6.13.2010

Here's the situation:

So, there's this:

Starting with the blue lump, top left, we have: Icarus, Pyroclastic, Snicket (orange), and Hemlock Ring Blanket. Yellow in the middle is the Tiramisu Blanket, and at the bottom is Juno Regina. Six works in progress, one active WIP not shown, and two mostly inactive not shown. All solids or semisolids, oddly enough.









And this:

This is pretty much what it looks like: a big old pile of Wool of the Andes and some rainbow Felici (please don't rob my house for it).

Both of these pictures are just horrid, but the last three New England weekends have been dark and rainy and utterly unhelpful for photographing yarn, so this is as good as we're going to get right now.






I've been very, very good recently and have spent nearly every minute I could working on stuff. I take Juno Regina on the train and get several inches done several times a week -- it's almost onto the second ball of yarn (Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Malachite). Perfect train knitting, because the young innocents riding the subway get to learn all sorts of new vocabulary from me as I realize I've forgotten yet another yarn over.

Icarus (in Knit Picks Shadow Kettle Dyed Lace, color Jay) was started last weekend and I got the first two repeats done. I'm trying not to leave off in the middle of a repeat, so I'm always hesitant to start working on it, worrying that I won't be able to finish where I want. I've got a stretch of time this evening, though, so that should get another repeat tonight.

Pyroclastic (in Sunshine Yarns Soft Sock Yarn, color Grassroots), the only bit of knitting in that photo that doesn't have a deadline, is of course almost done. Started the toe in the car today, and finishing and weaving ends should only take one more session. Woohoo, those have been on the needles for a while.

Snicket is so quick, which must be why I blasted through the first 3 cuff repeats and haven't touched it since. I need to wind the other ball and start the other cuff before figuring out the heel. I've got to say that I don't really understand what the pattern says very well - I just pretty much figured out how I think the pattern is supposed to look and am doing that. It's working okay so far. These should be done before the end of June for sockdown - which, now that I think about it, is soon enough to mean that I should really be working on these more. Hrm.

The Hemlock Ring I finally picked up again and am almost to the feather and fan part. Goes quickly when I actually work on it. Am still deciding between recipients - two very nice families that don't have pets and thus could conceivably get more than a week's use out of a sheep-colored bulky lace blanket before needing to spend an hour cleaning it.

Tiramisu - well, Tiramisu is kind of a hot mess right now. I frogged (do you call it frogging when it's crochet?) my first attempt and started over with 10 more stitches than the pattern calls for, to adjust for my lighter yarn and smaller hook. My gauge (do you call it gauge when it's crochet?) is all over the place, and I always have issues in crochet with the edges - unless I put stitches farther into the edges than it really seems like is possible, my work gets narrower and narrower. Frogged again a couple rows for this, and also realized that part of the problem might be that I was starting on the next row a stitch too far in. Onward, onward, almost done with the first skein. Edging will hopefully hide the ragged edges and save the day.

Of course I'm making smashing progress on the WIP that I can't show you.

That whompin' pile of WoTA also has a deadline, but nothing's been cast on yet. I think I'll spend the rest of the weekend making tangible process on what's already going and then start on that next weekend.

Hopefully my next post will include some finished socks and some sunshine.