Catching up

Thank you all for your encouraging comments on my Fratello socks - I don't really _hate_ them, I just got frustrated, so it was nice to hear some positive views!

And as for the cat picture from my hit and run post - Chowder-cat was so intimidated by that huge ball of yarn (no trick photography, it really is that big!) that she couldn't tackle it right away! She slyly left the room before running in and leaping on it, then running away upstairs at top speed. I think she thought it might be a competitor rather than a toy!

So, after my own personal March madness (which had nothing to do with basketball, though plenty to do with college students), I'm beginning to catch up with things. I've picked up my dissertation work (why, fancy meeting you here), started to prepare the garden for incipient spring, and, in knitting, moved back to interesting projects from the simple 'keep my hands busy' ones that aren't really worth posting about.

I have much to talk about, including a whirlwind trip to London, but first, a catchup post, tying up the loose ends I left...whenever I left these hints:

These socks are Cookie A's Hedera in Yarn Pirate's BFL sock yarn in Solstice (from last summer's yarn club). I realize that it's hard to tell that this is the Hedera pattern, which looks so demure and graceful in a solid yarn, but for some reason this busy-ness I don't mind. Maybe because the blue(purple) is so very blue(purple)? In fact, I love these socks - they've been worn many times already. I think I may love BFL more than is entirely healthy.

This is the beginning of the middle of the Asphodel scarf, which is complex enough that I have only just picked it back up after over a month. It's a nice pattern (the projects on ravelry show it better than my picture OR the ones offered by Misti Alpaca), but the best best thing about it is that it's made in Filatura di Crosa's Superior, which is a silk cashmere blend. Around Christmas, Claire-who-has-no-clever-blog-name-yet bought me two balls of this glorious stuff when she noticed I couldn't stop touching it. I still can't, though I think it's slightly less embarrassing in the privacy of my own home. It _is_ a little scary to think about leaving the house with this scarf when I finish it - I'm going to be petted by strangers, I think! (oh, and I'd like to point out that the asphodel is the flower that grows in Hades. Perfectly cheery, no?)

This loveliness is the Three-cornered Shawl in Clover pattern, from Victorian Lace Today, in HelloYarn's BFL (are you surprised?) lace yarn. I'm really pleased with how it came out - I've never used such tiny yarn before (it's really 1-ply, though it calls itself 2ply (perhaps because there's nylon in the mix somewhere?)), and it made such a delicate fabric that I can hardly believe it. None of my pictures really do justice to the rich, variegated orange of the yarn, but what can a girl with a crap camera do? Enjoy a couple more pictures:


My only problem with the shawl is that I kind of feel frumpy in a triangular lace shawl. Anyone else?

Finally - I finished the Laila Estonian socks:
I'm entirely in love with these, with the variegations in the handspun, with the successful fair isle work (which I'm not used to), and with the fact that they actually, miraculously fit. What joy! I need to get to work on a new fair isle project that will actually be seen by people other than me now!

I never promised you a rose garden

But I did promise some non-sock knitting.

First off, my long-term-early-morning-full-concentration-lace-project:

It's the Three Cornered Shawl in Clover Pattern from Victorian Lace Today, knit in Hello Yarn's BFL lace (and of course it's impossible to photograph well since it's very fine yarn, I lack a macro lens, and it's winter, but...). The pattern's fairly simple, but it's slow going because the yarn is so tiny. It's a single-ply lace (strengthened with a little nylon) and it tends to get caught on itself and the stitches hide under each other. I had to switch from my original choice of pattern because it was a true lace and had many areas where there was a single strand of yarn stretching over a great hole, which didn't seem like the best of plans for such a fine yarn! Still, the color is fabulous, and I think I'll actually wear this triangle shawl in it.

This is my semi-endless boring knitting:

As I mentioned ages ago, this is the first sweater I've made in a long time because I've been so disappointed with my efforts in the past. I've just been too lazy to modify the pattern to fit, and so (unsurprisingly), it doesn't. This one (the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie from Webs), I've been trying on at every step, and measuring constantly, and it's very promising. (More on this pattern (and yarn) later! or, What I've Learned about Cheap Downloaded Patterns.) It's also very boring - all stockinette. But I do have a solution for that:

This is the view of my knitting-while-reading setup (with a quick stockinette cap for myself, in Malabrigo (mmmm!)). It's just a cookbook holder, but I can read while I knit this way - get some fun reading done while getting through the dull bits of my knitting. It's perfect. So perfect, once I'm ensconced with it, that's the end, nothing else is getting done that day!