I is for . . .

Ivory silk.
Because H is for Habu--I was in NYC for a conference this past weekend, and managed to get to Habu for a few minutes. (The elevator was out, so I had to walk up the 8 floors. But it was well worth it!) The ivory-colored silk is A-39, which they list as a fingering weight, although I'd call it a very very light fingering, or a very heavy lace. I have almost 1200 yards of it; I think it's destined to become a lace stole for a friend's daughter's wedding. The wedding is over a year off, though, so it's got some time to marinate.


I also bought 2 ounces of A-1, in color 38, which is a lovely tweedy raspberry color. It's a lace-weight, about 530 yards. Nothing planned, but I couldn't resist the color.

The trip down and back offered plenty of knitting time, and I worked on a Flutter Scarf. (I took a Bolt Bus, which is a fairly new service between Boston and NYC. The trip down was great, the one back was okay. But I emailed them with a "here's why I'm not thrilled with the trip back" report, and they were very prompt about getting back to me. So I'd give them another shot.)

I'm using a skein of MamaLlama silken cashmere, in Bella, which is delicious. I got the skein as payment for knitting up a sample scarf for MamaLlama, and I've been waiting to find a good pattern for it.

Flutter is a very easy pattern to memorize (and Miriam was wonderful about helping me decide if the pattern would be suitable. and then with walking me through some technical problems in actually getting the payment to go through!). Rather than knit it as written, which is in two halves, I knit a couple of repeats, then the flutter, and am knitting down from there, with the join at one side rather than in the middle. I weighed the amount of yarn that the first end took, and am now getting close to that point on the other side. The skein I'm using is a little shorter than the skein the pattern calls for, so I'm trying to make the center part as long as possible without worrying about running out of yarn for the second flutter. Right now the scarf is about 45" long, and I'll probably get another 3 or 4 center repeats in before I start the second flutter end.

The scarf is going to be a present for my best friend's mom, who's a darling and going through a rough time right now. She's always been wonderful to me (and lately has taken to sending me knitting-related things, like pattern books and magazines and skeins of sock yarn that she's found when cleaning out a closet!), and I wanted to send her something lush and pretty.

I is also for Irony--yesterday, G and I went to the police station to have elimination prints taken. While we were there, the detective in charge of the case said they had a suspect in custody, although no hard evidence linking him to our break-in, and no real hope of recovering any of the items. When we got home, we found an automated message from the town on our machine, saying that there had been a series of break-ins, lately, both home and auto, and everyone should be very careful. A little late for that, but--nicely ironic, none the less!

H is for . . .

Harmony.*

I love my Harmony needles!

When I learned to knit, I learned on long, straight needles, with the right one anchored under my arm. I let go of the needle entirely to wrap the yarn around to form a stitch, which made me very leary of things like dpn and circulars. But I wanted to learn, and finally decided to get an interchangeable set. Only I liked wood better than metal, which limited my options. (hee hee, Options!) When KnitPicks came out with the Harmony Options set, I was sold--definitely one of my best knitting investments!

Currently otn, above: a EZ Pi Shawl, on size 5 (3.75 mm) tips, using Helen's Lace in Watercolor. I'm about 1/2 done with the last section, with 572 stitches on the needles in a feather-and-fan pattern. (Ravelry link).

And even if there hasn't been blogging, there has been knitting--mostly lace. More . . . eventually!

*Excuse the crap-tastic picture. We're still recovering from G--better photos soon.

It is deep April

"It was deep April"

It was deep April, and the morn
Shakespeare was born;
The world was on us, pressing sore;
My Love and I took hands and swore,
Against the world, to be
Poets and lovers evermore,
To laugh and dream on Lethe's shore,
To sing to Charon in his boat,
Heartening the timid souls afloat;
Of judgment never to take heed,
But to those fast-locked souls to speed,
Who never from Apollo fled,
Who spent no hour among the dead;
Continually
With them to dwell,
Indifferent to heaven and hell.

--Michael Field (Katherine Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Cooper (1862-1913))

G is for . . .

Gone.

2 laptops

1 digital camera

more photos than I can remember, including ones of me holding my nephew the day he was born

1 laptop bag

1 cell phone

more jewelry than I care to think about, including my great-grandmother's ring

The new lock we had installed a few months ago worked really well.  The door, however, is pretty much a total loss.  Our landlady is having a steel one installed tomorrow.

On the bright side, we have renters' insurance, including generous riders for jewelry and computers, so we'll at least get to upgrade the laptops out of all this.  We just went out and got me a new laptop (On which I should be grading papers right now, but I'm venting instead.)  (and evidently I'm now Mac people.  I'll let you know how I like it.  The set up was super-easy, at least.)   Fortunately, I was wearing my more expensive (which is also my more sentimental) jewelry, like my grandmother's earrings and my engagement ring.

In my best Dutch Uncle* manner, I am now going to say:  if you do not currently have renters' insurance, GET SOME.  Put a rider on for anything like cameras, computers, jewelry.  Ours cost less than $200/year, even with the riders, and in the long run means we'll get most of the monetary loss, at least, back.  Knowing that has made this whole thing a little less awful.

