WIP Wednesday - February edition

Well, since the last time I did this I made just a little progress...although I haven't been entirely strict with the 2 to 1 rule. Two things did come off the list, (the sister yarn, and the chase the chill) as well as this little guy who was never on it, and two more jumped on, so technically that's a net decrease.  




On the needles
 (in order of cast on age, with approximate completion status, and links to the pattern I'm using, changes in bold)

Finished chasing the chill - still need buttons

1. Sock yarn blankie (10%) 
2. Dancing socks (75%)
3. Fern garden scarf (40%)
4. Hubby's annual sweater for 2010 (75%)
5. Diamond socks (60%)
6. Slump socks (60%)
7. Broken pumpkin socks (75%)
8. Interstices (55%) 
9. Exploration Station (99.99999% - seriously I just need to weave in the ends and fix a hole!)
10. Pinnate (20%)
11. Welcome back (80%)
12. Yummy Cowl (50%)
13. Rivercat socks (70%)
14. Prolly Folly (40% - what I named this says it all, I knew it was destined for abandonment)
15. Building Blocks (40% - took it out to frog and now I like it)
16. Pay it forward mittens (75%)
17. Peace 2016 (20%)
18. Ingwer (10% - for the ESK yarnathon Q1 knit a long) 
19. Snowmelt MKAL (20% - I blame my family for this)

On the wheel

The sister yarn

1. Trying for three - my first attempt at 3-ply, one bobbin full, second halfway there

On the loom

1. Clasped weave scarf  fabric current length 27 inches.

On the hooks

1. hexagon shawl
2. cuttlefish
   

On the machine

1. Jelly roll race - awaiting sandwiching
2. B's baby quilt - yea he's 6.5 - wanna make something of it!
3. Self designed overly ambitious quilt
4. Scrap shirt quilt

WIP Wednesday - Coming clean in the new year

Is WIP Wednesday still a thing? I'm going with yes.

Spoiler alert:  I have too many.  Way too many.   Thus I'm giving myself a challenge: I've decided for the next 6 months I have to finish or frog two knitting projects before I can start a new one.  It's a two for one.  We are also applying this principle to our house clutter, 1 in 2 out.  For instance, I got some awesome slippers for Christmas and that meant two very ratty pairs went into the trash bin.  Quality over quantity, less is more, blah blah blah.

Back to the crafts.  Here is the embarrassingly complete list:

On the needles
 (in order of cast on age, with approximate completion status, and links to the pattern I'm using)

1. Sock yarn blankie (10%) 
2. Dancing socks (75%)
3. Fern garden scarf (40%)
4. Hubby's annual sweater for 2010 (75%)
5. Diamond socks (60%)
6. Chasing the Chill (85%)
7. Slump socks (60%)
8. Broken pumpkin socks (75%)
9. Interstices (55%) 
10. Exploration Station (99.99999% - seriously I just need to weave in the ends and fix a hole!)
11. Pinnate (20%)
12. Welcome back (80%)
13. Yummy Cowl (50%)
14. Rivercat socks (70%)
15. Prolly Folly (40% - what I named this says it all I knew it was destined for abandonment)
16. Building Blocks (40% - destined for the frogging)
17. Pay it forward mittens (55%)
18. Peace 2016 (20%)

And for full disclosure there are 11 projects on my ravelry page marked as "hibernating", meaning I haven't frogged them, but I'm also not entirely sure where they are located in my home.  Maybe the endless decluttering will help with that.

On the wheel

1.  Sister yarn - two bobbins resting to be plied
2. Trying for three - my first attempt at 3-ply

On the loom

1. Clasped weave scarf  fabric current length 21 inches.

On the hooks

1. hexagon shawl
2. cuttlefish
   

On the machine

1. Jelly roll race - awaiting sandwiching
2. B's baby quilt - yea he's 6.5 - wanna make something of it!
3. Self designed overly ambitious quilt
4. Scrap shirt quilt

Bring on the finishing 2017!  Let's have this down to 10 UFOs by the end of the year!

Rediscovering my roots

I've fallen in love again.  I feel a bit like I'm cheating, but I just can't help it.  Please don't tell on me, I know my knitting will be sad, I've taken up with my crochet hook.  We've run off together for a little tryst.  But don't worry, it's only a fling, when I run out of yarn I will return....

