Mystery

Contrary to what my lack of posting has suggested, I have not drowned in the nor'easter, and I have, in fact, been knitting. Here is proof:



and



One of these two objects has been completed. But I am heading off to New York for the weekend, so you shall have to wait until I get back to New England to find out which. In the meantime, happy guessing!

J—

At Last: The Jaywalkers Can Jaywalk

Well, it's mid-November, but I finally knuckled down and finished the Jaywalker socks, my supposed Socktoberfest project; 'supposed' because I did, after all, start them at the end of September. My wrists and hands hurt after knitting the last four inches of the second sock in one evening, but it is decidedly worth the effort.

And there was much rejoicing. (Yay.)



Pattern: Jaywalker, by the lovely Grumperina.
Yarn: KnitPicks, Dancing in 'Square Dance' (41% cotton, 39% wool, 13% nylon, 7% elastic).
Needles: 2.5mm nickel-plated circulars
Time: Very gradually, over the course of a month and a half.
Modifications: Magic loop method.
Skills Learned: Magic loop, heel flap/short rows/gusset, kitchener stitch.
Comments: A great first-time sock pattern. Simple, addictive, fun. I would definitely knit these again, perhaps in a different yarn (due to pooling issues). The yarn itself, however, was very nice to knit with, and feels pretty strong.



We see the aforementioned pooling action in the above photograph. It's unfortunate (especially on the top sock, the one I knit second), but bearable. I am simply not experienced enough to come up with an easy fix that wouldn't have affected the fit of the sock. In any case, it makes it obvious that they're hand-made. :)



Hand-made, and quite comfortable, I might add! And despite my inability to take a decent picture of them being worn, they do, in fact, look rather splendid.



Isn't this yarn just fabulous looking? The streaks of white make it look shinier than it is, but the colors are wonderfully vibrant without being overstated and totally immature.

As you can see, four out of five rabbits approve of munching on freshly knit socks.



Mum, these are tasty!

It feels amazing to have finally finished my first pair of socks, and I must say, I am hooked. They are the perfect portable project. Tomorrow, I restart Hedera (in a stunning deep red), in hopes of getting the gauge better this time around.

—J

This just in: Socktoberfest celebrations postponed indefinitely

It's November, but no, my Socktoberfest socks are not yet complete. They were started before October anyway, so I don't feel too badly about it, and frankly this whole last-semester-of-my-undergraduate-collegiate-career/looking-for-a-job/trying-to-get-my-writing-career-off-the-ground thing tends to get in the way of my knitting time. Besides, they're my first pair of socks ever, and the journey has been fun. I'm going to make every effort to finish the heel flap and gusset this weekend between various papers that need to be written and books that need to be read. That way, when Monday comes, I can go back to knitting on busses and trains without having to worry about how many decrease rows I have left, and losing count, and all that nonsense.

In the meantime, enjoy your obligatory (and long-awaited) bunny photo:



Cheers!

—J

she strikes again

I have to say, I find living with a bunny a great deal more frustrating than I anticipated at the start. I've learned to live with the occasional peeing on things, since I haven't gotten her spayed yet, and she's pretty much stopped doing it on any sort of hard surface. So, that time she hopped up onto my bed aside, things have been going fairly well.

There is one thing, however. Emma likes to chew. She chews on the bars of her cage (this has lessened exponentially over the past few months), chews on carrots, on plastic, on newspapers and boxes and especially, oh, anything soft and made of yarn.



That, my (not-so?) loyal readers, is the result of Emma getting impatient with the speed with which I was getting ready one morning a week or two ago. Since she couldn't chew through the container which holds her food, she decided to nibble on a scarf. This is a scarf I finished ages ago and never posted about, because frankly it looks a lot better modeled than on a bed, and I have no pictures of me wearing it. Luckily, I have plenty more of that ribbon yarn left to fix it, since I couldn't figure out what else to do with the leftovers.



I recognize that this even , like all other things, is my fault. I should not have kept it in such easy reach (as you can see in that image, although the scarf has been removed---it was sitting in the upper right cube). At least it's an easy fix. Finding a new place for my knitting, and something else to put in it's place . . . that will prove a greater challenge.



(Who, me? Why would I do such a thing?)

Clapotis

One of the first patterns I ever fell in love with was the clapotis. Now that I've finished one, I have to say that I am quite pleased. I would love to knit another at some point for myself (probably a full-sized one), but this one has gone off to my mother for Mother's Day. Purple never was my color anyway.

For reference, I used Lily's Sugar'n Cream, color #02027---a nice, cheerful colorway for spring. I think I used somewhere around 3 balls (I know I definitely have two others lyring around, at any rate---time for some dishcloths). This pattern was really fun to work with, and easy to memorize. I definitely recommend purling the stitch that is supposed to be marked off by place markersl; it makes everything much simpler. As you can see, I used the modified clapotis pattern for the width, although I added several repeats for the sake of length.



This shot was taken pre-blocking. Now, I've blocked before, but never with anything that showed a whole lot of change---one garter stitch scarf, and a double-knit hat which I will show off at some later point in time.



Here is the clapotis while blocking (which it did quite nicely, despite the lack of pins). Stretched out on my deck like this, the zig-zag of the yellow really became apparent, and in my opinion looks quite lovely.



And here it is posing post-blocking. It still wants to curl in slightly, but overall
it's rather happy to stay in place.



Emma decided to come over to see just what I was up to. As someone relatively new to both rabbit roommates and knitting, I have made an interesting discovery. As many will know, bunny teeth are cutting machines. Combine this with some apparently irresistably tasty cotton yarn, and voila!---instant scissors. Thankfully, this discovery was made with unwoven, dangling ends, and not the knitted fabric itself. It does mean, however, that I have to guard my yarn just as closely as if I had a cat. Who knew?

In any case, my mother received this a few weeks early, and seemed to like it just fine. I don't think I've ever seen her wear a scarf in her life, though, so it remains to be seen whether or not it will get any use.