Oooo! Pictures!

In an apparent case of the reverse-Mondays (trademark!), I actually took some pictures of my knitting this morning before school. Above you see a lovely trio of Noro Silk Garden hats, or Dirty Hippie Hats, as I prefer to call them. They are sized, roughly, large, medium and small. Below you see a duo of bright hats, Zeebees, for a couple of Heinze boys I know. They are, hopefully, sized for child and toddler. The yarn is Cascade 220 that I myself died, a color I call Un-Lose-Able in honor of its brightness. And what a delightful pattern!

I've had an influx of new music this week. Iron and Wine-The Shepard's Dog; Josh Rouse-Country Mouse City House; Old 97s-Hit By A Train; Beirut-The Flying Cup Club; Band of Horses-Cease to Begin; The New Pornographers-Challengers; Headlights-Kill Them With Kindness. All of it wonderful (of course!)

Above you see my progress on the never-ending-sleeves. Maybe it would have gone faster to do one sleeve at a time, but then I'm afraid that one would end up looser/tighter than the other if I was more/less stressed while knitting it. I think I have about 3 inches left to go on these before I can join them with the body and finally begin the yoke. Below, two pictures of another pair of monkeys I'm working on. The yarn is Trekking XXL. It feels softer than I remember previous trekkings to be--could this be? I think these socks are so lovely. But alas, they're destined for other feet than mine. I'm more than 1/2way done with the second one. Maybe I can finish it tomorrow on the way to and from clinical.

Happy Monday, hope everyone had a chill Veteran's Day yesterday.

Ah--life is crazy!

And I've been going Cast-On Crazy!!! I feel like I need a cool announcer to say that. Like it's a car sale or something--"Get down here right now, Robin's going Cast-On Crazy!!" Maybe I'm manic, I just can't focus on one project. Active projects on the needles right now: Dirty Hippie Hat #3 (50%), Xmas Monkeys (75%), Embossed Leaves Handwarmers (25%), More Striped Socks (5%), Plum Sweater sleeves (50%). And that's not counting projects that have been dolefully pushed to the back burner. I have so much great yarn, I just want to knit it all up RIGHT NOW!

Mostly I think all this casting on is just a thinly veiled study-procrastination technique. I did horrendously on my last exam, which means I really need to get my ass in gear and fricking study! But I just can't bring myself to sit down and crack the textbook (if I'm going to skip class, I'm resigned to doing the reading).

And OF COURSE I don't have pictures of any of this stuff. But I might have a picture somewhere of a recent FO...hrmm...Here's a (blurry) pic of Dirty Hippie Hat #1:

And here's one of adorable little Logan wearing his Two-Tone Cable Yoke Jacket--it fits perrrr-fect!! :D

So there you go, a couple of pictures. Maybe now I should get back to my homework? I've decided that the study is a Knitting-Free Zone so that I can come in here to do work without being distracted. This plan isn't working out so well, though, since MY WHOLE STASH is in here. Hrmmmm. I could really use some discipline right 'bout now!
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Now playing: Josh Ritter - Wait For Love
via FoxyTunes

mid October update

So much to talk about, so let's get right down to it:

1. Blue Stripeys. Finally finished these socks that I started waaaaaaaaaaay back in July on the way to Jamie's wedding. Way back when, I'd nearly completed one sock, when I had my roommate try it on, only to find it was way too small! So, completely frogged. Re-cast with larger needles. And many months later, here we have the finished product.

I wasn't too happy with these socks. I don't like the way the short-row heel turned out (note to self: investigate other short row heel methods). Also, not so fond of the knitted fabric that resulted from increasing the needles size.

But thankfully I've got a family full of women with similarly sized feet. A quick text message to my sister, "Hey, check out my flickr page and tell me if you want those blue socks," and her reply, "Yes please!!" and these socks have a good home with someone who won't look at them and only see their flaws (do you think I'll be like this with my hypothetical children? only seeing their flaws??? I sure hope not)

2. Plum Sweater Update. Making excellent progress on the sweater. Done with the body up to the armpits. Need to cast on the sleeves. Nothing too exciting, just LOTS of stockinette.

3. Cast-On-itis. A week or so ago I got a mad case of cast-on-itis, went stash diving and started a few new projects. First, the Chevron Scarf from LMKG, using two amazingly bright colors of Colinette Jitterbug. I have no idea who I'm making this for--it's sooooooooooo bright.

Also cast on last week, Dirty Hippy Hat. Just a basic hat, seed stitch brim, with tall stitches on the body of the hat. Yarn: Noro Silk Garden. I plan on making a few of these as xmas gifts; good mindless TV knitting. This first Dirty Hippy Hat has been almost done for about a week now (I knit it in one sitting while watching a movie). I just need to suck it up and finish the darned thing!

The 3rd NCOO (newly cast on object) is a slightly modified version of Broadripple from Knitty. I started with a picot edge; am working the sock over 64 st (large footed family); and instead of yarnovers, I'm using M1 on the plain row for slightly smaller holes in the lace pattern. The heel is a plain stockinette square. I love these socks so far. Hopefully their recipient will like them as well.

4. In non-knitting stuff, I went to Boston last weekend, my first time there in a year. I visited Jamie and Jessica, and had such a nice time! On Saturday, by sheer dumb luck, Jamie and I ended up at the Partners in Health Symposium at Harvard--we heard Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Jim Kim, Melinda Gates, Danny Glover, and people from PIH sites around the world. It was inspiring; my desire to work abroad has been re-ignited. Me and Jamie (I forgot to take a picture with Jessica...oops!)

5. Today I saw Gone Baby Gone. What a good movie! Though, I can't say the title without thinking of the Gnarls Barkley song Gone Daddy Gone. Anyways, back to the movie--well acted, beautifully shot. Heart breaking, though, as social commentary. A bit demoralizing.

6. On the subway today, I was sitting next to little boy--not more than 4 years old--who was studying a placemat map of the world from 125th to 168th. It was pretty much the cutest thing.

7. Let me leave you with this sentiment: I love tofu. It's so yummy. I really want this shirt: