that's me in the corner

so that is my week, right there, the first week of school, tidied up a LOT.  i did NOT take a picture of my desk.  that's just the kitchen table -- my desk is not ready for its close-up. ツ

i have a long "what i [knit] this summer" essay to write, lots of stuff to share and document.  i think if i do it in dribs and drabs, i may actually get it done.  the last two posts have inspired me to just do what i can in terms of posting.  me and tiger.  just DO it!

SO -- what's that at the bottom of the table?

the via veneto mason-dixon table runner, nearly done!  all the knitting is complete.  i need to block it (today??? she asked breathlessly, crossing her fingers), weave the yellow/gold yarn through the dropped stitches, and weave in the ends.  then off to someone special.  as yet undecided.  ツ  it's kind of like a baby -- you can't really decide on the name until you see if the name fits that child -- you can't decide on a knit-gift recipient until you see if the gift fits the person!

knitting details -- i liked knitting this for the most part.  i used rowan milk cotton dk 098 "water bomb" (not an attractive name!), nearly four full skeins of the blue, and it took about a half skein of the red.  i used a US size three needle to get a firmer fabric, and i'm glad i did.  the addi's are slippery, which makes me knit a bit more loosely.  the pattern was easy to memorize, so excellent "stoplight knitting".  i wish i had cast off differently, as the bind-off end looks different from the cast-on end where the stitches are dropped.  i should have listened to myself as i was doing it.  but i think it can be fixed in blocking.  the yarn is gorgeous and shiny, but of course very splitty, as shiny cotton will be.

i can't wait to show you the final final finished product -- i like the colors they used in the original, and hope that mine reflects some of the same wonderful contrasts and pizzazz.

ravlink, if you like.

clapotis accompli

what a slog!!  i started this thing a year ago last june, thinking i'd be done quickly.  there were a few problems with that:

1. i am a slow knitter.
2. i chose to use a 16" circular, so knitting this thing was like knitting a 48" tube.  my hands were cramping constantly.  (see small needles at right)

3. it took FOREVER to pull those runners down, since i used noro silk garden sock yarn, which, though lovely, contains MOHAIR!!!  dumb.

i love how it came out, though.  i need to block it, still.  i love the colors -- they remind me of van gogh's starry night.  i don't know whether you can tell that the colors are symmetric about the blue diagonal line down the middle.  when i started the second skein, i pulled from the outside instead of the inside as i had done with the first skein, and got lucky that there were no knots.

oh the noro color gods!  they were with me this time.

odds 'n' ends

how cute is this?  a quick couple hour crochet project, using up the ends of 2 skeins of koigu kersti merino, resembles the ugly doll thing one was coveting.  you can find the easy pattern here.

i AM the macguyver of knitting

these are my new stitch markers.  yes, they're plain, but they can be fancied up, can't they?  so why am i the macguyver of knitting?

if you know what those little cylinders are, you and i are in the same club.  for everyone else, those little containers hold insulin to be dispensed by an insulin pump, used by people with type 1 diabetes.  actually, you might be in the club of people who have t1d.  i am in the mom of the t1d kid club.

i was getting really aggravated with the last stitch marker of the many many stitch markers on my long-neglected clapotis, because it was just a sloppy, floppy piece of yarn.  how i thought of those little gaskets on the cylinder, i do not know, but i broke into the sharps container to grab them.

i grabbed many!  now here is my little stitch marker in place:

goodbye, old marker, you served me well, but you annoyed me once too often;  clapotis, beware -- i have finish-itis!

now my hands smell like insulin;  yes, mom, i DID wash them really well, but since i'm in colorado on vacation, i'll eat a nice, beautiful, luscious palisade peach, right from the fruit stand on the highway, just to make sure my blood sugar does not run low ;-)