an ent knits

two thursdays

Two Thursdays ago was Fiber Night at Anj's. She was showing us all of the fiber and yarn she had acquired on her vacation...we ooohed and aaahed...and fondled most of it...but Lehnen was not interested in sharing the giant bag of alpaca:

Last Thursday was a Harry & the Potters/Draco & the Malfoys/Hungarian Horntails concert in a church basement downtown. Being me, I wasn't about to just stand there through the whole thing without any knitting. Unfortunately, I didn't have any good concert knitting handy, since the current Dulaan hat is in the middle of the decreases (requires counting and wouldn't've lasted long enough anyway). So I decided to start a new sock with the Spirit Trail sock yarn I bought at Maryland. I started balling the yarn at lunch, finished balling it while standing in line to get in (for maybe 45 minutes), and then cast on and started knitting during the next bit of waiting and the beginning of the show.

At the end of the evening, I had this:

I am really, really proud of how well this came out. It's sooo much better than the last time I tried to start a toe-up sock at a show--I think some of it is the yarn, which is less splitty, some of it is the fact that this was a concert where I couldn't see the stage anyway, rather than a movie, and some of it is just practice. Still. Very proud.

Friday evening randomness

1. I presented a poster (of my labwork) for the first time this week. It was stressful, somewhat awkward, and exciting.

2. This has really been my ideal kind of Friday night: some minor socializing (a happy hour for a friend who's been given permission to write his dissertation), maybe some errands (grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, including sushi for dinner), and hanging around my apartment with a book, my computer, and Mel. The rain and wet-street traffic noises are excellent bonuses.

3. I slid down a few steps of my staircase on Wednesday morning, on my way to take out the recycling and fetch my laundry. Ow. (Still.)

4. What's wrong with this picture?

If you answered, "Oh, no! A broken Lantern Moon dpn!" you get a [virtual] silver star. (Or red or green, if you like those better.) My plan is to see if I can sand down that end and refinish it somehow.

If you answered, "Oh, no! The heel was supposed to be black onyx, not amber!" you get a [virtual] gold star. I'll be ripping back the heel flap as soon as I locate the black onyx yarn. And I was so hoping to finish these soon... Oh. Wait. I know where the black onyx yarn is now. It's in the cuff of sock two. Hmm...

5. Hey, look! I'm knitting something with my handspun and I'm planning to keep it!

I really wouldn't call this color "pine", although I do like it. It's too close to "seafoam green" to be "pine" to me. I might allow for "blue spruce", though, if a tree name were desired.

Oh. You wanted to know what it's going to be? A wristwarmer. I'm thinking I'll be able to get one wristwarmer out of an ounce of roving, so I'll use two colors of the corriedale from my Boogie sampler. They should be done just in time for air-conditioning season.

6. Maryland Sheep and Wool is in two weeks! Two weeks from now, I'll be camped at a state park near the festival! Whee! (I hope I'm not still sore from the steps.)

7. I've already basically planned out my Maryland budget. I want a couple more bobbins for Amy, a couple of skeins of Socks that Rock or something similar, in good almost-solids, and some fiber. I need to figure out how much to get for a potential sweater.

8. I'm going to be moving (my apartment, not my blog, and only a few blocks) in June. And I have a medium-sized presentation in the end of June. So if I'm unusually scarce in the next several weeks, figure I'm either working or packing or cleaning.

9. Mel did the whole screen thing again this morning. There was a squirrel on the cables (I don't know what kind...) that run along/just outside of the back of my building, such that the squirrel was only about six inches away from the highest point Mel could reach. The squirrel, clearly familiar with windows, was pretty nonchalant, if a bit chittery. Mel, on the other hand, was very, very excited and frustrated.

and we have socks!

I did it! I finished my Olympic Spirit-Trail Socks a few hours ago, while watching dvds of the Muppet Show at Ella's.

Look!

It's kinda impressive, how much knitting can be accomplished with two separate knitting events in one day... First was the PhillyKnitters gathering, where I knit about half the cuff, and then there was time to stop at home for the Lorna's Worsted before heading off to Ella's and knitting the rest.

Hurrah! Socks! Modelled pics sometime in the next few days. (I have not completed my committee meeting yet, despite the fact that it was listed as part of my event--faculty schedule conflicts delayed it until March 7th. I'm reasonably on schedule for it, though. And if you're really curious, e-mail me, and I'll describe my project.)

Oh, it's so nice to be able to start knitting something else. And pick up my spindles again... But, really, I need to knit something with cables or interesting lace.

