Moving along

My WIPs have been coming along well. Excepting the occasional freak-out about not having a job and the postdoc/job situation in Missoula being bleak so far, I'm making progress in many areas. (As well as mistakes, fortunately mostly in knitting.)

In less than two weeks I'll be leaving for Montana, and should arrive there on November 13th. I'm all sorts of fidgety about that. Mostly excited to see DB again and as always a bit apprehensive about the drive, especially with the cat. But I'm getting the cat sedatives so I can always give her one if she's not doing well with the long hours on the road. (Note: She just crawled into my lap. She is jealous of anytime my fingers are doing something except pet her, so typing, knitting and iPhone-ing are all out the question, in her opinion. When I submit disagreement, she steps directly on my kidneys.)

I finished one project, decided to frog another and began two. I also had an excellent stash enhancement expedition and dear sister footed the bill as my birthday present.

(If I ever relocate to the Northampton, MA area, the WEBS store will have been a major, if not the major factor in my decision. I was in absolute heaven.)

Completed is my neverending hat for DB. Once I picked it up again, it went quickly. I tried it on at points to be sure it was still fitting and hadn't magically shrunk itself or something. Once done, I stuffed it with plastic bags and spritzed it with water to lightly block it. It looked awfully stretchy off the needles, long and skinny. Blocking made a nice difference, set the folded-over part in place and made the top of the hat look less funny. (It looked funny when I tied it off. Very pointy.)

This was just in time to mail his birthday package: Lands' End Squall Jacket, reader/writer goodies from Levenger, the finally-ended hat and a mix CD. I included my current favorite song - actually a few of them - on this CD: "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and "Castles in the Snow" by Twin Shadow. It also gave me an excuse to indulge in a few new albums (I hate just have single songs by an artist), including the new Belle & Sebastian and Deerhunter. The birthday presents arrived yesterday and though initially I told him not to open it until his actual birthday, the winter weather that has already hit Montana made me reconsider, so he got them right away. This time, the hat fits. Success!

I decided I am going to frog the Canyonlands Throw. I'm not too far into it, and I just don't like it very much. I still couldn't find a pattern I liked to use instead, but I had a vision of something simple, stockinette with the tiniest bit of lace in the form of diamonds. Nothing was coming up on Ravelry, so I took out my wonderful Vogue Knitting book and found a "Lozenge Stitch" pattern that comes out exactly as I wanted. So I'll just do the math for a reasonable size throw blanket and integrate that stitch. This will be on hold for a while as I have some Very Nice Yarn to work with. As much as I've grown to appreciate the economy and synthetic loveliness of Homespun, there is nothing like wool. 100% super bulky wool and mohair to be precise.

Which brings me to my next project: the Tess cardigan from Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt collection. (I'm going to take a moment and ask my knitting fairy godmother to please bring me all of her books, please!!!) I read over the instructions at least 10 times before I cast on, somewhat in haste. I had thought I needed to buy size 17 needles for this one, but found a pair of plastic circulars in my collection. I decided to cast on with those. Aside from the fact that I should've also knitted a swatch, I really should have gotten a nice pair of needles first. These plastic circulars are twisty and stubby. I'd be better off knitting with sticks from the back yard. I got three rows in with difficulty and came across this instruction: yfwd (twice). Having already read the pattern over, I had looked up and discovered yfwd is the British way of saying yo, and more specifically a between-knit-stitches yo. So I yfwded twice, creating two new stitches. I came to the next row and read (k1, p1) three times into double yfwd. Wait a minute....how do I get three or six stitches into four? I Googled and searched and read. I requested help from dear sister who confirmed what I thought. yfwd twice just meant wrap the yarn around an additional time, leaving three stitches (two new) on the needle. A video more than confirmed this. Also I have somehow still been doing yo wrong. I always put the yarn forward, put the right needle into the next stitch on the left as though to knit, then wrapped my yarn and completed the knit stitch. The last few instructions I've read now or watched have you do the the yarn forward, wrap the yarn on the right needle, the knit the next stitch. Huh. Not sure if there are actually two different ways to do this, if they produce two totally different results, or if I am really still doing yo wrong. All my yos on the baby blanket looked good. Something to play with in the future.

Anyway, I now have to undo what I've done on the cardigan so far which is fortunately only three rows. I also ordered new needles because the plastic ones are just awful. Once my new pointy wooden ones arrive, I'll get back on that. It'd be nice to have at Christmas this year.

This brings me to new yarn and new projects. (Also realize among all this knitting has been dissertating and bridesmaiding and packing. As much as I wish, I do not just knit, read and knit. I've transcribed all but two interviews and just need one (one!) more participant. Maybe my dissertation fairy godmother will bring me one of those too....please?)

My birthday loot included:
four skeins of Di.Ve' Mohair Kiss in a lovely colorway of grays and blues
four skeins of Universal Yarn Star Light in "sirius" - creamy white with sparklies

 I started knitting with the Mohair Kiss the Mediterranean Tulle Shawl I've admired for a while. It's coming along very nicely and I cannot wait to wear it! This is being made in particular for my navy blue silk slip dress and hopefully our anniversary dinner when I get back to Missoula. I am planning to use the Star Light to make the Muse wrap though as I've got a few projects to get through before I start this one, that could change. I've also considered a big, drapey moebius cowl/wrap with this yarn. It's so soft!