Road Rage!

Well, not really. I wanted to document the construction occurring directly outside my building this summer. The signs indicating the construction start date went up in early May. Construction start: May 10. What was happening as I biked into work yesterday? This:





And more than a few people doing something like this:


I hope to chronicle the progress over the next 2 months. BTW, the construction is for an addition to our current building. The removal of the road is to presumably access pipes and wires.

Oh yeah, I've been knitting - another pair of Monkeys.

Two little monkeys jumped on the bed

And lucky for this story, none fell off or bumped their heads. Presenting a pair of monkeys, first cousins (once removed).







Certainly a fun knit. I can even see myself making a second pair. But not until after Christmas.

Crazy Monkey Business

It's about time to cast-on for the 2nd Monkey sock. If I'm honest, it's long past time. Ahem. This post isn't really about the Monkey, but about the Yarn - that Crazy Zauberball.

Item the first:
These socks have absolutely no hope of turning out identical. Fraternal it will be. Heck, judging by the striping, I'll be happy if they're mistaken for first cousins.

Item the second:
I daresay about a third of the price of a ball of Zauberball goes directly to the winding procedure. It's very intricate - and for good reason. Brenda Dayne of Cast-On made reference to this in a not too distant podcast. Take a look at the Jenni-wound center-pull ball:




Would you purchase that? Not likely, right? So fancy winding to get:


And you have a Crazy Yarn with mass appeal.

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.