spud says hi

Circle, on

Yup.  Here it is. 

From the front it's not that interesting looking.  Well, it sort of is.  The edging is nice, no?

Actually, it was also a bit too warm to be wearing today, but, damn it, I was going to wear it or else.  Also?  The dress is shorter than I usually wear to teach, but I felt a need to wear all black to show off the coolness of the sweater.  And, again, warm.

The back's where it gets really cool, though.  Or so I think.

Uh, yeah, here it is.  Neat, huh?

Yeah, I like it.  Though I need some sort of brooch or clasp or big fancy pin to hold the front together.  I kept having to pull the front parts together, and otherwise continually rearrange how it was hanging in front. 

Sweet!

Circles in circles

It's done!  Done, done, done! 

Here's the circle sweater, drying after its initial wash.  Honestly, I haven't blocked it that well, all things considered; I'm hoping that it'll fall out as it dries.

This picture's a bit odd, because the sleeves are really hard to see.  But they're there, crossing near the center of the circle.

Also, again, even though the skeins look completely the same when wound, it looks like there are three separate dye lots here.  Although, again, that's barely noticeable in real light; the flash seems to bring out the differences, slight as they really are.

Yay!

Last night I roasted basically whatever vegetables were hanging around my kitchen all together.  This wasn't completely successful, I have to admit.  I don't think I roasted them quite long enough, but after more than an hour I was hungry.

But I did get to use one of my favorite vegetables... chioggia beets.  These came from my garden, and when I peeled and cut them, they just looked so pretty I had to take a picture.  And because they are kind of circles within circles in pattern, it seems appropriate.

WsIP, October 2005

This is a boring WIP update.  The same three projects as last month. 

The sock, still the first, is barely longer (it's been by far at the back of the [granted, short] list of things on which to work).  It's odd, though, that the woman who sold me the yarn said that it didn't self-stripe.  It totally does, just in a kind of fuzzy way.  Very pretty.  Whatever.

The shawl's actually had a lot of progress, though it's hard to see.  I fixed my dilemma, which turned out to be not so much of a dilemma.  I had just managed to pick up one extra stitch somewhere, and so decreased one at an edge and am now fine.  I think.  I should probably keep count when knitting the next row.  Sigh. 

You know, I don't even know why I sigh at that, seeing that counting is something I learned to do, oh, thirty years ago.  But in much the same way, I always get annoyed at having to alphabetize exams and papers and things.  It's not a difficult task (though I do remember being horrified at the task of alphabetizing all fifty states when I was in first grade), but it's just a pain in the ass.  Keeping track of counting is the same way.

Anyway.  The circle sweater continues to be almost done.  The second sleeve is about halfway finished, so it will just require a few more evenings of knitting.  It's at a boring, awkward stage right now, so it hasn't been calling to me, even though it'll be really great when it's done.

Mostly, I just want to start something new.  Ah well.  Soon.

One sleeve finished

The circle sweater is nearing completion.  I finished the first sleeve last night, and got started on the second.  And figured out how to lay the thing out to take a picture that shows how it ends up working.  I'm still amazed that a circle, just a circle, makes this really dramatic sweeping sweater.  It's longer than I though it'd be, which just makes it all the more dramatic.  Because of that, I gave the sleeve a fairly dramatic bell at the hand, which I think goes with the whole spirit of the sweater.  Circles everywhere!  The real color of the yarn keeps not coming through totally in pictures; it's richer looking than this implies, and darker.  And the lighter edging isn't quite as stark a contrast.

Basically, gorgeous yarn really does make a different.  The construction is something, too, of course, but in a lot of ways it's the yarn that really makes this. 

So pretty

I'm about halfway done with the first sleeve of my circle sweater.  I pulled it on as best I could to see how the length was.  And because I'd calculated that I'd need to do more decreases, but it was seeming awfully narrow.  I did end up decreasing weirdly and faster than I'd expected.  I actually don't mind, because it kind of works with the whole circle thing, somehow.  And the length wasn't nearly long enough, which I knew but wanted to double check.

