Block Party

Last night I finished the second Serrano sleeve. It actually came as somewhat of a surprise -- I was engrossed in The Tudors (I have 10 eps lined up in the DVR - mini-marathon!) and not really paying attention to my progress and then hey! Done!

No Sleeve Island here, folks. These sleeves went lickety-split. It helped that they were a fraction of the width of the body, so fewer repeats across. (And much easier to tink back if you make mistakes, which, uh, I of course never do.)

This morning while the workmen are hammering around the outside of the house (new basement porch and front sidewalk in today!) I set about to blocking them.

They look so much better when blocked! Never ceases to amaze me. Now I need to wrap my head around how to assemble this thing. At the sleeve tops, I was instructed to put the stitches on waste yarn rather than bind off. But in the instructions, it says simply to set in the sleeves. Does it make it easier to set in if the stitches are live? If this question makes sense to you, please share some words of wisdom.

It might be a bit before I really get to finishing Serrano. We leave Friday for a long vacation in Colorado -- always restorative and fun to see the family. I have one little project in mind to take with me -- for my sockapalooooza pal -- but realistically only expect to knit on the plane. Which will give me plenty of time to muse about what comes next. (Is it a sign of madness that I sort of want to make Thermal out of Koigu?)

And hey, look at this:

That's some Plain & Fancy Single Sport wool, courtesy of a swap with Stacey. It's my own little piece of the Estes Park Wool Festival. One of these days I'll make it there! But in the meantime, this is a pretty good substitute. Stacey also sent along some hand balm which smells SO good. Thanks Stacey!

Hammering Away

Right now, there are several men banging around in my house. They showed up promptly at 7 a.m. -- 2 minutes after I opened my eyes. Never a good way to start the morning. (But I have to give them credit for showing up when they said they would.) And my continued grogginess is a small price to pay for bringing us wonderful modern conveniences like illuminated closets and a garbage disposal.

I always get a little nervous when I hear drilling and sawing. Our house is old and used to be home to a rowdy family of 14 (that's right, and it's a 3-bedroom house) so we know it's had some tough years in its past. You just never know what mess is lurking behind the walls. I remind myself that we're being good stewards of this place, giving it some much-needed TLC after years of neglect.

So, I promised a Serrano update. Look! A finished sleeve!

It looks rumpled still because it's unblocked. I finished it on the plane home from California. It didn't take nearly as long as I expected, and I think now -- after knitting the body and one sleeve -- I finally have the lace pattern memorized. So I started on Sleeve #2:

The construction of these sleeves is new to me. They are knit flat, but the 4" or so closest to the wrist is split, for a flared bell-sleeve effect. To create this, you knit each half of the flare separately and then join together. Makes sense, but it was fun to try something new. I confess that as I get close to wrapping up the knitting on Serrano, the finishing (sewing in the hook and eye tape) looms over me a bit like a dark cloud. Maybe this will be the thing to get me to buy a sewing machine... unless one of my crafty friends wants to volunteer to help?

Anyway, I'm trying to stay the course with this sweater. I have some other things that I'm just itching to start, but am trying to maintain focus with Serrano. I have my sock pal's sock pattern picked out, and the book should arrive this weekend or early next week. Surely I can hold out until then without casting on for something else? (Unless I finish the second sleeve, and then all bets are off.)

So, here's the loot I picked up in California. First up - 13 balls of Cashsoft Aran in Forest, which was selling at a price too good to refuse at Purlescence.

I'm thinking this will become a Cable-Down Raglan or a Wheat-Ear Cable Yoke. (Check out Sarah's -- stunning!)

Also - I picked up 2 colors of Claudia's -- Blue Terra Cotta and Walk in the Woods.

I thought they might make a nice Chevron scarf for a Christmas gift, but now I'm second guessing. What do you think - do they go together or will they look hinky? I'm anti-hinky.

The Upside of Jet Lag

There is something almost luxurious about transcontinental flights. A few hours in the sky, where no one can reach you with pressing work matters, and you are totally in control of your time. Even if that guy next to you is totally snoring louder than your earphones can keep up with.

I was a good girl and spent most of the flight to California doing schoolwork, with a few knitting breaks. But I had a good bit of free time and also woke up wide awake before 6 each morning (thanks, jet lag!), so I managed to sneak in a good bit of knitting as well.

