About Me

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Ten years into widowhood, after one year of incredible happiness and nearly 14 years of single blessedness. Retired, and mostly enjoying it. Still knitting. [Zen]tangling.again after a brief hiatus.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

Sabbath Scarf II is finished, and blocking as we speak.



She’s ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille.



I [ahem] spent a lot of time on Ravelry yesterday, updating projects, joining new groups, posting on some of the boards. One of the things that I signed up for is the Sock Knitters Anonymous KAL, my choice between two projects. I chose the November Mystery Sock. I have the first sock cast on and am galloping down the cuff.



The color is a little warmer in real life.

It’s kindof neat to have the “notes” feature on Ravelry, where I can put down the details of my cast-on, what size needles, how I am tweaking the pattern already [rotated it one stitch to the right, so the end-of-needle transitions would not interrupt a P2 or K3 repeat], etc. I plan on eliminating SSS by casting on the second cuff as soon as the first is finished, as I only have eight of my Crystal Palace 0’s, and I need most of them to cast on over doubled needles. When I break two more needles, I’ll spring for another five-pack.

It is heavenly knitting with my DP’s for a change. There’s something very Zen about knitting a silk-blend yarn on bamboo needles; I love their liveliness. It’s almost as if the socks were singing as we go.

Trying to figure out percentage of completion [for Ravelry] on a pair of socks is going to be interesting. I figure 21 rounds for the cuff, 64 more to the heel flap, a whopping 42 rows of heel flap, and that is as far as the clues I have, take me. I haven’t downloaded the fourth clue yet. [I wonder if she’s up, basting the turkey?] So finishing one cuff would be about one-sixth of the length from cuff to heel turning, or one-twelfth of the sock, or one-twenty-fourth of the whole shebang? Assuming ~ always dangerous ~ that from the heel turning to the toe would be the same length?

Oye. At any rate, I am nearly done with the first cuff, and I am loving this first section of pattern, so much so that I had brief fantasies of designing an entire sweater for myself in laceweight or fingering yarn. We will blame that bit of insanity on reduced oxygen from this congestion, which is mercifully waning. But I am going to try it in the Denim Silk in one of the next swatches, just to get it out of my system.

I’m hoping that I can get the second cuff done before bedtime. But I’m not taking this project with me for turkey and pie with The Bitties. No, I think it’s time to resurrect my grey and brown stripedy sock, which has been waiting so patiently for my toes to heal. That should be sufficiently mindless knitting for before and after a family feast. And since it’s Magic Loop, not so many points to worry about, or needles to damage.



Another thing I have done while being home, is to agressively weed out my inbox. Some stuff got saved into folders, others read and deleted. Today’s billet-doux from Pottery Barn is for faux-fur throws at $50 off. Yes, it would be wonderfully decadent to curl up on the couch under one, but I much prefer the afghan that my Gram crocheted for me thirty years ago. And I keep waiting for Colinette to put together their gold-plated afghan kit in a colorway that I cannot live without. [Yes, it would cost more than the PB throw at full retail, but it’s that whole chopping-wood-warms-you-twice metaphor that I love.] Love their yarns, absolutely sold on those textures, and there are a couple of colorways that are close-but-no-cigar.

I need to come up with an LDS equivalent of that expression.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Yanks. Don’t eat too much turkey today, and save some pie for me.

1 comment:

Jo at Celtic Memory Yarns said...

I love the idea of the bamboo needles singing softly to the yarn. Love it, you poet you!