yeah. terrifying.

If only I could be involved in the redistribution channels — it’s obvious, redirect all of our rain and cold weather down to the scorched, killing, devastation and destruction going on. I don’t believe this, but there’s a way it feels like the Biblical end times these days. Earthquakes and hurricanes, raging out of control fires and deadly drought, and don’t get me started on things of a politically-induced nature.

Sunday I finished my adorable little red number, my featherweight cardigan. I keep thinking I can surely get a photo tomorrow, surely tomorrow it won’t be so gray and gloomy and shadowy, but tomorrow hasn’t come yet. It’s fabulous, I couldn’t be happier with it. The color is great, cheery, powerful, the fit is wonderful, and the fact that I love wearing a cropped sweater that ends at my waist is priceless.

While I wait for the yarn to arrive for my three new sweaters (me! knitting three new sweaters!), I’m spending my knitting time powering through the blanket I’m making. It’s Anne Hanson’s Totally Autumn pattern, in a rich chocolate brown Cascade 220 Heathers. This is the project that went through the trauma in Turkey of my having to pull out the needles at the Istanbul airport, so I’ve kind of recovered from that disaster and now see the end in sight. The work will come to a standstill when my sweater yarns arrive, but maybe I’ll just try to put in X number of rows per day on the blanket so it’ll eventually get done, instead of languishing.

Busy busy busy times for me — appointments this afternoon, seeing a play tonight, breakfast tomorrow with my oldest friend from Alabama, writing group tomorrow night, fly off to Chicago early Friday morning to visit Marnie, home on Monday, poetry group Tuesday night. AND I’m trying to finish the details for my trip back to Vietnam and over to Borneo, during the first two weeks of October. Which is just three weeks away. Yikes. Busy busy busy.

But a lot of spam comments are just mean – like, “you can’t do better than this?” or “Real stupid post, you should just quit.” GOOD GRIEF. Every one of them sounds like the mean voice that occasionally squeaks around in the dark corners of my mind, and you know, that squeaky voice doesn’t need any help.

My new camera battery came today so I show you where I am with my really lovely sweater-in-progress:

moving down the body now - sleeves are divided

And the blanket I took with us on vacation, I got a lot done on it, though I’m only about 1/3 finished at this point:

you can't tell, but i got a LOT done!

When I left, I had finished only 2 repeats I think. Anyway. Feeling kind of dazed and stunned right now, so this is a half-assed post. I’m still hit hard by the reverse jet-lag, and the lack of sleep is accumulating; on top of that, I have a lot of work to do – good, of course – and I’ve spent the day buried in it. Now I have to head downtown for my monthly writing group, and I can’t imagine that I’ll write very much that’s coherent.

Oy. Boring myself here.

#1 – I hadn’t knit in a couple of decades, and this was my ‘welcome back to knitting’ project. This pattern was written as a shawl, but I used a heavier yarn so I could use it as an afghan. Since I completed it, I’ve probably used it every single day. It lies over the arm of the couch, where I sit, and if I don’t drape it over my feet in the mornings while I drink my coffee and read the paper, I drape it over my legs in the evenings while I knit. I love it. Rav project page here.

Kimono Shawl, by Cheryl Oberle (in Folk Shawls, by Interweave Press)

#2 – I wandered into Knitty City and saw this orange malabrigo sock yarn. I loved it so much I bought way too many skeins – 6 or 7, I think. It made a beautiful Lace Ribbon Scarf; I get compliments every time I wear it. It’s a lovely combination of wonderful yarn, fabulous color, and fascinating design. Nonknitters look at my hands in awe…you made that?…but the rest of us who knit know it’s a simple and great fun to knit pattern. Here’s mine [rav here]:

Lace Ribbon Scarf, by Veronik Avery (in malabrigo sock, terracotta)

the pattern is easy to memorize and fun to knit!

#3 and #4 – I had some beautiful Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino in this icy blue color, and wanted to make a scarf for a very dear friend. I had enough left over to knit a beret, which I have since lost! WHY! WHERE? So disappointing. The Reverse Cable and Eyelet Scarf was interesting to knit, since it seemed to be creating a diagonal. I loved the scalloped edge, which had a nice depth to it. I’d planned to make one for myself after giving this one away, but I got distracted!

Reverse Cable and Eyelet Scarf, by Jeni Chase

And here’s the long-lost beret, which I don’t think I ever wore except for the moment it came off the needles. I think I wasn’t all that satisfied with it, because it was too floppy and I should’ve used smaller needles. Anyway, here it was, my Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, by Natalie Larson [rav here]:

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, by Natalie Larson

#5 – The Beaded Braided Hat by Lee Ann Bonson. I did mine sans bead, but this is a pattern I love, and have knit several times. The braiding around the band is very simple to do, even if it looks complicated, if you’ve never done it before. Really, easy peasy. Rav here.