WIP Wednesday

Sadly I have no pictures to post today, so I'm going to infect your brains with something else.  I'm making the Whale Watch Hat from New England Knits with some yarn that I had purchased to test out as sweater yarn for a hub's next sweater (likely you'll hear that story next week).  In any case, it's super cute and I just finished the second row of whales.  But every time I work on it this just keeps running through my head:



Ahh good memories. Hope you enjoy it!

WIP Wednesday: Spinning Edition

While most of our stuff is in storage,  while he was supervising the movers, hub did managed to snag the spinning wheel before it got buried.  In fact, it was one of the first things to get un-boxed, and it was here all set up for me when I arrived.  The first few weeks we were here the family who actually owns this house was also here and we all lived together.  The two girls age 9 and 6, are super duper smart and just a tad hyperactive.  They fell in love with Hub immediately, and were really intrigued by my wheel, so they asked if I could teach them to spin and knit and crochet all in one night.  Since hub also knows how to work the wheel we tag teamed them and an hour or so later, there was bits of wool and yarn all over the living room, we were exhausted and the kids were on to something else.  Turns out one of them is left handed-which no one bothered to mention before we embarked on this endeavor.  It was a lot of fun, and it did spark me to start spinning again.  I spent the fall spinning up the fiber they started.

I'm a slow spinner.  In fact, I'm slow at just about everything.  Finishing my PhD at 27 was just about the only thing I've ever done "quickly", so it's taken me a whole semester to spin 4 oz into singles.  Hopefully they'll get plied next weekend:

This is from the Hello Yarn fiber club, June 2009 - I was only in the club for 6 months because fiber was piling up way faster than I could spin it - colorway "Sour Fig", Shetland wool top.  

WIP Wednesday

I finished a few things up over the holidays, each will be revealed on my FO Friday's to come, so here's the WIP list:

1. Adult surprise jacket: ripped out and has now started to become an Epaulet Jacket
2. A new sweater for Hub: 10 inches into the body
3. New socks for Hub: halfway through the first cuff
4. Ying Yang Cowl: to match my endpapers.  1 stripe done. 

Hibernation list:

1. Fern Garden Scarf:  row 99: still haven't found ANY quiet time to knit on it, even dragged to the field and back with the hopes of quiet hotel time, but I was too pooped to bother.
2. Charade Socks: 50% complete: Haven't bothered to look at it.
3. Fingerless gloves: Three fingers left, I'm getting nervous that I'm going to run out of yarn.
4. Sabine: Ummm I kind of forgot about her.
5. Decimal: hibernating due to missing yarn.
6. Shawl in progress: Still needs some decision about what to do.
7. Mittens: one complete, but it seems a moth ate through the tip...

WIP Wednesday

Here's a quick WIP Wednesday just so you all know I'm still alive (I went back to the field last week and that just generally messes life up)

Last time we left with 8 projects in the mix. Now we're up to 10.  I have no self control.

Here's where we are now:

1. Fern Garden Scarf:  row 99: still haven't found ANY quiet time to knit on it, even dragged to the field and back with the hopes of quiet hotel time, but I was too pooped to bother.
2. Charade Socks: 50% complete: Haven't bothered to look at it.
3. Fingerless gloves: Three fingers left, I'm getting nervous that I'm going to run out of yarn.
4. Sabine: Ummm I kind of forgot about her.
5. Decimal: hibernating due to missing yarn.
6. Shawl in progress: Still needs some decision about what to do.
7. Mittens: one complete, but it seems a moth ate through the tip...
8. Adult surprise jacket: still increasing (about 2 inches done). Considering frogging in favor of an epaulet jacket from knitting workshop.
9. Xmas gift #1: 25% complete
10. Jade Cables: Cast off the body portion last night.  Neckband and sleeve to go.  This is my current obsession and I'm going to try to finish it by December 1! 

In addition there has been some serious swatching and prepping for hub's next sweater.  Crazy me thinks I'll finish by Xmas, although the yarn hasn't arrived yet!  Ha! I crack myself up!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Returning to the WIPS

It's been a long while since we did a WIP Wednesday around here, so when I started to write this I decided that's what it would be.

