CSI was marvelous. The classes I took were the two best I've had there.
I've gotten the second sock rather far along:
Now, there's just the laundry and the adjustment to the lack of classes, lectures, and mozzarella sticks for dinner.
At the New Bedford Summerfest, I got finished the first Providence sock and started the second. I also got to try shape note singing, which was truly awesome.
I'm now at CSI, and am knitting away on the second sock. I'd forgotten how quickly the little beasties go when one concentrates on them for a chunk of time.
I'm learning about Proto-Indo-European (the tastiest of languages!) and ancient food, as well as going to reading group (Ovid) and the lectures. There are at least two other knitters in the food class alone.
I really love CSI. It's so refreshing to come somewhere where I can talk about my favorite authors and sit on a couch with people and discuss consonant shifts.
This picture contains something that hasn't been seen in Providence for a while: sunlight. It rained 25 out of the first 29 days of June. There was flooding this week in many places.
If I wanted to live in Seattle, I'd live in Seattle. They have more options when it comes to coffee.
(Actually, it turns out Seattle has been much drier recently than the East Coast.)
I'll just watch out for it the squirrels and robins start lining up two by two. (Or are they the clean animals who'd be in sevens?)
Clapotis is finished!
Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Lisa Souza's Sock! in Mars Quake
Needles: 6 straights
Size: Clapotis-sized
Amount of yarn used: 810 yards/1.8 skeins
Source of yarn: Birthday present
Modifications: I changed the size
Thoughts: A fun knit.
Isn't it pretty?
I think I may have worn the smell off of the basil from sniffing it so hard. It's two plants; Pesto III and Pesto IV. (Pesto and Pesto Junior, our previous basil plants, have gone on to the big Italian restaurant in the sky.)
In knitting news, I wove in the ends on Clapotis yesterday. Now I just need to unravel and block it.
I started on the Juno Regina shawl yesterday:
The colors aren't quite that lurid in real life; it's gray and drizzly here (when is it not?), so I ended up enhancing them pretty strongly.
I've been reading a book on the history of standardized testing that is so good I'm rationing it out to make it last as long as possible.
I've started on the word at the top of the sampler. The names are charted out as well.
Woe! Angst!
So, yesterday I did my pensum of knitting: a full repeat of Clapotis. (Let us not speak of my pensa of prep for the coming year, of sewing, or of cleaning.)
As I was preparing to drop the stitches, I realized I'd forgotten to do the second drop on the repeat before. I tried dropping back along the edge, but it didn't work at all. So, I had to undo that day's work and part of the day before's.
Here's hoping it goes more smoothly as I keep proceeding along. I got the pattern for Juno Regina printed out and am looking forward to it.
Here's the current look of Clapotis's new corner:
I'm really excited that the whole working end fits neatly onto the needle with the stitch counter on it:
This summer, Caleb and I joined the Ledge End Farm CSA. I got to pick up the first share today.
In the picture above, spinach, salad greens, green garlic, strawberries, and eggs (not included, but we bought them; fancy eggs taste so good in quiche or egg salad.)
Broccoli rabe, bok choi, swiss chard.
Kohlrabi, radishes, garlic scapes.
I love the CSA; it gets us trying a really wide variety of things. It's almost like Iron Chef in figuring out what to do with it all.
My clapotis, it has three corners. Three corners has my clapotis. And had it not three corners, it would not be my clapotis!
Here Caleb is helpfully showing off the newest corner.
OK, it actually has five corners. Two of them, however, are temporary.
Each row is supposed to be getting shorter at this point, but it doesn't seem like it. I'm working on it, though, since I want to start on Juno Regina for when I got to my Classical stuff this summer.
I actually made some progress on the wedding embroidery:
My finger has mostly healed; luckily, it was such a glancing blow that the needle was never in danger. (I also have a card of extra needles, happily.)
I very much like my mother's idea that the Clapotis progress is a way of distracting from the sampler. Sadly, this is not so; I just haven't made any progress on the sampler since the last picture. I've had a bunch of stuff going on at work, and, among other things, I glancingly sewed through the tip of my left index finger with a sewing machine while putting piping on my 1859 dress. That's cut back on my guitar and embroidery.
Clapotis is coming along well, though. My in-laws and I went to a Paw Sox game last night, and I got almost three repeats done. I'm on repeat #20 now, and, once it's done, I'm starting the decreases. I think that my goal of having it finished by the end of June is in sight.
School is winding up, so I'm hoping that things will go smoothly and I'll get back in the saddle on my projects.
In the time since I last put up a picture, Clapotis has grown:
It's really coming along well. As per usual, I'm finishing it in exactly the wrong season. I may end up wearing it as soon as it's done anyway, though; the colors are lovely.
I hate "these current economic times." Not only are they causing all sorts of employment complications, but Morrison Office Supply (my source of fountain pens and fancy notebooks) and 729 Cafe (breakfasts, tutoring, and a nice place to go sit while doing work) have closed because of the economy.
In other news, I formatted over one hundred pages of a workbook today for my editing not-a-job. My eyes feel a little funny and I didn't get in the sewing or knitting or guitar I'd planned, but I can now tell the difference between a 12 pt and a 14 pt space while scrolling. (I also listened to a lot of my college music.)
Tomorrow, Clapotis. Really.
I really need to put up Clapotis as well; it's drawing within sight of the finish line. I just keep looking at it, though, and thinking that I'll blog about it after one more repeat, or when it's two-thirds done, or after I've unraveled a few more ladders. Then it's Thursday again.
You can tell I'm serious because I have three strands of floss going at once.
Well, ten weeks in, I've finally finished the interior part! I have the frame, the names, WEDDED, and the date, and it will be done!
Huzza!
Caleb, Jay, and I went to the PawSox Stitch and Pitch on Saturday. They enjoyed the eleven innings of baseball, and I enjoyed the two and change repeats of Clapotis, spending time with knitters, and the exciting conclusion of the game.
It is again a wet Thursday. I've gotten all of the motifs on the inside done except for one bell and one heart, and I just need to cross part of the stem a second time. After this, it's on to the border and the names and date. Well, the names will go on when someone gets me the preferred forms for each.
Clapotis is now almost half done. I'm starting to look beyond it for my more complicated than a sock summer knitting, and am caught in delicious angst as I waver among choices.
Go Vertical in red? Or in gray?
Golden Vintage Cardigan in red or gray?
The Invisibility Shawl in black or in the colorful Graceful Place?
Classic Lines in my normal inky hues?
Juno Regina?
It's so nice having the choices to mull over and consider as I walk home each day.
The acronym is very appropriate; things are rather damp in Providence.
Here's the latest progress on the sampler; I feel that the end of the center is legitimately in sight. Then there will just be the borders, with the names.
Clapotis has been coming along nicely; I've had a bunch of riding in a car recently, and it works very well for that.
Providence being Providence, it's gray and damp, and thus not the best for pictures, so I'm including an old one that shows the pattern more clearly.
I really like the way it's starting to roll on itself; I think this is going to look nice. I'm going to try to get it finished before my birthday; I got the yarn as a present last year, and a faster than usual turnaround to an object I can wear and enjoy would be good.