Specs on the socks:
size 5 circs (one inox, one misc aluminum)
spirit trail superwash wool, 100g/200yd
maybe 10 yards of Lorna's Laces Worsted in Carrot
48-stitch circumference with short row heels, one short row toe and one figure-8 toe

I promise there will be some post titles without exclamation points coming up. Really.

heel two

I spent my evening hanging out with my downstairs neighbors (hurrah for socializing without leaving the building!) and watching the Olympics. Despite putting down the knitting for such things as eating dinner and watching the men's 500m speed skating, I made quite a bit of progress:

(As of Saturday morning, I had about a third to half of the foot of the second sock.)

So, will I finish tomorrow (later today)? I've got two knitting events to attend, so I just might. Even if I don't, though, this is amazing progress for me.

a sock and a toe

I have continued to knit away at the OK socks. Astonishingly enough, the ~100 yards of half skein actually did make a decent length of sock. I added a touch of Lorna's Worsted in Carrot, just for the heck of it, and was highly amused to discover that it's a perfect match for one of the intermediate colors in the Spirit Trails yarn.

I also started the second sock, for my first short-row toe ever. (No, I don't care that the socks won't match. They won't be glaringly different under sandals, and that's all that matters.)

That's a finished sock, a short-row toe, and the provisional cast-on I had to pick out of the toe. I am not good at the provisional cast-ons. I can actually manage the crochet bit okay, but there's something about picking up from the crochet chain that I haven't figured out. Eh, well, I have a toe-hat anyway.

In the same color scheme, I picked up these when I went grocery shopping on Sunday:

Some time soon, when I have a few hours to spare, I'm going to wind off a third of the A-93 that I bought in September, and dye it up in red with yellow and orange. Or maybe just red with some splashes of orange. My hope is that it'll be nice enough to use for the Lotus Blossom Shawl.

Yes, I'm getting kind of antsy with this one project for two weeks thing. But soon! Soon, I'll have a finished pair of socks!

(You know, I think my color preferences are getting a bit...obvious? stereotyped? boring, except that they really are my favorite colors?, what with the sock yarn, the kool-aid colors, the blog color scheme...the dyed roving I got from Amy... But maybe I should look harder for green and brown, my other favorite colors.)

OK again

While watching men's moguls and women's downhill and women's curling, I got my sock to here:

We have a heel! I referred last night to my "yarnucopia", since I keep thinking I'm going to run out of yarn and then not actually doing so. Well, all magical yarn-extension aside, I doubt this half-skein will produce the height of sock I really prefer (tall enough for my boots). We shall see...I've got a few different options for how to finish.

big news

I watched television* last night, and I plan to do so again tonight. And maybe also Thursday.

It is the Olympics for more than knitting, after all...and my downstairs neighbors were watching speed skating when I got home last night. So I stopped in to join them, and we watched some skating races and some figure skating and some of the men's combined Alpine, after which point I had this:

I'm about to start the heel.

And I now also have this:

It's roving that I bought from Amy Boogie. I know I'm not "supposed" to be buying fiber until Maryland, but I wanted to have something both nice and basic for when I get to play on a wheel next month. This is 12oz.--I figure that if I haven't gotten the hang of a wheel (you know, more or less; just to at least approach my current spindle skill) by the time I spin that much, I just need to go ahead and get lessons.

*Note: I don't own a television. I probably won't get one until I find the equivalent of rabbit ears for my laptop.

olympic update one

Well, I started my Olympic Knitting (OK, as Anj likes to call it) socks on Friday evening. Here's what I've got so far.

I'm enjoying the knitting so far. The yarn is wonderfully soft and springy. But I'm getting pretty worried that I'm going to run out of yarn. So...I'm thinking I'll get a skein of Artyarns Supermerino to supplement. We shall see.

In other news, yes, Philly has finally gotten a real snowfall this season. It's been very nice to watch from indoors, and it'll be a good excuse to wear lots of nice, warm clothing when I leave in a bit. And, at least if you avoid looking at the streets, it's very pretty.

knitting olympics

I have decided to play in the Knitting Olympics. (Hence the new button in the sidebar.) I had been thinking of trying to knit a sweater, since I could really use another sweater, and I could just rip out the inch I've got on Klaralund and call it swatching. And then I remembered that the Olympics are right smack in the middle of February, which is when I'm supposed to have a thesis committee meeting. So I'll be knitting a pair of socks with my Spirit Trail yarn from Rhinebeck. They'll be nice and cheery, and hopefully relaxing. I'm hoping they'll be a good way to de-stress. Or at least transfer the stress away from the presentation... And the deadline might help with actually finishing a whole pair of socks.

jaywalking progress

Hey, look! It's a two-color Jaywalker!

I settled on the Amber Soft Rock because I figured I'd be safe with quantities. No, I haven't yet finished the bear for the baby who was due on Tuesday, but the sock is better socialization-knitting.