WIPpedy doo dah, wippedy day...

On the topic of WIPs, almost all of my current WIPs are gift WIPs. I just need to weave in the ends, knit a loop for a button or two, and add buttons to my aunt's gloves (and block them too, I suppose, but I'd almost rather not--what if the sizing changes dramatically? I didn't swatch, not with this yarn):





The real color of these gloves is somewhere between these two--quite peachy. It's a pleasant enough color and the yarn was a cotton-tencel blend that had a lovely sheen--but I won't tell you its name and it won't be featured here because it was so splitty it made me want to tear my hair out as I knit it.

I have a sneaky blanket I am working on for a friend across the waves--this involve sewing a bunch of squares together. It's 75% done, and I really need to step up and finish it--maybe this weekend. Girl needs some love, and people are counting on me. Also I have to figure out if it needs a knitted border or not. I don't have much in the appropriate color in stash so it will probably be borderless. Or maybe something small and simple--attached garter border, only a few stitches wide, perhaps? No pics of this one as it is a secret.

Another friend, more local, is getting a collection of fat purply Owl Puffs for her kiddo, who is going through some tough times. I'm almost done with these--they only take, oh, half an hour to knit, tops, but then an additional half hour for piecing together the eyeballs and sewing them and the beak on. I should make a few more of these for the Twin as well, she seemed to like them.



aren't they freakin adorable?


Look at the squashy belly on this guy. Love it. These are a ridiculously simple pattern off of Ravelry; bonus as it is free. I love a good free pattern.

I finished my LSG swap and mailed it off last week, so that is out of the way, BUT I still have two Knit It Forward 2011 objects to send off. (Yes, I know it's 2012. Haven't we learned by now that I'm dreadfully disorganize?). One of the things is 95% knitted; I stalled at making the final touches because it needs to be felted; but I am thinking perhaps it can be sent off without felting. It's pretty cute as it is, and I think it would look okay when stuffed and sewn up. The other thing has not yet been started because I'm trying to come up with a good idea for it, but with a little luck I'll pick out a nice wristwarmer pattern that will work with the one ball of yarn I have.

I've a couple of baby knits on my radar--hats for my co-worker's wife, who likes vegetables and especially pumpkin--and a baby surprise jacket for the other co-worker's wife who is a good friend of mine. I might make another baby surprise jacket if I like the pattern--it looks really neat and I have a fair bit of yarn.

Finally, I'm still working on socks that are designated for other people, and a blanket that's intended for my brother this coming (or past, whatever) holiday season.

Now, I'm not 100% selfless in my knitting of late. I do have two shawls on the needles for myself. One is my tiny green leaves Haruni, still. I made fantastic progress, hit the halfway point, and started Chart B; I even got 7 rows through Chart B while watching Law and Order SVU this past weekend. BUT I screwed up! I dropped a stitch. No life lines, of course, and it didn't ruin the whole shawl as it sank into one of the yarn overs from the beginning of Chart B (thank BOB) but I couldn't fix it. I mean, I could sort of fix it--I could get the right number of stitches back on the needle, and even have them be the right sort of stitches--YO or knits, depending. Of course I dropped another 6 trying to fix it (on purpose--they all stem from one initial YO--nothing to fear). So, it's irreparable, and I've been tinking back, one agonizingly tiny lace stitch at a time. I daren't rip--far too much hassle--but tinking back k3tog and k2tog is NOT easy. So this shawl is hibernating.

The other shawl is a plain triangle in a lovely yarn, and I poke at it when I'm at work taking a break or somesuch. No big deal, it is at 50% at least--in terms of yarn, anyway.

What's on your needles? who is it for? I've noticed in my podcasts and video podcasts, people do a lot of charity knitting. I'm not much for charity knitting. If I knit a gift for a person, mostly I want to do it for someone I know and care about. Probably because I'm so easily distracted and able to forget about things (see notes on Knit It Forward 2011, eh?) a lot easier when I don't see that person every day. I only knit what I like, too, which is not always compatible with charity knitting.

A few new things have popped up--I'm doing a couple of KALs in April. There's a pair of socks for the April Kal for the Knitting in Circles podcast, and, I think, a generic mitt-along for the Hippie Penguin podcast. LSG is having an Afternoon Tea Shawl-along (from Spring 2012 Knitty) which I'd like to participate in--I just need a good yarn for it. So maybe a few more me-based things will hit the needles in a week or so.

another UFO

Another way to not get a FO from a WIP.

