Lalala…

Well, I finished this sweater at the beginning of November and proceeded to not take any pictures of it. So here you go, proof that I did, in fact, finish something. I know my self-photo shoot isn’t nearly as exciting as the Oberstdorf shoot with my sister the ham, but here you go.

*Simple Knitted Bodice by Stefanie Japel @ Glampyre

*11.5 balls of Knit Picks Andean Silk in Slate, which looks pretty darned purple to me, on US5 & 3 needles

*Started September 11 finished November 5

*This was a pretty simple pattern to knit and went fairly quickly (aside from the parts where I got thoroughly bored knitting sleeves). The sizing was very deceptive on this and many of the people who have knit it say they wish they’d done a smaller size. I knit a medium with voodoo math to make the bust a large. The purl ridges were eliminated from the sweater all together and the neckband and hems are done in a seed stitch instead.

Here is also evidence I’ve been spinning. This is the merino/silk I mentioned the other day, as well as a side project that’s been keeping me occupied during my TV time.

It’s been, what? Two months since I started this sweater? I really have to get better about these things. But at long last, I’m nearly ready to show you the finished product. I finished the second sleeve last night and immediately ripped out the hem on the body to lengthen it a bit while I was on a roll. I have mebbe three rounds of seed stitch and it’s cast off time. Then comes weaving in a thousand ends and blocking. Of the 14 balls of Knit Picks Andean Silk I ordered, I have two pristine balls and a half ball left over.

I think this means I can start thinking about my next project. Can you believe this has been an almost monogamous knit (minus a pair of Socks of Doom)? Kiri and the Mini-Clapper were both finished before I restarted the SKB. I’m currently dying to start some fiddly lace project on tiny needles, but I’m not sure which. My current possibilities are Eunny’s Print O’ the Wave using the Ornaghi Filati Merino Oro I kool-aid dyed orange a while back, the Swallowtail Shawl in the Fall IK using the red Misti Alpaca the husband bought for me that one day he was abducted by aliens or a yet to be determined project using stash yarn.

The stash lace consists of 850 yards of HPY’s lace weight in a color I can only describe as Autumn Mix Candy Corn (they call it Rocha for some reason. The actual yarn has almost no blue, way more brown & other autumn colors.), two balls of mohair/polymid I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Kid-Silk-Haze-or-Kid-Seta-yarn in teal and an indeterminate amount of lace-ish weight reddish merino that I spun up. Anyone have any fiddly suggestions for any of those yarns?

I also need to start on a pair of socks & finish up the current Socks of Doom. I have two skeins of Lorna’s in Blackberry and I’ve found all my dpn’s, at long last. I’m thinking Pomo-what’s-it unless something else catches my interest. I’d started Eunny’s Bayerische socks with it, but even the subtle tonal variations is enough to distract you from the exquisite lace cable pattern. I’ll take a photo before I rip it out to get more opinions on it, but I’m pretty sure a flat, solid color is best for Bayerische.

I also have the next sweater (for me) in my sights. I feel I need to have Bonne Marie’s Ariann, preferably in some Peat Mix Ultra Alpaca. Before I tell the boy that I must have this cardi, I’ll finish the grey alpaca gloves I haven’t been knitting on for him before he mentions it again. I even considered, for a moment, finishing the needlepoint Christmas stocking I started mumble, mumble years ago for him but decided not to get too crazy.

I hope you’re all thinking of suitable names It’s been nearly a week now and I believe I have almost fully recovered from the Shindig of Doom. I ended up purchasing the desserts instead of making them. I can’t begin to imagine how much more tired I would have been if I’d stuck to my initial plan. The sweater did not get finished in time to wear. I got this far:

I was pretty sure someone would notice the ends hanging out and the needles around my arm if I just pulled it on. Currently, the lace portion needs two more repeats before launching into the home stretch.

From what I saw, the Shindig of Doom went off very well. A few people showed up a bit early to lend me a hand and made sure I did things like got dressed. There was much talking and laughing by all parties.

My house was mostly clean and the deck freshly pressure washed.


Some people kept track of the important things, like making sure the food table wasn’t lonely.


