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So you can kind of see it in this picture, but I want to save the full shots for when there is better light and I can resolve my tripod issues (or get someone over here to take some pictures of me!) Usually when I get close to finishing a project, I get so excited I stay up late and work really hard to get the last little bit done. Not so for the pink sweater; the last sleeve went slower than a really slow thing (molasses? dial-up internet?)

So at any rate, I’ll have better pictures and full details next time…
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I’ve been taking a little break from knitting, and blogging, as you may have noticed I haven’t been around lately. When it starts to feel like I’m forcing myself to knit or do posts, I know I should back off, because this is supposed to be fun, right? I know I’ll probably get back into the swing of things when the weather turns colder. For right now, I’m working on an assignment for my photography class, so I’ve been using my free time towards that end.

BTW - To Sharon: I’m still so excited about SDWL, and I know you’ll have made 5 of them before I get done with mine. But for reasons I will explain, he’s got to go on the back burner for a little while… sorry!

Basically the little time I spend knitting nowadays has to be something I don’t have to think too hard about or concentrate on, really. I just don’t have the patience, and it’s too damn hot, to be counting and reading charts, etc. So I decided to work on another project, slightly less demanding, and come back to Season when I’m *feeling* it a little more. Oh, and another thing: I had been using Addi Turbos, my first time trying them. And I’ve decided they’re no good for fair isle - too slippery, at least for me. So I have to get some bamboo or plastic needles, and then I’ll probably need to start over cause I’m a weird perfectionist (ahem). So there you go. Season will have its season, but apparently that season is *not* summer.

Here’s what I’ve come back to:

Yet another Norsk Strikkedesign pattern. This fits the bill - it’s pleasant to knit, minimal counting, and because my mom doesn’t want any, no shaping along the bottom part of the body. Good, mindless stuff. You can’t see it in these pictures, but I had started this cardigan with five steek stitches in the center, even though the pattern doesn’t call for any. But after I made the steeked deep-v argyle vest, I realized that I don’t have to be crazy paranoid about the steeks. It’ll all be fine, I’ll just follow the directions. The center stitches get encased in edge stitching that gets turned over, anyway, so no problem. I am now knitting away with no extra stitches. Whee.

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Thanks to those who responded to my last post about procrastination (I haven’t gotten a chance to reply as of yet - sorry!)

*Edit: I just checked my spam filter and apparently a couple of real comments were put in there for some reason. Since my filter deletes the messages after a few days, there may have been some that got deleted. Sorry about that - I’ll definitely check it more often!

I was actually a little suprised that some of you responded you felt the same way. Well, I don’t know why I would be “surprised,” it’s probably a really common feeling to have. Obviously, many people are afraid of failure and put things off (or don’t try things) as a result. But it’s nice to know that there are others out there who know what I’m talking about. I often feel like a lot of people around me are constantly attempting new projects, achieving goals, and actively pursuing ideas while I’m stuck in one spot. Anyway, like I said in my last post, I have more I want to say about all of this, but I’m going to save that for a later post.

For happy, I’ll just leave you with this:

OK, in the interest of fairness, I should post a picture of my other kitty, Chiquita. This is not going to turn into a catblog, but I don’t want to seem like I’m playing favorites.

This is what she did when she found out her picture was not on my site, and she refused to move until I posted. (That’s my laptop her head is on). I’m serious. Of course, it makes it quite difficult to type and use the mouse pad. And she gets copious amounts of fur underneath the keys. My friend has suggested looking into spinning cat fur - I see that some people have done it, but it looks like it might be hard. But if I could figure it out, I would have a free source of yarn on my hands that would last me years and years…

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(Blue was made lighter in the pic to show off the pattern better…)

First off, there has been little to no work done on Season, since I’m using most of my time to get the lace blouse done. This jacket is going to be a long haul for me, anyway.

Sharon should be posting a new pic of her progress on Season soon - if you haven’t already checked out her site, she has quite a bit more done than me and it’s rockin’!

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Left side started. There is an error in the pattern, for anyone who’s making this - I emailed Teva the other day to make sure. She said she will be adding it to her error page, which you can find at her site, Loop-d-Loop. It’s just a small thing to do with the shoulder shaping, nothing that would keep you up at night - but of course while I was waiting for her to email me back I impatiently and incorrectly guessed what the pattern was supposed to say and now I’ll have to frog four or five rows. Yep. But it won’t be the first time I’ve had to go back and work rows again on this thing. Occasionally I would lose track of the lace pattern and not notice the mistake until I’d knit another couple of inches. I mean, that happened to me like three times. This sweater would have been done by now if it weren’t for me getting distracted by The Daily Show.

This is what my soon-to-be-sweater would look like if she starred in a film noir. I just finished reading The Big Sleep for the second time - I guess I need to put the movie on my Netflix list (never seen it).

Of course, my soon-to-be-sweater is much too sweet and innocent to be the femme fatale. She kind of looks like the murder victim in this picture.

Pity. She was so sweet. And innocent. And unfinished.

I marvel at the knitters who can just crank away with the yarn and produce whole sweaters in a matter of hours and days. It’s not like that for me - I take my sweet time, often stopping for a break after I finish a row or two. Sometimes I do spend quite a bit of time knitting on a weekend, then I’ll get burnt out and just have to put the needles down, g*d*mnit.

