Status Report: Olive Baby Ull Socks

Sometimes I forget how much I love the Dale Baby Ull. Then I pick it up again to knit with it, and fall in love all over again. It's springy, round, soft, and durable. The colors are marvelous and stitch definition is fantastic. I swear, I could knit a whole wardrobe out of this stuff. Including underpants.

I don't think we'll need to talk about politics any more. I watched both conventions, did my due diligence on the candidates, and made my decision. I will watch the debates, but barring any huge revelations of importance in the next two months, I won't be changing my mind.

The new Knitter's magazine arrived at Nana's today while I was there for the Catherine Parr/ knit-your-own KAL. (That's the KAL that started off as a Catherine Parr KAL, but quickly expanded when some folks wanted to knit other Starmores, other sweaters, other items.) I thought this was the best issue we've seen in a long time. Too long. There were several decent, knittable patterns. Yes, there was still the insane moment when they started doing something for no better reason than someone figured out that it was possible -- the "party trick" knitting that is all flash and no substance -- "OMG, you guys, look what happens when you knit upside down and backwards!"

This month's party trick was knitting intarsia using two balls of the same yarn. Ooooookay. There was also a cowl/yoked/tank/heftybag thing that could be worn right side up or upside down, a most excellent choice for drunk chicks trying to scramble away from their one night stands. Dude, who cares if it's inside out. Just get dressed and get a cab. Fast.

But I'm glad to say that for those of us interested in actual knitting, there were several good patterns in this issue. Dare we hope that this represents a rebirth of Knitters? The cover sweater is good. At least two other sweaters had me thinking about which yarn I might use. All in all, a marked improvement, and one which I am glad to see.

Status Report: Catherine Parr

This is the first sleeve for Catherine Parr. Another two inches or so, and I will shape the sleeve cap. I've already cast on the second sleeve but haven't started the colorwork yet. That won't happen until I wind off another skein of yarn.

The Catherine Parr knitters are starting back on our informal KAL this week. We're meeting Friday to tackle the sleeve shaping. The pattern is written with standard drop shoulders, but I'm doing a modified drop, and I'm going to show the others how to make this absurdly easy modification.

I suspect the first sleeve will be off the needles within a week. We'll see. A lot depends on work and other issues, and how much knitting time is available to me.

Back on the politics thing. I don't often talk about politics, but you should probably know that I'm what pollsters call an independent or a swing voter. (And believe me, once the pollsters identify you as such, your phone tends to ring a lot during election season. I've already been surveyed a half-dozen or so times in this election cycle.) I have in the past voted for Republicans and Democrats for president. And for other offices.

In any event, I make it a practice of watching both conventions and watching the debates, as much as possible of all of it. I generally know who I intend to vote for before all that coverage starts, but I have changed my mind in past elections based on things I learned during the election season. So my scrutiny of both conventions is nothing unusual.

I was very interested in knowing who McCain would pick for VP, because this was one of the factors I knew might sway my vote. Plus, let's be real here. McCain's getting up there in years. I wish him a long and fruitful life, but still. His VP pick matters more that it might otherwise matter with a younger candidate. Right now, I'm listening for evidence that Palin deviates from her party platform on any particulars. And I'm not hearing it, but it's a little hard to hear real politics at the moment when all anyone wants to talk about is the unwed teen mother thing.

It's not easy being a swing voter. I have to listen to a lot of rabid outrage from both ends. I do listen to it, but frequently from an abstract rhetorician's mindset. Spin is fascinating stuff.

And as long as we're on the topic of full disclosure here, I worked in the government long enough to gain a good understanding of the way things really work. I worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations. The two sides have very different approaches to managing a government office, but I must say I met good people and bad people on both sides.

So I'm going to do my best to drop the topic now, even though this is going to be a hot topic for the next two months. But just in case I do start waxing political, I thought it made sense to lay this foundation now so that people might understand where I'm coming from.

Status: HPYC Socks

I can't believe I got a decent photo of this yarn. On my monitor, the colors in the photo are an almost perfect match for the colors in the yarn in person. Every other time I've tried to photograph this sock, I've ended up with a muddle that obscured the brightness of the barberpole stripes.

Anyway. Just had to share it.

I'm going to post some in-progress pictures this week so that I can track how far I get over the course of my four week cast-on ban. These socks are the most recent new things I've started, and they were cast on for the trip to San Francisco a month ago. That means I went all of August without giving in to that startitis itch. That gives me confidence for the next four weeks! I can do it! I already have. :)

And, well, now that we're in election season, politics is on my mind these days. I watched the Dems last week, and I'll watch the Rs this week when they start broadcasting anything real. Yesterday, because they pulled George Bush off the speaker platform, we were left with coverage of an anti-war demonstration (on C-Span) or heavy loop coverage of the hurricane and Bristol's pregnancy on the news affiliates. Tonight should be better. I found yesterday hard to take, though Sunday afternoon's C-Span coverage of a convention focus group was fascinating.

