Nina is Knitting

I have roughly one day before I get to go home to see tiny cats, hang out with my parents, watch movies, and knit, knit, and knit some more. (Also, find data. And crunch numbers. But leaving that aside…)

However, I can’t stop:

1. Starting new projects.

2. Investigating my stash for inspiration.

2.a — Reacquainting myself with projects that pissed me off, bored me, or did a wallflower routine and falling in love with them.

2.b — Reacquainting myself with projects that pissed me off, bored me, or did a wallflower routine that I still can’t stand and ripping them out.

(That there are many more of the 2.a variety gives me some hope for myself, and redeems a lot of the knitting I did in my first year of grad school.)

3. Printing out a squillion patterns that I have stored on Ravelry and making big plans to complete each and every one of them by Christmas Eve for me and my loved ones.

I’m trying to hold out.

Oh hai — I’m back with a gin-you-wine sweater –

I started this beast back in April (while visiting old college roommates!!), maybe, and posted some in progress shots way back when. My clever Ravelry name for it was my “April Lady Sweater,” since it is based on that ingenious pattern, Pamela Wynne’s February Lady Sweater.

Pardon my grim expression. I love it.

I modified the pattern a bit — first, fewer increases below the bust line make for a less dramatic A-line, and less swinginess. Second, I used a different lace pattern — instead of the gull stitch (which look like tiny inverted V’s of eyelets) I went with a plain vanilla ribbon eyelet effect — knit one, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit one, yarn over, ssk, knit one — which was easy enough for me to remember, and added just enough interest, though I could totally do a gigantic field of stockinette stitch with this yarn, Dream in Color Classy in Grey Tabby and be in heaven most of the time.

And OMG did you see the buttons? The pattern suggests using bigass buttons, and I don’t think that these disappoint. This was my first time:

a) Making button holes

b) Sewing in cardigan buttons

This might explain the drunken alignment of the, uh, holes in the buttons? I could make a big deal about their disorder, and go back to fix them, but they don’t bother me yet.

Why did it take me so long to finish this? After I’d finished the body of the sweater and gone back to knit the first sleeve, I way overestimated how much ease I needed for sleeves, and cast on enough stitches for two extra repeats of stitches. Eventually I realized that I was going through yarn like it was going out of style, and that the sleeve was gigantic.

Never one to ignore inertia or to jump to it to fix a problem, I continued knitting for a while and hoped that the problem would go away. Then I got a little queasy every time I looked it at. Finally, I punished the sweater by shoving it into a bag, and tried not to think about it each time I bought yarn for different projects.

All that stopped when I got the death flu (perhaps H1N1) three weeks ago, and had a lot of free time in which to rip back most of a sleeve, and then begin to reknit. And once I started, oh, it was so hard to stop… It’s been like finding knitting Jesus around here, since now I see the light about finishing old, nearly done projects.

This will be seeing a lot of wear.

Yikes, the summer goes by quickly –

I have been knitting, as well as working and loafing (quite a bit of loafing), and I even have some finished objects to show for it. They are coming soon!

Apple cores and cherry pies
Strange the things that come to bind

Gard’ning tips or long dog walks
Those with whom we choose to talk

What we say and what we share
Reasons how or why or where

Fade away as we now pause
Caring needs no clear-cut cause

[Close family friend and neighbor is in the hospital right now. I don't often feel the urge to write or share poetry, but it happens, sometimes.]

More stocker-nette,

stockinette

and a pause, to learn a new technique (knitting a turned hem).

Turning a hem.

To execute it properly (read: in a way that will not look like crap), I’m forcing myself to take a break. This is the sort of thing I hate to do.

Another thing to learn? How to save the new orientation so that stupid wordpress will not import it in a vertical orientation rather than a horizontal one. (Particularly frustrating since I’ve already done it successfully with the first picture in the dang post.) I hate forming new synapses!

Isn’t it funny how color jags can strike?

Pattern: SelbuModern by Kate Gagnon at Zeitgeist Yarns.

Yarn: The Fiber Company, Canopy Fingering Weight, in Cat Claw and Macaw

Gush!! My inability to read a pattern, or to remember which is the contrasting color resulted in something like a creative interpretation vis the ribbing and the final round of decreases, but seriously. What an awesome hat. (Please don’t mind me tooting my own horn.)

Next up?

And how!

At present, it’s a large swath of stockinette stitch, which equals bo-ring. But it should become appealing soon!

Two now empty bags of white cheddar Pirate’s Booty (registered trademark, y’all).

I know how to keep it classy.

“Do you want to play ‘Tail-Spin’?”

“No!! Let’s play ‘Reckless Driver’!”

- Two brothers — or at least young boys that look as if they’re related to each other — one pushing the other in a plastic play-mobile (registered trademark) car that, as I observe it now, kind of looks like a Smart Car. It’s not that much smaller.

It hasn’t ended in tears yet.

[Nina attempted to post this breaking news yesterday. Apologies.]

Nina has, to all apparent evidence, registered to run in a half marathon in two and a half months. This marks Nina’s first re-entry to competitive running in 6 years. It is undetermined, but suspected that she was sober while registering.

And yes, $33.00 later, I am officially registered to run in the Leaf Peepers Half Marathon, Sunday, October 4th, in this year of our Lord, 2009.

Holy crap!

The semester ended with a bang and not a few whimpers, but hey gang! I’m back!

True to form, though I’ve finished a few things thus far — namely going away presents for the brother (off to China for the Peace Corps … two years … sniff) and the brother’s girlfriend, neither of which I remembered to photograph prior to giving (d’oh), but there is also my first ever Selbu Modern, which is now in Maryland, while I am in New England. D’oh.

I did start another Selbu (I’m also on a mad startitis jag — watch out, yarn — while simultaneously trying to shame myself back to finishing things). Want a glimpse?

Out of the gate, but stumbling a lot.

Yes, that’s right — the top row, visible to the naked eye, is cocked up. Which means undoing 192 stitches. In high school, my friend and I had a riotously foul expression of frustration, and I’d use it, if I didn’t think of the children.

(Oh twist my arm won’t you — f*** me up the a** with a wooden broomstick that splinters easily.)

Easy enough to fix, though, and a divine sign to get off my butt, and back to the library for work. To be continued!