Wait! I thought I was a loose knitter...

After gauge issues on a few previous projects convinced me that I'm a loose knitter, 2 more recent projects have me totally confused. First, the Greenery Hat. A fun hat to knit, the cables keeping me interested throughout. I used Knit Picks Superwash Merino that I dyed a few years ago--kelly green over royal blue.

This yarn is excellent--so soft! And I love how the color came out. The problem with this hat? Well, there's no modeled shot because I cannot get it onto my head. The author of the pattern said that it fit her big head so she thought it would fit anyone. And since I don't like gauge swatching, I didn't. Well, now I have a hat for small-headed person. :/ I want to make again, but I'll have to go up at least 1 needle size, maybe 2.

The next project that's made me wonder about my knitting tension: Columbine Peak socks from Cat Bhordi's book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I feel like factors have conspired against me to make these socks a bit on the tight side. First, I'm using Zitron Trekking XXL Pro Natura, which I don't particularly like for sock knitting because it's finer than I like (why did I choose to use it? because it wouldn't require me to set up the swift/yarn ball winder--aka laziness). Then there's the needle I chose to go with this fine yarn: my US1.5 Addi Turbo Lace. Now I chose both of these things, no one forced them on me, but reading the pattern, I didn't anticipate these socks being too tight--it calls for casting on 72 stitches! 8 more than I usually have for a sock. I thought this would be sufficient to make the socks appropriately sized for me. But no, this will be a pair of socks for a smaller-footed person.

I like the way this pattern has some 1x1 ribbing down the foot, keeping it snug--just too snug for me. :/

I'm wondering if I'm taking my stress out on my knitting. A few months ago, when I was plagued by the loose knitting, I was much more relaxed than I am now (still unemployed, savings slowing dwindling). And I wonder how small and tight the lace shawl I'm working on will end up.

That purple blog is my Pangea shawl. I'm using some lovely alpaca laceweight by J. Knits that I bought somewhere in NYC, maybe Downtown Yarns on Ave A? It's a little bit halo-y, but I haven't any problems with it. And the color is quite lovely. However. I chose to use a smaller-than-usual needle size--3.0mm. The author includes options for working an additional repeat of one of the charts to increase size, so I did that, but I'm nearing the end of the pattern and it's still pretty darn small looking. Of course it will be bigger after blocking, but still, I'm thinking this is going to be more like a shawlette/scarf. :/

Let's see if I an redeem this blog post with one good knitting project to report on! My Noro Kureyon Sock FBS turned out great!

It still needs a soak to open up the lace and some buttons, but I'm in no rush to finish it, since it has no destination as of yet. As with most Noro colorways I've encountered, there's a section that looks like puke--in this case, it's the peach/gray business happening around the chest, but whatever, I obviously didn't object enough to remove it from the sweater. I did, however, avoid using these awful colors on the sleeves, instead working the yarn in the reverse direction than the body, going from yellow to green instead of yellow to puke. One sleeve turned out a bit tighter than the other, but I'm just going to block it a bit more severely and then not worry about it.

A quick note about books: I recently finished reading Persepolis 2 and really enjoyed it. As with Persepolis 1, it was interesting to read a memoir in graphic novel format, and also interesting to hear about life in Iran 10-20 years ago. I also liked the movie, which goes part way into book 2, if I recall. As I said to my mom the other day, it's a great "subtitled cartoon musical"--you don't seem many of those, especially of the autobiographical variety.. Now I'm reading The Reader, which is a good, quick read, though I'm not sure how I'd rate the book if I had to. Maybe 3 stars out of 5?

What a wonderful kind of day!

Today is perhaps the most beautiful day we've had yet. And tomorrow is supposed to be even better! I continue to welcome the reappearance of my freckles. :)

In knitting: The knitting of the Noro Yoke Sweater is complete. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The sleeves are a tad on the tight side, but I'm thinkin' they might loosen up a bit upon blocking. We shall see.

Yeah, I look kinda crazy in that picture. Maybe it's the sun. Or maybe it's the fact that I knit all that Noro on US 4 needles and it kind of drove me nuts-o. All that's left is to weave in the ends and graft the underarm seams. But maybe I'll love those open...

A wool sweater with pit vents--I could market that idea! No, I'll sew those up. Sometime. Not now. Given how lovely the weather is, I'm not exactly motivated to finish this wool sweater, but I'm sure this dense sweater will be nice come winter.

Once the noro sweater was complete, I went back to the modern lace henley, and I'm plugging along on the front.

I have 18 more rows to go on the front before I start the sleeves. I'm feeling kinda iffy about the color of this sweater. It's a dark, dullish green. I kinda wish I'd gone with navy or dark purple. Oh well.

In reading: I'm slugging through The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. It's a humorous and informative look at the puritan settlers of the early 1600's. I'm about half way through, and just not sure if I really need to gain whatever information could be presented in the second half. We'll see. To distract myself, I started Persepolis yesterday (and will finish it today). I loved the movie. And the book is great, too.

