Month: November 2008

This month is disappearing out from beneath me. Perhaps that draft of my master’s thesis that I handed in this week has something to do with it… perhaps, perhaps. That would also explain the INSANE STARTITIS I am battling. I have piles of projects around, and yet I want to cast on a million more things.

The other cause of all this startitis are the impending holidays. Even Rockerfeller Center is starting to get ready:

so I am working like mad on Christmas knitting:

I can post these because they are the Grandfather Socks (hopefully they will help combat the chilly toes from poor circulation). Poppop’s level of technological use is the TV remote, so I have no fear he might somehow accidentally surf here and spoil the surprise. The rest of the family, however, are much more technologically literate, so those projects will all have to wait.

I can share this one, though, which I did tonight over three hours of procrastination brainstorming:

These are for my old boss from my college tutoring job. His folks live in the Midwest, and they lost their home in the flooding last spring. Their home…including all the Christmas ornaments. Harry wrote a note about it on Facebook, and talked about how his mom would retell the story of each ornament as she put it up every year, and I teared up right away, because my mom does the same thing. There’s lots of history tied up in those decorations and ornaments, and the idea of losing ours made my heart seize up for a minute. Harry asked if we could help him create a new collection for his Mom, new ornaments and new stories. So I found some appropriately-colored yarn scraps and made a little pair of stockings for Harry’s Mom’s tree, and I will write a little note to go with them, to tell her about how I used to knit in the Writing Center in between sessions. I hope it’s a new story.

I also think I’m knitting more of these little socks, because they’re adorable and fast. I used the Bitty Hat and Sock Ornament (socks only, obviously) from Interweave’s holiday pattern freebie, available from Knitting Daily, and just finished the socks off instead of doing the little toothpick-needle finish. It’s adorable, but it probably wouldn’t ship as well, and I have no Elmer’s around to make little yarn balls, and I really kind of like just a finished mini stocking. I think everyone’s getting one of these this year!

The arrival of the holiday season has all sorts of harbingers: digging out the holiday music (check), the Hershey’s Kiss bell commercial (omgcheckyay!), the arrival in stores of Stella D’Oro Pfeffernuesse (where is it already?) and me, starting to obsessively bake. Check, check, CHECK:

They were really good. What thesis?

I had a bit of frustration earlier today trying to prep for a midterm when I discovered my college’s Blackboard site had a broken database: instead of seeing lecture powerpoints I was getting strings of code and pages that would not load.

I decided that torturing myself was useless, so instead I went and stuck pins in things. It was very theraputic:

Both the sticking pins in things and knowing I’m finally going to be wearing these three projects. In order:
–My So-Called Scarf, knit in Manos Silk Blend in Violets, an impulse buy from Purl Soho.
–Anemoi Mitts, knit in Koigu PPPM (green) and Knitpicks Palette (white).
–Branching Out, knit in , an amazing gift from Rebecca and Melanie from their SF trip earlier this year.

I also debuted my Harvest Shawl this past weekend:

Pattern: Clementine Shawl, from Interweave Knits Spring 2007 (also available for purchase on Knitting Daily)
Yarn: http://www.dyeversion.com/Dye-Version Bamboo Sport, Harvest Colorway, purchased as a birthday present for myself from The Purple Purl in Toronto.
Needles: Size 5 (I used my Harmony interchangable set).

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This pattern was an easy and enjoyable knit. While I did have to glance at the chart every so often, I wasn’t tied to it, and it moved along very quickly. I added one extra repeat for width, as I saw several people suggest on Ravelry, and it was perfect. However, it gained just enough length in blocking, so that the ties fall in a rather awkward spot now, but if worn straight, it looks marvelous. It also works as a scarf, so this is a multi-tasking FO.
The yarn was a new one for me, and I love love love it. Dye-Version is a local Ontario dyer, and I hope she starts selling online sooner or later, because her stuff is amazing. I manhandled most of the available skeins at the Purl when I visited it in August, but I kept coming back to the Harvest colorway, in the Bamboo — the colors were far more vibrant in the Bamboo than any of the other available yarns (even if the scent of the milk fiber was absolutely fascinating) and it has a wonderful silky feel and scent. I don’t know if it’s the bamboo or the dyes or what, but there’s a delicious scent to this yarn, not quite silk, but close, that I have grown rather fond of. There will be more Dye-Version in my future!

I wore this, as I intended when I picked the pattern, to a dinner celebrating my uncle’s wedding last weekend. The ceremony was in Dallas so my family wasn’t able to be there but we had a lovely dinner on Halloween night. Turns out, the shorter “shawlette” length is perfect for dining — no long awkward ends to get caught on chairs or trail in one’s plate. I’m extremely happy with this FO, and I’ll be repeating both the project and the yarn.

(PS — see those little ghosties in the window? Bernat Glow-in-the-dark yarn! It’s a trip. Excellent for all your Halloween crafting needs.)