Um, hi

Ok, so, I'm back. Sorry about the MIA semester...I went underground. But:

Recently, with end-of-semester paper writing, I've become much more productive again. I think this summer is going to be an all-out knitting summer. Things have been pretty stressful, and I've forgotten how much knitting helps with that. Hopefully this summer will be more knitting for fun than for stress relief.

Since I've last posted, I've finished a scarf out of two skeins of Malabrigo chunky, another scarf out of one skein of Misti Alpaca to go with the cabled hat, and have started a summer scarf in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Pictures and patterns to come later today or tomorrow, when I finish my last paper. Replay the scarf obsession.

I'm planning on doing holiday knitting over the summer, so there's not as much pressure when it comes closer to the time. (Yeah right. I'm almost positive I'm going to get sidetracked making things for myself.) But at least those promised projects from last year can finally be addressed.

February

Hey, so. I haven't been updating this blog very much because I haven't been doing a whole lot of knitting...running around doing school things and getting my sh*t together. I think I promise to get back on the wagon, but you know how my blog promises go.

Also, I hate February.

More later, when I have knitting-related stuff to discuss...

hat hat hat

Arrow says hello from his nest in the couch.

I am working on the Horseshoe Hat right now, and it is almost done - just 11 more rounds to go. I love it. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Chunky in Natural Cream.

Yes, welcome to my world of Anglo-American emotion.

Can't stay long because I want to finish my last paper tonight! Yes, I said TONIGHT! Because I will, as the Yarn Harlot said on her most recent blog post, "freak the frak out" if I don't have enough time to edit the junky parts tomorrow and Tuesday. Even if I have to stay up until 3 am. Or 4 am, more like.

Arrow says goodnight.

Edit: obviously "TONIGHT" meant "tomorrow." I mean, obviously. Time to freak out.

So...

Yes, I know, this post comes in a little later than the aforementioned once a week, but...better late than never?

I don't have any new finished-object news, but I will list the wonderful knitting books I got for Christmas:

Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book
The Harmony Guides: Cables and Arans
Inspired Fair Isle Knits
A Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Favorite Socks
Classic Knits
The Best of Interweave Knits
Cables Untangled
The Harmony Guides: Knit and Purl
Vogue Stitchionary 2: Cables
The Knitter's Book of Yarn

From TheBolter, I received Lace Style and an audiobook of the Yarn Harlot's At Knit's End. I received from lilyriver a subscription to Interweave Knits. So cool!!!!! Thank you!!! You get your own paragraph because your gifts are awesome. (I know you read my blog so I can thank you again over the interwebs.)

I made out like a bandit this Christmas. A part of me feels bad, like I'm in hoarding mode...but another part of me says I'm a poor graduate student, and I like gifts. (Although what part of me wouldn't like gifts, really?) I'm very much looking forward to having the time to knit all these exciting patterns once I've gotten sufficiently caught up on the (post-) Christmas knitting.

And of course, I also received yarns, including this Malabrigo Chunky in "Velvet Grapes":

I think it will become mittens.

And now it's time for bed. I'm sorry, I would link to all the book titles and yarn, but I'm too exhausted. I hope it snows really hard tomorrow so that we in this central Jersey area get snowed in with the shi*tload of work that we all have to complete in the next week (although maybe I should just speak for myself...I certainly have enough to keep me on the edge of hysteria for the remainder of the break) but a lot of comforting knitting as well.

New Year

I've been thinking about some resolutions, both knitterly and non-. The knitterly ones are as such:

1. Only make blog promises I intend to keep.
2. Post at least one entry (with picture/s) each week.
3. Do not promise scarves, shawls, wraps, or stoles as presents when there are deadlines for said items involved.
4. More socks.

In relation to the knitting resolution number 1, I am finally going to share with you the little Christmas knitting I have gotten done so far.

This is the garter-stitch wrap I'm making for my grandmother. It's only about a third of the way done. I had decided sometime around October that I'd be ready to knit the lace wrap "Cozy" from knitty for Christmas. I was so wrong. I hated knitting through the back loops, I hated not knowing how to count my stitches until it's too late, and I hated how the circular needle I was using kept snagging the yarn on its cruddy brass join. I will not mention the name of the needle; maybe it was just a dud. In any case, four hours into Cozy and a half-inch done, I realized I was going to end up with a schmatte, a schmatte which would also be a waste of this beautiful Artfibers Kyoto in number 40. So I cast on 60 stitches on size 11 needles and knit from there. I was able to show it to my grandmother on Christmas day, and she really liked it. And then as I knit furiously throughout the rest of the day and into the night, she kept saying, "So, how ya doin' with that?" and "It's really cold outside...". She has a very dry sense of humor and is usually very reserved, so when she jokes around it is really great. I still felt bad though.

This is the Irish Hiking Scarf that I'm making for my dad in Autumn House Farm Alpaca Brush. (Got it at Rhinebeck, but here's their website: http://www.autumnhousefarm.com/). It is also only a third of the way done. As per knitting resolution number 3, these kinds of things have to be around 6 feet long, and what with cabling for this one and a good amount of width for the other, they take much longer to knit than, say, a hat. Obviously I haven't gotten very good at estimating how long things will take yet. Anyway, my dad saw the WIP and he likes it a lot too. But I still gotta finish that.

The other things on my list have not even been started yet. Eighhhh. But I am not going to take them out of my "queue." By the way, I'm on Ravelry now, as sarahanneG.

Oh yah, last but not least, here's the sock that I promised to show so long ago. It has not progressed beyond this point yet, because of the Christmas knitting:

It's not too badly fudged for my first sock, although something happened with the decreases for the heel gusset that I can't explain. All I need to do for this sock are toe decreases and then kitchener.

Now I must face the writing of my final papers. Help.

End of Semester Blank

Sorry for the long hiatus! Finishing up the first semester of teaching put me in a mute knitting situation, blog-wise. But that's over now.

Updates on Christmas knitting tomorrow! (!!!). Never agree to scarves as Christmas presents.

Cabled scarves at that. Fifty-five inches - are you kidding me?

But I am getting ahead of myself.

And When My Computer Died...

Yeah. That was a few days ago, which is why I haven't been posting. I had to get a new one (!!! glargh)...we'll see how this Toshiba does, but next time I may just get a Mac. The Geek Squad has no idea why my "video card" doesn't work, but they think there's also a problem with the "LCD screen" and the "motherboard," and they don't know why those things aren't working either. They said I must have dropped it. I did not. Thankfully I backed all my stuff up on an external hard drive.

Anyway, I will post a picture of the halfway-finished rainbow sock #1 very soon, as well as a picture of my brother's new hat, which he says he loves. He wore it to the Dartmouth v. Rutgers basketball game on Tuesday. Awesome.

Hey: a revised to-knit list. I realized that I can't finish all of those things before Christmas, so...

1. Dad - cabled scarf.
2. Mom - stole, Fetchings, maybe cabled scarf.
3. Grandma - shawl.
4. Adam - mittens to match hat, cabled scarf.
5. Jenny - surprise things.
6. Sarah - surprise things.
7. Katie - the rest of a pair of socks.

I also want to knit myself some socks somewhere along the way!

I realized that Natalie is not really running that much anymore, so she doesn't need a headband; my sister might not wear the things I make for her (but if I have time I'll make her something); Stef (thank you!!!) said that her hat could wait; and Phil doesn't have a due-date attached to the scarf.

Oh yeah, I did the heel turn for the sock and that turned out fine (although I dropped a stitch in a post-turkey sedated state yesterday doing the gusset decreases, but whatever). I'll give a more detailed sock update later.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone!!!