Sindelfingen photos

Not that I took any pictures of Sindelfingen itself, though I should have because it was all half-timbered medieval fabulousness of the sort that makes American tourists squee. But I didn't think to take my camera because the battery's only good for five minutes or so, and anyway it takes sucky photos. Have I mentioned lately that I hate my camera?

But it was sunny today, and really, what is the point of buying superfabulous yarn if you can't photograph it, post it to your blog and try not to feel smug about it? So without further ado, my Wollmeise haul. Click to embiggen.

Ooo, the laceweight - we were told there wouldn't be any at the market, something about the supplier running out. I'm not sure if that meant permanently or what. Anyway, around lunchtime they brought out the last two bags of dyed laceweight, and I managed to snag one for me and one for a friend (not photographed, because I sent it off on Tuesday, though you can see it in the previous entry's group photo).

I also got some Twin sock yarn in Farn, which is my favorite non-busy colorway. (I couldn't possibly choose a favorite busy colorway - as my stash will attest, I have about 25 favorites.) I've never actually knit with Twin, though I do have a skein of Boboli Twin that I really should do something with...

Aaaaand the old faithful, 100% Superwash Sockenwolle, the yarn I have more of than any other kind. I hardly ever use it because I love it too much to waste on something that isn't truly fantastic. Yes, yes I am insane. What, you're only just noticing?


Anyway, none of these photos really capture the color of the yarn, but they're as close as I could get them. From left to right: a versuchskaninchen that is almost like Neptun, a bit more green in real life; Vergißmeinnicht (forget-me-not), my other favorite semi-solid colorway; sündig & verrucht (sinful and wicked), a bit less blue in real life; and herzblut (heart's blood). There are so many other colors I would have loved to get, but ten skeins seemed like enough to buy for one day. Eleven, with the laceweight. Fourteen, with the laceweight and sock yarn that I picked up for a friend.

So there you have it. Sindelfingen. A very good weekend.

haul

All right, just a quick photo - I'll try to go into more detail later, but you can't imagine how tired I am right now, and I still have the whole Eurovision Song Contest to get through.

more zero-sum knitting on the same thing, yay.

Turns out, that mitten-cuff from the previous entry was actually a swatch, though not a very good one: when I was first getting the hang of double knitting, I kind of knit too loose and the cuff was huge. I got up about 26 rows and decided that, while I loved the two colorways together, they weren't working with the zigzag pattern. So I frogged it and started over with the same red (Campari Orange) and a new color, Zur Lederhos'n, left over from the test knit, and my second draft is much more even and less loosey-goosey. Sometimes you just have to back up.

zero-sum knitting

Yesterday I had a train ride and then two hours to kill while Ignatz had his first Dutch lesson. A knitter never minds having time to kill (as long as she has her knitting handy) and I did make some lovely progress, though it's double knitting, which naturally goes rather slowly. But then I found an error, had to frog waaaaaay back, and by the time I had all my stitches back on the needles it was time to fetch Ig and go home. The rest of the day did not contain any uninterrupted 2-hour stretches of knitting time, so it took me the rest of the day to get back to where I'd been when I found the error and had to frog. Twice the knitting, half the progress.

Gnarf, as Tini says.

grade fail

So Aliénor was not graded for different sizes because it was written to be flexible: do this until it's long enough, pick up enough stitches, stop when it fits there and then do this, that sort of thing. And I did it that way on purpose, because I really don't much care for standardized size charts. I, for one, am one size when buying pants and skirts, and another size when buying shirts. (I don't wear dresses. Or, God forbid, jumpsuits.) I think many people are, and that bust measurement A doesn't necessarily mean armhole depth B. It all makes me feel quite curmudgeonly.

But Juana is... different. Yes, you're supposed to try it on as you go, but certain things have to happen in just the right place, so you have to know when you cast on exactly what will happen 55 rows later. So it required much intricate planning, and I can't just say "do this until it fits." Therefore, I need to write the pattern for multiple sizes, and hooee, pattern grading is a fussy business. Once I had the initial pattern charted, the math was easy, but drawing seven pattern outlines on the same chart is... not easy. I mean, it was fairly easy to draw them, but now what I have looks less like a knitting chart and more like... a subway map drawn by a demented neo-plasticist.

Hm. I've known for some time that this charting strategy would not work out, but I keep plowing ahead with it in the hope that a solution will occur to me. Something other than seven completely separate charts, resulting in a gigantamundo file that's too big to email or upload, and requires ten trees' worth of paper to print out.

busy fingers

Well, eleven people bought my pattern, which makes me feel like all this time spent knitting ain't been in vain fer nothin', which in turn justifies spending all my time knitting now! Yay! Yes, I am working on another sweater, called Juana La Loca, and it's taking awhile because I'm pausing to document every stitch I knit (twice - once in knitterese, once on a chart). But I'm about halfway done and liking it a lot, so that makes me happy.

In other news, I'm re-knitting one part of the Dunegrass Socks so that I can fix the pattern, based on some very helpful user feedback. Tricky business, this pattern writing - I wanted to keep it flexible, but wound up being confusing. Now I'm making it as clear as I can, but if you follow my directions the socks will fit me, not you. Oh dear, oh dear.

I'm also working on a sweater I'm calling Fernán for now, a design for men. I'm not writing down every stitch, which would turn out to be a problem except that the prototype is for DrBob, so I'm knitting it in black, which is unphotographable. So I'll have to knit it again anyway if I want decent photos, and when I do that, I'll write down every stitch. Maybe I'll make it for my 8-year-old, so it'll be done faster. Maybe I'll make it for the 14-year-old, so that by the time it's done, it'll fit the 8-year-old. We are awash in growth spurts here, they're eating like horses and outgrowing their clothes faster than they can ruin them.

<-- The two-skein shrug is also awake now, after hibernating all winter. I don't think I'll publish a pattern for that, because it's too simple. Anybody could figure it out. But I am looking forward to wearing it.

oh. em. gee

TEN pattern sales, and one of them? Was to the incomparable Yarnissima, my favorite knitstuff designer, the only designer whose patterns I knit without modifying them somehow. Well, except for Spina di Pesce, which I modified to fit a bigger foot than the pattern was written for, and then sent her my notes so she could offer the pattern in a larger size too. I've met her, she is made of awesome, I am a total fan, and she liked my pattern! Swoon!

SO, I'm not blogging lately, yeah? Because my hands are busy knitting. And that, um, whaddyacallit, that job-thingy I've had for a few years now, that takes up a little of my time (too little of my time - I should actually be working right now). Still here, though. Working on a test-knit, plus the inevitable Sniglet-Socks, I always have Sniglet-Socks on the needles. I also have several patterns buzzing around in my head, bapping at the inside of my skull like a fly at the window, and have started developing two, while frantically shushing the others.

