You know you're a knitter when

You excitedly click on the e-mail with "cashmere - 20% off!" in the subject line, only to be disappointed that it's an ad for sweaters that are already knit.

Out of control

Yeah, that's a half-dozen sock projects in some state of started-but-not-finished. Two different grey work socks for me, one black one that jumped onto my needles yesterday because I'm insane, the green-blue-yellow are my Socks that Rock Mockery socks, the hibernating Anne-trelac are the pink, and there's a single blue-and-gray striped sock that needs tried on before I start the second.

I have a problem.

Other Leafy and/or Green things

Leafy and Green: a sweater for a cousin's baby - since the sweater was begun, the intended child has revealed himself to be a boy, and his name will be Jonathan, after his dad.



Buttons are leaves, and I love them.

Leafy and Green: A stole - or at least the beginning of one.



I wasn't in love with it, so I blocked out the first few repeats. I think it'll be cool, but it's not as compelling as the first leafy green shawl. It's not as easy to memorize, either.

And just green: A cabled cardigan. Here's the sleeve.



I love it. I spent a lot of yesterday finishing the baby sweater, and started actually seaming the afghan, so there hasn't been much knitting on this since Friday. The cable pattern is already getting into my head, I am pleased.

So in Love

That I bring you crappy nighttime blocking photos.

Last night - finished knitting. Ends woven - this afternoon. Blocked - tonight.

Unblocked - resting on its nipply bits on my guest bed (where everything else is drying.)


Having had a bath - spread on the same bed, it goes from end to end. And displaces a few things.


Dear lord, this thing is ginormous. I can't wait for it to dry.

Leafy lace love.

So I start the Shetland triangle, and it's lovely. My favorite kind of lace, it's easy, it's beautiful, and it follows itself - yarnovers over yarnovers, double decreases stacked, when the pattern repeats it offsets, and it's so cool. Charming, lovely, so in love. I repeated the body chart 12 times and didn't get bored with it.

And then the edging started. And I may be even more in love. I've got about three and a half rows left. And then the bindoff and blocking. I can't wait. Maybe I'll finish today? Then what?

It's been a lovely day for knitting. Dreary and windy and rainy (hi, Ike!), with a day full of sports to watch on the sofa. (The Colts managed a W in the end, and Auburn won last night in perhaps the ugliest game EVER.)

Christmas is coming, as David Reidy reminded me the other day. I will have new family members to knit for before then, so the Xmas list is currently being reformulated. More on that later.

ETA: Finished casting off around 10pm tonight. Still need to deal with ends and block. Still love it.

Did I mention

that my new job is kind of kicking my butt?

Paige and I have the same sort of affliction: when life gets tough, the tough cast on. She starts sweaters, I start socks. Current sock count is three on the needles, one in hibernation, and one that I'm chomping at the bit to get at. I have pictures of none. My new year's resolution to only have two socks on the go at once is out the window. And I'm ok with that. I'm starting to think that four might be the perfect number - one in each office, one at home, and one in the purse. And I need more 2.5mm dpns, btw.

But like I said, no pictures of that. Here's the epic greyness report:



Six pieces are living in that bag, where I've managed to ignore them entirely. Impressive, I know. Not a single seam has cried out to me to be begun or even contemplated. It's like the bag doesn't exist. Amazing.

Meanwhile, I started a shawl and have a huge amount of that going:


It's Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle, which is simple and beautiful lace. I love the hillocks each repeat creates, and I will love them more when they block out into flat little leafy bits. I love it. The yarn is my beloved Dream in Color, it's Classy in Good Luck Jade, so this thing (I hope) will be a mite bit blanketish. It seems gargantuan already, and I'm just starting to feel the second ball of yarn lighten, and I have a third that I'm going to try and get through as well. Did I mention I love it?

I have two more green leafy shawls in my queue, so this may be a green leafy shawl winter. And I kind of love that idea.

Olympic Insanity, Day 21: All Over But the Seaming

I did not finish the crocheting at knit night tonight. I finished soon after coming home. There are five long seams left to sew, plus three strips' worth of ends to deal with.

I have been having balance issues the past couple of weeks, and I think this afghan is partly to blame. My fiber time has been less calming and more agitating than I like, and not loving my project and not loving my yarn has not helped. I gladly snatched up my languishing baby sweater and knit away on the Happy Forest goodness.

So here's what I now know:

• I need color. This grey monogamy has been bad for my mental health.
  
• I do not love crocheting the way that I love knitting. For me it is less meditative, less automatic, and less soothing.
  
• I made up a row-marker scheme that kept me from counting and recounting as I went, and it helped a lot. At a glance, I could tell how much work was left.
  
• I can talk a good game about the Olympics being about personal challenges and going higher than I thought possible, but when I don't make it, I do tend to get down on myself. Especially when things keep taking longer than I think they should. I am glad to be finished.
  
• I do love my kid brother, and I'm glad he's going to have this blanket. But I may just knit hats for the rest of the fam for Christmas.

Project specs in the FO post, including the pattern story, when I get it seamed and finished.