Hedgehog Knitting

Trying to measure seeming intangible long term effects is one of the challenges of information work. We certainly try to quantify and qualify in a variety of ways, but at the end of the day, my desk usually looks worse than it did when I started, there are ever more emails waiting for me, and a new class of students who don't know or don't remember how PubMed works.

I've cited this before as part of the reason I feel particularly bonded to having a craft that is more concrete and where progress, though often slow, is visible and tangible.  In a fit of nothing-I'm-doing-works-and-I-see-no-progress-ever, I stormed the stash.

Nothing like intangible outcomes and weather that seems like it will never get warmer to make a girl want to start knitting a sweater.

I pulled out the second bag of binge yarn from last spring with AudioGirl. She also just started making a sweater from this base, though hers will be teal.  Mine will be brown. It's Filatura Lanarota Wool Sprinkl…

The only skein I had wound and designated for socks when I cast off the Strawberry Banana socks was a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight in the My Blue Heaven Colorway.  This is my second pair with this colorway, I also knit my Hawaii Socks out of MBH.  I bought the skeins separately, but hey, I'm consistent in my purchasing of blue sock wool so that comes as no big surprise.

I hadn't really been paying attention when I cast on and lo and behold, it's the stitch count I use for the Philosopher.  So, despite my more recent plans to only work on scarves for him, he's getting one more pair of socks.



I'm not very far along, especially considering how fast sport weight knits up. I'd expected, on Monday, to have a lot of time to work on them during an all day exam I was proctoring, but juggling grading sheets and working with the students precluded that.

I spent an hour over last weekend winding up more yarn for socks and Philoso-scarves. Afte…

We have a new robot at Chez Hedgehog. For our anniversary earlier this year, the Philosopher got me a Roomba. We've named him Finnbar. I was required to give him a male name, I was told, to help even out the gender balance.

Finn is going to have the monumental task of collecting not only dust and Chex crumbs, but also following Gypsy and Pyewacket around and trying to keep up with my shedding. The Philosopher shaves his head so he contributes less to shedding than the three females in residence.


We've run Finn a couple of times now--first in the dining room and kitchen, then in the living room.  My first and strongest conviction is that the point of a Roomba isn't actually to clean the floors, that's just a side benefit. The first job is to point out all the things you should have picked up before you started the Roomba. We've both spent time going "oh, quick grab that before Finn tries to go over it." [Please note the red cat toy from the Incredibly-Pati…

Russell Stover's makes an "Assorted Creams" box, with a teal colored printed ribbon, that has my favorite of their chocolates: the fruit creams. For reasons unbeknownst to me, it has either 4 or 6 chocolates whose title also includes Maple and only one that has Orange, Apricot, and Lemon, but I suffer through.

This project is actually one reborn. About 3.5 years ago, I had fallen down the path of the Yarn Harlot's suggestion (me and everyone else...) and purchased some Wolle's Yarn Creation in the Strawberry to Hershey Colorway. I'd even started it, as evidenced in this old blog post.

While the yarn continues to be pretty



I found I didn't like the pattern I was using--a garter stitch triangular scarf. It just didn't work with gradient and I couldn't get enthused about it.

So I ripped out what had been knit up, decided I wanted something rectangular, and traipsed over to Ravelry for a click around. The pattern I settled on is called Upstairs and it…

The Incredibly-Patient-Mother popped up for a weekend with the Philosopher and I and was my dutiful companion to YarnCon 2014, sparing said P a trip. Someone had gone out to several birthday parties the night before and was home sleeping while I was doing this yarn shopping. This means that said someone didn't get to pick out any wool for himself this year.  Considering I have at least 4 skeins set aside for him off the top of my head, I think he'll be okay though.

Anywho, it continues to be a nice local conference and it was nice to see Shannon Okey. IPM and I went on Sunday and Shannon's booth for Cooperative Press was seriously picked over. I watched a store owner nearly fully wipe out the rest of the books that Shannon had and was a little sad that some of the books I'd wanted to see in person were gone. Thrilled for her of course, I'm sure she was very pleased not to have to take the books home and I've no doubt that lack of weight equaled better gas milea…

Yeah, yeah I know the saying April Showers bring May Flowers but usually I don't have to wait until May to see crocus and snow drops and daffodils. In years past *something* has come up a little earlier and hinted at the color returning to the world after our monochromes of grey, white, slush, and ice.

I used the nearly neon intense colors of yarn for my earlier socks this year, but looking towards spring I started wanting spring colors and those are inevitably a little more pastel. With that in mind, I pulled out a skein in the colorway of Strawberry Banana.

This yarn was purchased after attending a friend's wedding in North Carolina. It's Three Waters Farm yarn and they have a lot of roving if you're a spinner. Pretty colors. I would have liked a neater hand on the labels, they're handwritten and somewhat illegible, but fortunately labels tend to go the way of cat toys around Chez Hedgehog. I shudder to think how many of them are probably under one of the couches…

In between the most recent pair of socks, I've been working on the first of the neck scarves requested by the Philosopher.  I was also trying to use up at least a bit of the yarn that I bought at YarnCon last year so I didn't feel quite so guilty about going and buying more this year. I wouldn't have felt much guilt, but it seemed appropriate to at least try.

I pulled out a pattern I've considered and set aside a few times: The Age of Brass and Steam kerchief.  While it's simplicity has been appealing, I've known that for myself I'd need to make it far larger and I just haven't wanted to work on it. Now, here was a perfect opportunity to do a one skein piece.

The yarn is from Sophie's Toes, and is dyed by Emily Parson, who has really lovely color sense and is an absolutely nice person as well. This colorway, handpicked last year by the Philosopher, is Flannel.


I mostly followed the pattern.  After the second eyelet repeat I rather gave up on how oft…