Giotto Socks
Pattern: Giotto Socks by Anna Bell
Yarn: Claudia's Handpaint Fingering, Pistachio colorway
Needles: US1, done on 2 circs
Modifications: None

This pattern was a total undeniable treat for me. It combined a few things I'd never done before, which is always interesting.

Of course I fell madly in love with the picot tops, and will definitely be doing more picot edges in the future.

The twist pattern is interesting. It's not quite a cable, but very close, so you get the same density of fabric that you do with a cable. But it's got a little bitta funk, too -- the sock has a tendency to twist just a bit while knitting. This is no ordinary straight-laced sock.

I got very, very worried that I was going to run out of yarn, but ended up with about 10 yards leftover from each hank. By now my love for Claudia colors is well-known... this yarn was love at first sight! I snatched it up as soon as I saw it at Knit Happens. Of course, my love of Claudia colors is so strong that a couple of new-to-me colorways just might have stowed away while I was visiting Purlescence in California. I also had to pry myself away from some of the Claudia laceweight at Commuknitty.... (I was lucky enough to hit both shops, owing to that they were on the same bus line from my hotel. Yay transit!)

Anyway, where was I? Having a bit of fun with the camera, clearly. Because I had a ton of fun knitting these socks. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow. Thanks Anna!!

***
Mad props to: Miss Alice Faye for her months-in-the-making, totally stunning Wedding Ring Shawl. WOW!!

Up next: A Serrano update. For real!

First Giotto Done!

So, I'm testing out Flickr's blog features, which let me post a photo from Flickr directly here. I'm not sure I like it, but I can see how it might come in handy.

Anyway, the point of this post is that the first Giotto is done! I finished on Saturday afternoon after a marathon session of cleaning. (Isn't knitting a fantastic reward sometimes!?) I started to get worried that I would run out of yarn with about 4 pattern repeats to go. I fretted and then made peace with knowing that if I had to do contrast-yarn toes, I could live with it.

And the Yarn Fairy clearly appreciated my zen, and gave me enough yarn to finish (and about 5 yards to spare!) I cast on for the second one last night - no Second Sock Syndrome here! I want to finish these. I just love how they look on.

There's a lot of other non-knitting things taking up too much of my time. The rest of the weekend was taken up with studying, yardwork and visiting a friend's new baby. (So cute!) And I have a busy couple of days before I set off for California for a work conference later this week. (Any good yarn shops in San Jose?) So there will be lots of knitting but little blogging. Look for me this time next week!

Back to School

Last night I went to my first class in a very long while. It's a seminar on urban forms -- we spent the evening looking at slides of different cityscapes. I couldn't believe how much fun I had being a student! The only downside was that the class went nearly 30 minutes over its alloted time -- on the first day! Yikes.

The Lawn: Still in a state of mess. We're doing a little every day. Some days a lot. That broken hoe was actually bent out of shape twice -- the first time by a hidden, sunken tree stump. I took a hammer to it and put it back into shape. Not 15 minutes later, I was hoeing and hit a huge rock, and got the result you saw in the last entry. That was it for me and the hoe. We've made multiple trips to buy dirt, and are nearing the point where actual progress is visible. With any luck, I'll have some great before-and-after shots by the end of this weekend.

The Frozen Desserts: Only one to report, Raspberry-Chocolate Ice Cream that went to late night at Knit Happens last week. I had planned to do a step-by-step photo shoot of the process, but sort of got distracted. Anyway, here were the good intentions -- the raspberries, washed and pure,

And then getting a bath in warm chocolate.

I really liked this ice cream (from The Perfect Scoop), which involved pureeing the raspberry-chocolate mix and then straining it to remove the seeds, then freezing. I thought the raspberries gave it a nice softness and feel, plus it made the chocolate richer, almost like dark chocolate. JT didn't like it -- said it was too bitter. I guess it was hard for him to taste the raspberries when they were all blended and smooth. Silly boy.

The Knitting: There's not much of it. My hands were really sore from the yard work, so I took a couple of nights off. I did manage to turn the heel of Giotto:

... but that's about all I've had the energy for. Which is a bummer, because I still am madly in love with these socks and want to finish and wear them!

Parting Shot: A dusk shot of the Air Force Memorial. Taken from my car, playing with the very high ISO options on the new camera.

The Lawn Won