I love the short row heel.

Back in July, I posted a picture or two of the sock I was currently knitting. That sock has since moved on to the world of "will never be finished" because I decided I didn't like the color, the shaping, or well, anything about it. Until last week (9 months later) had yet to finish a sock, despite a few more attempts at one.

Then I joined the fiber flix kal, and cast on with this:



for the RPM socks.

It was, as Aladdin and Jasmine sing (wow, I'm quoting a Disney movie), a whole new world. The socks flew! I liked the yarn! (STR in the Scottish Highlands colorway) The needles didn't drive me batty (addi turbos, of course)! And, most exciting of all, the short row heel made me feel like I might actually knit more than one pair of socks in my knitting career.

I've tried the flap heel many times, on many unfinished socks. I realize that there are legions of knitters out there that swear by them, and I think that's great. But for me, knitting the flap then having to work my way around the gusset before I can knit the instep feels like knitting h-e-double-hockeysticks.

The short row heel was just that. Short. then a heel! Before I could get frustrated, it was done, and I was zooming on to the instep. Then, all of a sudden, I had this:



And now, there's this:



Which will be two socks...a whole pair...very soon. Which is good, since they're for my friend's birthday, which falls on Thursday. She's Scottish, so I'm thinking the colorway will be just right for her.

Whew!

Just under a month has passed...thought I should check in. It has been a busy almost four weeks, that's for sure, and it's only going to get busier! Spring is springing here in DC, and that means busy travel season for K. (as if travel doesn't happen during non-busy season). But let's review the last month, shall we?

Knitting: the sweater didn't make it. I still have a sleeve to go. I made quite an effort, but as I believe that knitting should be largely a guilt-free hobby, I refuse to get down on myself for not getting it done. Besides, I don't want to be knitting warm cozy sweaters right now--it's 70 degrees outside! I have procured yarn for the "Isabella" pattern from knitty's spring '07 issue. Haven't cast on yet, since there are baby bibs to be finished (just need to add buttons and weave in ends, look for pictures soon) for the expected-any-day-now new arrival to my boss's family, and I'm trying to finish one of the pouches that graces the cover of Last Minute Knitted Gifts as well. Small projects, but encouraging when they're actually done!!

The apartment: We have new colors! The living room was repainted a few weekends ago in an interesting and decidedly non-living-room-y orange and yellow. It's different (and still yellow!), but I like it. We also have a new bathroom...in a spectacular kelly green. No pictures (I'm -- gasp!--at work, and don't have my camera) yet, but soon, very soon. The work left to be done on the apartment is officially down to the details, and those should be squared away in the next few weeks. What a relief! It will be nice to finally feel settled and relaxed and not agitated because the place is still in flux.

I hope to post pictures soon, but will be gone for the weekend. I'm heading to Rochester (where it's not 70 degrees...shoulda finished that sweater) to visit my mom and reclaim some of my stuff from her attic. It's been a year since I was there, which I think is the longest I've gone without visiting my mom. I've seen her, but not at her place--down here and at family functions. I'm looking forward to getting out of town for a bit and taking a day off work!!


That's the latest for now...

Sigh

Friday. Whew. Have you ever noticed that short weeks that start on Tuesday due to a holiday on Monday seem to be longer and arduous than a regular 5-day week? Maybe it's cramming 5 days into 4, or just being off one's schedule. I love the day off, but find that by the end of the week I'm pooped.

The knitting has been slow going this week. I've started on K's cabled hat, but haven't gotten far. I finished a sleeve of the sweater, which leaves a little more hood and one more sleeve to go. I'm still hoping to finish by the end of February, but I'm not sure. Maybe finish all the knitting, and not finish the finishing? I have to admit that I'm very nervous about the finishing. Since this is the first sweater of its kind, I don't know what blocking is going to do to it, or if it will fit me, or look awful when it's all done. I know it will not be perfect, primarily because I have not always been consistent in the knitting of it. For instance, I garter-stitched the first couple stitches of most rows on the front, but didn't do that at all for the back. Fortunately, it's not the kind of sweater I'll be wearing to a 5-star restaurant, and if it is a cozy at-home piece that looks a little wonky, that will be OK since it was a learning experience.

