Socks & Scarves

That's pretty much what I'm knitting these days! If you check out my Rav progress bars, you'll see that all of my currently-listed WIPs are either socks or scarves. Socks are perfect for the bus, and scarves are good for TV and movies. I've actually got a pair of wristers going that I haven't added in to Rav yet, but those are, so far, no different than socks. Instead of turning a heel and making a foot, I'll leave the end open and make a thumb!

Most recent pair of socks that I finished:



Oak Ribbed Socks



What's neat is how the stripe patterns line up:



It was two separate balls of yarn, and apparently they were either wound in opposite directions, or I started with a different end each time -- too funny!

Also, these are the socks during which I figured out my personal cure for SSS. I almost finished the first sock on one of my trips this summer, but I didn't want to graft it shut while I was away. That would be a recipe for disaster! I still didn't want to graft it after I got home, so I started on the second sock, and it went so quickly. It took significantly less time to knit than the first, and much less time than a second sock usually takes me. So I think my new plan is to never finish the first sock in the pair...we'll see if this works!

Dishcloths!

I've been on a bit of a dishcloth kick lately! They are fun, easy, cheap, and quick to make, and they don't take a lot of brainpower, which is nice. I started off making four for my brother and his camp to use this summer. They get green scrubbies for washing dishes, and while those are great for some things, there's nothing like some good dishcloth cotton to really get the grease off the pots and pans. Unfortunately, the photoshoot for most of them was rushed and in really confusing light - inside, under a yellow-ish fluorescent, with sunlight coming in through the windows, and with my Leica, which is...not the greatest when it comes to sorting out different lights. I like to play with white balance, but I'm no expert, so please forgive the non-fantastic colors:



For more on the patterns, yarn, etc., see the Ravelry project pages:
Light Turquoise Blue Crater Dishcloth #1
Cream Crater Dishcloth #2
Baby Blue Crater Dishcloth #3

(Crater Lake is the name of my brother's camp, which is why they are all called Crater Dishcloth #Whatever.)

You'll notice that in the "group photo" there is a little bit of yellow sticking out. At the time of that photo, it was not finished, and so I ended up bringing it home with me (I had been out at camp, too, helping with training) and mailing it back to them. Thus, it got to take part in the slightly nicer photoshoot with a bunch of other dishcloths that I've made recently:



Again, details on Rav:
Blue & Yellow Dishcloth
Yellow Crater Dishcloth #4
Teal Dishcloth Slash Yarn Test
Blue & Green Striped Dishcloth
(And, more pictures on Flickr - start here.)

That little teal one was the first time I've used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton yarn, and I really liked it. It costs about the same as the standards (Peaches & Creme and Sugar'n Cream), but is much softer. I've actually got another plain garter cloth on the needles right now, with more of that teal yarn (movie knitting!), but I haven't used either of them yet. I'm waiting to pass judgment on the yarn until I see how well the colors hold, but as of now, I'm really liking it.

I also may have figured out a potential cure for Second Sock Syndrome...but that's another post. Hopefully soon.

A Little Behind

I love to travel, but it really throws me for a loop, schedule-wise! I'm behind on reading, writing, cleaning, knitting, etc. I'm actually kind of caught up on work, though - woo! I'll be spending the next few weeks catching up...maybe I'll even return to regular blogging! Wouldn't that be fun? =)

Traveling

It's bad for my free time, but good for my knitting! I spent last week in AZ at an astronomy conference. I didn't have any good, small projects to bring that were at a "low brainpower" level, so I got to cast on for something new - yay! I wanted to do it before I left, but time wasn't on my side, so I did it as we were taxiing down the runway and taking off:




A better look:



It's a simple 2x2 rib sock, made with absolutely scrumptious sock yarn from Knitivity, which I purchased at Knitting Asylum. The colorway is Carina, and it's inspired by the Carina Nebula, which is one of the most stunning deep sky objects, in my opinion.


Click here to embiggen. Image credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (U. California, Berkeley) et al., and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

I didn't do too much knitting during the actual conference, but four plane rides and a long bus trip up to Kitt Peak Observatory add up, and I touched down back in LA with half a sock!



I know that pace is really slow for some people, but it's pretty good for me, so I'm happy! =)

I've got a ton of backlogged FOs...I'm hoping to get 'em into Ravelry today, and maybe even blog about them soon! ;)

Photoshoot, Part I: S

Since I don't have any pictures of my recent FOs, let me show off my friends and their excellent knitting. First up, S, a fellow grad student. You saw her hat from the front (sort of) in the last post, but it's super-cute from the side and back, too.




I just love how the decreases look in the back, and I'm jealous of S's perfect hair for hats like this!

She also had a lovely pair of socks:

One thing I think is really neat about these socks is how the stripes match perfectly in the front:

but not in the back:


Too funny. =)

A little teaser for you!

