Odds and Ends and the New Year

The New Year always begins for me after I get back from AHA, the biggest history conference of the year. It is usually right after New Year's, and I'm always frantically making travel plans and contacting authors and potential authors for meetings, and that sort of thing, so I don't get a break until that's over. This year it was in San Diego, and while attendance and therefore sales were down, everyone who did go seemed to be enjoying themselves, and why not? San Diego in January! It's beautiful! How come I didn't know this?





One of the best parts for me was seeing an old friend from my hometown, who I've known probably since the fourth grade, but haven't seen since our ten year HS reunion, well, ten years ago.



She lives out there now, and when I posted on Facebook that I was headed out there, she emailed me to see if I wanted to have lunch or something. It was really great to talk to her again, and hopefully, we'll stay in touch now.


Goodbye, San Diego, I hardly knew ye. I'll have to go back again with a car. I didn't get out of the immediate conference area the whole time, and I know there is a lot more to see. Sigh.

Anyway, there were a few odds and ends I wanted to mention before I forget:



1. Christmas! I don't remember how much I talked about what I got for Christmas, but I think this year was a particularly good one. Spanky got me drum lessons! I take my first one tomorrow at 6pm, which I'm REALLY excited about (and more than a little scared of...). She also got me my first Japanese knitting book--a pretty simple collection of hats and scarves. I think they're meant to be for guys, but they're pretty unisex. My mom got me the Alice Starmore book. Yay! I have been wanting to learn about Fair Isle knitting for a while, so this seems like the best place to start. I ordered a pretty cheap vest kit from Knit Picks to practice on. If it works, it is something I'd definitely wear. If not, I'm only out $15.



2. Matthew's last Christmas present: He got me a circular needle clutch from Offhand Designs. I filled it up as much as I could, but you can't really fill up all the sleeves, because then you can't close the clutch. Not quite as useful as he probably expected it to be, but perhaps I can use it to store swatches instead. The clutch is really beautiful though, and I definitely do appreciate it. It's just not really designed well to hold a lot of circulars.

3. My latest project isn't working out. I went through all the yarn that is out in the living room before Christmas, and pulled out a few skeins of better yarn, and decided I was going to knit with stuff that I really enjoyed for the first bit of the year. The first project was this one:



FO #1:

Pattern: Friday scarf by Vyvyan Neel
Needle: US 3 straights
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM (P53087)

This yarn is so pretty. I know the overwhelming sense is of watermelon (again! this is the second time I've knit something green and pink), but there is yellow, and a dark navy blue, and other colors as well, so knitting with it is so much fun. I took this project on the plane to San Diego with me, and it was a very meditative knit. In fact, I knit with it most of the way back and listened to A Christmas Carol read by Tim Curry, which Audible had given away for free, and I'd forgotten about it until then. I don't think I've ever really read the original Christmas Carol, just seen various filmed versions, so it was really great to hear Dickens' words themselves. He's quite witty, and I may have to go back and listen to some of his other books now.

Anyway, I got this Koigu about three years ago, maybe. Maybe longer! I got it at Knit NY after the Knit Out, so that had to be a few years ago. Anyway, I didn't know what I was going to make with this colorway, but I thought it was the best one the store had, and I was just excited to have some Koigu, because it was my first "nicer" yarn purchase. Then it just sat in the stash. The skeins seem kind of skimpy to me, and I know I couldn't make any kind of substantial socks with them, so when I saw that cute scarf pattern, I knew immediately that I'd use the Koigu to make it. It only took one skein though, which left me with one left over, which I'll get to in a minute.

I'm not crazy about how the scarf looks with a button-down shirt, but maybe it will look better with a scoopneck t-shirt or something like that. I also thought it looked ok doubled-up, like a little cravat:



I don't know if it will actually stay like that, but it looks cute! I'll most likely wear it both ways to work. The Koigu softened up quite a bit in blocking, and the scarf stopped curling.

In the meantime, I decided to use the remaining skein to kit a Purl beret, which supposedly only needs one skein of Koigu. Whatever! I've just started the decreases, and I'm about to run out. I think I'm going to have to rip the whole thing out and start over, even with the remnants from the Friday scarf's ball. UGH. It looks really good in this pattern too though.

And finally, I'm JONESING to start a sweater. In fact, I may swatch for that rather than deal with this fucking beret. I'm really mad at it right now. Once I get the sweater all set up and started, I may revisit the hat to finish it, just so I can finally get that Koigu out of the stash. Just in time for the Knit-a-Bit Super Bowl sale!

FO #40

I couldn't resist. This finishes out the FOs for 2009, giving me an (almost) fresh start for 2010. I only have two outstanding WIPs, and one new project that I just cast on.



Pattern: Beginner's Lightweight Socks #216 by Fibertrends.

I got this pattern a few years ago in Kansas while I was on a business trip, in order to try my first pair of socks. I basically just used it this time as a reference, and it was pretty basic, indeed. I recommend it as a good one to start with if you want to try a really basic, vanilla stockinette sock.

