whitknits

So, I have finally gotten an answer relating to at least part of the health problems I’ve been dealing with for months now. After doing an ultrasound of my entire abdomen (because one of the primary things going on has been abdominal pain, in addition to: fatigue, weakness, fever, anemia, nausea, weight loss, and other digestive issues…doesn’t that sound like FUN?), they discovered that I have a mighty large kidney stone. Like, LARGE. How on earth I acquired this thing is still a mystery, because nothing in my diet nor water intake or anything like that would lead to any risk of kidney problems, and I’ve still got a bunch of tests to undergo to figure out if/how this relates to the other problems I’ve been having. But, at least I know why my right side has been HURTING like crazy for quite awhile now. Of course, the health system here being what it is, I have to wait over 2 weeks for an appointment with the people who might help get this big old stone out of me. So, in a mostly unsuccessful attempt to ignore the pain and nausea, I’ve been knitting as much as my exhausted, weakened self can manage. And seeing as how this is a knitting blog, how about I shut up about the health stuff and move on to lots and lots of pretty knitting pictures? Yes, that sounds good.

First up, I finally managed to walk downtown to the yarn shop. The other day, we had some men come to fix our gutters, and they were so loud that I decided that despite not exactly feeling up to it, I’d take that opportunity to get away from the noise and walk to go pet yarn. I picked up the needles I needed, as well as a yellow skein of yarn to knit another square for a Secret Project:

Yep, just like the earlier green square, I stole the stitch pattern from Demi. I’m getting really fast with knitting these! I also picked up a couple more goodies:

I saw this pair of orphaned skeins of Reynold’s Whiskey in the discount bin, and thought they would make a perfect pairing for a set of mittens (Anemoi, perhaps?). And I’ve been hoping to find a nice set of wooden buttons for Demi, and these ones from Peace Fleece seemed like they would fit the bill very nicely.

Speaking of Demi, as promised, I did in fact finish the front. The pattern, by the way, seems like a whole lot of nonsense, and I hope I followed it correctly, and that this business with knitting a separate little chunk for the left shoulder makes sense when it comes time to sew it all together:

And, just for good measure, here’s a shot of the front and back together:

But oh, that’s not all I’ve been knitting! I’ve also got two feather-and-fan projects in the works. I’ve almost finished the back of Tailored Scallops, but am going to have to ball up a new pair of skeins just to finish up the last couple repeats at the shoulders:

It looks slightly blobby in that picture, so here’s a nice closeup of the pretty patterning:

And finally, there’s the ubiquitous Chevron Scarf. I started it the day I got the needles:

And I’ve already completed several inches:

I love the way the colors are coming out like I spilled a rainbow on my scarf or something! Just because I can, here are a couple more “artsy-fartsy” shots of the Chevron-in-Progress:

(Huge Closeup!)

(Cascading Chevrons!)

Wow, that was a long post. I think I need to take a nap. I hope y’all enjoy the pictures! Happy knitting, everyone!

First off, thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes with respect to my health. I won’t find out anything more until at least tomorrow (I had a bunch of tests last week), so for now I’m just sort of laying low, trying to get a few useful things done each day. Yesterday my husband went into work all day (he took a day off earlier in the week while my brother visited, and needed to make up the time), so I spent my time at home doing dishes and cleaning up the little room upstairs where I work when I don’t go into campus. I wish I had a “before” and “after” picture to show y’all. It was pretty atrocious, with piles and piles of things all over every flat surface, but now it is neat and organized. Hooray!

Whilst cleaning up the office, I decided to try to document my sort of frighteningly large stash of yarn that has built up in the 10+ years I’ve been knitting, which lives in a couple of plastic tubs in the office, and a couple of under-the-bed boxes in the bedroom. I’ve seen several other knitters doing this lately, I think because of Ravelry, which I’ve signed up to be a beta tester for. I know the list is super long so I don’t expect to hear anything soon, but it seems like just the place for my organizational-freak self. So if I do get an invite, well, I’m already one step ahead on the stash documentation!

