No-brainer

Today's thankfulness report is easy. I am thankful for the safe arrival of Morgan and Olivia, my two new grandnieces. I've seen a couple of pictures, and I approve of them.

I knit on a project that really needs to get done, and some tidying up in the Girl Cave. My desk attracts arts and crafts doodads of all sorts, and some of them need to be moved to a holding facility. No photos for either one. You will just have to trust me.

I heard today that Han Suyin died. She wrote the book that became the movie, "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing". Remember that one? And if you are about my age, you may have had to sing the title song in your school choir. I know I did, and I can still belt out the second soprano part to it if called upon.

As usual

Staying up too late, trying to post before midnight.

October is not quite over, but I think I can declare NaBloWriMo a success. I've only missed posting one day, and that was an accident. Now, as with NaNoWriMo, I won't claim that you got high quality every day, but you got something. I like to think that even when I just posted a video, it may have revealed a little bit about me.

As November approaches, there are more "do something crazy this month" options. There's NaKniSweMo, where you knit a sweater in a month. I tried that last year, and still have a half-finished sweater that I haven't touched in eleven months. Maybe I should knit the OTHER half of the sweater next month.

Or there is NaNoJouMo, where you work on an art journal every day. That one appeals because 1) there are daily prompts, and 2) you can use words and pictures, in any proportion you see fit.

Then there is the 30-Day Creativity Project, which just wants you to do something creative every day. Even fewer rules! I'm liking it already.

Here's what I WISH I could do. But, patience, grasshopper.

Multnomah

Multnomah, a photo by chaimann on Flickr.

I started this little shawl so I would have something simple to knit on the airplane while en route to a wedding last October. I finished during the wee hours Friday, while watching the Will and Kate nuptials.

Yes, I watched the Royal Wedding, from the time the important people started arriving, until the newlyweds left the balcony. I love a good show, and I had to work during Charles and Diana's wedding, so I deserved to see this one.

The shawl pattern is called Multnomah. It took one skein of sock yarn, and it is dead simple if you can count to 18. I did fine with the 18s, but had a little hiccup counting to 4 that caused me a bit of ripping back. No harm done,

A Major Award

Though no diligence of my own, I won a prize drawing on the Never Not Knitting blog. I couldn't get a good picture of it because it is cloudy and dreary here today. Just go to Alana's blog to see everything. The yarn, especially, is squee-worthy - shiny and soft and squeezable. Thank you, Alana!

The sweater, meanwhile, has been stalled, for reasons about which I do not feel at all guilty. The body is worked up to the armhole, though, and a little bit beyond that. I feel like a major part of it is out of the way, and I hope to be able to get back to it soon. In fact, it is supposed to be cold and icky this weekend, so that may be a good time. Whenever that day comes, I will freshen up the photo gallery.

While I haven't been knitting, I have been spinning.



I bought this fiber on a lark, but I really love the way the color changes happen in it. The spindle is packed full, though, so I have started winding this batch off. It is taking FOREVER.

NaKniSweMo

Cafe Bastille, day 4
Originally uploaded by chaimann

My decision to knit a sweater this month seems to have been a good one. I'm having a blast and making good progress. This photo was from a couple of days ago, and shows one repeat of the Trellis motif. I now have two repeats done, so it's double this size. The body of the sweater will have about 5.5 motifs, so I am well on my way.

I've been wanting to try NaKniSweMo for at least a couple of years, but kept getting sucked in by writing instead. I'm glad I switched this year. The other two sweaters I have knit have taken me YEARS to finish, because I lose interest and ignore them for months. The deadline on this one, even though self-imposed, has kept me focused on the task. The sweater promises to be really warm, and I'm looking forward to having it when the snow flies.

Finally, some new socks

Jitterbug Socks
Originally uploaded by chaimann

I think I have spent almost a year working on these socks, but I finally buckled down and finished them. Love the yarn (Colinette Jitterbug, Toscano colorway), love the pattern (pinched from a British knitting mag and tweaked to suit), and love that I finally get to use the cute sock blockers I bought at Stitches Midwest last fall.

