Celestarium

Remember way back in May when I was taking an un-vacation to work on Giant Super Secret knitting. Well, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. I have a pattern in the Winter 2012 Twist Collective! It's name is Celestarium and it is pleased to meet you. 

 

I had secretly hoped Jane Heller would photograph this. She did. I can die happy.

Celestarium is a pi shawl that is an accurate view of the night sky from the North Pole. The center eyelet/ bead combination represents Polaris. It took me a year and a half to develop. And I was nuts enough to knit two of them. One to see if it was possible and a second for the publication.

I plan to talk more in depth how this even came to be, but it is rather late in my bit of the world and I have work in the morning. (Let's see if I can even get to sleep. This is just so terribly exciting.)

Yarn Equilibrium

There must be some rule in the universe that dictates the specific equilibrium of yarn to space that must be maintained in my room. Because just the other day I was able to use up two skeins and on exactly the same day I bought two more. I'd like to note that I hadn't even planned on going to the yarn shop. It just sort of happened. I also didn't know the color of Ella Rae lace merino I wanted had come in. Color 131 if you are curious. I didn't know that only one of those skeins would be the perfect balance of orange to yellow I was hoping for and that the person who had knit a pair of socks with that color, a pair of socks I greatly admired, would be in and verify that this particular skein matched her's very closely.

I might have known that the monthly Tosh order was suppose to come in. But I still hadn't planned to go to the shop. It was only after they called me about a work related thing, and I verified that the Tosh really had come in, that my fate was sealed. That and the car was free. The universe had aligned everything so that two skeins of yarn would come home with me. That other skein is Tosh sock in the color Gilded. (Funny how one of the skeins used had been Tosh. I guess the universe has also dictated the amount of Tosh that must remain in my stash.)

How am I justifying this purchase? By saying that I have a plan for both skeins. And that I am certain the universe would have exploded, taking us all with it, had I not bought the skeins. Yarn equilibrium has been maintained in my room. Your welcome.

Petit Four Poisoning

The good news is that I ate steak yesterday, which means (to me at least) my wisdom tooth recovery is complete. Unfortunately, the victory was short lived as Mum offered me petit fours right after dinner that, unbeknownst to us, had almond flour. I am allergic to tree nuts. I ate 2 1/2 cakes. After 2 hours of deep unhappiness and one round of scrabble, I felt better less bad. At that point I decided that I was going to cast on a fun project because, heck, I deserved it. I'm pretty excited about this knit. The yarn is Knitwhits Freia Ombre Worsted in the Denim colorway. It is becoming a hat called Renfrew from the new Jane Richmond book, Island. I rarely knit hats that I'm not designing myself, but I must have this hat.

I knit faster than I blog as I'm 13 rounds from finishing the hat.

I also finally ripped out my Sound Of Waves stole. Although I took a few pictures before doing so. I had said that I would rip it once I had come up with a replacement project. It's looking like this yarn will become a Rock Island shawl instead.

And with that ripping, I have no more UFOs on the needles. Other than a few designs that need finishing work done, all my projects are active. I don't even have a project on time out! Let's take a moment to savor this moment, because it is unlikely to last a long time. And if you are mired in long lines of UFOs, feel free to live vicariously through me.

And Once Again Treats Trump Dignity

Ever since we got the bug glasses, Mum and I have been trying to figure out how to get them to stay on the dog. Because what is funnier than Scooter in bug glasses? Nothing. That's what.

You know what is harder than trying to get the dog to wear bug glasses. Nothing. That's what. As you can see, Scooter is being told very sternly that he ought to wear the glasses long enough to get a picture.  There may have been copious amounts of treats involved. He is a really patient dog. Or he really, really loves treats. Possibly more than he loves his dignity. Poor guy.

Note the clever paperclip/ twist-tie rig Mum set up to keep the glasses on.

It was really difficult to capture this photo. Partially because the dog knew he looked silly in the glasses and thought he'd rather not wear them. Partially because I was laughing pretty hard. 

Good boy Scooter. Lots of treats for you.

The Swatch Was Right

New yarn! I ordered two skeins of Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter to test out for the final book pattern. I'm a little undecided on the color, so I got a skein of the final two contenders. On the left is "Button Jar", and on the right is "Tent". Even though I would personally select Button Jar for my own sweater, I'm leaning a bit more towards Tent for the book. I think swatching might help me decide. Although if anyone has an opinion on what color sweater a woodsman living in medieval England who enjoys stealing from the rich and giving to the poor might wear, I'd love to hear. Keep in mind that there will be cabling going on.

I also treated myself to a color card from Brooklyn Tweed. I kind of want a skein in each color now...

On the sock front, after making my swatch and completely ignoring it, I knit 3 inches of a sock that I then got to rip out. The swatch was very accurate and the sock was exactly too big by the amount the swatch said it would be. We won't talk about the second false start I had on the sock. So now I'm on try number three. The Smaug pattern is great. I'm just stubbornly stupid sometimes. 

Halloween Decorations Done Right

I just wanted to share what I consider to be the best Halloween decorations ever. Every year our neighbors paint over their wooden headstones and paint in new epitaphs that relate to other neighbor's occupations or hobbies. I made the cut this year. (I will look the other way on the name misspelling since the yarn reference is so cool.)

Just for clarification, Cindy is a personal trainer and John does Ham Radio stuff. Our neighbors must spend a fair amount of time thinking of silly puns.

Vestus For The Rest Of Us

I am on fire. Another FO in under a week. My Aunt had requested a vest last year. Although it took me until now to feel comfortable enough with my skills to design a vest for her.

She loaned me one of her vests so I could match the sizing. I am proud to say that I the knit vest is pretty darn close in size to her other vest. She also bought the yarn, which was Universal Yarns (now discontinued) Deluxe Worsted Magic in the Blue Meadow colorway. The ravelry project page is here.

It's funny how when you follow a knitting pattern, shaping a shoulder is easy. But when you are writing up a "quick" pattern, all of a sudden shoulder shaping is a mystery. After a few days of puzzling, I finally thought to add a few short rows to help it slope. Ta-da. Magic.

I was so eager to start my next project, that I actually started swatching while walking to get tea. This lovely ball of Handmaiden Casbah was a nightmare to ball. I was going to roll it up "quickly" before bed, but it turned into a tangled mess (no fault of my own), so I went to bed at 2:30AM because I couldn't just leave it. What will this skein become, you wonder? It will be a pair of Smaug Socks that I fully intend to wear when I go see The Hobbit.