I know you are all dying to know.  I know because you’ve asked.

The needle blocking experiment was successful!

Successful in that the scarf laid flat and the lace was open.  It was not a tight lace blocking but I didn’t think that was necessary for this little ditty.  My only concern is that the blocking will wear out over time and need to be redone.  Hopefully its new owner will not be shy about asking me.  If she notices.  If she cares.  About blocked lace, that is.  I’m not wallowing here.

Well, life continues it complicated, convoluted, not to be anticipated route.  Entangled indeed.  I am all astonishment that it has been two and a half months since my last post because I compose posts in my head nearly every day.  Blogging in general seems to be falling out of vogue in favor of other social media but I find that doesn’t make me want to do it less.  I am a writer and therefore journal by nature.  The public journal thing weirded me out at first (as a writer not a reader; I love reading them) but I find I am warming up to it quite nicely.  Not that one would know from my infrequent posts.  But I feel the shift.

Lace Ribbon is all done (details on Ravelry).  All done but for the blocking.

So block it we must.  But what’s a gal to do with a big lace rectangle and no blocking wires?

Luckily I have a jar full of 14″ knitting needles in all sizes.  I stuck to US 3 and under. I think this would have been easier to pin out if it had points to pin but no, it’s just a rectangle with lace inside.

No, it’s not a perfect solution but this is a scarf, not a state fair entry.  And I figure if it comes out really wonky then I can just reblock it.  With wires.  There’s a welding supply store just down the street from my house and the talk out in the ether is that stainless steel welding wires work and are cheaper.  For me, perhaps easier to acquire as well.

Sorry to myself for not writing more.  I actually think about the blog every day but am usually up to my elbows in small children and mundane household needs.  I think the real kicker was Elinor started walking in December and now I am like a circus conductor with the 1 year old, 5 year old, 2 year old GSD, and 2 cranky cats.

In the past two months I have knit myself a pair of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s mitered mittens, finished my Jaywalkers, finished the entrelac scarf (today!), and ripped out the green socks for Elinor, who is growing faster than I can knit.  And walking, so she needs non-skid socks.

(I’ve screwed up my camera card and so pics of the scarf will have to wait.)

I also took part in the Knitting Olympics (Yarn Harlot and Ravlery).  I wanted to make my Ribby Cardi finally.  I cruised along for the first 14 days or so. I wasn’t going to earn the gold because work was jerk again and a project overran (and is still overrunning) its schedule, eating up a lot of my personal time.  But I was having loads of fun watching winter sports, rooting for various people, kvetching about NBC’s broadcast, and knitting when possible.  I knit the back of my sweater and half of one of the front pieces.

Then disaster struck.  And I do mean disaster.  As in airlifted off the ski-run.

Two of my adult sweaters - the Must Have Cardi (my first adult sweater) and the Urban Aran Cardi (Matt’s birthday sweater) - were felted in a tragic dryer accident.  I discovered what happened right before I went to bed and so cried myself to sleep, I am not ashamed to say.  There was a lot of work and love in those sweaters.  For three-quarters of the next day, I was just flattened, numb, mourning.  It felt weird to hurt so much because ultimately these things are replaceable; they’re not living creatures.  As deeply as I sank in sadness, I did bounce back quickly.  The kids got me laughing late in the day and we played a silly game (omigod, watching Elinor try to do the same things her brother was doing so that she could play too!  Priceless!) and after that it wasn’t so bad anymore.

Unfortunately, I could not find solace in my Ribby Cardi in progress because I had some doubts about the fit but kept telling myself, “It’s not your only handknit cardigan so it’s okay.”  Oops.  I went for a smaller size so that all of my sweaters would not be huge and swimmy on me.  But the gauge swatch lied to me and the sweater came out even smaller.  I am going to rip it all out and restart.  It’s a relaxing knit so I don’t mind redoing but I always need some distance before a big frogging.  I spent the remainder of the Olympics tinkering away on the scarf and a (another!) birthday gift.

I did get a beautiful Smartwool henley sweater from Matt in condolence for my loss.  And the weather is warming. The bulbs are beginning to peek out of the mud.  There is so much to look forward to.

