Into the Wild

I sent at least two pieces of knitting into the wild today. I say at least two because at 7 a.m. I wasn't going to try and have a truly coherent chat with a half-asleep Philosopher about the appropriateness of a scarf.

Two pieces of my knitting are flying to Florida today as gifts for the Philosopher's parents. While not new, these projects have obviously been underway for a while, actually releasing them is a lot more terrifying than I expected.

Knitting for other people is often difficult and it's one of the reasons I won't do paid-for knitting. I'll barter, infrequently, but in general if I'm knitting for others it's for people I dearly love and who have expressed interest in receiving knitted things.

So, my mother, boyfriend, siblings, and several of my dearest friends regularly get things. One of my research partners gets infrequent socks. Periodically I'll sit down and knit something for someone who hasn't gotten anything before if yarn or pattern strikes me as "for them."

PhilosoMomandDad? I've not met them in person as yet. And they live in Florida, so hand knits as defense against the weather aren't quite as important as they are in Chicago. Defense against the air conditioning maybe....



The Ground Up Muppet Socks are off to PhilosoMom and for PhilosoDad I've sent a shawl that I started five years ago.  The shawl was the Philosopher's idea, I trust his judgement of things his parents will like.  He also picked out the sock yarn for his mom.



The shawl is huge, five feet from back of the neck to tip, about a 6' wing span. It's knit out of Ewe-Phoria yarns, which is some of the first yarn I ever bought on the internet. I got it off of Ebay while I still lived in New York. Originally I started it as a prayer shawl for BlondeMom but she's allergic to wool and I had to change gears mid project. And so it languished, waiting for edging and some love. It got a 10 row garter edging on the sides and was blocked not extremely aggressively on the dining room floor. I had to cover it with towels so certain felines didn't turn it into a work 75% wool; 25% cat fur.

I hope they'll love the projects. I hope they'll understand how many hours it takes to do all of that knitting. I hope he remembers to remind them that handwashing would be best for these. Both projects are knit out of superwash but I'm still paranoid.

The third piece is a malabrigo scarf that I whipped up for the gift bin sometime last year. I was using up leftovers with Franklin Habit's Faucet pattern. It goes super quickly with worsted weight and size 9 needles. I left it for the Philosopher to decide if the graduating DO would appreciate it. If not, I may send him a hat later on, he'll be in Ohio for a while and it gets chilly there.

For now, I have to get back to a baby blanket and a pair of socks.

My Cat is Weird

This is apparently a comfortable pose

Fire and Water, But No Smoke

BMFA's Color Lady Tina put up more mill ends the other day. As deeply as I love BMFA and all of the color options, I really love the surprises that she comes up with when there are leftovers and imperfect skeins.

Previously I've gotten the water shades, as of course everything blue/purple/green tends to be a favorite in my stash. So of course, I went for another water shade.







This one looks like the bottom of stream. Initially it did feel a little bit plain but then the Philosopher and I noticed the pop of coral. It's like peering down into the water and suddenly a fish darts past. A rather bright fish! We both found that very exciting.



The other skein that I ventured to try was a Fire skein. I knew to expect reds and oranges but wasn't sure what else would come. The result is this very vibrant mix of pink and red and orange and just a hint of yellow.





For now I assume both will become socks, though they each have mitten or hat potential as well.  I'll have to poke around the various sock loving people in my life and see if anyone really wants to lay claim to either color.

Waiting for Dye

I did finish the sweater! It's my first official sweater, despite having talked a knitting student in La Crosse through one. I did make a shrug for a coworker's daughter once but that was a super bulky project and wasn't for me, so I'm not counting that either.



I bought this yarn for the excellent reasons of a) it was on sale and b) it was named after one of my favorite heroines: Elizabeth Bennet. It's from Yarn Love, who is no longer dying, in the Plum Cake colorway. Apparently plum cakes are a yellow cake.  Unfortunately, yellow cake and my complexion are not really good for each other, so I need to track down some sort of dye.



It's a cute sweater, perfect for summer. The yarn is 20% bamboo and 15% silk, which make it light and glossy. It doesn't close in the front, but it will do nicely over a tank top or light t-shirt for cooler summer evenings.



Just as soon as I get the ends woven in and it fully dyed.

Sock Show Thursday: Charging Thru May

It's spring! It's spring! The daffodils and tulips are finally all in full blossom and yesterday I spotted a beautiful lawn of new grass and violets.

Violets are my very favorite flower. They're so delicate but with such rich deep color. I'm happy to see them on the lawns near Chez Hedgehog because it means that it's warm enough for them but we haven't yet hit the first round of lawnmowing, which always cuts their lifespan abruptly.

May's socks are rolling right along.  Gypsy and Pye were so good to help me as I tried to take pictures the other day. 

While yesterday's commute home on the train (no air, forget cool, moving in that car; also broken train in front of us = lots of delays) was not ideal knitting time, I did soldier on.  This photo is a couple of days old, I'm now through the toe of Sock 1 and about an inch into the ribbing on Sock 2.  

These are being knit out of Sanguine Gryphon and I very greatly enjoy the depth of color. Under the bright sunshine, these really pop!

Oh...and yes, I did finish the Philososix Socks. They are waiting, along with the Black and Teal socks and a few other projects, for me to have an ends-weaving evening.



At least the socks are keeping each other company.  

Week-end

We got a lot of rain over the past couple of days here in my hood. The Philosopher, felines, and I are fine. I had some train trouble commuting yesterday morning but our building is on high ground and we're on the top floor so my greatest inconvenience has been wet feet and weather that, today at least, is trying to convince me that it is February rather than late April.

I did finally acquire a Philosopher foot and I've made a lot more progress on the second sock of the April pair, a good thing considering the date. I turned the heel during a meeting and now just have a gusset and foot to go. That should be very manageable within the next ten says.

Did I tell you I started the baby blanket for the Blonde? I know I mentioned the need to start. Anyway, I've ordered and received yarn from Webs and another log cabin has been cast on. Don't worry, this one looks very different from the first log cabin I did for her and I'm using yellow/orange/blue rather than orange/green/brown. I'm doing squares as I did for my own log cabin and am still debating how I'll piece them together. I've been thinking a three-needle bind off might be an interesting technique to try.

It's Friday and I don't have much more than that.... Wishing you a safe, happy, warm and uneventful weekend..

Tiding Me Over

Getting the Philosopher to try on his latest pair of socks so I can start the toe on Sock 1 has proved challenging. We live together, you would think we could manage this but apparently not a lot of effort. And yes, I'm working on Sock 2 from the outside of the skein but it's just  not the same....

So, I've started another pair of socks to hold me over. They're underway and you'll see more of them on Thursdays to come, this is just to tide you over.