At Least it Feels like Spring

I can tell it feels like spring because I'm at the point where I want to knit everything in sight and do everything that's possible to do!

I met with Chiara yesterday and started my project. I can't really talk about it, but she thanked me for sending some of you folks her way. If you haven't talked to her and still want to take part, you should drop her a line at cl1388@nyu.edu. The project's pretty neat, but that's pretty much all I'll say.

So that's in the works right now, and the Bog Jacket is still being worked on as are my Huron Jaywalkers.

I've got about half the Bog Jacket left to do, essentially just the sleeves and the neck and all that. That's kind of intense though, so we'll see how it goes. All the shaping is there which is refreshing after having essentially knit a garter stitch rectangle so far. Now it's garter stitch with some shaping, which will be good. As soon as I figure out how to do all those short rows for the sleeves. Anyone know? I'm figuring it says to start the short rows four inches before the cuff and then I think it says to every now and again knit all the way to the end, but that doesn't quite make sense. I think I should be knitting only as far as the wrap, turning around and knitting back the way I came until I get to the second wrap. None of it really makes sense though, so I think I'll bring it to Annie's tomorrow and see what they say. It sort of looks like this all laid out:


That green line of yarn is waste yarn for when I fold over the sleeves. If you've done this pattern before you'll probably get it, if not, it's described in Knitting Around.

I've also been working diligently on the Huron Jaywalkers. I even have one to show for it:


I love the way the colors are pooling in this sock. Essentially, they're not pooling, and you can see all the colors and how they work together. It's so magical. That did not end up happening with the second sock, probably because of where I started in the color repeat. To be honest, I don't mind. I'm not one of those people that needs two totallly identical socks. For me, that's what you buy socks for. I wish I'd taken a photo where you could see the pooling of the second sock, it's really cool. It's striping in a light green/blue to dark green/blue way. I'll get a good photo eventually and put it up that compares the two legs.

I'm at the heel flap of the second sock. Which is exciting.

Annie's has put some Rowan Kid Silk Haze on hold for me. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. The plan is to knit Veronique (Ravelry Link) from French Girl Knits (AMZ link). The idea is to be done with it by May 1st so I can wear it to Illanna's wedding. I got a really nice pastel green color that I think will go really well with the aqua dress.

In addition to the two squares I have to do for a couple blankets our SNB group is putting together for friends who've moved away, there's a lot of knitting to get done. And so much of it is on a schedule! We'll see how that goes...I think I can actually do it...

Teaser Photo

Wanna know how the Bog Jacket's coming along?

Stash Busting Clarification

Alright, I realized that there was a bit of confusion on the Stash Busting front from the comments on my post from last week. This confusion would probably be clarified by a couple photos of my sock yarn stash and a few stats as to what percentage of my stash it takes up (honestly, that would be interesting to see as well - I should work on creating a pie chart of types of yarn in my stash from excel). Alas, I've been rather busy as of late and haven't had a chance to do any of that. My goal for this week is to get on that though.

PassionKNIT Stash Busting 2009 is all about the socks. I have a ton of awesome sock yarn. This yarn should be knit. The goal of 2009 is to not augment the stash of yarn. This means not buying any new sock yarn. Katy's right, if I knit the yarn as I buy it, it doesn't hit the stash, however, when it comes to sock yarn, that kind of behavior is not going to help me diminish the stash at all.

And so this brings me back to the gift card to Purl. For Christmas, my aunt gave me Knitted Lace of Estonia, so maybe I'll get some nice lace-weight yarn. Or maybe I'll get a happy cashmere yarn that I can just pet (that's a really compelling argument you make there, Chiara). Anyone want to weigh in?

I'm a Lab Rat!

It's been a really long week, despite the fact that it has been a "short" week. Because I don't have enough going on in life (aheh), I thought I'd sign up for a knitting/creativity study at NYU. It seems like fun anyway. If you're interested in doing it, here are the details:

As part of her research on creativity, Prof. Anne Laure Sellier (NYU) is running a Creativity Project with advanced knitters at the Purl yarn store in Soho. If you can knit, purl, do stockinette, seed stitch, increases / decreases, and create cables, and you are NOT color-blind, you can take part in this study.
The study will be run until March 9. It involves you coming to Purl for 15 minutes to get yarn and needles that we provide you with. With our selection of yarn and needles, we'll ask you to create a scarf in a week's time. At the end of the week, you will be asked to come to our lab at NYU (West 4th street), to present your work, and fill out a questionnaire.

Participants receive a $20 gift certificate to get yarn from Purl once they have complete the study!!!