Yep. Still here.

TWO!

Two people bought my pattern! Two whole people thought it was worth actual money!

I am completely floored.

gone savant

I'm trying to get the Aliénor pattern into a presentable form, and I've been at it all day. The in-laws came over for coffee and I sat on the couch and twitched while DrBob and they talked about cats. I fidgeted through dinner with the family. But other than that I've been here, typing, tweaking, fixing, re-thinking. This is so fiddly! I'm learning to hate .pdfs.

Anyway, that's why y'all haven't heard from me in a bit, even though I've been right here. I hope to get it finished and uploaded tomorrow.

(Photo by Elemmaciltur)

or, not

Nonward. Nupward! Nowhere! Brace yourselves, people, because what I am about to say will truly shock many of you:

From Tuesday to Saturday of last week, I was too sick to knit.

YES! All the more amazing because I am posting today, when everybody knows that the next step after "too sick to knit" is "quite thoroughly dead." And yet, here I am. And it wasn't cancer or polio or arthritis or anything horrid, it was just some stupid virus. I wouldn't believe it either except I'm still feeling it if I try to do anything physically strenuous, like, you know, walk. Or stand up for more than five minutes. My bones feel tired.

So, despite my lofty ambitions, no more patterns or pictures or .pdfs have been achieved in the week since I put up Dunegrass. Although that has been downloaded 15 times! OMG I'm all famous! And I forgot to put any gauge information in the pattern, so, you know, I'm famous for being annoying and stupid. Well, if Paris Hilton can bear it, I suppose I can too.

onward. also upward.

ZERO progress on Zur Lederhos'n today. I've got the dark variation of the ZL colorway, and I can only knit during daylight hours, so even though the day's not over, I can safely say that I won't knit on those today.

My daylight hours - the ones where no children were home, anyway - were full of Dunegrass! I wrote a from-scratch web page of the Dunegrass sock pattern, hoping I could convert that into a .pdf, but the conversion process was fraught, I tell you, fraught with peril. Much searching through the Ravelry Wiki eventually revealed that you can make .pdfs with Google Documents. Turns out, that is also fraught, and the code is trés messy, but it was successful in increments just big enough to make me keep trying, and around 1 p.m. I emerged from the digital thickets, flushed and sweaty, triumphantly clutching a squawking, flapping, finished Dunegrass_Socks(eleventy-nine).pdf by one leg. I uploaded it to my Ravelry shop and it looks like there is now a freely downloadable pattern. And I just checked: one person has downloaded it! I'm famous!

Then the kids got home and I was too busy making lunch and shopping and criticizing. A mother's work is never done.

Still, the other patterns shouldn't take quite as long, right? And once I know all about uploading free patterns I can spifflicate the Aliénor pattern (needs more photos, which means I need to knit some more) and get that up... soonish. I hope. Can you believe it's been over a month since I finished knitting it?

just checking in

Because egad, has it really been three weeks since I posted? Yike.

Okay, so I've been test knitting a scarf for a friend, and I can't post photos yet. I bound that one off today, just in time to frog Zur Lederhos'n and re-start it; it was on hiatus while the designer worked out some kinks, and she ended up redesigning it from stitch one, so we're all starting over. I liked the old pattern fine, but I like this one better, so I'm happy.

I've written up a bare-bones Aliénor pattern and sent it off to test-knitters, but I can see that the pattern needs more detail and more pictures, so I'll be doing that as soon as I stop finding excuses not to, basically. I've activated my Ravelry store, I think, but haven't tried it out yet, so I'm also planning to re-publish my other patterns as free Ravelry downloads. Mostly I'm stalling, but I was just in Utrecht and was very busy and productive for four days, so maybe I can keep being busy and productive until it's a habit. That would be nice.

Pattern Angst

You know, clothes used to fit much better. Before factories were built to churn out sewn-together rectangles that more or less fit most people, pretty much, there were seamstresses and tailors who made clothing to fit the body that would actually be wearing it, not some clearly defined yet potentially non-existent "average."

Now, part of the reason we knit is to make things to fit our own selves, or our best beloveds (or someone we owe a favor, I guess). This is what I did with Aliénor. I took very good notes, so I could tell you, stitch for stitch, exactly how I made it, and then there you'd be, gauge permitting, with a sweater that fits me perfectly - then you can email me for my postal address and send it to me, thanks! But if you want to make it for someone other than me, or someone shaped exactly like me, well, that's trickier. Marnie MacLean has a spreadsheet tutorial for figuring out different sizes, but it still operates on assumptions like "if your bust is x, then your waist is y, and your armhole depth must be z." Speaking as someone who has to buy tops and bottoms in different sizes (and usually buys jeans from the men's department), I'm gonna have to call doubtsies. This is why I'm a big fan of Karen Alfke's Unpatterns.

Then, too, a lot of knitters are people who sew, or used to, and their patterns reflect that way of thinking: knit up a bunch of pieces of fabric and sew them together. That's not how I think. And of course we're all used to patterns from magazines and books, where they have to keep things as brief as possible due to printing costs. Also not how I think: I usually have to re-write those patterns before I can use them.

So I'm writing up this you-do-the-math pattern, and it reads like an essay, all blurry stuff like "where you think the armpit should be," and "until it's long enough," not like "knit 32 [36, 40, 44, 48]..." And what I really don't want is for people to say "ZOMG this pattern SUCKS!" because it's not what they're used to.

So I think I'll need some test-knitters.

having a Sally Field moment

Wow. People like my sweater. I'm... surprised and gratified. Yes I will definitely write up a pattern, at some point. I'm going over the page proofs for my husband's next book, and we're on a deadline that is made shorter by the fact that the proofs have to be mailed to and from the U.S. So that's taking most of my time right now.

And... well, you've seen my other patterns, they're a bit haphazard, a bit stream-of-consciousness. I don't really know how to write a pattern well enough to sell it - if people pay for something, they expect it to be really good, and I am no Marnie MacLean (seriously, the woman is a genius; how does she DO that!?). I'd have to figure out how to knit the sweater in 10 sizes, and ack.

So those are the major obstacles, and I am thinking a lot about how to get around the second one. The first one, I know what to do: get back to work!

TTFN.

a photo and an award

The sun came out today, so I got Mr. Husband to take a few pictures. I still think this could be shown to better effect, but at least you can sort of see the whole thing. This is Aliénor, and it is very warm and comfy. I should have made it a bit longer, but it's been really cold and I wanted a warm sweater to wear NOW.

It's Valley Yarns Stockbridge, in Deep Teal, and I am thinking a nice alpaca silk blend would also be good for this. Maybe I'll make another one. Yeah, right, like I ever make anything twice, I can barely manage to make two socks. Maybe next winter?

