Squid. Blame the squid.

Well, they're not really a problem, per se. I love the squid. That is why I spend most waking minutes studying them, and why I have been neglecting the poor blog. Which is really too bad, since I have pretty pictures.




Project: Clapotis, by Kate Gilbert, knitta extraordinaire
Yarn: Noro silk garden lite, colour 2010, 6 skeins
Size: one
Mods: I knit until I ran out of yarn instead of following the number of rows on the pattern. Other than that I followed it to a T. Except for the stitch markers.
Verdict: I love it, although I haven't gotten much use out of it yet. Silk garden makes everything better though, I would make stuff out of every colour if I could. What I really want is to get ahold of some of that white/neutral mix though....



Pattern: Uptown Boot Socks, by J. Appleby, from Favorite Socks, from IK
Yarn: The ever-fabulous original sock yarn from pigeonroof knits, in "Nighthawk". The yarn makes me extremely happy, check it out. All of her stuff is fabulous - I've been collecting it like its going out of style, which of course it never will.
Size: sasquatch
Mods: None, although I made the second sock using the first as a template, since I misplaced the book at that point.
Verdict: I love them more than logic would ever let me. Just check the number of pictures of them I have up on ravelry. Here is one of them:



They have many cable twists. Every one was worth it.

In other news, there may have been much yarn added to the household. Passive tense may also have been used. See, I found out that I got an honorable mention for the NSF instead of actually getting the money (sidenote: Hey NSF - there are oh, a gazillion micro grad students out there. Maybe you should fund more than four of them. Just saying.). And I found this out on the same day that the WEBS anniversary sale started. I may have fallen down.



Hard.

That would be yarn for three sweaters. It was a bad day. Shoes may also have been involved.

On the upswing though, the boy did get the NSF for physics-monkey stuff, so in general the NSF likes us, it just didn't have enough money for me. Which is not its fault. I would rant about whose fault it is, but that is territory that has already been trod, flagged, and claimed by writers more eloquent than I.

Today was fun because April is here, and April means sheep-shearing season here in Wisconsin (and most of the northern hemisphere I guess). Today Bethany the wonder-postdoc and I went to Rainbow Fleece Farm for its annual sheep shearing open house. Bethany spins like a spider and got fleece from a BFL that we were assured is a very fine animal indeed. I, not knowing how to spin, instead got yarn.



It should be enough for a stripey sweater, if I am careful - about 1,000 yards when all is said and done. I just couldn't resist it - it is good, soft, local wool, and any one of those three would leave me weak in the knees on a normal day. All three was too much to resist. Before and after the wool-getting I managed to get us lost, break half of the stuff in Bethany's car, and almost leave my checkbook at the farm. Never let anyone say that an afternoon out with me isn't interesting.


Well, cats and kittens, that is the limulus report for this week. I promise to get more blog action in now that there is natural sunlight (!). I am also looking forward to vegetables and riding my bike to work to get rid of this *ahem* curviness that crept up over the long long winter.
Peace out.

So I'm a big fat liar

So not so long ago I made noises about perhaps, you know, going and doing something useful. This obviously didn't work, but one fruit snack and reorganizing my Flickr set later, I am back with more pictures, this time of works not yet finished.

Here is the magnificent lady Eleanor, from Scarf Style. I'm knitting it on US 9s, with Noro silk garden. Now, "Elizabeth," you may ask, "How can you afford such nice yarn for this shawl?" well, the answer, dear reader, is that I have a very generous mother, who for Christmas procured this yarn for me. I love it. You might also ask "but Elizabeth, you don't wear shawls" and by you, I mean the boy, and to that I say, be quiet. When this shawl is done I will wear it and I will look beautiful, because if Noro makes a project that is pretty much all stockinette look like one of the more interesting phenomena in this world we live in, it will make me look like a freaking movie star.


So tell me if my math is off. 1 sock + 1 sock = 2 socks = pair of socks, no? Well, almost, I guess. The left sock is yet another jaywalker in Austermann Step, in color theballbandisallthewayinthenextroom, which is a fabulous yarn. I used to think that self-striping wasn't random enough to keep my cicada brain focused, but I was very wrong. The sock on the right is an embossed leaves sock in Lorna's Laces shepherd sock in Purple club. I love the pattern, but the Lorna's laces kind of obscures it. Whatever, it is what my roomie requested, and so it is what she shall have. She is going to med school next year to save the world from itself, and wonderful people deserve pretty socks. You may think that I have a fairly serious case of SSS, but you will be happy to know that I am halfway through the second jaywalker, despite the socks that rock that are calling me from my stash. I can hear them still. Oh garnet dreams, how you haunt me.

*Ahem*

Anyway...


In an effort to become a well-adjusted knitblogger (and because the Blue Heron Cotton was whining at me from my stash), I have started a purple (and fuzzy-looking, apparently) clapotis! I love it, but the knitting of it does get tedious at times. Luckily the recipient is not slated to get it until August, so since I started it two weeks ago and am at the halfway point, I am pretty sure that everything will be ok. Of course now that I have said that lighting may strike. Let me go get a large metal pole. Or at least someone taller than I am.

Peace,
Elizabeth