Yeah, I'm seeing a theme to my knitting lately.



Shades of pink and red are dominating. Happens with other stuff too.



Once I finished the periwinkley stuff Paige got me started with, I pulled red coopworth (I think) out of the stash and started on it. That red bobbin is half of it. I did a second bobbin of singles and then plied them. (This is what kept me from leaving till about two hours after my original intentional departure time this morning - spinning makes time go away in a crazy way. I feel the treadling once I stand up.)

That thing you haven't seen before in the first pic? That's the Quinn cabled bag. I got the top band finished a few weeks ago and tried to graft it about half a dozen times till I finally got over it and did a three-needle bindoff. Bags are allowed seams. I'm almost over it. It's super pretty and I think I'll like it once it's done. It's definitely the beta brainwave pattern I've been looking for.



Yay. Yum.

Casting off

Ergh. Last night I got through the body of the red sweater. There was some "Long enough? No - yes - no!" drama, but eventually I got it decided and cast off however many bajillion stitches exist at the lower hem of a wrap sweater. And then I picked up near two hundred stitches for the neck band, where I'm two and a half of four rows in, and then those get bound off too. At a medium tension - as opposed to the loose one from the hem. Ergh.

I'm definitely of the opinion that casting on is better than casting off. This may be part of my top-down sock preference. I'm probably developing a bottom-up sweater preference as well.

In knitting milestones, I broke my first dpn tonight. Stepped on my sock-in-progress and snapped a 2.5mm Brittany needle. Currently thinking I'll sand the ends of the pieces and make cable needles - not that I use cable needles much lately, but it might be worthwhile nevertheless. Considering I've been knitting socks on wooden dpns for a year now, it's about time I did something dumb like that.

progress pics

Right. Those. Red Sweater:


Pink Shawl - need to update the progress bars too. Doh.

Whoo hoo!

Tuesday started (I mean the fun part started, nobody wants to know how my 8am class and later campus errands went, right?) with Mandie calling and saying "I feel like I just bought a time machine." (The reference was to Monday's Big Bang Theory, and if you ever get to the point that you realize your nerdiness is reaching new levels and maybe it's gone too far, you know the feeling...)

Fast forward a couple hours, we both figured out both what we're wearing and what we're knitting (because dude, it's early afternoon and we're in this thing till late evening, we can't risk running out!), and we headed north - because a Harlot kind of day wouldn't be complete without a stop at a yarn shop. Stitches & Scones was full of people and totally psyched. They were complimentary of my Tuscany shawl, which was kind of cool. Spent lots of time, petted lots of yarn (S&S is very good about having lots of Dream in Color and feeding my addiction in that direction), and left at a time that felt dangerously late. Seriously. It was four. She was speaking at 7. Of course, the other magic thing about S&S is that it feels like a really long way from anywhere when you're driving there, but not that far on the way back. Also the Barnes and Noble in question is basically in Westfield, but anyway.

We get there and get settled, between Tammany and Kristen, with spicyfleece Holly and a group on the other side. And wow, was that place a vortex of knitterly energy. People were talking, knitting, laughing at the staff who betrayed some iota of how freaked out they had to have been, all that. Mandie and I spent some time talking about Traveling Salesman problems, as it relates to the Harlot's tour. Good times. Signing tickets were gotten, books were prepurchased (I got three, for me, my mother-in-law, and for Paige - who had the rotten luck of having a math final the very hour that the Harlot was speaking.), and after we found food, it was about time.

She came, we did the wave. She spoke, we laughed. There were books signed and pictures taken, and man, but it was awesome.



She's an amazing person, no doubt, and I thank her for her time and energy. I came home entirely drained from just attending, I can't imagine what it's like to be at the center of that vortex.

She's posted her account of Indianapolis, and it's remarkable. I still sometimes feel like I just moved here, even though it's been twenty months now. I read her post and I realized that I recognize those people. Never mind that most of them I met that day, either at Stitches and Scones or in line, but we're all connected now. It's really cool. I'm not sure where I'd be without this yarn-obsessed community, but I am thankful for it.

(And those dinosaurs are right near where I work, isn't that cool?!?)

Interstitial

There are pictures, but I haven't offloaded them from the camera. There will be more pictures tomorrow, assuming I don't forget the camera in my insanity.

I've deemed all my knitting too mindless and zen. The lace shawl is too easy, the Mother's Day feather and fan socks are the same, and everything else is stockinette. Grr. And I've got way too much swirling around my head to just play stockinette, which is sad for me. Because I was liking the zen.

So who can help me? Who's got a charming and absorbing pattern that will take all my brainpower when I'm not thinking about work?

Fibery Weekend

There are no pictures. The husband absconded with the camera this weekend 'cross the country. If you want pictures of the Phoenix NASCAR race, those we (probably) have, but pictures of my fiber antics are nonexistent.

I spent Friday night and Sunday on the sofa knitting. And watching Doctor Who. I had no idea, but it's seriously awesome. The Who, that is. The red sweater now actually looks like a sweater, it has sleeve holes and everything. That's seriously awesome too. Of course, it was perfectly temperate on Friday when I lit into it, and Saturday it was cold and nasty and ergh. I totally blame the sweater. Nevertheless, it's moving along and I luuurve it. I was afraid the stockinette would be boring, but it's not, it's peaceful. It's zen.

Saturday was The Fiber Event in Greencastle. I went with a list and spent time with the stash before going, so I actually didn't spend as much as I thought I would. Bonus: I won a door prize, some 600 yards of mohair boucle in red and purple. It's yummy and while it's nothing I would have chosen for myself, I think I'll have fun with it. I scored some Trekking HandArt, which I am totally psyched about. It's currently displayed on my mantel, it's so pretty and bright green (the Brazil, I got Atlantik as well, and it's yummy and also on the mantel)!

I also tried a wheel and I may need one. I'm reading up and doing a little research. I've been reading Abby Franquemont for a while, and I vaguely want to study at her knee and have her be my spinning guru.

Long day, there were cakewaffles for breakfast. It was fun. Returning to work and math today was less so. Meanwhile, there's a math event this weekend, so I'll be absent from Mad Knitting. Although I'm sure the red sweater and the socks in progress will come along as well. Oh, and there's a yarn shop a couple blocks from the host campus, so yay for knitting tourism.

That's all I've got. Mid-first sock on two pairs, mid-sweater, a few smaller things floating about. Multiple half-formed ideas, as always.

Oh... Wow!

Reason number 256 that I'm still a new knitter: as I was finished up with the end-weaving on my shawl on knit night, Mandie said that it would grow when I blocked it. I agreed, but in my secret knitter heart, I didn't know. This stuff is bamboo and cotton and ELASTIC, and I wasn't sure that the secret blocking magic would really work. If it was wool, sure I had faith that it would grow, I saw that happen on my first sweater (whoops, sleeves are a bit long there), but this thing was a different animal. After all, this is what it kind of looked like:



(Note that photo is from when the knitting was finished, in January.) Even with the ends woven in, it still kind of looked like a big piece of ABC bubblegum. That said, I was still going to block it and see what happened. So Friday I strung crochet cotton through the sides, gave the thing a good soak and squeeze, and pinned it out on my guest bed.

And this afternoon, this is what I have:



I get it now. This is very very cool. I think I need to do it again.