Mystery Beret

Mystery Beret
Originally uploaded by chaimann

At least when I avoid writing, I do something productive. As soon as this dries, it will be the Mystery Beret from the Wooly Wormhead Knitalong on Ravelry.

Oh, yeah. I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year. Have I mentioned that? I'm not doing it well, or quickly, but I'm still soldiering on.

It's autumn already?

Technically, not quite, I know, but after a beautiful sunny and clear Labor Day weekend, it turned cloudy and cool and wet, and the most delicate of the foliage is already starting to wilt.

Let's see, immediately after the last post, our astronomy club hosted a convention, so we were busy with that. Then after that was over, we relaxed for a week. Then, because it was almost August, AKA The Month When My Eyes Act Screwy, my eyes started acting screwy. Six weeks, several specialists, and some fancy-pants medical treatments later, I'm pretty much back to normal or at least my eyes are. While I was Abby Normal, though, I didn't spend a lot of time hanging around the computer. T kindly gave me his rarely used desktop computer, with a 22 inch monitor (love it!) and Windows Vista (hate it!)

That didn't deter me from making the annual pilgrimage to Stitches Midwest, but it did help keep my shopping in check. Shopping just isn't that much fun when you can't see what you are doing, or aren't sure if you will ever be able to see well enough to use the purchase. (Of course, except for making my annual tithe at Black Water Abbey, I bought all lace weight, so don't listen to me.)

I can read again, and knit socks and lace, and even stargaze. Last weekend, we went to the Iowa Star Party at White Rock Conservancy, about an hour from here, and I did a little binocular viewing. In fact, once night T's telescope went wonky, and I actually did more viewing than he did. The weather, as I said, was perfect for camping and astronomy - cloudless and moonless and temperate. It did get warm one day, but it was also windy, so it was still pleasant.

Now, with the cooler weather and clearer vision, my knitting mojo has returned with a vengeance. I keep diving into the WIPs (works in progress) and finding something else that I absolutely must have before winter. Maybe one of these days I will even have some photos of finished objects to share.

Gah, knitting!

I've been wondering why I'm not making any progress on any of my knitting, so today I pulled everything out of the knitting bags and conducted an inventory. I have in progress:

6 socks
3 scarves
3 shawls
1 hat
1 bag
1 sweater

That's fifteen projects, people! Fifteen! Sheesh, how mortifying. There are some people, you know, who are project monogamous, only working on one project at a time, or maybe one big project and something like socks for mindless knitting.

So here's the plan for clearing up some of the backlog:

1) The hat will be quick to finish, so finish it first.

2) One of the socks has barely been started, and is not a special pattern, so rip it out.

3) One of the scarves is a pattern that is not showing the yarn to good advantage. Rip it out and find a better pattern for the yarn.

4) Two socks are right at the heel turn. Turn the heel and get them back to the easy part.

I'm off to the frog pond, and then outside to do some yard work. The sun finally came out, and I think the lawn needs more mowing that Chuckie is able to give it by himself.

Shameless

Last Friday, when we were knitting at the bookstore, Amy found that "More Big Girl Knits" was in stock. We all thumbed through it, and everyone immediately fell in love with the cabled cardigan hoodie. However, since Amy found the book, she had rights of first refusal - and she did not refuse.

So yesterday, I was pouting and stalking the book online, and found a contest on Cassknits blog that was giving away a copy. Hot dang! Full disclosure: You get more entries if you blog about the drawing. So here 'tis.

I'm shameless, but I want that sweater!

A slow start for Lent

Lent got off to a stumbling start here. We had a snow storm starting Tuesday, and the pancake supper at church was canceled. The snow stopped Wednesday (we got about eight inches), but by the time I figured out that I don't really know how to use our new snowblower, it was to late to make it to the Ash Wednesday service.

At least I came up with a To-Do and Not-Do list for the next six weeks, but even it is in jeopardy.

