Fireworks

I went and saw the fireworks downtown, next to the river. I don’t think I’ve been to a fireworks show with so many people since I was a kid. The fireworks were pretty good, and I saw some in nearby neighborhoods.

I haven’t been knitting too much lately. I’m trying to finish up some WIPs before I start any new projects. I want to knit a lacy shawl this summer, and I even have the yarn for it. I have about 6 or 7 WIPs, so I have to finish at least 3 before I’ll start. I’m leaning towards Eunny Jang’s Print o’ the Wave Stole. I will use Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Aegean, I think. I haven’t made any fancy lace shawls yet, and I’ve been really wanting to.

Moving

I’m in the middle of moving to another city. It’s hard to go through all my stuff and get rid of things I don’t need. I tend to accumulate a lot of junk that I don’t want to get rid of. I haven’t moved in a long time, so there’s a lot of stuff that’s piled up. I planned on organizing my stash by the type of yarn, or the season I would use it in, but I ended up just getting a bunch of storage bins and putting it in all together.

Even still, I managed to finish a couple of projects the last few days. The Phyllo Yoked Pullover, the Lace Tee, and Roza’s Socks. They all turned out pretty good, except I think I’ll redo the sleeves on the Lace Tee. They should be a little wider. These projects have taken me at least a year each to do. I did the soles, toes, and heels of Roza’s Socks on size 0 needles, so that took a little longer.

I started knitting socks a couple years ago and abandoned all my other projects. Socks just seem to go faster, and I don’t have to think about the colors. I can get fuschia and orange yarn, and not worry about which colors would look good on me, as a sweater.

Mingus Problems

 

I got a new sock bag, from www.etsy.com. It’s pretty nice, and has a bunch of pockets on the inside. I am using it to hold my Mingus, which are in progress. Although, I realized my gauge was off, so I’ll have to restart with a larger needle. I like using the size 2.25 or 2.5 mm for socks, because I like how the fabric turns out. But I have to use 2.75 to get a gauge of 8 stitches per inch. It would make the socks go more quickly, but I like the fabric better with 9 stitches to the inch.

Spring Break

Last week I visited northern Arizona for my spring break. I went hiking in Sedona, at the Bear Mountain trail. It was pretty difficult, partly because of the altitude. I live at basically sea level, so I really notice the difference at the several thousand feet level. This was taken close to the summit of the trail. The last part of it was basically rock climbing, so we didn’t do that. It was odd to see bits of snow still on the ground, even though it was still warm enough for shorts. I guess that’s the desert for you; extreme temperature fluctuations.

I didn’t end up doing much knitting on the trip. I planned to work on Mingus, but didn’t really feel like it once I got there. I have two socks left to do and then I can cast on for new ones. I’m looking forward to working on some patterns from the new Twist Collective. I bought a couple of sock patterns already, Blossom and Laeticia. They’re even by the same designer, now that I look at it. I need to get some more semi-solid yarn, though. I have a lot of wildly colored sock yarn, but it won’t work for those patterns.

Gothic Rose

I’ve been working on the Meret hat, in Dream in Color Classy. The color is Gothic Rose, which I liked just because of the name. It is a really pretty kettle-dyed dark purple. I have some Dream in Color Smooshy, but I haven’t used it yet. After this, I’m looking forward to seeing how those knit up. I need a new area to take pictures. There isn’t anywhere in my house that’s good for pictures, and I don’t have a lawn. It would be ideal if I had a backyard, with a porch or something, but I don’t really want to take my yarn outside on the street, where it’s all dirty.

The spring Knitty is out, and as usual, my favorite patterns are the sock patterns. I also like Decimal, but they are the ones I could actually see myself knitting. I like Aeolian too. I’ve been wanting to do a complicated lace shawl-type thing. I’m trying to finish about 3-4 projects before I let myself start anything else, though.

There’s also a new math/knitting book that sounds really interesting, Making Mathematics with Needlework. It analyzes knitting, cross-stitch, and embroidery for their math principles. I’m not all that into reading math books, but I do like knitting books.

