“I’m a knitter, and I’m part of a big team”

I’m totally stealing my subject line from Stephanie’s most recent post. Isn’t it great, what we knitters can do? I just donated the money I earned being a subject in a study one of my colleagues at school is running to the Knitters Without Borders effort. It’s not much, but it’s something. If you’re any less broke than I am, please consider chipping a little bit in:

I love this crazy big team of knitters out here in blogland. Even though I’m not the best contributor, I get a lot out of the knitalongs I join. Like, for example, the Stranded Colorwork Knitalong:

I joined a little late in the game, but have got two entries. The first of these has been mentioned here on the blog, but I don’t believe I’ve ever posted a picture. So here, for the first time, a progress picture of the toy giraffe I’m designing (aka “making up as I go”) and knitting for my mother-in-law:

There’s not much to it yet, but what I’m envisioning is something like this: the body will basically be like a hat, shaping-wise (but I’ll put a bottom on it after I stuff it, so that he can sit on his bum), and the neck/head will basically be like a sock, but with the gusset decreases going the “wrong way” (as in, making a diagonal from the bottom of the heel instead of the top). I think this is a very clever way of thinking of it, but we’ll see if it winds up looking silly. I’m making up the stranded color pattern as I go so that it looks more “natural”.

The second entry in the Stranded Colorwork Challenge is my Estonian Mittens. Goodness, I’ve been working on these for far too long. The most recent progress picture is not terribly much further along than the last one I took, over a month ago:

I can’t wait to finish these, and have a nice pair of warm hands (speaking of which, these mittens are also part of that knitalong).

I’ve also made a bit of progress on another knitalong item: my Red Scarf Project scarf:

It’s a really soothing knit (just plain brioche stitch, very easy to remember), and I hope to finish at least one of them by January, when they’re to be sent off. Y’all should really go check out the Project knitalong page; I’m so impressed when I see how many beautiful scarves our “big team” is knitting.

And in other (much belated) “big team” related knitting news, I now have in my possession, thanks to the lovely chrysanthemum, two beautiful skeins of Koigu sock yarn:

Aren’t they lovely? She offered them up on her blog to anyone who wanted them, having tried several sock patterns with no luck. I happened to really like how they’d looked in RPM, and told her so, and a few days later, received a package in the mail containing the yarn, some delicious chocolates, and a wonderful postcard. So, here is my belated Thank You! I’m excited to start RPM as soon as I finish my current socks.

Speaking of those current socks, I started the second of the Lemongrass Socks after finishing my final papers, and have made a fair amount of progress on the leg. Here’s a picture of where they currently stand:

Don’t they look lovely! I like the variegated stripes, so very very much.

And last but not least, I’ve resumed knitting on my mother’s Rogue. On Sunday I picked up where I’d left off, at the end of Chart A, and knit until I could join the top of the pocket to the rest of the body. So here’s a picture of that, just for you, mom!

The color in that picture is pretty true…it’s a gorgeous dark olive green. Perfect for mom. Here’s one last picture, of the side cable:

(the contrast in that picture seems kind of screwy, and I have no idea why. Me != camera expert. But I try!)

Whew! That was quite a post, and quite a lot of links and photos. But that’s ok, because I’ve been away for awhile, and needed to get caught up. Here’s hoping for some good knitting time over Winter Break!