Hurrah! And a Mystery

I finished the sweater, and it's blocking as we speak! I have only the tiniest bit left (of the yarn I thought I'd run out of)--wound up, it's smaller than a golf ball, maybe more like a walnut.

Here's what's weird: I used a Zephyr Jaggerspun, a 50/50 wool silk blend, and Forever Lace, from Spunky Eclectic, that's labeled as 100% merino, with instructions to hand wash. Nothing there sounds like superwash, right? But when I wet-blocked it last night, it acted like superwash--stretched a good 4-5 inches in length, seemed floppy and kind of lifeless, etc. (wet-blocking in this case means I soaked it in cool water, rolled out the excess water in a towel, then patted it into shape on a towel and left it to dry.)

I thought about putting it in the dryer last night, when it acted like superwash (superwash wool often needs to be machine dried to bring it back to normal), but then I reminded myself that I was tired (and perhaps a little unhappy about my now too big sweater) and that I should just go to bed and see what it looked like it the morning.

It was the same too-big size this morning, so into the dryer it went. And whoosh, it came out the right size after about 10 minutes (I didn't let it dry completely, just got it from the drier side of soaked to slightly drier than damp). So, hurrah!

On the other hand, how weird! Could one of the yarns be superwash without me knowing (and despite the label)? Was it the silk (and if so, how? It was less than 25% of the yarn)? Gnomes who like to make you nervous but not actually ruin anything?

In any case, I can't wait to wear it to Rhinebeck (Where I will take pictures! And then write a proper project summary!)

Magic

Naturally, getting space yarn from Jenn has caused my remaining yarn to last forever.



Whereas before I was knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and the yarn was being visibly used up at an alarming rate but the sweater was not getting any bigger, yesterday when I knit and knit and knit and knit, the yarn got used up at the same rate as the sweater got bigger.

So now, although you can't tell from this picture, I've finished the round portion of the yoke, all of one shoulder saddle, and about half of the other. I plan to finish the rest tonight, no matter how late I have to stay and how many granola bars I have to eat. I ate approximately 1.3 million candy bars last week, and am trying not to eat any this week... which seemed like a good idea, until I noticed that I'd replaced them all with granola bars. At least granola has some redeeming nutritional value, right? (My preferred granola bars have visible oats.) Too bad they also have less chocolate.

Although I don't think it should be too late--compared to the yoke, the saddles are tiny.

The especially good news about the whole thing is that before I put the stitches on this short needle, I tried it on, and it looks like it's going to fit. I've been worried because the body seemed wide compared to the sleeves, and then before the yoke was done everything seemed short.

Speaking of short needles, look how bent that needle is! I've been having very bad needle luck lately--there's the one I broke on the plane, and who knows how I mangled this one. I tried to bend it back, but it wouldn't budge--maybe I slammed it in a door?

I Remembered

While running again, I remembered what I wanted to blog about last week--and it is THRILLING, let me tell you!

Kevin and I arranged our honeymoon travel in Iceland through a travel agent--an Icelandic woman living in the UK (since we don't speak Icelandic). She was very excited about our rental car, a Toyota Yaris. She told us it was a Yaris every time she mentioned it, and seemed to expect us to be thrilled too--except we didn't know what a Yaris was, since they weren't very popular in the US yet (and were too lazy to Google).

When we got there, the Yaris turned out to be fine--exactly the kind of car we might have bought ourselves... which isn't saying much, since we've collectively owned 1 Suzuki Swift and 2 Honda Civics. So I'm still not sure why she was so excited (maybe car rental companies in Iceland usually rent Pintos?).

So the Yaris has now arrived in the US, and I'm amused whenever I see one in the wild. This relates to running because there's often one parked on our route--but I only notice it on weekends because it's too dark/I'm too sleepy when we run in the morning.

See? Thrilling!

In knitting news, Jenn has given/loaned me some extra yarn for the purple-y laceweight sweater--I'm still not sure if I'm going to need it, but it's nice to know I'll have enough. (And it's nice that I won't have to buy a skein, then only need 10 yards). I'm making great progress--I finished the second sleeve yesterday, joined everything together, and am slogging through the longest rows in the world. If I'm focused, I should be able to finish it by next weekend... although perhaps not block it. But what are a few uneven stitches among friends?

And I'm plotting a new sock for Schaefer. I'm going to resurrect the eyelet lace from early in the summer, since I think it will work well with the yarn--and I can't stop stopping on that page when I flip through the stitch dictionary. This pair of socks will interrupt my current pair--the waving lace socks from the Summer 2004 (?) Interweave Knits--and the wrap I'm designing for them, since they'd like the pattern as soon as possible.

Brrr!