Beaded Braided Hat, by Lee Ann Bonson

the hat before blocking - you can see the pattern on the band.

#6 – I made this cashmere neckwarmer (by Sarah Keller) for another very dear friend. The yarn is amazing: ArtYarns Cashmere 5, and fun to knit even if it’s splitty, so you have to pay attention. It does interesting things with pooling, which can be OK. What I didn’t know, and here’s where swatching would’ve saved me, is that I should not have wet blocked it. It completely lost its body. It became a limp, structureless rectangle. I have another skein, so I’ll try again one of these days. Rav here.

ArtYarns Cashmere5 - Cashmere Neckwarmer by Sarah Keller

#7 – This was a case of walking into Yarntopia, looking for something interesting, and falling in love with a yarn. We were going on a trip, as I recall, and I wanted something to knit but I didn’t have a clear idea. Before I knew it, I’d bought 9 skeins, and I still have a bunch in my stash. I made the Nancy Pygora Merino Lace Scarf by Myrna A.I. Stahman, and promptly gave the scarf away to my daughter Marnie when she was visiting, and needed something warm. My rav page here.

Nancy Pygora Merino Lace Scarf by Myrna A.I. Stahman, in Berroco Jasper

#8 – This Airy Scarf was another holiday present. My friend Yvonne is extremely feminine, girly, and I thought this little scarf would look great on her….and it does! I used KnitPicks Shimmer, hand-dyed lace yarn, and the only photo I have is pre-blocked. [rav here]

Airy Scarf by Brenda Overstrom (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts)

#9 and 10 – I participated in a neckwarmer swap here in New York City, and made this Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Lindsay Henricks, using Berroco Jasper. The perfect buttons were purchased at Knitty City.  Again, picture pre-blocking. This was before I got some discipline with both photography and blocking! I enjoyed the cabling, so I made a scarf with the same yarn and pattern, and just kept going past the neckwarmer length. First, the neckwarmer:

Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Lindsay Henricks - cables are fun!

And now the scarf:

same yarn and pattern, but in longer scarf form

#11 – and now I got on a neckwarmer jag. I’d just moved here from Texas so I was new to the whole needing-to-warm-your-neck business. Here’s the same pattern, but in malabrigo. And again, absolutely perfect buttons courtesy of Knitty City [rav page here]:

Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Lindsay Henricks, in malabrigo worsted

#12 – It was a tradition in my former husband’s family that each person who came into the family received a stocking, knitted by his mother. She had 6 children and 20 grandchildren by the time I came along, and she made a stocking for me, and for all 3 of my kids, just as she did for all the others. My kids still use theirs every year, so it’s up to me to make stockings for the newcomers in my clan. This was made for the 1st new entry to my family, my son-in-law Trey, who married my daughter Katie in June of 2008. The pattern is available, amazingly enough: Personalized Christmas Stocking From 1945 by Rae P. Burbank. [my rav page here]

Trey's stocking

By the end of this year, I’d become a full-fledged addict. I became a better knitter, a better photographer, and I had a LOT of fun.

Go forward to FO2009 –>

So what’s on the needles? There’s one I can’t reveal here, the wedding shawl, but here we go:

2nd Kai-Mei, ready to work the heel

My Kai-Mei socks – I’ve been sneaking little wearings of the finished sock because it’s so dang wonderful. Madelinetosh sock, in crow – feels kind of hard when you’re knitting it, but as the fabric flows from the needles, it’s softer than you think it’ll be. And when you soak it and block it? Really so nice. The pattern is clever and fun to knit, but when I was knitting the first sock I was just going on faith (Cookie A faith) because I couldn’t see how it was going to work. I highly recommend the pattern and the yarn.

OK, next?

oh, my dearly beloved Ishbel, languishing....

I do love this Ishbel, knit with madelinetosh lace, in lettuce. It’ll be my 3rd (why do I think “she’ll be my third”?), and the pattern is fun and the color is great and I love the whole deal but it’s been set aside for so long that I struggle to pick it up again. Once I finish the wedding shawl I’ll return to this because it’s going to be fantastic.

Next?

what is wrong with me?!

Stop it, me! Stop! Why did I start this one?! I had plenty to work on, the last thing I needed to do was to start another project, but I did. This is Baktus, and I got about 1/3 of the way through it with Noro Silk Garden Sock (pictured above, the yarn cake) when I decided that I’d rather alternate the Noro with a black yarn. So even though I had no business starting this one in the first place, I frogged it and started over, alternating it with a KnitPicks Essential Kettle Dyed, in soot. [Lori, do not start another project!!]

such a 3-D blankie!

Totally Autumn, which I’m knitting with Cascade 220 Heather in chocolate, so it’ll be more like a blanket. The photo represents the length I get from one skein; since we want it to be ~6 feet in length, I’ll need 7 skeins and of course I’d bought 6. Luckily the sale is still on at Webs, so I bought additional skeins.

