FO: Hemlock Ring Blanket

Ravelry project link here.

Pattern: Jared Flood's blanket-sized version of the Hemlock Ring doily.

Yarn: One and a half skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool in colorway 8010

Needles: Started on US 10 Brittany DPNs, and finished on 32" US 10 Addi Turbo circulars (my LYS was out of the 40", and I really could have used that extra eight inches).

Size: I did two more pattern repeats than Jared's version -- although I didn't measure the final product.

Mods: None.

For: A Christmas gift for my mom.

Time: Casted on at the end of October; casted off on the tarmac at SFO on December 20th.

Thoughts: A gorgeous pattern, and I am exceedingly happy about how it turned out. My mom seemed to love it! Because I finished it on the plane home, I couldn't block it as long as it really needed -- I had about 36 hours to block on my sister's bed before she came home and, you know, needed somewhere to sleep. I had to block it super aggressively -- there was a lot of fighting, and it's still a tiny bit ripply -- but the final product is pretty striking (considering that it looked like this:

More Christmas updates to come -- fiber goodness, new books, and news on life (I'll be moving soon). For now, though -- I'm going to enjoy my Saturday.

Most recent podcast: CraftLit. I'm catching up with Tristan and Isolde.
Currently listening to: Blue Planet.
What I'm reading: The Amber Spyglass, by Phillip Pullman.

What you are picks its way.

My. It's been nearly a month since I posted last, and I can only partly blame it on the new job. Because I work remotely, I spend most of the day tethered to my laptop; once I'm finished, the last thing I want to do is spend time online. I've even been neglecting Ravelry!

I have been pretty busy, though. The knitting, admittedly, has been slow. Only two more pattern rounds before I finish the Hemlock Ring Blanket, which continues to look like a big, unphotographable blob. I can't wait to block it -- my goal is to finish it this week, and to take lots of blocking pictures. The only other active project on the needles is the second of the Baltic knee-high socks, which have been good for travel. The Urban Aran continues to require a new collar and then a zipper, and it's just occurred to me that I might have some down time next week (house-sitting in Seattle (yay!), and TreeHugger will be out of town on business) to focus on it.

So, instead of knitting pictures, I leave you with "How I spent my Thanksgiving vacation" pictures. I trekked, with TH, his family and friends, to a hut in the Colorado mountains. This east-coast flatlander had a great time, even if I was sucking wind for three days.


Oh, here's something fiber related! I overheat like crazy once I get moving, and so I love my calorimetry. It keeps my ears nice and warm, but lets me vent a bit from the top of my head. I originally knit it up using Malabrigo on size 9 needles, which made a pretty loose fabric that let winter winds through -- so I took a deep breath, and threw it in the wash. Now it's perfect!

Calorimetry at 12,000 feet.

More to come, and sooner than a month later, as I finish up the Christmas gifts, and start a new project or two!

Most recent podcast: Cast On!.
Currently listening to: Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas Vol. 1.
What I'm reading: Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass.