Hello December...

I meant to post well over a week ago, but somehow, time kept moving without my posting. Actually, I suppose it's a good thing time kept moving. I'd hate to have the power to stop time until everything I'm supposed to get done/want to get done actually gets done, because really, I'm a big fan of the whole "time moves forward" thing. Huge fan. Because it means that no matter how lousy I feel, as long as I don't give up, time will move, and things will change. Improve, I hope, but change at the very least. (I'm sick - sore throat, congestion, runny nose, the whole shebang - so please forgive my less than spunky attitude at present. It's hard to be spunky when your head feels like it's been stuffed full of poorly washed fleece.)

So (and I'm sure this will shock you), I'm behind on blogging about my knitting. This sort of thing happens when one continues knitting, even if one is not blogging about it. I've got two new projects and some serious progress on an old one, but no photos of them, which makes it kind of hard to share. Instead of showing you my new knitting, I'm going to show you some of my old, but previously unblogged about, knitting. I give you, as a finished object, Winter Jaywalkers:


I made these socks as a birthday gift for Mr. Darcy. (In the interest of complete honesty, his birthday was about a month ago, and I totally got the socks to him before his birthday. I think that makes two birthdays that I managed on time.) He tells me that they should come in handy during his upcoming sojourn under the ocean. He also tells me that they fit, which is good, since they clearly don't fit me.


As always, the Jaywalker pattern was a fun one to knit, and I enjoyed the Regia yarn. This pair took somewhere on the order of two and a half balls, some of which went to careful alignment to make sure the striping didn't suddenly change anywhere. I was quite pleased with the resulting near-identical nature of this pair, too.


And now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go take more cold medicine and then attempt some homework. I think it will add an exciting new twist to reading about optimization. Although, on reflection, I suppose it might not be optimal... oh well.

Warped spacetime

I have a theory.

We know that we live in what seems to be a four dimensional world and in which we are subject to certain rules. Nothing can go faster than light in a vacuum. Nothing, even light, can get out of a black hole. For some reason, we can move anyway we want in the first three dimensions but only forward in the fourth. In this world, some things like matter and energy are conserved. Neither can be created or destroyed, although they can be interchanged (but you're probably even less interested in the details of that phenomenon than I am in explaining them).

My theory is that knitting is subject to a similar conservation law. We've all experienced the knitting equivalent of a black hole, where we knit and knit and knit on a sleeve or scarf or something and it just doesn't get any longer. Here's what I think: all that knitting that's not going into your project, despite the motion of your hands and needles and consumption of yarn is actually going to some other knitter by way of some warped aspect of spacetime. Some other knitter is moving her hands and needles and using up yarn at the usual rate but ending up with rapidly growing sleeves or scarves or socks. It's a sort of conservation of yarn and knitting.

I could be wrong, but I have no other way to explain the amount of knitting I've done since I posted last Sunday. Since that post, I have spent approximately 50 hours at work, 9 hours commuting, and 10 hours on school work. I have read Free Range Knitter (start to finish) and about half of Quantum of Solace. I've gone for a bike ride, a swim, and a run (on different days). I've been to church, got my car washed, bought groceries and made a trip to Target. I'm not living in squalor - I've kept the dining room table clear, the kitchen clean and my floor free of dirty clothes. I have slept (not as much as I would have liked - probably about 50 hours for the week). And somehow, even with all of that, I have managed an incredible amount of knitting.

The winter jaywalkers are now a complete sock (I even wove in the ends) and the start of a mate. (By the way, the first attempt at the first of these socks? Too big. It turns out I was right, and size 11 feet aren't quite that big. They're large, just not that large.)


I'd mentioned a scarf. This is the scarf, knit in linen stitch out of Queensland Collection Rustic Wool. I'm really liking it, especially how purple it is. I think the linen stitch is producing a nicely mottled and fantastically dense fabric. I can't wait to get to the end so I can add fringe!


And I think I said something about a sweater, too. I don't have much experience knitting sweaters - I've only knit one before. That was my Olympic sweater and it took me a bit over a year to finish. This time, though, it's going much faster (I've started with sleeves, so that may be part of it), and I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll have it done by Thanksgiving. (Of course in saying that, I've probably jinxed myself, but I like to live on the edge a little, at least when it comes to knitting.)


Really, I think the only way that I could have done this much knitting is if I was benefiting from some other knitter's black hole. To that knitter: I'm sorry I'm stealing your knitting, but thank you for the effort. I hope someday, you get to benefit from one of my black holes.

SSS: Socks, Scarves, and Startitis

As I was updating my Ravelry today, I realized something. Not only have I been absent from the blog for the past few weeks, I've been delinquent in posting some of my better projects for months. And by "better" I mean "anything not actually given away."

A brief survey of unblogged FOs (detailed blogs to come in the future, I swear):






As you can see, it's all scarves and socks. Not a lot of variety. Sadly, there isn't much more variety in my recently unblogged UFOs, either:



Which brings me to my final S: startitis. I'm craving something new, something for myself, and something not socky. But mostly something new. So I've cast on two new projects, both for myself. A linen stitch scarf (linen stitch is slow, but makes a lovely, dense fabric, and besides, it's in a great color) and this. Details to follow when I have pictures.

Antidote

This week has been one of those weeks. You know the sort. One of those weeks when even though nothing major goes wrong (no serious illness, job loss, financial crisis, etc.) and you've still got a lot going for you (you've got your home, food, clothes, family, friends, etc.), the week still seems awful. All the little things pile up until you think this adulthood kick is one lousy deal, and you really wish that everything would just go away and leave you alone for a little while.

This week, while I felt like I was being smothered by a gajillion little things that refused to go right (for instance, the gallon of milk that went sour more than 10 days before its sell-by date), even my knitting wasn't much help.

I've been working on the second Bayerische sock. It's actually going pretty well, and when considered on its own, I'm quite pleased with it. The problem is in comparing it to its mate:


This shows the problem even better:


They aren't the same size. I think to get a matched pair, I'm going to have to knit 3 socks. Fortunately, I have plenty of yarn for doing so. The real problem is that I'm just not that in love with this pattern. While I think it's absolutely gorgeous, I also find it a little fiddly and hard on my hands.

So as my alternative, easy, mindless sock project, I started some Jaywalkers for Mr. Darcy. I really like the Jaywalker pattern. It's easy and smooth and I can knit it while I'm reading. In less than a week, then, I got the first sock done:


Looks pretty good, no? And it even took less than half the yarn I had. There's only one problem. I'm a little nervous about the size. Are size 11 feet really that big?

(Sock that fits a ladies' 9.5 included for scale.)

So it's on hold until I see Mr. Darcy in a week and a half and can make him try it on. There's no way I'm frogging two socks, if it comes to that.

Given the state of things, what's a woman to do? What antidote can there be for all the unpleasantness and frustration, when even the knitting is involved in the conspiracy? There are, I would think, many options such as hiding under the bed, running away, or setting fire to something, but I chose a different path.

I took some very lovely, recently acquired yarn

(Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in Blue Lagoon)

and wound it into an equally lovely yarn cake.


And then I cast on while watching Sleepless in Seattle. (I did get further than the picture suggests.)


New sock in pretty yarn while watching delightful chick flick = pretty effective antidote.