Yarn: Joann's Sensations sock yarn Bamboo & Ewe Pattern, in color # 1434, which might be one of the brightest sock colorways I've ever seen.

Needles: US 1 bamboo dpns.

Notes: I don't have much to say about these, except that I made them for my mom. One of the ways we bond is by going to the craft stores while I'm down in Florida, since I don't have an easy option for going to the big box stores myself up here (no car). And I do like to make things for her, but it's hard because she lives in Florida, and how often do you need winter gear in the South? So since this yarn had bamboo in it, I thought they would be lighter than regular wool sock yarn, but they aren't. The yarn is rough, and feels the same as Kroy, or any other wool/nylon blend yarn. That's sad, because I expected something a bit softer. Anyway, they did soften a bit after a soak and blocking, so at least they're wearable. I hope she likes them, since she picked out the color herself. I made the cuffs 6 inches instead of 7, because again, it's Florida, but other than that, I pretty much followed the pattern, such as it is. Mainly for the heel and toe. Finally, I obviously didn't bother trying to match the pattern on the socks. I thought it would be more fun if they were completely crazy instead.

Har har.

2009 Year in Review

Wow, what a lot of FOs this year! It is really freaky when you see the all put together like this. That's not even all of it. Look:



Shew. Now that's all of it, I think, except my mom's socks, the elusive FO #40. I can't BELIEVE I made forty things. FORTY THINGS! Many of them were fairly small, but still... OMG.

A couple of things I can see right off--my hair looks MUCH better short. Right? I can never get it past my shoulders because it just seems so heavy and thick at that point, but really? I shouldn't even bother. It looks great short, and sort of dumb longer. It's currently about chin length, and I think I'm going to leave it there until probably next March or so. Then I might just cut it all off again. We'll see. What fun!

Another thing--I knit a lot of baby things this year. A LOT. What is with the babies, people? I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Just because you get married does not mean that a year or so into it that you HAVE to have children. I know that most people do, but still. For anyone still on the fence? It's ok to say no. Or to opt out. It's really ok. It doesn't make you less of a loving couple if you don't choose to procreate. (At least that's what I keep reassuring myself.) Now that I've gotten that out of my system, other people's babies do give me the chance to knit fantastic little ensembles. And speaking of... I just got the news that YET ANOTHER coworker is pregnant. And guess what? I'm going to try to make that hat with the cross-stitch on it from the baby book I just reviewed.

What else? Oh, these projects are not in any particular order. I think they're vaguely chronological, but there is probably some mixed up every once in a while. Also, a lot of stash busting projects. The baby socks were all left overs from socks I made for adults. The orange scarf was from yarn I got at the first Stitch and Pitch. And yet there were a lot of projects made with yarn I bought in 2009 too. I don't know if that counts as stash, as the yarn wasn't there very long in some cases, but I guess I would say yeah, it would count as stash if you bought it with no project in mind and didn't use it right away. For example, the red and green cowls were both knit with yarn bought when the Point went out of business, and mom's socks (both pairs) were knit with yarn that was bought during visits this year. The light green cowl and hand warmers were knit from yarn bought on a business trip. In fact, a lot of that yarn was bought on business trips this past year--to Springfield, IL, Seattle and New Orleans. I'm just about to start projects with the yarn I bought in Denver this past October, so I have to say that the traveling does bring me into possession of quite a bit of yarn. However, I do think that my acquisition of yarn on travel has become more selective over the last year or so, and the stuff I'm ending up with is much better quality, and I do enjoy knitting with it.

2009 was obviously the year of the small project. I didn't really create too many garments. Just the three shrugs, two of which I haven't even managed to wear anywhere yet. They may end up being given away. I don't think I'm really a shrug person, for the most part. We'll see. But in 2010, I want to start knitting more sweaters. I'm really excited about that. I have yarn for a variety of garments--probably about 7 or 8 sweaters of various types. I think I was trying to do all these small projects in order to clear some room in the stash, but obviously that isn't working. One or two balls at a time is not enough. I need projects that eat 9 or 10 balls at a time, or more!

Just before Christmas, I went through the yarn stored in the living room, and took out some of the stuff I liked the best, or wanted to work with the most, and put everything else away in deep storage. I'm going to work through this stuff first, and then start with the sweaters. First up is some Koigu that I've had for years. I bought it because I loved the colors, and then... didn't use it. What is the use of storing yarn for later? One of my new year's resolutions is to work with the good stuff first. I also have my first two sweaters already planned. One is this one, and one is this one. After that, we'll have to re-evaluate. And I'm going to keep doing small projects too, just alongside the big ones, as travel knitting. I owe Spanky more socks, and I wanted to make my friend Jon in Denver a scarf. And there will be at least one shawl. I haven't done one of those in a while. Oh, and my knitting group might be doing its first knitalong in 2010. We're going to knit the Hemlock Ring Blanket. So lots going on in the new year. I'm pretty excited. This year, I'm hoping for quality over quantity, in everything I do. It's going to be a good year.