Once I was settled and got over the disappointment of the inaccessible stash and missing needles, I realized that I shouldn't be sad because I had a whole list of WIPs that I could just finish up.  They were already on their needles so that wouldn't be a problem. Plus, I typically store each WIP with the rest of the yarn to complete it in a big basket, and I knew where it was!  In all honesty, it would take me a year to finish all them up anyways.  Yippee, my knitting life was saved. Almost.

Here is the list as it stands now.

1. Fern Garden Scarf:  row 99: still haven't found much quiet time to knit on it)
2. Charade Socks: 50% complete: All set good to go here!
3. Fingerless gloves: This one was first on the finishing list and it's almost made it.
4. Sabine: Satisfying my sweater knitting I'm now about 5 inches into it.  I realized I never measured my gauge and it's very off, so I'll have to make a bigger size.  This may mean I don't have enough yarn.  This realization has dampened my enthusiasm, but I'm going to plod through anyways.
5. Decimal: body and one sleeve complete.  Hmmm.  It seems I'm out of luck on this one.  I only kept one more ball of the yarn with the WIP, so I can do the next sleeve but the yoke will have to wait until next year.  This was a big bummer for me. I was hoping this would be my Rhinebeck sweater, but it wasn't meant to be.
6. Shawl in progress (gift for mom): Now this is rapidly joining the unspeakable list.  I'm having hand-dyed-skeins-aren't-always-the-same issues and I can't decide how to fix it. 
7. Mittens: one complete, but it seems a moth ate through the tip...
8. Adult surprise jacket: still increasing (about 2 inches done). I have all the yarn, and the needles, but my copy of Knitting Workshop...you guessed it, in the abyss of storage. Ugh. 

Oh well, there goes that plan.  Good thing I was headed to Rhinebeck!

Stored up.

So, the socks, the blanket, where does that leave us? Ah yes,

#3. Pteryla: ~50% complete and would make good car and plane knitting
to
#1. Pteryla: ~90% complete

Pteryla was started sometime in April after I ripped out yet another attempt at a Clapotis.  (the clapotis by the way is dead to me, it's name will not be spoken again).  The yarn I was using some Araucunia Ranco Multy was just screaming to be a shawl of some kind and after some Rav searching Pteryla was it.  Easy pattern to remember, right amount of yarn.  It was the perfect substitute for the name we speak no more, and I was very much looking forward to seeing it completed.

Pteryla does indeed make good car and plane knitting.  In fact, it makes such good car and plane knitting that I made really great progress on it over the summer and was happily knitting away in the Chicago (?) airport waiting for my last flight of the summer conference season.  I had just come to the conclusion that I could likely cast off before I landed when right then and there MY KNITTING NEEDLE BROKE!  The cable from my knitpicks options just fell right out of the needle!  To be fair this needle had seen it's fair share of abuse over the summer travels, but GRRRR.  With a little yelp I managed to pick up the stitches and save the shawl.  But my summer travel knitting came to a screeching halt right then and there.  I think I scared the nice lady reading her kindle next to me, but man, I was pissed.

Let's review.  I'm living out of my car, that means no spare knitting needles or extra options cables.  In fact at the exact moment of instrument failure all of my possesions were on a moving truck somewhere between FU and NU.  They were most definitely not accessible.  This means not only was I not going to finish before landing, but there was no hope of finishing in the foreseeable future either. So back in the bag she went, so close to completion, but yet so far.  I was pretty sad.

Now, here is were we reach the really sad part of my knitting story.  We haven't found a house yet, so we are living in a sabbatical house for the year.  Which means, all non-essential possesions are in storage.  In fact, everything we own except for our clothes, bed, sheets and towels is in a room that looks like this:

Try as we might, hub and I have not been able to unearth my knitting needles.  One box of stash, a basket of the remaining WIPS, and my DPNs, but no straights, circulars or options components.

What's a knitter to do?

Head to Rhinebeck of course, I'll be on the plane when you read this. :)

I'm knitting a blanket!

So we talked about the startitis last time, so I thought I'd fess up a little bit about all the projects that have jumped on the needles as of late. This is part two of my "I'm knitting" series. I don't know how many parts there will be.

