Lanam Facio

There is a kind of needleworked edging called 'mouse teeth,' used to prevent cuffs and similar things from wearing through as quickly as they might otherwise. I guess the many teeth of the nutria might keep it from wearing out early as well. (That would probably be because I'd leave it in the dresser, though.) Or maybe I could make a little i-cord muzzle. (Or this could be the reason I finally get a lucet...)

Clapotis is coming along. I finished the increase section and weighed it. The knitting, with stich counter and needle, weighed 42 grams. The other needle weighed 11 grams, and I have 76 grams of yarn left in the first ball.

It was a lot of fun to ravel that first column.

My mom was definitely correct when she said that this sweater seemed to be going much more quickly than usual. I had hoped to have the sleeves done by the end of January, but, with a little over a week to go, I have the main knitting done and the sides sewn up. I need to sew up the sleeves, set the sleeves, knit the collar, weave in ends, and procure and install the zipper. When that's done, assuming I got the size right, the sweater will be ready to go.

My main motivation has been the low temperatures. I just need more wool. I've noticed that Victorian clothing tends to be very good at retaining warmth, so I've been daydreaming about a knitted underskirt, a nubia [link is to a pdf] (or, as I keep misthinking about it, a nutria), thrummed mittens, and so on. It's supposed to get up to forty today, but it's to be in the single digits over the weekend.

I do love the excuse this gives me to revel in my handknits and my handmade wool garments.

I split off the arms of the baby sweater. In order to make it easier to keep the colors in sequence, I'm working the body before the arms, and cast on four stitches under each arm.



It's hard to get it to display attractively on straight needles.

Yesterday, when I was walking home, it felt so warm that I had my mittens off. It was 18F (about -8C). True, it was sunny and lovely, but it's amazing how much my weather perceptions have changed. In Nashville, Caleb and I were frolicking around in fleeces when it was in the twenties, reveling in the warmth.

In weather related news, I have decided that, when I am queen of the world, I shall have sidewalks plowed in addition to streets. This way, there won't be the choice of wading through snow and over ice versus taking one's chances in the street.

I worked on Clapotis while Caleb and I were in Nashville, seeing the Polk homestead, among other places.

It's coming along nicely:



I ended up not working on it while listening to the radio today; I was fluttering about, unable to sit still, sweeping, making muffins, and so on.

Providence is cold. Today, I wore a wool skirt, socks to above my knees, a cotton t-shirt, a fleece turtleneck, a fleece jacket, and a Russian wool shawl (bought in Moscow! 100% shelouf!) pinned in place with my Victorian bar pin. At points inside, I added my heavy wool hat. It's cold.

I started on Clapotis today to cheer and warm myself. I now have a lovely little triangle. Each row is currently coming along very quickly.

I finished the knitting of the black sweater last night. By my calculations, that means it's 90% done!

Yesterday, Caleb and I went grocery shopping in the morning, before the storm. We bought bread and milk, but no toilet paper or eggs. We also bought a wide variety of other stuff; this was our normal week's shopping. We'd run out of milk on Thursday evening, and didn't have enough bread to make sandwiches for this week.

Still, as we were going shopping, I wanted a t-shirt saying "It's not because of the storm; we needed it anyway."

The storm itself ended up being a bit of a disappointment. We got about three inches of light, fluffy snow that we were able to shovel out of the driveway rather quickly. It seems that other parts of Rhode Island got a lot worse, though.

I did get the sleeves shaped to where the slope gentles out. The rows are finally seeming to go more quickly.

I finished up the arm part of the sleeve and am now working on the caps. I opened the last ball of the original dye lot of the yarn to do this.

We're supposed to be getting a lot more snow on Saturday, so I might be able to get the knitting finished this weekend.

Well, I didn't stay strong for long. I do have a rather half-baked excuse, though.

Caleb's brother is in town, and we went out to a quiz last night. I have two and a half inches left before I start the shaping on the sleeve caps of the Daughter of Ribby. I knew that I could get that much done, and at the quiz, there wouldn't be space to measure it or light to double check.

So, going on that flimsy excuse, I started a baby sweater.

This is NOT FOR ME. (I may be short, but it's still too small.) It's for the arrival of a cousin. (Off the top of my head, I don't remember how the numbers and removings work for this one.)


I made this sweater before, in a more rainbow version of Encore, when my undergrad advisor had her first baby. It's a nice, straightforward pattern.


So far, I'm working on the hood. I got a nice, big chunk of it done last night, and it's pretty straightforward until the back of the head. That part is like a giant sock heel, so it's pretty fun to do.

I've finished the increase section on the sleeves, so I now just need to work even until I start the underarm shaping.