My Castonitis has gone critical.

Here’s my latest symptom:

Mitered mittens; pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman; yarn is Malabrigo.  What can I say?  My hands were cold Friday and Saturday.  By Sunday all arguments that I at least finish my scarf first–because I could use the leftover yarn and have matching accessories, a thing unheard of in this house–were broken down by my stronger self and I even took the DPNs away from the entrelac (they are happy on straights so there’s no project abuse going on here).

The project I was going to write about next that was trumped by mittens:

An entrelac scarf for moi using yarn my brother gave me for my birthday.  As Matt said, “It looks like that yarn was made to do that.”  By “that” he means “entrelac,” I’m pretty sure.

But since this is a post about my Castonitis, we’ll move on to the next symptom:

Yes, in fact, that is the same photo from last post.  Because that was probably the last time I touched these. Uh… Out of sight, out of mind?  I have no excuse.  I am weak.

Then there’s this beauty of an excuse to buy yarn for a project that was begun to bust stash:

I do actually pull this out and work on it a bit here and there because, turns out, the only thing more mindless than stockinette is shell stitch.

It breaks down from here because I cannot find all these pictures again….they’re too old…hah… So I direct you to pictures on my Flickr page.  I’m sure I could embed them somehow.  (Resolution #491: learn how to do technical stuff on your blog.)

An overdue gift and socks I started one year ago to this day:

Lace Ribbon and Jaywalkers

And this, my birthday gift:

Hourglass Stole

So that is … seven unfinished projects I am copping to.  And I am dying to start my Ribby Cardi.  Gulp.

The green socks are DONE!  No small thanks to Charlotte who did half the knitting!

It’s hard to catch these socks between feet and laundry and in fact I had to fish them from the top of the basket for this pic.  Zander loves them and immediately requested a new sweater.  I gladly put in the call to grandma who in fact has a wack of the same yarn, Plymouth Jelli Beenz, to make a child’s sweater or two.  Ball’s in your court, G-Terry.

I started some little green socks for Elinor, knit one almost to completion, crammed it on her foot and thought, Self, this sock is running small.  My daughter has big feet.

Riiiiiiiiiiip.  Cast on for the Size 2.  Immediately set aside because recipient has no long term memory and other things seemed more pressing…

Like this!

Elinor’s Christmas stocking, knit in Rauma Strikkegarn, a rough, sticky yarn that was perfect for colorwork.  The color is deliciously saturated without being a distracting eyesore.  I think the Strikkegarn natural is a little brighter than the Heilo used for the other three.  These stockings make me happy.

As for beginnings, I started a project for myself on Christmas Day:

What is this?

Crochet?!  Not just crochet but a giant granny square.

Not just a giant crocheted granny square but I am watching Elizabeth Zimmermann’s PBS series Knitting Workshop while I work on this!  The granddame of knitting - ha!

Oh and I am breaking my no-TV resolution to boot!  Ha HA!

And what happened to the Lace Ribbon?  Oh yeah, there it is, next to the oft-neglected Jaywalker…

Enough with the sins, now for the graces: I am putting a dent into my basket of Wool-Ease!  In addition to this new project, I have also given away a couple of skeins to a friend.  Abbey is not just any friend but a crocheter whom I have recently brought over to the knit-side.  That was a few weeks ago.  Fast forward to today: Charlotte and I were knitting and chatting and I showed her this pattern (scroll down to see a few examples), deciding on the spot that I would make this blanket per pattern, but I would challenge myself to only get yarn for it by trading or buying inexpensively via Ravelry.  No going to the store, not even for a sale.

Charlotte then left and I was alone with these threads of ideas swimming around in my head.  In a flash, the basket was out and yarn was lining up on the table.  It all happened so fast, almost of its own accord.  I quickly perceived that I had a veritable rainbow of partial skeins.  I made one or two adjustments and then, simply, began.  I won’t lie; it may only be a granny square, which I have made before, but it was slow-going for a few rounds because I had to relearn how to double crochet and how to create a granny square.

