Tuesday, May 30, 2006

A Semester of FOs

Today I managed to write 7 pages of a paper, miraculously enough. I'm not sure how that works, since my usual average is 4-5 pages per day. I'm quite happy about the 7 pages; that puts me at 24 solid pages in a 25-30 page paper. Yay!

But really. You want knitting pr0n, I know it. And as promised, I have some pictures of FOs from over the last semester.

First of all, "The Husband Sweater," so named because it took me from about late September, 2005, to late March, 2006, to knit it. I think I now know why they speak of the curse: it took me forever to knit this thing. Miles and miles of stockinette, folks. On and on and on it went, with only a small break for a little cable at the shoulder. All in all, though, a great project for watching TV, and it fits Coffeeboy - yes, that's what I'm calling him here - perfectly. The pattern was Rosemary's Medium-Sized Sweater from the Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book.

I, by the way, feel very strange posting a headless picture of Coffeeboy. It's like I've decapitated him or something, except I love his head! Where did it go?!



While knitting The Husband Sweater, I also worked on some smaller projects for Coffeeboy:

1) Little glovelets to keep his hands warm, modified from the pattern Cigar at knitty.

These were made with leftover bits of Cascade 220 from a striped raglan sweater that I made last year. I barely had enough of the brown to go around, so I stretched it with some of that lovely orange color and a bit of the red.

2) With the rest of the red, and small bits of green from the same sweater, I made myself some bulky Christmas socks - all red except green on the toes. They became a kind of slipper for me, and are now all pilly. Hence, no pictures.



3) I also made Coffeeboy a hat, that basic ribbed hat from the first Stitch N' Bitch book. I know, there are two hats here. Believe it or not, they both go on Coffeeboy's head. The one on the left - minus the cat, named Magellan, who stepped in to be in the photo - is actually really floppy on his head, and doesn't really fit by any ordinary stretch of the imagination. I made it last year out of some wonderful yarn that still smelled like the sheep that made it. The coffeeboy does wear the hat occasionally, but it's kind of goofy. The one on the right is the stretch ribbed one, made in the smaller SnB size, which was, unfortunately, one size too small. It's a bit tight on his head, but seems to stretch enough to fit, mostly. Thus, I'm on the quest to make him the perfect (as possible, that is) hat!


4) Socks for Coffeeboy. These were my second pair of socks, after the red Christmas ones. I knit them on size 3 needles so they'd go faster, but it should have been size 2. They're too big. Really, I'm establishing quite a reputation for myself. Usually things (that aren't scarves, that is) I make fit a bit better, at least on me. Maybe I just have a problem sizing for other people?




5) You're probably wondering whether or not I ever knit for myself - I probably do too much of that. But this was a light semester in terms of knitting for me, at least in terms of FOs. I did, however, complete the Conwy socks (see this post), which I love. And I also completed a feather-and-fan scarf in Noro Kureyon, knit with 2 balls of one colorway, and 1 of another. Groan. The second colorway is on top, underneath the main colorway. I think they match all right.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Back to wondering why my cats - who are sisters (named Juniper and Magellan) - are having hissy fits every evening. I thought they were hissing at the neighbor's cat outside the window, but they hiss at each other. I wonder why?

Monday, May 29, 2006

Blogging 101

Written earlier this afternoon:

Today is Memorial Day, and while most of the country has the day off, enjoying the first really hot summer day (it's near 90 degrees here), I'm in the library, working on a paper. I said that I'd wait until the papers were done to start the blog, but I just couldn't help it and I started the blog anyways.

It does feel a bit odd to have a blog, especially since I know that it's read by so few people. I feel a bit like I'm hurling the proverbial bottled note into the sea, perhaps never to be read or seen by eyes again. While I know that's not the case, it's nonetheless the absurd feeling I get when I hit "post." At least for now.

I find myself writing as if to an audience ("dear, gentle reader" and all that) which is highly amorphous and practically nonexistent, at least so far. I don't want a huge audience, but just a wider community. Communities in the blogosphere are so much harder to pin down, unlike a blog host like LiveJournal where they are virtually built around communities, where, with a click of the mouse, you can see who is a part of what group.



And written tonight:

I've made a bunch of changes to the style (obviously!) but there are more to come. My wrist is - unfortunately! - sore from scrolling up and down the little template editor window. I'll have to fix (and figure out how to fix, also) the heading sizes in the sidebar, for example.

Forthcoming posts:
A recap of recent FOs
A list of current projects
Planned projects for the summer

Onward and upward, ladies and gents, onward and upward.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

And so it begins

Welcome to my blog, "Knitting Between the Lines." I intend for this to be a blog primarily about knitting, so that I can communicate with my dispersed knitting friends about current projects, and discuss knitting with new knitting friends that I've yet to find!

However, I'm not *only* a knitter! (Gasp!) I'm also a graduate student; I'm married, I have two cats, and a rapidly-growing vegetable garden. When content here isn't related to knitting, I will probably limit myself to school, cats, and garden, for the privacy of the sweetie, who shall have to have a special name here, I bet.

Just to whet your appetite, I present here my most recent FO, a pair of socks:



Specs:
Pattern: Conwy socks, from Nancy Bush's Knitting on The Road
Yarn: Lorna's Laces, Shepherd Sport, in the color "jeans"
Needles: Size 1, dpns
Thoughts: I love how this yarn feels! It's so soft! The socks look and feel great on my feet!