Big knitters come in small packages

I can't not blog right now. I have been touched by her woolly appendage, the Harlot. I haven't been blogging lately because, as most of you know, I've had my head in a microscope, trying to understand the reproductive organs of butterflies. I'm still a bit fuzzy on the details, but I'm getting there. I'll be dissecting out some reproductive organs tomorrow, and possibly going collecting.
So me, Kade, Gret, Koren, David, and half of our husbands buzzed up to Brentwood to listen to, watch, bask in the woolly glory of, etc. the Yarn Harlot. I would totally have a beer with that woman, maybe three. I did forget to tell her that Iris said "Hi." So, dear Harlot, if you are reading this, Iris says "Hi."
I gave Ms. Stephanie a picture of the reproductive organs of (I think) Neomaenas monachus, though I'm not sure that's the correct genus. Of course, that's what I'm working on for my thesis. As far as I'm concerned, they're all up in the air, and nobody really knows what belongs in what genus. I'll get back to you on that. Anyhow, she loved the picture. I am so tickled, I can't even tell you.
Here we are, two fun-sized knitters (Knitters may be shorter than they appear. This is to be considered a normal part of the variation in knitters and should not be perceived as a flaw).
While waiting, listening, and waiting some more while chatting, I knitted a goodly portion of the Snakes! sweater for Colin's baby (Fig. 1). Colin, you see, is a herpetologist and clearly needs a snake sweater for his offspring. I also eeked out a few rounds of the Blue Jaywalkers. 'Cause, you know, sock picture.
After that, we all went out for Thai food/sushi. I drank a lot of tea and had Rama chicken (which was beautiful, but very peanutty).
Then I looked in my cup...
Let's just leave it at that, shall we?

In other, loosely related news, I'm kind of excited about my presentation in Plant Anatomy on various plant fibers. I now know more about plant fibers than is probably healthy for any individual.


Edit: I was working on the above-mentioned butterfly and the correct name is Quilaphoetosus monachus (Blanchard 1852). Like I said, it may yet change again. I saw the same insect referred to by FOUR different genus names! This group is just a mess, taxonomically.

The Amazon and the Pict are moving along at an even pace with astounding project fidelity. The Pict (that's me) is thiiiiiis close to finishing sleeve #2 of 2 and the Amazon is about halfway through two sleeves at once. Lest you think ol' Kade's a slacker, check out the relative size (below). They should be ready just in time for summer!
Erm...yeah.
I've also got some corn yarn in the queue for some toe-up socks for summer.

Why, hullo, readers!
Yeah, I'm talkin' to both of you. Okay, so I've been busy. In fact, I'm busy right now. Anyhow, last night was Sober Ride, As with last year, I did a count of cowboy hats, kilts, and street guitars. Here's last year's count. And this year's follows:

• 17 Cowboy hats
• 1 kilt (though anecdotal evidence brings the number up to four)
• 6 guitars
• 11 drunk people safely home
• one dead 'possum
• 3 tips refused
  

The kilt count is down, as is the Cowboy hat count, but the guitar count is up. No crackheads, just one guy that wanted us to take him to his car. Headdesk. He was a bit dense - and tried to tip me $20 (which I refused).

I took my knitting, of course, and managed to make some progress on sleeve #2 of the Man-sweater. More later, of course.

Good day, my spring chickens!
With all the wind and rain and robins singing, it's beginning to look like it might be spring soon. February has ended and I haven't finished a dang thing. But, March is for Making Mates, so I'm good. Meadow socks are done and ready to be some kind of nearish holiday present.
Mostly, like m'lady Kade, I focused on my Man-sweater, making a decent amount of progress during the month of February.
I'm halfway up one of the sleeves and would be farther along if I hadn't started a pair of Jaywalkers. For a few moments there, I only had the one thing (the sweater) on the needles and lest my fellow knitters think me some sort of yarn-faithful pervert, I cast on these puppies:
Jaywalkers in Opal Traumfänger in a kind of bluejay-lookin' colourway. Hence, Bluejay(walkers). These are super-secret socks for someone who occasionally reads my blog. Only my fellow Ravelers know the secret! Mwahaha!!
Seriously, these socks are going to be wicked awesome.

