year of scarves pt. 1

Well, it seems that it will be easier to have a plan for this year’s knitting (being the last year of my master’s) that involves a number of semi-mindless but cool patterns.  Hence, the year of scarves.  Everyone will get one for their birthday which totally takes me off the hook for Christmas knitting. 

First up, Dad’s “Un-Noro Striped Scarf.”  He probably wouldn’t like the Noro, and I just plain can’t afford it at the moment, so I’m making this with two colours of self-striping Patons.  The effect isn’t quite the same as the Noro, but I like it and I think Dad will too.

help for haiti

Besides what we will send as a family monetarily, 100% of all my Ravelry pattern sales for the months of January and February (including patterns already sold this month before the earthquake) will go to Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres) for earthquake relief in Haiti.

Networked social communities rock.

frightening

… that I only have two things on the needles right now (well, if you don’t count certain things that are hibernating).

… that the semester has started and I still haven’t finished some of the “between semester” to-dos from my list.  *sigh*

… that I have to post at least 5 times a week to my metadata blog for class this semester (better meta) – I suspect that the frequency of posts here is going to decline rather rapidly.

… that just as child number 2 (the boy) heads back to school for the spring semester, child number 1 (the ungrateful one) is moving back in. *big sigh*

… that I don’t know yet Dr. MacCall’s “method to his madness” regarding the rather stunning length of the reading list for each class of LS590.

ninja

Do they ever grow out of this?

The request was made (after a bout of snow-shoveling in pretty cold temps) for a ski mask.  Oh, and “it needs to look like a ninja mask.”  Not the best picture of the boy, but I had to bribe him to get him out of his room to take it so I wasn’t going to press for a retake.

Pattern is Antifreeze by Jenna Adorno with some mods (available on my Ravelry project page).  Yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (frogged from an unfortunate dalliance with Tubey) and Malabrigo Worsted (which knits up like butter. Really).

The year of decluttering

Personally, professionally, academically, vocationally, and emotionally … I will put things away, throw things away, not gather more things, deal promptly with necessary things, not deal with unnecessary things …

In short, it’s more of a goal than a resolution to make life a little simpler and less stressful.

a cunning plan

I have finally figured out what to do with the lovely but incredibly unwieldy (and therefore impractical) felted tote.  I’m repurposing it into 3 separate projects: 2 gps cases (the ungrateful one and I both got one for Christmas) and a laptop tote.  The laptop tote might be put on hold for a little while until I see whether I’m going to continue with my existing laptop or (hopefully) transition to a netbook when I get a “real” job.

It’s nice to finally be doing something with this behemoth.  It looks lovely and I think with some imagination (and some luck!) I’ll be able to make it into several useful and good-looking items.

So … I bravely started cutting …

… then (after refreshing my doing blanket stitch around a corner skills – thanks internet and futuregirl!) I pinned and started sewing …

… blanket-stitch attached and edged an extra strip to make a closure …

… dug out the button box and found the perfect button…

and voila!

Almost instant birthday present for the ungrateful one.

a quick update

And I’m determined to post this right away.

The handknit librarian site is live, but only partially.  There’s much more work to do on that this week, but I’m looking forward to really getting some solid content uploaded and to getting started on the portfolio section.  Transferring this blog over there might be last on my list as I’m really not sure about that process.  Oh well, that’s what the Help and FAQ files are for, right?

Christmas has come and gone and was fairly low-key with no drama (just the way we like it!).  Knitting that did get finished included 4 hats, 4 pairs of mitts, and a market bag:

Still to finish, one more pair of fetchings and a wimple for Drake.  I’ll be seeing her for lunch later in the week (and for a tour of the partially renovated Steel Yard site) so I’m hoping to get them done.

Also finished to send before Christmas were the flower power booties and hat for Mandy in my Bama MLIS cohort.  Aren’t they too cute for words?

