March of the Knitting Projects

Here I present the March of the Knitting Projects:

Holiday Knitting:

1. Yesterday we met the Norwegian Roses Cardigan from the Green Mountain Spinnery. This is knit in the Spinnery's own Mountain Mohair on US 7 circular needles.
2. Toasty Toes socks. These are knit in Yarn for Sox that I found in a sale bin with contrasting cuff, heels, and toes in what I call my Canadian yarn - yarn from MacAusland's Woolen Mill on PEI.
3. A hat. This is to be an adaptation of a baby hat I made with a heart in the middle, per request. I am making it in wool (brown Yarn for Sox and red Spinnery Yarn Over) rather than cotton, and I think the colors are just a tad more sophisticated than the original pink and yellow. Clearly, not far along.
4. Christmas ornmaents from KnitPicks, but this is getting lower and lower on the list, as I don't think I'll have time.
5. Leaf lace scarf. Pattern from an old Vogue Knitting that I copied at the library a while back. This is in a fingering weight hand-dyed cashmere/silk blend from School Products. Nicely done, only a very few brown or white spots. Beautiful to work with, but slow going on US 2s in a pattern that takes a little getting into.

Non-Holiday Knitting:

1. Canal du Midi socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road (all-time favorite sock pattern book), knit on US 1s in some Norwegian brand of 100% superwash Merino sockyarn. Delightfully soft, but a number of breaks in the yarn.
2. Ene's scarf from Scarf Style- do you really need a photo of two balls of yarn and a pair of 40-in Addis still in their envelope? Depressing, isn't it?
3. Pillowcase edgings in a grass-green Paton's Grace. Cute. Maybe a wedding gift.
4. Staghorn cable socks in "Crazy Lady" Mountain Colors 4/8 Weavers' Wool Quarters. US3s, I think. But I'm only at the ribbing.
   
5. A mistake stitch rib scarf in my last skein of Lion Brand Homespun. I bought oodles of this yarn when I first started knitting, discovered wool, and have been trying to use it all up. This will go in the gift stash for an unknown recipient.
6. Another pair of Toasty Toes socks for me. These are the cuffs for the first attempt at my uncle's socks. Expect them to sit for a very long time.
7. A cables and lace sweater from Vogue Knitting Winter'05 in Classic Elite Inca Alpaca. Most of it got frogged when I discovered some mistakes in the chart. This is the major project on tap for January. Details to follow.
8. A cables and lace shell in Reynolds Saucy. Put on hold until warmer weather.

That's the list. Here's hoping it keeps me honest. I'll update the sidebar soon. Today's project was setting up Photobucket and Flickr, which was mostly successful. Can you tell?

Big and Little

This vacation time is killing me (because 4th year of medical school IS the best year of your life), but I'm so accustomed to working (and I mean knitting) under a serious time pressure that I think I've forgotten how to prioritize when I have time to read and knit and spend time with family and run with the dog :

Meet Hannah, my parents' incredibly-high-maintenance Portugese Water Dog. My dad takes so many pictures of her, that she tried to get into every picture of my knitting I've taken.

There's a long long list of major projects I want to accomplish (I'm supposed to be revising my undergrad history thesis, getting in serious shape before I go back on Active Duty with the Navy, studying to try to maintain even a fraction of my medical knowledge, sending out my Christmas cards), and so . . . I started a blog.

Even in my knitting I'm having trouble differentiating between the big and little projects. I should be working on the Green Mountain Spinnery* Norwegian Roses cardigan (from this amazingly gorgeous and well-photographed book). The sweater was a birthday present for my mom last April. (Well, I was on my Surgery rotation last April, so I arrived at her birthday party with a bunch of pattern books and had her pick out a pattern then. My mom is smart. She saw right through my ruse, but she loves me anyway. Plus, who can wear a heavy wool colorwork sweater in April?)

This sweater is the big project I should be working on. My goal is to have it done for Christmas, and currently it looks like this: and this: It's a fun project (except for every purl row, that is - I knit colorwork with one color in each hand, and my continental purling must be seen to be believed. . . ) But somehow I feel as if every time I pick it up is a time commitment. I can't just knit a row or two (and while I generally like to knit both sleeves simultaneously, those 4 balls of yarn are something else!). Instead, so many of my stitches each day are on the random projects from the "why do I have this stash?" (see Kristin's hats as a great use of this kind of yarn).

*A trip to the Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, VT is highly recommended. After finishing Surgery, I cajoled a friend into accompanying me on a lovely New England spring day (cold and rainy) and we drove up from Providence. The retail store is a small room attached right to the Spinnery, and they have the knitted samples from the book, as well as all their yarns. You can pop your head in to look at their machinery - refurbished from the 1920s-1940s. So classically New England. They also have remnants that still have the spinning oils on them, but they are cheap and beautiful and I know how to wash wool. And then I had a beef stew with fiddleheads, which was a first for me. A great day trip.