Start with this:



Go to this over a week or so:



Decide that doing a slip stitch on the edge (slipping the first stitch of every row) is a horrible idea because it creates an edging similar to razor wire and end up with this:



*sigh*

WIP to FO

How do you move from a WIP to a FO? I've been working on my Tiny Green Leaves Haruni, my swap project, and gifts for my sisters and aunt. I've brought out all the things in my list last time and looked at them and played with them and moved them around, but I haven't FO'd the old stuff, nor the new stuff. Why not? What's keeping me from getting from WIP to FO?

Mostly in order to do that, you have to actually knit on the WIP.

Getting distracted by something else and casting that on does not lead to a FO.



And in the back of my mind I'm planning about 8 other shawls... sigh so easily distracted.

Meanwhile I have started listening to my first knitting podcast while I'm at work: Stash and Burn. I've watched a fair number of video podcasts (see my sidebar--I think I've gotten all the ones with two 'casters interacting, which I find the most amusing), but I didn't think it would be worth it to listen to one--yarn and knitting are such visual processes, I didn't think I would get much from just listening. But it's fun. In an amusing, background noise sort of way. Of course according to my standards I must listen through all the archives, in order. I'm a bit neurotic that way.

Speaking of work, I'm quite busy this week--I have to make lovely images for my Friday talk and paper, which require me doing some odd (but easy) calculations and playing with IRAC images from the GOALS survey. In addition, I'm reducing some spectra from the Spitzer Heritage Archive--this is a bit tricky (lots of details), but also there're 50/50 odds that it will be completely unnecessary. Someone else has this data and has been reducing it and is willing to share it with me--but might not get it to me in time to incorporate it into my Friday talk. Oh well; doing this myself is good training and practice. Finally, I am reading 1 paper a day, trying to take a few notes on each of them; I am working on making my paper neater and more organized; I have three new objects to add to my tiny sample, which is a straight forward reduction but time consuming; and I have to start incorporating about 1000 tiny changes into the paper, which is incredibly tedious and time consuming and enormously vital. Changing the introduction to be more tailored; incorporating papers; fixing the reference section; changing the paper code to refer to figures with links; getting rid of and improving images; condensing tables to be most efficient--it is all in the details.

Oh, and did I mention I have data for 2 completely different other projects sitting on my computer that I haven't touched in a while? O____o doomed.

UFOs and WIPs

Back when I did my stash toss about a month ago, I stuffed all my works in progress/unfinished objects in a giant canvas bag and put it in the corner. The stash was organized and the room cleaned around this bag, and for about 2 weeks I thorougly ignored it.

But there's something rather convenient about having them all right there--I've been working on them. This is the difference between a WIP and an UFO--without any progress, something becomes relegated to the UFO stack. Now, usually, when something gets ignored by me for a while, it either gets picked up in a week when I have more free time, or it gets very thoroughly ignored by me. The stuff in this bag encompasses both, but since I've taken them out and put them right there, some UFOs have become WIPs (and a few have become FOs!)

By the end of 2011 I had 11 UFOs:

1) Snail. The snail is fiddly and challenging and requires paying detailed attention to directions in a book. It has been abandoned for about 10 months because of all that detail. I have shown no sign of picking it up again, but it currently holds all of my size 5 needles (ALL of them) and I want them back for about 50 other projects. UFO

2) Mason-Dixon Knitting's Per Orla dishcloth. Mine is apple shaped instead of pear shaped. It had been abandoned for about 8 months but when I got back and pulled it out and looked at it, the next thing I knew, I had finished it (within 24 hours). I don't know what I'll ever use it for but hey! it's done. DONE

3) My aunt's christmas gloves. These were in the Sourwood Mountain pattern, and it's a bit fiddly, but that's not what has had them abandoned for 6 months. No, what caused me to drop them like a hot pan was the horrible wretched awful terrible yarn. It was a viscose and cotton blend and I have never encountered anything more splitty in my entire life. While it was shiny and a nice color, it seemed to be made of thousands of tiny little fraying strands and even using my bluntest needles I split or frayed 50% of every row. Then I'd have to carefully pick at it until it seemed neat again and move on. I finally picked them up again yesterday and took them to my local knitting night, where by the mighty power of LKN I was distracted enough to finish them. I haven't woven the ends in yet. DONE

