Saturday, June 30, 2007

Always

A beautiful sky.
A finished pair of socks.
And a new sock on the go.
Wishing all my Canadian friends a happy long weekend.

Monday, June 25, 2007

New Ground

Boy do I ever feel out of touch with the blogging world! Things have been very busy this past week and a half. Between family, convocation, the bar admissions course, and a weekend away I haven't had any spare time.

There has been some progress on the fiber front but I warn you it's limited. Up first there is a convocation gift from my grandmother...a washed fleece.

I'm not exactly sure how much this puppy weighs but it seems to be a reasonable size (read: it isn't overwhelmingly large). Also included in the photo are some lovely student handcarders I purchased for the occasion.

Here's what my first carding attempt looks like.

Has anyone done any carding before? If so, do these rolags look like something I might be able to spin at some point? This whole process is a bit of a mystery to me.

I also started swatching for Stephanie Japel's Cable-Down Raglan, featured in the Spring '07 Interweave mag. The yarn is from Oceanwind Knits. I love the way the colour varies from a baby blue to a deep ocean blue.

Before you judge me too harshly for starting something new while neglecting all of the other lovely projects in my knitting basket look at these.

They're progressing, I swear! I still have a bunch of foot left to knit but I have high hopes that these socks will come off the needles later this week with Icarus to follow shortly thereafter.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Pretty

The family arrived yesterday to attend my convocation (later this afternoon). When my mother showed up, she brought me a parcel that I've been eagerly anticipating. It's the prize Nicole sent me from her Birthday Blog Bash, and can I just say yum, yum, yum!

I am in love with those stitch markers! They are delicate and beautiful. The yarn is KnitPicks sock yarn in a colourway called Cape Cod. It's so smooshy and colours are lovely together, I can't help but bury my face in it every now and then. The other half agrees since he's already decided that the yarn is destined to become "socks he can wear to work". Thank you Nicole, I am touched by your generosity.

In other knitting news, these last few days have also seen the end of Chart 3 on the Icarus front. The calculator says that I'm 77.7% of the way through this beast. The rows are starting to drag a little so it will likely be a few more weeks until this beauty comes off the needles.


On the (neglected) spinning front, the wheel and I have made up after a long hiatus. This is the (almost-full) first of two bobbins of singles. I can't decide if I should ply this bobbin now or spin up the second bobbin of singles first. I'm really excited to see the end result, but am also afraid that I won't be able to keep things consistent if I stop now.

Lucy is also progressing. Part of me is starting to worry that I'll run out of yarn since my row gauge is slightly off. To compensate, I've irrationally starting knitting one of the sleeves to get a better sense of how much yarn those will eat up.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Diamonds

Boy are these little diamonds ever addictive! The pattern is pretty and very easy to memorize. I'm loving the worsted weight yarn and the lack of YOs. It's nice to have something completely different from Icarus for a little while.

Hopefully I'll make it through the rest of the body later this week so I can get a move on the sleeves. For now, however, I'm off to rekindle a relationship with my neglected wheel.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Weekend Away

Last Friday I managed to finish Chart 1 of Icarus while being stranded on a runway for a number of hours waiting for the torrential downpour to stop. That's right, all 178 rows of that puppy are but a distant memory. Can you tell that I'm excited?

Once I finally managed to make it back from a whirlwind one-day trip home, it was time to repack my bags and spend a weekend vineyard hopping, knitting and relaxing before starting the Law Society's version of summer school today.

All of this dedicated knitting time ensured that progress on Icarus continued at breakneck speeds. This is what she looks like after you make it through Chart 2.

My sheer glee at having accomplished the knitting equivalent of a few hours on the treadmill, combined with the lovely result had me a little photo happy. I began taking pictures of Chart 2 as it admired the gorgeous weather.

And, as it contemplated the view of the lake and trees of Toronto's downtown.

I also made some progress on Lucy but since Chart 3 is inching along, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that.