Want and Need

I've got a mild case of startitis. I think my susceptibility to startitis is directly proportional to stress multiplied by project faithfulness. Since I've only had two projects for the entire month and I'm coming up on midterms, my startitis susceptibility quotient is particularly high. Fortunately my sticktoitiveness constant is still constant. Given the above, I propose the following equation:
σ=(2S*f*[β])/Ω*Ζ
where σ= startitis susceptibility, S = stress, f = project faithfulness, β = boredom. Ω = sticktoitiveness and Ζ = zen nature. When Ζ approaches maximum value, # of projects on the needles = buddha, at which point you rub your own belly and just knit to be knitting.

Okay, back to want and need. What I want is to start a pair of mittens, but what I need is to study for midterms. February is almost over, so I'll be able to start something with the knowledge that I've been faithful to the two projects I'm working on now. I'm at the 1st sleeve of the man-sweater and in the middle of the 2nd of the meadow socks. Any other February, I'd have already finished and cast on something new, but my schedule is tight - really tight. Tighter than a really tight thing. I'm a fairly fast and faithful knitter, so I'm fantastic at finishing, so the fact that I've been working on these two things for the whole month and haven't finished should tell you something. This Friday, I think some chocolate and red wine is in order. I need midterms to be over. I need to sleep 'til I wake up. I want to knit instead of study.

I'll get through this. This will pass. I feel like poo now, but I'll be okay. Happy thoughts for sanity and mental acuity would not be taken amiss.

Quickie update:
In the spirit of February is for Finishing, I won't be casting on anything new this month. That is, I won't be casting on anything new unless I finish everything, which is a distinct possibility for me this year. I've started on the Right Front of the Cambridge Jacket (aka Man-Sweater) and I'm several rows into the leg of the sooper sekrit meadow socks. The latter I've been working on between classes and sometimes during class if I'm not taking notes or staining for the presence of starches in corn. The endosperm has lots of starch, the cotyledon has a little bit, and the embryo has none at all. It's very cool to look at.
Anyhow, I may further reduce the number of woven squares I'm doing to 15, considering the weight of the fabric. It'll be more like a chlamys than a himation, but I think I'm comfortable with that. I do live in the South, after all. I just don't see me wearing three yards of 60" wide heavy wool.

It's that time of year again!
So, it's nearly February and, of course, that means February is for Finishing! Clicky for the rules and we shall be a Frackload of Fantastic Finishers...or something. I've only got two things on needles right now, 'cause I haven't had the time, braincells, RAM, or something for casting on something new. I've been working on my weaving when I can, but that's about it. I'm going to have to cast on something portable and brainless soon 'cause the sooper sekrit sockies are (hopefully) going to be finished pretty soon, probably before the end of February. I've also finished the Sherbet Set for little bit. She says she wants a rainbow sweater next. I think she should have one. Hopefully, I can get pictures of the whole ensemble in situ at some point.
The man-sweater is moving right along (biddy-boom, biddy-boom). I'm mostly through the Left front, where the ribbing increases are. I'm really liking it so far and I hope, I hope, I hope it fits. The Mystery Stole 3 had to be ripped. I'm just not going to have the brain cells for fiddly lace for a couple years. I'm sticking to a few items with fairly simple patterns for now so that I can use those neurons for research. Of course, it also got wet and I'm going to have to wash the yarn. Apparently the dishwasher next door had a bit of an accident. There's a hole in our wall duct taped closed, a carpet dryer, and a dehumidifier. The resulting noise has thoroughly traumatized the cat. He's attempting to cope by putting his little paws over the computer screen in an attempt to acquire some of my omelette. "It's comfort food," says he. "Yes, but if you eat my breakfast, I will endeavor to make you uncomfortable!" I have also learned today that it is inadvisable to cook eggs and blog simultaneously.
So, I'm working from home today. I'm not in my jammies, but the hair is sticking up in every conceivable direction and I'm wearing the "desperately need to do laundry" clothes. So, yeah, I'm doing laundry while searching for obscure books and articles. I'm going to have a hell of a time finding what I need. Anyone out there have Arkiv för Zoologi, Volume 36A, issue 3? Anyone?

100!

