lightweight pullover

At long last! The lightweight pullover!



This was supposed to be a quick knit, but like many of my projects, it got set aside for other things, so after going gangbusters on it for a few weeks, the last 15% or so dragged out for a while. After not touching the sweater for several weeks, last night I cast off the sleeve, hid the ends, and gave it a soak, which took all of, oh, twenty minutes.



I put it on for a few minutes this morning so Daniel could take a couple of pictures. He did a pretty good job, don't you think? For a five-year-old, I mean. Once we got the pictures, I went right inside to change to a t-shirt. It got up to almost 90 degrees today, and the rest of the week is supposed to be pretty warm! Looks like I won't want to wear this sweater for a while. Too bad, because it fits very nicely, and I do like the color, a dark heathery teal you don't see too often.

Pattern: Lightweight Pullover by the fabulous Hannah Fettig of Knitbot.com
Yarn: Dzined sportweight, a wool/hemp/mohair blend that is among the first yarn I ever stashed. Each skein is about 400 yards, and I had less than 1/3 of a skein leftover.
Mods: I made the body longer, something I've been doing lately on sweaters for myself. Do I have a long torso or something? Or are designer making things shorter? In any case, it wasn't a difficult adjustment to make.

weekend knitting

How many people go to the mall on a rainy Sunday afternoon? A LOT. We learned that the hard way today. Our big computer (a Power Mac that's about five years old) suddenly started having weird problems that even Stuart, who is pretty much an expert, couldn't figure out what was wrong. He made an appointment at the Apple Store, and because it was raining and we felt cooped up and bored at home, we all decided to go along. I don't think I've set foot in the mall in at least six months, and I'd be happy if I never went back. It was teeming with people and little kids and so noisy I couldn't hear anything, which isn't helped by the fact that my left ear is all clogged up from an ear infection, my second in as many months (shouldn't I be too old for those by now?) so for the last three days it feels like I've been walking around with a bubble over my head. Anyway, the diagnostic for the Power Mac took a little while, so I actually got a good bit of knitting done on my Wurm hat, which is the perfect portable project, a.k.a. small and easy.

I'm nearing the end of my test knit. I think it's okay to show you this little hint of the back (there's still a collar to knit on there, which will make what looks like a pair of knitted lips look much better!):



The finished project will be a nice little sweater, and would have, in fact, been perfect to wear in today's cool, rainy weather, but I do have a few hours of knitting to go first. For that matter, I still haven't finished the lightweight pullover, even though I'm so very close to the end. Maybe I'll get that done and blocked tonight...

i'm still here

Happily, one day of rest seemed to do the trick for my injured hand. I suspect it was a case of "mommy thumb" (tendonitis around the thumb joint that mothers of young children often get as a result of putting pressure on the L-shape of the joint when they pick up their kids) as Jenn-Jenn suggested. It's not like I can just go a day without using my hands, but I was careful not to put undo pressure on that joint, took a little ibuprofen, and by the next day it felt normal. What a relief!

I mentioned that I've agreed to do a test knit. Well, it's cruising along, but not yet finished. I can't say anything more about it, but just to prove that my needles haven't been quiet, even if the blog has, here's a little peek:

injured

I think I've incurred a knitting injury. My area on my right hand between my thumb and forefinger is a little swollen, and it hurts when I have to grip things, like getting a full jug of milk out of the fridge, or digging up a particularly aggressive dandelion, or lifting up one of my children for whatever reason. This has happened to me before, but rarely. I knit all the time, so I'm not sure what caused it, but I suspect it's the culmination of several things: going gangbusters on a test knit with KP Zephyrs, carrying Anya around for at least half an hour during Saturday's protest when she got cold and tired, much digging and weeding in my front garden, and the general tension I always carry in my neck and shoulders. Fortunately, this sort of thing doesn't affect piano playing, which doesn't require any grip. Still, I have a performance this weekend, so it's probably wise to lay off knitting for a couple of days just to be careful.

We've been spending a lot of time gardening this week, the kids and I. They are particularly fond of helping me water the plants. Notice the bandanas! I wear one to protect my scalp from the sun. They like to copy me, so there you go.

so what's next?

