knitabit

A Pause that Doesn't Refresh

Geesh, it's been two weeks with no knitting now. Getting these project proposals pulled together has been all-consuming. The good news is, spring break is next week and an extended road trip will provide for all kinds of knitting time! I'd like to knit some sort of simple pullover in a nice warm wool - I'm thinking Peace Fleece - but since we're leaving on Saturday, I'm not sure I could get any by mail order on such short notice.

My sister and I will be stopping in at a new yarn shop in Fort Collins on Thursday; maybe I'll find something there.

Of course, I could pull something from my stash...

I need to mention also that I'll be spending my birthday money on a swift and a ball winder!!

Finally, a sock yarn wearability report: OK, I'm totally in love with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn. These socks are not too thick, not too thin, not itchy, very soft and very comfortable. A+++. My overflowing stash of sock yarn has suddenly become most unappealing. I'm thinking of unloading it on eBay...

Media Values

It's not knitting related, but based on today's media coverage, I couldn't help but notice the following:

the media value of one dying white woman in Florida > the media value of 10 dead Native Americans in Minnesota

As usual, I had to click off The Today Show this morning because (I'm quoting Dodgeball here) I threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Back on the subject of not knitting, I'm sadly occupied with writing project proposals for the time being. However, my sister and I have a field trip to the new yarn shop in Fort Collins planned for March 31. I've got some birthday money to spend...I'm thinking about a swift and a ball winder.

No knitting in six days!

I can't remember when I've gone this long without knitting! I was in Wyoming for three days, and then transcribing notes, cataloguing photos and catching up around the house since I got back.

Here's a view of Heart Mountain, located just north of Cody:

And here's an example of the type of antique insfrastructure that we were looking at - this is the Cody Canal headworks, on the west side of Cody. (The water rights for this canal were acquired by William F. Cody "Buffalo Bill" himself!)

We had dinner one night at the Irma Hotel in Cody. The food was decent and the ambience is charming. Wouldn't want to be there during the tourist season, though.

Back to Socks, Again

The baby sweater is not suitable for travel knitting, so I brought along another sock-in-progress for my Wyoming business trip:

I don't think I'll be knitting on it tonight, however. I remember listening to a "Car Guys" broadcast on NPR a few years ago, in which a woman caller inquired about some sort of syndrome that affects women travelers only. Something about how after four or more hours in a vehicle, a man gets out of the car looking pretty much the same as he did when he started out. But a woman gets out of the car with limp hair, wrinkled clothes, dark circles under her eyes, etc.

Well that's how I feel since arriving in Cody, WY about two hours ago. I just sat in the car, for crying out loud! I didn't even drive! But go figure - my eyes are bloodshot, my hair is strange, I feel frumpy...

So I'll just surf the web a bit, review my meeting notes for tomorrow, and then call it a night.

A Post About Something Other Than A Sock

Yes indeed, I do knit something other than sock after sock after sock. I finished the first sleeve on Fanasaeter last night:

Baby sleeves are not nearly as painful as adult sleeves, are they?

Today is a landmark day! My employer is buying me a wireless high-speed internet access card and they're delivering it to me at a lunch meeting today. Woo-hoo! They're also encouraging me to use their laptop for all computing purposes, even personal [read:knitting] stuff. They see employees waste too much time trying to do personal stuff on one machine, business on another, etc. I'm also getting a docking station so the laptop functions more like a desktop in a home office setup.

I've got another Excellent Adventure in the works. Next week I'll be heading up to Cody, WY for some pre-proposal meetings on a bunch of work we're going after. I'm having to arrange a bunch of car pooling for the kids to get to sports practices and stuff, but it all seems to be coming together nicely. Not sure about knitting opportunities: I don't think the boss was impressed a couple of months ago when I did some knitting in the car on the way down to La Junta.

Before and After

I repaired the toe of a Koigu sock last night.

The new toe looks a little less faded than the old toe (the socks have been washed repeatedly.) Koigu KPPPM, I've decided, is not the ideal choice for socks. Without any nylon content, this sort of wear and tear is to be expected, I'm afraid.

I must be living right. When I finished grafting, I had exactly 7" of yarn left. Don't you just love it when things work out right?

Birthday Socks

Here are the socks I knit for my mom's birthday:

I re-did the toes last night - the same type of decrease toe that I did on the Lorna's Laces socks the day before.

They are made from Cherry Tree Hill yarn - a thicker yarn than the Lorna's Laces. These will be the kind of socks to wear up the cabin I think - very warm and toasty.

Spring Cheer

I finished the Lorna's Laces socks last night. What a cheerful spring-like colorway:

I really like the yarn texture. The way it knits up reminds me of Koigu KPPPM, but with that little bit of nylon I'm sure it will wear a lot better. The yarn is fine enough so as not to be too chunky inside my shoes. Destined to become a favorite pair of socks, in spite of the funky self-striping effect!

I went with the regular decrease style of toe, except that instead of doing {decrease one round, knit one round}, I varied the decreasing to be {[decrease one round, knit two rounds] twice, [decrease one round, knit one round] a whole bunch of times, and then [decrease every round] three times at the end}. Makes for a more rounded toe shape, I think. I learned this trick from Lucy Neatby's "Cool Socks Warm Feet" book.

I had a weird thing happen to me yesterday. I had promised to make some changes to a web site that I volunteer my time to, and yesterday I finally got around to it. When I finished that chore, I suddenly realized that I had not a single other obligation hanging out there. Nothing weighing on my mind, nothing that I'd been procrastinating on, no one out there waiting for Karen to get something done. Boy, did that feel good.

Of course, that doesn't take into account the dirty dishes piled in the sink, Laundry Mountain, and the bills that need to be paid. But those tasks are obligated to me, not someone else. And anyway, those kinds of tasks never go away, do they?

Oh Happy Day!

DARCA has left the nest, at last! I still have some minor loose ends to tie up, but nothing causing undue stress.

While watching "Sounder" last night (recorded off of Turner Classic Movies over the weekend - man, what a great movie) I made a bit more progress on the Lorna's Laces sock. Here are all three pairs of socks in progress:

On the left, the Lorna's Laces socks still on the needles; in the middle, the Cherry Tree Hill socks for my mom's birthday tomorrow (still contemplating a change on the toes); on the right, the Koigu socks with a hole in the toe on one, waiting for repair.

Once these are done, then it's back to the baby sweater. After that, who knows? I can see the open highway of knitting nirvana!

Thanks for the kind comments about the soccer parent frustrations. The tournament went well, and a couple of the fussbudgets were suitably humbled after another parent took them aside for a minor tongue-lashing.