Steadily on

My cable-lace shawl is finally blocking. I didn’t do the best job – it was exhausting sticking in all those pins. I thought about doing the thing where you thread cord though the straight edges, and it’s a rectangle, so it’s all straight edges, but I should have done that before soaking the thing in Soak and lukewarm water. Threading the crochet cotton was damp and uncomfortable, and even one narrow edge was hard.

Fortunately, I have lots of pins. Still not enough to stop pucking at the edges, but it is stretched out.
And it’s a long, long, long trapezoid. This is because I relaxed my knitting part way through. And it shows in so many ways – the latter knitting is better, for example. But none of this will show on me, not when I add fringe, so it’s all good.

And the other day, my husband asked me “When are you going to knit *me* a pair of socks?” He hadn’t wanted socks before, but as soon as I finish the current pair, I’m knitting a pair of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd socks (in Watercolor) for a friend of ours. We’ve already found him a nice dark tweedy grey yarn, and I’ll have him look over ribbing patterns.

It’s also that he’s been enjoying the hat I made him, and the little hat I made our niece. This is all to the good.

I’ll post pictures, b”n, when I get the fringe on the shawl.

I don’t celebrate Christmas, of course, and my family doesn’t believe Chanukah is a gift-giving holiday, but my husband’s family does. In their case, it’s limited to immediate family and the kids at the annual family Chanukah party. Kids=under college age. This year, there are six.

I’m very bad at gifts. My husband’s birthday gifts last week? A couple of books I had on preorder that happened to arrive just before his birthday, and that I knew he’d like to read. (I was a tad better last year, for his 40th, when I gave him a Palm Tungsten E2, but A. it was his 40th and B., he was cheated out of any other celebration, since his birthday by the civil calendar fell on the day before Yom Kippur and his birthday on the Hebrew calendar is the second day of Sukkot.

So, anyway. Six kids to get gifts for. We’re giving one boy the Dark is Rising series of novels since he said he liked that sort of fantasy, and another is getting a Justice League Unlimited trade paperback because he likes superheroes and he likes comics and he needs encouragement to read. We’re still discussing what to get the other two boys, but one is still a baby. I think for him, the traditional stuffed animal bigger than he is will work.

We’ll get age-appropriate books for the two-year old girl.

And then there is Zoe. Zoe joined the family when her mother married my brother-in-law this past Labor Day weekend. No fear that she won’t be showered with gifts – my husband’s family is very, very welcoming. And, at four, she’ll appreciate all of them.

And we plan on getting her a “real” gift – I want to encourage her artistic inclinations, and there’s any number of age-appropriate art toys we can get her. And her “Mitch” is an artist as well as a scientist, so she’ll have plenty of opportunity to use them. Besides, as her aunt and uncle, we have a duty to spoil her, right?

So, I’m also going to knit her something. I’ve ordered Dale of Norway Falk yarn in purple (her favorite color) and a book on cables and I’m going to make her a cabled hat, and if there’s time, mittens to match. If I have enough yarn and time leftover, I’ll make socks for the two-year-old, too. If not, not. This will not be the main gift, of course, but I hope she’ll like them.

My husband is away this week, visiting his parents.  He says, by the way, that it is nicer without me (to sulk and argue and be unhappy) but something is missing.

And I miss him.  So very much. 

He’s coming home tonight.  Yay.  With the camera, so no pictures of current works in progress.

On the other hand, I have done a tremendous amount of knitting.

It’s so odd switching between my two projects.

One is a sock – the sister to the other clown sock.  The yarn for this skein was wound in the opposite direction.  I momentarily thought about rewinding it twice to get a center pull ball in the correct direction,  then decided that it would be cute to have a pair of socks with the stripes in opposite order.    Anyway – sock yarn, size 0/2mm bamboo needles.  Simple pattern – stockinette on the sole, k3p1 rib on the instep.  64 stitches in total to knit around.

The other is a cable/lace wrap.  DK yarn (Knitpicks Classic Merino in Fog),  size 6/4mm Inox Express 16″ circular.

Note – the pattern I’m actually using is from an out-of-print Patons “Wrap it Up” pattern book.  This looks identical, down to the model, but mine calls for 4mm needles and ten skeins of DK.  And I got gauge with those needles.  So.  Shrug. 

I’m making a lot of mistakes, especially with the yarn overs, but I’m having fun and keeping the stitch count more or less.  And the cables are fun.

So I’m going from a relatively complex pattern (for me) with thicker  yarn and bigger, slicker needles to a simple one with thin yarn and pickup sticks.   And, of course, I’m going from pale grey to crayon-bright.   It’s an experience.