.

* I don't actually like basketball, but I don't let that out very often down here.

Spring Break updates

Have I really not posted for nine days? Spring break, a trip to Colorado, the week before the next draft of my Master's Project is due... it's just flown by. I'm only allowing myself to post now because I'm waiting for a model to run in ArcGIS 9.2.

Well, enough of that. Some updates:

After spending entirely too much time thinking about it, I decided to bring the capecho and the jaywalkers, both on bamboo needles, so as to avoid the scrutiny of any over-zealous security officers (excellent point, emano). I've learned not to bring anything too precious, as I once lost five Brittany dpn's (mid-hat!) to just such a circumstance. The capecho was new, exciting, and still small. It was a great project for the plane and a little podcast-listening, where I could give it my full attention. The jaywalkers had been languishing a bit, and I knew I'd need something a little more mindless for socializing.

Capecho progress! I've added a third pentagon since this picture was taken, but the light in Colorado was so much better that I've used an old shot. The seams are a bit obvious; any suggestions? I used the mattress stitch that Auntie Amanda recommended (thanks much!). It was super simple, but it's standing out a bit on the capecho. Any ideas?

Now that I'm back in the southeast, I've put all else down for the Urban Aran cardigan that still has me so excited. I've about 5 more rows to go before I finish the second front panel and then...then it's on to putting it all together. The seaming of the capecho pentagon's has given me a little confidence boost, and I'm excited about actually, possibly finishing!

Colorado was lovely -- I was just west of Denver, at my boyfriend's boyhood home in the mountains (I grew up in New Jersey. Apparently, they're called "foothills," but they're mountains to me). I got to go cross-country skiing (my first time ever on skis), and try out the new hot tub (I highly approve).

Something new has caught my eye, although I'll have to put it off until maybe the end of summer. It's both me, and not me, at the same time. I have nothing else like it, but I completely see myself wearing it over a fitted white long-sleeved tee, and jeans. It's SweaterBabe's Romantic Cable and Lace Vest.

Whew. I'll leave you with some Colorado eye candy.

Most recent podcast: KEXP's Song of the Day.

Currently listening to: Bitter Tea, The Fiery Furnaces.
What I should be doing: Writing the second draft of my MP.

An illustration of my perfectionist side.

First there was this:
And then there was this:


And now there's -- well, picture 84 stitches cast on (casted on? cast-on?), and joined in the round.

This is the third incarnation of my first Jaywalker sock. The first one I knit -- and I made it past the heel -- was in the smaller size, and didn't fit. It was nice though -- with nice, deliberate stripey-ness.

So I frogged it, and started over, in the bigger size. I got several inches into it before noticing, as you can see in the picture above, the funky pooling. So I knit a few more inches, hoping I wouldn't care. It became abundantly clear to me, with each additional row, that I'd never wear the resulting socks.

So I frogged that one too. Luckily, my ball-winder arrived in the mail yesterday -- at least it was a good excuse to use it. More pretty pictures of yarn cakes than anyone can stand to look at will be posted soon.