So as you know, my sister is having a baby. A baby boy. There was a flourish of baby knitting when the news was announced, which then tapered some in the last two months. I knit a blanket, a hat and two sweaters. Well, the week before last I stayed home on a Friday because I had a phone interview. (Yes, I'm sneaking important life progress in with knitting content). This was a preliminary interview for a small school and it's mostly a teaching position. Not my number one job choice, I'd prefer a 50/50, and this is more like a 80/20. But there are days when just teaching seems like a dream. I like to teach, I think I'm fairly good at it, it's always there to do, and you are not at the whims of granting agencies/political funding climates, etc. So it's an academic position, a small department, fairly close to home, a step forward. Last year I focused my search to more traditional jobs only, but this year, upon much reflection, I'm applying to a lot of things, expanding my options one might say. Plan B we call it around here. (Plan C is returning to engineering and pretending that the last 6, no 7 years of academic pursuits were just for fun, it hasn't been activated yet). Anyways, this interview was a first cut. 10 phone interviews, then they will select 3 candidates for on campus interviews. So, my office has become work study central and not really a cohesive environment for a nerve racking phone interview. It's two Friday's ago and I'm home and the phone rings (15 minutes late).

I could recap the rather amusing interview story here (complete with wrong numbers and wrong names, and odd interplay among the three interviewers), but let's just abbreviate it and say I sucked. In retrospect, I probably did ok, but there were some big gaps and some questions I just wasn't prepared to answer. Questions I'm not sure I could have been prepared to answer, so therefore questions non of the other candidates could really have been prepared to answer either, so I've upgraded my complete disaster to average. I'm ok with the whole thing, it just wasn't the job for me. But, hanging up the phone l had a severe case of the blah's. All those fears came rushing in (the ones where I have to activate Plan C, or that we end up homeless on the streets or something), and I just had the blahs. That's the thing about the "post-doc", I know that I could be successful, I just need to find the job, and it seems that finding the job is 50% how good you are and 50% how lucky you are and well...I've never really been all that lucky, so that unsettled state of being is just so....well...unsettling.

So I'm home, it's a friday afternoon and I have the blah's. I didn't want to knit anything engrossing, I was just going to sit and knit a few rows to shake it off and then get back to work. But what could I knit? Without any real plan I picked up some big needles and some yarn from my stash and cast on, one stitch. Then I hit Ravelry, which brought me here and which led to here then I ended up here, and then I ended up with a square, and then another cast on, and then the phone rang again and I spent several hours talking to my best friend, who is also in an unsettled life situation, and then oops it was Friday night and time for dinner with friends.


It's much prettier than blogger let's the picture show. [flicker link here] The pattern is oddly addicting, and I'm completely compelled to cast on that one stitch as soon as I bind off the one at the other corner. I am now completely sympathetic to the mitered square a thon. Although I will not knit that many squares because I only had four balls of this blue in my stash, enough to make four 10x10 inch squares and four 5x5 inch squares. I decided to make a blanket for the baby out of it. The plan now is for four of the squares to be the center and then a border in a lighter shade of blue.

So, there you have it. I'm knitting a blanket. For those of you who are upset that I have not posted my November progress as diligently as some., Here you go:

The left front of the sunrise circle is done. I'm well on track for Thanksgiving wear.
I have completely analyzed one of the five nights of data that form the basis for the paper I'm writing, so we're cruising along there too. :)

I'm knitting a shawl!

And a sweater. And a scarf. And a blanket. And oh yea, let' not forget those three pairs of socks. What a shawl? a scarf? a blanket? You say? Those weren't on the list of things to finish before starting something new. Yes, I'm coming clean. I had a bit of startitis last week. What was the cause you may ask? After all, I was doing so well, finish a sweater, finish a sock. The cause, was the downfall of knitters and fiber heads everywhere. RHINEBECK.

I had a fabulous time at Rhinebeck, this was my first time and now I know what all the fuss is about. Oh boy, is it worth the fuss. Yarn, beads, yarn. It was like craft heaven. My purchases were pretty restrained, a couple of skeins of socks that rock, (I'm a STR virgin so I'm pretty excited about that), some good basic worsted weight wool at a price I couldn't resist (enough to make a sweater for hub and enough to make a sweater for me), and two skeins of sock yarn from Oak Grove Studio, and the pattern to make a scarf they had on display and I just fell in love with.