1. Do not start any new knitting or other crafty projects. This one is already on the ropes. I made a chemo cap for one of T's coworkers, and she asked if she could order another one. She's a sweet lady, one of T's favorites, and this is her second go-round with cancer. How could I say no? I'm pretty sure God will understand if I amend this one to say "No new projects for myself."

2. Avoid entertainment news. Granted, it's hard to avoid it entirely, especially when it's right there on Yahoo News, but I don't have to watch the stuff that is on TV when I get home from work. The last time I tried this, it was a Paris Hilton backlash. Now, it's Britney. I think she's at the point where we all just need to look away.

3. Observe Meatless Friday. Between salad bars and bean burritos, this one is pretty easy.

I wasn't sure about this last one, but T had a meeting tonight, and that convinced me to....

4. Take a Tai Chi class. Our church is offering a six week class during Lent. Tonight was the first class. The instructor started by saying, "First, tai chi should never hurt. Second, the only way to do it wrong is if it hurts." That's my kind of exercise. I like the class, and am looking forward to going next week.

Has it been a month already?

I've been a bad blogger, and I blame Ravelry.

Ravelry is the new must-see site for knitters and crocheters, still in beta and invitation-only. It has forums and wikis and what not, but the really cool part is the databases - of yarns, of patterns, of projects. Users can enter all of the details for their projects, including pictures. Then, if you have, say, one ball of Noro Silk Garden yarn, you can search for that yarn, see the projects, narrow the search, and get a pretty good idea of what can be done with the yarn.

The thing is, to get a picture into Ravelry, I need to store it in Flickr. So I upgraded my Flickr account, and started dumping my yarn pictures there. Once that is done and they are linked to Ravelry, I'm tired of them and don't want to re-do them for Blogger. Feel free to go look at them in Flickr, though.

I have finished three hats (one a chemo cap for one of T's friends), and this little beauty:

My co-worker had a baby boy in early January, and this is his "welcome to Iowa winter" gift.

Early Christmas

T and I pretty much pick out and buy our own presents, so there won't be much surprise when Christmas rolls around. I did get a couple of gifts I wasn't expecting, though.

My knitting friend Nancy gave me this cute little bumblebee tape measure from Lantern Moon.

Yesterday, I bugged out of work early and joined Margie and Amy at a 50% off sale at a local yarn shop. I looked and looked, not seeing much I had to have, and then I saw this:

It's a Jordana Paige satchel, the same style Carin and I armwrestled over when she visited last summer. And it was the last one in the store, and it was half off! *swoon*

Obviously, it became my little gift to myself.

It holds a ton o' stuff. In this picture, it has two socks, two scarves, and a shawl, and it still has room for more.

After realizing yesterday that I haven't finished any knitting projects in ages, I decided to suck it up today and finish the i-cord handle for the Blue Jeans Purse.

I'm going to add a lining to it, but knitting-wise, it is done. And darned cute, if I say so myself.

She writes, a little

Nanowrimo has started, and so has my annual descent into the fresh hell that is fiction writing. This year, in lieu of a big scary story, I am writing "a man walked into a bar" stories. It's all the same bar, and I anticipate having enough through-story that I can call it a novel. But when the chips are down, I can just pick out a character from my little notebook of ideas, and write a thousand words.

And the chips were down today. I frittered away most of Thursday, but managed to eke out 1678 words, and even better, they didn't suck. I thought that was better, anyway. It turns out that, unaccustomed as I am to fiction writing, writing well freaked me out. I squandered most of Friday and all of Saturday. I was already 4000 words behind this morning. Things were grim.

Thank goodness there was a write-in, and thank goodness, Karen's first words to me were, "I'm behind, too, but we are going to get at least 1000 words before we leave." And so we did. I abducted a character from my friend Aser, and by the time it was all over, I had over 2000 words. I'm still behind, but less drastically that before.

Tomorrow, the reality that is a full time job returns to taunt my aspirations.

After frogging about an inch of the Flamingo sock, I have done the tiniest bit of knitting on it. I'm trying to negotiate a toe-up, gusset-and-flap heel on it.