This, dear fronds and anemonies, is my 100th post on A Lace Maze is in Jest!
Coincidentally, Iris tells me that she is coming up upon her 100th day of 1st grade and that she intends to bring 100 acorns to class. She has an acorn collection, you see. Last year, she took a poster of 100 bits of yarn.
So, knitting and yarn things.
The lovely Kadollan has inquired as to my goals for the year. Mine aren't terribly lofty on accounta school. I don't want to say something like "I'm gonna knit a pair of socks a month!" when I've got research to do. That just ain't happenin'. What I can aim for is this:

1. Finish my Man-Sweater.
2. Make a sweater for my kidling
3. Make a DNA scarf
4. Make more socks 'cause hand-knitted socks are the awesomeness.

February is for finishing is coming up and I've actually only got a few things that I can finish. I'll be frogging the Mystery Stole 3. It's just not flipping my switch right now and I don't anticipate having the brain cells to work on it in at least a couple of years. I like knitting lace. It's fun, interesting, and challenging, but generally I like making more practical things. I'm just not in love with this pattern enough to keep knitting it.
Let's see, what else? I've got the sherbet scarf, which is nearing completion, the sooper sekrit socks for a certain person's little feet, and the Man Sweater. Holy crap. That's all I've got. I could conceivably finish every knitted thing I'm working on by the end of February. Scary. And then I get to cast on new stuff!! YAY!!

Also impending is Ostara and CoW (Crafts of the Wise) is again providing prizes for the Bardic Olympics. I made these bags just before school started and I think that's all I'm going to be able to get done. My life is hella busy. There are several things I'd like to do, but that just aren't going to happen. I think I will have more luck motivating others than making stuff myself. *cry* I wanted to make another cloak and some embroidered hankies and a tacky apron and...oh well. The one above and to the left is totebag sized and has a little matching buddy that you can take out. The other is purse sized, is made from seersucker and chintz, and has beads sewn into the center of a row of flowers. It's kind of tacky, but (hopefully) in a cute way & has a pocket inside. Both of these were made entirely from scraps.

I did promise weaving pictures. I'm on square two of forty. I am never frakking finishing this. So here's the yarn porn.
The first pic on the left there is a closeup of the first square. You can see a little where I was experimenting with patterns and weaves. It's purdy. I'm rather proud of this.
The pic on the right is the 2nd square. I am working on some basic Greek border patterns and seem to be having some success. You're looking at the back of the weaving there. I hope the front looks as good as I think it will. I'm still working on my technique and I reckon that by the time I get to square #40, I'll be pretty good at this. I hope. I'm not terribly confident that I'll finish this in time, but that's not entirely the point of doing it. Even this little bit that I've done is kind of effing awesome. I am so proud.

I'm not doing much actual knitting lately, though I did get some spinning in this morning because my Plant Anatomy professor was interested to see the bamboo fiber that I was working on. No idea from what part of the plant that comes, but hey, bamboo yarn is cool. I knitted up a swatch of it and discovered a problem. It leans. I tried blocking it out, but to no avail. The darn thing leans to one side, I reckon due to the twist of the yarn. I'm not sure what to do about that, but I'll figure something out. I did finish the back of the Man-sweater and I've worked on the sherbet scarf and the meadow socks a little bit.
Anyhow, here's a pic of the random hat, all finished and on its intended recipient. That's my brother. He's not the type that likes wearing suits. He prefers interesting shirts I support and encourage his interesting shirt habit, as you can see.

Finally finished.

I've had this bamboo in singles about half-plied for some time now. This is the second skein I've finished and I've got a few ounces of the roving left. It's all done on the drop spindle and I haven't had much time to spin, but finally I've got it plied.


The Worsted Stocking Knaves are finished. In the picture, I've finally finished the gusset, but...
sigh
I had to rip it back. It didn't match the 1st one, so I took it back and started over on the gusset. I finished it at Mom's on Christmas Eve, including weaving in all the ends. I was hoping for Yule, but I can finally give them to the Knave in question tomorrow.
Instead of casting on something new, I've been working on my weaving. No picture today, but I've got about three inches woven. I decided to go with a tapestry kind of method and it seems to be going much faster. The hardest part is keeping the same width throughout. I've kind of got it stretched out like a skin that's being tanned. I hope it works. It is pretty and I can't stop petting it. I plan on felting it up a bit after I'm done weaving (like ya do). I've got to get moving on this weaving. A himation is a huge garment, about 2x5 yards of fabric. Each woven square is going to be a little over 12"X12", so that's ...(calculates)...90 squares. Ugh. I'm probably going to cut the size down a little bit, 'cause that would be a bit too cumbersome for me to wear. Maybe 5'x10' will be enough. 50 squares seems to be closer to the realm of possibility than 90. Then again, if I were to decide to utilize the golden ratio, I could make it 5'x8', 40 squares. I like that, yes. It would be very Greek of me to use the golden ratio...and also save me fifty squares.

