(Another) Finished Object

In an astounding fit of knitting monogamy, I finished my striped version of My So-Called Scarf this afternoon!

When I started knitting this, I found the color combination to be a little bit wild, but fun. Now I kind of think it looks like 1976 puked all over my neck. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.



As I've said before, although I like the look of this stitch pattern, I hated knitting it with this yarn. All of the yarn was thick 'n' thin, and split like crazy. The red handspun was the best behaved of the bunch. The purple and Cream colors were a pain in my ass. They were some of my first ever online yarn purchases (I was looking for a cheaper substitute for Manos for a sweater... should have just bought the real deal... live and learn).

The good news is that it's very warm, and I have a plain purple sweater I can envision possibly wearing it with in the fall. If not.... does anyone really dig the '70s and need a new scarf?

The best news is that in the past 2 days, I've gone from having 7 WIPs to having only THREE (including the HP scarf, which only needs to be re-blocked and fringed). Now, if I can just keep myself from casting on for anything new, maybe I can finish Wisp, the entrelac scarf... and (dare I say it?) the Highland Triangle Shawl...

Finished Objects/ Unfinished Apartment

In an unprecedented onslaught of productivity yesterday while TD napped, I finished 3 (count 'em - THREE!) scarves.

Multi-Directional Diagonal Scarf:


Martha Scarf:



Simple Garter Stitch Scarf:


In my euphoria of having a manageable number of things on the needles, I even spent some time working on My So-Called Scarf. TD's Harry Potter scarf is done, but needs to be reblocked before I put the fringe on, either with waaaay more pins or blocking wire. As is, it's a bit... well, scalloped on the sides. Not really what I was going for.

As for the move, things are are still (more than) a bit of a mess around the apartment. We've reached the point where we can use all of the rooms for the intended purpose if we are careful to dodge all of the piles o' crap still all over the place.
At the center of the re-oganization process is the stash. Previously, the stash was hidden away in a special shoes and stash enormous closet. However, the doubling of the occupancy of the apartment does not permit an entire closet to be used for shoes and yarn (gasp!). The shoe situation (note that I refuse to call it a "problem" or an "addiction") has been handled with some teary throwing away of boxes and the purchase of several large shoe racks. The stash, however, has not been "handled". So the entire stash is currently sitting, in overflowing boxes and bags... right in the middle of the bedroom floor. Oy.

In other news, I am slowly, slowly, slowly working my way through the 266 posts on my bloglines since I've been gone. Even if I haven't managed to comment yet, I'm working on it!!

Back from Vacation/ The Big Move Part Deux

I'm (sorta) back from vacation! TD and I flew down to Ft. Lauderdale, FL for a few days to visit my sister, and then took a 7 day Western Carribean cruise with ports of call in Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico.

Here we are having finally boarded the ("fun") ship:


I didn't do a ton of knitting while gone because, despite carefully selected vacation knitting selections, I managed to leave behind a necessary needle for the "cruise knitting" and ran out of yarn on the "plane knitting". C'est la vie.

Here we are in Roatan, Honduras (where we actually managed to escape from the other 3,596 other people on the ship):

I am, however, halfway done with the muti-directional diagonal scarf, which is lovely. Pictures to come soon.

Since I was visiting my sister in Ft. Lauderdale and was woefully behind in getting her a birthday gift this year (Which was April 28... and also I never manage to finish anything I try to knit for her), I bought her the gift that keeps on giving: the gift of knitting! I got her Debbie Stoller's first Stitch 'n Bitch book, some size 10 addi bamboo straight needles, and 6 skeins of yarn to make a overzealous-airconditioning-combatting shawl.



I have to tell you, I think she's a bit of a prodigy. I gave her the gift, and then before giving any instruction, I jumped in the shower to wash the airplane grime away. By the time I got out she had mastered the long tail cast-on. Sheesh, I thought, I guess you don't need my help after all.
By the time we got back from the cruise, she was 4 skeins in to the garter stich shawl, which looked near-perfect.



I'm not back to Pittsburgh yet, though. I'm in DC (well, Northern VA, technically) helping TD pack up. I may not have mentioned this (I think I was afraid that if I wrote it down, he would change his mind), but (drumroll, please) TD is moving in with me. So, the next 10 days will be spent packing and tackling the second big move of the summer. Then we'll have a couple weeks to adjust to domestic bliss (?) before I start work in mid-September.

Whew! This has really been quite the summer!