More Blue...

I've been collecting skeins of Trekking XXL for a couple of months now, and I've finally found a cause for them - here's my first post on Trek Along With Me - I'll be going on quite a few Urban Treks, I love socks - a perfect fit!!
Conveniently, I had color 108 - a lovely blue. Great for Project Spectrum!

Project Spectrum June - The Month of Blue

Knitting may fall by the wayside this month in light of moving cross country to our new home on the East Coast. In the process, we are inheriting not one, but TWO blue rooms. I'm not a blue room fan - although our kitchen is yellow with blue and white accents nowadays and likely won't change in the new place.
I always view my bedroom as the most important place in the house - a place of rest. Its color is carefully chosen, and I have to be just crazy about how it's decorated. I've been in love with our bedroom here since we moved in:


Our new bedroom is a 3rd floor loft, and it is BLUE. Bluer than blue. My first thought was to paint it ALL. And then I realized that it was blue over the stairwell leading up to it. Blue in the hallway, too. Boy, that's a lot of blue to cover up - and over the stairs, pretty dangerous. So, for June, I am embracing the blue. To begin this adventure, I am ordering new bed linens. I'll be spending the better part of the month, I'm sure, figuring out how to decorate in blue in a way that I won't be sick of in 5 seconds, LOL.

So, without further adieu - here are the "before" pictures of the bedroom:



Here's hoping the "after" pics do Project Spectrum some justice!

Knitting Philosophy

Four months into this whole knitting "thing," I find myself defining what, exactly, my knitting philosophy is. I've learned I'm not a process knitter - I love the feel of yarn, and I do thoroughly (obviously) enjoy knitting, but for me, it's about the project. The finished product - who it's made for, what it is, the end goal. As I'm growing my stash, I'm finding that every skein is purchased with a project in mind. The best I can do in the absence of an assigned project is determine that one good skein in a fabulous colorway would make perfect SOCKS. I have started a collection of travel yarn, though - when we were in DC buying a house a couple of weeks back I found myself severly stressed and in need of some wool therapy... Not only did I find a great store, but they dye their own yarn - so I got 2 skeins of it, just to have (although in my head I was thinking boot socks or a hat - see? Project knitter) .

So, now I return to the story about this little lace shawl beginning. I was reading Mason Dixon Knitting (the book) and while I became completely obsessed with the warshrags and the log cabin knits, the shawls just didn't do it for me. And I came back to this little shawl. I have no motivation to work on it. I love the pattern and I love the yarn even more, but really, at the end of it all - will I EVER wear a shawl? No, no way! Not my style! But I'm drawn to trying to knit up something lace weight - what a conundrum. Maybe a scarf. Or a tank top - yes, this yarn would make a delicious tank top. I SHOULD learn how to knit filmy lace, learn to block it, see the pattern emerge. But what the heck would I do with it after that? Give it away? No one I know would wear it, either! *sigh*

So, I frogged it. Rewound the yarn back into a ball. Put in back in the stash, with a new assigned project - tank top. And an acceptance of the fact that just because I can knit lace, that doesn't mean I should if it's not "my thing" and I wouldn't use or enjoy the end result. And so starts the development of my knitting philosophy - as a project knitter who needs to have a real, tangible, useful end product that I (or my loved ones) can use and enjoy.

I Heart My Noro Blossom Shrug

Seriously, the simplest project in the world. It's just a giant tube, broken apart in the middle, made with this nubby, yummy yarn. I initially intended to wait to cast it on, but the yarn came in the mail and I had to start...and then, it was downhill, mindless knit until the center, then just stockinette. I worked on it before classes. While DH was cooking dinner. In the morning (hides spilled coffee well). While watching TV. Skein after skein passed through my hands, and then, yesterday, I hit the last skein first thing in the morning. I knew my work was almost done, and decided not to shower and get dressed until I finished, so I could have the joy of wearing my new creation right away.


Somewhere around lunchtime, DH came home and saw me sitting there on the couch - "my butt got numb sitting in my usual chair in the kitchen" - and he said: "I thought it was almost done?"
Damn. I didn't escape it - that part of any large knitting project where you hit a certain point, and knit and knit, and it seems to just be stuck. Never grows. It's the knitting abyss. Everytime I checked the length of the second sleeve, thinking that surely this shrug would fit a monkey and that I should stop, it was still be 4" short.

At 2:30, the sleeves seemed to be the same length, and I blissfully bound it off and wove in the ends. Took my long-awaited shower, and put the glorious thing on. Well worth the wait!

April Project Spectrum Report...

Well, after making a sock yarn purchase in a stunning orange and yellow colorway with some lacey socks in mind, I barely managed to cast them on before the end of the month...I was unfortunately sucked in by this random Noro Blossom shrug pattern (7th one down) that I found online at a store somewhere in the UK. (The report on that one will be forthcoming - so easy, and SO COOL) With school wrapping up, knitting time was at a premium!
Alas, yesterday, I did finally manage to get them going - but my first month in Project Spectrum is a wash.

I decided immediately to get a head start on May - this month it's GREEN! And, since green is one of my favorites - orange and yellow were a challenge - I've got a whole darn afghan going with a green theme. This month's 16"x16" square is delicious cables, so I've got it started in a very yummy lime green. This month, Lolly, I promise to be victorious!

Worldwide Socks

I would have posted a picture sooner - I finished these Saturday - but I didn't realize I had to *format* a new SD card. Duh.
I made the first sock while I was in Paris in March, and rather than cast on the second one right away, I moved on to another project. I figured I'd better get moving because I needed the DPN to do my Project Spectrum socks, so the other sock came to Boston with me this past weekend. Finally, a matched pair!
They're Mountain Colors' Bearfoot in Elderberry, with a simple baby cable - nice and warm and fuzzy. Perfect for April (??) - well, maybe they'll be the first of the Fall 2006 sock stash...

R.I.P., Lil' Doodlebug

I would prefer to remember the sweater the way it *was*, not the way it is - now that I've followed the washing instructions and yet STILL had the pink bleed into the purple and completely RUIN my hard work for my cousin's little girl. I was so devestated on Friday when I brought the beanie down to put with it and saw the disaster. I tried everything. Nothing worked, and now I need to make a new one (god knows it'll be solid color this time!). But, alas, it won't be in time to bring to little Emma this weekend when we go to meet her. I'll bring the one we have, but I'm embarrassed to give her such a mess.

So, anyone using Heirloom Breeze in Musk Pink (019), in Dyelot 04, WATCH OUT! You can't handwash it AT ALL.

Rest in peace, little Doodlebug cardigan...


On a more positive note, my April afghan square is officially done, blocked, and folded, awaiting its partners.

With any luck, I'll actually get to cast on my socks for April's Project Spectrum - it's this fantastic orange, green, and yellow colorway that I picked up at Fleece Fair that I'm going to do up in a lace pattern.