Strands

The shawl goes on:



I am trying to finish this monster before it gets too hot and humid here. Wool and mohair stick to my fingers in the summer, and this project is already blanket-size... not fun in July! Fortunately, I am getting quite close to being done.

Haven't touched the Crosspatch vest in weeks. I'll have to weave in those ends eventually, but not today and definitely not tomorrow.

What I did this weekend

Jupiter wanted to go hiking and camping on the Appalachian Trail this weekend, and we had no choice but to follow:



Pennsylvania's mountains are beautiful in the spring and everything was green, except for the rocks we had to step on for most of the way. Our muscles are sore, we have blisters and Jupiter's paws are in pretty bad shape. But it was so much fun, and very much worth it, for views like this:



... and for many other events that were breathtaking, but impossible to photograph: the huge silent owl flying above the campsite one night, the deer running through the forest, the amazing candy at Port Clinton's Peanut Shop. Also, for the joy of sharing a water bottle with a dog:



(for the obligatory knitting content, see if you can spot the handknit socks)

One problem with working on big projects is that progress seems slow and I cannot finish them as fast as I'd like. I finished the neck and armbands on the Crosspatch vest, but there are still so many ends to weave in, and I really do need to weave them in before taking a "completed" picture. It will be a stunning vest, though (and not just because it's so bright!).

As procrastination, I've been working on the fluorescent Undulating Rib socks for J, and I managed to finish them - so small, so quick, a sock has about as many stitches as a few rows in the Heart Warmer shawl! I don't have a picture, it's not much to see really, but they fit well as the pattern is very elastic, and the undulating part keeps them from being too boring to knit. It's interesting, somebody at the knitting group was working on some very simple socks and they were going so slowly precisely because they were so simple. Sometimes a pattern helps do things faster.

I also saw the Yarn Harlot today and she is as sweet and funny in real life as one can imagine from her blog.

In the absence of real knitting photos, here's a picture of my pet sheep:



I am so tempted to spin his hair some time...

A beautiful thing

There was a neighborhood fair adjacent to the farmer's market today, so I stopped by to look at volunteer opportunities (tree planting next Thursday!) and to look at stuff in general. And here was this table with gorgeous crochet shawls - fingering weight alpaca, made in Bolivia by a women's coop. $10 for a shawl, who could resist? I told the lady that they should sell their wares for more, and she said they are already selling them for more than the suggested price! Anyway, it really is alpaca (I think I can tell by now, and there are a few guard hairs sticking out here and there), it's expertly crocheted and it's a good size to wrap around on a winter day:



And what is that crazy-looking piece on my messy couch? Let's take a closer look:



Yes, it's the unmistakable Crosspatch vest, but something magic has happened to this vest:



I finished the intarsia knitting!!!! Off to do a happy dance now.

More proof that I am crazy

I have four projects I am currently working on: two on size 1 needles, one on size 2 needles and one on size 3 needles. The two "hibernating" projects use size 3 and size 0 needles, respectively. Just thought I'd share.

Dear people of Philadelphia:

Please stop riding your bikes on the wrong side of the road. Thank you!

I cannot help thinking of the soccer player, but I doubt this is who Lavold had in mind when she designed this:



A fairly straightforward knit, on big needles, in a very pleasant yarn. The one big lesson that's worth repeating: BUY AN EXTRA BALL OF YARN, DAMN IT! I ran out of yarn (boo), and this yarn is a bit tricky to find; it's new and none of the stores in town have it. Luckily, Carodan Farm had it in stock, at a discounted price, with very cheap shipping! I received the yarn within a week of ordering, and even better - it was the same dye lot as the rest of the balls!

I don't usually wear cycling tights with my handknits, but I was off to a Sturdy Girl and - why not?

Now off to finish the big headache that's the Crosspatch Vest... I altered the width of the blocks because I didn't need a 40 inch vest, and now I need to adjust the neck decreases, but I want a steeper neck than the original decreases make... fun stuff. Intarsia is annoying to knit; frogging intarsia is even worse!

The green bedsheet strikes again

I suppose a self-respecting knitter would invest in a blocking board, the bigger the better, and a million "quilter's T-pins", whatever the heck they are. I am obviously not a self-respecting knitter:



Here is Pele drying on the usual green bedsheet. This is a sheet I got from my mom and it is way too bright to put in bed, even for me. I am using push pins to hold stuff in place, and the only concession I made to knitterly propriety is that I used a tape measure when stretching the top. However, it's the same hardware-store tape measure I use to measure my walls, my bike parts and my body, so maybe I don't get any points on this one either.

And how is Pele? Frankly, I have no idea yet. The cotton/bamboo/linen blend is weird when wet, and the top looked un-amazing before blocking or seaming. We'll see.