And look! Elemmaciltur called me an awesome designer! Thank you! What have you been smoking? Just kidding, isn't he sweet? I changed the colors of the award, though, hope the original artist doesn't mind. I'm really not a pink person.

The rules are:
1. The winner must copy this Award to their own blog. (check)
2. Link to the blog from whence you received the Award
3. Nominate a minimum of 7 other bloggers
4. Link to the nominated on your blog
5. Leave comment about the award on the nominated blogs.

Right, well, Amy, of course, because she only just started sewing recently - at least I think she said she started recently, though the things she makes don't look like a beginner's work - and also because of the way she writes: I really hope that she spends hours editing and fiddling and agonizing over every sentence like I do, but since she's a homeschooler with three children under 7, she probably doesn't. Sigh.

Speaking of sewing, Tini sews clothes that can be worn by actual grown-ups. I think babies and small children are a lot easier to make clothes for, knitting for grown-ups is harder, and sewing for grown-ups is so hard that if I decided to learn how, it would take me longer than I am currently expecting to live.

Hm, who else? Gonna cheat and say Elemmaciltur because he really belongs on the list, even though he's already gotten the award.

...and then Blogger ate my post, and this is what I was able to fish out of the drafts list. Dang. I'll finish it tomorrow.

love/hate

I love winter because you get to wear all those fabulous sweaters that you spend the year knitting!

I hate winter because the light is so bad you can't photograph said fabulous sweaters. Aliénor is a FO! Washed and blocked and on me right now, and fairly fabulous, actually, though it would look better on someone a tad more swanlike and princessy. Whatever. It's done! And you can't see it because I can't take pictures in this light. Garg.

Almost-almost-almost done

So I had this idea for a sweater, and I swatched extensively and knit it halfway in purple and then decided it should be green. Then I started it in green, and divided for the sleeves in the wrong place and frogged back, did it right, made the plain bit too long, frogged back, finally finished it, decided the sleeves were too tight, and frogged again. In terms of stitch count, I have probably knit this thing three times over. I still like it, though, and will probably be quite pleased when I can finally wear it.

Wikipedia says Aliénor is an alternate spelling for Eleanor of Aquitaine (because Ravelry lists one zillion projects named Eleanor), and I thought of her because the sweater seems kind of high-middle-agey, though there wasn't much in the way of knitting back then. She was a big proponent of the cult of courtly love, something DrBob has written about - well, he writes about courtly love in Spanish literature, but it was Eleanor who brought it to the French and English courts. So there you go. Can't you just hear the lutes a-twanging?

Beileid

Back in August, Tini had a blog contestlet in which you listed things you were grateful for in the comments, and the winner (me) got a skein of hand-dyed yarn. It was purple and blue and black, and the colorway was called "Sorrow," and it was so very soft that I knew it had to be for something special.

Tragically, something special was needed before long: in late November an uncle died - my husband has a lot of uncles, all getting on in years, but this one was comparatively young and had no health problems that anybody knew of, and his death left the family reeling, his widow grappling with reality, and his daughter was the family rock. It was a rough Christmas for them, and for all of us, really. The yarn said it wanted to be a scarf for this cousin, who lost her father unexpectedly, like I did 15 years ago, and still managed to be there for everyone else (like I didn't - I checked out totally. Sorry, family).

So. A FO:

Tagged by Tini

And answering very belatedly, sorry.

Here are the rules:

*Go to your sixth picture folder and pick your sixth picture.*Pray you remember the details.*Tag five others.

And here is the picture: My firstborn, Ignatz (not his real name), in the passport photo we had made of him when he was five. He's on his third U.S. passport now, and due for a fourth next year. Wow.

And to tag, hmmm...

1. Elemmaciltur
2. Kelly
3. Amy
4. Vicki
5. Projektleiterin

Thanks Tini!

Spiderman Socks

I think they're kinda short, but we were watching Galileo after dinner tonight and I had the Sniglet try them on, just because he was handy, and he said "Oh cool, they're done!" I said "Are you sure? How long do you want them?" and he said "Oh, one or two years."

...

Right, well, after we cleared that up he said they're long enough now, and I should cast off. So I did. And now they're done. Yay.

small new project

Some socks for the Sniglet. The yarn is one of the Wollmeise's Versuchskaninchen (guinea-pig) colorways, probably an early version of Emil. But since I have a lot of Versuchskaninchens, I name them for myself, just so I know which one I'm talking about. I call this one Spiderman.

loot! woot!

Thanksgiving is not a holiday here (of course), so the cute postman was able to deliver a perfectly-timed package from Amy! Perfectly timed in several ways: the chocolate turkeys she sent for the boys arrived (and were consumed) right on Thanksgiving Day, how super is that?

Also, Elemmaciltur just mentioned on Facebook that he was looking forward to the next shipment of the Wollmeise Sock Club. If you'll recall, I was on vacation during sign-ups, and so missed out completely, but I wasn't too sad when the first shipment went out because I'd been the test-knitter for the I mog di pattern. Well, now the next one's en route (you can see it if you ALERT ALERT ALERT THIS IS A SPOILER DO NOT CLICK THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED AHOY THERE YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED click on this link) and I was going to be all mopey about it, but now I have Malabrigo Sock Yarn so I am just about coping.

And thirdly, what with one thing and another, I'm down to three wips: don't have the yarn for this project, don't have the attention span for that one, the test-knit's on hiatus because the designer is busy with other things right now, and crucially: I can't start this sweater because my big-enough project bags are all (both) in use. Well, now I have another big-enough project bag! I actually turned it inside-out so you can see the lovely green fabric on the inside - the outside is the same purple as the clutch. I don't recall telling Amy that green and purple are my favorite colors, but she seems to have figured it out, possibly because they're hers too. And the thing with the stars (stars!) is a sock-sized project bag, also very wonderful. And chocolate for me and DrBob, she says... yeah, like he's going to get any. Heh. And see the Eric Carle card? I love that!

Oh, and she also sent corn meal so I can make corn bread, which is one of those things that I love beyond reason and can't get here in Sausageland, and also some "toaster pastries," i.e. Pop-Tarts but more upmarket with the organic and the recycled packaging and such. Those didn't make it into the photo, but they are happily ensconced in my kitchen.

So yay. I am thankful for blogging and Ravelry and distant friends.

love!

Yes, LOVE my new needles! I ordered them, and they came while I was busy having this weekend which was admittedly hellish, but eventually I opened the box and pet the yarn and swooned over my pointy-stripy fabulous new needles.

Actually, one of the reasons I bought the set - well, not really a reason, but a positive aspect, something that made it seem like even more of a good idea - was that I have a wip which wants 3.0mm needles, and my collection is distressingly week on 3.0s. And I think I thought the set had those, but no, it starts at 3.5. So I'm going to have to send them back.

