Owly Xmas

Hey, look! I made an owl!  (And then I gave it to my niece for Christmas, since her nursery has an owl theme.)

My resistance to crochet has been weakening--I made some baskets last spring, then a rug from cut up t-shirts, and then I crocheted some edging for a shawl... so as Christmas approached, it was only a matter of time before I made Fresh Stitches' adorable Nelson. I bought a kit, since I didn't have any eye or foot colors, and didn't want to have much left over. 

My youngest niece was a little more restrained about Nelson than her older sisters were about their gifts (they greeted us at their front door with a cry of PRESENTS!!), but I'm sure she's saving that for when she can walk and talk. 

There are lots of other presents I should blog: many pairs of socks, two (sewn) princess dresses (for the PRESENTS!! nieces), slippers, a hat, two scarves, and a (sewn) bag for quilting supplies.  I think that's it... although if I'm forgetting something, it's certainly better to forget that I made a present than to forget to make it in the first place!

Too Much Matching?

Look!  A picture of a sweater!
I bought this yarn on a previous visit to see my parents in Ithaca, so finally taking pictures of it there (while visiting for Thanksgiving) seems appropriate.  Let's see, what do I remember about the sweater?  I made up the pattern--it's knit from the bottom up, then I used the neck shaping from Manu for some pleats at the neck (not that they show here, under the gigantic cowl I made from the leftovers). 
I thought I'd wear it as a tunic over leggings, but it turns out I mostly wear it with jeans and dresses.  I try not to wear the cowl with it, on the grounds that different items of clothing made from the same yarn and worn together (DIOCMFTSYAWT) are a step closer to just wrapping myself in yarn and thinking I'm dressed than I like to be... but on the other hand maybe it's ok because it might be mistaken for a cowl-necked sweater.  (For future reference, these are exceptions to the no DIOCMFTSYAWT rule for pairs of things and sets of accessories.) 
I have delegated all of my facebooking to Kevin, so if you are friends with him there you know that I survived my marathon (nearly 10 days ago now!).  I finished in 4:14:06--very close to my speediest times (I ran Chicago in 4:11:something, in 2 consecutive years), and about how I was hoping to do, so I'm pretty happy with it.  But wow, was the last 8 miles long!  The course is basically a 13 mile loop followed by a 13 mile out and back, but the out and back has forks, so it seemed like I'd never get to the final u-turn to really, truly go back.  Then when I finally did (sometime in mile 20, as I recall), it wasn't nearly as energizing as I'd hoped it would be!
Despite all that, I'm contemplating another one... next year.
Good thing I'm thinking about next year, because I haven't run yet--and only started erging yesterday (the Concept2 holiday challenge is underway... mustn't fall too far behind, or I will have to erg for 24 solid hours on December 24th to make up for it!).  I was thinking the other morning that I have a lot of workout clothes all of a sudden... and then I realized this was the first time in months (maybe years?) that they've all been clean and put away at the same time!

Semiannual Report

I give up... I'm never going to write about the past 6 months in detail, so I will sum up:

I ran a lot (including a marathon in Iceland in August, and I'm going to run the Philly marathon on November 18), rowed a lot (including a bunch of boats at masters nationals in Worcester, and an 8+ in the Head of the Charles--which finished 6 out of 17 so we have a guaranteed entry for next year, hurray!) and probably in consequence, feel like I have knit less than usual.

 Even knitting less, my sweater collection is outgrowing its allotted space--if I make too many more, we will have to move.  The situation with shawls, socks, hats and mittens isn't much better.  Oh, and cowls!  Not good.

In response, I have been trying to give away or fix things that never quite worked out.  I turned one of the sweaters from Problem Sweater Week (the purple one) into a shrug (this one, but with slightly shorter sleeves because I didn't quite have enough yarn for long sleeves).  I like the new incarnation, and I think I've worn it more in the past couple of months than I every wore the original.  Maybe I will remember to take pictures of it, some day.

And I'm currently reknitting the lower body on my Summer Solstice sweater, in order to remove the front extensions.  I like the front extensions on other people's sweaters, but I think my fabric was a little thicker, so it didn't drape well and I always wanted to fidget with it.  I'm hoping the regular version will be a better match for my fabric.  It feels a little silly to put more time into this yarn (it's turned out to be very pill-prone), but I really like the color.

Also, HURRAY! 

Huh

That last post, by the way, is my shawl storage system--one of those ring-shaped organizers from Ikea. There's something funny about someone whose job it is to keep photos from deteriorating as they age using an app to age her own photos artificially, isn't there?

Now I just need to figure out how to accompany the picture with my own text, rather than the automatic message.

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New Plan...

Clearly, I was not meant to be a fashion blogger, since I couldn't even make it through a week of posting my sweaters every day! It started feeling very self-centered. (How is this more self-centered than writing about my knitting all the time? Who knows!)

Anyway, I've been making the Nemesis socks, from a few Knittys (Knitties?) ago.

I suspect they may turn out to be slipper-y socks, because they are a cashmere blend, and slightly on the loose side. The yarn is Lush, from Forbidden Woolery, and I'm using size 1.5 needles. I'm knitting the larger size--72 stitches, which is not an unusual number of stitches for socks, for me, with these needles. But I think they'll be great as slipper-esque socks.

My other new plan concerns the doomed Malin (lacy vest, which I was knitting from brown Baby Kid Extra), which has morphed into Belinda (lacy, 2 color wrap from the second mason Dixon Knitting book). Poor Malin was doomed for a couple of reasons: the lace pattern was driving me batty, and wasn't really reading very clearly when I stretched it over clothes I hoped to wear it with. Too fuzzy, I think, and the solid areas of the fabric weren't solid enough to provide a clear contrast with the YOs.

After an inch of work, Belinda seems like a much better idea: the lace is much more graphic (and easier to work), so it will read more clearly over patterned fabric. But get back to me again when I've knit an acre of repetitive lace length-wise, and have to knit a second acre of the same lace width-wise!

Thursday's Sweater

Actually, this was two Thursdays ago...

Another of the sweaters I think of as problematic. Although I probably shouldn't say that, with the pattern for sale just pixels away. But I don't think my issues are the sweater per se: it's not it, it's me.

I really like the fit of the sweater, and I think the cuffs and front bands are really great. It's not visible, but they are really luxurious--deep, fold-over hems, with the outside portion in seed stitch, which makes them seem even more cushy in comparison to the rest of the sweater (knit in stockinette).

But, I tend to fidget with my clothes, which doesn't mix well with wrap sweaters. I have a purchased wrap sweater which I only wore because I felt bad that I didn't wear it--until I removed the ties and started wearing it open, and discovered that it's less hassle that way.

The same thing happened here--this used to button, but the button was too heavy for the fabric, so I removed it, and tried an i-cord belt, regular belt, and shawl pin (not all at once). All three were better than the button, but still hard to keep in place. I think this is the first time I've worn it sans closure (you can still see the button loop on the inner front), and I think it may be the answer.

Also: look! I cut my hair.