There and Gone Again. July 30, 2009

My boss has been alerting me every time the sun comes out. Sad, isn’t it, that we have to celebrate when we see the sun?

I took advantage of a sunny afternoon to take a few FO pictures.

First up:

Pattern: Burnished Leaves Cowl by Chrissy Prange.
Yarn: Alchemy Synchronicity in Foxglove, purchased from Purl.
Needles: Size 6 circular.
Mods: None!
Ravelry Page

I love this pattern. LOVE IT. I managed to knit this up in two cold afternoons and I wore it through most of the spring, even if it didn’t match my outfit. All of the pictures of me wearing the cowl are sad demonstrations of my second and third chins, so any shots of me modeling my FO will have to wait.

The yarn, Alchemy Synchronicity, is heavenly. It’s a wool/silk blend, a perfect mesh of the warmth of wool and the sheen and drape of silk. I’m not used to knitting with yarn that has any silk content, so it was a little hard on my hands. The result was well-worth any discomfort (I’m also just a baby when it comes to sore hands, heh).

I also knitted up another pair of Monkey Socks, the most popular sock pattern on Ravelry — 9727 projects! Why am I even bothering to commemorate these?

Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock Yarn.
Needles: Size 2 DPNs.
Mods: I slightly shortened the heel flap, from 34 rows to 28. A lot of knitters have found that the heel flap is too long for them. I shortened the heel flap on my first pair of Monkeys, too.

I’ve found a new yarn obsession — Malabrigo sock! It’s so smooth and refuses to pill. I’d already worn these socks at least four times before getting around to taking pictures of them, and they look brand new!

Next up: pictures of two Ishbels, an Ishbel beret, stripey socks for my boyfriend, and an Aeolian shawl. This rainy weather is good for knocking out plenty of FOs!

What Summer? July 3, 2009

I woke up at 7:30a today to see a somewhat-clear blue sky outside the window. I felt a crash of joy! — and then a sudden drop into despair. The entire western half of the sky was dark grey and full of looming rain clouds. As usual.

We haven’t had much of a summer here in New England. It’s been rain, rain and more rain. It’s been perfect weather to sit inside, read, and knit, but I haven’t been doing much of that. I’m taking a creative writing class three nights a week, and working 40+ hours on top of that. I’m always exhausted but luckily I only have three more classes to go, and then all of my evenings are free! I foresee much more knitting in my future.

I made a goal to read at least 30 books this summer. That’s not a huge goal for me; I read voraciously, all the time, anywhere. The class has absorbed a lot of my reading time, but I’ve decided to cheat and use the books I’ve read for the class towards my total. I’ve read about 18 books so far. I reread the Harry Potter series in preparation for the sixth movie, but since I’ve read them so many times before, I’m not going to count them towards the finished total.

There has been knitting; since February, I’ve finished up a pair of Monkeys, a February Lady Sweater, and an Ishbel. I started and frogged a pair of stripey Koigu socks for my boyfriend (his feet are spoiled), and currently have four rounds of ribbing done on them. I’m ashamed of myself; I haven’t kept up with any of my knitting goals for this year and I’m going to have to hustle my bustle to get them done.

I am pretty proud of that FLS, though.