No blogging and not much knitting

There has been very little knitting going on here. Yesterday, for example, I did not knit a single stitch. Why is this? There are several reasons:

1. Job applications. I am in the process of applying for jobs to teach a small liberal arts colleges. Some of those applications need to be in by sometime next week.

2. My wedding. It is amazing how long it takes to do the small last minute tasks. Last night I spent over an hour trying to get a ceremony program to print with all of the text right-side-up and with all of the pages in the right order. Who would have thought?

3. Helping my grandparents get ready to move. They are leaving to house they have lived in for over 50 years in order to live closer to my parents. My grandfather is a collector of everything. Moving them is not an easy task.

4. I am teaching this semester. So far, it has been very time consuming.

5. I have a full-time job doing biological research. One of these days I should actually do some research.

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have some knitting to show you.

One Fish...

I wasted no time yesterday before going across the river to a good LYS. A very friendly and helpful employee suggested that I use Cascade 220 Superwash for the baby blanket. This is what I bought:


(sorry for the blurry picture- none of the crisp ones showed the colors right)

When I got home yesterday night, I immediately cast on for the first fish. Here he is:


Only 43 left to go! (or less if I run out of time- I'm planning to give away the finished blanket at my wedding) If you want to see finished versions of the blanket, look here or here.

I also finally felted the purple and black heap of yarn that I finished knitting a while ago. It is a trifold mobius bowl. I'm not too happy with how it turned out. I used brown sheep worsted weight yarn, but I think the needles I used must have been too small. It didn't felt enough, even after three trips through the machine. At least it didn't take long to make.




I'm trying to work on the last shawl for a while tonight, but the fish keep trying to pull me in....

The Mailman Was Good to Me

But my LYS wasn't.

I have two new knitting projects that need to be started soon.

First, several months ago I promised my soon-to-be sister in law that I would knit her mittens. But, to be sure that she would like the mittens, I wanted her to pick out the colors and the pattern. We looked at a color card together, and this is what she chose. Fortunately, I already had the blue yarn in my stash, so depending on how much yarn the mittens take this could help remove yarn from the stash. I'm not sure I like the red/orange color on top with the purple heather, but hopefully it will look good in the mittens. What mittens did she choose? Well, I showed her about 6 books of possibilities (I have a lot of mitten books), and she picked some very simple ones that are a combination of a couple of patterns. You'll have to wait and see them knitted up.



I also need to knit a baby blanket. My aunt just gave birth to her second son over the weekend. The baby was four weeks early. I was planning to knit a quick blanket in the last minute, but now I really need to get going on it. I have a pattern picked out (the fish blanket from Knitter's magazine #51), and I went to my LYS today to buy some yarn for it. I thought I knew just what I wanted- a few more skeins of gems merino opal to add to the colors I already have. However, their color selection was terrible. Half of the bin was filled with pink, and the rest of the colors were too dark for a baby blanket. So I asked one of the women working there what other worsted weight, superwash yarn they had. Instead of pointing me to a few choices, she informed me that washing instructions are printed on the yarn labels. She was then shocked when I suggested that she might know off hand what superwash yarns they had. What service! If I have time later in the week to drive across town to a much better LYS, I'll buy some yarn there. Otherwise, I'll have to buy it online. If local yarn stores want to stay in business, then they need to provide better service than the internet. Not worse service.

On the wedding shawl front, I am almost done with the fourth of four shawls. Here is an unblocked heap of red yarn that just needs a border across the top edge and a good blocking. There are a couple of design challenges left to go, but I'm optimistic that this one will be done soon.

non-photogenic knitting

I've been knitting lately, but none of it makes for a good picture.

I made the trifold rim bowl out of the Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. That means that I followed two patterns in one month! I think this is a record! Unfortunately, I have not had time to felt the bowl yet, so it looks a lot like a heap of purple and black knitting. My soon-to-be husband modeled it as a hat, but I'm too nice to post that picture here. Let's just say that it wasn't flattering.

I've also been working on the last of the wedding shawls. That looks like a heap of red knitting. But I have made progress. My junior bridesmaid is now more than 1/3 of the way to having a shawl to wear. That would make the shawl about 43 inches across the top. I'm not sure if that is a good size or not. I only have two increases every other row, so it is very pointed. I don't want it to be too long on her, but I do want it to be big enough across the top so that she will be able to wear it when she is older. She is now 10 years old, but has a very small frame. What do you think? How long down the back is too long? What is a good length across the top?