I've finished the Rambling Rose. I've yet to take some good FO shots. I have to tell you, I'm sad to say that this sweater, although its getting lots of wear, has issues. More on that later.

************************************

OK, I want to knit a baby blanket and I need some advice. I have 8 skeins of Koigu KPPM (~1300 yards).

(a) does it matter if its square or round?

(b) how big is a "good" baby blanket?

(c) any patterns that I should consider?

At this moment, even though the mom suggested a non-eyelet pattern, I'm having a fascination with knitting the Hemlock Ring blanket.

(d) is an eyelet pattern a BAD idea?

************************************

Phew, I will be happy to see march go. Although its been a rewarding month, its been an extremely busy month. Next time I sign up for two different conferences, in completely different fields, two weeks apart, please remind me that I'm being over ambitious! Now the conferences are over I can focus on very important things, like knitting baby blankets!

photo logs / crafty ladies

little birds
elly beth
wikstenmade
true nature
simple wardrobe (interesting idea!)
bits and bobbins
{frolic}
Andrea Scher
Fancy Hunt
copenhagen cycle chic (forget so.cal. let's move to europe please!)

podcasts/radio shows (if you know VARK, I'm an "A")

Stash and Burn, knitting podcast
All in the Mind: since listening to Proust was a Neuroscientist program, I have a strong desire to read Proust.
Q on CBC
Hip Tranquil Chick
Ideas: How to think about science

Since my intellectual life has been a little challenging lately, I wanted to knit some stockinette. So over the course of two weeks I knit up Bloom from Rowan 36. Its something that I had wanted to knit for a very long time. Because I'm using a substitute yarn with a slightly different gauge, I had to do some mathematical adjustments to the pattern. The only problem was that I did not include the short row shaping at the shoulders in my calculations. I knit them as if I was knitting with the smaller gauged Felted Tweed.

After I finished both pieces, I lovely seamed the garment together, only to find the shoulders stuck out way too much. I'm kicking myself for now catching this, but as I mentioned before, my intellectual life is challenging me at the moment. I thought about fixing the problem with my sewing machine but then I decided that the caps were too high as well as too wide and sewing the caps off would only fix one of those two problems. So, I lovingly unseamed the garment and frogged it.

But isn't that life? We learn by doing. Sometimes that means the next time around it will be both easier and better!

First there was the back:

Quickly after I started knitting I worried that this sweater was going to be too small for me. So I whipped it off of the needles, onto some scrap yarn and blocked the sweater. I easily, which out any stretching or pulling, gained 2" on the back. Good. I was going to be able to keep what I had already knit.

Then there were some sleeves:

Ladies, do you recognize the fabric in the background??

I did swatch for this project, but I did not block my swatch. Live and learn. Luckily it will work out for this project and I didn't lose any of my work. The yarn that I am using for this project is Elann Tebe Extra Fine Merino. The recommended yarn for this sweater is Koigu Kersti at a gauge of 20 st per 4". Since the pattern was only written in two sizes, 32" and 43" bust, and I'm neither, I decided to fudge a 39-40" bust by knitting the sweater up at a smaller gauge. The Tebe has a recommended gauge of 23 st per 4" on 3.75 mm needles, which is about what I thought I was getting preblocking. I am knitting the 43" size but with a smaller gauge yarn.

Onto the yoke:

I had to sew up the side seams (with purlside out!!) before I joined the sleeves to the body. That took me more than one go, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my seaming. I love seaming. I find it a welcome challenge to see how neat of a seam I can me. If you're curious, go check out the unblocked seam.

Now I'm knitting the yoke. But I'll write more about that another day.

There you go, its the first time I've written about a WiP in a while. Its funny, sometimes I don't write about them because I feel like there is nothing to say. However with this particular knit, there is so much to say. Maybe I've been hanging out with Julia too much lately! ;)

*****

So my post a few weeks ago (on my dissertation progress) was a bit premature. Although I'm working on "it", the answers are not coming to me as easily as I had expected. The "it" I was referring to in that post had little to do with writing my dissertation and everything to do with taking the analytical technique I've been developing a step further. My manta of late is "If it was easy, it wouldn't be a Ph.D."

Each day while I continue to put one foot in front of the other, I keep on thinking of this video by Randy Pausch. Sounds like creative visualization to me.

The brick walls are there to teach you how much you want something. Not to keep you out.

Wishing you all a great weekend...and a speedy resolution to the writer's strike....

Pattern: Icarus Shawl by Miriam Felton, Interweave Knits Summer 2006
Needles: 3.75 mm
Yarn: Elann Baby Lace Merino in Capri Blue.

Knit between Dec 5 and Dec 24/07.

This Christmas knit was a killer! I thought I was doing myself a favour picking a "easy" shawl pattern. You see, I had originally started knitting the Bee Fields shawl, however I quickly realized that there was no way in hell that I'd finish it in time for Christmas. After a day or two of making minimal progress on the Bee Fields, I switched to a pattern that would have more "quick" knitting in it. Although this shawl provided it for me, the rows were quite long after a while.

The recipient, my mother, was quite pleased with the end result. Now she's just trying to figure out how to wear a triangle shawl!

Note to self: Think ahead! Do not try knitting two lace shawls as Christmas presents during the month of December!!!

While walking home from the lab today I was trying to think of a knitting analogy to describe where I am with my dissertation research. The closest analogy I came up was is this:

Imagine for the past 18 months you've been writing sweater patterns. Although these sweaters may be great sweaters, they were all in preparation for the "penultimate" sweater. All of the functional sweater patterns that you have written during these 18 months could have been published, but because they aren't the penultimate design the patterns are stored in your bottom drawer to be forgotten. In your mind, you've been building up the skills necessary to write the penultimate sweater pattern. THAT pattern seemed insurmountable. Additionally, in your mind, if you failed at the penultimate sweater pattern, you'd have to start over again, from the absolute beginning.

An added bonus overcoming this hurdle is an immense rush of creativity! Analogies aside, this surge in academic productivity has manifested a few sweater pattern ideas in my head. Before they vanish as quickly as they appeared, I'm trying to make some swatches and take some notes. Who knows, maybe this will finally be the year I stop relying so heavily on knitting patterns??

*****

The comments on my blog are not working entirely correctly right now. Most of the comments are getting filtered into "junk" when they are in fact not junk comments. Therefore I have to sift through my junk comments (about 60/day) to approve the comments from people like you! So if I'm not responding to your comment, its because I am not getting email verification that you made one. Hopefully I'll have this problem taken care of in the next two weeks or so.

My family, who was visiting this holiday season, was rather curious to see how the spinning wheel worked. On a particular day, when I was feeling a like my family was a little too intense, I needed a release. Since most of my knitting projects were just finished (as presents), I decided to pull out the spinning wheel. I thought something nice and soft was in order. I pulled out 8oz of MadelineTosh Wildflower Alpaca Top that I procured a few months back.

After I had started spinning the alpaca, I couldn't stop. I was compelled to finish it. Half of my family left on New Year's Eve. As soon as I returned from the airport, I sat down at the wheel. By yesterday (New Year's day) I had completed plying it.

There are still many places in my spinning where you can see my novice mistakes, however I feel that I've come a long way since the Lendrum came to live with me. It will be hard to part with it, but maybe it was the push I needed for procuring a wheel.

Without using the "r" word, I can say that during 2008 I firmly commit to occupy this space with more pictures.