Texture and the miracle of blocking

Back in February, I acquired some lovely yarn and started a scarf for myself. Then school and work and my desire to both graduate and remain employed intruded, and somehow it was July before I had the scarf finished. On the upswing, besides having a great scarf for the winter that I swear is coming (I'm so ready to be done with this 90 degrees stuff), finishing it when I did made for more fun photography, since I'd just gotten a new camera.

Blocking has always amazed me. You take some wrinkly, misshapen, unfortunate-looking piece of cloth, apply some water and pins or some careful steaming, and suddenly there's this amazing thing before you. It's like knitting achieves enlightenment and only through blocking can it reach its full potential. I'd just never satisfactorily captured the process until now.

The pre-blocking amorphous pile of stitches.

Which by magic turns into a neat, orderly, smooth, scarf.

I probably shouldn't admit how much I love the contrasts here, the directions, the differences between stockinette and dropped stitches, between front and back sides...

Not such great photography, but I love how it's trying to masquerade as a pair of pants. It's like it saw "The Wrong Trousers" too many times.

Meet Leky!

At the end of May, my sister and I took a trip across the pond to London, Cardiff, and Dublin. Like any sensible tourists, we had a guide:


Leky showed us many sights (although not nearly as many as I can show you, since a lot of the photos were on my sister's camera and she takes after me when it comes to timely dealing with photos). One of Leky's favorite places was the Natural History Museum in London, where he had it out with a T-Rex. I intervened before either of them got hurt.


My favorite moment with Leky was when we were getting on the Eye. Leky had been traveling in my bag, so he was the first thing the security guard saw when he opened my bag. He cracked up, pulled Leky out and turned to the other security guard with "Look, mate, it's a Dalek!" The other security guard just looked at him and me like we were both nuts. Fortunately, once we got on the Eye, Leky behaved himself and didn't attempt to destroy any of London's landmarks in a futile attempt at exterminating the human race.


Leky's favorite afternoon (and one of mine as well) was one we spent in the castle park in Cardiff. I spent the afternoon knitting while Leky enjoyed the miniature daisies (he may tried to exterminate a few).


Now that we're back (and have been for months), Leky's duties have changed from tour guide to desk guard. He does an excellent job watching over my pen collection at work.

Hiatus

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry that my attention to you is so sporadic. I know you feel neglected when I don't write for weeks at a time, and for that, I'm deeply sorry. But you're always here waiting for me when I sit down at the computer, and you're so patient, never demanding attention when I'd rather give it to something else (like Battlestar Galactica). You're always so happy to post anything I have to say, and you seem to love my yarns and knitting just as much as I do. I can't promise that I'll do any better on the frequent posting in the future (we both know how my previous resolutions on the subject have turned out), but I wanted to say that I really do appreciate your faithful, undemanding friendship.

Yours,
Meredith

P.S. I do have some knitting content. Several months ago, I engaged in a sci-fi knitting swap. For the craft-it-yourself portion of the swap, I made this geeky washcloth:

I do love those rebel scum...