HAAAGH! Just kidding! Of course I'm not going to send them back. I am going to hug them and squeeze them and call them George. They are pretty and pointy and quiet and wonderful and I might just ask to be buried with them.

Happy Mail

Very late, um, two nights ago I think, I happened across this site and clickety-click, ordered some stuff.

Dear Alala Lalaa,

thanks for shipping with us! Your items will be shipped within 1-2 business days after receiving your payment.

You ordered following products:

pcs Product Article Nr. Singleprice Price 1 x Options Harmony Wood Needle Set LargeShipping time: sofort lieferbar kpck-006 55,00 EUR 55,00 EUR 11 x Wool of the Andes Shipping time: sofort lieferbar Knitpicks colour:Hollyberry kpy-woa 2,36 EUR 25,96 EUR

Sub-Total: 80,96 EUR

Free Shipping (Free Shipping minimum order: 75,00 EUR): 0,00 EUR

incl. UST 19%: 12,93 EUR

Total: 80,96 EUR

knittybitty.de

I already have a set of interchangeables, though I can't remember what company made them. Um, they're gray plastic, does that ring a bell anyone? And they were a gift from my much-loved, last living grandmother, so I didn't feel I could replace them. Besides, I never thought I'd say this, but I actually like these plastic needles. They are bendy and quiet. But I'm not replacing them, I will continue to use them. My knitting habits can support multiple knitting needles, right? (Eight! Eight wips at the moment! And that's not even counting the ones in hibernation.)

Also, I'm kind of not supposed to be acquiring Stuff right now, you know, what with being about to move into a house that will probably be smaller than our current one (and yet cost more than twice as much, go figure - I guess it really is all about location). But the Oompas gave me birthday money, as they do every year, and I usually wind up spending it on groceries.

I'm still waiting for the what-have-I-dones to set in and make me freak out, and it's not happening. I am so scampery-excited! About acquiring stuff! Good thing I'm not a Buddhist, huh?

the Dunegrass socks pattern

Edit, 2 March 2009: This pattern is now available as a free Ravelry download! Probably. I followed the instructions, anyway, and it looks like it worked...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I took copious notes as I developed this pattern, but apparently I missed a few things. There is a distressing number of "ditto"s and "etc"s in my little notebook.

Anyway.

Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% Superwash, in the Farn colorway.
Needles: Knitpicks 2.25mm
Techniques: Magic Loop, short-row or magic cast-on toe, short-row heel.

I strongly recommend swatching the Dunegrass pattern to get the fit just right, because there is no ribbing, so it's not as stretchy-forgiving as it could be. The stitch pattern as shown requires a multiple of 7 +1. (Nota bene: the 7 is completely arbitrary - you can do a multiple of 10 +1, or 4 +1, or whatever number gives you the look you want and fits your foot. This is another very good reason to swatch.)

That +1 is there because the pattern travels by 1 stitch. Because of this, knitting two socks at once works until you get the heel done, but is not recommended for the leg-bit. I tried. I gained several new gray hairs. Don't say I didn't warn you. (Edited later to add: But actually, if you wear drop earrings, they make dandy temporary stitch holders! Wish I'd figured that out while I was working on these socks.)

Stitch Pattern

• Chart notes: That +1 stitch is marked in boldface, and is not part of the pattern repeat. The pattern repeat is in the blue boxes.
• Also, please note that only the odd-numbered rows are shown. On the even rows, just knit.
  
• Twist the yarnovers as you knit them, so you don't get big lacy holes.
• click on the chart to go to its Flickr page, if you need a bigger version.
  

If you don't like charts, here it is in knitterese:
r1: [k2tg, yo, k5] 5 times, k1.
r2 and all even rows: knit, twisting the yarnovers as you knit into them.
r3: k1, [k1, yo, k4, k2tg] 5 times.
r5: k1, [k2, yo, k3, k2tg] 5 times.
r7: k1, [k3, yo, k2, k2tg] 5 times.
r9: k1, [k4, yo, k1, k2tg] 5 times.
r11: k1, [k5, yo, k2tg] 5 times.
r13: [k2tg, k4, yo, k1] 5 times, k1.
r15: [k2tg, k3, yo, k2] 5 times, k1.
r17: [k2tg, k2, yo, k3] 5 times, k1.
r19: [k2tg, k1, yo, k4] 5 times, k1.

Toe

Cast-on and toe of your choice: here's Judy's Magic Cast-On, which is what I used this time, but the short-row toe with provisional crochet cast-on is also good, as is the Sherman short-row toe, if you don't like the whole double-wrap thing. In any case, I ended up with 30 sole-stitches, and 36 (5 pattern repeats, +1) stitches for the top of the foot. Your mileage may vary, see above re swatching.

Foot
Once that's done, start row 1 of the chart. Work the chart for the top of the foot, and work the sole in plain stockinette.

Continue until the desired length minus 1/2 inch, or 1 cm, ending with a row 11.

Heel
Short row heel over the 30 sole stitches. You'll need to decide for yourself how deep and how wide you want the heel to be: I did 7 wraps each side, and 16 center stitches. If you're unfamiliar with the short-row heel, Misocrafty has an excellent photo-tutorial.

Once the heel is done, knit row 12 across the instep. The pattern isn't started immediately on the back of the leg, but grows over the plain stockinette gradually. Because of this, it's a good idea to place a marker at the center-back of the leg, and let that mark the start of each new row.

Also note that the +1 from the foot is no more.

Extending the pattern gradually over the back of the leg

Across the back of the leg, [k6, m1] 4 times, k5, yo, k1. There are now 70 stitches in all. Work row 13 across the front of the leg, and pull the left needle through the last stitch, to move that stitch from the front to the back (if you're doing one sock at a time. If you're doing two, then put the last stitch on an earring, and move it to the back when the opportunity arises).

as before, work all even-numbered rows... well, even. Just knit them, I mean.