One idea I can't dislodge from my mind -- I personally don't care what Bristol does with her coochie, but I must say that if I had come home pregnant at 17, my mother's response absolutely would NOT have included the words "proud" or "excited to be grandparents." Nope. Not a chance of that. Try "mortified" and "you're grounded until you die from old age, missy."

But whatever. As long as Bristol was 17 on the date of conception, her babydaddy didn't break any laws, so ::shrug:: A teenager used bad judgment. News at 11.

I'm far more concerned about the story that isn't getting much press, the one about Palin trying to get her brother-in-law fired. That one tells us more what kind of official she is. The unwed teen mother story? Well, I already knew Palin was an indifferent mother -- she is, after all, abandoning a special needs infant for the campaign trail -- so that doesn't tell me anything new. But the brother-in-law thing, that deserves a bit more scrutiny. I used to defend cases like this at the state level, so I will be watching this one unfold with interest.

Four Weeks

The observant among you may have noticed something. I finished two items this week, the Ranco socks and the halter vest. And according to a vow I made recently, I wasn't going to cast on anything new until I finished two items. So I woke up this morning thinking that I could cast on something new.

And I had already picked out the project, an oversized purple sweater made out of that silk and mohair blend I got in San Francisco. I bought the needles for that project on Thursday when I was at Nana’s for open knitting. I stuffed them into my red knitting bag at the time, and haven't thought about the needles since.

So this morning, I got up, pulled out the purple yarn, pulled out the correct pattern, and went into my red knitting bag to pull out the needles.

They weren't there.

I emptied the bag and unrolled everything just in case the needles had slipped inside the folds of a work in progress. They weren't there. I know I put them in there -- this isn't a case of paying for something and forgetting to take it home. This is more a case of massive disorganization.

Complicating this problem was the fact that my DSL was out for a couple of days, and I had to tear apart two six shelf bookcases so that the repair man could get to the phone jack behind them. I used this as an opportunity to reorganize those bookcases, which were so vastly overstuffed with books and manuscripts that I have been in almost constant fear of their collapse. This meant that piles of bookshelf material have been scattered all over my house for the last two days. It occurred to me that I might have set the needles on one of the bookshelves, and that they might have gotten moved around with any of the various piles, so by 7:30 this morning, I was deep in the throes of my bookshelf project. That's all but done now.

Still no needles.

I tried to remember every room in the house I've been in since I got home from the knitting shop on Thursday, every possible place that I might have taken the red bag. I have hunted high and low. I have looked under the couch cushions, emptied every single one of my knitting bags, looked behind dressers and under chairs.

They're not gone. I just can't find them. They're here somewhere. Those of you who have been at my house know that I keep a fairly tidy house, and it's unusual for things to go missing. That's probably why this is bugging me so much.

The harder I hunted, and the less success I had, and the more frustrated I became, the more I started to think that this is a sign from the great knitting gods in the sky. I have seven projects on the needles. I would like to finish all of these someday. Adding an eighth project will only delay the completion of these other seven.

So I sat in my favorite chair with a cup of hot tea, and I did some thinking. And here's what I've decided. I'm declaring a moratorium on casting on new projects for the next four weeks. Four weeks is not a long time, especially not in terms of knitting time. I've been itching to start something new, but I can wait four weeks. It's not that long.

But in four weeks of knitting time, it's entirely possible that I could finish Catherine Parr. The first sleeve is almost done, and the second is already cast on. There are still a good handful of inches to be knit on the body, plus the neck band, but it's possible it could do that in a month.

Or, in four weeks of knitting time, I could finish all three pairs of socks currently on the needles.

Or, in four weeks of knitting time, I could finish the felted fair isle bag.

Or, in four weeks of knitting time, I could probably knock out another six or so inches on Fulmar.

Or I could apply the new technique I learned at Stitches last weekend, and knit the sleeves for the cardigan that's been in hibernation for over a year now.

Four weeks. And who knows -- maybe sometime in the next four weeks, I'll find those damn needles.

FO: Veronik Avery Halter Vest

I still have a few ends (out of approximately four thousand nine hundred seventeen) to weave, but this one is basically finished. It'll be wearable before Mad Men is over tonight.

Stats
Pattern: Halter Vest from Veronik Avery's book
Yarn: Bollecine Dolly (superwash DK)
Needles: Addi Turbo 6s. Stitch gauge was spot on, row gauge was close enough.

Notes: I have a TON of leftover yarn, something like six unopened balls, almost enough to knit the vest a second time. This is despite pattern modifications that increased the amount of yardage I needed.