It's the time of year again--the time when it's cold outside, so the (large, stone) building which contains my office cools down overnight. Naturally, the heat in this wing isn't on yet, and the stones helpfully release the cold they've saved up during the night over the course of the day, so it's colder inside than out and everyone freezes. (In the summer, the stones manage to release heat during the day, and there's no AC, so it's hotter inside than out. But the stones are pretty!)

As an aside, I have a vague recollection from Russian history class that some czar or another (Peter the Great?) tried to make the peasants build stone houses (so they wouldn't burn in case of fire), but the peasants resisted because of the cold too. I guess I can see how fire resistance might be an important thing when building a library, but gosh, it's chilly! It's not much better at my desk once the heat's on, actually, because my radiator is temperamental. AND inside a large stone wall, with only a small grill to let heat into the room.

Anyway, this means I've been wearing a lot of wool at work. Sweaters, wrist warmers, and shawls/scarves, mainly, although since I've been wearing skirts and dresses (instead of pants) to work lately, a blanket is starting to seem like a good idea. Or fuzzy slippers (so professional!). Maybe some kind of under the desk foot cozy.

Or I could just remind Kevin that he said he'd loan me his heated floor mat!

Blogging While Running

I'm trying to be more consistent about what days I run (and to run more than 3 miles at a time, because in my head three miles is starting to see like a long way--I'm ready to be done, even though physically I could keep going--and that's kind of depressing), so I ran 6 miles on Saturday. I thought of all kinds of exciting things to blog about during that time, but once at the computer, here's what I remembered:

1. The way I mostly run from home starts in a non-residential, kind of unattractive neighborhood, so I'm always excited to see other people running there. On Saturday, there were two people, running together. That brings the total number of people (other than Kevin) who I've seen running on that street when not late for a bus to... three. I always figure when people run through that neighborhood that they must be doing a long run, because otherwise they would have stayed closer to home.

2. ???

Pretty thrilling, huh?

The rest of my weekend reminded me of another exciting fact: knitting projects progress faster when you actually work on them. I knit about 2/3 of a sleeve on the purple-y, 2-laceweight-yarns-together sweater, finished a pair of wrist warmers, and knit a whole tier of entrelac squares on a wide shawl. Unfortunately, it's the first sleeve, and it's still not exactly a fast knit, so I'll need to remember this "discovery" if I'm going to wear it at Rhinebeck as planned. (I will also need not to run out of yarn.)

And it works for spinning too: spurred into action by the approach of Rhinebeck, I finished some wool and silk blend roving I'd been dawdling over. It's plied and set and everything (not dry yet though), and it turned lovely when washed, so I'm much more excited about it now than I was while spinning.

Sock Update

Just to be tricky, I used some light green Schaefer Heather that didn't make it into the photo session for 2 stripes and the ribs... I didn't mean to be contrary ("Ha! Of course you did!" says Kevin), but when I tried knitting option 4, it seemed too dark for the rest of the socks--and the light green matches just as well color-wise (meaning, only somewhat), and is a similar value to the sock yarn. (I think I mean value?)

I just have to knit a couple more rows of rib and cast off, so the striped socks should be done soon... (also, Must. Write. Up. Patterns!)

And I took pictures of Pair 18 (the lovely Spring Forward Socks, knit on size 2 needles with Cuaran yarn from Ancient Threads.



I'm amazed at how stretchy these are--the pattern said they'd stretch up to 11-12 inches, and they do.

I've decided the way to take pictures (without annoying Kevin) is to sit on a bench, lean over, and rest the camera on the ground. Of course, I can't actually see what I'm taking a picture of, but it's easy to delete the ones where it turns out that I've missed my feet. So there will be lots of feet-under-bench pictures (some with an arm or finger along one side, like this one...), till I get bored and make Kevin help again.

Decisions, Decisons

I started a pair of socks with a partial skein, knowing I wouldn't have enough to make a full pair, and now I can't decide what to do. Make anklets? Stripe in another yarn on the cuffs? And if so, which yarn?

So I took pictures!



Here they are by themselves. I'm trying two at a time again, and while it's less of a pain, I'm still not crazy about the technique. If I use up the rest of the skein without adding in anything else, the cuffs will be about 2 inches high.


Option 1



Option 2



Option 3



Option 4



Option 5


I keep waffling about which one I like. I tried option 1 on the foot, and wasn't crazy about it (it made the whole sock seem tan, and kind of boring), but maybe that would be OK on the cuff? I like the idea of 2 or 4, since they're partial skeins I have to use up somehow anyway, but I don't want the lure of using up remnants to make me choose an option I don't really like. Maybe they're all terrible and I need another color entirely?

Or maybe I just need to get out more?