Jon's Birthday - Take 2 and other stuff

So, I planned on posting everyday this week, but I got lazy. To make up for it, here's a really, really long post. Enjoy.

Jon's Extended Birthday Shenanigans
As discussed in the last post, Jon's birthday got stretched over two days because of my inability to buy him presents ahead of time and wake up before noon. I'm happy to report that his presents came in! I got him a book and a computer game, Rise of Nations, and he's very happy with both. In fact, one of the reasons I haven't updated the blog is because he's been hogging my computer (which is faster than his) to play it.

I should have seen that coming, though. We have this game on my family computer in Texas, and Jon's been known to sneak off at random times to go play it in secret when he's down there. Seriously, one time we were watching a movie and Jon excused himself to go to the bathroom.....and never returned. After the movie was over (two hours later), I found him totally absorbed in some campaign against the Germans or something. Which he later lost.

Anyway, I did manage to take Jon out on a date. Tuesday night, after playing Rise of Nations for several hours, we went to go see Pan's Labyrinth. Which was fantastic and well worth seeing. Especially since the local movie theater only charges $2.50 for student tickets on Tuesday night. I don't know why I didn't know about this earlier.

In many ways, Jon's birthday has extended all the way to today. We're going to go see Amazing Grace tonight because it's got Horatio Hornblower in it, who Jon loves, and it's about the British, who Jon also loves. I also finished his socks, which makes them his last birthday present. I think he loves them too. Just full of love, that one.

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Yarn - 3 skeins Artyarns Supermerino (100% merino wool, 104 yards) in color 119 plus some leftover Classic Elite Renaissance Heathered yarn (100% wool, 110 yards) in black truffle that I still had from making a hat for Jon's brother over a year ago. For the first sock, I ended up using 1 1/2 skeins of the supermerino by the time I needed to start the toe decreases, so I decided to play it safe and knit the toes in a different color. Turns out my instincts were right, because I only had about a yard and a half left of the last skein of the supermerino when I started the toe of the second sock.
Needles - size 3 addi turbos, worked using magic loop.
Pattern - Here There Be Dragon socks, upscaled version, just like these. I made a few modifications, though. I didn't do the fancy-schmancy toe and heel that the pattern calls for. I substituted the standard flap heel for durability and to give Jon more room in the instep. I knit the flap about 25% longer for him than I do for myself before turning it, which seems to have done the trick (see the pictures above for the freakishly long heel and gusset). I substituted a standard wedge toe because I had to use different yarn and thought it would look dumb to continue the pattern with contrasting yarn. Also, I figured Jon could use the extra durability considering his track record.

Other Knitterly Happenings
While Jon's been playing Rise of Nations, I've been surprisingly productive. In addition to finishing his socks, I finished knitting the second sleeve of the bolero I've been working on since forever.

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Before picking up the stitches along the opening and starting the ribbing, I decided to block it to give me a sense of how long to make said ribbing. I pinned it out to let it dry and felt very productive and responsible. See the closeup above? That's what the braided slip-stitch pattern look like when it's blocked out. Nice huh?

I started the ribbing, but I've only got 3/4 of a skein left and I'm pretty sure that's not quite enough. The project's on hold briefly until the yarn and new needles (32" size 9 addi turbos) I ordered come in. The 16" bamboo circular is just not working for dealing with the hundreds of stitches that have to be worked in tedious 1 x 1 ribbing. Besides, I'll need them to make Jon's sweater, so I figured I should go ahead and get them sooner rather than later.

I also started Flair:


I'm about halfway done with the yoke. I'm basically following the pattern, but I decided to add a few cables because I can't seem to knit a pattern without altering some part of it. I wonder why that is.

I've been obsessed with this sweater since the pattern's been available, and worked on it with a hungry desperation all day yesterday. Usually I knit for the pleasure of knitting and my enjoyment of the resulting product is a fun bonus, like those toy prizes in cereal boxes. This time, I need that sweater. Here's hoping it lives up to my absurdly lofty expectations, right?

PS - Stay tuned! Jon's going to be authoring a guest post that you're not going to want to miss either today or tomorrow.

