everybody loves a parade!

Life has really thrown me for a loop lately. When you work with academics, usually the summer is a slower time. Everyone is less tense, and more willing to help with projects. But this year, it's been one thing after another, and I've not had a minute to rest. All of this means that I've been spending a lot of time on planes, though, and that means some serious knitting time. So I present the FOs of my labor over the last couple of months. I've had to kind of drop out of Project Spectrum for the time being, as I had to opt for smaller projects that were portable, but I'm almost ready to start again. As Lolly says, after all, there's no time frame for PS, and I'm still planning on working through that original list of projects.

Anyway, here we go:

1. In May, I had to go to London to meet up with my boss for my annual review, etc.

I do try to see at least one fun thing while I'm there, and this time, I met up with my co-worker, Paul, who was there for a marketing summit, and we went to Westminster Abbey.


I haven't been there since I was in college, and it was pretty great, even though it seemed smaller than I remembered. I also hadn't remembered that Queen Elizabeth was in the same room as Mary Stuart. That was weird and kind of creepy. You're not allowed to take photos inside the cathedral; just in the courtyard, which is where that WWI & II memorial is. On the backside of the abbey, which is really the only shot I got of the whole building (I know, I'm really lame. Paul was clicking away like a real tourist...), there are the 20th century martyrs, and right in the middle is Martin Luther King, Jr! That's so awesome.

Anyway, on the trip, I started working on (and finished) a simple ribbed cap for our friend Maria, who put us up in Melbourne. Spanky thinks it looks like a "Fat Albert cap", so I'm also making a second one, which I'll explain in a second.



Pattern: Wooly Wormhead's Ribbed Beanie
Yarn: Caron something or other acrylic from my stash, and a random rust color acrylic left over from the Ebay experience.
Needles: Size 7 bamboo 24" circ and dpns.
Notes: very easy pattern. Obviously not the best yarn, but Maria is a surfer, and I figured she could wear this when she got out of the ocean, without worrying about felting it, and then could just throw it in the washer to clean the salt off.

I also started and basically finished (everything but the ribbed edge) the baby bolero from One Skein.



Pattern: baby bolero
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton, oatmeal, one skein
Needles: US 8
Notes: I only knit this, because when I was looking for projects to take with me to England, I realized I had almost one whole skein of the cotton yarn left over from a previous baby project, and I knew that the bolero called for that yarn. And it was stash yarn, so that was even better! I didn't really have a baby in mind for this, but I made the mistake of showing it in progress to my pregnant friend Eve, who is also a knitter, and she was like, 'hello, i'll take it!' I had already given her the crocheted baby sweater I made (I also whipped out a matching cap on the plane there):


I guess Eve knows a good thing when she sees it. Anyway, I finished seaming the bolero on the plane back, and the stewardesses kept coming by saying that they'd been watching it grow during the whole flight and couldn't wait to see it when it was done. Unfortunately, I didn't finish before the end of the trip, but shortly thereafter, it was on its way back to the UK. Sorry about the crappy pics though. I ended up having to take pics with my blackberry at work, since I'd forgotten my camera, but wanted to send it that day.

2. When I showed Maria's hat to Spanky, she was not impressed, so I bought some nicer, cotton yarn from Gotta Knit!, a yarn store close to work, that I will never go to again, if I can help it. They have a very small selection, and pretty high prices, and seem to really cater to a different demographic (that being ladies of a certain age with plenty of cash). The yarn is really soft, but I'm not sure it was something I would have bought if I didn't feel like I needed to get something and get out of there.

I used it to make the swell hat from Knitty. Needless to say, mine turned out a little small.



I haven't even bothered to weave in the ends, because I may have to use some of that yarn again, because I still need a second hat for Maria, since this one didn't work. I did block it bigger, but then when the cotton dried, it shrunk back up. It will probably fit a 12 year old boy, so if I don't need the extra yarn, I'll save it for Nathan, my sister's step-son, who would probably love it. But I may just rip it out. I hate it when something I worked so hard on turns out differently than you imagine it will. Blech.

Yarn: GGH Tara
Needles: size 7 circ and dpns.
Pattern: Swell
Notes: Ok, the pattern doesn't really address how to do the colorwork. I thought with color, you weren't supposed to float the other color more than a few stitches, but I don't see any other way of doing this pattern, other than a) floating looong floats, or b) doing it intarsia style, where every color change you have a new strand. I decided to try b, and it didn't work out as well as I thought it would, because I got tired of all the different strands. If I did it again, I would most likely commit more to the idea of the intarsia, and would just deal with it. But the stranding part was not the biggest problem. The hat is just too shallow. I didn't check my gauge, and I'm sure that was the problem, but I didn't even think it would fit at all once I got started with the color work. It turned out that the color work stretched during blocking, but the hat just wasn't long enough to fit on a normal adult head. GRR. So back to the drawing board. I have most of the blue skein left, and one and a bit of the black, so I'm going to try to do just a simple watch cap or beanie instead.

3. In the meantime, I had to take another trip, this time back to Minneapolis for a conference. I did manage to get back over to Depth of Field, and ended up with the first Loop-d-loop booklet by Teva Durham, which was on sale, and some very pretty Trekking:
.

My project for that trip was a pair of socks for Spanky's mom, and a second pair for Spanky herself, both made from Artyarns Supermerino, one of the squishiest, softest superwash merinos I've ever found. The skeins are hand painted, and pretty expensive, but I've only used the yarn to make a pair of ankle socks for Spanky, which she wears with crocs to walk the dog in the fall and winter, and really loves, so she wanted me to make a pair for her mom as well.



Yarn: Artyarns Supermerino
Pattern: ankle sock from Family Circle Easy Knitting Holiday 2005 issue
Needles: US 5 dpns
Notes: This pattern was part of an article on how to make simple socks. Obviously I'm much more comfortable with the process three years into the knitting thing, but it's still a reliably easy pattern to use with what is admittedly not sock weight yarn. Knit up, the socks are so comfy though, and make good house or croc socks. The blue ones are for Spanky's mom, and the brown/black ones are for Spanky. I'm done with the second one of hers now, and just have to kitchener the toe. I've been using this tutorial (scroll down for 'closing toes'), and it is really the only way I can do it. I tried to close the first one in Minneapolis without looking at the tutorial, and twisted all the stitches, but it looks ok to someone who doesn't know better, so I'm leaving it.

So to wrap up, I've got to finish the second hat for Maria, the jyri scarf that I started in Utah, and then I'll just be left back where I started in February, working on two red sweaters for me, and a pair of anklet socks for myself. I can't wait!

Finally, here are some pictures of my niece Isabella in her Mary Maxim sweater. Apparently she had just come in from the pool:



I think she'll be able to wear it this winter coming up! It's only a little big. That's Morgan, her step-sister, in the second picture.