Lalala…

For the first time in ages, I can officially say that I am not working on a sweater. The Simple Knitted Bodice has been finished for a couple weeks now, I just haven’t taken any pictures. I did wear it to breakfast with Rebecca on Friday, so there are witnesses. The SKB, however, wasn’t the skeleton in my closet.

Some of you may remember a “while” ago when I started what was to be my younger sister’s Christmas present and also my first sweater. Yup! That’s right, I’m talking about Oberstdorf. I worked and worked and worked on it, obviously missing my deadline by a mile. The initial goal was Christmas, then early January as the sister was going on a ski trip. Then just get it done while it was still winter. Then over a year went by and Oberstdorf was still the monkey on my back. At some point, I finished off the collar and then promptly lost the pattern. I wove in some ends and half-heartedly looked for the chart. More time passed.

Friday afternoon, I took another look through my studio for the pattern. While the original is still AWOL, I found my working copy safely encased in a sheet protector. Yesterday…I finished Oberstdorf. It took less than an hour while watching the Bond marathon on Spike TV. I promptly threw it into the washing machine on gentle (yay, superwash!), laid it out on some towels in the spare bedroom, turned on the ceiling fan and closed the door. I looked in on it just a little while ago and saw this.

A quick poke revealed a completely dry sweater. I give you my very “first” sweater, Oberstdorf.

This is a Dale of Norway pattern knit in Silja superwash sock yarn. It took just over 8 skeins of the main color and very small amounts of the 3 contrasting colors for a child’s 10 year old size (38” chest) to fit a ladies small.

It feels really, really good to have this thing finished at last. Only took two years.

It occurs to me that perhaps I should finish up some of my very ancient projects so that I will feel…less guilty about beginning new ones for myself. There are a pile of things I’d like to tackle (again, for me) but the obligatory knits from last year are still following me around. When I say last year, let’s not pretend I mean 2005. I mean 2004, or the soon to be two years ago knits.

I can see very clearly on my sidebar what I’ve been neglecting. For the hell of it, I’ve even put up the projects that I haven’t even started but have already made a commitment to make. I’ve made so much of a commitment that I have the yarn for all these projects. Let’s take a quick look, shall we? *I’ll post photos of the current lack of progress on all projects when I get home*

1. Oberstdorf was meant to be for the little sister’s skiing trip with her boy’s family last January. Oberstdorf needs (and has needed for months) half an inch of the collar, underarms grafted, ends woven in, and some duplicate stitching. That’s it. And I still haven’t done it.


2. Ribby Cardi needs a zipper and some ends woven in. I know.


3. Thrummed Mittens need one more mitten. I’m not quite sure what happened to the pattern I was using for these. yarn, again, from favorite eBay seller


4. Wee Aran needs two sleeves, a front, an inch of the back and some pretty buttons.


5. Gloves for both the Dad & the husband in a lovely grey alpaca. These should really be started.


6. Thigh-high’s for the little sister in a bright shade of pink from my favorite eBay yarn seller that the sister purchased ages ago. (All of you who have recently been swooning over Malabrigo yarn, you do realize they’re the same as my eBay seller as well as the folks at handpaintedyarn.com, right? I’m just saying.)


7. Beanie for the little sister’s guy in a dark chocolate brown wool from above favorite eBay seller.


8. Jaywalkers in Lorna’s Laces that I started earlier this month (almost forgot about those). I’m just on the leg of the first sock. I think I’ll give it another inch or so before starting the heel. In theory, these are for me, but who knows. I’m still not sure how I feel about the colors.


9. Flower Petal Shawl for Memaw. This ranks pretty high on the actual priority list for me even if I did put it all the way down here.

So that’s it. Those are all of my knitting demons. Depending on the order of completion, I’ll have done my first, second and third sweater shortly. I think I’d like to just get Oberstdorf & Ribby done already as there’s so little left to go if I just do it. I can’t believe I’m really 10 projects behind; it just boggles my mind.

I’m headed to Biloxi this weekend with the sisters and parents. The 6 hour car ride both ways will offer up a chance to put in some knitting if I avoid feeling like complete and utter crap on the ride and get along with everyone. I’m having flashbacks to previous family trips. You know, the ones that make you hate everyone and everything by the time you’re done. To put this into perspective: in one summer with our then home point as El Paso, Texas, we went to the land that time forgot* (a.k.a. Mississippi); back to Texas; up to Tacoma with a brief daytrip into Vancouver; and back to Tejas by way of Las Vegas and Hoover Dam.