But anyway, enough cleaning and organizational crap. Back to the topic I promised in my subject-line: Pinks and Greens! Yes, I really am participating in Project Spectrum, even if you wouldn’t guess it from the colors of the things I’ve been showing my progress on lately. I mentioned having started a plain stockinette sock in my previous post, and I now have a photo:

About a year ago, I was knitting this sock’s cousin, the green-blue-grey striped sock that appears in this blog’s header photo, in order to relieve stress during the insanely busy and stressful period of time during which my hard drive died in such a way as to make my data completely unrecoverable while at the same time I was finishing up my Masters and taking important exams and the like. This time around, the stripey sock is absorbing the stress relating to all these doctor’s visits (it makes for nice waiting-room knitting, too). It would seem like these would be boring, because they’re just plain stockinette, but there’s something very addictive about watching the stripes form. I’m actually further along on the sock than the picture shows…about ready to start the heel-flap. I think I will call these socks my “Watermelon” socks, since that’s what the colors make me think of.

Because I am a very silly person, and I totally fail at project monogamy, I started something new (yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll never finish anything at this rate!). I wanted to knit something green for me during this two-month PS triad, seeing as green is my favorite color and all. So a little while ago I managed to get my hands on a copy of Lace Style, and realized that I had the perfect yarn with which to knit the cover sweater. Remember that Rowanspun DK I complained about awhile ago? I actually had a full bag of it in green as well as the half-bag in grey, but I held on to the green in the hopes that holding it double would make me like it more. And sure enough, it does, and it gets me just the right gauge for Tailored Scallops:

As with the sock, I’m actually much further than the picture shows (over twice as far, actually)…the feather-and-fan stitch is so simple and addictive! Hopefully it will remain entertaining for me when I start my Chevron Scarf (if I ever acquire the necessary needles, that is).

Well, that’s all for now.  I expect to finish the front of Demi in short order, and will of course show pictures when I do.  Other than that, we’ll just have to see what comes up next, since I am apparently very fickle in my commitment to various projects!

As could probably be surmised from my 10-day hiatus, I’m still not doing so well on the health front. In fact, I’ve been feeling worse since I made my last post (and never did get to take that walk to the knitting shop, alas). Add to that finishing up my paper, and a visit from my brother and his fiancee (they just got engaged, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for them!), and, well, I’m pretty wiped out. I don’t feel too great. I feel awful, in fact. Just typing up this post is wearing me out, to be honest. But I have managed to make a little bit of knitting progress, and have taken a few pictures in the past week and a half that I felt like sharing, so just for all y’all, dear readers, I’m putting together this post.

First off, we have Demi. Because I’ve started the new skein of Fisherman’s Wool, it no longer can be stuffed into my purse to come with me to doctor’s visits, but it has still been getting a little bit of love here at home. I’m now partway through the armhole shaping:

I still can’t get enough of these twisted stitches and cables. This is going to be one fantastic sweater, if I can ever muster up the energy to finish it.

I haven’t made a ton of progress on anything else. The Golden Dragon socks have stalled, mostly because I don’t yet have the stitch pattern memorized and don’t want to shove my pattern into my purse, and thus haven’t been bringing it along with me to doctor’s visits, either. Not-So-Aprikot remains sleeveless until I feel up to knitting with the cotton again. There will be no more miters until then, either. I have started a plain stockinette sock in the pink and green Vesper sock yarn that I showed a picture of last month, but it’s not very far along and hasn’t had its first picture taken yet.

What I do have pictures of, though, is yarn. Remember how I said I was going to let myself make one “frivolous” purchase with the extra money I made by grading this summer before putting the rest into savings? Well, that purchase has been made. Here are the lovely treats:

Some delicious Socks that Rock Mediumweight, in Jade, Obsidian, Watermelon Tourmaline, and Farmhouse.

The first two are intended for a Syncopated Cap for me, because I think really dark brown and that shade of green are very flattering colors on me, I really like the pattern, and I could use a slightly lighter-weight hat for those days when it’s not quite cold enough for my double-thick worsted-weight wool hat.

