Shrug finished and shrug about WIPs

I am pleased to have finished my mocha-colored alpaca-silk shrug (from Classic Knits) this week. I loved working with this yarn (Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk). The pattern was easy enough and at a better gauge for me than the shrug pattern that I had initially started out to make with this yarn (the Blue Sky Alpacas shrug). This, of course, results in me having 3.5 skeins of this yarn left to add to my copious collection of leftovers. It was so unusual for me to buy yarn and pattern together the way that I did and quite discouraging that I didn't end up knitting what I had planned, since I would honestly like to buy yarn for specific purposes some of the time rather than just because I liked it or it was on sale... Anyhow, I do think the shrug looks okay, even if not quite my usual thing, since I got my 12 year old to pass judgment on it for me and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't just let me go out in public in it if I were mistaken in my own assessment of its appearance.

I don't know if I have it in me to stay on this campaign where I keep working my way through my in-progress projects. I should really work on my summer tee (which is now in the
utter winging-it phase as I modify all sorts of bits at the top). It's now only loosely based on
Jenny from Rowan 37, although I luckily noticed quite quickly when I cast off for the front neck on the left sleeve :). If I don't cast on for something new this weekend (oh, the lure of socks and mittens), I'm down to just the tee, the striped sweater, the poncho?, and the 2 afghans to choose among. Not too bad.

We're starting to gear up for school this week. Kids now have lunchboxes and school supplies and, as of today, after a marathon stint at our favorite little shoe store (2 hours! many came and went and we stayed and stayed and stayed), most of the necessary shoes and sneakers and ballet paraphernalia. 2 more weeks. It'll be nice in some ways to have the kids off to school, but I'll miss them too, and I know I'm not looking forward to the resumption of music lessons and orchestra rehearsals and the complications of scheduling those with other activities (a new ballerina and a new football player this year). Someone please remind me that I told the other kids they can do soccer or track in the spring when I won't have to worry about the football schedule...

FO's, current WIPs, more ranting

All righty, pictures of the recent FO's (although unfortunately I neglected to take a photo of the finished Monkey socks before I sent them off as a 5 months belated birthday gift):

Pale blue sweater.
pattern: "Casual Sweater" from Classic Knits
yarn: 7.5 balls of Rowan Cork
needles: size 10 and 10.5
time: July to August 2007

Ribbed socks for husband.
pattern: 76 sts, top down 3-1 rib with heel flap and standard toe
yarn: 1 skein Misty Mountain Farm sock yarn
needles: 2.25 mm dpns
time: July to August 2007

Monkey socks for SIL.

pattern: the ubiquitous Monkey
mods: 4 leg repeats, slip stitch heel flap
yarn: 2 skeins bright pink Koigu KPM (pretty, pretty)
needles: 2.25 mm dpns
time: July to August 2007

Oh gosh, I almost forgot this one! A sewing project!

Tote Bag for me.
pattern: Lotta Jansdotter's Simply Sewing tote bag
mods: didn't really measure, just cut on the stripes :)
fabric: misc. medium-weight cottons
time: a ridiculously long evening, all that steam-ironing and unpicking...
notes: if make again, should line bag


And, what am I working on now? I need to sew together the parts for the Alpaca-Silk Shrug so
I can do the ribbed border. I'd hoped to have the shrug completely done by this weekend which naturally meant that I stopped working on it altogether.

I cast on for a new pair of socks for the husband (for the bag of manly socks, really :) ). It is the most hideous colorway. I was really quite disappointed, even though I do adore this yarn for socks for hubby. He likes a squishy sock and Socks that Rock Heavyweight does not disappoint. And I like very much that it makes knitting socks for him the equivalent of knitting socks for me (cast on 60ish stitches and go!). However, the "Thistle" colorway was not at all what I hoped it would be. The green is truly neon and just awful, not the spring green I pictured on my monitor. Not knowing what to do with it really, I browsed my Japanese "250 Knitting Patterns" book and picked a funky (mildly lacy, but he's not insecure about his masculinity, so that's okay!) pattern and I'm calling it a Don Quixote sock.


I also started a week or two ago, I think without mentioning it here, a cotton tee: Jenny from Rowan 37 with Debbie Bliss Cotton dk. I am knitting it in the round with purl bumps instead of beads. I had intended to lengthen it but the yarn really hurts my wrists, so we'll just have to see. It will be nice to get the yarn out of stash, even if I don't gain a wearable top.


I wonder what proportion of wearable to unwearable tops other knitters generate? I've been on a good run knitting for myself these past couple of years. I believe that I am now, way more often than not, actually knitting for the size that I am. I started knitting in the 80's, a time of enormous ease (8, 10 inches?) and sweaters drooping halfway to the knees which fact compounded with my utter lack of understanding of gauge at the time means it took me almost 20 years to plunge again into knitting sweaters for myself. I think I still prefer knitting mittens, scarves, hats, socks and little kid things, but pine for more handknit sweaters for myself and am trying now to rectify that.

To tie in a bit to my last post, it occurred to me how much the current recalls on toys from China made with lead paint feel like the same problem as getting our food and other necessities from far-away places made (or grown) under heaven only knows what sorts of conditions. It's crazy to me how many toys my kids have. How is it that I had a bike and wooden blocks and Lego and a couple of dolls and each of my kids have all of that times 10, even with me trying hard not to let it get too out of hand? Why is Lego now mostly sold as kits to build a specific thing? Why are tricycles color-coded by gender? Why do we accept that our children's toys are made by exploited workers? How did so many of us parents get sucked into buying so much plastic crap?

I need to take stock of what we have and keep figuring out how to limit what comes into our home. I hope that letting more of my "Waldorfian" side emerge helps in this. I may as well accept my fundamental kookiness...

Volver and rambling thoughts about sustainability

With all this time spent with my feet up this summer, I got a Netflix subscription. Well worth it, IMO, and I will probably upgrade to 2 at a time next month. Last night, I watched "Volver" while working on the first sleeve of the Alpaca-Silk Shrug and I now understand people who copy movie sweaters. The green cardigan Penelope Cruz is wearing in the last 10 minutes or so is gorgeous (and she is definitely wearing it at least one size too small!). I think it would be eminently knitable (is that a word?) and look very attractive, not at all dowdy... I wish I could get a good picture of the neckline edging as it seems to have a nice wave to it and I am not sure how I would knit that. This is so geeky, isn't it? We'll see if I ever give this a shot. It will need some time devoted to really planning pattern and dimensions that I usually don't have, but it is quite tempting.

I've also been reading a bit of non-fiction lately about the sustainability of the American way of growing and eating food and thinking quite a lot about whether and how I want to change the ways my family consumes those resources and whether we want to apply those ideas to other types of consumer goods: emphasizing locally produced products and goods which give back a decent earning to the people who produced them and do no or minimal damage to the environment. The kids are clearly beginning to be concerned that their dad and I are going to be utterly wacko about it, but I'm sure we won't be as neither of us has the energy at the moment to add many more tasks or complications to our lives. It is interesting to contemplate, and I will probably try to research it at some point, whether it would even be possible to just consume American union-made items and eat only food grown nearby (this latter I am pretty sure we could do as we live only a mile from our CSA and have several other sources very close by for eggs- and free-range meat, if we weren't vegetarians). Localharvest.org is searchable by zip code and really useful, I've found. Anyway, I can highly recommend both books, and despite linking to Amazon for convenience as always, it's probably better to buy them locally or get them out of the library like I did, blah-blah-blah:

The Omnivore's Dilemma

and

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Pictureless Post

My poor finished objects-- how do other people manage to take so many pictures once they have finished their knitted items? I am usually too tired of the darn things to bother! I got a bunch done lately; after some weird weeks where I was starting many, many things all at once, I decided to try to work my way through them one at a time to have some actual finished projects-- woo-hoo.

I finished the casual sweater from Classic Knits. It's possibly a little snug, but I think wearable.
It's difficult to make oneself keep such a warm sweater on long enough in August for more than a cursory glance in the mirror. Unfortunately I still have 5 more balls of Cork yarn to use up somehow. Any ideas? I also finished the Monkey Socks for my SIL. They are very pretty in the pink Koigu. I did only 4 repeats on the leg and like that length. I also liked the look of the twisted rib at the edge but it really doesn't have much stretchiness... And yesterday I finished the mittens from the Raumagarn pattern. I have to say I really do love these and am (almost) looking forward to the cold weather. Right now I am trying to chug away on the ribbed socks for my husband. I did find the ballband and they are from Misty Mountain Farms-- 100% superwash merino. It is very soft and pleasant to work with, although I do wish I liked the colors more. Mea culpa, I know, since I did pick it out myself, in person, no less! The first sock is almost to the tip of the toe, but I ran out of yarn and have to wait until I can scavenge yarn from the other (slightly larger) ball.

In non-knitting news, I am nearly walking! It will be so good for me and the kids to have me mobile again. I will start PT in a week and a half (please let me find someone good!). Maybe soon I will be able to do some normal fun summer activities. What a change that will be. It has been quite the dullest summer ever! Thank goodness I discovered knitting podcasts-- a whole new avenue for the children to make fun of me...

I am feeling pretty bad for the mourning dove we spotted in our yard today. It can't really walk-- it looks like it has something tangled around its feet or parts of its body. Unfortunately, in terms of our ability to catch it, it can still fly away, although not far, poor thing. Hopefully my husband or kids can trap it and we can cut off the offending article and it will be okay. We were able to free one of the birds that got caught in our deer netting around our garden last year. (I don't use that plastic netting any more for that reason.) If we can catch the dove but not get the tangle off, we should be able to bring it to our county wildlife rescue. We brought a gosling there last year that had been mauled by a dog or fox or something and I assume they took good care of it.