I’d just like to say at there’s squat for an adolescent girl in Las Vegas; too old to accompany the parents into the casino and too young for everything else. Older sister and I spent those days in the hotel room. This time around, I’m plenty old enough to go into the casino, but I have no desire to do so. Something tells me this is going to be a lot like Vegas, but with knitting.

*when I say “the land that time forgot” I really don’t mean for it to sound…no, I do. I’m sorry for those of you who have fond thoughts of Mississippi as I do not. I’d also like to point out that I spent my time there in the “poor black South”, as opposed to just the “poor South”. Looking at a map, the Gunnison/Mound Bayou (I don’t remember seeing a bayou, personally) region of TLTTF is in spitting distance of Arkansas. I’m just saying. My grandmother sent me out to buy her cigarettes when I was in my tweens, and the guy at the store actually let me buy them. Come on! This doesn’t happen in the real world, just places that have been forgotten by time.*

I’ve been sick off and on since November. I’m normally absurdly healthy and am never sick. I think I’m going to blame stress, or something. The first two weeks of school have gone well. I should be working on drawings right now, but first a post. I’m not drawing anything remotely intersting, so it’s a knitting update today.

Oberstdorf and I are talking to each other again. We’re not sure where we went wrong, but frogging back two and a half balls of yarn later, everything’s back on track. Now we’re still a ball and a half away from the last time you saw Oberstdorf.

In the mean time, Ribby has been completely problem free and a quick knit. Of course, I also realize that anything seems fast compared to Oberstdorf. Ribby’s fronts are now complete and I’ve started on the first sleeve. The green on the sleeve refuses to photograph properly. It’s actually a fairly bright green.

I even pulled my Perfectly Pie Shawl out and have gone half-way through the first wedge. The Plymouth Outback Mohair is a bit on the “hairy” side for this project, I think. I’m still not sure how I feel about it, but I may change my mind once it’s finished and blocked. I don’t dislike it, but can see how something like the Madil Kid Seta I picked up a little while ago would be even more stunning. Actually, maybe I’ll make another shawl from the Kid Seta. Hmm….

The yarn for my Sockapalooza has been ordered. I put Older Sister on picking out a pattern and color, so it’ll be a surprise when it arrives. I wanted to use something that wouldn’t be as readily available for my pal to give it a more unique touch. I’ll show off the yarn whenever it arrives.

I go back to class tomorrow, so this is officially the end of my brief freedom. Of course, I’m also really looking forward to learning and improving my drawing techniques this semester. I ordered my text books through Amazon and saved about $30 over the university bookstore…yay for me. I won’t be selling books back anymore since they’re all art related now, so getting new books at a good price upfront is good.

Oberstdorf has been missing all of you and demanded some air time.

Older Sister headed back to Montana last Wednesday, but not before stopping by a local BMW dealership to take a test drive. I see a Mini Cooper S in her future.

We also went up to Acworth to check out a yarn shop and were very disappointed. The store wasn’t laid out very well and neither of the ladies in the shop asked if we needed help until we’d almost completed our circuit around. The stock was high on the “trendy” novelty yarns and low on basics. They also had yarn from my favorite ebay seller marked up at outrageous prices, around $14/skein vs $5-7/skein online. The biggest annoyance was the candles. There was no escaping the fumes of the burning candles. For the first time ever, I left a yarn store with no desire to purchase anything at all.

We hopped back into the car and zipped into Atlanta to Strings and Strands, a store I’d only visited once when I first began knitting. This would be the local source for Rowan and Debbie Bliss. Older Sister picked up a few things for me since I’d be using the yarn money she gave me for Christmas on school supplies.

Seems there’s a different Audrey in my future. The rayon ribbon is Gelato from Fiesta Yarns in African Violet. The cashmerino superchunky was slated to turn into Alison’s Bliss Scarf but it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, I give you a Lilac Mistake Bliss Scarf.

I wasn’t paying attention and cast on 21 stitches instead of 22. I decided to go with it anyway. All the purls are twisted because I have to really think about which direction to wrap the yarn to not twist them. Besides, I like the texture. The scarf measures 4”x48” unstretched. I may add a third skein because I prefer longer scarves, but I have too many other projects on my plate to really worry about it. This was my first time working with Debbie Bliss and the yarn was definitely yummy to knit. There was one spot where yarn was tied onto one skein and a few slubby spots, but I can see myself using cashmerino again.