Even Dirty Commies Deserve Nice Hats

This weekend I went to a big socialist meeting for our national organization. Some of you out there, and by that I mean the three of you who aren't related to me, might not know that I've been a card-carrying member of a socialist organization since before I could legally vote. However, I grew up in a house where Trotsky and Lenin were well-represented in our home library, so it's not like anyone was surprised when I broke the news.

Anyway, those of you who are not at odds with the capitalist system may not realize how much these people can talk. This was a three-day meeting, with a full agenda. It takes them 15 minutes to basically state that they are anti-war in a fancy way (well, that's an exaggeration, but not much of one). Time limits mean nothing to them. We got up at 6:45 am to get there on time, stayed until 7:00pm, and then went out for drinks and more political ranting afterwards. I should also mention that I don't drink coffee and there were no other caffeinated beverages available. So, I turned to knitting to keep me awake and focused. Those that don't knit assume that we're not paying attention, but we know better. We know that the repetitive, unceasing motion keeps you from fidgeting, keeps you from boredom around hour 11, and has other good benefits. Such as my finished Shedir:


Unrelated, but like the dart board? My mom sent it to me in a totally unexpected Valentine's Day package. I hit the bullseye earlier today and refuse to let Jon remove it. I'm very proud of my successful darting.

Isn't she lovely? This hat conquered the conference. Initially, I (and the other two knitters who were there) were getting a lot of flack for it, and many friendly quips were thrown our way when people got up to speak (further showing the low regard time limits were held in). But, curiosity got the better of them. They'd walk by and look at it, and were struck by the simple beauty of the cables. And they'd touch it and say how soft the yarn was. By the end of the first day, they were generally interested in when it would be finished and whether I would knit them one too. You know what? I'm also quite fond of it.
Yarn - Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk (50% alpaca, 50% silk; 146 yards) in plum purple. This yarn is exquisite. Soft, and shiny, and it knits up into this amazing lightweight fabric that is remarkably fluid.
Needles - 34" size 3 addi turbos. So trusty.
Pattern - Shedir from the breast cancer special issue of Knitty. The only modification made was that I knit 3 repeats of the cable pattern before decreasing instead of 5. I did this in part because I was afraid 5 repeats would make it too long, as Eunny discussed here, and also because I was afraid I'd run out of yarn. It turned out to be just shy of a perfect length, but not short enough to warrant adding to the brim, and I only had a tiny amount of yarn left, so my estimation was about right.

Remember what I said about the socialist thing being long? Well, after finishing Shedir, I had time to make Jon half of the biggest sock ever.

Ok. Maybe it doesn't look so big in the picture, but let me just share some specs: the leg is 10" around, the heel flap is 5" long, and the widest point of the gusset is 13" around (I tried it on earlier, and I can wear it as a sleeve....I don't have little stick arms, either). Over a foot. Impressive, no? And, I've already used up about 1 1/3 skeins of yarn. Apparently, his feet are about the size of pre-felted slippers. They're turning out to be a good fit, though.

I'm using the same upscaled dragon pattern as I did for these socks. I generally don't like knitting the same pattern twice in a row, but I (prudently) brought yarn for a second project with me to the socialist meeting in case I finished Shedir. I decided that at the last minute, though, so I just grabbed something I could knit on my size 3 addi circular so I wouldn't have to deal with finsing yarn and needles. So Jon's socks it was.

Hubris

So, I'm over my cold/flu now, and I've hit the ground running. Thing is, doing so much work to catch up with all I missed last week requires some serious downtime. Which means I'm knitting just about as furiously as I'm working. Witness the dragon socks:


Aren't they pretty? What really makes these socks wonderful, though, are the details. Check out the way the pattern flows out around the toes and heels:

And here they are with the shoes I bought the same day as the yarn:


Yarn - 2 skeins claudia handpainted yarn (100% merino wool, 175 yards) in passion fruit. I LOVE this yarn. It's so soft and squooshy, and the colors are brilliant (but, sadly, I couldn't get a good photo of them, so just take my word for it).
Needles - worked using the magic loop method on size 2 addi turbos
Pattern - Here There Be Dragon socks (upscaled version). No major modifications made.