But, the real fabulousness of Rhinebeck was spending time with my mom. We went just me an her it was really nice. My mom and I haven't spent alot of time just me and her in a while, not really sisnce we made my wedding dress together, which was a whole three years ago now. It's not that we don't spend time together, it's just been all family time, and it was nice. We talked alot and had a great time.

But ironically, I haven't starting knitting on any of the Rhinebeck projects. While we were there, we were admiring a lot of shawls and mom expressed interest in having one. I have been thinking about knitting one, but I don't think I'm an elegant enough lady to wear a shawl. But, mom, she's classy and quite elegant, a totally shawl like gal. So I kind of became a little obsessed with the shawl thing. We didn't find the right yarn/pattern combo while we were there, but we did see one that she liked. So I did some digging, and the yarn was $85 a skein! Mom, don't have a heart attack, while you are worth it, my lace knitting skills are worthy of that fancy yarn quite yet. Then I came across a new pattern from the same designer, available in a preorder kit for a reasonable price and it's beautiful. So I "preordered" it, without really paying attention to when it would arrive. In my head it was a far off time. Like last Monday when it was on my porch. But I'm so excited about this project I had to cast on. So why, am I telling you this, knowing that mom is a regular reader and the surprise is spoiled. Well a couple of reasons. 1) I'm really excited about the project and can't keep it in. 2) Mom already know that I'm not doing Christmas knitting this year and since her b-day is xmas eve, that means no birthday knitting either. 3) This is a long term project, we'll all have forgotten it, remembered it, and forgotten it again by the time it's done. 4) My mom is cool and deserves a shawl and some non event based knitting.

So there you go, I'm knitting a shawl.

In other worlds, if you are a blog reader of any kind, you must be aware that we all have decided that november is the month to get things done. Renee is participating in an altered (read normal persons) version of the novel writing thing. Many knitters are knitting a sweater. And many bloggers are committing to blogging every day this month. Well, I've never been much of a joiner, and I have no illusions of my own abilities. My secret desires to write a novel are definitely not planning to manifest anytime soon (I'm reserving that for my mid-life crisis), I cannot knit fast enough to knit an entire sweater in a month, and my life is definitely not interesting enough to blog about something everyday. So I've decided to put my own November goals at reachable, feel good levels. One personal and one professional:

I will finish my sunrise circle jacket by Thanksgiving
I will write and submit a single journal article by the end of the month.

Knitting

Today I'm going to talk about knitting. No, this is not because my brain is like a sieve and I can't think of anything else to talk about. I made a handy dandy list in my handy dandy PDA and have a whole series of blog posts lined up. Today I just feel like talking about knitting. I had a not so great day at school and knitting is therapeutic for me so that's what we are going to talk about. If you think that's boring, you can stop reading now, if not go on...

I have decided to *mostly* subscribe to a practice of knitting monogamy. This stemmed from the realization that I had 10 no 11, no 12 different projects going on at once. 6 of which were socks. Three of which are destined to be frogged. So my new theory is that for every big project I finish I must complete one pair of socks in progress. This should cut my UFO count down quite a bit, but I can still start a new "big" project for everyone I finish. I know the math doesn't work out, but it makes me feel better. Projects like Ellen's afghan are so big they are an exempt to the rule, and there will always be one pair of socks in the car for travel knitting. So, maybe it's not really going to cut down the numbers, but since I've been subscribing to this new monogamous way of life things are getting done. The socks from the last post were the first pair to get out of the queue (just 5 and a half more socks to knit!!). A blanket for nephew to be popped out just before them (full disclosure-it still needs end weaving and blocking, but I count it as done!). Before that it was the toddler size sweater for said nephew:

So, I felt that all the finishing allowed for the thrill of a new beginning. IN WOOL. After knitting with cotton, which is tough on my wrists, acrylic, which I usually just find icky, and bamboo, which was a new fiber experience and not as enjoyable as I was hoping (there's something weird about knitting bamboo yarn on bamboo needles don't you think?), I was in desperate need of wool. I love wool. So I planned to start on Rogue which I totally adore, and started once before but the wool was too bulky so I made something else, and bought different yarn to do, but it needed to wound into a ball and my fingers were craving wool too much to spend time dragging out the swift. So this is what has popped on and off my needles since late Friday afternoon:

It is the back to Kate Gilbert's Sunrise Circle Jacket in Filatura Di Crosa Primo, color 267, that I got at the Webs tent sale early in the summer. It is a really pretty ice blue that the picture doesn't do justice. I was a little worried, because even though I love the sweater, my last flirtation with a KG pattern was not a success. I still might be the only knitter in the universe that does not own a clapotis. In retrospect I probably should have started with one of the fronts since that's were the interest and therefore the difficultly would be, but I have this concrete sequential way of doing things and the pattern starts with the back so I made the back. I like the pattern so far, especially the turned up hem detail. But, man, it's curly. I'm going to spray block the back before I do the seaming, but I think it's going to need a full on severe blocking when the whole thing is through.