Here's my current WIP pile:



Rather modest, yes? I've been doing pretty well lately with having only a few projects going at a time. It's not even that I think there is something wrong with having lots of works in progress. Knitting is knitting, and a knitter should do what he/she wants, whether that means one project at a time or ten. For me, though, I'm most comfortable with two or three projects on the needles at once. Just one gets monotonous, and more than three (or four...) is too distracting.

The big teal blob in that photo above is my lightweight pullover, still about 3 rounds of sleeve ribbing away from being complete. It was hot and humid earlier this week, so I wasn't inspired to finish it, but now I wish I had because today it's cold and wet and feels like March again - perfect sweater weather!

The red swatch is for a project I agreed to test knit, my first ever! That's kind of exciting, but it means I'm on a deadline of sorts. I'd like to see how quickly I can get it done. Maybe a week?

And finally, my latest "cast on quick so I have something to knit in the car/at the park/on the porch while the kids play in the sprinkler" project:




It's a Wurm hat, and there are like a gazillion on Ravelry. I wish the pattern had a little more information about sizing, but it's a freebie, so I can't really complain. I'm using Farmhouse silk blend, a really interesting yarn with a sort of rag-wool quality. It's rustic, which I like, and all American-made, which I like even better.

My next post ought to be an FO. Seriously, 20 minutes of knitting is all it's going to take to finish that teal sweater!

first day of summer?

It's not really the first day of summer, but it suddenly feels like it - sunshine, temps in the 80s. Less than a month ago, there was snow and ice on the ground; it's a little surreal!

Not surprisingly, a lot of my knitting mojo has been channeled into gardening over the last week or so. There has been much weeding and planting and digging and pondering over what should go where. I have big plans this year as always, plans involving herbs and vegetables and butterfly-and-hummingbird-friendly flowers and a community garden plot. I am nothing if not ambitious.

Also, how to keep the bunnies away? This is a huge challenge. I was just chatting with a neighbor, whose backyard vegetable garden was recently invaded by a mama bunny. She chewed through his fence, hunkered down in the middle of his garlic patch and then promptly gave birth to a bunch of baby bunnies. He ended up spreading some raw hamburger over the garlic nest, which attracted a flock of crows, who in turn, um, took care of the little bunnies. (With apologies to my readers who might be overly sympathetic to animal rights: this is nature, folks. There are too many rabbits and not enough predators to keep their population in check. At least he had the decency not to poison them.)

I haven't planted anything rabbit-friendly yet, but when I do, there will be a strong fence around it. I like my beans and lettuce nibble-free.

Unfortunately, Daniel has been under the weather for a couple of days, so we haven't made any grand and glorious outings to the outdoor places we normally like to visit in the spring, like the zoo and the Arboretum and the botanical gardens. By midday today, at least, he was starting to perk up, so I let him and Anya put on their swimming gear (glad I ordered that early this year!) and turn on the sprinkler.





Miraculously, my knitting didn't get wet. Yeah, I did remember this is a knitting blog. Here is my lightweight pullover, just a few rounds of sleeve ribbing away from being finished:



I've tried it on and it fits just right. Of course, it's possible I won't have the chance to wear it until September, but then again, this is Wisconsin. We could be back in hats and mittens by the weekend.

finished socks and eye candy

I finished the Jelly Beans socks!



What a nifty pattern. I think the only thing I would change is the garter stitch at the top of the cuff. It feels kind of loose compared to the rest of the sock, which has a lovely, snug, textured fit.



I really need to learn how to use the nice camera. It's a DSLR we got when I was pregnant with Daniel six years ago, and I still don't know how to take good pictures with it. The socks look more brown in these pictures than in real life.



I've decided not to keep these, much as I like them. I'm not saying where they're going, just to a worthy recipient.



Pattern: Jelly Beans Socks by Green Mountain Spinnery
Needles: size 1 (2.25mm) DPNs. I used KP Harmony needles. They're nice, but this is the first pair of socks I've made with this particular set of needles, and one already has a nick at the end. Good thing they send you six of each size in case one breaks.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, in a gray color I think is called "Tabby". I had lots of this left over from making my dad birthday socks a couple of years ago. There was plenty for these socks, and enough, I think, to make a pair of socks for these little feet:



And just for fun, here's my little girl eating yogurt on the deck:





It seems as though today spring has finally, finally arrived.

wordless wednesday