Mean people suck.

*In my family, "let me talk to you like a Dutch Uncle" means "let me give you some unsolicited advice." 

By the numbers

Time spent knitting: 3 months, off and on
Hours spent on this project: about 40
Finished size: 29" by 35"
Number of skeins used: 4.5, or about 1210 yards
Number of repeats: 30
Number of stitches, including cast-on and bind-off: 44,892
Number of cables crossed: 720
Number of cables mis-crossed, dropped down, and fixed with a crochet hook: 1
Number of days since the nephew was born: 26
Number of days I'd be early if the nephew had waited until his due date: 6

The pattern: Aran Blanket by Linda Daniels, from Knit Baby Blankets!
The yarn: The Leader Mill Ends and Closeouts, from Webs
The needless: size 5 straights
The verdict: Overall, this was a reasonable knit. Cables aren't my favorite thing, but this is what my SIL really wanted: a yellow, cabled blanket. And my mom likes cables less than I do, so I was volunteered for the job. The yarn is fine, and machine washable (this was the most important feature--yellow (as requested), and machine washable (as experience has taught me). I feel like a bit of a cheapskate, since the yarn was very, very, very inexpensive even before it went on closeout. It's a little stiff to knit with, although not nearly as bad as some acrylic, and it softened up a lot with the first wash. Because it's acrylic, though, the cables draw the center in enough to make the blanket less-than-square (I'd show you a picture but my camera doesn't want to talk to my computer right now). I'd rather have used superwash wool, but I know that my brother and SIL will wash this pretty heavily, and I'd rather not take a chance on it felting (like T's blanket, which I made out of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, bought at full price).

All the cool kids are doing it . . .

72 words

Speed test

April, come she will

I haven't actually posted progress reports or goals yet this year. So--checking in on my end-of-the-year posting:

Goals from 2007 for 2008:

• Finish brother sweater (Jan) Done!
  
• Lengthen husband sweater (Jan) Done!
  
• Lengthen perfect sweater #1 (Jan) Not even looked at.
  
• Ramona (Jan) Done, and I love, love, love this sweater. The yarn (Classic AL) pills like mad, which is to be expected out of a merino/alpaca blend, but I love it anyway.

• Husband sweater #2 (Feb/Mar) Swatched, but that's it.
  
• Tangled yoke cardigan hmm. . . I may use the yarn I had earmarked for this for a different sweater. Still in the imagining stages.
  
• Baby nephew blanket w/cables (Feb/Mar—he’s due in April, and while we’re worried he’ll come early, like his big brother, I don’t want him to not have a blanket. I’m aiming for done in mid-March, which will put him at 35 or 36 weeks) Well, he came early (March 8), and his blanket's still not done. But I"m getting there--I've done 28 out of 30 repeats, so--two more repeats and the border, so I need about 3 more hours to finish the knitting part.
  
• Orange socks for T (done soon, but maybe given to him when his baby brother gets his blanket) Done, gifted, and frequently worn.
  
• Honeybee stole or another large lace project, w/camel yarn Still in the imagining stage, but I have finished some lace this year.

Other things accomplished so far this year:

• Flowerbasket Shawl
• Swallowtail Shawl
• Malabrigo scarf, neither blogged nor Raveled. It was for the third, and only male member, of my committee.
  
• Blue socks, also for T
• 1 sock in Lorna's Laces Georgetown, a little too long for me (I got distracted and forget to start the toe), so once the second one is done I'll mail them to L.

Not too too much knitting, although I've done a fair amount on the cabled nephew blanket, as well. And, considering that I finished and defended my dissertation--my largest FO to date, and my longest-lasting WIP--I'm going to say the first three months have been pretty successful!

Which raises the question: What do I want to accomplish in April? April will be a month of grading; next week I have a lot of papers coming in and a short time to turn them around before I have more papers coming in that I'll need to turn around quickly, because then it will be the end of the semester and I'll have final portfolios to grade. Teaching would be so much more fun if it weren't for grading jail. My goals, in other words, need to be reasonable.

• Finish the cable blanket and mail it to little nephew. (totally reasonable; even with 35 papers to grade this weekend, I think I should be able to mail it by the time he turns 1 month old.)
• Finish the second G'town sock so I can bring them with me when I go visit L the first weekend in May. (mindless and portable knitting is good, especially with papers to grade)
• Swallowtail shawl #2 in Posh yarn: I need to decide which yarn. The Posh Knitters group on Ravelry is having a KAL and I thought I'd play along.
• Work on green socks for T, which I started and then frogged, since I wasn't happy with them.
• Wash the swatches for the husband sweater and get started. We have made a pattern decision (hence the swatching): Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd, from IK Summer 2006.

That seems like a reasonable amount to try and accomplish. I have a million plans in my head, but I know this month will be crazy, work-wise. May will be lighter work-wise, but crazy with graduations and birthdays and conferences; June will be much lighter, though (and then July and August crazy again with a summer class!).

I haven't really been buying yarn, or notions, or anything, really, but instead mostly knitting from my stash. I think I'll be tempted, though, as Webs' anniversary sale is coming up in April, and they always have such amazing prices!