"So, what have you been up to, Jess of the Bugs" you say.

Did you see I updated my profile pic? Well, I have no pictures of knitting today, but I can sum up. Here's my day:

1. Got up at 5AM and actually dragged butt out of bed at 5:20 to get little bit ready for school.
2. 7AM Little bit leaves for school
3. 8AM I've made my lunch, had breakfast, worked on some music. I leave for school
4. 9AM I smash up butterflies for their DNA (this actually takes longer than it sounds)
   
5. 11AM find out there's no meeting woot, so I work on some music and eat lunch
6. 1PM Holy crap. Do you know how many pine trees I've got to learn before Tuesday?? I don't want to think about it. And then there's the hickories...cry
7. 3:50PM I am late for fiddling with butterfly DNA (I actually get about five minutes of knitting while the gel is running)
   
8. 6PM Finish fiddling with butterfly DNA
9. Quick dinner of leftovers, and then here I am.
   

I haven't got many neurons for knitting lately (unfortunately), but I did get a few minutes in today. OH! I finished the reggae socks! Pictures will be forthcoming, eventually. I started a pair of secret socks in Knitpicks' Essential in the meadow colorway, which is green, brown, and purple. The random brown hat is actually progressing well. I'm on the bottom ribbing and I hope that it will fit it's intended wearer okay.

That's it for now. I've been quiet 'cause school eat my head kind of a lot lately. Hopefully pictures before long.

Yeah, and I'm totally Kadollan's blog monkey. Ook.

I went to the fiber festival that was at Cannonsburgh today. It was no Rhinebeck, but sheep were sheared and fiber was had. I got a little over a pound of some brown llama for about $10, and I can't wait to get started on it. I also got quite a bit (maybe two pounds?) of alpaca for $20 from a fellow with show animals who "just wanted to get rid of it." He chucked more from the particular alpaca in question in my bag. He mentioned something about wanting to see the final product when he shows his animals, but I can't make any promises. I mean dang. Grad school eat my head.
In fact, I set aside time and pennies to go to this 'cause grad school eat my head and I've been majorly stressed out.

Anyways, there's the llama and the two show alpaca. The pictures don't do them justice at all. I've got to get a drum carder in a serious way 'cause as easy as the alpaca cards up, I'd really like to have a quicker way of doing it. I'm impatient and also I hate hand carding fiber. It's quite an expense, though, and I'm having a hard time justifying it. I mean, I don't so much sell the yarn I make or the stuff I make with the yarn, though I theoretically could. But, you see, I spent $30 on over three pounds of protoyarn - such a bargain!

I don't mind the labor terribly much, 'cause I get this lovely yarn when I'm done that I totally made from fluff. I almost bought some flax, but didn't. Every story I've ever read about flax spinning says that it's a crap kind of occupation filled with much injury. Mind you, these are fairy tales, but still...I may get adventurous one day and try it out.

The fresh off the wheel spun stuff up on the right is from Alexa Monet, one of the alpaca. I separated the white from the black and spun that up as soon as I got home. It's currently drying over my kitchen sink. It should turn out to be soft and lovely, but again, I have no earthly idea what I'll be doing with it. Add to the stash, I guess.

And speaking of stash, I have heard it said that one should never photograph one's entire stash as it is likely to cause anguish and/or pain. Well, I did photograph my entire stash, excepting only the yarn that's associated with a current project. Mind you, it's two skeins deep, but this is it. This is the entirety of my stash.








Yep, that's all of it.
The left drawer is sock yarn and the right drawer is everything else. Under the palette is all my cotton and under the blue yarn (which is recovered from a sweater for purposes of knitting a better sweater) is all the um...acrylic. I must confess that the blue is also acrylic as is the purpley poodley whirlpool of doom. I was thinking Iris sized sweater, but it never made it past being swatched. I have no idea what the heck this is, just that it's acrylic and poodley. Just to the right of the purple poodle yarn is my Peaceful Pastures handspun and my rainbowdey handspun with which I intend to make mittens for my little hands.

