What to do?

I’m at home these days, since well before Christmas. There’s not much I can do at school, I’m waiting for comments on thesis drafts and papers. I’m doing nothing, then when the comments come it, I go from 0 to 100 in no time flat. I’m hesitant to start new things because who knows when the comments will come back, but it’s horribly defeating.

So I’m sitting at home at 2:55 on a Monday afternoon trying not to nap. There’s been a bit too much nappage lately. The cats aren’t helping with that as they seem to nap all day and send inter-species contagious yawns in my direction. Who knew that even typing the word yawn could make me yawn? That’s twice now.

What else have I been doing? Last week I was knitting like crazy. I entered Sock Wars V at the urging of a friend and finished my socks in 5 days. Not the fastest, but I did finish a thesis draft, go biking and live for those 5 days. I did the Jekyll and Hyde pattern, which was the slowest (I believe).

To start off sock wars, I had a cast on party for 3 of the 4 of us in my knitting group who were doing sock wars. Cast on was at 8 pm, so at 7:30 the knitting group met in our living room and started in on the cake and other yumminess in preparation. We knit until about 11:30 and then dispersed. Some pictures from the night include:

Don’t we look diligent? The three with me in the centre (green vest on couch) are the sock wars knitters, the rest were cheering us on and snuggling with the cats.

I knit the Jekyll and Hyde socks using Araucania Ranco in a lovely deep red. The variegation in the colour was gorgeous and showed up really well in the twisted stitches of the Jekyll and Hyde socks. I suppose you really want to see them right? Look for the red socks in the Gallery above. I finished them after dark and had to run them to a friend to mail, so the colour is a little washed out. Envision a deeeeeeper colour!

After my socks, I finished a project I’ve been working on since December. It would have been done in December if I hadn’t knit a scarf for my brother for Christmas and promised my dad a pair of socks for Christmas. It’s the 22.5 degree scarf done in Cascade Heritage Handpainted sock yarn. Instead of the YOs in the pattern, I did M1 because I misread the pattern. I also finished after 369 stitches instead of 389 because the Cascade Heritage doesn’t have as many yards as the Wollmeise the pattern calls for.

If you’ve seen this on Ravelry, you haven’t seen the photoshoot outakes! One of my Rav friends tells me I’m very photogenic… she didn’t see how many pictures we took to get the two I put up there!

The big pick sweater is just that – a big pink sweater! Finished in December, there are still 4 ends to sew in before it’s 100% done, but I think it might remain unfinished for a long time. It’s Mayer from Berocco in RYC soft tweed. Big and comfy, it’s knit much tighter than the suggested gauge to prevent it from pilling and stretching too much.

Long overdue update

It’s been a long time since I posted. I need to get back into the habit of posting more often. I get to the point where I want something big to post, then things pile up and it looks like a really long list.

I also didn’t take many pictures in the past few months. I looked back through my memory card and found these ones but they’re mostly old and very disjointed.

Remember last year I did a big bike ride with Derek (the bottom of this post)? We did it again, but my parents and uncle came along. They turned ff and did a shorter loop, but it was very nice. I got a good picture with my mom this year (at the start line so I’m less sweaty this time!). This was September.

Also in September we went to the cottage for a week to get my thesis written. 9 days, cold weather, biking, eating and writing (and for D, canoing and fishing) . D was plied with many beers to give it a first read through. I came back with the guts of the thesis written and I started waiting for comments from my supervisors. This is biking by the cottage. I was WAY TOO HOT this day in a long sleeved jersey. The next time I wore a short sleeved jersey and was WAY TOO COLD!

In October we dressed up for Hallowe’en, but that posts’ been up forever.

November had a truce declared between the cats. I don’t know what brought it about, but on a few occasions since then, this has occurred.

December I knit Christmas presents and sent off the second thesis draft at noon on Christmas Eve.

Two Christmas presents to show.

First, for my brother who lives in Manhattan (barely!), the brooklyn tweed two row noro scarf. Noro Silk Garden in colourways 245 and 234. He put it on and didn’t take it off on Christmas and then later in the week as well. I think that means it was a hit.

Second, the Whirly Rib Cap by Woolly Wormhead for my mother in law. I’ve had the Mountain Goat by Mountain Colors in night sky for many years, since the first knittyboard SP round I participated in. It looks lovely on J.

So that’s getting you all up date. I hope to post more often now.