Body Progress

These pictures will make sense as you read this. I'm tired of trying to get them where I want them!

I have cast on, knitted the trim, decreased to the body, and worked my first decrease for the waist on my Sea Shell. The mistakes I made getting going on both my sleeves didn't plague me this time, so I have apparently internalized the pattern.

I have made my sleeves slightly shorter than the pattern, and will have to assess the body once I get a bit further. I am very short waisted, so I always want to avoid having too much that calls attention to that in a negative way. Because I have long legs I tend to emphasize that by keeping tops shorter and favoring sleeves that are shorter if they are above the elbow. By keeping the sleeve length more proportionate to my body I can keep myself from looking too body-length challenged.

We got up early again this morning so I got to knit for 15 minutes. It was kind of a cheat because I had already used some of that 15 minutes to tidy up my jewelry, but no one was here to know that. I got the idea to redo my jewelry shelf the other day using one of those stair-step shelves you buy for kitchen shelves. When I went to the Container Store (one of my favorite stops) they had a stainless steel one. I had measured my shelf and knew I would only need half of the pair so bought it with the thought that I could use the other half in the cabinet next to the stove where the spice overflow, salt and pepper, olive oil, etc. live. I arranged that Friday morning because I had to get it off the counter before the cleaning guy came. It is lovely and makes a rather limited space very attractive and useful.

So today to the jewelry. I have a beautiful box which Mitch bought for me at my request, but it was wasted in the closet because I never closed it so you couldn't see the lovely top. It didn't take long to take out my current arrangement and replace it with my nifty shelf. Hopefully this will forestall the panic I often feel when I can't immediately find the pin I'm looking for. I wear a pin almost every day and when I walk into my closet to get one I almost always know what I want (occasionally my first choice doesn't work, but I've been doing this a while!), but since I have no system, I often have to dig around looking for one. Sometimes I forget to take them off my clothes and I have to go look in the laundry.

But now they all sit proudly on their shelves! This suits the dimensionality of some of them, and the flatness of others. I feel badly when I forget about one of them and don't wear it for a while. That cool almost-circle one at the top was given to me by my sister Sally many, many years ago and is still a great pin; with necklines currently being fairly low it is a challenge to wear.

What do knitters want to knit?

We were asked this question recently. It's a tough one to answer, mostly because there isn't a simple answer. Not only are we all different in terms of what we want to knit, but we also have different interests at different times.

Kim, who you could count on to be knitting lace, spelled by socks, is whipping out a sweater. As the weather warms, we might put aside heavier projects and pick up lighter ones. Audrey has decided that wool is okay in the heat, if it's lace weight Malabrigo. I love the intricacies of garments, but I'm having a great time with Trapezoid, Jill's latest pattern that is quite simple. I'm just watching the fabric grow. I'll be wearing this very soon!

So many things impact our desire to knit a particular item. Yarn, stitch patterns, needle size, time. What's going on in the rest of our lives is significant. Traveling, working hard, taking a vacation and family obligations will have an impact on how much we can pay attention to our knitting. Sometimes a washcloth or scarf is all we can manage.

While WHAT we want to knit may not always be clear, that we WANT to knit is.

And There Were Two

I finished my second sleeve!

Yesterday was a crazy day. Just odd, not bad, just not really under my control which is unusual, but more unusual, I managed to not get freaked out about it. How this is in any way related to my second sleeve is that in the craziness I suddenly had almost an hour of time with nothing to do and the only thing I had with me was my knitting! I knitted for a while, then cleaned out my purse which had been driving me crazy because there was so much paper drifting around in it, then knitted a bit more.

I continued to knit while I got a pedicure, and in fact overshot by an entire pattern repeat (8 rows). So when I finally sat down last night to knit, I ripped back to Rnd 7, bound off my stitches and moved the sleeve to waste yarn! After dinner I cast on 192 sts for the body and got most of the way through the first row of the body. Reading that it sounds like I must be the slowest knitter in the world. But if you don't eat dinner until after 9 pm, there isn't really that much time to knit if you also read the newspaper and eat dessert and go to bed at 10:30.

We got up at 6 am today because Mitch had to be at the office early. I always try to do something I wouldn't normally have the time for when I have to get up early, so I put the gas grille grills in to soak and finished my first row, joined and worked my first two rounds. Body is officially underway.

Buffalo Gals

Jill and I are visiting Buffalo, WY next month. When I booked the Bunkhouse Room at the Occidental Hotel, Angela reminded me that our arrival night (Thursday) is Bluegrass Music night. I'm so excited.

We'll be visiting Buffalo sites in anticipation of our upcoming event in September.

While listening to Fresh Air podcast this morning, I learned that the recently deceased Malcolm McLaren had a song "Buffalo Gals." Published in the 70s, it has a hip hop sound. Lyrics aren't notable, unlike the more traditional "Buffalo Gals." The Boss has a good rendition of the latter version. Every Time I Die also did a song "Buffalo Gals."

For May 13-16, we'll be Buffalo Gals.

Late Night means Progress

I sat down to knit last night about 8:30. I taught a class at FIDM and then came home and puttered for a bit then buckled down and did some ironing which I had threatened to do earlier in the week. I still have 5 shirts left, but I got all my stuff caught up which was nice. I was pretty tired (always takes a lot of energy to do the first day of class), but it was Mitch's Board night so he would be late and I figured it would be good knitting time--which of course it was, if you don't count the 2" I knit that had to be ripped and redone. But I got all the green done before I got too tired to knit, so I'm about halfway done with the second sleeve. I'm going to challenge myself to get it done tonight so I can cast on the body! Then, I think I'll challenge myself to see if I can just do the knitting correctly the first time! Jeesh, you'd think I could follow a pattern!

Great Writer

Last night we took Mom to see Ian McEwan at City Arts and Lectures. I love these talks because I am so interested in how creative people make lives and careers for themselves. And it is so fun to see people whose work you admire. I have read most of what Mr. McEwan has written (not his children's books or all of his non-fiction) and much of what has been written about him (thanks to Mitch's clipping service). This was a standout though. Funny, smart, humble, educated, writerly. Even the audience didn't ask silly questions.

I carried my knitting with me all day, but never had a minute to knit. I had maybe 7 minutes before the CAL where I could have knit, but I didn't. I talked to my mom instead, which is also important. By the time we'd dropped Mom off at the Heritage, drove home and fixed dinner, it was 10:25 pm.

All that I have to show for knitting yesterday is that I got my knitting into a project pack and got the pack into my bag.

Malabrigo Clearance

Spring finds us with odds and ends of Malabrigo. I really want to freshen this, so I need to sell some first. All colors and quantities are posted on Ravelry.

Malabrigo Lace: $7 each

Malabrigo Silky Merino: $9 each

Malabrigo Worsted: $9 each

Malabrigo Chunky: $9 each