The second two are intended for a Chevron Scarf, which I think will make for a very nice “roll up and stuff in the purse” project to take with me to doctor’s appointments and the like, provided I can find myself a set of not-too-long size 5 straight needles to knit it with (my current collection contains 6’s, 8’s and 10.5’s, but no 5’s. In fact, those needles were my primary reason for wanting to take that walk to the knitting shop the last time I posted, because I feel silly ordering and paying shipping on a single set of needles, but I just might have to if I don’t feel up to getting out to the LYS).

Well, that’s all I’ve got. Here’s hoping things turn around soon, and that I feel up to doing more than a few minutes of knitting every day.

As I mentioned in my last post, we’re nearing the end of the semester here, which means that in less than a week, I will have completed the first year of my Ph.D. Wow, that sounds weird! I feel sort of old…I can remember when my dad was working on his Ph.D, and now here I am working on mine! If it weren’t for the health problems I’m still dealing with (yes, if you’ve been reading along all this time, I really have been sick since February and still don’t really have any good answers from my docs), this end-of-semester would be relatively low-key; I’ve only got one paper left to finish, and then I’m done, coursework-wise. It’s due Wednesday, and I’m already 1/3 done, so I’m feeling pretty good about it, so long as I can find the energy to finish it up.

Anyway, I mostly just wanted to show off what I’ve been able to accomplish on Demi this week whilst waiting in doctor’s offices and the like. I’m already into the 3rd repeat of the center pattern!

I’m still in love with the pattern and just everything in general about this sweater. I’ve shifted over to Demi, instead of continuing on Not-So-Aprikot, because despite the fact that Not-So-Aprikot would be a more seasonal knit, the cotton is heavier and harder on my hands than the wool, and I’m trying not to push myself more than I should given the craptastic current state of my physical health. I’m really liking the wool I’m using for Demi, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool. It has some crazy excellent yardage, and it’s sturdy but light, with a good amount of lanolin still in it. To demonstrate what I mean by “crazy excellent yardage”, here is what is still left of my first skein after knitting the entire back and what’s shown above of the front:

I bet I will make it to at least the armhole shaping before I need to bust into skein #2!

That’s pretty much all I’ve been knitting lately. I’m knitting it on my Denise circulars, so it squishes into my purse really nicely and comes along with me to all of my appointments…but it leaves no room to carry my usual sock along. So poor Golden Dragon has to wait its turn now.

Well, today I will be writing and writing on that one last paper. If I’m good, I’m going to treat myself to a walk with my husband downtown to my favorite knitting shop later today. It’s a long walk, but the weather is gorgeous, and everything is blooming, and I think a bit of sunshine and some yarn petting would make for a very nice break from the monotony of paper writing. I also have the new Summer Interweave to look through when I need a break. It arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and I’ve already added several of the projects therein to my collection of photos of “Future Projects and Inspirations” on flickr. Oh, so many temptations…but I must be good and finish my paper before I can let myself daydream too much about knitterly things!

Wish me luck!

First, as promised in my previous post, photographic evidence of the completion of Not-So-Aprikot’s fronts:

I put the remaining live stitches on scrap yarn instead of binding off, so that I can extend/shorten the bits that wrap around the neck as needed, and so that I can kitchener them together for a nice clean seam. Finishing up these fronts freed up my needles for another task:

Squares. For a secret project. I’m sure y’all recognize the cable pattern on the one on the left…I stole it from Demi! Speaking of which, I did in fact give Demi some love this weekend, and knit all of this (well, the part that’s on top…the back was knit quite awhile ago at this point!) on Saturday:

It’s actually even further along now than it was in that picture, because I knit on it a bit more last night (it’s at a little past one full repeat of the center pattern, now). It’s such an addictive pattern, with those lovely twisted stitches and cables and bobbles.

I’m not sure how much knitting I will be able to muster up in the next week or so. It’s the end of the semester here, and while I don’t have quite as many exams as some of my classmates, I do have papers to write, and the busy meeting/research schedule never stops, anyway. So the knitting (and thus the posting) might be a bit thin between now and the 9th (when my last paper is due). Of course, if I feel the need to procrastinate and distract myself, all bets are off…but I’m hoping I can be reasonably well-focused for the next week.