It’s been a day of crunchy omlettes – some good things and some bad things. (I mean the crunchy omlette thing literally, btw. I dropped half an egg shell into my eggs before beating them and somehow didn’t notice until it was all in the pan! It still tasted good). Here are some of the good things.
First up is the Kidsilk Night Shrug that I’m going to christen Rosy, because of the rosebud stitch pattern. I got two thirds of the body knitted in just two days, and that’s with a lot of work going on in between knits! Here’s a goo at the stitch pattern in all its glory. This is across the back piece.
I hope to have the body complete by the weekend and get started on the more tedious job of the ribbed edging.
Next up are the invisible commuter projects, my blue socks and Thermal. I got a lot done on the latter yesterday because I brought it to knit on my teaching break but it looks exactly the same. I haven’t divided yet for the placket. This is because, despite wanting a bit of variation in the pattern at this stage, I want it to be a bit longer than the pattern specifies. I’m going to try and stick it out! The blue sock has a gusset and a bit of a foot. The sock accompanies bus trips into college, so that will be today and tomorrow because I’ve got work in college (I work sometimes as an examiner). I prefer to bring socks on the bus because they draw the most persistent stares. This morning a guy about my own age stared at me for thirty-five minutes. I felt like shouting that it was voodoo and shaking the sock aggressively in his face to see how he’d react. (Don’t I do good work for breaking down stereotypes? Northern Ireland could have been a different place if I was brought up in Belfast. We’ll never know).
Another good thing. I present to you:
Ribwarmer
This is an EZ creation and I’m using her directions from Knitting Workshop. Prompted by my love of Zimmermania in general and an admiration for Yarn Harlot’s version, I decided to cast on for one. You knit two sections the same and join them at the centre back. I was looking for something chunky and quick to knit to take the edge off all this 3mm stuff, but didn’t require too much thought, and decided on this at 1am last night (I couldn’t sleep. I honestly didn’t expect a garter stitch project would exacerbate this problem; I was hoping for the opposite). I am already halfway through the first half. It’s the intrigue of turning a right angle in garter that keeps me going. This isn’t for me, by the way. It’s for my mother but she doesn’t know yet.
So, the knitting is all good but the rest of things is not. A lot of piano work has emerged in the last 24 hours and I’ve had to make some yucky decisions. One of those is not to travel to Galway to see himself. I’m not thrilled. I’m very not thrilled. Between being sick (all better now, btw, thanks for the well wishes!) and all this work, I need a head break, but it’s not going to happen. The other decisions involve doing laundry, facing up to hoovering and getting a haircut. When my hair needs a cut, it starts to grow out, horizontally out, and no wax, mousse or serum is going to get in its way. Normally I don’t care much because most of my work I do alone, but I’ve got a lot of working-with-people and playing things coming up. For now, it’s just on the left side of my head but it’s only a matter of hours until my entire head has been seized by this gravitational rebellion.
But like any omlette, there are upsides (boom boom), and when I got home from work I found my Swap-Bot parcel waiting for me. I am participating in a Crash-your-stash swap. Promoted as a clutter-clearer, this is really a pass-the-dregs-around swap. That said, it’s nice to have a change in dregs! My dregs are some balls of Tivoli cotton. This is what I received in return.
The brown is Lionbrand Wool Ease (80% acrylic, 20% wool) and the blue-green is Lionbrand Homespun (100% acrylic I think). I’m no fibre snob, though the eco-unfriendliness of acrylic yarns does worry me slightly. However, all concern is thrown to the wind as I just love the colours of the Homespun! I’m going to have a good think about what I could use it for. I’m sure I’ll come up with something.
Bet yer man on the bus didn’t know you can make your own socks by hand…
I like Homespun too, though all the fibers make it a bit sticky sometimes, esp. if you’re a tight knitter. I’ve been using it to make scarves and more recently, the baby blanket (see blog for details). Perhaps you can school me in the eco-unfriendliness of acrylic? I don’t know anything about it.
Interesting you mention Belfast/NI, I spent the latter third of 2006 there. Such a lovely place. Not at all what people around here would have you thinking.
I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better! I hate finding eggshells in my eggs. It takes forever to wiggle them over to the side to spit them out. Then again, I suddenly stopped liking eggs 3 years ago for No Apparent Reason (well, it was after my surgery, but still – it wasn’t brain surgery), so the shell thing hasn’t happened recently.
I read the Yarn Harlot’s post about the Ribwarmer, too, and decided I want to make one for MY mom. She works in the church office and her desk is close to the door.
My hair is polite enough to behave itself under the cubic yard of mousse I use. I only get it cut when the length gets so heavy that it pulls the curl out, and people think I have a grown-out perm. (Like I could afford to perm all this hair. Whatever.)
I so wish I had a bus commute built into my day, and for the express purpose of knitting. You’re not knitting toe-up, are you? Because you could put chicken bones in the toe of the sock to complete the voodoo effect. 🙂