Anyway, the camera made it back from Australia with proof it went there in the first place.


And the camera's return allowed me to document my first FO of 2007:


(sorry for the awful self-shot (not even a portrait)...my forehead is not that enormous, nor am I a cone head.

I'm loving the hat, and have gotten nice comments on it, albeit in the knitting store when I went to go buy yarn for K's hat. It's nice and warm and not at all scratchy, which is very important with hat!

Waiting for the time to pass...

thanks, knitty! feel better! (get your own card here)

Cables FO!!

Finished the cabled hat tonight. I'm SO happy about this since it's, to put it mildly, frigid outside. Still no camera (hopefully this weekend), so you can see the pretty green-ness of the cables. It's a little roomy, but I think if I had knit any less, it would have been a little too short, and I have plenty of short hats.

I've made a little progress on the sweater, I'm almost done with one sleeve (the couch project) and 1/3 of the hood (the out-and-about project). Hoping to get all the pieces done this weekend so I can block, seam and finish next weekend...definitely before the end of the month! I have other projects I want to do, but I won't let myself cast on for anything until the sweater, like the cables is an FO.

Pictures soon!

Cables ho!

Well, my first class was great! I am quite pleased. Cabling is really very easy...I could probably have figured it out myself, but a class is a great excuse to socialize and knit, so why not, eh? The project is a cabled hat (from Stitch & Bitch Nation, I think). I would show pictures, but K. has taken my camera to Australia with him, so I, and the blog, will be picture-less for the next week or so. Oh, well. It's sad that my camera is more well-traveled than me...

Progress

So the sweater I've vowed to finish by the end of February is the "Not Your Standard-Issue Sweatshirt" from the Yarn Girls' Guide to Simple Knits. Not the one that's available on knitpicks.com, which is a variation with cables. Since I don't do cables (yet...check with me tomorrow after my first cable-knitting class at StitchDC tonight!), I'm doing the straight stockinette stitch, which I really like.

Honestly, I don't know what took me so long in getting this sweater done. I had the back finished by this time last year, and started the front...but then, oh yeah. I had a MA thesis to finish, moved from NYC to DC, then really didn't feel like sweater-knitting in the summer, started other projects, went on vacation, and well, here I am.

But...I have made progress. I finished the front last night:

So now I have that and the back (long-finished):


And now I've started on the sleeve.

Two sleeves and a hood away. Hooray! I can totally do it. Lots of knitting time this weekend since K. will be on the long flight to Australia. I can't wait!

Knit Along!!

I've joined my first knit along: February is for Finishing. Hopefully it's the kick in the pants I've been looking for to actually finish something.

Several members of the knit along seem quite ambitious with several projects set to be finished. Me, I'm goin' for just one. A sweater I started in December of 2005 (ouch)...It's the "not your standard-issue sweatshirt" from The Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits book. Simple it is--mostly stockinette stitch with some seed stitch thrown in, but it's a good zone out in front of the TV knit. I just haven't worked on it for ages. I figured I should put this sweater away before starting on the next sweater--a cardi for K, my boyfriend.

I've got the back, and most of the front. It still needs sleeves and a hood. And by golly, I will finish it! In February!! I'd post pictures, but there is nowhere in my place with good light at this time of the day. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and if I get the sweater done...I may try for socks. But I won't get ahead of myself.

In other news, our kitchen is grouted! Once I get the camera going in decent light, look for wildly updated pictures of the kitchen. It's like a different room, and I have to say that being able to cook here is a pleasure. It's the nicest kitchen I've ever had (in my adult life, that is).

For the Feast of St. Brigid*

It's the Blogger (silent) Poetry Reading today, and I'm so excited to be part of such a great idea. This poem is one of my favorites...by one of my favorite poets ever: Rainer Maria Rilke

Remembering

And you wait, are awaiting the one thing
that will infinitely increase your life;
the powerful, the uncommon,
the awakening of stones,
depths turned towards you.

