Orchid Thief Shawlette (and other knitted things)

Knitting has occurred in copious amounts at my house.  Knitted gifts galore.

First, there's the shawlette for my boss.

The Orchid Thief Shawlette by Ysolda Teague from Brave New Knits, knit from Malabrigo Sock in Primavera.  The boss has an enormous garden and is a knitter, too, so I think she'll love this.

Then a hat for one of the secretaries - she helps me out a TON throughout the year.

A water bottle/coffee mug cozy for my Secret Santa at the office.

And last, but certainly not least because it was the first one done but last given, is my little niece Alexis's Christmas Stocking.  All three girls' stockings were laid out by the fireplace on Christmas Eve and they looked so sweet together, just like ours did when I was little (it's the same pattern my Grandma used).

I'm still working on a sweater (for me), the DNA scarf (for whoever - maybe me), a pair of socks (half-done, for me), and a summer blouse (also, for me).  I need to knit faster!

What I do when I'm not reading (or working)...

Reading has been hard as of late - whenever I sit down to read I fall alseep in about 2 seconds (the last several nights I've fallen asleep with the bedside lamp on, Pandora streaming through the Blu-Ray, my nook on my face, and the cats snuggled under my arm only to wake up when my alarm goes off and wonder what idiot left the TV and light on; I blame the cats for activating the "sleep" neuro-chemicals).  I do have two reviews to finish writing but I've been so busy with work and knitting I haven't had much time to write.

Speaking of knitting....

I finished the shawlette for my boss (shhhh.... she doesn't know that it's for her).  I have to get it blocked out - challenging because this is a curved piece so I don't have a straight edge to pin out first.  Edyie gave me some pointers so we'll see how it goes.

While I was in the yarn shop I was captured by yarn fumes.

Cashmere yarn fumes - they held me ransom until my debit card freed me.  Araucania Trauco Cashmere in a beautiful berry colorway.  It was on sale, not quite half off, and I can't wait to see what I can make from it.

Then I bought my Christmas present to myself because it also went on sale.  I've been salivating over D-SLR cameras for quite some time.  My little Canon point-and-shoot is nice to just take quick pictures/videos but it never quite satisfied for taking really nice shots; nothing came out looking quite like how I saw it.  I learned to take pictures using my Dad's 35mm camera with it's lenses and manual aperture/exposure settings so I wanted a more "professional" level camera.  I stopped in at Best Buy to see what early holiday deals they had and the Canon EOS Rebel XS/1000D I'd been looking at was ON SALE!  Merry Christmas!  I already tried it out on the shawlette and cashmere yarn, but I got the cats into the act....

and they weren't quite up to cooperating, choosing instead to come and "love" the camera lens (I felt like I was on Wild Kingdom with the animals ganging up on me).  They kept licking their noses when I clicked the shutter:

Dante finally let me take a nice profile picture of him. 

Isn't it nice?  No "lazar kitteh eyz" in sight.  All the pictures are wonderful and I just need to learn about all the bells and whistles on my new baby (I already figured out that if I fiddle with the "White Balance" I can take pictures that are blue - wicked!).  I plan on taking TONS of holiday pictures (this is also part of the plan, if I take the pictures then I don't have to be in any of them, hah).

A long-overdue update from the "sticks and string" front

 I've been so busy I completely forgot to post about my Icarus shawl - I finished it in July!

First, it got a sink bath in Eucalan.  You would not believe how long it took to do the bind-off, it just kept going and going, the neverending shawl edge.

Then rolled in a towel to get as much water out as possible.

Here it is, pinned out on the floor.  I did some local investigating and no one seemed to have knitter's blocks or interlocking foam blocks that didn't smell like a gasoline factory.  I made do with vacuuming the carpet extra-good and scowling at the cats since they were more-than-a-little interested in what I was doing with thread, pins, and that big blue thing I kept yelling at them for standing on.  Chaucer insisted on being in the picture so you can see how big Icarus is compared to little, old him.

I think I used about 120 T-pins between the top border and the edge points (I don't have blocking wires, either, *le sigh* ).

Icarus Shawl by Miriam Felton, Interweave Knits Summer 2006 and/or The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years.  Knit in Classic Elite Yarns Silky Alpaca Lace, 2.33 skeins.

I also bought a pretty shawl pin of copper to wear with Icarus at the AXS Kuebler Banquet in August (it was pretty, sorry no pictures to show, and Icarus unblocked itself in my luggage on the way back to Iowa; it's currently making-do as a pretty scarf until I get a chance to re-block)

 My next project was started at AXS Conclave in order to teach a fellow brother how to knit cables.  The pattern is June Oshiro's DNA Scarf (but only the DNA bit, I didn't want to knit the border cables).  I bought some beautiful Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Sotobosque to use.

 As you can see, I had a little trouble getting the yarn to wind up properly and spent several hours in ball-winder and swift limbo untangling all the crazy knots before I could get it into two pretty yarn cakes.

It's coming along nicely, albeit a bit slow because you cable on every right-side row at least twice in a very long repeat.  It's not very memorizable.

