Getting into the spirit.

So yesterday I cast on for an Olympic project. I had a skein of handspun laceweight singles (Hello Yarn "Air" merino/bamboo -- another example of me turning a small spinning project into a long one) by my desk that was meant for an Elizabeth Zimmermann Pi Shawl, and when I looked at it this time, it said, "knit me." And I thought, "why not?" This is something I can do at night when I can't be sewing. Nothing could be easier than stockinette in the round, but it is the sort of project that I would never finish without a deadline. So I cast on and made up for some lost time. The rows are already getting really really long, but I only have about 70 or 80 to go. The real beauty is that I can always just cast off where I am on the last day and still win gold.



And I started another project today involving five rings. A fabric stacking ring set for Eliza's birthday. I just finished the first one, and it wasn't as tricky as it looked in the pattern. She's taking a late nap that may just turn into going to bed insanely early (she does this every so often), so I may have a chance to get ahead on this as well while I wait for the fabric for her birthday dress.

Housekeeping.

I used to have Blogger comments. Then I switched to Haloscan, and all of my old comments got hidden. Haloscan no longer exists, and they want me to transfer my comments to some paid service, which I am not going to do. So I uninstalled it and now the original Blogger comments are back, but any comments left through Haloscan are gone. I almost decided the blog wasn't worth this headache, but it turned out not to be so bad.

The bad news is, Blogger doesn't always give me an email address so I can reply to comments. The good news is, I'm really bad about replying to comments, anyway, and now I have an excuse.

So I did finish the sock.

And I started the next one. And I only ripped back the cuff part twice. Once for thinking I still had the chart memorized from the first sock, and once for not paying attention.



But it's OK, because these may be my favorite socks EVER and they're worth getting right. We'll ignore that one of the motifs starts in a different place on each sock (again due to thinking that I still had the chart memorized from the first sock), OK?

And it's time for the Knitting Olympics. I was a year late for the first go-round, and so I've basically been looking forward to the 2010 Olympics for three years. But now that it's here, I don't wanna. I have two pounds of wool sitting by ready to be spun into a sweater amount of yarn and right now I don't wanna. "Don't wanna" is probably not part of an Olympian's vocabulary, but this is my hobby and I don't want to make it suck. For one thing, I keep swearing off big spinning projects, and I keep starting them. I have a 3-ply sock yarn on the new wheel* now that's been going since December, and I am not a multi-project spinner. Also, someone I know has a birthday coming up soon, and her mama has decided to sew her not only a birthday dress, but toys as well, and I don't think she should put that off until the last minute. Especially since the party is at our place. And it might still be chilly, so she might need a knitted shrug to wear over her sleeveless party dress. So will I compete or not? If I decide I want to, I will. Maybe I'll finish that sock yarn and knit the socks. Some challenge, huh?

* Did I mention I got another spinning wheel for Christmas? No? Well, that's a whole other post.

I leave you with this image from today. Blurry spots are snow on my lens.

Snow angels, she says, are not so fun after all.

I may never finish knitting this sock.

I've had this sock yarn (Lorna's Laces in Old Rose) in my stash forever, mentally tagged with this pattern (Nancy Bush's Traveler's Stockings). I think Grumperina knit that combo way back in the day, and I thought it was pretty. I think I maybe even tried the pattern in a different yarn somewhere along the way and got lost in all the twisted stitches. But not this time. This time, those twisted stitches were actually fun.



But, alas, the fun ran out all too soon, leaving me with nothing but stockinette and zigzag clocks. And as much as I love a sock with clocks, these clocks are driving me crazy. For some reason, I am obsessed with having one clock zig where the other zags, and it doesn't take very much mindless knitting for me to get them going at different rates. Which leads to dropping of stitches and fiddling and frustration, and, finally, ripping.



But at least I have this shiny new little nook in our bedroom in which to be frustrated with my knitting, accompanied by my favorite podcasts.



My mom bought me the chair at an estate sale. It's really too pretty to cover up with my lace, but you have to put the lace somewhere, right? How else do you enjoy something that you have knitted but will never wear? One of these days I'll even get curtains up in our room.

Oh, and that door behind the spinning wheel? That's the wool closet.

Um, happy 2010!

And to all a good night

Between two new teeth (and more soon to appear), Thanksgiving at our place, vacation, a trip to my mom's, and more Christmas cookie baking than you can shake a stick at, there hasn't been much time for blogging the last month or so, but I have a feeling that things will settle down before too long.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday, everyone.