But, seriously?  This may be the most lovely thing I've ever knitted.  Not necessarily the cutest, but it's really very very pretty.  The colors are working together incredibly well; not just the variation in the main yarn, but the boucle really is picking things up just right.  I'm so looking forward to it being done.  I just wish it weren't so big right now, because that makes it a work on the couch when no cats are trying to be in my lap kind of project.  Which is a bit difficult as it gets cooler and the last part of that phrase gets harder to come by.

I've also been wearing this sweater a bunch as it's getting colder.  It's made with yarn that has a bit of angora in it (that's bunnies, right?) that I got at the Wool Market two summers ago.  It's quite fine, so I knitted this on size 2 needles, and it took FOREVER.  I did the body all in one around, picked up the sleeves at the shoulder and knit down, and picked up the hood and knit it up, I guess.  The ribbing at the bottom and cuffs is the mock cable rib, and I also did one repeat of that up each side of the front and around the edge of the hood.  It's more or less the hoodie pattern from Hip to Knit, but with various alterations to suit my knitting style and the yarn.  I finished knitting and blocking this at the beginning of the summer, I think, but didn't get the zipper sewn in until a few weeks ago.  This is the sweater for which I initially bought a non-separating zipper, not realizing that there was a choice.  Duh, in retrospect.  But now it's just about the perfect fall sweater, even for me who's never been that into hoodies.  It's also a little big, but that seemed kind of appropriate for this kind of sweater.  The sleeves, for once, aren't too long, or at least not too much too long.  HUGE benefit of knitting down, because the other way, I always run into problems.

Part one done

Of the circle sweater.  I'm done with the body.  I added in the grey boucle (with a hint of green) for about an inch border.  It looks lovely; it really picks up the lighter colors, and makes a good contrast to the basically dark colors. 

And I picked up the stitches for the first sleeve, and have a couple inches of that done.

Yeah.  None of that's all that exciting.  Well, it kind of is, but there's not much to say about it.

I've been knitting while rewatching the DVDs of Firefly, after seeing Serenity last week.  I'd loaned the DVDs to my friend J, with whom I went to see the movie, and then had to watch them again.  As mentioned, briefly, before, the movie was awesome.  At least for me.  It had a lot of elements that were very obviously from the pen and eye of Joss Whedon (which of course makes sense).  The zippy dialogue, with random wackiness, which is frankly the reason I like him so much.  Sometimes startling character arcs.  Some really cool visual moments.  A long, complicated tracking shot (?) to start off the main body of the film, for example.  That's something he did in the opening of the last season of Angel.  Though, now that I think about it, it did seem a little precious, in a way.  So too did a moment that was supposed to be a hell, yeah! kind of thing involving a girl and weapons.  But to me, it just screamed "Buffy," and thus caused more of a smirk and a heh than a hell, yeah.

One of the comments I've seen in reviews of the movie--at least in reviews by critics who also liked the TV series--is that it's a shame it's a movie and not more TV.  And that I mostly agree with, in a way.  The TV show is just so much fun.  Not every episode's a pearl, of course.  And I've noticed this time through that there are some serious logical lapses.  But the characters and setting are enormously clever and fun, and I just, well, like it a lot.  Everyone seems to be having such a good time;  all the interviews with the actors and creators of this show suggest that it was an intensely positive working experience.  And I think some of that comes through, as on Oz or Homicide.

And what I really like about Joss Whedon's universe is his ability to mix incredibly funny moments (and not stupid ones... well, not usually) with incredibly... poignant?  heart-wrenching?... ones.  The heart, the emotion, it rarely feels false.  And the humor is exactly mine.  While watching the season finale of the fifth season of Buffy, I actually had a moment when I thought, holy crap, these people wrote that line for me (which is obviously impossible) about a reference to Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech.  I know it's not all that obscure, but it still made me laugh and be happy.  And then, very soon thereafter, be blown away.