• row 13, back: k2tg. K to marker.
• row 15: k until 2 stitches before the end of the back needle. yo, k2. Work row 15 across the front, according to the chart/knitterese instructions. On the back needle, k2tg, k to marker.
• row 17: k until 3 stitches before the end of the back needle. yo, k3. Work row 17 across the front, according to the chart/instructions. On the back needle, k2tg, k to marker.
• r19: k to end -4. yo, k4. Work row 19 across front. On the back, k2tg, k to marker.
• r1: k to end -7. k2tg, yo, k5. Work row 1 across the front. On the back, k2tg, yo, k to marker.
• r2: work even. Move one stitch from the front to the back.
• r3: k to end -9. k2tg, k1, yo, k4, k2tg. Work row 3 across the front. On the back, k1, yo, k to marker.
• r5: k to end -9. k2tg, k2, yo, k3, k2tg. Work row 5 across the front. On the back, k2, yo, k to marker.
• r7: k to end -9. k2tg, k3, yo, k2, k2tg. Work row 7 across the front. On the back, k3, yo, k to marker.
• r9: k to end -9. k2tg, k4, yo, k1, k2tg. Work row 9 across the front. On the back, k4, yo, k to marker.
• r11: k to end -9. k2tg, k5, yo, k2tg. Work row 11 across the front. On the back, k5, yo, k2tg, k to marker. You have decreased by one stitch, so there are now 69 in all.
• r13: k to end -8. k2tg, k4, yo, k1. Move the last stitch to the front needle. Work row 13 across the front, moving the last stitch to the back needle. On the back, k2tg, k4, yo, k1, k2tg, k to marker. 68 stitches.
• r 15: k to end -7. k2tg, k3, yo, k2. Work row 15 across the front. On the back, k2tg, k3, yo, k2, k2tg, k to marker. 67 stitches.
• r 17: k to end -7. k2tg, k2, yo, k3. Work row 17 across the front. On the back, k2tg, k2, yo, k3, k2tg, k to marker. 66 stitches.
• r 19: k to end -7. k2tg, k1, yo, k4. Work row 19 across the front. On the back, k2tg, k1, yo, k4, k2tg, k to marker. 65 stitches.
• r 1: k to end -7. k2tg, yo, k5. Work row 1 across the front. On the back, k2tg, yo, k5, k2tg, k to marker. 64 stitches.
• r 3: k to end -10. k2tg, k1, yo, k4, k2tg. Move the last stitch to the front needle. Work row 3 across the front, moving the last stitch to the back needle. On the back, k1, yo, k4, k2tg, k1, yo, k to marker.

...um. I may have gotten tired of writing here, because my little book says "r 7, r 9: ditto." Heh. Well, you should be able to figure it out [insert sheepish grin here].

• r 11: k to end -9. yo, k2tg, k5, yo, k2tg. Work row 11 across the front. On the back, [k5, yo, k2tg] twice.
• r 13: k to end -9. yo, k1, k2tg, k4, yo, k1. Move last stitch to the front. Work row 13 across the front, moving the last stitch to the back needle. On the back, [k2tg, k4, yo, k1] twice, k2tg.
• r 15: k to end -9. yo, k2, k2tg, k3, yo, k2. Work row 15 across the front. On the back, um, I stopped writing what I did. Maybe it should be obvious by now? Dang, I'm not very good at writing patterns, sorry.
• r 17: k to end -10. yo, k3, k2tg, k2, yo, k3. Work row 17 across the front.
• r 19: k to end -11. yo, k4, k2tg, k1, yo, k4. Work row 19 across the front.
• r 1 starts at the midpoint. Work the row in pattern, and pass the last stitch over the first stitch of row 2. 63 stitches.

Work up in pattern until it's about 2 cm shorter than you want. Move the last stitch on each side to the other side in every row 3 and row 13.

Top ribbing

Here's the chart.
On row 12, bind off as loosely as you can. Tuck in ends, wash, wear and be joyful.




As always, feedback is appreciated. If I ever knit these again, I'll write in the missing bits.

working on it

I've been plugging away at the Dunegrass socks pattern - the way the pattern grows over the stockinette at the back of the leg is not difficult to knit, but it is quite fiddly to describe. While you wait, you can take a look at my progress on zur Lederhos'n, currently on hold until I get the heel instructions. Love the yarn, love the pattern, but the one is so fiddly, and the other so dark, I can only work on it in full daylight, so from 4pm or so I have to work on other things. Which is good, because I'm up to 8 wips again. It's a sickness, I tell you.

Okay. Photos, again courtesy of Elemmaciltur and his superior photographing skillz. As always, click to biggern.

hearted!

Look! Elemmaciltur hearts my blog! Even though I hardly ever post! So thanks, that's really nice to hear/read/whatever.

Here are the rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on his or her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

Okay, so 1! Did that. 2! Did that too. 3: seven! I'm only asking because Amy was the first person I was going to tag, but someone else beat me to it, and she only had to list four blogs. Just sayin'. And of course the other person I would have tagged is Elemmaciltur.

So, hm. This reminds me that I really need to update my blogroll. Blogrolls, actually, on both blogs. And put the Big Knit graphic on my sidebar. And answer a bunch of emails. And update the zur Lederhos'n sock photos. Elemm took the photos, btw, many thanks.

Whoo. Suddenly I feel like taking a nap.

Okay, to tag: Since my knitblog was tagged, I figure I should stay in-genre, though actually my favorite blogs are the ones that step out of the genre a lot. The Diva Knits is a case in point: yes there is knitting, but also TV, education, immigration, and zombies! Who doesn't love zombies? In a strictly platonic sense, of course. So That Happened... is another one. Knitting, pop music, food, rants, and travel! Also, probably the only person who truly understands how I feel about Hall & Oates. The Panopticon, of course, totally heart that. Though I think he might be too A-list to do memes. Great pictures on Yarnissima's blog. Also Crazy Aunt Purl, plus she's funny! And finally I'm gonna use Elemm and Amy as my last two because even though they've already been tagged and certainly shouldn't have to do this again, I really and truly do heart their blogs.

three hours

The Sniglet has been fascinated with my swift and ballwinder since I got them, and he keeps asking if I have yarn for him to wind. Well, the Zur Lederhos'n yarn arrived today, so I let him wind up one skein. He was so excited. He wound reallyreally fast and then stopped suddenly, sometimes wound backwards, sometimes squeezed the yarn as it ran through his other hand, sometimes let go of it completely - and at the end I had a yarn cake that was outwardly coherent, but inside was a terrible tangled mess. It took me three hours to unsnarl and re-wind it.

Arg. I want my kids to want to help, but sometimes it's very hard to say thank you and mean it.

we don' need no steenkeeng sock club!

Because Yarnissima just sent me a new pattern to test-knit!

Okay, I am the teensiest bit bummed about missing the Wollmeise Sock Club signups because I was on vacation. The bummer is mitigated by the fact that I got to test-knit the first pattern, with the actual pattern yarn (pwned!), so I'm really only missing out on the second colorway and the fabulous high-quality cello-wood dpns: I'll be able to buy the second colorway in a year or so, and I hate dpns - I don't need another love-hate relationship in my life. So that's more or less okay. When the second shipment goes out, though, there'll be some serious boo-boo face.

But I digress. A new Yarnissima pattern! Woot!

FO and interruption

The Dunegrass socks are done! And I love them! Wheee! I wonder if I should try to write down the pattern...