I also cast-on for Wendy Johnson's Waterfall Socks to use my gorgeous Mini Mochi yarn from Crystal Palace.  I think I borked the eyelet pattern already so I may need to rip back a few rows.  Boo.

And then I bought more yarn.  Why?  Ummm, I was in the yarn shop?

Three very pretty skeins of Manos del Uruguay, mint, berry, and pink.  I think they'll make a nice scarf together.

I am sure this is why I buy yarn all the time, it's for the colors.

Except, in this case, it was the soft luxury.  Plymouth Yarn Paca Tweed.  Alpaca.  I have no idea what I want to do with this yarn, I just had to have it.

I also recently (as in last night at dinner) casted on a new project (no pics yet) for my niece Alexis - her Christmas stocking.  I've become a better knitter in the several years since I made her older sisters' stockings so I should be able to get this done by Christmas.  I'm more experienced in intarsia colorwork and I can knit with both hands now so this should go faster (I refuse to give it to her for her second Christmas).

Knitting rules!  Knit on, knit on.

Back from two weeks of living out of a suitcase

Dorothy Gale was right. There is no place like home.

Sorry for the utter lack of updates - I was either busy trying to get my life in order so I could leave for two weeks to Europe or I was in Europe whining about the lack of WiFi hotspots (do people not use wireless in Austria?) therefore making me too busy to bother. Don't get me wrong because I had a good time and am forever thankful to my parents for taking me with them; it's just nice to be home and sleep in my own bed again (complete with needy furballs).

Pictures later - I have thousands of varying quality and will need to sort them all.

I finished two books (We and An Introduction to the English Novel), started several more (Death in Venice, The Western Canon, The House of Mirth), bought about ten (including #1-4 of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series in the UK paperback; was unable to find any published in German, hmph), and knit another 2.5 inches on my tank.

I am now back at work puzzling over an IRB application for an industry study and thinking mean thoughts about the pharmacy department for not wanting to provide an exhaustive list of topical medications (for yet another study). And I had to dig up my CV because we think we got a grant. Some things never change....

Current book-in-progress: I finished Cultural Amnesia before I left so now I'm chipping away at A Temple of Texts for my nighttime reading; I also need to get a leg up on The House of Mirth since that's BNBC Literature by Women for October
Current knitted item: I'm working on the bodice shaping for the tank (one of the darts did not go so well) and I'm starting my second sock; crap - I have Christmas stockings to finish/start.

Minor Confession

I still call my parents and tell them my grades. Guess I still like to get that pat on the head (who knows, I might even get dinner out of it - traditional rewards for earning good grades in the Ward household consist of going to a swanky restaurant sans younger siblings).

Now, I'm going to strut a little....got an "A" in my Modern American Fiction class. I think this is a good accomplishment for someone with two science degrees trying to go back for a grad lit degree - the brain definitely has to rewire itself for this to work. I also scraped a "B" out of my incomplete from last semester. Party!!!!!! I was pretty convinced I was going to receive an "F" out of sheer spite since I had avoided the professor for the better part of three months.

Current book-in-progress: Lots of them! The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay, and A Temple of Texts by William Gass (and many more)
Current knitted item: Serious start-itis since semester ended. Yes, I still have Eeyores. And a Christmas stocking to finish. But...I got this awesome knitting book Fitted Knits with about 10 patterns I want to knit. So I started the two-color shrug (mine is light blue and royal). I also keep trying to knit socks, which is a disaster since I can't get the toe cast-on to work correctly. I'm also making a surprise for our Harry Potter party at the store (Shhhh!!!)

Hat done, stockings started. Shawl? Still not done.

Went to see my Grandfather for his birthday. He was 80 years old on Saturday and had a party to celebrate - the best quote of the day was from one of his good friends who said the gathering looked like a geriatric ward (kind of funny, since all my Grandpa's friends are around his age). But I got absolutely nothing done, except to finish The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. I had been wanting to get that finished because the author is going to read on Wednesday.

As far as knitting, I made a hat on Thursday from the Noro I just bought using the Sunflower Tam pattern - based on phyllotaxis - from the book Knitting Nature (and I have enough to make another hat since I think the pattern needs tweaking, but the yarn makes the pattern really interesting). One Christmas stocking is started but I need to dye some yarn before I get to Santa's face (flesh colored yarn is not a commodity apparently).

And I need to write a paper. Sigh. I would rather read and knit.

Current book-in-progress: Rooms of Our Own by Susan Gubar, one-half of the team that wrote The Madwoman in the Attic (a very good book also)
Current knitted item: Torn between the shawl, Christmas stockings and another hat.

Christmas Stocking = DONE

Woo-hoo! I finished the Christmas stocking (originally meant to be finished last Christmas - so I got a little side-tracked...). Embroidery and all, even after I messed up their anniversary date twice. Oops. Now I just have to finish my shawl (for me ) and then I can start the girls' Christmas stockings. I can't screw this up because their first Christmas is this year!!

Current book-in-progress: Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale.
Current knitted item: Christmas stocking is done...now to finish the shawl.