In knitting knews, I've finished the first sock of both the reggae socks and the worsted stocking knaves. I'm a couple rows into the ribbing for the first and just past the ribbing on the second. I don't have a picture of the reggae socks yet, but here's the wsk with one done. I had Kade's old man try them on for fit and he liked it so much, he almost didn't give it back. I needed to have made the top a little smaller around and the foot every so slightly longer, but he likes it, so I'm going to work on making sock #2 exactly the same (excepting color - you will note that sock #2 ribbing is green and not tan) and leave it at that. More pictures to come (I hope) now that I've found my camera.

I'm in Ravelry as - you guessed it: jessofthebugs. So come visit me there as well. I'll need to update there as well as in Knitwars. Man, am I the biggest dork ever or what?

Where the heck is my camera?!?!
I was going to be all virtuous and post pictures of updated knitting, but I can't seem to find my dang camera. It's here somewhere in this pile of a house I've got.
Anyhow, I'll give you the down-low:
I have startitis pretty bad. I'm thinking about starting the DNA scarf in palette, but I really need to plug away on the other stuff I've got going. Speaking of the other stuff, the man-sweater is going along quite well. I'm at the armholes on the back. It's slow, but I'm beginning to see progress happening.
The reggae socks are coming along as well. I'm at the foot of sock #1. One of my fellow GTAs, Stanton, is from Trinidad. I showed him my sock (like ya do) and he said, "Those are rasta colors!" in his Trinidad accent. I can't tell you how much that tickles me.
The Worsted Stocking Knaves are moving along as well. I'm on the ribbing of sock #2. Mystery Stole #3 is erm... hibernating. I haven't had the brain cells for fiddly lace. The only other thing I have on the needles is a moss stitch scarf for Iree and it's also hibernating.
I've done some spinning today with the bamboo and I probably should do some sewing, but I probably won't.

So, yeah, school is still eating my head, but I've at least got a couple of pics today - thanks to Kade (who let me borrow her camera this w/e).

Here you go:

I've finished another skein of yarn and I hope that one of these days the other half of this fleece comes back to me. The mill I sent it to apparently has a bit of a backlog of stuff to do and when I last called them, they were up to stuff they had received in May. 'Sarrite, though, I've got plenty going on.

You may remember a while back, I named the well from which I would not drink. See how I am drinking now.

I'm most of the way through with sock #1 and with any luck, I'll finish before the year's out. I was hoping that I'd be able to finish by Samhain, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Fortunately for the feet in question, it's not really getting very cold yet.

I'm also plugging along on my man-sweater-along with Kade. She's farther along than I am, but considering that I've got grad school on the brain, I'm not worried. I've decided to shorten the jacket by about two inches because, well, I'm short. It's no surprise that when we picked a pattern for the Pict and the Amazon, someone was bound to have to make a couple alterations.

It's looking nice, I like the gauge, and I'm probably about an inch away from the armhole decreases. I'll probably have to shorten the sleeves as well, but that ain't no thang.

It's off to class for me. I'm making prodigious use of the technology fee I've paid to MTSU and blogging during my office hours. What else would I do...grade papers? Pheh.

Okay, here's the down-low:

I've wandered off from the Mystery Stole-along.
The man sweater is progressing, if slowly.
The reggae socks are at the heel flap of sock #1.
Worsted stocking knaves are at the foot of sock #1.
I spun some of the silver bamboo today.
I got invited to Ravelry. Woot!

Did I mention that I'm back at school? I'm back in school. In fact, I'm at school now, getting ready to grade papers.

