green.ketzle.net: knitting

'twas a week of finishing. and it looks like summer is finished as well. i went out earlier today, midday, and it wasn't even 60 degrees out. fall is definitely in the air and we saw two vee's of geese that confirmed it.

the mama's swallowtail was blocked and gifted and it turns out we both rather like the darker edging. it isn't nearly as glaring when blocked out and as the greys are reflected in the body of the shawl it appears to flow quite nicely. i am still amazed that i can make something so lovely. i have almost the full skein of the grey so i shall cast-on for something else anon -- probably not another swallowtail though i am tempted as i so love the results.

i also finished the copper socks and have even worn them to work. and jim wore them to bed the other night. and then i finally recaptured them and sewed all the ends in. they are a bit big on me, though perfect on jim, so i expect we will be sharing them all the cold winter long. he once claimed he diodn't like warm socks but i beg to differ. apparently the small child likes them as well.

american girl scrap socks? also done! they fit molly perfectly so the ends were woven and the order received for two other pairs so that none of the girls feel left out. so...

another pair has already been knit! happy little eyelet knee socks. now i need to find some more scraps of sock yarn for the third pair. i know there is some somewhere.

i actually cast-on for another simple pair of socks, mostly because i want to have a simple something around, for those moments when the brain is barely functional but i still feel the need for knitting. pictures to follow eventually -- it may look familiar as i ripped out a hat for the yarn. if j wasn't going to wear it, i wasn't going to let it sit by, sad and lonely.

24 august 2008 together

so, for the first time in very many years, i actually took a 2 week vacation - the kind where you don't work from home or check work email everyday. and it was lovely! but, it was a driving vacation, and as i am the driver that means i didn't have very much time for knitting as whenever we weren't driving we were doing things. fun things! lots of things! nature things and hotel things and siteseeing things and eating things and even marriage things, but very few knitting things.

nonetheless, some things have been finished and some things started and as it seems we might have an early autumn [hope hope hope] i expect the knitting time will ratchet up shortly.

one of my favorite things, signalling another favorite thing. i love all the little ends trimmed off from striped, variegated projects. it brings out some sort of bird in me as i just want to make a giant nest and snuggle down.

the other favorite thing - a finished scarf. this one has been in the unfinished pile for entirely too long so i just sat down and resolved to knit and knit until it was done. and with a few olympic events here and there, finished it became. i love it so -- the colors, the texture, the softness, the warmth... i can't wait until it is actually cool enough to wear this and then i shall wear it very often.

i also finished the mama's version of the swallowtail shawl. i thought i would have enough yarn to finish but once i came to the last section, i knew i was deluding myself. rather than order another skein just for a few dozen yards, i decided to use a sister skein i already had on hand. the original is a brown with bits of grey, the sister a grey with bits of brown. i rather like how it looks now, and i hope i will like it even more when i block it out. i was going to do that this weekend but it may have to wait until next. not to worry, i have until september 7th and that is plenty of time.

the above finished scarf yielded few leftovers. not enough to do much with other than add them to my ever growing ball of many scraps. i had seen a pattern for socks sized for american girls dolls and as i am failing miserably in knitting people sized socks for the summer of socks, i thought i could at least try to whip up a pair of tiny ones. sophie has three girls over at her grandparents but for now they can share this pair. i am waiting to kitchner the ends until i've tried them on molly and made sure they fit. it was a matter of an hour or two for the pair and as sophie is absolutely thrilled with them, it was time well spent.

as far as those people sized socks, i am a few inches from finishing the second of the copper socks. i actually counted how many rows i need before i start the ribbing and it is 18. if i plunk myself in front of the closing ceremonies, i might finish that tonight. but they will be done this month, without a doubt. just in time for cooler nights and toasty toes!

the asparagus socks won't be so lucky. still slow going here and they've fallen to be the lowest priority project. of course, any minute now they will be the only current project at home so i will no longer have any excuses...

i seriously need to find a chunk of time and get all the finished object pages updated. i still haven't handled all the things from last year, not to mention the current year to date. i am pretty sure i have all the photographs somewhere, i just need to get all the pages coded and updated.

green.girl knitting: commentary