Anyway, all other knitting is on hold while I try to knit one zillion teeny hats for Innocent's annual Big Knit campaign. I'm not usually good with charity knitting because they only want stuff that's 100% acrylic and can be tossed in the washing machine and I totally understand why, I really do, but I don't have any of that kind of yarn. I'm also not sure about the environmentalitability of mailing stuff from Germany to a pediatrics ward in Iowa. Or to an office in Flagstaff that will then send them on to Mongolia or Poland or somewhere that is actually closer to here than Flagstaff is. I'm pretty sure they have charities here in Europe too, though I have yet to locate one.

But I can make little hats for drinks bottles, because they don't have to be handled with care, just put on display until somebody buys them. And I can send them to England without too much greenie confusion.

I managed three today. Deadline is October 17th. I'll try and keep you posted.

Benediktbeuern, take two

So yeah, I went to Benediktbeuern last weekend and it was fun. Laris has good pictures (I never remember to bring my camera, probably because it... yeah, you know the rest). Apparently she was there at the same time I was, I wish I'd managed to meet her. I did see Alpenfee, and I wandered off figuring we'd get a chance to talk later, but we never did.

I was NOT going to buy yarn, because I don't need any for any projects, and I am supposed to be getting rid of stuff in preparation for the big move, not acquiring more. But then I saw the Wollmeise, so of course I bought yarn.

It's not my fault! She has Versuchskaninchen (guinea-pig) colorways that aren't on the website so you can only get them at the market, and besides, it's really better to be able to see (and sniff) the yarn in person, and I never make the shop updates, because they're on Fridays when I work. So I can't really buy Wollmeise online, so I have to seize the opportunities that the markets provide. Really, buying Wollmeise yarn at the markets would be fully justified if I actually needed any, and if I didn't have, oh, 20 skeins at home already. But hey - at least five of those are currently in projects, so that leaves... 15... that I have no idea what I'm going to do with... Actually, that's not strictly accurate. I have too many ideas.

Anyway. I was actually shopping for someone else, so I got to shop while feeling all virtuous because it wasn't for me, but then I had to grab one of the Versuchskaninchen skeins that I would say is sort of Spiderman-colored, and also Barista, which I thought was the name of the Fratello colorway because a Barista is a coffee jerk and Fratello is so coffee-like. But no, it's greeny-blue and bluey-blue and dark brown and very Seattle-y. So of course I neeeeeded it. There will be photos if I can get good ones.

Seriously! Only two skeins! That is a very, very moderate amount of S.E.X, wouldn't you say? (say yes.) Oh, and I rode up with MsB, so we got to hang out, which we hardly ever get to do, and that was great. And I also saw Needlegnome the Blogless and her new baby (cute! so cute! But I'm still really glad those days are behind me!), and also the Wollmeise and Yarnissima, and met a very nice Arlene, and I was able to make conversation IN GERMAN and not say anything too soul-crushingly stupid (yes, for me, that is a major achievement).

And then I came home and got sick, which is why it took me three days to get around to blogging it.

pause

Down to seven wips: I finished the Thinking Cap and gave it to Elemmaciltur, to help him with his exams. Of course it's too silly to wear (I'll post a picture as soon as I've nagged him into taking one), so I told him it doubles as a tea cozy and he said he doesn't have a teapot! Can you imagine?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm having a minor eczema episode on the middle finger of my right hand, which is where I wrap the yarn to control my tension, so knitting has slowed a bit. The good news is I haven't started any new projects in the past five days. Go me.

Edit: here's a photo of the hat, courtesy of Elemmaciltur.

apparently, I am insane

Hey, now that I have my computer back, I can start working on Giselle or Namarié again! Or I could finish up the socks and the shrug I started on vacation... or take up one of the two sweaters I started right before I left for vacation. Or, I could start two entirely new projects in two days, bringing my number of non-hibernating wips up to 8.

Hmm, what will I decide...?

(hint: check the title of this post.)

knitting update: the Two-Skein Shrug

Not much of a photo, because until recently it was just a big knitted rectangle that rolls at the edges. I'm now about seven rows into the first sleeve. It's Schneeschaf's BambooSilk in the Highlands colorway, so pretty that I really just wanted plain stockinette, so nothing would distract from it.

This is my first shrug. I basically just wanted a set of sleeves joined by a stretch of fabric across the back, and I wasn't sure how much I could get with the amount of yarn I have, so it seemed sensible to knit the sleeves from the top down. So I did a crochet cast-on, and I figured I'd knit up until the piece reaches from my spine to the tip of my clavicle, increase a bit, and join to make a tube. I'll knit down until I'm almost out of yarn, then start the other skein at the invisible cast-on and repeat for the other side. I'll save a bit of yarn for a single-crochet edging around the opening, to keep the fabric from rolling.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

knitting update: Elfine is no longer Elfine.

I decided I needed a sock project for the trip up to the Netherlands, because traveling always seems to require a sock project. I had the Elfine pattern printed out, so that seemed nicely portable. And they're so pretty! And I love Cold Comfort Farm, it's one of the books that I reread every two years or so (the movie is also terrific, which is just so very rare).

The Elfine pattern is fine, but it wasn't grabbing me, for no particular reason. I took these on vacation up to the West Frisian island of Vlieland, and I found myself inspired by the hardy grass that thrives on the dunes, despite the poor sandy soil and ceaseless breeze. After four days of swatching, I had a new stitch pattern (well, new to me), and I'm now back home, reliving my vacation through my knitting. I quite like this one, though I'll probably be thoroughly sick of it by the time I finish.

knitting update: Ysabel

Right, so my computer died! And DrBob went off to Language Boot Camp and left me alone with two stroppy children and I found quite a bit of time to sit around knitting. This is good, because I'm having a serious bout of startitis, and can't seem to just pick something and see it through to the end. Ysabel was so fascinatingly fiddly at first, I couldn't stop working on her because there were all these challenges to work out. Then she turned into miles of stockinette in the round, and became the perfect accompaniment to blog reading, which I was able to do since DrBob was gone and I had the use of his laptop. I'm having a few doubts about the yarn choice, but so far all the problems I've run across look like the sort that can be solved with blocking. Except that I should have put one more diamond on the yoke. Egad, do I frog back to fix that, or accept a slightly higher neckline? Fortunately, it's currently too hot for a lapful of wool again, so I have some time to decide.

setback

Well. My computer's in the shop, so until I get it back, all the projects whose patterns were stored in it are on hold. I am told it will cost €330 to fix it, not including the 19% sales tax, so I'm still deciding whether it's worth it. A lot will depend on whether they can rescue my data. No, I did not back it up. Yes, I am a doink. Don't rub it in.