So slow going, but progress made on both the lace blouse and Season. Observe:

I’m up to the armhole shaping on the one side. Still lovin it! I feel like a girly girl, making a whole big pink sweater. I forgot to mention before that I tried out “combined knitting” for the first time on the ribbed section here. Any of you who haven’t heard of this style can check out Annie Modesitt’s site for more details. I can’t say it changed my life or anything, but I think that’s because I’m a right-handed knitter. It appears to me (based on my superficial investigation) that this might be a more handy style for a left-handed, Continental knitter, because maybe it makes purling easier?! Anyone out there who uses this style and knows more about it, I’d be curious to hear what you think.

And:

Just a couple inches done on the sleeve. I ripped out the first inch or so that I knit because I realized I was pulling the floats too tight. I’ve done fair isle several times now, but the true art of getting the right tension, consistently, eludes me. Like, no matter what I do, some of my stitches are going to look wonky.

At any rate, I can’t wait to try Season on!! Oh, wait, I have to knit it first.

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I don’t usually post these kinds of pictures, but there are some things you can’t say “no” to:

Ursula doing her famous bunny impersonation.

Contrary to appearances, my life does not, in fact, revolve around knitting. Really. Having said that, however, I am compelled to report that yesterday was spent wandering around yarn stores in Manhattan. I’ve said before that I’m not an impluse buyer of yarn (anymore), so I only bought one ball. Really I just wanted to get some ideas and look at the pretty stuff. My favoritist place of all that I went to yesterday was Habu Textiles. I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. They have yarn made out of lots of unique materials, including linen paper, fine steel, and fiber from something called a “kenaf” plant. They even have awesome yarn made from actual fishing nets (it’s silk!). Lots of great materials for weaving, although I’m sure anyone interested in weaving probably already knows about the place.

I just got a little ball of yarn to start out with - I wanted to see what it was like knitted up before I went too crazy. This is a cotton yarn, but it feels and looks like paper. They said it will soften up after a little use, but the knitted fabric is actually softer than you would think it would be. I love it! I have a hankering to use this stuff for one of the vintage patterns I’ve picked out - would be an interesting combination of old-fashioned design and modern material. Okay, I just made that up. They might have had paper yarn back then, who knows? In case you’re interested, I used size US0 needles here.

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Here’s the progress on the front. I have never, not even for one second, not loved knitting this blouse. Not even when I realized that my row gauge is totally off from the pattern, and therefore I would have to completely revamp the short row directions. The pattern was written up nicely, and would have been pretty easy to follow if my gauge had been on. But after some serious recalculating, and figuring out how to start the lace pattern at a different point each row, I gotter done. I ended up knitting 8 more short rows than the pattern called for so that the ribbed section would be high enough in the front. I just have to say thanks to Teva for making the instructions clear enough that I could figure out how to make alterations (short rows and lace both being things with which I have little experience).

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Here’s a little preview of Season of Darkness etc. Seriously, this yarn is next to impossible to photograph. I color-corrected the pic (a lot), so that it reads more like the actual yarn, but this picture still does not do it justice. I am so happy and excited to be using this yarn - it’s really wonderful. Still working on my swatches, trying to get gauge. Hopefully I’ll be able to start on the actual jacket sometime this week…

From Wikipedia:

The geographical location some 350 km north of the Arctic circle means that Tromsø has both midnight sun and polar night.

The Midnight sun is above the northern horizon from about May 18 to July 26, although the mountains in the north block the view to the Midnight sun a few days, meaning that you can optically see the sun from about May 21 to July 21. Due to the position on top of the globe, the twilight is longer, meaning there is no real darkness between late April and mid August.

The sun remains below the horizon from about November 26 to January 15, but due to the mountains the sun is absent from the centre from November 21 to January 21. The return of the sun is an occasion for celebration. Due to the twilight, there is some daylight for a couple of hours even around mid winter, often with beautiful bluish light. The days lengthen quickly, and by February 21 the sun is above the horizon from 07:45 to 16:10, and April 1 from 05:50 to 19:50 (summertime).

I’m sure there are better, more lyrical descriptions of the season of darkness and winter light (which I assume refers to the polar night in these areas). A quick, cursory search online didn’t reveal any, and I sure have never been north of the Arctic circle myself to witness it. Once when I was in northern Minnesota I experienced Aurora Borealis (another phenomenon that occurs in Tromsø), and it was amazing and spectacular. Kind of hard to imagine that sort of thing being commonplace in your hometown.

This is my “night” - wonder if there’s a name for the midnight lights that make it impossible for New York to ever get dark enough to see stars.

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So after consideration of color schemes and yarn properties, I decided to go ahead and order the yarn kit for the Season of Darkness and Winter Light. For one thing, I think the yarn I originally picked out will be too soft and “drapey,” and this jacket really needs a firm structure. For another thing, although at first I wasn’t crazy about the original colors of the pattern, they have since grown on me, and now I really like them a lot. Plus it will be in better keeping with the theme and thought behind the design of the pattern (and its name). I do still love the alpaca yarn that I got originally (red and browns), and I’ll put my thinking cap on soon to come up with a suitable project for it.

The best news, however, is that someone else actually wants to knit this jacket! I have to credit Sharon with goading me into starting this bad boy. So now we will have our own little knitalong, and what a relief to have another soul to share this experience with. It will be crazy, I’m sure. Check out the colors she chose - very different from the original but I think it’ll look gorgeous.

I am so excited to make The Season of Darkness and Winter Light from Norsk Strikkedesign that I’ve already made a swatch. This is despite the fact that I won’t be able to start this project for many many weeks… But look!!

The yarn is Knit Picks Andean Treasure in “Embers” and “Granite” (the cabled edges and collar will be in “Woods”). So rad.

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I started something else with a synthetic, furry yarn. Don’t worry, it will all make sense in the end…

Sleepy Bear is still in the works - I have to go get buttons for the little suit. Stay tuned.