Sunday downtime

1. I'm getting really tired of red. I have so much red yarn! My current WIP, the downtown cap-sleeve cardigan (rav link), is being worked in Hollyberry colored Merino Style from Knit Picks. Solid red, and each row takes a lot of effort, since it's extremely patterned:



I also don't know if this is going to be something I'm going to want to wear when I'm done with it. Right now, it seems a little twee. But we'll see. The model in the pattern link looks pretty good in the sweater. Hopefully I'll look like that and not like I'm wearing something more appropriate for my mother.

2. I need to re-evaluate my Project Spectrum goals in light of my waning interest in red. I had a couple more things on the list for FIRE, but I'm just not that into them. One was a sweater for my niece that I've been meaning to knit for a couple of years now at least, and I'm not sure I even have enough yarn for it anymore, since she's grown so much. So, here's my list going forward for EARTH and AIR:

Earth:
Spanky's Sweater
Clementine Shawlette
Cache Coeur (made with this amazing Malabrigo I just got)
canteen felted bag

AIR:
shrugs for my sister and her friend Jen
white socks

WATER:
black cotton shrug for me
lenore socks

And then I think I'll be at the point to re-evaluate my list again. I need to keep whittling down my stash. It's getting out of control again, and I don't have enough time to really work on it.



3. Speaking of stash enhancement, yesterday Spanky and I rented a Prius through our Zipcar account, and took it to Montclair, NJ. I stopped by Modern Yarn and picked up some Malabrigo:



I've never worked with Malabrigo before, and people, I am in LOVE. I want to start working with it RIGHT NOW. But really, I'm trying to finish this blasted red sweater first. I'm almost half way from the armhole shaping. Hopefully in another week, I'll be done with the back and will be working on the fronts! And once I finish this sweater, that will be one whole lot of yarn OUT OF THE STASH.

4. A few weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly came out with their "new classics" lists--movies, books, music, etc from the last thirty years or so that (in their opinion) should be considered classics. I had seen probably 2/3 of the films on their list but I was surprised by how few of the books I'd read! So I'm starting at the beginning, and I'm going to read my way through the list. The first book on the list is The Road, a book I'd avoided because of its harshness, but in an effort to be better read, I'm taking up the challenge. I'll let you know how it goes.

FO-deep breath sweater

I've been sitting on this entry for a few days. I'm hovering on the edge of exhaustion again. It's because of the gym, I know. I should really figure out something else, some other time to go besides 6am, but I do like going. It makes me feel like I'm doing something good for myself. However, by the time I get home from work, make dinner and finish eating it, I'm so run down that I have no energy to do anything. Now it is 8:30 and I'm wondering how much longer my eyes are going to stay open. The worst is when the alarm goes off in the morning, and I lay there, thinking of ways I can rationalize staying in bed, and knowing I'll just be wracked with guilt and feel like a total failure if I do, so it's not even worth it to skip the gym.

So that's why it's taken a while for me to post my latest FO, the Deep Breath Sweater.



Pattern: Deep Breath Sweater (rav link) by Kirsten Hipsky for WEBS, which is where I got the pattern. The good thing is that the pattern can be done with regular yarn too. You just add a ribbed band rather than the plain garter stitch band of the lace-weight one.

Yarn: Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk OMG this is such a bargain! It comes on cones, and one cone is $22.50, and enough yarn to probably do two of these sweaters. I seriously have at least half the cone left. I think I'm going to use it to make a lace scarf, but not until much later. I'm a little burned out on the color. Ha, get it? BURNED OUT. Since this is still a Project Spectrum FIRE project for me. Heh. ANYWAY, this yarn is really strong, yet still soft, and not too bad to knit with. I liked it better than the kidsilk haze, which is a bit fuzzier, and less fun to knit with, but the effect is similar, if a bit less fuzzy, which in my opinion is a good thing.



Needles: I used the recommended size 8s. I had to purchase a 16" size 8 for the sleeves. The neck started out on a 24" and then moved onto a 36" needle when the 24" wasn't long enough for me to see what I was doing. It was a lot of stockinette in the round, but I knit most of it while I was sitting in the airport waiting for the JetBlue flight down to Florida. I'll have to talk about that later though.