The pattern calls for 17.5", but, after measuring my favorite hoodie and fleece, I'm going to go for a full 18".



I only have 3.5" to go until that point, which I think will be the 80% mark of the pattern. I won't finish the sweater before school starts again, but I'll have taken a pretty good crack at it. Considering that the original goal had been to finish the sleeves by the end of January, having them this far along three days in feels rather good.

I'm also highly motivated by the lovely yarn I got for Christmas, a present that I need to knit in the next few months, Clapotis, and the fact that AfA might have a new collection in March. I'm trying to focus more this year, so I really want to finish this sweater before I start on any of the new things.

(Of course, the rather nasty weather predicted for Providence in the upcoming week, as well as the historic trends of the early year, does tend to increase my motivation to get a warm sweater finished.)

(Jonathan- It's freezng rain and wintry mix, not snow; we aren't being greedy, even if it did snow last night.)

Today was a low-key day. We shoveled out the driveway so we could go and return the presents we ended up not giving and things that didn't fit right. We also did things to fix little problems: we got batteries, I rearranged some things so my desk works better, and so on.

Before and after that, we did a lot of puttering. I started and finished my first book of the new year, marked my hoopskirt channels, and got up to the more widely spaced sleeve increases. (The cold weather is strikingly motivational.) I didn't get to the gym, but I figure I get partial credit for working up a sweat shoveling.

For dinner, we had leftover fajitas and beans for good luck:


The chili was amazingly good, and simple to make.

Happy New Year!

It's snowing so much that I feel as if the world is being heavily dusted with powdered sugar. It's one of those beautiful snows to watch, with flakes dancing and spiraling down.

This has, on the whole, been a good year.

Tallies for 2008:
Socks: Six; three for me and three for AfA.
Sweaters: Three (two for me and one for AfA), and Chaise just needs finishing, while Daughter of Ribby needs most of her sleeves.
Hats: Five; one for Caleb, one for a friend's baby, the rest for AfA.
Mittens: Three pairs; one for me, the rest for AfA.
Turtles: One.

I did a lot of knitting for others this past year. I think that this coming year, I will be trying to keep that up (I bought yarn yesterday for a sweater for a relative who will be born in the coming year), but I also want to work on finishing up some of the bright and beautiful things for myself. Clapotis is raring to go, and I have some exciting new sock heels and patterns to try out. I also want to keep working down my stash.

Here's to a happy new year!

I got a lot of knitting done on the family visits.



I'm on Sleeve Island now, but my old goal had been to get the fronts finished by the end of December, so I'm pretty happy.
We're supposed to get a lot of snow tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. Not much is going on, but in a good way.

Movies, car trips, and visiting family do wonders for my knitting. I did a big chunk of the foot of my sock while watching Slumdog Millionaire, a bunch of the rest of it in the car, the heel while visiting, and am now on the leg.

Caleb is giving the sock bunny ears in this picture:

Yesterday was exciting; Caleb was flying home cross country, with a change of planes in Newark. I was watching weather in Providence and Newark, and was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen.

His plane from Newark did indeed get canceled, and they bumped him to a flight that was supposed to land right in the middle of the storm. Instead of that, he got them to put him on Amtrak.

He arrived half an hour after the snow started, and, by the time we got home and some of his stuff was away, the street was no longer showing under the snow. He has good timing.

In between picking him up and doing some light cleaning, I've been sewing Christmas presents, reading, and knitting. It's been a good day.

Some knitting has been going on. Last Monday, I got a nice big chunk of sock done.



There have been a lot of other things going on, so a little less knitting has happened. Still, Caleb and I got just about all of the shopping done. Right now, I'm addressing cards and watching Firefly. There are cookies left to be made and two presents to be sewn, but things look more under control.

It's rainy and grim here. The pigeons and sparrows look like they're wearing little down coats. The squirrels are positively spherical; I saw one that had to lie down as it dug. Luckily, it isn't icing now, since that would be truly nasty.

I think it's going to be a long winter. I've been pounding away at the sweater at a strange rate; I think I'm responding to the same signals as the other, smaller inhabitants of Providence. Here's hoping, though, that the thirteenth doesn't feature a storm like it did last year.

I was going to be all good and come home and take a picture of the sweater, whose fronts are a bit shy of six inches, but I'd forgotten that it gets dark in Providence these days before five.

It's been a long week. I can't wait until Saturday, when I get to sleep in, or tomorrow, when I don't have any after work commitments for the first time in a long while.

I'm finally past the front ribbing, and made a lot of progress while waiting to sing at a tree lighting this evening.

I think I need to make a special effort to get some pictures during our all too brief daylight.

It is looking nice. I'm looking forward to wearing it.