wip: p u r l s c a r f

My baby sister is getting a children's book published (!!!) so as a congratulations present, I'm knitting her a scarf in her favorite color. She picked the base yarn (Malabrigo Worsted in Sapphire Magenta) and I picked the complimentary yarns and the pattern - the Purl Scarf, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. This was one of the very first knitting books I ever bought, and though I'm not a big scarf knitter, I've always wanted to knit this one. I'm knitting it on size 13s rather than 15s, mostly 'cause I don't have 15s, and it's definitely thinner than I expected based on the photos - if I made it again, I might add a few stitches to get a bulkier scarf. But I love the loose open rib and the way the colors all go together, so, here's hoping she likes it too? 

wip: o a t m e a l

I keep meaning to take photos of this in progress but the knitting is going so fast that this is the first change I got. Massive needles = awesomeness, especially because work has ramped up the craziness lately, so coming home to something mindless feels pretty damn good. 

In other news, my mom sent me a giant box of photos from my childhood this weekend, which gave me an excuse to play with the scanner. Good to know I still have the same awkward dance moves.

And also the same haircut. Yay, bangs.

wip : l a u r e l

I've had this skein of madtosh vintage (in Glazed Pecan) for years now - I bought it when I lived in Japan on one of my sporadic yarn binge international orders from WEBS - and am finally doing something with it. The only problem is that because I've had it for so long, somewhere along the way I wound it up and used an unknown amount of it, because now that I've reached the decrease section of the hat, I'm running precariously low on yarn. Damn you, self of the past! So here's hoping the madtosh community on Ravelry bails me out in my quest for Glazed Pecan remnants, because buying another full skein just to finish a hat would sort of defeat the purpose of knitting from your stash... 

WIP : tealeaves

Current wip of the moment is a Tea Leaves cardigan in Sanguine Gryphon Codex. Finishing it has become something of an obsession, so I'm actually much further along than this photo from earlier in the week - I've also done the button bands and most of one sleeve. It's nothing new for me to become unreasonably fixated on finishing a project, but this time around I think it's mainly because I only have one real sweater here in Ollantaytambo (I did *not* pack wisely), and I'm desperate for something warm to wear! So here's hoping it comes out nice, because no matter how it looks, I'm going to be wearing it all the time anyway. 

RIP(ped out): february lady sweater

above: this photo is so old, it's from when I still lived in an apartment with tatami! 

Oh, February Lady; I don't think I made any progress on you since I took this photo back in ... November, maybe? I don't even remember. Perhaps it was a bit overambitious to fly blind with a much smaller gauge (to say the least of all the many modifications I had in mind). Also apparently I can't count: when - remembering my New Years resolution - I finally got the motivation to sit down with this sweater and finish it last week, a quick stitch count revealed that the two front panels were asymmetrical by like, ten stitches. How did I even do that? 

above: Goodale thus far 

It seemed like a waste to have two pretty skeins of tart sitting unknit and unenjoyed for nearly a year (to say nothing of making a mess of such a pretty pattern). The good news was, the two skeins of madelinetosh pashima were just enough to cast on for a pretty Goodale cardigan instead! Unlike the frogged February Lady misadventure, this time I'm following the pattern exactly, down to the recommended yarn. In two days, I'm already as far into the Goodale cardigan as I ever got into the February Lady, so here's hoping it'll be less drama and more fun than it's predecessor...

two WIPs

Two WIPs, which are going rather slowly but steadily at the moment: 

The first is a Mr. Darcy sweater knit in Cascade Venezia Chunky, for my boyfriend's birthday. His birthday was a week ago, though, and so far I'm about this far through:

I don't know if it's the monotony or a fear of the sweater curse that I can't quite shake. Maybe for next year's birthday? It seems like the minute I started this, all my relatives who I didn't even know knit came out of the woodwork to tell me stories of handknit sweater + man = woe and failed relationships. Still, if our relationship implodes, I'm not going to blame this sweater - I've knit him a ton of things in the past, including 1/2 of a pair of Earl Gray socks that have lain abandoned for a year and a half now; a big sweater on size 10 needles is much less stress for me than a pair of socks, and thus, hopefully, far less of a catalyst for some relationship-ending fight. 

Speaking of socks and my inability to finish them, the second WIP is a pair of Marilinda socks in madelinetosh sock. I started these on an airplane ride to Seattle earlier this week, so what you see here is about two plane rides' worth of work (with time lost reading and staring vacantly out the window of course). I love knitting on planes, and this project has been pretty addictive so far. I haven't knit socks since the aforementioned Earl Gray single sock, but I like how involved these are - at the moment I've got Mr. Darcy for when I'm feeling mindless, and Marilinda for when I'm not. Here's hoping I finish at least one of them before Iain gets here (!) next weekend, and we head away from the States again...

ishbel in the sky

Before coming home to Oakland, Iain and I stopped for the weekend in London so I could fly out of Heathrow. Since Iain is staying in Scotland for the summer, I've been fairly bad about rationalizing all the yarn I've bought recently as a much needed distraction - I can't miss my boyfriend if I'm too busy knitting obsessively, right?

Anyway, while in London, we stopped at the gorgeous Loop yarn shop in Islington, where I picked up a skein of Juno Fiber Arts Alice Sock. All of the colorways were gorgeous, but I eventually settled on a ($32!) skein of canopy, a sort of bright robin's egg blue with a bit of green in it. I'd been planning to make a pair of socks, but once I got back to hotel and wound this into a ball, I decided it was far too beautiful to put on your feet. The only other pattern I had printed out was Ishbel (from the earlier, failed, and now frogged Ishbel that kept me company throughout Vietnam, India and Scotland), so I figured that was as good a use as any.

Fortunately, it turns out knitting on an airplane with no real distractions is an ideal lace-knitting environment. I blazed through the stockinette body, and then the entire A chart. I also figured out where I'd gone wrong in my first attempt: in trying to stay on top of the pattern, I'd put markers between each 8 stitches, not realizing that the borders eat into those stitches and that if you just trust the pattern as it's written without trying to overthink, you'll do fine  - at the time, I couldn't figure out why I kept coming up wrong on both ends of the row, and it was maddening. This time, I just read the pattern super carefully, paid close attention to where the S1, k2tog, PSSOs lined up, and though I'm sure there's still a bit of weirdness, it definitely looks much better this time around - I can't believe I was in such denial about my first attempt being totally hopeless. The slightly heavier cashmere sock yarn looks much nicer than the initial skein of madtosh praire, too - I am completely won over by this yarn and how soft it is.

So anyway, that was my goodbye to the UK - having Ishbel to focus on during the long flight back did keep me from getting too sad about having to say goodbye to Iain for the next two months. If you are ever in London, I do highly recommend Loop. I've been to a few yarn stores since heading back from Asia, and they have by far the biggest selection of yarn (and the widest color range) that I've seen so far. I love also that they have a nice selection of books from some of my favorite independent designers like Stephen West, Ysolda Teague and Gundrun Johnston; and also, a good range of luxury and more affordable yarns.   

Definitely recommended!