And I meant to take very artful shots of the munchies on which I’d spent so much time. By the time that thought clicked again in my muddled brain, it was too late. I was left with the remains of the carnage.

In the top right, you can just see three remaining skewers of chicken satay from the pounds of chicken I marinated and three lonely stuffed shrimp next to them. The mushrooms? I had to elbow my way to those once I realized they were nearly gone. After popping one into my mouth, they were gone.

The chicken came out very well and I’m beyond pleased with the recipe after my modifications. I ended up pulling out the George and cooking the skewers on it. It worked surprisingly well. A few people have asked for the recipe as I modified it, so here it is.

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At long last, I finally have some time to sit down, eat some pumpkin bread, drink some tea, surf the internet and do some party menu finalizing. In other words, I’m back in the office. Hooray, work?

I spent the past two and a half weeks waiting for a call to head to a jobsite and then working at that site. For some crazy reason, I agreed to help with some admin-types of things at an automobile plant just south of Atlanta. The plant will close tomorrow and our parent company is working on the environmental assessment. This required me being on site at 7am. I found that the sun doesn’t rise until after 7am. I worked in what can only be described as a dungeon, scanning blueprints and drawings from 1947 on for eight hours. I had to take a bathroom break to see that it had, in fact, turned into daylight while I worked.

The room in which I worked backed up to the plant floor. Did you know that every time a car comes off the assembly line, they honk the horn? Every time? It was amusing the first day and not so much by day three. The scanner hated us with a passion, so much that near the end of the day Thursday, we discovered that my entire day’s work disappeared. Poof! Gone. The thumbnails were still there, taunting us, but the files they linked to were not to be found anywhere…the files we’d seen on the screen not five minutes earlier. Just to show it wasn’t a fluke, the scanner let a few random drawings from the day remain on the computer.

Did I mention how happy I am to be back at my desk in my nice, climate controlled office with a coffee maker and a nice fridge to store snacks in? The one upside that amused me to no end was that just across the maze of railroad tracks from the plant lies the Original Dwarf House.

Last Saturday, I pulled a squishy envelope out of the mailbox. I thought to myself, “At last! The cold, sweet hand of Death!” I rushed inside, already composing my death post for the forums in my head. I tore into the package and pulled out a sock. Yay! Death, once so close and tangible, lauged at me as I gazed at a partial sock. Damn you, Death.

My new victim will have a bit of a reprieve as I knit furiously on my Simple Knitted Bodice. It needs a sleeve. My intention was to wear it Saturday for the little not-a-housewarming party we’re throwing. It’s Thursday and I’m notoriously horrible at finishing knitting projects. I’ve given up any thoughts of lengthening the body before then. I have to finish it today if it’s going to block and be dry enough to wear by 4:30 pm Saturday. Go ahead, laugh at me. It would be doable if that’s all I had to do, but today is party grocery day and to keep madness at bay, I’ll begin prep work as soon as I have supplies in hand. Did I mention I still have to clean the house?

Meet Lunchbox.

And Tubby, who has some catching up to do.

And a yet to be named sibling. There’s more of them but I decided crawling around in the wet grass in the 56 degree morning wasn’t the brightest thing I could do on my way to work.

And now some cleavage.

I’m an inch into the lace. I knit 4 rounds after the join on my smaller needles before starting the lace. Unlike many people, I wanted a deep neckline. I am rather pleased that the modifications I made worked out well enough for the lace to begin shortly after the join as it did on more svelte models. At this rate, I may try sweaters for myself more often.

The first pair of socks I made for myself are in trouble. As chilly as it was, I pulled out the knit socks. I padded around the house in them last night & wore them to bed. This morning when I pulled them off, I noticed the yarn on the bottom of the heels were worn so thin that I could see through them. So I have a question for you sock knitters out there. What do you do with a pair of socks once something like the heels have worn out? Cry? Build a shrine? I’m probably going to find some more Koigu in a similar colorway and repair them as the heels are the only worn portions. Then I’m going to start knitting myself way more socks. The three pair I cycled through last year isn’t gonna cut it, I see.