4S: I confess...

Scarf/Shawl/Sock Saturday (or Sunday)

Startitis got me. I made a major mistake on the late-for-spring shawl, so once I tinked back two rows, I needed a break from working on it, so that was my excuse to start something new.

Anne Hanson released a new pattern called Fallberry. It's a hat, scarf, and fingerless mitt set. I'm just making the scarf.

I have enough of the yarn to make the scarf a little wider and somewhat longer. The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash Sport. The colorway is 811 - a deep, jeweltone teal blue (which my camera isn't reading well for some reason). It's 100% merino wool, so it's quite soft.

The pattern is a 16-row repeat, and eight of those rows are just knit and purl across.

Translation: This thing is flying off the needles. I started it last Saturday, and I've got 13 of the recommended 20 pattern repeats done already. I'll do more repeats until I run out of yarn.

Looks a lot like fish scales at the moment, but once it's blocked, the yarnovers, which you can barely see now, will show more and give it a lacier look. I'm looking forward to having a new scarf for fall.

4S: fighting startitis

Scarf/Shawl/Sock Saturday (or Sunday if I forget to post on Saturday)

Suddenly, we have fall weather. This causes many a knitter to fall prey to startitis. For non-knitters, startitis is the overwhelming urge to start lots of projects. I think there are two reasons for this: fall is high season for knitting, and knitters panic when they realize how close the winter holidays are and how little they've accomplished on gift-knitting goals.

I'm doing my best to resist startitis, but I must confess to casting on another pair of socks and a wrap, as well as winding yarn for two scarf projects. These are classic symptoms.

However, in my efforts to ignore the call of new projects, I've made good progress on the late-for-spring shawl.

Tristan is supervising:

I'm about halfway through the middle section, which is chart B. This is just under four repeats of the chart:

Chart B looks like lattice work to me. I like the look of it, but it seems like an abrupt change from the edging of chart A. If I were to make this pattern again, I'd try to find a design to put between these two for a more subtle transition.

Four more repeats and one round of chart C to go.

4S: we pause again

It doesn't seem appropriate to do a knitting update today. There will be one next week.

Instead, I would just like to say that I am grateful to have things like knitting and cello playing and writing to provide distraction and comfort when I encounter, either directly or indirectly, evidence of people doing insane things to each other.

I am also grateful to have found a knitting group of people with whom I can sit and chat amicably despite any and all ideological/religious/political/everything else differences we may have. It reminds me that it IS possible to have civil conversations with people who have different views.

Be well, and we'll get back to knitting next weekend.

4S: late for spring

Scarf/Shawl/Sock Saturday (or Sunday if I forget to post on Saturday)

We had fun times at the Treehouse last weekend. Got quite a soaking from Irene - enough to prompt me to bring in the patio furniture and weigh down the outside basement window covers with bricks before she arrived. She left a mess of leaves and branches strewn everywhere, which in my densely tree'd neighborhood is quite a lot for clean-up. The floor drain in my basement overflowed and soaked the nearby rug. The power went out a few times, but thankfully came back on. No sleep at all on Saturday night for all the noise from the wind and rain. In short, a hopping time was had by all, which did not leave me in a fit state for blogging about knitting or anything else.

If you had to deal with Irene, I hope the damage was minimal to none.

The up-side to being stuck inside during a storm and unable to sleep was that I made some decent progress on the late-for-spring shawl:

I'm 2 rows away from completing chart A, which was a 56-row section. Then it's on to six or seven repeats of chart B, which is an easier chart to follow, and is only 12 rows.

I tried to resist buying a copy of Wendy Johnson's new lace book, but I made the mistake of looking through a copy that another knitter brought to knitting group, so I crumbled and ordered my own copy. It's a beautiful book with great patterns. I don't buy pattern books or knitting magazines unless I like and would actually make at least half the patterns in them. Otherwise, it's a waste of money. So it's always a big deal when I come across a book like Wendy's. When my copy arrives, I might do something similar to Carin, who is knitting her way through Cookie A's sock books.

Maybe that will be a knitting goal next year - a whole year of lace knitting. Maybe a project a month? There are a bunch of Anne Hanson lace patterns in my queue as well as ones by Wendy. A mark II of this for mom, one of these, and this, and this, and maybe this.

Knitting lace and socks through this spring and summer was a great idea. I wasn't sweltering under heavy yarn, I got to work on smaller needles for a change, I made leaps and bounds improvement in my chart-reading skills, I got some good brain workouts, and I managed lots of de-stashing. There's quite a bit of room in the storage bins in my yarn closet now. Just in time for my knitting group's yarn swap at the end of the month.

re-Kindle'd

I got tired of waiting for Smashwords to hook itself up to the Kindle system on Amazon, so I uploaded Tempus House to Kindle myself.

Yay!

Here it is. And still only 99 cents.

My next book has hit some picture problems, but they are being sorted out, and I hope to have it published soon.