Gromit Knits!

Weekend Update

Yes, I know weekend updates are on Saturday (in true SNL fashion), but I figured it was about time I gave you a glimpse of where I am in the great quest for Rona.  Without further ado, here she is:

One sleeve underway.  Not very far.  Stop rubbing your hands Marina, remember, it's all downhill from here.  Turned out I had more to do on the body than I thought, so I'm a bit behind.  With just under two weeks to go I've got a sleeve and a half, plus a button band and collar to finish.  I see many coffee fueled late nights in my future, but I'm not giving up.

In the meantime, I admit I took a few minutes hours to seam up a project that inserted itself into my life without my permission, Gunnerside Ladies from the Rowan British Sheep Breeds Collection in their Blue Faced Leicester (who knows if I spelled that correctly).

Addictive yarn, truly addictive. Silky, sheepy, and a joy to work with.  I may have to have more in the future.

My only adjustment to the pattern was to knit on size 10 needles throughout, yielding a 40" sweater instead of a 44" one, at least pre-blocking.  We'll see where it ends up after I give it a bath, assuming I can ever be persuaded to take it off.  It's very, very warm.

I've never thought about knit pajamas before...

Inquiring Minds

It seems there were a number of questions that came up because of my fly-by post on Tuesday.  In the few minutes I've got before my friend Hope arrives to drive me down to Stitches East in Baltimore, I can settle the wild waters of curiosity:

1. How many projects did I cast on while waiting for the election results?  Just one.  I would have cast on more, but I dithered about which project of the many waiting I should tackle.  Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time deciding which stash yarn to use, a situation I found a bit scary.  The upshot? I'm knitter number 9,456,237 to make Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke.  Because the body is knit in one piece to the armhole, I didn't get beyond casting on and trying the set-up row on Tuesday.  Nerves and counting do not mix well and it was only later in the week that I progressed onto the first few rows of ribbing.  No picture yet, and there isn't much to see anyway.
   
2. Are you back to blogging?  Yes Mom, I'm going to try to blog regularly again.  It's about bloody time I gave myself permission to ramble on the internet in a less than perfect fashion.  See, two posts in a row without a picture!
   
3. What kinds of stuff will I blog about?  Okay, nobody asked that, but I thought I'd give the few of you that stop by some sort of preview.  There will be project updates, writing updates (what's a writer to do if she can't whine about writing and how ridiculously hard it is?), food and fitness, book reviews and commentary on culture wars.  Ah, who the hell knows, my mind wanders over some of the oddest things and isn't that what a blog is for?
   

Project updates will include news about Gunnerside*, from The British Sheep Breeds Collection by Rowan, Rona progress (yes Marina, there is some) and maybe even a recap of the stuff I finished in the long months since I last posted here.

There will be new challenges and goals.  The first is that I will absolutely, no doubt whatsoever, finish Rona to wear at Thanksgiving (American) 2008.  I've promised Marina yarn for a Starmore sweater if I don't make the deadline, so I imagine that will get my lazy, but greedy self into action.

Other stuff?  We'll see where the muse takes me.

* I'm sorry that I'm using Ravelry links here, it's my most up-to-date information, I'll get non-Rav links up over the weekend.

Antsy

I'm antsy.  I think it's a pretty common condition in the US today, and maybe even in other countries that hope the US finally does something sensible.  As we all know, it's election day.  Finally.  I've done my bit and voted (it's no secret, I voted for Obama).  I'm off to volunteer this afternoon, and a party this evening, but mostly it's come down to waiting.

When I wait I have a pretty standard routine.  I ferret around the house looking for something to eat that isn't too unhealthy, thankfully there's no chocolate.  Between snack hunts I surf the internet looking for yarn, patterns, and reassuring election stories (which is better than the last couple of weeks when I thought we were looking at the end of our economic system).  I might even do some housework.  But, as you might guess, my biggest distraction is casting on new projects.  Over the years I have discerned that the number of new projects is directly proportional to the importance of the matter at hand.

My only limit may be how many needles I've got (and I've got a lot).

Go vote and then join me in the stash room.