Notes: The only thing I found slightly tricky about this pattern was the bind-off. The first time I tried it, it was too tight. I finally ended up going up to a size 10 for the binding off, and that worked really well. But when I got to the bottom edge, I must have been really tired, because I started working the garter cuff with the size 10 needles, rather than just using them to bind off, so the bottom band is knit in the bigger size, but it just prevents it from being too tight at all, so it worked out ok. I also added a couple of inches in length. As we said at knitting the other night, knit until you think it's going to be too long, and then it's probably right. I even took it off the needles to try it on, which really helped me see that I did need a bit more length. And I'm really happy with it! I can't wait until it gets cold enough to wear it!!!

finally, a restful weekend

Ahh.

Happy birthday, Mom! Happy Pride, everyone! Happy 4th of July!

1. My mom turns 65 this year. My sister wanted to get everyone together down in Florida for a celebration, but my travel schedule for work didn't really allow it. So we got together and bought her a three day cruise to Nassau and back. My sister will stay at home with Mom's husband, George, who is frail and house-bound, and not able to travel any longer (he's 20 yrs older than my mom), and my brother and I are flying in and taking my mom on the cruise. She's really excited about it. Me, not so much. I'm pretty against cruising and the environmental impact the boats have, and the culture of sun-worship and consumerism they engender--they're like the worst of America, inflicted on other cultures. But I'm going on this one, and I have to try to keep all of this to myself, so that my mom can enjoy herself. I have to say, it's going to be pretty heroic if I can manage it. We're all sharing one room, and both my brother and my mom have the ability to drive me absolutely crazy like no one else. Enough said. I leave for Florida on Wednesday evening, and I'm coming back on Sunday. Just a short trip, thank god.

2. My final work trip for this summer just wrapped up: ALA, the American Library Association's annual conference in Anaheim, CA. I don't normally go to that event, as I'm not a librarian, nor do I interact with them much, but I was invited to do a panel on feminist publishing, so I decided to go to as many of the other panels as I could while I was there.

I also got to see my brother, since he lives in Los Angeles. We took a day and went to Knott's Berry Farm and also saw Wanted, which was pretty great on the big screen, as long as you don't pay too much attention to the very flimsy plot. It was a great way of spending a summer afternoon, that's for sure.




I am kind of bummed that I missed Pride in NYC though. Everyone has events or parties, and there's always the March. We've gone less and less over the years, but I do enjoy the atmosphere around the city during Pride.

3. The fourth of July weekend was just what I needed to recover from the red-eye I took back from California. I got into Newark airport at 5:30 last Tuesday morning, and I've been trying to recover my equilibrium since then.



My friend Travis, who is, interestingly enough, a librarian, was here for a visit. I got to talk over the ALA with him (he didn't go), and we went out to eat a lot, and generally just caught up. He's very special to me, and I'm glad we get to see him every once in a while.

4. On the knitting front, I've been busting through the projects. I finished the Jyri scarf, from Nora Gaughan's volume 1 book on the plane out to Anaheim, so was able to start the deep breath sweater from Webs, with their Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca-Silk while I was there, and on the way back. I'm just now starting the second sleeve. I wonder if I'll be done with it by the time I get back from the cruise...



The deep breath sweater is one of the last few projects I have left over from the FIRE element from Project Spectrum. There is just one more sweater left and a pair of socks, which I'll probably never finish. After these projects, I'll finally get to move on to EARTH, although you could say that the Jyri scarf, with its luscious green Mission Falls 1824 merino, was an early shoot, pushing its way forth.



Pattern: Jyri Scarf, Nora Gaughan, volume 1, Urban Layers
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Merino, 4 skeins (I bought five, but only needed four...)
Needles: 32" US 9
Notes: I really didn't like knitting the scarf sideways, although the long rows did make for good airplane knitting, because there was less turning of the work. The pattern was pretty easy also, as long as you didn't lose count, which I tended to do, since I would zone out during the long row, and forget by the end of it which one I was on. It's lovely though, and I haven't even blocked it. I don't think I'm going to. I like it the way it is, all bumpy and curling. I think the curl brings out the bumps a little bit more. This will definitely be well-used come this fall!