I’ve queued up a number of projects for 2010.  Wonder how many I’ll actually get done?

no-one to blame but myself

I can’t even blame javascript this time.

The following post was written in early December, and somehow, while I was waiting to take some pics to post, I lost track of it …

Take yourself back in time to December 6th …

What a bother grad school is sometimes   Just when I have all this gift knitting to do I have these final projects to work on.  Juggling the two is going to be interesting.

My cataloging final is partially done.  I’ve created all the records for the items in Connexion browser, but I really need to check them over with a fine-toothed comb for errors and to see if any of them are missing anything.  My final project for Web Development is coming along swimmingly.  Knit one, find one (a knitting pathfinder) just needs some minor JavaScript tweaking - I love the way I say that in such a blasé fashion.   I’m looking forward to moving it to a permanent home at the Handknit Librarian site and making some minor changes to it (some of the effects were really just for the class and might come out).  Eventually, this blog will migrate there as well.  I’m hoping to cover booties, blog, pathfinder, portfolio, etc. – all linked off the main page.

Despite all this, some knitting progress has been made.  Vivian is proceeding well.  Still not sure if I’ll get it finished in time, but there is hope.

One pair of fetchings is done:

And another pair of mitts is underway:

One hat is also done:

And several others are queued up.  I just need a little bit more yarn for those – story of my life, hah!

The Wavy Wimple has been started and will be quick work if I can ever get to it!

In non-Christmas knitting, the flower power hat is done and the booties are underway.  These are a gift for Mandy from my Bama cohort.  I thought the baby wasn’t due until the end of the month, but I found out last week that she’s having a C-section on the 14th.  Should have the booties done by tonight or tomorrow and get it all in the mail this week

The tuxedo booties, after languishing on the needles on the needles for a while, are done but not seamed.  Still, they’re done enough to have finished the rewrite of the pattern and that’s posted for sale on Ravelry.

The French flag booties are done and are très cute:

javascript zombie

So, I apparently wrote that last post, saved it, but never published it.  I’m definitely blaming javascript for having eaten most of my brain in the last few weeks.

Fortunately, the section of my brain that deals with the actual knitting (as opposed to writing about knitting) has survived the semester intact so far.

Vivian is underway, thanks mostly to my innate need to create order out of chaos translated into a nifty spreadsheet:

One hat, Felicity, is done:

One pair of mitts, in left over Dream in Color Classy, Fetching for Monica/Mum (haven’t decided who yet) is underway:

And the yarn for one thing that wasn’t on the list, a Wavy Feathers Wimple, has been ordered from LotusYarns on etsy, was dyed this weekend, and has been shipped.  It’s going to be beautiful.  Photo of yarn to follow when it gets here.

Somehow, in spite of the extensive Christmas knitting list, I have to knit a pair of French flag booties for a friend at work, a pair of tuxedo booties, so that I can rewrite the pattern to put up on Ravelry, and a pair, or two, of pretty, girly booties for a member of my MLIS cohort whose baby is due around New Years.  I’m thinking of trying to do an applique knitted flower on a pale pink or white pair for a “cherry blossom” effect.  Updates to follow.

on the first day of Christmas (knitting) …

my conscience prodded me ….

Let’s see, I apparently need to knit five easy hats, four pairs of fingerless mitts, … two cabled ornaments, and  one Vivian (which may kill me).

I may need to revise this.

I do have two pairs of socks stashed (one with a definite recipient in mind and one as a fallback – provided the recipient is female and wears size 8 or so shoes).  Three of the hats are really necessary, plus all the mitts, and Vivian.  The ornaments could be a victim of holiday knitting attrition.

I’ll start one hat this weekend.  I started Vivian (three times) this week, and I think I finally have it right.  I’ve made up a spreadsheet for the first two rows in the first two sizes (as I was undecided about what size to knit for the ungrateful one).  I’ll upload it here and link it once I’ve established that it really works.  I’m glad I’m not alone in struggling with the first couple of rows.