If you are willing to take part in the study, please directly contact Chiara Longoni who supervises the study. Her e-mail is cl1388@nyu.edu.

We hope to see you soon!
The Creativity Study


My question to you is, if I get a $20 gift certificate to Purl, can I use it on sock yarn, or does that go against the stash busting mode I'm in?

Socks

So I tore my apartment up tonight looking for a ball of Malabrigo in Bijou Blue that I knit my swatch out of. I was going to use it as waste yarn because I'm getting really close to the arms and I need some waste yarn. Well, I couldn't find it. I've no idea where it went.

You're asking yourself right now, how does this tie into the subject line "socks?"

Here's how:

I went through almost every box/bag of yarn I have looking for this damn ball of Malabrigo. And dudes, I have a literal S**T TON of sock yarn. There's a huge bag stuffed to the brim of sock yarn under a chair. There's ends in a box in the middle of the living room. There's "nice" sock yarn on TOP of the ends in the box in the middle of the living room. I know that it doesn't sound like a lot, you're just going to have to trust me.

I've been good though. I haven't bought any new sock yarn since I last posted about buying sock yarn. I've knit with sock yarn that wasn't mine. I knit a sock for Annie's. I don't remember what the yarn was, but I loved it and would totally buy a ball (except for that moratorium on sock yarn).

I totally need to get a photo of all my sock yarn so that you can get an idea as to how much we're working with here. I could probably sock a full platoon at this point.

Comics

This past weekend I was at New York Comic Con for work. It was a little odd, however. There were by far more knitted hats around the con than I've ever seen before.


I saw 10 of these hats in a weekend which is more than i can say I've seen knitted hats at any Comic Con before. Some con recon proved that it's Jyane Cobb's hat from Firefly (that's a ravelry link). I'm surprised that I don't remember the hat, so I might have to go revisit the shows at some point.

I also saw this hat, which I'm pretty sure is machine knit and mass produced, but I really liked it anyway.


The show itself was interesting as always with crazy costumes and rediculosity. I met Marnie there (Marnie, I forgot which blog was yours! Please let me know which one you are!)

In other knitting comic news, I recently received a review copy of Handknit Heroes. It's a new comic that focuses on a couple of teenage kids that have superhero abilities. It looks like it's off to a good start. I'm already rather curious about what's going on in it and what connection the knitting has in the strip. The comic comes with a knitting pattern too which is pretty cool.

I've been rather addicted to Wonder Woman right now. The January and February issues were awesome. Anyway, I think that's enough dork for the blog for now. I've got a BUNCH of reviews of knitting books I want to get up sometime soon. I'll work on that.

Ravelry in the News!

Well, I heard from twitter, but if you don't twitter, check out the NY Observer's article on Ravelry here.

My only comment would be that I don't really agree with them saying that we users call it "facebook for knitters." It's really not. It's much more hardworking. I doubt any other hobby has a similar networking site. I have a Shelfari page and while I can connect with other people that read, it just seems so much less interactive in a way. Maybe that's because reading exists so much in my head that I have a hard time connecting with others (or vice versa) about the things I read. It's a lot easier to chat while knitting than it is for me to chat while reading.

It's probably actually better for me that there isn't any iPhone app for Ravelry. I'm sure my battery would die so hardcore.

Hemlock Ring FO and other WIPs

The Hemlock Ring Blanket has been done for quite some time. But it's finally blocked!


Really, it's only marginally smaller than my queen sized bed. I'm actually somewhat surprised in that when it's blocked, the fabric is much thinner than it was when I was knitting it. I wonder why that is. But anyway, I think it came out great. I can't wait to use it.

What else have I been working on? I finally cast on for the Bog Jacket in the Pearl Ten Malabrigo Worsted.


I've found that knitting it while watching tv, movies, and horrible football games (seriously, I thought that Super Bowl game was horrible until the last two minutes) I've knit 17 inches of garter stitch. I've got 4 inches to go before I have to split for the arms. But it's feeling great, if a little warm. I think it's going to be really cozy to wear.

I've also been working on a pair of Jaywalkers.


I had forgotten how slow this pattern goes. It's taking forever to finish even just one sock. I really need a new pair of socks before winter's over. Especially since two pairs I knit last year are pretty much done. I also want to get through quite a bit of my sock stash this year, and if this pattern takes forever, it's never going to happen. My next pair need to go quicker.

I have a ton of books/magazines here that I want to review. Some of them might get done this week. Most of them probably won't. Work is kinda crazy. Speaking of work, though, if you're heading to NY Comic Con this weekend, stop by DK's booth. I'll be there all day every day!