Today I surprised myself by sleeping until noon then declaring today a “Lazy Day”. Without further ado I settled myself into a comfy chair and picked up my knitting. My roommate glanced over and commented that she finds it funny that I call getting dressed and then sitting and knitting “lazy”. The Yarn Harlot discussed this earlier in the month. Knitting is my relaxation, and to be honest, I have not been giving myself that time and space to sit quietly and let whatever thoughts roam through my mind go through. I am very glad I made time today to do so, on an otherwise grey and dreary day.

So, I ripped this sleeve, re-measured my gauge, and searched through Ravelry for a pattern that would fit the gauge, rather than the other way around. Leaving fit the bill the best: a cardigan, same stitch gauge as I was getting, on the same size needles as well! I started a sleeve about a week and a half ago and I am pleased with how it’s going.

It looks like the right dimensions for a sleeve! Hurray! The fact that I’m starting to have an idea of the right dimensions for a sleeve is pretty wonderful too. My hope is that today I finish this sleeve and cast on for the back today, so I’ll have plenty of knitting to keep me occupied. I have a very busy week ahead, including my own birthday festivities, and it’ll be wonderful to have all the knitting going smoothly to help me de-stress.

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

Knitting is something I can do for people, so when I was staying at the hospital with my mom for a week I was itching to make something for her. Something to convey the warmth and love I feel for her even though I moved 1,500 miles away. Something like

So far the pattern is pretty easy to “read” while I’m knitting, so when I make a mistake, I figure it out pretty quickly. It’ll also take a long time but not be too heavy, which is a great thing to work on in this weather. I know I have sweaters and things to finish, but when the temperature dips below 80˚F, then I think it’ll be a good time to get back to them. For now I’ll stow those away and work on this.

Because I really couldn’t resist the yarn cake, either.

(Complete with fuzzy cat in the background!)

And that yarn accident I had?

There won’t be any more this summer. Promise.

Sadly, no cute modeled pictures, but at some point I’ll get better at those…

I would like to point out right now that this has been my shawl of choice ever since I blocked it, which is how it should be. It’s beautiful, it’s soft, it’s way too cold in Manysnowta still and I need something to cover my summer clothes which I got out on the one day it got into the 80s. I have about a foot left of yarn.

This pictures gets a much better idea of the colors in this shawl. I really like the lace pattern, and the fact that it combines garter with stockinette stitch. There is NO curling in this shawl, not one bit. It’s beautiful and soft and, well, I just love it to pieces and I’ll keep wearing it forever and ever (while I hopefully will get a chance to PUT AWAY my winter clothes after this week).

The lovely generous katie m. of brokeknits sent me this yarn last year, and it’s lovely. A taste of luxury while I’m still bumming around as a broke college student. :)

Some details:

magnifique (Ravelry):
Pattern: Hamamelis Shawl by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Merino Bamboo (which is sooo silky and smooth!) in Daffodilly
Needles: US 5 and 7

I realized, possibly yesterday, that my shyness in photographing what I’m knitting is really not working out for me. (Also the automatic camera is not working too great. It’s superb for picture taking around the city, but not so much for good posed shots.) I’ve spent the past couple of days waffling around and not sure what I’m doing or knitting, what needs to be finished and what’s been finished. Duh, I have a blog for this—I just haven’t been using it. So it’s time to start using it. Next up: the sweater I finished in time for the cool weather of graduation week and the totally fun socks I’m working on.

I can’t seem to stop writing. And this is a very good thing. :)

I seem to be not a monogamous or polygamous knitter but a bigamous one, and my last two projects are either in finishing stages or finished. So here’s to some new things!

This is the Bellevue Cardigan from cosmicpluto knits!.

Have I mentioned that I love blogging? I’m trying to write more, as long as I’m not coming home completely drained.

Toe-up socks. These were supposed to be my socks for when I needed a break from school, but near the end that happened rarely. I didn’t have time for many breaks! So they took ages and I never really replaced them with another sock-in-progress. I think I realized that I have enough socks, which is a downer. I love to knit socks.

On this pair, I tried Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off. It’s so stretchy, I keep wondering if it’s going to stretch out. And it doesn’t look all that bad, either:

My only modification was to substitute the heel from another sock, I think. And maybe the toe. I find that toes and heels can usually be whatever you prefer. As I dislike short row heels, I tend to avoid them in favor of gusset heels. They fit better, in my mind. My favorite instructions for toe-up gusset heels are in Baudelaire.

The yarn was great AND pretty cheap for sock yarn. Wish I had found it in my local yarn store instead of on vacation!

it’s all good (Ravelry):
Pattern: Farnkrautsocken by Silke Pieper
Yarn: Oasis Yarn Aussi Sock
Needles: 2.5mm

I have a few more things to handwash before I get on to blocking this; hopefully I’ll take the time to write two more 2010 FO posts before I make it to this one. And hopefully that time will be taken soon!