On Giving

I am not a complete technophobe but the world of digital cameras is as new to me as the world of blogging. I think I finally figured out how to get some pictures up here. (Note, I didn't promise it would be in focus.) Expect slow but steady progress on the blog; I have a schedule.

That would be my box o' socks. The box (more on that at a later date) is a lovely collaged gift from a friend (who may want to note just how overflowing this poor, belaugered, and overworked box is). The socks are (a part) of my collection of handknit socks. Which brings me to two points:

1. Why do I keep knitting more socks for myself?
Ah, the mysteries of the universe are deep and wide.

2. Why am I showing you all my old socks? Granted, they're prettier than most old socks, but 'tis the season, et cetera . . .
Follow the link. A quilt out of old socks? Fascinating, she said drolly.

How do you blog about knitted gifts when the people for whom those gifts are intended may very well see each row in progress?

I would love to tell you about this very-recently-completed work of art:

but even with just the name of the shawl (Evelyn Clark Fiber Trends pattern) the non-knitter recipient would instantly know it was for her. And the knitters would be even worse. You know how tricky those knitters are . . .

Holiday Cheer

In my post-Thanksgiving turkey-induced coma (although my sister was quick to point out that we all get so tired after Thanksgiving dinner because of the carbohydrate overload, not the tryptophan in the turkey), I sat myself down for a good long talk. Self, I said, it's time to get cracking on the Christmas gift knitting. Myself agreed.

Here's our list:

1,2,3: Hats. Two of three done.
4. Warm wool socks. 1/4 done.
5. Norwegian Roses cardigan. This was a birthday gift for an April birthday. Body finished. Needs 2 sleeves, a buttonband and a neck border. So . . . 2/3 done?
6. Dale of Norway baby cardigan - lace border, no colorwork. Not even swatched. Ouch.
7. Leaf lace scarf in cashmere. Until I run out of yarn, but maybe 1/2 done.
8. Christmas ornmanents from KnitPicks assuming I have time.

That's the holiday list. Of course, every thing else falls into the "Finish before New Year's Eve, or else" list. I got that concept from a post on the Knitlist years ago, when people actually talked about knitting and life was good. The poster commented that she made a point of finishing all of her WIPs prior to the end of the year, or she ripped them out on New Year's Day. Starting fresh, and all that. I'm not quite so extreme, but I do want to avoid the 15 year old UFOs that I see occasionally in blogland. So I do my level best to finish by New Year's, and then make a note of my remaining projects. I make extra sure those projects aren't on the same list next year . . .

Knitting Underway

I had promised myself, and the friends who kept asking, that I would start a knitting blog if I ever came up with a name for it. And I did. "Knitting Underway" because this is, predominantly, a blog about knitting and I knit everywhere I can. While the Navy hasn't sent me "underway," or out to sea yet, they very well may. In the meantime, we can think of the underway part as a lovely metaphor for all of life.

Actual posts, and photos, to follow.

Scrapbook

Knit-a-longs of Days Gone By:

Who Wouldn't Love a Handknit Gift? (Nov/Dec 2005)


I got a gold star for finishing 5/5 Christmas gifts:

1. Norwegian Roses Cardigan for mom
2. Toasty Toes socks for my uncle
3. Heart hat for Simone
4. Striped hat for my brother
5. Silk Garden hat for theflitgirl

It's Not A Gift (Jan/Feb 2006)

Since I've knit almost exclusively for myself since Christmas, I think I more than held up my end of the Not a Gift bargain. It's been all about lovely sweaters for myself:

• Am Kamin
• Winter Folly
• Rogue Cardi (not yet finished)
  

The Knitting Olympics (Feb 10-26, 2006)


Team College Hill and our Knitting Olympic spirit was fabulous. A tour of the February archives is pretty much all Olympics, all the time, but here are the photos of our gold-medal projects.

Crossed in Translation (Feb 2006)


My Olympic gold-medal winning sweater was Am Kamin for the Crossed in Translation knitalong. Many thanks to Cara at January One for introducing this sweater to the knitting world. I love it more than words can say. Final comments are here, but don't be suprised if it shows up in every photo of me you ever see. It's that amazing.

Stashalong (Jan-March 2006)


The whole point was to a) knit from stash and b) not buy yarn. I did a great job with the first, and an-almost great job with the second. The deal was up the 31st of March, but I found myself in Germany buying sockyarn on March 29th. Tell me the truth, wouldn't you have?

Count Your Socks (Jan 2006 - present)

I started with 89 pairs of socks in my box o' socks, and then began adding

90. Canal du Midi socks from Knitting on the Road
91. Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
92. Little Arrowhead Lace Socks by Nancy Bush
93. Friday Harbor Socks from Knitting on the Road
94. Birch Leaf Lace Socks by Nancy Bush from A Gathering of Lace

Knit the Classics (Jan 2006 - present)

January: Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Checks and Charms Hat
February: shortcircuited for the Knitting Olympics
March: shortcircuited for my ER rotation
April: shortcircuited for my European vacation