Next?

hanging my mondo head in shame and denial

This project, the Mondo Cardigan in madelinetosh merino (graphite) has been so painful. I had enough yarn to complete the sweater, but I foolishly didn’t look at all the skeins before I started. One of the lovely things about madelinetosh yarns is the variability in color, but this time it bit me in the butt. When I got to this point on the first sleeve, I noticed that my last two skeins were quite obviously blue. That would not work. I couldn’t find any graphite in any of the online stores, so (to use Yarn Harlot’s phrase) I threw up the Bat Signal in the rav forums, pleading and begging. Very kind raveler Glennae offered to sell me two of her skeins, which looked like a match to mine, but that would leave her with an insufficient amount of yarn to knit a sweater – the reason she bought it. I didn’t want to leave her in that spot, so I basically just went into denial and ignored the problem. Then, last weekend, I “randomly” decided to look through ravelers’ stashes to see if anyone had any of this yarn, and found Jenny – boopersin on ravelry. Jenny, O Jenny, my new BFF and savior. I wrote her asking if she’d sell, told her my sob story, and she quickly agreed. Isn’t she wonderful? Friend her immediately if you’re on rav, she’s a keeper (and Glennae too, if you don’t know her yet). So Jenny’s two skeins are winging (or brown trucking) their way to me, which means I’ll be able to finish my Mondo Cardigan. Whew.

Next?

froth and beads

Is this technically “on the needles,” given the fact that I’ve obviously pulled out the needles? Apparently not. It’s gorgeous. It’s Liquid Silver, by Rosemary Hill, with Elann Silken Kydd, a luscious and halo-ey mohair and silk blend, with glass beads. I started knitting it when I first returned to knitting a couple of years ago, and honestly, it was beyond my beginner’s skills. I struggled with the very thin yarn on the very slippery needles, with nothing on hand to thread the beads onto the yarn. So I got this far and then put it away. Apparently at some point I pulled the needles out – to use them for another project, probably? – but I don’t remember doing that. The pattern would be very easy for me now, so I hope to frog this and just start over with the same pattern. After all, I have the beads.

I know this is supposed to be a fearless inventory, but I’m not being fully honest here. There’s a sweater in progress, halfway up the back but I don’t like it so I’ll frog it and reuse the yarn, and a Christmas stocking for one of my girls, just begun and set aside.

There. Now I’ve been really fearless, I’ve confessed my excess. I feel much better. And I just noticed how many of my projects are made with madelinetosh yarn. I love her.

love the pattern

I do love the pattern – Totally Autumn, by Anne Hanson – it’s great fun to knit, and the scrunchy dimensionality of it is fun to touch. The yarn, though, not as much. I’m using Cascade 220 for the first time, and finding it a bit hard. Ravelry lists it as the most popular yarn, and I got it on a great sale at Webs, but it’s not soft, and the hand is a bit heavy at this point. We’ll see how it goes; it’ll be just fine for what it is, but I’m not sure I’d use this yarn for anything that needed to go against my skin.

we had joy we had fun, we had blanket in the sun

And in other news, I may just be taking an exciting trip in September. I’m not sure yet, there are some impending changes in my life that make it a little uncertain, but if I do go, here’s the masthead for that blog:

I really did love Vietnam, so much, and I’ve heard that Laos is amazing. I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope……….

1. the secret wedding shawl, secret only in its final appearance
2. my 2nd Kai-Mei sock, which is in my category ‘subway knitting’
3. the green lace-weight Ishbel, languishing in my beautiful Shaker box until I finish the shawl
4. my mondo cable cardigan, languishing because I’m afraid I won’t have enough yarn to finish it but I tell myself I’m not working on it until I finish the shawl

The shawl is my most important project, but you know how it goes. There are times when you feel kind of shaky, or kind of exhausted, and don’t have the necessary focus and calm required to knit cobweb-weight yarn on tiny needles….and yet you really want to knit and veg with some mindless tv. I could just pick up the sock and work on it, but that’s so perfect for subway knitting, I want to save it for my commute.

SO! Last night I cast on a new project. I’m sure, if you’re a knitter, you are aware of the huge yarn sale that Webs has been advertising. I bought six skeins of Cascade 220 with this project in mind; it’s a heathered yarn, in rich chocolate. It perfectly matches my brown leather sofa, so that’ll be sweet and warm in winter.

This is my first Anne Hanson pattern, and there will be many more. I always enjoy her work, and have several of her shawls, sweaters, and socks in my faves and queue. I’m knitting the Totally Autumn throw, from Knitty. In this rich, heavy, brown wool it will have a very different look than you see on the Knitty pattern page, but it will be perfect for me:

close-up

look at the dimensionality!

Now, though, I’ve piddled long enough, finished 3 cups of coffee, read all the items in my google reader, checked all my daily sites, and knitted a couple of rows on this project. I’m off to get dressed and start sewing the lovely wedding dress for Marnie. Pics to come, I hope!