Dimly there gleam in the bookcase
the volumes in gold and brown;
and you think of lands journeyed through,
of pictures, of the apparel
of women lost again.

And you know all at once: That was it.
You arise, and before you stands
a bygone year's
anguish and form and prayer.


More this weekend on knitting, the apartment, and visits from parental figures.

*The word around the blog-town is that it's St. Brigid's Day, but that was actually yesterday. Today is Candlemas, otherwise known as (among other variations), the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Either way, it's a good day. Especially since, in secular lore, Puxatawney Phil didn't see his shadow and spring is on its way!

Dear Blog:

You poor, neglected blog. No attention for months!

Can we start again? Pick up where we left off? Maybe actually get off the ground this time?

I can't promise that I'll be successful...I've never been good at this continuity thing, but maybe the time is right for me to blog now and then about knitting, yes, but other things too. Life, thoughts, books, etc.

I don't know if my life is interesting enough to do this! But we'll see. You and me. And anyone else who might want to read.

Sincerely,
me

Exhibits

As promised, pictures! It may not be much, but here are the projects in progress or projects to come........since I still have no kitchen to unpack
See my empty cabinets?


they were supposed to have doors ages ago.


Still nothing (note the pathetic take-out on the fridge).

So, instead of unpacking the kitchen while Kevin is in Japan (the original plan), I'm getting organized with the knitting.


I'm only inches away from the first sock:










The heel was a challenge, but it's free sailing until the toe. Not bad! I think I might bail on the somewhat drab gray, black and not quite white stripes. Why? Because I found this:



The lack of flash doesn't do justice, but beautiful rainbow yarn! Can't wait to start those socks!
But first, the baby gift. Mackenzie Rose will get a cute little sweater and hat...I hope. Here's the pattern:



(Sorry about the bad lighting again...the better-lit picture was rotated the wrong way and I can't figure this picture thing out yet)















And the yarn....The edges of the sweater will be pink and the rest purple...the hat the opposite. What do you think? Good idea? I think it could work.










Once all that's done, it's back to the blanket (ok. I'm sure I'll get in a row or 10 here or there when I'm feeling the urge to work another inch on the interminableness of a 6 foot blanket)....this is as far as I've gotten........



Check back at Christmas. Maybe the blanket will be done. Mackenzie Rose will probably have outgrown the baby clothes, and I doubt my kitchen will look much different. Oh, how I'd love to be proven wrong!!

Stash enhancement

This past weekend I went to see my friend Tovah in Minneapolis. Tovah and I were roommates while we were MA students at Fordham. She has since moved on to the University of Minnesota and I figured I should go see here there since I haven't managed to visit her in the two years that she's been living there. Tovah is a fellow knitter, and so I knew I'd get a bit of work done on my sock. I also needed a little trip to her local yarn shop since I have a friend who's expecting a baby, and, well, needs cute knitted items for the new little arrival! Sucess was all around. An adorable sweater/hat set for Mackenzie Rose Stoebling (due early September), some sweet rainbow yarn for my next sock experiment, and various knitting accessories. I was quite pleased! Pictures to come, of the "first sock", the pattern and yarn for the baby items, as well as a work in progress report of my current projects. ~Let me just note here that the last time I used "work in progress" to refer to anything it struck a note of dread into my heart since it was for an unbearably boring historiographical paper on the Cistercians and their economic practices in the 12th century. How nice that I can now use the term for all my knitting projects without worrying that I have papers to write! (sorry Tovah)

The dreaded first post

I recently moved to a new city, leaving behind friends and co-workers with whom I loved to chat about knitting and other pursuits. I promised them I'd keep them posted on what was going on once I resettled, and have done a dreadfully poor job of fulfilling that promise. Please let me express my apologies. This blog is an attempt to right the wrong. Stay tuned for pictures of my (slowly progressing) knitting and updates on all sorts of things (can we say apartment renovations?)