I'm also trying to conquer spindle spinning again. Amy gifted me a spindle and some beautiful teal fiber. I want it to be yarn, but I need to improve my skills first. My first gambit: Predraft the hell out of the fiber. (Nonspinners: Drafting is sliding the fibers slightly apart lengthwise as you spin. Commercially prepared fiber is somewhat compact. Predrafting is loosening up the compacted fiber before even attempting to spin it.)

Caught in a Web

Yesterday, I gathered up all of my unfinished knitting projects and assessed how long it would take to finish them. I mean, I have a shawl that just needs to have fringe attached, and a bag that needs an i-cord handle. There is no excuse for those to still be unfinished.

So today, I finished them right?

Wrong. Today I was seduced into working on the Charlotte's Web shawl. I bought the yarn the last time I was in Omaha, with the help of crackerjack enablers Eliza, Minnie, and Tara.

The shawl is knit with five different colors of variegated yarn - sometimes alone, and sometimes in alternating rows. The order above is the order they will be used, starting with the neck edge on the left.

This is my third attempt at making Charlotte's Web. I tried it a few years ago, with different yarn. I had little lace experience and no stitch markers, and it quickly became a disaster.

Since then, I have bought stitch markers at almost every new yarn shop I visit, the way some people buy postcards or souvenir spoons. I started the shawl with this yarn a couple of weeks ago, but I messed up the lace pattern. Repairing it turned out to be more time-consuming than starting it over. Now I am through the first single color, and midway through the first alternating section.

Can you see the white thread about a third of the way up from the bottom?

That's dental floss. Because of the earlier problems, I decided to use a lifeline. I threaded a needle with the dental floss, and ran it through a row of stitches that were known to be correct. Should there be another unfortunate incident, I would only have to rip back to the lifeline. So far, knock wood, everything is fine. I did drop one stitch, but with some deep breathing and a pair of double point needles, I was able to repair the damage.

'Tis the season

National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner.

I have absolutely no ideas this year, and I expect work is going to be more stressful that usual, due to an unanticipated absence on the team. But after five years, it's just what I do in November.

The October weather is certainly cooperating for indoor activities like writing - and knitting. It has been blustery, and today was rainy off and on.

I started the month with the intention of getting some knitting projects finished before it was time to write. Instead, I have been starting projects. The Knit Wits went to Iowa City, and I started a new project in the car on the way back. I've started not just one, but two, lace projects, and I've made two baby hats.

Just winding this ball of yarn was a project, requiring me, T, and some borrowed equipment.

It doesn't look so dramatic here, but this is a pound of yarn - enough for a sweater. It's about five inches tall and seven inches across, and it is destined to be a shawl. The only reason I haven't cast on yet is that I need to photocopy the pattern first, so I can scribble on it at will.

Most of the photos I have taken with the cell phone recently were blurry, but this one was good. And it makes me laugh.

Emergency vacation

It's a long story that I won't bore you with now, but many of my September travel plans have become confounded. T and I did get away last weekend, though, for the Iowa Star Party at Whiterock Conservancy.

I wasn't even there 24 hours, but I met a nice cat who looks a bit like Katie, except this cat liked strangers.

Lectures were held in this barn.

We had the best meal I've had in awhile.

Grilled pork chops, scalloped potatoes, green beans, cucumber salad, and homegrown 'maters - oh my! There were also brownies, but T's plate was already overfilled. His brownie is on my plate. I didn't take a picture of my plate, because I didn't want you thinking I was gorging on brownies. Ahem.

Despite the many food-like names for the following, it is not good eating.

Cow pie, cow patty, cow chip, meadow muffin... We were camped in a mowed-down cow pasture, so one had to be on alert at all times when walking about.

I didn't have any mindless knitting, so I started some.

That's a toe-up sock in Opal Flamingo. Yes, I'm using circs, and it is going okay. It's up to about four inches now. I used Judy's Magic Cast On from Knitty, and it was slick - no provisional stuff to worry about.

TOFUtsies at last

(Warning for any Rockin' Sock Club members who happen by: There be spoilers here. If you don't want to see them, don't look too closely at the cat picture, or at anything after that.)