Granny square: NOT like a bicycle.  But still not so hard at all.  Just as happened gradually with knitting, I find I am able to “read” my crochet better now that I have been playing with it for a few years (two, I think).  That’s exciting.  It’s progress.  It gives me hope that I may someday have a decent grasp of this.  But I can never be brilliant at crochet because that is my sister’s domain, you understand.

My other grace?  After much hawing and heming, the zipper has been ordered for the Urban Aran Cardi.

And to close with wise words from EZ herself: “This just goes to show you…people will wear anything on their heads!”

(Matthew in his ubiquitous Greek fisherman’s cap and Elinor in a cotton cap knit by grandma with yarn she dyed herself.  This is a much cuter picture than the one I considered of Zander wearing his underwear on his head.)

Urban Aran Cardi is DONE.  Okay, it needs a zipper and I need to bite the bullet and buy one online because it turns out that repeated visits to the big box craft store do not generate enough kismet to make the zipper style/color/length I need magically appear.  Fooey.  But when I sit down to knit, there’s no sweater to work on anymore which makes it done for all intents and purposes.  Besides, if Matt was into nice shawl pins, he COULD be wearing it now.  Mwah.

Jaywalkers are on hold while I knit up this pretty thing as a birthday gift for a person who is otherwise impossible to buy something for.  Despite the fact that I am once again NOT making myself the hat and mittens and scarf I so desperately need, I am having a wildly good time.  The Lace Ribbon Scarf is simple but not too simple (I love the double yarn overs!).  It’s also only a few inches wide so I can finish a row lickety split.  This picture was taken after one evening of knitting.  It’s now about a foot long.  What you might not realize about this pattern (I didn’t) if you have looked at it before (I have) is that there are two mods–one uses 100g of fingering weight yarn and the other uses 200g.  I don’t know about you but I rarely have 200g of fingering weight yarn in the same color/dye lot because 100g is what one needs to make socks, generally speaking.  So yey for flexibility!

In other, but not entirely unrelated, news, last week in my fevered delirium as I read books to escape my unpleasant reality when not even unconsciousness would have me, I decided to give up television for the rest of the year.  It was a simple choice once I realized two things: 1) I could not do it halfway.  I could not pick certain shows or certain days when TV watching was okay; and 2) I could not get the boys to join me but I could probably still make an impression on them with my own actions.

The last show I watched (although I didn’t realize it would be my last at the time): The Office.  The show I will miss the most: The Office.  I can’t quite put my finger on what it is I like so much about that show but there it is.  Luckily I don’t have to worry about missing LOST because that could be grounds for marital estrangement since LOST always leads to long discussions, debates, and theorizing, and no one would thank me for having to avoid spoilers.

I haven’t missed it a bit.  I’ve been reading novels, knitting, writing, listening to podcasts, and reading blogs and everything thing else under the ether online.  I am enjoying my evening adult time even more!  I have noticed that Zander watches almost no TV during the day now and Matt watches less in the evening.  Twice in the past week Matt and Zander have opted to play games instead.  Tonight we decided to have a movie night.  This was a special event and not the kind of thing I am trying to disentangle from so I didn’t count it.  Unfortunately, we ended up choosing Hoodwinked.  Eh.  I was knitting on the Lace Ribbon Scarf.  At the end, Zander told me his favorite part was when Granny showed off her extreme sports.  Of course!  This is the same kid who tried to make a case for me to rent him The Watchmen.  Um, no.  Too scary, I told him.  He told me he liked scary movies.  I’m sure you do.

My goal, after December 31st, is to watch television more carefully and not use it like a pacifier, for me and for my kids.

Resolution #2, also decided upon as I wrapped up my bout with the flu a week ago, is to knit all the socks in this book, Knitting Vintage Socks:

No time limit although I expect it to take me about a year, maybe longer.  I have already knit two of the patterns, one of which I probably will not repeat and the other I will make again, happily.  My one rule is that I must use yarn I have already, although I may make an exception for the silk stockings with clocks (last pattern) because I have no silk and why would I make them in any other fiber?  This long term project is inspired by my love of Nancy Bush as a designer and textile historian.  You rock, N.B.