List Mania

OK, let's just come out & admit it: this past school year was NOT terribly kind to my blog on the whole, and it wasn't just coming up for tenure that caused the recurring difficulties. I faced a veritable host of other distractions.

Ghost & Goblin, formerly known due to ringworm as the "plague kittens" or chatonnes de la peste, were finally pronounced fungus-free and released from their long quarantine at the end of February. Here they are shown blissfully sleeping on the first afternoon in their new much more spacious & comfy abode. When the quarantine was lifted, I had a sore back and lot of catching up to do in all the other aspects of my life that had been woefully neglected while I dutifully sat tending baby cats in "The Haunted Loo." I barely remember the month of March, and the rest of the spring went WHOOSH!! Thankfully I managed to stay afloat in all of my courses, but I could tell that I was slowly-but-surely running out of steam. The prospect of a sabbatical from teaching in the coming fall was just about the only thing that kept me going to the end of Winter term. And then I took a group of students abroad to study Roman Italy for 2 1/2 weeks in May, which accounted for about twice that much time in preparation beforehand and afterward in recovery.

So the blog in 2010-2011 has had gaps & hiatuses up one side and down the other. On the up-side, I kept knitting at least, whenever time allowed, meaning that I have quite a lot of nifty stuff to showcase here, now that the summer is offering me a chance to catch up once again.

One way to quantify progress over the last twelve months is to compare what I've gotten done to the seemingly endless catalog of WIP's from June 2010. And the BIG news on that front is that I have now successfully completed eight (*8*) of the twelve (*12*) projects on that list, as follows...

1. Stained Glass Felted Bag: completed in June 2010, within days of the original WIP list and written up here;
   
2. Fiddlehead Mittens: completed in late August 2010, and discussed in the end-of-summer wrap-up here;
3. Candlelight Kimono: likewise completed in late August 2010, and discussed here;
4. Frejya sweater: FINALLY completed in March 2011, and not yet discussed in full;
5. Stornoway: completed in October 2010, and discussed here (with additional photos here);
6. Evenstar: completed in at the end of June 2010, and discussed here;
7. American Beauty: completed in time for Easter 2011, and not yet discussed in full;
8. Elm Row: completed in December 2010, and not yet discussed in full.

Right now the only projects that I have going, and the only WIP's listed on my Ravelry profile, are the remaining four of the original twelve. They actually fit across a single row on my little laptop screen!! I have been waiting a long time to see that happen. Although they are all on separate timetables and at different stages of completion, I have been making as-of-yet undocumented progress lately on two of them in particular, as follows...

1. Unst Stole: currently somewhere ~55-60% complete, with the center (FINALLY!!) and one border segment done. When the 2nd border is finished (sometime in July?), I will have only the edging left to do, and the project will stand at 75% complete. This project may have stalled out a couple of times before, but it is most definitely "over the hump" now, and I fully expect to have it wrapped up by the end of the summer.
   
2. Eriskay: the body is thankfully complete up to the armholes, including the bottom part of the underarm gussets, and I recently divided the stitches for the yoke. I have begun work on the back portion, and hope to have both yokes finished by the end of the summer and the entire sweater by Christmas.
3. Mehndi does not really deserve to be called a WIP, strictly speaking, since all I did in April 2010 was to cast on and knit far enough into the 1st chart to see what the yarn & beads & pattern would look like together. It did not amount to more than just a swatch, in other words, and I am still waiting for the right moment to pick it up and start work in earnest. Look for news sometime later this summer.
   
4. Peggy Tudor has been on hold for a while, waiting for me to get a long list of other things out of the way so that I can concentrate on the next segment. For the sweater is cunningly designed to be assembled out of many small pieces. I am deliberately setting no deadlines for this project, so that I can take it at a natural, unhurried pace and savor the intricacy of the process without ever having to distress myself over it. So while I expect to complete it sometime in 2012, I refuse to make any more detailed forecasts.

Meanwhile, in the past year all of the following additional projects also came and went, whether I have managed to write about them yet or not...

1. Herbert Niebling lace (x2): I did a practice square in crochet cotton and a rectangular piece in gossamer silk from the same pattern, with the latter as a wedding gift for my sister-in-law and her husband. Both were completed in July 2010, as discussed here and here.
2. Frosted Leaf Necklace: with this lovely kit from Earthfaire, I made my first foray into knitting beaded jewelry. It was completed in September 2010 and discussed here.
3. Rivendell Cowl: I splurged with some birthday money and bought the luxury color-shifting yarn to make this showpiece from Susan Pandorf, completed in December 2010, and discussed here.
4. Unikatissima's Lace Advent Calendar: this was a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing knit, completed just after New Year's and discussed here.
5. Continuum Legwarmers: a magnificent design by Sivia Harding, completed in January 2011, and discussed here (sadly my most recent post, prior to this one).
6. Elm Leaves wristlets: made to match Elm Row, completed in February and not yet discussed at all.
7. Garter Rib Socks (a.k.a. "Look Who's Got Tenure Now): my very first pair of socks, completed in early March, and not yet discussed at all.
8. Bunny Mittens: lined in alpaca and exquisitely warm, completed in early March, and not yet discussed at all.
9. Oak Grove Mitts: a design by Anna Dalvi done up in exquisite Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! yarn, completed in mid-March, and not yet discussed at all.
10. Gingerbread House Socks: my 2nd pair ever, with a lovely lace pattern and custom fit to just below the knee, completed in late March, and not yet discussed at all.
11. Eomer Shield Tam: a lovely colorwork pattern and my first ever test-knit for a friend on Ravelry who designed it, completed in late March, and not yet discussed at all.
12. Northern Lights Bracelet: my second beaded jewelry piece, also a kit from Earthfaire, this one using mood beads that change color when the ambient temperature goes up or down. Completed in May, and not yet discussed at all.
13. In Dreams: the second Tolkien-inspired mystery lace KAL by Susan Pandorf, using a custom "gradiance" colorway from The Unique Sheep (that I helped to design) and containing ~5000 beads, completed in June, and not yet discussed at all.
14. Sorrento Sunset: my travel-knitting for the Italy trip with a group of students (see above), completed in June shortly after we returned, and not yet discussed at all.
15. Beaded Blue Cashmere Gloves: my first non-fingerless glove project in luxurious 100% cashmere, completed just this past weekend, and not yet discussed at all.

