Project

Wow, the rate of progress around these parts is astounding.

1. Up first, the Helleborus scarf. Powered through the first ball of Malabrigo (mmm) and into the second. Boring picture, true, but it's so fun to knit. Got about 18 inches out of the first ball, so I expect a scarf well over 60 inches. Woot!


2. Second (and final for today) a finished monkey sock. Haven't cast-on for the second sock. Soon!


Most importantly, Happy Birthday, Eric!

Project update

1. Monkey socks. Status: cruising along. These are just barely too small for me which means, I think, they'll fit my sister-in-law perfectly. In a perfect world, these would be done in time to mail to her before she heads in for surgery. In reality, they'll probably get done on the drive to NY for Thanksgiving, which means they'll arrive for the latter half of her recovery.


2. Helleborus (aka Green Scarf). Status: currently stalled but ammunition has been acquired. Last week, I ordered 2 additional skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino from Webs. It arrived today. See?


How I go about merging the 2 dye lots remains up in the air. In most lights, the 4 balls match pretty well. In the picture above, it appears that the skein on the right is a touch darker. Hmm. I think I'll wait until I'm home with sunlight, take them outside and check. But if I had to guess, I'd say I'm just going to knit normally, and ignore the dye lots.

Fatigue

I'm trying to find a posting schedule that works with my life. The Tuesday/Thursday posting scheme seems, in theory, suitable. This week is a bit of an anomaly - Eric is out of town on business (the first time in over 2 years) and so I'm playing the single parent for a few days (tip of the hat to all single parents out there. It's tough!). Which is long-winded way to say sorry for the insubstantial post and lack of pictures. I can offer 2 project updates:
1. The Monkey Socks continue to grow. I am ready to turn the heal and charge into the toe on the first sock.
2. I caved and ordered 2 additional skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino. I'm toying with Teresa's idea of working in the 2nd dye-lot for the center of the scarf. It will depend on how poorly the 2 dye-lots match.

Fingers crossed for some knitting relief this weekend - although with a toddler birthday party to throw on Sunday, I suspect not!

Monkey and me

I’ve long resisted the charms of the ubiquitous monkey socks. As of this writing, there are 10,442 monkey projects. Every day, it is added to at least 3 people’s queue. It is, in short the most popular sock pattern on Raverly. I never saw the appeal of Monkeys, although I admired many monkeys around the web.

Enter Crazy Zauberball, colorway, well, crazy.

I toyed with Wendy Johnson’s toe-up mock cable socks. The cable was lost with the striping. So I retreated to a simple 2 x 2 rib. Ugh – too simple and deadly boring.

And then in a fit of random clicking around Ravelry, I chanced upon a Monkey. I tilted my head. I squinted. And with a quick nod, I knew that I was going to down the kool aid and attempt to knit a little monkey business.

Knitting at work is a no-no, and I am not knitting at work. But, PhotoBooth clearly shows the crazy rainbow that is my first pair of monkeys.

You can also see my current favorite scarf, the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronique Avery.

Cheating will always do you wrong

Late last week I finished the second front on my simple, plain, gray cardigan. With the Michigan winter beginning to choke the daylight from the sky (and the color, too), I found myself without the will to continue into the sleeves. Too much gray (ditto for getting into gear on the Na Craga). I have a simple but colorful sock on the needles, but I’m currently apathetic about that project (I think the simple rib pattern just isn’t fitting the playfulness that is Zauberball Crazy). What’s a Michigander to do but cast on a new project using bright! cheerful! colorful! yarn? Enter Malabrigo Silky Merino, a most luscious fiber. The colorway dill is electrifying. Combine with one simple scarf pattern – Helleborus by Terhi Montonen – and you have a recipe for a quick, satisfying, uplifting knit. Just the right diversion to get you back on track with the simple, gray cardigan.



Unless. Unless, of course, you won this yarn on a blog contest (thanks, Kristy!), have only 2 hanks and have severely underestimated how far that yarn will go. Well, if you do that, then you end up knitting 5 inches, taking a few measurements and realizing that your scarf will top out at 30 inches. Sure, blocking could push that length to 35 inches, but still. 35 is not 60 (not in this universe at any rate) and a scarf of 30 inches just won’t do.

After careful analysis of the situation (read: wondering if I could magically make 2 additional hanks of Malabrigo Silky Merino in Dill appear), I found 2 options:

• Option 1: Rip the 5 inches and cast on for a scarf of half the current width. It is 12 inches, after all, and a 6-inch wide scarf is very wearable. Pro: A completed scarf from yarn all of the same dye lot. Con: I have to rip my current knitting and settle for a scarf half as wide as I’d hoped.
• Option 2: Purchase more yarn, albeit of a different dye lot. Pro: I can continue to knit with my current yarn as the remaining yarn is shipped and I get a wide, squishy scarf. Con: the dye lots are different. How gruesome could that look?
  

So what’s a knitter to do? I know what I should do. Yeah, I realize that cheating on my cardigan has brought me bad knitting karma. And while I know I should probably cast-on for that first sleeve, I suspect I will stray even further and do a little sewing.

Ode to scarf weather

I love this time of year. The dropping temperatures and crisp mornings nip at my neck. I happily reach for a scarf – maybe a lacy number, a cashmere cutie or a color-shifting wrap. Each scarf is a heaping helping of comfort food, warming my thoughts as I trudge through driving rain (and snow) to the bus stop, office and beyond.

An FO parade!

But not today. This blogging thing gets terribly tricky when photos are expected, nay, required to tell a good story. Which is why the FO parade will be postponed until I can remember to take pictures of the aforementioned, hinted at FOs. And hey, why not bait you some more. Here's what's on tap for the FO parade:
1. Baby-Yours Sweater (Ravelry link)
2. Spectrum Scarf (Ravelry link)
3. A woven project (ooo, ahh!). In tencel (ooo, ahh!).

If you're lucky (and I'm ambitious), I may even photograph some in-progress projects, including:
1. Hedgerow socks (Ravelry link)
2. Toddler Jeneric's fall coat (ooo! A sewing project).

In other news, I am ecstatic at the release of the Kit, Chloe & Louise doll patterns from Wee Wonderfuls. I adore these dolls and have wanted to make them for Toddler Jeneric since forever. In fact, they are the whole reason I started sewing. How's that for inspiration?

Where are they now?

It seems like forever since I’ve mentioned any knitting progress. And I’m so woefully limited on photographs lately. Could it be because Baby Jeneric has her first cold? Or could it be because she thoughtfully shared that cold with Mom?
Na Craga slowly marches on. There is a scant 10 cm left to the front (doesn’t it already look long enough?). One would have thought I could finish that in short order, but alas, I have flung away the interesting knitting in favor of simple ribbing.

May I present ’42,’ a ridiculously simple scarf (k2, p2 ribbing) in a fantastic forest green with a spasm of bark brown. There will be a matching hat, where the main color will be the bark brown (due to limited quantities of the forest green).

Did I mention I was knitting socks for my husband (the other half of Wily Jeneric)? I started these last year. They are the Gentleman’s Socks from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.
Needless to say, these socks haven’t progressed very far for two specific reasons:
1. I generally knit at night. Knitting black in dim lighting is difficult (for me, at least).
2. The last pair of socks I knit was during the first trimester of my pregnancy when I experienced morning sickness like nothing I’ve ever felt before (even water was too difficult to keep down). Many thanks to the makers of Zofran. Ahem. This experience has tainted sock knitting for me. My stomach still gets a little queezy when I pick up the tiny dpns. What’s a knitter to do? In my case, I now knit baby hats.