socks for Socktoberfest

I was determined to finish a pair of socks in October--the scarf, baby blanket, and life being my main obstacles--and with six hours to spare, I did it.


They're done in Opal, in plain old stockinette, since it knit up so pretty all on its own, on 1.5 (2.5mm) Inox circulars. They look huge lying down, but they're meant to fit my big feet, and they do!



And in other knitting related news, we've apparently determined that I'm the Charlotte of our little circle.

Reading: The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, despite Alison's urging me not to. But I dreamed about it the other night, and I've never read it, so I decided it was time. But I'm not allowed to read it right before I go to bed. I've got Eloise for that.

a baby blanket and Yarn!

I finally finished one of my many projects on the needles--a baby blanket. Some of you have seen me knitting baby stuff for months now, as this is for my fourth friend to have a baby this year. There must be something in the water back home, I swear.

So I started this on Thursday and finished it today. It took three skeins of Plymouth Encore Chunky, on size 10 needles. I knit it on the bias so I wouldn't have to figure out how many stitches to cast on, and increased one stitch at the beginning of each row. I alternated stripes of garter and stockinette stitch to give it some texture, which I think you can see better in the next shot.

And yes, it is for a baby girl, due in December.

And now, gratuitous yarn pictures! Ariel went to Rhinebeck this weekend and brought me back some sock yarn, which is on the left in the picture below. It's 80% wool, 20% nylon from Ellen's Half Pint Farm. The other yarn I added into the shot since it's never been photographed and Ariel gave it to me for my birthday back in September. It's Socks that Rock in Prism.

And now I can go back to my goal of actually finishing a pair of socks during Socktoberfest! Not with either of these, those, but hopefully I'll have more FOs soon.

Reading: The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins. I'm finding it fascinating, since I used to be one of those driven kids, but before it got so much more difficult to get into a good school. It's really an interesting read.

one last book

I waited to post this until the intended recipient had received it, but she has, so now you can see the last book I made in my bookbinding class. While most of the books we made were blank, we were given one with text so we could learn about keeping the sections in order and making sure things were going in the right direction. The text was Alice in Wonderland.

We were allowed to choose whatever papers and fabrics we wanted to cover it with and when I was thinking about it, I remembered my friend Erin's fabulous artwork that is tied into the story. And since she was getting married last week, I decided to use some of her images, downloaded from her website, and make her a copy of Alice illustrated with her own work.

The front cover (sorry, the photo is blurry), which is the Queen of Hearts:

Back cover:


Front endpapers, the White Rabbit:


Back endpapers, the Cheshire Cat:


There'll be actual knitting content sometime soon, I'm just right in the middle of a bunch of projects at the moment.

Halloween with the knitters

This goes in the knitting blog, as most of the people involved were my knitting buddies. The party was at Catherine's place and here we are, properly costumed.

Catherine in her 80s wear, Cassandra the cat, Ariel the princess, me as Hermione, and Betsy as. . . well, Betsy in pink.

And here we are, being crazy.

Ariel threatening the Jack-o-lantern to be.

Digging out the pumpkin seeds.



Our finished Jack-o-lantern!

an actual FO!

I actually finished something!

This project was done on a deadline, though the deadline has turned out to be later than what I was first told. It still needs to be blocked, but here are some pictures anyway. It's a double knit scarf, with stars. I know there is now a similar pattern up on Craftster, but this is my own pattern, and this is the second scarf I have done from it (I did the first in the spring, and my knitting buddies know the embarassing truth of where it has since gone). This one, however, is for me.

The scarf was done on size 8s, in just over a skein each of Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Quattro. I had to get it done fast because (since I mailed in the contract I can now say) it's going to be in a knitting calendar for 2008. But first I have to write up the pattern and block it and photograph it.

But my scarf needs a name!! Any suggestions, lovely people?

a road trip and a gathering

Today I got up very early to meet up with stariel, bryghtrose, and bitterknitter for a trip out to Northampton to meet up with other knittyboarders. We made the drive in record time and got to see some beautiful fall foliage.

Once we got to Northampton, we went to our yarny destination, Webs. Here are me, stariel, and bryghtrose in the yarn mecca.

We met up with a host of knittyboarders--theherocomplex, lindydiva, marymac, raeknits, djd, sunidesus, enallagma9, bluepeninsula, Batty, and Yarner--all of whom were lovely and awesome and much fun to hang out with. We wandered around Webs for a couple of hours, making many purchases and fondling much yarn, and then headed downtown for lunch. We also visited Northampton Wools. And since my blog involves poodles, how can I not include this picture of a poodle we met on the street? The poodle has a mustache!

(photo borrowed from Sunidesus)

After we left Northampton, we headed for Grafton. I was riding with djd at this point, and we got a bit lost and ended up taking what turned out to be a rather scenic tour of Grafton, before finding the crew at Classic Yarns. After which, it was time to head home, very tired, but having had a lovely day.

And here's the loot I picked up!

Six skeins of Regia (from the sale shelves), one skein of Trekking XXL, and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Gold Hill. I also got a pair of size 0 Inox circulars. I'm all set for lots of sock knitting!

more bookbinding, plus music

Bookbinding class is over, alas. I wish I could spend every Saturday there. Here is the last book that I finished in class:

The book itself is okay--I made the joint too small--but what is most important about this volume is what is in the next picture:

That's one of the headbands. And I sewed both of those myself. They're not very good, but I managed to do them, and I was the only person in my class who actually did them. They take a lot of patience and, in my case at least, a lot of cursing.

And, for amusement, here is a picture from the concert I went to on Monday night:

That's Jenny Lewis, of Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. She's also the lead singer of Rilo Kiley and I've been a fan of hers since I was a kid, from her work in Troop Beverly Hills and Friendship in Vienna and Brooklyn Bridge. The concert was fabulous, and I highly recommend checking them out if you ever get the chance.

books!

This is going to also be my crafty journal, so you will see some things other than knitting.

I am currently taking a five Saturday workshop in cloth case bookbinding, and here are some pictures of the books I've completed so far.


These are my first three completed projects. I've made two flat backs and one rounded back.

This is the first book I made, which I didn't have any choice in regards to the colors. We were given the pieces and taught how to put them together. For the second book, we had to measure and cut everything ourselves and did our own color and paper choices.

I couldn't get a good picture of the second book. That shows the paper design okay, but not the colors. But the paper is pastepaper I made in a workshop years ago.



This is my third book, and my first attempt at rounding and backing. I really love how the colors turned out on this one.


See how the spine is rounded? We do that by hitting the glued up textblock with a hammer. It's kind of scary.