In movies: I went to a screening of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past on Monday. Meh. The Stranger has a funny "review" of it in this week's issue. You should read it and pretend I wrote it. :)

Look how pretty it is here!

This Tornado Loves You

And now, as promised...

What I've been listening to: Neko Case's new album, Middle Cyclone, has been my constant soundtrack for the past week or so. The music is a perfect blend of country, folk and rock. The lyrics are pure poetry. Nature is a recurrent theme, as is love. Neko's voice is perfectly showcased throughout.

I'm having a hard time picking just one favorite song. The title track, Middle Cyclone, is in the running for my favorite. I love the slow, mellowness of it; the simplicity of the guitar; the music box-like tingling sounds. And this song contains my favorite lyric from the whole album:

Can't scrape together quite enough to ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that I need love.

The album contains 14 songs, then a 30 minute track of quiet bird chirping. I love this little addition. In my head, their thought processes went something like:

Music exec 1: "Well, this is sure a great album, but there's all this leftover space on the disc."
Music exec 2: "I know! Let's put in 30 minutes of quiet bird chirping!"
Music exec 1: "Awesome idea. You deserve a promotion."

Hehe.

What I've been reading: After finishing David Sedaris's underwhelming book, I was pleased to discover such humor in Sloane Crosley's gem, I Was Told There'd Be Cake. The author is a woman only a couple years older than me who lives in New York. Her essays reflect what it's like growing up in suburbia in the 80s and 90s, and what it's like living in the city now. You might not appreciate the humorous situations if you're, say, a 50 year old woman living in a moderately sized city. But if you're an almost-thirtysomething living in NYC, this might be just the book for you.

Socks, and other knitting

Sittin' Knittin': I finished those Traveler's Stockings from Knitting on the Road. I think they turned out just lovely.

When I finished the second sock, I did a regular toe, liked it this way better, and went back and changed sock #1.

Still plugging away at those brown socks I showed you last time. #2 is almost half way done. I started a new pair of socks out of some Noro Kureyon sock yarn I purchased a couple weeks ago up at Hilltop Yarn. I just love Noro Kureyon sock yarn. People complain about it. But I would happily knit with it every day for the rest of my life. The first pair of socks I made out of this stuff, I used 2.5mm needles. But I'm using 3.0mm needles for this pair. And I think it's working out just fine. I'm about a 1/4 of the way through sock #2. No pics of these, sorry.

As I mentioned, I'd been seriously missing my stash the past couple of weeks. So this past weekend I went to my mom's office, where all the boxes of my stuff are being held until I get to move into my apartment (everyone cross your fingers for this weekend!), and went rummaging for yarn. It was like shopping! I pulled out enough yarn to keep me set for at least a month, plus my trusty ball winder and swift. I pulled out mostly sock yarn, but I also pulled out a few skeins of laceweight. After some browsing through ravelry, I found a beautiful lace shawl pattern and went to it. I'm using some pale blue merino wool I found on etsy. And let me just be honest: I'm in love.

I did cheat on the lace for a one night stand with some kitchen cotton to make this bag:

The pattern is availabe in the second Mason-Dixon book, or free online. While going through my mounds of junk in mom and dad's attic, I found a couple of bags I'd crocheted many years ago (back before I was a knitter), and decided to repurpose them into some awesome shopping bags. There are a few nifty stitches in the pattern for this bag that give it a take-any-shape expandable mesh.

I'm gonna take a quick sec and talk about books. I've been reading David Sedaris's newest book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I hate to say this, but I've been underwhelmed by the whole thing. For probably 90% of the stuff in this book, I feel like I've read some version of it before. Probably in the New Yorker, possibly he's had some of them on This American Life. And the stuff just isn't as funny the second time around. If you don't read the New Yorker of listen to TAL, you might like this book better than I do. I'm glad that it's a library book and not a purchase.

Countdown

Only 2 more nights in NYC. I'm so excited but also freaking out. I made another stop on my Farewell EastCoast tour this weekend with a quick trip down to DC to visit Anna and Matt.

It was so much fun to hang out with them. I really hope they decide to settle in Seattle. We went out to super yummy dinner with some of their friends, went to a couple of farmers markets, played some poker (I won), watched the oscars (I won this too--too bad we didn't bet). Anna wore this super cute little cardigan from Boden and I was so fascinated by the stitch pattern that I spent a good 10 minutes studying it and taking notes so that I could copy it. :D This is what the knit side looks like

but the neat thing about this cardigan is that this is the inside. The purl side is showing (don't have a pic of this) and it looks really cool. I'm going to try to recreate this for one of my sweaters this year.

Speaking of knitting, I've made a good deal of progress on the Sixteen-Point Tee. But it is slow going. I guess I didn't realize that knitting a sweater on size 5s would go significantly slower than knitting a sweater on size 7s or 8s. Even after knitting the entire bus ride to and from DC and all through the oscars, I've just divided for the sleeves.