Spring time

I’m  I’m finishing up two pairs of socks, two sweaters, and a tee shirt that I’ve worked on since last year.  This is the Babydoll Tunic from Crochet Me. I may have to redo it, since the shirt is worked sideways for the top. It was hard to tell if it would fit until is was done, and the straps are too short. My gauge was right, but I guess the measurements for the size I did just didn’t work for me. I may just redo the lace area on the bottom, so it fits more loosely.

I have a few projects planned for the spring, but I’ve decided to make a lacy hat I can wear for the last few weeks of winter. I got some Dream in Color Classy, in Gothic Rose. I have so many long term projects, I want to do a quick hat to take the edge off, as the Yarn Harlot would say.

Tangled Yoke Cardigan

Lately I started working on this again. I’ve joined the sleeves and the body and am a couple of inches into the yoke. I like working with the alpaca, but the sweater is noticeably heavier than wool would be. I’m using Knit Picks Andean Treasure, in the Lagoon color. I’m not sure if I would use 100% alpaca again, since it is so heavy. My goal is to get it done before spring really gets going, in April or May.

I also want to order the Mr. Foster kit from Knit Picks. I like sock monkeys, and the kit looks really cute. I doubt I would make the pajamas, though. I’d probably just use that yarn for socks. Speaking of socks, I’m close to finishing my Roza and Spring Forward socks. I’m about halfway through the second sock on both of them. I went down to a size 0 needle for the sole and heel, and had to add about 12 extra stitches to the heel area. It makes it slow going. I have plans to knit socks with the Noro Kureyon sock yarn, with size 0 needles, and that will probably take forever. But that yarn is so thin, I can’t see using anything bigger.

Hedera Finished

I have finished my Hedera socks, having started them in April 2008. I did the soles on size 0 needles, and the leg and instep using size 2.5mm needles. I’ve started doing this for socks that don’t have some nylon in them, so they wear better. It takes longer, because I have to add in about 10 stitches to the sole area, when I first do the heel flap. I don’t know how I would do that if I was making toe-up socks. I have only made about 2 pairs of toe-up and about 7 of the top–down socks.

    I also bought a new knitting bag, the Laguna by Namaste. It’s really roomy and has a lot of pockets. The only thing I don’t like is the bottom insert. I think if I weren’t structured, it would be better, and would drape against the body more easily. Other than that, it’s a great bag.

    This Christmas, I decided to knit some of the presents I give out. I’ve been knitting for about 4 years, but have yet to do that. I’m not sure why, probably because I didn’t want the stress of having to finish them by a deadline. But I’ve got a washcloth, some mug warmers, a hat, and some convertible gloves lined up. The gloves will probably take the longest, but I don’t think the recipient will care too much if they arrive after Christmas. In the last few years, I haven’t really been celebrating Christmas, so giving out tons of presents wasn’t a priority. I gave people some small gifts, but I really got tired of the whole shopping frenzy. The whole holiday just seems to be about shopping, and less about family togetherness, or whatever else. I think that’s because I’m an adult, so it seems more of a hollow holiday, and it didn’t when I was a kid. But it does seem like the emphasis on buying things has increased.

Knitting Magazines

Apparently, Magknits has shut down several months ago. I looked at their site for patterns a lot, but hadn’t noticed that it was gone. Another site,  Knotions, has put up some of their old patterns, and has some new ones of it’s own. Along with the Twist Collective, there seem to be more online knitting magazines than before. But, they could stop making magazines for years, and I have such a backlog of patterns that I want to do, that it wouldn’t matter. That’s why I stopped checking Magknits, just to cut down on my pattern consumption.

Socktober

I have been traveling, so I haven’t updated in a while. I went to visit Arizona, which I hadn’t been to in about ten years. It’s always strange to go back to a place you knew really well, and see how much it’s changed. Everything seems so familiar, but at the same time it’s not. I mostly visited areas that I didn’t spend much time at when I lived there before. But some areas were really different than how they were in my memories.I was too early to see the leaves changing on the aspen trees. The elevation where these trees were was at about 8000 feet, Hart’s Prairie. I really felt the elevation, especially the dizziness. Hiking seemed much harder too.

I also am going to try the Socktober challenge, and finish some of my second socks. I have Roza’s socks, Hedera, a couple socks from Cat Bordhi’s Pathways book, and some lace knee highs, that probably won’t be done anytime soon. I’m going to try to concentrate on Hedera and Roza’s socks.