4) a linen Haruni. I love the Haruni pattern and this is a souvenir yarn from Spain--crisp brown linen in at least dk or sport weight. I abandoned it 5 months ago not because I disliked it, but because the holidays were coming and I had family things to knit. I haven't picked it up again yet because I started another Haruni in January and have been working on that--the motivation to knit TWO Harunis is pretty low, though I want both of them. UFO

5) Knit It Forward project 4. I agreed to knit and send things out to 5 people, and I've done 3 of them, and this one is almost done as well but it's been on hiatus for 5 months because--get this--it needs to be felted, and I don't know how/haven't taken the time/can't be BOTHERED. stupid felted thingy. I am thinking about how to stuff it and seam it and felt it and what order each of those things goes in. I suppose it's felt, stuff, then seam, rather than stuff and seam, then felt... hmmm... Anyway, this one is scarcely on my radar but it's important, so I suppose I shall take a stab at it this week. WIP

6) Knit It Forward project 5. This has been ignored since Knit it Forward started, so that makes at least 7 months. I haven't even cast it on yet--heck, I haven't selected a pattern yet. At least I have the yarn. I am trying to get this back on the radar but I'll actually have to stash dive to find the yarn and match a pattern to it. Maybe this weekend. UFO

7) My brother's blanket. This was intended for the holidays but I messed up my wrist two weeks before, so I didn't finish it. Also it's huge. Also he didn't ask for it and probably won't like it. Also it has intarsia in the center and I haven't woven in any ends yet. Also I have 2.5 balls of the main color left, and 2.5 of the secondary color, and 1 of the third, and I want to do a striped edge and for some insane reason my brain is saying "knitted on i-cord edging". Ugh. no. That's a recipe for disaster. I'm sure it will be a stiff edging and then there will be a jellyfish of blanket left in the middle. Maybe I can do a knitted on garter border or double knit border or something. anything. Meanwhile, this is a WIP again as I slowly work infinite rounds of stockinette. WIP

8) Delicate purple lace. I'm attempting a Print O The Wave stole in this cobweb weight cotton I got from Habu Textiles about a year ago. I abandoned this last October for holiday knitting, and I never bothered to pick it up again. First of all, it is finicky. I am not good with lace--it takes a lot of concentration and I am easily distracted. Secondly, the tiny thread makes it really challenging. I have to be careful with how much tension I put it under, otherwise it will snap; it's tough to manipulate even with the size 1 needles; and it gathers a little ball of tiny loose threads around it that grows as I knit. I'm not sure if I'll pick this up again as I am less enchanted with the prospect of the final product--it's certainly going to be a scarf rather than a stole--than I thought I would be. Definitely still a UFO.

9) A christmas hat for my older sister. This one is almost done, but I ran out of the secondary color yarn. Now, I was able to bind off and it looks pretty good and is actually reasonably sized, but it's surprisingly kind of pointy on top. I am going to try and fix it up this weekend. WIP

10) I started a striped knitting bag about 10 months ago and left it to be felted. Unfortunately, stuffing it in a bag in the closet for that period of time has not resulted in it felting for me. I need to get around to sticking this in the washing machine. UFO

11) I promised my twin something for the holidays, but she's become more specific about what she wants. I was going to make her a circular shawl/lap blanket, but she said specifically that if it doesn't cover her toes she wouldn't use it. I don't have enough yarn to produce a blanket of that size (yet), so this is still an UFO--in fact, an unstarted UFO, doomed before it began. UFO

Those were all things I had at the beginning of the year, but since I returned home to my stash I have acquired or cast on 9 new projects and have plans for about 5 more. Oops, I think the ADD is showing:

1) another blanket, sewn. I am sewing squares together and have most of them done, but I am short two squares and since I discovered that I've abandoned it. Unfortunately it's about 6 months overdue, but I'm only responsible for about 2 weeks of that. WIP

2) slippers--I got the French Press Slippers pattern for the holidays and cast them on as soon as I got home to my yarn. I finished knitting them in a day (very quick! you hold worsted yarn doubled or tripled), and I sewed them up that week, but they are waiting on (surprise, surprise) felting. I really need to find someone with a top loader washing machine to bug. WIP