Sorry, I'm a bit testy lately. Testier, I should probably say. Anyway, Mr. Husband is in Utrecht with his tiny laptop, so I have the use of his other laptop until he gets home. I used some of my computer-less time to organize my stash, and today (and probably tomorrow, and possibly even the next day - gah, how did I end up with so much yarn?) I'm catching up with the photographing and uploading work that I've been putting off for, um, four months I think.

So. Progress.

• Swatch for LYS: Done! Took longer than you'd think, because it was a Kaffe Fasset yarn with über-long color repeats, so it had to be a big swatch. And once I ran out of soccer games to watch I had a hard time making any progress.
• Top Secret Project: Done!
• Muppet Socks: nearly done with the plain part, almost ready to start the Muppet-fur part.
• Ysabel: On hold. It's been hot lately, and I'm not excited about having a lapful of wool.
• Giselle: On hold. Pattern's on the computer. I sure hope it can be rescued.
• Juana La Loca: On hold twice - see above re lapful of wool, and also I need to find the right yarn. But I shouldn't be buying new yarn right now.
• Namarie: On hold. Pattern's in the computer, and I really, really hope this can be rescued. Giselle I can buy again, if I have to, but this one I made up myself, and starting over would be... kinda painful.
• And a new thing, Naiad, which is a summer thing using a cotton-viscose blend. All swatched up, but I only have the one skein that I used for swatching, and would need to buy more. And again, I really shouldn't be buying new yarn.
  

We're going on holiday in two weeks, to a windswept island in the northwestern Netherlands, where the lapful of wool probably won't be such a problem. And I hope I'll have my computer, or at least my data, back before then. So I guess I'll just work on the Muppet Socks until the rest of the problem solves itself.

oh, right.

Knitting content. Yeah. Okay, well, first I just finished my zum Dirndl test-knit (photos here), which I was supposed to be all public about to get people excited about it. It is a joyful pattern, and a blast to knit, and results in a really, really great sock, but I was too busy actually knitting it to write about it while I was still in the process. Still, it should be available August 1st, says Yarnissima, so everybody go buy it, okay? Okay!

What else? Oh! Here's a photo of my WIP-shelf:

Yes, you see five bags and one bagless project (not that I'm out of bags, oh no. I gotta lotta bags). Left to right, a swatch for a LYS, the Muppet Socks, Ysabel (being designed), Giselle, Juana La Loca (also being designed), and Kelly's Namarie, on hold because it's too hot for a lapful of wool. Also being designed, sort of - I haven't charted the sleeves yet, or decided what to put on them: The Riddle of Strider, perhaps. And all of it, every single project, on hold for a top-secret test-knit, about which I can't give you a single hint, no not one. Once the pattern's published I'll tell you that I was one of the test knitters, but that's the best I can do. It's an awesome pattern, though.

And that's the knitty gritty (groan). There will be more pictures when I'm not knitting secrets.

jump-start

Thanks for the tag, Projektleiterin, and for reminding me that I still have this here blog thing. I've been doing, not documenting, which is just so wrong. After all, what is the point of action without publicity? (A lesson from Princess Diana, there). Sorry, I'm in a weird mood.

Right, so here's the meme, and then this weekend will be the zum Dirndl photos and a roundup of all the knittage, because actually, there has been quite a bit.

The Rules: each player answers the questions. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 or 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:
I had to count back for this one. I'm pretty sure it was ten years ago that I was living alone in Port Townsend with Ignatz, working at the best ice-cream store in the world, taking community college classes and calling DrBob in Madison three times a week so he could at least maintain phone contact with our son. Single motherhood may have been hard, I don't know - I was too busy to notice.

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (in no particular order):

1. Buy a bunch of yarn
2. Mail some of that yarn to someone who shall not be named, because it's a surprise.
3. Bill my employers for the work I did in June
4. I knit some swatches for a yarn shop this week. I have to hand them in, along with the unused yarn.
5. Tidy the house before the cleaner comes
   

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Pistachios. Chocolate with mint. Toast with honey.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:
(I loved Projektleiterin's answer to this.)

Pay off the houses of everyone in my family. Start college funds for my sons and my niblings. Buy the next U.S. election. Okay, maybe not. But philanthropize - I may not care for Bill Gates's business model, but I really admire him and Melinda for trying to use their billions to eradicate malaria.

5. Places I have lived:
Columbus, Ohio
Boston, Massachusetts
Brighton, England
Seattle, Washington
Östersund, Sweden

Tagging, ack. Is there anyone I know well enough to tag who hasn't already done this? Okay, I'm gonna nab Elemmaciltur, Leil, Tini, and, um... nope, I think everyone else has already done it.

ETA: Oh of course, how could I forget!? Vicki, you're tagged too, now. Ha!

socks and socks

Here they are, my fabulous armadillos that I just love. I actually knitted them up to a decent length, because they're so easy I was able to knit while watching the first few games of the European Soccer Championships. But I didn't knit them too long, because I don't like knee-socks, so I have a bit leftover and no idea what to do with it. I'm sure something will come to me.

And another pair of happy socks! Tini sent me these, which was just fab of her and now I have three whole pairs of hand-knit socks to wear around this... summer... oh well, the weather's been fairly crappy, and I do actually need socks in the evening, so that's good.

finished!

The Armadillo socks are done! Yay! But no pictures because my computer's in the shop. Boo. I'll put up pics when I can. I'm very happy with them, though the i-cord bind-off is not quite stretchy enough. I finished them up while Germany was beating Poland in the EuroCup, so that was a good evening.

still here, still knitting

I got the flickr problem sorted, and then kind of forgot about the blog. Oops. So, but some FOs! I finished my Digitessas, finally, and am madly in love. LOVE, I tell you.

I'm working on the Kauni cardigan, and I'm following the pattern for the shaping, but I decided the pattern wasn't quite right, so I wound up charting an Elvish poem in Tengwar script. Which means I can't memorize the pattern, but need to knit the whole thing while peering at a chart, so that's my podcast knitting. Of course, my podcasters are not coming through for me lately, but there's always Podiobooks. And I think you'll agree that it's worth the effort, because it's pretty, see?

In other news, I've started the Armadillo socks with the yarn I won in Mari's contest, I'm test-knitting a new pattern for the remarkable Yarnissima, and I've also got itchy fingers for Giselle, so I'll probably start that soon, with yarn from - brace yourself - my Arwen cardigan, which I frogged. The yarn just wasn't right, the reversible cables were too thick and heavy and dragged the whole thing down. It was very sad. I've done extensive swatching, and this yarn is sorry, but it really just wants to be plain stockinette, please.

So yeah. That's the knitting news.

oh yeah...

Right, I mentioned it on the other blog, but forgot to put it here: we're moving to Utrecht. No details on when, yet, but sometime between September 2008 and September 2009. I've already checked: it has a good yarn shop.