Got some pictures taken, finally.
Here are the art gloves, made from jesspun laceweight on US#1 dpns. The fiber is a soysilk/wool blend and was wheel spun at so many wpi's I don't want to talk about it. The pattern is derived from the Knitter's handy-dandy book o' patterns, with a few necessary modifications for purposes of proper fitting.
Here are the WSK (Worsted stocking knave) socks. I'm still decreasing at the gusset, but these should go fairly quickly once that's done. The knave in question is a bit wide in the gusset, so I'm making a couple changes to the way I normally do gussets. I am decreasing just a little slower than usual (dec row, k around, dec row, k 2 rounds), so perhaps that will work. I'll have to try it on him once I'm done with that part. I'll also have to find someplace slightly more manly to take pictures of the manly sock. Amongst the mints just isn't quite right.
Since I finished the Art gloves, I started these socks. They're a blend of bamboo, cotton, and elastic that I got from the Knaughty Knitter. The colorway is called "reggae" and I am making them 'cause it's freakin' hot in the summer in the south. I can't be wearing wool in August. Just sayin'. I may have to rip them back a bit 'cause they seemed loose when I put them on my feet. I'm not terribly far along and if I were to rip them out now would be the time.

Another thing for the list of finished objects, though I didn't get a picture of them. I finished two potholders from scrap fabrics for a neighbor of mine. She had, at first, offered to give me pennies for them. I finished them in a day, sent them home to her via her offspring, and the next day she tries to return them to me. "They're very cute, but my boyfriend just bought a bunch of them..."
And this after going on for 20 minutes the day before about how much she likes handmade things better than store-bought things and how she'd really like to have some handmade potholders or something. I told her to just keep them. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little offended, but it doesn't bother me too terribly much. I just won't make anything for her again.

The Worsted Stocking Knave's socks are coming along nicely, but I have a niggling fear that I won't have enough yarn. I've got one almost to the heel, but I've got to try it on him to see how it fits. BTW, if you Google "worsted stocking knave," I'm the second hit. Go me.

The Mystery stole is inching along, slow and steady. I'm rather enjoying the bead work. Next up in sewing is Miss Heather's Tai Chi outfit. I only have to find a large enough space to cut it out and make sure that the pattern in my head for the pants is going to work. I plan on doing a mini version either for Iris or myself. Speaking of Iris, I'm planning on making a pair of socks for her birthday this year and perhaps also some kind of little outfit.

I've allocated time each day of the week from Monday to Thursday for making things with string. Sewing is Mondays, spinning Tuesdays, Embroidery Wednesdays, and knitting Thursdays (though I knit all week long). Friday is for working on my D&D campaign. My UFOs are dwindling this way and I'm actually making progress. Who knew?
I haven't got pictures right very now, but will post some as soon as I can.

Oh, and for those of you not in-the-know, the feast day of Athena is the 1st of September. Athena is the patron Goddess of making things with string and I'm thinking that an S&B may be in order.

Ta-da!!
Doc's Socks are finished. All that's left to do is mail them off to the intended recipient, write up the pattern, and send that off! w00t!One more ta-da!, I'm finally to clue 2 on the Mystery stole. I've been knitting a row or two each morning while Iris gets ready for school.
What can I say? It's a picture of unblocked lace. The handspun yarn is working beautifully. I'm finally making progress on Jim's shirt as well. I have only a hem and buttons to go and that will be finished also.

I can't do it. I just...can't.
I can't make a tacky crocheted afghan with crap acrylic yarn from 1962 and the Red Heart has got to go. Life's too short to work with crap yarn, even in the interest of kitsch. It's all going in the yard sale. Moving this part of my stash out allows more room for decent yarn that I like. There are still acrylics in there, but the red heart is gone, so is the mohair/acrylic, and so is the crap yarn from 1962. I know it's from 1962 'cause some of it was wrapped around newspapers, one of which had a comic about a stockbroker knitting. The gods have a wicked sense of humor.I have actually been working on Doc's Socks and have 1 1/2 socks done. I'm on the decreases at the heel gusset and they're looking pretty good. Kitty thought so too. Pretty soon , I'm going to have to write up the pattern, but no worries there. The socks themselves are turning out very well.I've also been working on the Mystery stole, but it's kind of creeping along. Because it takes my full attention, it's not exactly bus stop knitting. It doesn't get as much of my time as it wants, but it is moving along and it's just starting to look like something. I was worried about using my handspun yarn and that it might be too coarse or something, but the yarn is no trouble to work with, has good stitch definition, goes through the beads just fine, and is plenty soft. This picture is kind of crap, but it's unblocked lace. What can I say? (Oh, I wrote myself little reminders on the pattern 'cause I needed encouragement.)I love my Husqvarna so far and have made a couple small things. I made a diaper bag for my neighbor and a KIP bag for myself. My first KIP bag was too small and kind of...bled. I'm getting better at making them as I go along and mine seems to be working quite well. I'm actually working on Jim's shirt and it only lacks sleeves, buttonholes, and buttons at this point. If I'd make myself work on it, it would be finished. Next up is Heather's outfit. I've got the pattern worked out and just need to get started on cutting it out and stitching it together. I'm trading that one for tai chi lessons and at the rate I'm progressing in tai chi, I'll be sewing for bleedin' ever. I'm actually not doing terribly bad and get a little farther each time. In fact, I was able to stand on my right leg in tree pose for about a minute. Progress is good.