3) I started a second baby cardigan during the first and only case of start-baby-clothes-itis I had about a month ago. I finished the body but couldn't find needles for the sleeves or the shawl collar. I really want to finish it because baby clothes are so fast, so this might pop up on the radar again over the next few weeks; meanwhile, it is an UFO

4) Over the holidays I insisted that my sisters learn to knit socks. We bought the yarn together and I helped them cast on. They both got through the toes and to the bulk of the foot (toe up is easier. Don't give me that look. It totally is), and then I had to leave and neither of them have touched them since. Meanwhile, I finished the first sock so I could experiment with easy heels (short row? no, too tight for us. Afterthought? No, they both thoroughly rejected afterthought. I could do heel flap and gusset, but that either involves tiny seams, or more likely having to teach someone how to pick up stitches over the internet. doom. I went with the fleegle heel and I like it a lot--it's very simple.) I haven't knit the second sock yet but I thought I would save that for our next gathering, whenever that is, so I can demonstrate things. UFO

5) I started something special for my twin for our birthday. Unfortunately I started them on our birthday, so they're not done yet. Also, I have no idea how long or wide they should be. I am optimistically proceeding anyway. I will probably send her one when it is done and have her tell me if it fits. WIP

6) Swap knitting. I am participating in my first swap via LSG and enjoying it. I have a little toy to knit for the package and then one other, larger object to start. WIP

7) For some unconscionable reason I have decided that rather than sitting down, taking measurements, and doing some math, I will merely improvise myself a tunic of some sort out of my gorgeous madelinetosh dk. This is not likely to go over very well but for some reason I don't appear to care. I've started the back and have gone a couple of inches in simple stockinette. It will have a little split at the bottom since I am large and my hips are larger than I thought. WIP

8) giant green lacey Haruni. This is the one I featured two entries ago, with three balls of lace to go into it, and only one done. It goes slowly and surely, growing into an infinity of tiny leaves. I hope it still fits on the needle after I'm done putting two more balls into it. WIP

Meanwhile, in my head, I have a pair of endpapers using my gorgeous dream in color starry and a solid black; a pair of bird and vine mitts using my sunset colors and the black (might not have enough black at this rate. shoot); a little kercheif using my blue aslan trends; a baby surprise jacket using some of my wool-ease; a poet's pullover using my ridiculous stash of bamboo spa yarn from michael's; a pamuya using the turquoise madelinetosh lace; a pair of spatterdash with some leftover wollmeise; and a loose drapey green cardigan of some sort with my stockpile of wollmeise in grashupfer. And that's only what I'm thinking about now, and for knitting.

the rest of my head is whirling, too--lots of research to be done, people to email, meetings to organize, data to poke at. Busy, busy. Tell me, what is keeping you busy? what are you anticipating making? what are your knitting, or life, plans?

Beautiful things

What's awesome this week?

Well, how about a fantastic full moon, with Jupiter and Venus near by? The night sky is lovely this time of year, and I'm pleased to live in warmer climates where I can pause at night to appreciate it without freezing my throat. Orion is still up early, and Sirius too; hard to spot them (or the Pleiades, or Andromeda) in the full moon's glow. It tends to opaque the sky. We live in a very dark city which is astronomically useful but makes it challenging to get around at night during the dark of the moon. Still, going half an hour out of town means seeing the night sky like a splash of fresh water, all the stars splayed out and glittering in the darkness.

On that note, I've acquired the best astronomer's yarn, ever: Dream in Color Starry, in the Wicked Royale colorway. It's impossible to capture it, but here are a few attempts:






It's dark blue and black, a lovely fingering weight yarn. Not as buttery as Handmaiden Casbah, not as plush as the three-ply sock yarns that have that lovely beaded texture (Shibui, Koigu, Claudia Handpainted, Aslan Trends). Still, it is 98% merino and has a lovely softness to it.

What makes it the best astronomer's yarn ever?

2% silver.
sparkles.



stars. More than you can see in the pictures, just like taking a real pic of the sky. More than you can count. winking and shining...




beautiful.

Now, what am I going to do with it? If I had a plain black yarn with a similar base, I know exactly what it would become: endpaper mitts, or something similar--taking advantage of the very subtle color changes to make a muted pattern that still had enough contrast to look like the skyline at twilight.