Bits and pieces

First, big ups to Arcadia Knitting, 1613 Lawrence Ave. in Chicago. I'd been there before, as it's near my brother's apartment, but I found myself hanging out there for longer than anticipated when, after stopping there for 10 minutes last Sunday, I found that my car did not want to start. My brother and I hung out for over an hour while waiting for AAA, and they couldn't have been nicer. They even speak Spanish and have Spanish magazines next to their couch. Two thumbs up for them.

I picked up a couple skeins of that Kaffe Fassett sock yarn in bright blues and greens (ya think?) for the Mexicali baby Ole cardigan I've wanted to make. I hope that'll be enough.

The cardigan for my mom is coming along very well. I think it's partially out of seething fury for my ex-boyfriend, who brought it up as an example of things I don't finish. Well, a) it's not your business, and b) that unpainted office, Goodwill decor, non-running car and invisible wine rack of yours say you might want to back off, buddy. I think I'll send him a picture of my mom modeling the finished project with a caption saying SUCK IT.

Bitter much? Naw.

The second sleeve is finished and I'm on to the first button band. Oh, how I love k1p1 ribbing. OH WAIT, NO. I pulled out a couple dpns because they were the closest size 5s lying around (it's only 16 stitches wide), and I remember yet again why I don't use straights. I'll see if I can find a size 5 16" when I get home.

Anyways, I have this first button band, then a matching one with buttonholes (both about... hmmm... a yard long), then the collar in k2p2, and that'll be it. I went on a fruitless button search at the Sow's Ear last weekend, but when I stopped to ask my mom if she had any preferences, she recycled a set of bronze ones from a sweater she'd planned to get rid of, and they work beautifully. Yay!

I plan to send it out for finishing because it's got a weird configuration. Not only does the front loop around to become the back, the back armhole area is 15 rows shorter than the front. I looked and looked at the pattern, checked for errata online and brought it to my executive consultant, but we both agreed that I was spot-on in construction despite this weird design. I am told, however, that the suggested finishing lady is a whiz with seaming, so I have high hopes that she will be able to figure it out.

Of course, completion depends upon the extra three balls of Silk Garden #203 arriving this week. I don't understand how I can knit tight enough to require extra, yet have to go down two needle sizes for gauge.

Will update with pics when I have at least one button band done.

Unfreezing...

Ugh, has it really been four months? (As a side note, I'd like to give half a mo' to Andy of The Hunan Scooter, who shares my love of beginning posts after long layoffs with the old Jim Anchower "Hola amigos... been a long time since I rapped at ya." Early '90s Onion ftw.)

Best laid plans gang aft agley and all that. During my attempt to get some more pictorial life into this here entry, I was somewhat horrified to realize that my photo card reader seemed to be covered in something resembling dried marmalade. How did that happen???

But anyways. Where were we?

My Violets by the River shawl was going just swimmingly until approximately December 8. When my gentleman friend and I took a trip up to visit his family for Christmas stuffs, I worked feverishly during both the long car ride and the inevitable sitting around and schmoozing. I got so much done! Oh, how wonderful to only have six rows left on the twenty-row repeat of 400+ stitches. Oh, it'll totally be done by Christmas at this rate, or at least Mom's birthday on January 2!

OH CRAP I DID THE LAST TWO REPEATS BACKWARDS. ^&^%$#%$@!

She received a lovely Swedish calendar for Christmas, and it remains in hibernation. I believe I still need to do a little more surgery before forging ahead once more.

I did manage to finish the Koolhaas hat. My brother loves it and says it looks like the hippest qofi ever. (Pity he isn't Muslim.)

My Merging Colors scarf seems to be on needles that are too short. It is a pain in the rear to knit with its multiple ends getting in the way. Le sigh.

I started the Frosted Ferns doily in January, and it was going very well. I picked up some nice steel dpns and found that they worked WAY better than the stumpy birches I had lying around, so that rocked.

And then I broke up with the aforementioned gentleman friend, whose mother was the intended recipient, with about 10% completed.

Still, I think I'll eventually get back to it. (And me 'n' the boy have gotten back to friendly terms, so that's good.) I do like lace, especially the ridiculously tiny kind, and I have a mounting/framing plan that I think will make it look awesome. I hope to finish it and keep it for myself, so yay.

In the wake of the breakup, I went back to my mom's Noro cardigan, both for the speed of the knitting and the nice meditative stockinette. I'm almost done with the first sleeve, having ripped it out from last time, but it's getting to be boring as hell. Maybe I'll work on Violets a little before starting the second sleeve.

The aforementioned ex-gentleman friend mentioned, in a wonderfully honest conversation after the breakup, that it drove him crazy to see how I didn't finish stuff. Well, a) it's not his freakin' business, hmph! and b) he's probably right. I didn't have a real deadline on my mom's cardigan, but she did remind me that she would have liked to wear it when it's actually a little nippy out. (Last year. Oops.) I will stick with it. Really. And the Violets shawl really should be a Mother's Day present. She doesn't know it's coming.

Thrills and chills, as always... over and out.

Sup.

Here we are in the middle of a heat wave, and I'm sitting in my office wearing a getting-kinda-ratty zip-up hooded sweatshirt. The office cardigan is no closer to being completed than it was two years ago. Such is life.

I was pretty much done with the increases in my first sleeve of my mom's Noro cardigan, but I suddenly got sick of the endless stockinette. Don't know whether it was the weather or the fact that somewhere along the line I added an extra stitch (or did I just forget one? The world may never know...). Seems like I could find any old excuse for not working on it. So I put it aside for now; she wouldn't be able to wear it for several more months anyway.

I don't know where my Mermaid's Hair pattern ran off to, but it ain't around. You'd think, too, that I'd have it figured out by now, but that is not the case. Why? Well, it seems to move at the pace of frozen molasses.

Meanwhile, my lace jones and my need for something to keep my brain occupied finally led me to start Hazel Carter's Violets by the River shawl. Its simple four-row repeat may drive me nuts like Kiri, but there are clearly defined points of progress that will make me happy. Plus it's a great opportunity to break out the Misti Alpaca laceweight. I've never used alpaca before; I thought, "Eh, I'm sure it's pretty nice." OOOOOH, it's so soft. I want to touch it and touch it and touch it. For 6 bucks a skein, it's a darn good price, too.

In addition, this Friday marks the beginning of Mystery Stole 3. I'll be out of town pretty much all through the weekend and next week, so I should have some good knitting time if I choose to take it. (Hey, I'm not driving!) I tried the first one several years ago and failed miserably, but this time around I have a lot more experience, both with lace and knitting in general. I had a lot of trouble reading the charts and just generally getting flustered, so this should be more fun.

Of course, I do like to match the project to a good yarn, and it's so hard to figure out what to use when I don't know what it'll look like! My laceweight options include a deep teal, a bright red and a very soft mint green. I just don't know. Maybe I should grab something else...

Yarn diet be damned.