The new Knitty is up and as always, it's well worth the click.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Ravelry

I just got my invitation to join Ravelry. Although I haven't had too much time to browse the site and start posting stuff, I did do a little poking around. It looks fantastic! What a great way to connect knitters. I'm looking forward to having a bit more time to play with it now that that wretched exam is finished.

Details on Icarus and Lucy tomorrow. Bedtime now, I have an early flight tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Blobfest

Surprise, surprise the blob is growing. One (and a bit) more chart done, and another one and (just under) a half repeats to go before I can move on to chart two.

As I'm sure you know, I love, love, love the colours in this yarn. The above colours are not entirely true. In actuality the colour shifts are a little more subtle since the lighter tones are richer than I can capture with the camera.

Every now and then as things start to pool here and there, I start to worry that once everything has been blocked the colours will fight against the lace pattern too much and obscure the elegant details of Miriam's beautiful design. Any thoughts?

Although it's been all Icarus all the time over here for the last week or so, I haven't yet turned into a project monogamist. Meet my Lucy in the Sky Cardigan. I started this beaut waaay back in early March. After some minor gauge issues, I decided that it was best to shove this on the backburner until the exam chaos had passed.

I really haven't touched this project at all since then, and am very much looking forward to something other than lace after I write on Thursday.

And lastly, here's a requisite photo of the pooch who is infatuated with his new toy. It has these octopus-type tails on it that he loves to shake by tossing his head around so that they slap him in the face. It amuses me to no end.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

28.2%

After a long day of knitting I managed to make it through another repeat and a half of chart one. This puts the count at roughly 28.2% of the way through this bad boy according to the shawl progress calculator over at Rose-Kim knits.

The rows are definitely getting longer. The good news is that the pattern has become totally mindless, making it possible to take it everywhere and maximize my daily knitting time. It's shocking how obsessed I've become with getting through the first chart. The thought of having to look at a new part of the pattern is making me giddy with anticipation.

Hopefully today I can either put this down, or learn how to read corporate tax law while counting to 7. T-minus 2 days on the exam front...eep!

Monday, June 04, 2007

k2 tog, yo, k1...

I managed to make it through the second Chart 1 repeat this weekend despite there not being much time for knitting. There's been some light colour pooling every now and then but I really like the texture that it gives to the piece. I've never knit with pure silk before and am loving the feel of it as it runs through my fingers.

When I first decided to do Project Spectrum, I wasn't sure that I would be able to come up with anything "metallic" for this month's colour triad. The colour, sheen, and drape of this yarn manages to be an aging bronze without becoming the tinny gold metallic I was envisioning for this colour set.

I'm hoping to finish one pattern repeat per day. This might be a tad unrealistic since my final licensing exam is on Thursday. After that, it's just a hop, skip and month of summer school until I can finally make the jump from law student to student-at-law.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Icarus, meet world

Many weeks ago I became obsessed with some HandMaiden Lace Silk in the Bronze colourway while at the Downtown Knit Collective's Knitter's Frolic here in Toronto. As previously mentioned, I try minimize the small apartment clutter by not buying yarn just because it makes me a little weak in the knees.

The natural coping mechanism that has evolved out of this self-imposed limit has been to create loose justifications for my purchases. Since I had to make something with this yarn (especially since this colourway has been on the radar for the last year or so) I tried to come up with a lace weight pattern that might work well with a variegated yarn.

Enter Icarus, a pattern that I always loved but never thought I'd actually make, not being the shawl type and all (if there is such a thing). In case I still wasn't convinces, there just happened to be a copy of the Summer '06 Interweave mag to my immediate left in which to check the yarn requirements. Suffice to say I caved. But really, can you blame me? Just look at this yarn...

I tried to ignore its silky goodness for about two weeks while I worked to get a few projects off the needles. Eventually I broke and wound it into a ball, just to take the edge off a little.

After a day or so I decided to knit a few rows to see how it would work up. Just an innocent little swatch. Luckily before the whole thing could devolve into a full blown obsession, I took up residence in a nearby library while studying for my bar admissions exams (creating some much needed distance from the whole thing.)

I can hardly put it down since making through the first pattern repeat yesterday. Expect that this lovely will progress quickly.