The flowerbasket shawl is now blocking on my bed and I've finished one of the Doc's socks. #2 is cast on and I've got to find my notes so that I can...er...knit the second sock. The first one went pretty quickly, so I'm hoping the second will go even quicker. As soon as I get them finished and photographed, they'll be off to warm the feet of a very special doctor I know.
I'm having trouble deciding which picture to send in to "Summer of Socks" for my vacation picture. I like "Birth of an Urban Sock" by the Sears Tower and I like "Chicago Theater at Night." Of course, "El Train Knitting" is also good and has a somber, end-of-the-day feel to it. "Knitting and Spinning" is also good, but I kinda feel like I'm cheating with the picture of Thomas Eakins' work. I'm leaning toward one of the first two.
Like the sheep I am, I've joined the Mystery Stole #3 and will be knitting along with a flock of 6,702 other knitters. I only lack the beads. I've decided to go ahead and use my handspun brown for this instead of for the himation because I never really felt like it matched well. It's a lovely soft yarn and I think it is well suited to this project.
I've got the yarn and pattern for our Man-sweater mini-along with Becky, I've put in my request for Ravelry, and the rest of the yarn for the Worsted-stocking knave is on its way.

You can take me wool, but ye'll never take me...

FREEEEEDOOOOOOOM!!!

Happy July 4th.

So far, nobody's tried to take my wool. There would be blood, wrath, and woe all around. I did, however, send off half of the Peaceful Pastures fleece to the Wooly Knob Fiber Mill. I'm very excited to see how the roving turns out. *squee*

Sock Progress! It's funny how ten hours of riding in a car from Chi-town to the 'Boro opens up knitting time. I'm about halfway down the foot and with a little bit of time and attention, it will soon be an entire sock. I decided on a mock cable to mimic the snake winding around the Rod of Asklepios. The detail at the top shows what is supposed to be the snakes' heads. There are eyelets that make it kind of look like a snake's open mouth. The plant you see is my chocolate mint and it seems to be doing rather well this year.

I finished my Flower Basket shawl! Design by Evelyn A. Clark from Interweave Knits Fall, 2004 (As if you didn't know already!). Stitched in Knitpick's Shadow, Lost Lake colorway on Knitpick's Options needles, size 6. It's unblocked in this picture and I probably won't have time to block it until next week, but there it is off the needles. I'm very pleased.

I keep losing the Art gloves for some reason. But, I found them again and here they are. One done, one just past the ribbing. Now I just have to figure out where I left off. I love how they are both just so different and lovely and soft. Here's a detail of glove #2 as well. Mmmmmmm, color.... It's nice to be just completely in love with what you're knitting. this project brings me much joy.

In other news, I've ordered the rest of the yarn I need for the Worsted Stocking Knave socks and I've got most of what I need to buy me a new sewing machine. I'm short maybe $50 to buy the Huskystar E10 by Husqvarna. I've heard nothing but good about Husqvarna and they are known for their durability. That's what I'm going for - durability. Because the company makes all kinds of small engines and motors, the company's focus seems to be engineering a good motor that will be a workhorse for the consumer. They've been engineering everything from muskets (their original product beginning in 1689) to chainsaws, lawnmowers, motorbikes, and even meat grinders and ice cream machines. They began producing sewing machines in 1872. As a point of reference, Singer patented his machine in 1851. So, they haven't been producing sewing machines as long, but have a far better reputation than Singer. And that's saying something. Singer probably has the best reputation (historically) in the U.S.. Husqvarna Viking, Singer, and Pfaff are all owned by SVP Worldwide which is, in turn, owned by Kohlberg & Company. I'm not sure about the degree to which these parent companies keep their piddy paws out of the design process, but I feel that the Swedes really know what they're doing.