Where you been all my life?

Where, Lace Ribbon Scarf, WHERE? Oh but I could never stay mad at you…
At last, it’s finished.

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty
Yarn: O-Wool 2-Ply in “Slate”, 3 skeins
Needles: 3.25 mm
Dimensions: 8″ x 84″ (the perfect length)

Notes: Scarf knitting is boring. No way around it really. Once you’ve got the basic pattern down you’re just repeating it until you run out of yarn, essentially, so it doesn’t make for the most exciting knitting ever. But Ms. Avery came up with a super pretty pattern (doesn’t she always?) and it’s totally worth putting in the time.

A quick note on the yarn also – I really wasn’t crazy about this when it first arrived on my doorstep. I loved the colour, but it didn’t feel that great. BUT! Blocking transformed it into a super gorgeous pile of softness and now I ADORE it. Yum. My neck says yes.
Since I have nothing else useful to add, I shall merely continue the onslaught of scarf photos because apparently I am incapable of editing. Happy Monday!

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Dreams of a productive laziness

As I’ve mentioned before, I have something of a problem with procrastination, most especially when it comes to my college work. Right now, I’m in the midst of a gut-wrenching mania known as dissertation writing, except that I’m not writing anything. Hence the mania. It’s super stressful, but at least 98 % of the stress is caused by wondering how your stupidity has reached even further dizzying heights, when you thought you really had its number way back. Anyway, I digress. While mulling all this over today I was thinking about how, while I’m really a fundamentally lazy creature at heart (curse you, inherent sloth), I hate sitting still doing nothing. Even if I’m watching tv, etc, I need to be doing something with my hands. I am what you call a born fidgeter, and I come from a long line of them. And since discovering that knitting is the perfect way to keep my hands busy while I’m (not really) doing other things, I manage to be sneakily productive while ostensibly doing nothing. And now all I can think of is how much I wish this could somehow translate into also getting my college work done without my really realising. Because that is the dream.

Today, seeing as I (shockingly!) actually did a semi-reasonable amount of work (ask me anything you want to know about gender and comedy) I naturally rewarded myself by, um, doing nothing for the rest of the day.

And the fruits of my sloth? Well they come in several courses, my friends.

First a little spinning, to whet the appetite:

A colourway I like to call “Exploding Sweetshop”

I’ll be honest, I don’t really like this. Loved the roving, but somehow when I spun it up the colours turned into a sickly sweet pastel-y mess. Blech. This is only half of it, the other half awaits me.

Then I blocked the Lace Ribbon Scarf:

Why won’t you dry faster?

And, gripped by a sudden fever at the realisation that I now only had one or two serious (i.e. not already forsaken and banished to the UFO pile) projects on my needles, I hurriedly cast on for Ene. Ene! Oh how long I’ve waited to knit you. Soon, you shall be mine!

You don’t look like much yet, but we know your potential

Oh and to conclude, I am currently obsessed with the colour of this yarn that I recently ordered. Colinette Jitterbug in Elephant’s Daydream, for the curious.

I’m so pretty that elephants daydream about me.

‘Twill become socks, but which socks? Eh? Eh? I ask you.

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Alors!*

Bonjour! Last week was my much anticipated (by me) trip to Cannes for the Film Festival. Which was so amazing, and utterly unlike anything my life normally resembles. The glamour! The dresses! The red carpets! (I know, I know, I create such an aura of fabulousness that you thought my life must feature all these things on a daily basis, but sadly, no.) Oy. Très fun. Sadly we didn’t get to see as many films as we would have liked, because there are all sorts of restrictions on what you can get into (basic rule = the glitzier the premiere, the less likely they are to let the regular folk anywhere near it to contaminate its glitziness). So, because the particular pass we had was the “oh you’re only a meagre film student so we don’t really care about you” pass and not the “oh hello super important celebrity/top-notch executive, right this way please” pass, we only got to go to whatever there were spare invitations to, but it was still super-fabulous, and we still saw some interesting films.

Anyway, I have been on a major French kick ever since (it’s just so much fun to try and speak it, especially when you really, really can’t), so, in order to get some knitting in here somewhere, I bring you:

Le Sock!

I knit this before going away, but had no time to blog. I still have the second one to do, but this was so speedy it shouldn’t take long. Apparently plain stockinette socks = speedy sock-knittin’ good times! Who knew?

And, patiently waiting for me upon my return home we also have:

Le Spinning Fibre!

4 oz of Corriedale in “Millefiore” from Pigeonroof Studios. Mmmm….

Oh how I wish I was going back for the rest of the festival (’twas just too expensive to stay for the whole thing). Le Sigh. I miss you, Cannes!

* I don’t entirely know what this means, but French people seem to say it a lot, so I feel I clearly ought to also.

The Capelet Kind

I am developing a theory. It goes as follows: the world can be reasonably simply divided into two kinds of people – those who are “capelet” people, and those who aren’t. I, for better or worse, fall decidedly into the latter category. I can’t even wear high heels, how could I possibly pull off something so unnecessary (and therefore chic) as a capelet? I even hate the word. Capelet. Ugh.

So it surprised even me when, against all my instincts, I cast on for one. I’ll blame this on the accidental skein of laceweight malabrigo I received in the post (I ordered worsted and was sent laceweight by mistake – the right skein has since arrived, but I decided to keep the happy accident also). What else was I to do with a single skein of lace weight? Clearly, fate was conspiring to sneak a capelet into my wardrobe.

Pattern: Lace Capelet from Rainy Day Goods
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in “Glazed Carrot”, less than one skein
Needles: 6 mm circs

Notes: My gauge was way off, so I cast on 140 stitches instead of the suggested 110, plus I worked an extra full pattern repeat before starting the decreases.

From now on, I want everything I wear to be knit out of this yarn. So what if I would look ever-so-slightly ridiculous in lacy, knitted “jeans”? My skin would be so happy I wouldn’t notice.

Against all odds, I actually like this. The amazing softness of the yarn probably has a lot to do with it. It feels insaaaanely good on, which is a quality I admire in a garment. And who doesn’t love a little useless shoulder decoration every now and then?

Oh and it took barely more than a day to knit, start to finish. Gotta love that.

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Smoke and mirrors

Ahem. In the spirit of full disclosure I’ll tell you right from the start that this post may be written 85% for the reason that I don’t like to see my blog go too long without fresh material to feed its growling belly, and only 15% because I actually have anything to say/show. In fact, that 15% may be a little on the generous side. But, never one to be put off by the thought that I might contribute more useless nonsense to the already saturated internets, I shall mindlessly persevere!

The last week or so has consisted of me telling myself that tomorrow I will get serious about working on my dissertation, then ignoring this entirely and knitting instead, and making the same empty promises for the next day. Which results in masses of horrible guilt, and yet it doesn’t seem to have an effect. So today, I swear, I’m going to the library. Right after I post here. And maybe knit a little first.

There has also been some spinning of late, which produced this:

Spinning this has completely convinced me that I need to buy a wheel. Spinning on a spindle is just frustrating because it takes so long. So, much research has been undertaken, but I’m afraid to order one since it would probably mean death to my dissertation and my masters as a whole, so I think it has to wait.

Anyway, this is 335 yds of laceweight merino, 2-ply, 19 wpi, spun from about half of this roving from Pigeonroof Studios:

There has been plenty of knitting too, but none of it looks very interesting yet, so I’ll save it for another day.

Oh, and guess where I’m going next week? Jealous?

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