So I have been a busy little professor in 2010-2011, and no mistake. What is more, even leaving aside any long-term plans and ignoring undue pressure from the back of the queue, I expect to launch at least two new projects in the coming week: a 3rd pair of socks, now that the gloves are off the WIP list (as per My Rules, to which I fully intend to adhere), and a summer KAL from BadCat designs where I will make a circular shawl bringing together gossamer CashSilk leftover from the Princess project, itty bitty 11/0 beads, and (for the first time in my life) nupps. Yes, I said *NUPPS*.

To be perfectly honest, the challenge for me is really not in the knitting, but in the typing, the text-writing, the image-processing, and the web-publishing. I have labored to produce this elaborate catalog today, therefore, as a testimony to the progress that I have made on the knitting side of things, even during the recurring periods of silence. And, more importantly for the sake of the blog, the same can also serve as a To Do list for the next few weeks. Let's see if I can REALLY get caught up by the end of this month, by documenting all my newest work as it happens, and by gradually writing up all the projects that as of right now are not yet discussed in full (= 3 total) or at all (= 10). Clearly I have my work cut out for me...

Advent Calendar Scarf

Now without further ado, let's start the recap with a BIG personal favorite, in more ways than one... :-)

I basically kept up with the daily clues for unikatissima's Advent Calendar scarf all the way along. In fact, I even finished the main part of the knitting a day or two early (i.e. on Dec. 23rd), because the designer published the last several clues all at once for the benefit of those who might be traveling over the holidays, and so I went ahead and blitzed through them. But then I decided to embellish the piece with an applied edging all the way around, and that took a while. I had to order more yarn first, for one thing. Fortunately I did not have to worry about matching dye lots, though, since I was using natural (undyed) Peruvian Highland wool. The package arrived in about a week, and I managed to be back underway by New Year's Eve. I set a goal of completing the edging and blocking the scarf in time for Russian Christmas on Jan. 6th, the date celebrated by Western Christians as Epiphany, which also happens to be our wedding anniversary. :-)

I chose to do a slight variation on the "Doris Edging" from p. 74 of Sharon Miller's book Heirloom Knitting (see left, and click for a larger view), mainly because the framed diamonds seemed to harmonize nicely with the rest of the lace design. The 12-row repeat (= 6 attachments per edging point) turned out to be ideal for me, because by sheer dumb luck both the stitch count across the top & bottom (= 66) and the row-count along the sides of my augmented scarf/stole (= 294) came out as even multiples of 6. By squeezing the points at either end of each long side into half the usual space, then, I found that I could provide sufficient ease so that the corners would eventually lie flat.

I finished the knitting on Jan. 5th. It came out to 11 points across each of the short ends and 51 points down each long side (= 124 points in all).

This scarf is HUGE by anyone's standards. I decided to emphasize length over width when blocking it, and the only way to get it to fit on the bed was to fold it more or less in half horizontally and block a double layer. I did not stretch it as hard as I could, though, because I wanted the fabric to have some stretchiness and give to it. So the finished measurements are 20” wide x 104” long (i.e. 51 x 264 cm). It’s really more stole than scarf, I suppose, but in the dead of winter, I love having an extra-long scarf that I can wrap around my head & neck several times and still have plenty of yardage hanging at the front/back.

Here's a blocking photo (left), and a picture of me wearing the scarf (right), as I have done pretty much every day since its completion. My 2010 Advent Calendar project quickly became a beloved addition to my wardrobe, as well as a conversation piece. As always, click on either image to see a larger view.

Lace Advent Calendar 2010, Day 4

I just finished Day 4 of unikatissima's Lace Advent Calendar, using KnitPicks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool (fingering weight) and 3.75 mm (US size 5) needles. Here's what it looks like so far. The motif for day 4 reminds me of a row of candle-flames, with the glowing aura around each one. Click on the image to get an even closer view. :-)

The yarn feels incredibly soft and squishy (squooshy??). I made sure to give the scarf enough width (66 stitches = 4 x 16 + 2) so that it could eventually be folded and/or rolled in half the long way for a double layer of cuddly warmth. As you can see, the various lace patterns have been carefully selected and arranged so that each one flows seamlessly into the next, but to ensure that the finished product will be long enough to match the width, I am sneaking in a few extra rows here and there, wherever it is possible to add pattern repeats without disrupting that crucial flow. So I did 6 extra rows on day 1, and 4 on day 2, but none on day 3 (where I would have had to add 8 rows, which seemed like a bit much) or day 4 (which is a transitional pattern that did not want to be repeated). I also did a provisional cast-on, so that a beaded edging of some kind can be applied at the end. I like the idea of keeping my options open, depending on how it all turns out.

It will be fun to watch the pattern evolve over the coming days, between now and Christmas Eve. I really like the idea of using increments of lace knitting to mark the Advent season. Veni, veni Emmanuel...