But that's not all! Progress has finally been made on the wee braids bolero:


I finally finished the body section and made an entire sleeve! One more to go and I'll start all the ribbing around the opening. I'm worried I'll run out of yarn, though, and get stalled by having to order more online. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

In the meantime, I could work on this scarf I started for Jon. I'm knitting it with two strands of alpaca tweed, like his mittens, but using the cable pattern from his Glaistig hat and armwarmers.


But I digress. The reason I titled this post 'Hubris' is because in the last week or so, I've been craving big knitting projects. To date, I've completed one sweater, and that took me almost 6 months. But, I'm finding that finishing all these hats and socks and mittens in two or three days less satisfying than before. Blame habituation. I'm craving sweaters. Specifically, I'm craving this sweater. As soon as I saw the pattern for Flair was up, I had visions of myself sashaying down the street in my very own version with a kicky scarf wrapped just so around my neck. I would cut quite a figure....if only I could find 5 fantastic buttons. After some searching on eBay, I found these:


The white and black ones with the UFOs in front of the Eiffel Tower are for Flair. Aren't they amazing? And the seller also had the rocket buttons, which Jon liked. He only wanted one (I guess to keep in his pocket like a tiny pet rock or something) but I convinced him to let me buy him 3 of them plus about 16 skeins of yarn to make him a sweater. Which is quite an undertaking considering he's a big dude. I am fully convinced that I can whip up both of these fabulous garments by this time next year....I'm even considering making a tatami for my sister. I'm obsessed with it, but smart enough to know I'd look terrible in it, what with my thick-ish waist and narrow shoulders. My sister, on the other hand, would be able to carry it off wonderfully.

If convincing myself that I can knit 3 sweaters in a year on top of the ever-increasing amount of schoolwork I have isn't hubris, then I don't know what is. But I can say that 6 months from now when all I've gotten done is a sleeve and a couple of swatches that I'll end up in Icarus' support group.

In the meantime, before all my heady visions of knitted goodness get squashed, I'll revel in the fact that my boyfriend bought me the best Valentine's day present ever...


...more Claudia handpainted yarn! who could ask for more?

Socks - homeopathic remedy?

I'm still sick. I'm pretty sure it's more of a flu-ish thing than a cold because I've been running a fever for the last few days, and I'm puffy and sore, but not coughing and sneezing. Hopefully it'll blow over soon. Want to know something funny? Our thermometer is really wonky, so I don't really know how high my fever is. What we have to do is let me take my temperature, then have Jon take his own temperature, figure out the difference and then add another degree (I have a lower-than-average normal temperature of about 97.5 degrees). Today, I was getting 97.9, he was getting 94.something, which means I was running 3-4 degrees above normal. But the real indicator that I had a fever was that this miniscule amount of math was too much for me this morning.

I've been amusing myself today by watching Grease 2 from the floor (at some point while napping I rolled off the couch....and just kind of stayed down there underneath the coffee table. I get wacky when I'm sick (case in point, the super-long parenthetical asides, with other parenthetical asides nestled within them). One time, I wanted to run around outside in the snow shoeless because I felt hot. Jon didn't let me because he's responsible and patient. ) and starting a new pair of socks for myself. I'd planned on starting a hat, but it would have required rolling a skein into a ball, and the sock yarn was already prepped and ready to go. I chose the Here There Be Dragons pattern, and I'm already through with the leg and heel of the first one.
I really like them so far. Here's a closeup of the scale motif:


And yesterday, I finished the mittens!

Aren't they pretty? And just in time, too, since it's still wicked cold here. These puppies took no time to make at all, and were actually perfect sick kniting since there was minimal shaping and it was all stockinette in the round.
Yarn - Henry's Attic superfine Peruvian alpaca tweed (100% alpaca, about 600 yards per 1/2 pound skein) in color 109. I knit the mittens with two strands held together throughout to make them warmer and get a bigger gauge, since Jon's basically got catcher's mitts for hands.
Needles - set of 4 bamboo size 7 dpns. A fifth needle would've made things a bit easier, but I lost it, so whatever.
Pattern - Peekaboo mittens from the latest issue of Magknits. I followed the gist of the pattern more than the pattern itself and sized it according to a mateless mitten I'd made for Jon a year or so ago. The only major modification made was I substituted an afterthought thumb for the thumb with a gusset the pattern specifies. And I just did that because it made the mittens even easier.