So, thanks, Joss Whedon, for a lot of viewing pleasure!

Moving on

This semester I'm teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and have been trying to stuff all my class and university related work into M-Th so I can have three-day weekends free for writing.  It's been working very well, but I end up exhausted on Thursday nights, usually. 

Which is actually not such a bad thing, because it means I don't have to feel overly guilty about lazing on the couch, watching TV and knitting on Thursday nights. 

Which is what I did yesterday.  It was a day that in a way oughtn't have been so tiring, because I gave an exam in one class, which means sitting.  But there'd been a huge grading snafu in my other class, involving my TA, which meant making slightly problematic announcements to a big class that's been not the best-behaved bunch ever.  So anticipating that was tiring.  And then there was a meeting late in the afternoon that was really long, if rather interesting.

But I got a fair bit of knitting done, anyway.  I've taken to bringing knitting with me when giving exams...  not so much for my big survey class, because there I always feel like I have to pace around and keep an eye out for cheating.  But for smaller classes, the kind of exams I give would be hard to cheat on.  So I worked on my sock.  The... upper?  ankle part?  I don't know sock terminology... is getting close to done, which means I'll soon switch to stockinette and speed along.

And then last night I got back to work on my circle sweater, which has been languishing in anticipation of bouclé.  On Wednesday, I took a little break from all the other crap I had to do (which was slightly reinforced by the fact that I was waiting for exams to grade) and went over to L's to check out her yarn.  She had a nice grey bouclé that has a hint of green to it in sunlight, that picks up some of the subtler colors of the yarn I'm using.  So I picked that up, and last night wound it and started mixing it in.  I'm liking how it's coming out.  It gives a bit more heft to the outer rounds, and highlights the other colors nicely.  I think I've only got a couple more rounds to do, and then I get to start the sleeves.  And then I can start something else new.  Yippee!

WsIP, September 2005 (and Serenity)

Only three works in progress!  That's progress!  Well, in my effort to find clarity (to find serenity?).

The circle sweater's moving along.  The Russian shawl is, too... I've nearly half the border done.  And the sock (which I've started at least three times, and I think four or five) is progressing.  So, excellent.

I've also finished the basset sweater and two small hats.  And I also sewed a zipper into a hoodie sweater I finished over the summer, although I think I need to sew it a bit more securely.

This evening I saw Serenity.  And it was awesome.  Parts I expected, others I didn't, parts I expected part of but not all of.  Just totally fun.  Well, not totally.  But the not fun parts were fun, too.

OK, and Ziti's trying to sit on the keyboard, so that's it for now.

Closer to done

The circle sweater is nearing completion.  Well, the body, at least.  I took it off needles to measure it last night, and it's 33" diameter.  As it's supposed to be 35" diameter, with an inch or so border, it's now time to add in a bit of boucle to give it a little something extra at the edge.

And then sleeves.  Sigh. 

I'm a bit disturbed, looking at this picture, by the fact that it's kind of obvious where I switched skeins of yarn.  That's not quite cool.  I can't really see it in real life, though; I think it's just that the camera and the flash pull out some colors more than others.  Or at least, so I hope.

It's growing

So here's where I am on the circle sweater.  This obviously gives no scale, but the diameter is 18 inches.  So, in other words, I've been getting a lot done on it.  This has mostly to do with a transportation heavy day yesterday.  A shuttle to the airport, on which I can't read (it's really bouncy, and the last time I rode it I came closer to carsickness than I've been in years).  More than an hour waiting to board, because I can't just make it to the airport, I have to get there in plenty of time.  Two hours to Chicago.  And then assorted time today, sitting around between wedding oriented things, or while chatting with my parents.

I'm very pleased with it!  The colors are richer than this picture suggests: deep wines and forest greens and dark golds.  After another few increases I'll put in temporary stitches where the armholes will be, and then motor on through the outside edge.  I think there are now 200 stitches around.  It'll go up by at least half again, if not a bit more, I think.