The Tofutsie socks are finished.

I stand by my claims that the yarn splits like a son of a *st*itch, and pools in a way that I would not have chosen, but it knits up into a lovely, soft fabric. The yarn, if you haven't been following along, is a high-tech mix of wool, cotton, soy silk, and shellfish shells.

Katie is stunned to see the camera out.

She had a nice surprise today. The hot weather and rainy weather finally gave way to a gorgeous late summer day, with clear skies and pleasant temperatures. I was able to open the windows and let her, and the house, breathe some fresh air.

Another advantage of the nice weather: The guys are finally starting our third renovation project of summer, putting new siding on the garage. It was supposed to start a month ago, but the contractor broke his hand, and then the weather got challenging. I'll be glad to see it done.

Okay, on with the spoilers. The August RSC kit arrived yesterday, and I love it!

The yarn is Flower Power, the pattern is Summer Of Love Lace Socks, and the package includes two temporary tattoos. I cannot wait to cast these on. I need to hurry, too, because the time frame for making shorty lace socks is drawing to a close in the midlands. I wound the yarn today, as well as some Fleece Artist that I got at The Studio in Kansas City.

The Fleece Artist had a break in it, which is why there are two unequal balls.

In writing news--I have no writing news, but next weekend is the Piker's annual folly, 10 K to Labor Day. The idea is to use Labor Day weekend as a warm-up for NaNoWriMo by writing 10,000 words in three days. I think T is working at least one of those days, so I should get some writing done.

Shooting with the camera

My new cell phone has both a camera and one of those teeny little Micro SD cards, which allows you transfer pictures to your computer without having to pay to e-mail them to yourself. For those times when opportunity strikes and a real camera is out of reach, this little sucker is handy.

Then at Office Depot the other day, we found these little doohickeys that let you turn your Micro SD card into a USB drive. Score! Now you can see the kinds of spontaneous things that entertain me.

Katie had to go to Miss Kim's for a few days while we re-did the bathroom. This pathetic face dogged me all the way home.

KnightStar, of course, is always very excited to find a chess set in public - at Starbucks, for example. I set up the pieces to humor him.

He refused to play me, though, since I had few more than the standard 16 pieces.

I did get a couple of squares sent off to the Greensburg project.

When the Knitwits went on the yarn crawl a couple of weeks ago, we stopped at a rest area, and saw this sign.


I've lived in the Midwest my whole life, but I don't remember ever being cautioned to keep the livestock in the vehicle. It seems like a good idea, though.

Still here, still knitting

Amy pointed out, quite correctly, "You haven't blogged much lately." True enough. The weekend after we painted, the Knitwits ran away for a quick yarn crawl. I got some yarn. I haven't taken pictures. I also got some snappy new shoes, perfect for showing off socks.

In photography classes, they always tell you to pay attention to the background as well as the foreground. It's good advice, and if I had heeded it, you would not be seeing this:

A toenail on the hall carpet. Katie is notoriously bad at picking up after herself.

The weekend after that, I came down with a cold. It is now in the "endless cough that won't go away" stage.

Fortunately, I was never so sick that I couldn't knit.

Off the needles: The mystery stole. I had a needle slippage event, and it was quicker to frog the little bit I had done than it was to repair it. Since then, more of the pattern has become available, and now I'm not sure if I want to make it or not. I'm waiting to see it finished - by someone more ambitious than myself.

On the needles: I replaced the mystery stole with the Mystery Sock at Socktopia.


Yes! Those are circular needles! I'm trying socks on circs again, because I hate being defeated by mere knitting. The ribbing looks a little funky, but once I got into the pattern on the leg, it evened out somewhat. It's a good thing I used circs, though. The leg pattern is over 32 stitches and 14 rows. DPNs would have been a pain in the patootie.

The yarn is some Meileweit I have had for ages. I picked it because it was near the top of the sock yarn box. I think it is too busy for this pattern, but by the time I was into it, I didn't want to start over. Here it is stretched out to show the lacy parts a little better. There are also cables along each side.