The modifications were:
- eliminate waist shaping. Nobody needs to see knits clinging to my ample middle.
- add bust darts to give the girls more breathing room
- narrow the back from the waist up to improve overall fit
- lengthen the vest by about 3 inches (around 7.5 cm)

I have a narrow back and a bit of acreage up front, and I must say, the combination of bust darts and back shaping really gives me a good overall fit with this pattern. I may start modifying all of my patterns along similar lines.

This was a fast and easy knit, and it would have been even faster and easier if I'd bothered to do the math for my modifications in advance. Instead, I modified the pattern on the needles, and paid for it when I had to rip and repeat a few miscalculated sections.

But I love the way it came together, and the halter shaping is very clever. Avery is rapidly becoming one of my favorite designers. I would knit another one of her patterns in a heartbeat, but I wouldn't trust her yardage requirements. This is the second pattern in the book with huge -- and I do mean huge -- discrepancies between the amount of yarn specified and the amount used. But when the patterns are this good, we can forgive a thing like that.

This is my second project with Dolly. This is one of my favorite yarns, despite its tendency to lose body after the first washing. I think it's made for drapey designs with elegant lines. It has a hand almost like light silk after that first washing. Soft and flowing and very, very nice to the touch.

FO: Araucania Ranco Socks

FO: Plain Socks
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Multi
Needles: 1.5US dpns

Notes:
This yarn is hard to photograph. The greens and browns melt together into a dark lump. The best description I can give is this -- looking at this yarn in person is like looking at a pile of new fall leaves in the bottom of a lake. Orange, rust, dark green, muddy brown, twiggy gray, interspersed with an occasional flash of blue water. The colors are very appealing in person.

The hand, well, that's a bit less appealing. The yarn has a bit of crunch to it, almost like Regia. I know from experience that Regia wears like iron and softens over time, and I hope the Araucania will perform likewise. It's a bit thinner than Regia, but in other ways, it's very similar.

This leaves me three pairs of socks OTN. Two are at the heel of the first sock. One is maybe an inch into the second sock, so that one will be my next desk sock to work on when dictation frees up my hands. I would like to cut down on the number of projects OTN, so I'm going to apply a "finish two/then cast on one" approach. Any two will do!

Tiny Treasure

So, a funny thing happened Friday afternoon. For over a month now, my checking account balance has not matched the balance from the bank. Not even close. I mean, far enough apart to justify a bit of a panic. I figured something hadn't cleared, something big, and I went off to San Francisco believing it would clear by the time I got home.

Nope. Balance was still off when I got back. So I started poring over my receipts and my register and my statements, and I went to the bank (a small neighborhoody place, where they know me) and explained the problem to them. They printed out extra register material for me and sent me home to check again.

Still couldn't get them to reconcile, so back to the bank Friday afternoon. It took over an hour, but we found the error. Finally.

And OMG, it was a biggie, and it was in my favor.

This is not the sort of thing you want to discover the day before Stitches. The day after, yes, when you're totalling up the receipts and wondering how you managed to spend that much -- that would be the time to suddenly discover an extra few hundred dollars.

But not before. Not when there is market yet to explore.

I went in with a wish list of items ranging from the vague ("some buttons") to the Holy Grail ("4500 yards of fingering weight in a solid color for no more than $100, with a pink unicorn that sneezes silver fairy dust on top"). I knew what I could spend (pre-bank error) and figured I would stick to that, but the extra cash in the bank account might be nice if I found something truly special. You know the kind of thing I mean. Not just special as in ooh, shiny! But special as in, I will never forget this yarn, and walking away from it is painful.

Enter the qiviut.

You know, we can blame this one on those damned cashmere mittens. I knit with that cashmere and loved it so much that it made me curious about knitting with the other luxury fibers. Cashmere is on the low end of the luxury fiber scale. The non-rare end. The slum end.

If cashmere is the slum, then qiviut is definitely the penthouse.

We walked into the booth with the qiviut and qiviut blends, and pet the beautiful, tiny balls, and looked at the photos of the musk ox. We touched the scarves. We sighed over the colors.

Then we left for the next booth. Except, I found myself back in the qiviut booth while Kris checked out whatever was the next stall over -- I don't know, because every time I tried to leave the qiviut booth to join her elsewhere, I ended up right back where I started. I couldn't walk away. I was entranced. Completely and utterly entranced. Finally, after about the fifth time trying and failing to walk away, I said (literally), "Screw it. I'm buying a skein."

I still can't believe I spent that much on a single ounce of yarn. But I must say, it's worth it. I haven't knit a single stitch yet, and already this skein has given me more pleasure than any 100 other skeins combined. Petting it makes me happy. Holding it up to the light makes me happy. Rubbing it on my cheek makes me happy.

And the fact that this tiny little egg of yarn won't add to my storage issue -- that really makes me happy.