(Note: This was posted as a teaser on the old site of this blog, but I thought I'd share the pictures here too...I'm just too tired to re-write the parts at the end. *wink*)

A few weeks back I won a contest on Leah's blog, and the prize was a skein of her handspun!



Isn't it beautiful? I love the colors, and I've picked out the pattern I'm going to make: the Flame Chevron Scarf. I'm so excited, but I'm trying to wait a little bit because right now I have too many projects on the needles!

Leah was also a participant (with A and S) in a little knitting photoshoot on the LSU Campus last week. The three of them had FOs that needed pictures for their Ravelry pages, and we all have the same lunch hour free, so we decided to meet in the quad and take pictures. It was so much fun, and some of the pictures turned out really cute. Some of my favorites:


Leah's Clapotis


A's Beret


And S's Hat/Beret.

So why did I call this post a teaser? Because I have lots more pictures of their beautiful FOs to share, and I'll be posting them soon on the new location of this blog:

http://ashpags.blogspot.com

For various reasons, I'm switching away from Xanga to Blogger, and I hope you'll follow me over there. (The new RSS/Atom feed is here if you want to update your aggregator/reader of choice.) I'll still keep this site, of course, and all my entries will remain here, but there are a lot more options at Blogger, especially since Xanga has discontinued support for some Java codes I really like, like Ravelry Progress Bars, which are important so that I have some semblance of accountability for all those WIPs! ;)

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and getting lots of knitting time! =)

A Really Old FO

In my last post, I mentioned a plan to put together a 2008 Knitting Year-in-Review type post, and when I started to do that, I realized there was another FO that didn't have any pictures - oops! I finished my Mmmalabrigo House Mittens back in November, but...wait...as I am composing this, I am realizing that the mittens have been finished since November of 2007 - holy crow! And they still never got any FO pictures, because mittens are a pain to photograph! (Does anyone know if there are mitten blockers, like sock blockers? I've never seen any, but I think they would come in handy.) But another fun Christmas present I got was a remote for my camera, so instead of fancy mitten pictures, I present pictures of me goofing off wearing the mittens instead!




Imagine the scene on my patio: focus camera, go stand in approximately the right spot, click remote, frantically shove remote in pocket and come up with some strange pose, rinse and repeat. I'm glad there is a fence so that most of my neighbors probably couldn't see me.



This is supposed to be something you'd do if it was cold and you were clutching your arms to your chest to keep warm...only, as you can see, I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt. Now, in all fairness, if I hadn't been protected from the wind and had been out there for more than a few minutes, I would have gotten cold really quickly...but still. It's supposed to be a bit chillier tomorrow, perfect sweater weather, so that will be lovely.

And on that note, I'm out! Much to do to finish preparing for tomorrow. And I guess one of these days I'll do a 2008 Knits post...hmm... =)

I apologize in advance...

...because I am about to sound like a huge snob. Why? Because I totally cleaned up knitting-wise for Christmas! Family has learned that buying me yarn is not a great idea because I'm picky, but they feed the knitting addiction in other ways. Let me demonstrate.


The greatest sock blockers ever. I've been wanting some sock blockers for a long time just 'cause they are nifty, and found these shooting star ones sold by an eBay seller used by a lady I knit with. Love at first sight! And what's peeking out from the bottom of the picture? Oh that's right, I finally have FO pictures of my Pacific Sunrise Socks. They've been done for weeks (months?) but I never got around to taking pictures. Now, they are officially photographed!



This is the last FO from 2008 (dude, I swear it was just 2007, and now it's 2009?) and so I'm hoping to do a collage of all my projects from last year. Thank you Ravelry for making that possible!



I love what the colors of Dez's yarn do, especially on the foot.




What else did I get for Christmas? Knit Picks Options Needles!!!



I've wanted a set of these for a long time now, and finally asked for (and got!) them - hooray! Unfortunately, the zipper on the case has already broken, but I'm going to email them tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement - it should last longer than a few weeks! On those needles is the beginning of a new scarf (swoon...I love scarfs...)


It's a replica of the scarf Rosalie Hale/Cullen wears in the first cafeteria scene of the Twilight movie. (Ravel it. * See the original.) The story is set in cold, rainy Forks, WA, so there is knitwear galore in the movie, and some really talented knitters and crocheters have been reverse engineering the knits and sharing their patterns, and for that I'm grateful, because it means I don't have to do it. (Although, if I can get a good picture of the blue scarf Alice wears in the field trip scene, I'm all over that. If you've seen one, please let me know!) I've been wanting a neutral-colored scarf for a while now ("How long have you been seventeen?" "A while.") and this one came along. Excellent. I think I'll be able to get the yarn for Bella's Mittens soon (tomorrow, hopefully!) so I can make those, too. Double excellent.

And with that, I think I'm out. It's bedtime! I hope you got some wonderful knitting stuff over the holidays as well. =)