This is the fastest I have ever completed any piece of a sweater. I don't feel that I knit a lot this weekend. In fact, I know one contiguous 10 hour chunk of Saturday was taken up by reading Harry Potter cover to cover, so I couldn't have knit that much. Maybe I'm just getting faster. I guess that stands to reason.

So there it is, I'm down to 10 WIPs. So what did I do? Exactly what you would think. I volunteered to be a test knitter for this pattern. I've never been a test knitter before. Before ravelry, I didn't have enough contact with other knitters to see the process in any stage other than a finished pattern. I think the tank is absolutely gorgeous and I'm really excited to knit it. So I did some swatches from a couple of odd balls I had lying around, and picked one I loved, and ordered up enough to do the tank. I'm waiting *patiently* for it to arrive. And yes, it's mostly wool :). Ok, so being honest 11 WIPs. Maybe I'll just try to keep it under a dozen.

So that's what I've been up to. Harry Potter and obsessive knitting. Welcome to my version of escapism.

On being humbled

Last week I had one of the scariest hours of my academic life. I am supervising a new graduate student who will be continuing some of my research and therefore using a lot of the data processing codes I wrote during my graduate career. He's at the point where he's just starting to learn how to convert the raw binary files to ascii and make pictures of the data. Not a quantitative analysis, but a qualitative one that really gives a good feel for the quality of the data, and what types of analysis you might want to do. He is also using the instrument in a new manner than we have in the past and so this step is crucial to understanding the different data format. Well...his pictures were all squished up. We went through all the possibilities, all the parts where his data could be different than mine, plotted, replotted, and all signs were pointing to a bug in the code. My code. The code I have used FOR EVERYTHING I HAVE PUBLISHED TO DATE. I started to feel sick to my stomach and sent him to lunch. For about an hour, I sat, I drew pictures, I checked the math, I checked the code, I plugged in my good data, I panicked and I forced back tears. It really was there, it was a bug, and it was wrong. The number of thoughts that rush through your head in a moment like that can't be counted. What was I going to do. Managing a McDonald's was becoming a real option. But how, my images weren't squished, my values were all right, they agreed with the physical setup of the field site, how could I have missed it, how could we all have missed it. After several deep breaths I shuffled over to my advisor's office and muttered out a "we have a problem", although the words weren't necessary because the look on my face was enough for him to say "what's wrong?" at the exact same time. We talked through it and he laughed at me. "Everyone needs and ego check now and then". Turns out the "bug" in relation to my data causes a maximum 4% error, in most of my papers it's really more like a 2% error. Making my maximum error of < 2 meters in an instrument with a 2.5 meter resolution. So, no mistake. Biggest sigh of relief ever. The error compounds at larger measurement angles, a 90% error at the angles of the new data...hence the squishing. Ego checked.

After that fiasco I came home and knit. It always calms me. Well, the stars must have been misaligned that day, because I cast on for a new project without checking the gauge. I've been burnt by this before so I typically check, but it was for a baby sweater, and you cast on just about as many stitches for a gauge swatch as you do for the project, so I thought what the hell. I knit a few rows and measured the gauge, it was about right, so off I went. Well about right is not right. On the left we have a the peapod sweater I knit for my soon to arrive nephew (still needs blocking and buttons) It is sized for ~3 months. The same age I was shooting for with the one on the right.

It was supposed to be a shower gift for friends that are having a baby in October. I was on a baby kick, so when the invitation came, I figured I could churn one out in time. Now it will be for little nephew to grow into. It's cotton so he should get use out of it during some season. Shower gift from the registry was delivered today.

Ego checked, and rechecked. Tell me, was I starting to get cocky? The universe seemed to think so. I was unaware.