Bubble Bursted and Mellow Harshed

So, after my project finishing orgy, I was really excited to start new projects! Projects that I had been itching to make.

The first is the Hanami wrap. I went to PayPal to transfer the measly 6 bucks and was waiting for the transfer to go through. I got impatient and decided to go ahead and purchase the pattern so the file could be sent to me as soon as the funds went through. That's when I found out I could just purchase with my debit card through PayPal without all the waiting. Yippee! I got the 12(!) page pattern and rushed to the law school's computer lab to print it out.



I already had the yarn which I bought at Morehouse Farms on the Rhinebeck odyssey with NB. This yarn was the only yarn that I was shopping for at Rhinebeck and didn't even purchase it at the festival. It's the perfect cherry tree blossom color. The pattern calls for beaded cast on and am so glad I kept my mini-tackle box of beads from my junior high days. In my collection, I have a small number of beads that are clear with white centers that my aunt (the same one who gifted the doily to Aidan) gave me years ago. I think that they would like to be part of the Hanami.



Inside the tacklebox:



The second project that I'm excited to start is my Swan Lake Cardi from Interweave Knits, Spring 2007.



I purchased the yarn, Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, months ago and then realized I didn't have a pattern. NB saved the day again by gifting me a copy of the magazine (is that included in GI?). Also, since I already swatched in the called-for needlesize and kept my swatches for this yarn for the Lelah top, I don't have to do a swatch for the cardi! I can hit the ground running.

Speaking of Lelah--I'm currently working on finishing the top. It was kinda a bummer that all the Raverly posts for the top said it was a quick weekend knit. Somehow I manage to make the easy impossible. I'm making it longer with a tighter gauge and am adding straps. I casted on in August, put it down in September and just now picked it up again. Maybe it'll be ready for August '08.

With all of these new projects, I need more project bags. A while ago I purchased a bunch of Sublime Stitching embroidery iron on transfers. The transfers are fabulous patterns like Sushi, Dia de Los Muertos, Monkey Love. I think they need to be on some new knitting bags. In a search for blank canvas bags, I went to the first store that I associate with cheap and crafty, Hobby Lobby. Did you know that Hobby Lobby is online? And through their partnersite, Crafts etc., you can order all the cheap Sugar n' Cream yarn you want? Whoboy! They have canvas bags for like 2 bucks. I'm going to be like Miss Trixie from Confederacy of Dunces only my bags biodegrade.

So I'm all excited about these things today and then right before my class on Civil Disobedience I learn that a rough draft of my paper is due March 12. In a week. I don't even have my research done. Crap! Yeah. That's a problem. I don't think much more knitting is going to happen until San Francisco.

Thinking about Knitting is as good as Knitting, right?

My next project to get done is my friend Kristin's baby kimono. I was surfing for some good patterns and came across this one. I also went and bought some lovely lilac yarn, Misti Cotton brand, which is sooo soft. I will at some point get around to knitting this one. I think that the blanket won't get made. It calls for thirteen 50-gram balls of yarn. My pocketbook isn't so big.

The past few weeks have been pretty brutal at school. My memo draft is done and was turned in on Monday so I've had a little more time to think about knitting. I got my hands on Dorothy L. Sayers' The Unpleasantness at the Belladonna Club on mp3 and have been listening to that while I knit.

Works in Progress

Yo, I realize this post is lame without any pictures. Pictures will be forthcoming, as soon as the shots of the big dent that appeared in our car overnight (thankfully, along with a note under the windshield wiper) have been downloaded for safekeeping.

Works in Progress (in order of motivation to finish):

Argosy scarf http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTargosy.html with Atacama alpaca yarn. This one I'm keeping for myself.

Baby Bib O' Love from Mason-Dixon Knitting http://www.masondixonknitting.com with Sugar n' Creme yarn. I have a whole friggin' pound of "geranium", which I also used to make a matching Baby Genius Burp Cloth for my niece's 1st birthday a few weeks back. It was supposed to be a 2-item gift, but only the burp rag got done in time. My brother and sister-in-law are probably the worst targets for handknits (not crafty themselves, prefer store-bought stuff). But for the 1-year-old who just received everything she could ever want for Christmas just a month or so back, it was hard thinking of anything else to buy her. She seemed really into drooling and spitting up when I was hanging out with her at Christmas, so I thought she could at least put a pretty burp rag to good use. Plus, I have all that pink yarn!

Socks for Dad (shhh...don't tell him...it's supposed to be a surprise....) I've only finished the cuff and a little of the 4x2 ribbing pattern on the ankle of sock #1. This is the project I carry around in my purse when I'm running errands. (That pound of Sugar n' Creme just isn't that easy to haul around on the bus.) The pattern is vintage Vogue, circa 1950's, hence the US size 1 needles it calls for. I'm using modern yarn though--75% wool, 25% bamboo. Did I mention that Dad was the one who gave me the Mason-Dixon Knitting book for Christmas?

Socks for Mom, made with superwash worsted Brown Sheep yarn in "cornflower", size 5 needles. Poor Mom, this was also supposed to be a Christmas present for her too. The frustrating thing about these socks is that I had 1 and 1/2 of them done before Christmas, which is about the same number of socks that I still have done. They would've been finished by the time I left Missouri, except that I'd run out of yarn. Once back in San Francisco, I picked up an extra skein, and then that was it. OK, to be fair, there was also the having to frog the entire heel because of a super-loose weird-o stitch aways back. So, I'm working on re-knitting the heel flap, and that's where I've stalled out. The sock could easily be done in a day or two if I just sit down and get to work.