And the Sindelfinger Handwerkermarkt? I think we should do a Benediktbeuern-style field trip, stay a night, check out Sindelfingen - it looks cool, even more hobbit-y than my town.

Sorry no pics lately - I've been taking them, but I can't upload them to flickr until I pay for a pro account, and there's some trouble with my debit card. I'll get it sorted out at some point.

tooooooo much!

Wah! I haven't even told you about the TONS and TONS of yarn (all of it purple or teal... rut, anyone?) that I got at Webs, and now today I was at the Sauerlacher Spring... uh, thingy, and bought EVEN MORE yarn from the Wollmeise!

Yeah. This is me, paring down on the possessions in preparation for the big move. Yes, I know: ur doin it rong. Sigh.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow I start my yarn-diet

Really.

Oh, foo.

yes!

Well, sort of. I tinkered a bit with the color settings, so that the pink table that one yarn is sitting on is the same as the blue table that another yarn is sitting on, but the yarn in the picture is as close to the yarn itself as gamma correction, brightness, contrast and saturation could get me, with a little help from the RGB sliders. IrfanView, I love you THIS MUCH.

But I digress. Anyway. FIRSTLY, even though I bought it ages ago from Tini's Dawanda shop, this is when I finally got decent photos of it. No idea what I'm going to make with this, but it'll have to be something for me, me, ME!

Then there was the Utrecht trip. Now, I asked Amy if she wanted me to bring her anything when I went out to Providence, and she made a seemingly simple request: Lana Grossa Bingo in a nice green. Well, Elemmaciltur's shop didn't have it, but they had some very nice similar stuff, so I bought a bit of that. My LYS was the same, no Lana Grossa but I got something similar, and then it was time for the trip to Utrecht and to be honest I'm glad I had this mission for Amy, because all the boys groaned and rolled their eyes, and if I'd only been checking out the yarn shop for myself, I might have been tempted to let it slide to keep them happy, but no: the fact that I was doing it for someone else gave me the fortitude to ignore the grousing of non-knitting grinches. So yes, I did get to Modilaine, and they did have Lana Grossa, but: both of the greens were yucky. Nearly all of the colors were yucky, actually. But I did get to check out a great yarn shop, AND they have Rowan. So I bought some yarn that might do for Arwen mark II.

The end of the Amy-story is that I went to Wolle Rödel in Munich and found Lana Grossa Bingo in the same icky colors as at Modilaine, so I gave up on Lana Grossa and got her Siena Big, which has the same properties (content, gauge, washability). In purple, because the nice green was discontinued. Sometimes you just canNOT get a break, really.

So look, I haven't even shown you what I got at Webs, and I will, but I really should go make dinner for the offspring, before Sally Struthers shows up to make a late-night commercial about their plight.

I went to WEBS!

Yes, that Webs. And the moment I stepped inside and saw the place, my face fell off. OhmaGAWD, y'all.

And I got SO! MUCH! YARN! And I'm trying to take pictures and upload them, but oh fribnitz, I've said this so often I'm sure you can all say it with me, so here we go, all together now:

My camera sucks swamp water.

Tomorrow, I will try again. Pinky swear.

wheee!

So a nice man brought me a box today, and in it was the woolwinder and um, Haspel... skein-holdy-thingy that I bought on ebay! Oh this is so exciting. -->

<-- Here is what turned out to be the top bit of the skein-holdy-thingy, but I didn't know that when I photographed it, which is why it's upside down in the picture. I thought that nob-thing was a sort of foot that it was to stand on, and I wondered what would keep it from tipping over. And this is what turned out to be the bottom bit. Look, it's all wood and low-tech! I feel so Amish! -->

<-- And the wool winder! I had no idea how to use this, but I figured it out pretty quickly. It's a happy little gadget. It really seems to be enjoying its job.

Winding! Fun! The kids will totally want to get in on this, and they'll try to turn it into a speed contest. I wonder if I have any yarn crappy enough for them to practice on... -->

<-- Voilà, the finished product. Isn't it fabulous? I almost don't want to use it, it's so perfect. Fortunately, it's a center-pull ball... not a ball. Bale? A center-pull thingy, anyway, so it'll look like that for quite some time after I've started knitting with it. Yay!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go wind my entire stash into these little bales.

lo! a fo!

Yes, I finished something. Two somethings, actually, I'll put my second PIF thing up as soon as I have confirmation that Alke's received it - I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. But also, Ignatz spotted my Fabulous Fetchings from Tini and requested a pair of his own. I let him pick something from my worsted box and it only took me eight days! Okay, I was doing other stuff, the aforementioned PIF project and a trip to Utrecht, so in all it was probably only 6-8 hours. Anyway. Fetching. Finished.

flickrdork

I should know how to do this, but I don't, so you have to go over here to see what I just finished knitting. Elemmaciltur had to take the pictures because I'm still having trouble with my camera. But look! I made some pretty socks! Well, Yarnissima designed them, and the Wollmeise dyed the wool, so yeah, standing on the shoulders of giants and all that. But still, I'm a little bit proud.

people to knit with!

Yesterday was the second Friday Knitting Night at Lanaiolo, and I just love this. It's so much quieter than Starbuck's, and cheaper, if you don't buy the yarn, which of course I will as soon as I reach a decision - so, probably not until next year. But, you know, it's not an English-speaking group, though some of the members can. German is the default setting, and I don't really trust my German, even though Actual Germans keep telling me I speak it perfectly (I wish these people would share their hallucinogens with me...), so I kept saying things in English. I felt like a total dork. Memo to self: get clue.

PIFyay!

Today my PIF from Tini arrived and it is Fetching! Which is too, too perfect, because with this 8-hour-a-day data-entry job I'm doing, I keep resting my wrists on the desk and they get really cold, and putting on more sweaters or turning up the heat doesn't help at all, because my core temperature's fine, it's just my hands that are cold. And I was honestly and truly just thinking today about how I need something mittlike, but this job (and my own PIF projects) doesn't leave me time to knit them. And then they came in the mail! So very warm and wonderful. Thank you Tini! You must be psychic and clairvoyant!

I also bought some yarn from Tini that is so! Pretty! But my camera sucks so the photos turned out horrible. I'll try again tomorrow.

uh-oh.

I've been so brain-whacked after work, and so busy trying to cram my usual 13 hours of day into 3 hours, that I haven't knitted since Monday.

What if I've forgotten how?

wtf?

Where did all my Bs go? What happened to my blog? The wysiwyg and the page source don't show any missing content, but no matter how many times I reload, my blog looks all weird. This is just a testy-thing, to see if any new entries come up similarly confused. I'm still knitting Very Secret Secrets, so I can't tell you anything else just yet.