But I'm still hopeful that it will be ready to wear to my party this Saturday--I have today, tomorrow, and let us not forget the flight on Friday: 5.5 hours of prime knitting time. If only I'd done a gauge swatch at the outset, instead of after knitting for a week.... Oh well.

As a soundtrack for the knitting, I've been listening to a lot of Andrew Bird. His new CD is called Noble Beast and it is so lovely. His voice, the harmonies, the music, his violin! I love it. And there's some prime wistling on here too--you know I love wistling!

Other music coming out of my speakers lately: the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire. Fun music. I especially like the two versions of M.I.A.'s Paperplanes it has. I think it might be time for me to get an M.I.A. CD into my collection. Hmmm.

What I've been reading: Just finished Revolutionary Road. Without a doubt, a good book. However, I felt like I was reading the screenplay of the movie--the similarities were so great.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm just used to books giving me more than movies. This happened a few times--the book gave a bit more background about what the characters were thinking and feeling in certain scenes that I didn't get in the movie. And this isn't to say that I wish I hadn't read the book. I just wish it had been more. Now, if I'd read the book first, then seen the movie, I probably would have remarked at what a good job Sam Mendes did at capturing the whole book in his movie. And this is true. But I don't think this book is a must read. Just go see the movie. One big difference: the very end. And I think I like the movie's better. More uplifting after such a heavy story.

What I've been watching: I've already extolled on my love of Hulu, but let me just reiterate it's greatness. In my queue right now: Last night's Daily Show and Colbert Report. I broke my no-movies-until-employed rule last week and went to see Waltz with Bashir. Probably the best movie I could break the rule for. This movie is an animated documentary about an unsavory bit of Israeli history. So well made. Moving. Left me speechless afterward.

I would like to take a small moment to say that I love Mini Eggs. I'm not sure what it is about them--the crisp candy shell so different from M&Ms? the awesome cadbury chocolate inside? Maybe it's just the fact that they're only available during a part of the year. Or maybe it's that their arrival on store shelves heralds the upcoming arrival of spring.

So yummy!

New Day

I've decided to give this blogging thing another go. My goal is going to be once a week. We'll see how that goes...

What I've been knitting: Now that the madness of holiday gift knitting is past, I've been plugging away at a few projects for me. A pair of socks, Flaming Nuts, from the Nutkin pattern.

I've reversed the pattern, I didn't like the way my ssk's looked in the pattern--I much prefer the k2tog. Also, the pattern on the leg really wants to twist, so I decided to do a plain stockinette foot to avoid annoying twisting on the foot. The yarn is Hazel Knits, a Christmas gift from Melisa last year. It's beautiful--soft and squishy!

I finished my second shawl a few weeks ago, and just got around to blocking it yesterday. It's Laminaria, from Knitty. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace, and it is just divine. I didn't block this shawl quite as severly as I might have, it's definitely a shawl-ette, but I love it. I wasn't sure what I would do with it when it was done (probably why it took me so long to finish it), but now I've decided that I'm going to keep it.

My main project right now is my adaptation of the 28Thirty cropped cardigain. I'm un-cropping it. I'm using wonderfully cheap yarn, Wool of the Andes from knitpicks, in Amethyst Heather, purchased with a christmas gift certificate. I just started this last week, but it's been cruising along.

What I've been reading: Since I finished school last month, I've been reading up a storm. In the last two weeks I've read the following: The White Tiger, The Emperor's Children, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Twilight #3, and now I'm reading Twilight #4. I could go on an on about why I loved each of these books, but I don't want to sit here at the computer all day.

What I've been listening to: Oh, I cannot get enough to Taylor Swift! I had been mildly interested in her music, but then I saw her performance on SNL and she won me over. Her music is the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga--teen angst all around from every angle. :) I've also been rocking out to a little Mates of State, and mellowing out with Blind Pilot.

What I've been watching: Well, right now I'm watching CNN picture-in-picture with other stuff from the DVR, waiting for the inaugural action to start. Movie-wise, I saw Revolutionary Road a few days ago, and I can see why Kate Winslet won the Golden Globe. I can also tell that the movie was made by her husband. It was a very moving story. Well shot. Another movie I loved recently was Slumdog Millionaire.

Also in the watching department, I watched the whole "season" of Children's Hospital, on theWB.com--laughing my ass off! This spoof of hospital dramas is written and directed by Daily Show alum Rob Corddry. Soooooo funny!

Today is my last day of vacation. So sad that it's ending, but it helps to know that I have less than 5 weeks of work left--which means less than 6 weeks in NYC. I bought my plane ticket to Seattle yesterday, I leave 2/27. Crazy. I've started packing. I packed one box yesterday, moderately heavy. And one today so heavy that I could barely lift it! I'll have to repack that one lighter, some how.

My purple cardi is calling to me. Gotta go!