Thursday, September 26, 2013

Thursday knitting bag

Five things for not-quite-the-weekend...

Green with knitting

Owing to the lure of the Stoddart socks there has been very slow progress on the last of the three hats I designed last week:


It's knit with Twisted Fiber Art's Playful, a sport weight superwash wool that has just a little texture and a lot of bounce.  It's funny how even with the same fibers, every yarn knits up differently... in this case, each ply is very distinct so you get a nice play of shadows when you choose a semisolid rather than one of the self-striping colourways.

Also funny: how a hat will come out totally the wrong size if you don't do a gauge swatch.  (It's frogged, to be cast back on today.)


Writer for a day week

It's official: I'm attending a writing workshop this fall.  Yay!  It's years since I was able to invest any time in writing (apart from this blog, which takes up a not-insignificant part of each day) so just getting myself to clear enough calendar to apply was a huge victory, and finding out I was accepted is some serious icing.

As it happens I was thinking recently about what on earth I am doing writing this blog at all, something I have to assume occurs to most blog-writers at some point or other.  A lot of days, I give up sleep to make space for it.  Turns out that apart from meeting nice people and knowing my chemo cap patterns in particular make a difference, it's about the writing - what I lose in time, I gain in contentment. 

So, thank you for reading Hugs as often as you do!


Earning my stripes

There is another band of striping on my latest Stoddart socks:


The other sock has another band of the cuff colour at the other end of this newest pink and blue bit - I must have picked this one up by accident when I went to take pictures.  But trust me: it looks cute.  SO CUTE.  I can't wait to be done.

(and yes, I did have to resort to counting out rows in other socks to figure out how long the leg and the heel flap should be.  Sadly for the feet, the math was different on every single pair I checked so I'm kinda on my own there.)


Where does the (knitting) time go?

Yesterday I had first-hand experience of the merits of tempered glass when I knocked a tumbler off the counter and into the dishwasher I was unloading.


Broken tempered glass chunks up into cube-y bits as advertised... but it turns out you also get tiny specks and shards of glass too.  Yay.  I spent over 90 minutes cleaning this up, which is why I may or may not have anything new to show you tomorrow, ahem.


Fiber temptations

Did I mention I joined the Twisted Fiber Art club again for this fall?  I had decided not to, and then for the first time ever there were some spaces left after the first ten minutes, so I guessed it must be a Sign.


I went for roving this round, and chose the earth-toney stream of colours (you get to choose between two for the club, and shop from either stream in the afterwards-market.)  It is absolutely stunning but I can't show it to you lest I spoil the surprise for somebody else in the club, which hurts me probably a lot more than it does you.

And that's me for today... with luck I'll actually cram in a little knitting in the next few hours because otherwise tomorrow's post will be a picture of a pile of projects I'm not making any progress on at all.  (ugh, what a terrifying thought.)

Take care and I will see you then!

4 comments:

Leslie said...

I think the pile of "no progress projects" would be a great thing to see :) Maybe I wouldn't feel so bad about my pile of no progress projects...you know, the ones being neglected for my current blanket knitting obsession. Poor Mama may not have socks for Christmas.

Marianne said...

I actually finished my first Christmas gift project yesterday!!! I have 3 others on the needles, 2 of which will take awhile but keep a quick project on so I won't get bored.
Oh I forgot, I finally made a pair of socks!!! Took a class online and boom, it all made sense!! So now I always have a sock on the needles!! (They are addicting!! : )

Mary Keenan said...

Leslie, I was so ready to take all those little knitting bags out for a little photoshoot when I found out I had to dash out the door... and another story clumped me on the head for Friday ;^) but thank you for the positive remark because while putting all of them in one place I found some rescue knitting!

Mary Keenan said...

Marianne, you are amazing! And it's not even chilly out yet (here, anyway.) I remember your online class, didn't realize you'd finished those socks - isn't it amazing how great handknit socks feel on? So glad that worked out for you.