AuntyNin's Place

Wow, I didn't realize it had been a whole week since I last posted anything here. Perhaps it comes from having been trained to keep silent unless I have something pertinent to say. (Splinters, you can stop giggling now!)

Knitting proceeds, more or less. The cotton v-neck now has one sleeve and part of a second; once that's done, the rest of the body will be acres of mindless "knit, knit, knit, knit, around and around and around and around..." until it's long enough (or the yarn runs out). Still, I'm liking the colors in this Tahki Tweedy Cotton Classic - it's five strands of cotton, one each in pale pink, pale green, pale blue, bright teal and bright fuchsia. From a distance it looks sort of lavendery greyish, but up close the two brights just pop! It'll be fun to wear this summer.

There are more socks on the needles as well - this pair in Socks that Rock, colorway "Lapis" which is producing an elegant spiral around the leg. It'll be interesting to see what happens at the heel flap and gusset - the patterning will change, just because there are so many more stitches in each row. These are for my aunt, to be delivered when I visit her in June. Let's just hope they're done by then.

The urge to start about a gazillion new projects is strong this week, strengthening exponentially when I see the gorgeous things other bloggers are making. Then there are the books. They sit temptingly on the shelves, whispering "Come see my pretties!" whenever a human is within earshot, or falling to the floor and brazenly displaying gorgeous designs. Scarf Style is the worst of them, endlessly reminding me that scarves knit up quickly, and that there's a lot of yarn in the stash closet that would be perfect for this pattern or that one.

The yarns in the stash are every bit as bad, each crying "Me next!" whenever the closet door is opened, offering to behave perfectly if I'll just knit them up. Hah. I know better. They promise, but seldom follow through. Instead, they tangle, roll around the floor and slip off the needle when they think I'm not watching closely enough. It's a wonder any project ever gets completed.

With 8 projects already actively on needles, I will be strong! I will not be seduced by gorgeous patterns or soft yarns!

Yeah. Right. Suuuuuure.

Finally, The Infernal DigiCam has agreed to cooperate, possibly because of seeing me sharpening the end of a bobby pin. Here we have some Lenten Sockrafice knitting, all for charity:

Two hats and three washcloths, ta-dah! I'm particularly fond of the washcloth in front, as it's a nifty basketweave pattern that knits up really quickly.

Onward to sockishness:

Burgundy socks using the same texture stitch as the ZigZag pullover from KnitPicks.

There's an interesting contest going around that has caught my interest. It asks for five places where you have knit, other than at home or at a yarn shop. Hmmm, let's see...

Union Station, Sacramento, CA and Chicago, IL
Irish Festival, Syracuse, NY
Park benches, especially near Skaneateles Lake
The Sterling, NY, Renaissance Festival
Assorted software user group meetings (see below)

I've left out places like friends' homes, buses, doctors' and dentists' offices, hospital waiting rooms and so on. With the software user groups, if a speaker looks really spooked at seeing the four pointy sticks in my hands, I'll put it away when it's time to start. Otherwise, I'll continue through the entire meeting.

Now that there are some projects completed, it's time to contemplate casting on some new things. Time to ponder the pattern books and rummage through the stash looking for inspiration.

The Project Spectrum colors for the month are yellow and orange, very appropriate as the forsythia bushes are blooming, and the daffodils are making their presence known. Alas, The Infernal DigiCam has resumed its recalcitrant ways, refusing to cooperate. Perhaps it's time to threaten it with replacement, though this is a tactic that has limited usefulness; eventually the dratted gizmos figure out that you can't really afford to replace them right now and resume being stubborn.

Looking around my home, I see that I own very little that is either of these colors. There's one pale yellow summer top, a couple of balls of sock yarn, and one baby blanket waiting to be gifted. These just are not my colors. Ironic, too, as my employer is seriously into orange, the sports teams are known as the Orangemen. I had forgotten one chair that's got the most ghastly orange upholstery, but it's concealed by a burgundy slipcover, so maybe it shouldn't be counted this month. If we include brown among the oranges and yellows, then we can count a pair of slacks, the boring beige carpets and a deep rust shade of yarn intended for a Ships Project hat.

Will I knit anything in these colors this month? Maybe. That ball of rusty-colored Wool-Ease just might find its way onto the needles for the Ships Project before the month is over.

The burgundy socks are halfway down the foot on sock 2, and I've started a pair in Socks That Rock's "Lapis" colorway to give to my aunt when I visit her in June. The dye pattern in the yarn is making an interesting spiral down the leg of the sock, rather pretty. It'll be interesting to see how that breaks down along the heel flap and gusset.

Time to resume the eternal dispute with the DigiCam...

If it's April, it should be spring, right? Not around here. I learned many years ago that the weather in this town has almost no correlation with the calendar. I've seen snow on Mother's Day in May. I've seen 40-degree temperatures in August and 80-degree days in January. The organizers of the annual WinterFest have learned, to their dismay, that no matter which weekend they choose for the event, temperatures will be either in the 50s (thus negating all the snow-related events) or below zero with 20-mph winds (thus keeping all but the most insane at home).

Thus it was with the onset of April. One day of cold and wet and icky, followed by one day of gorgeous, followed by two days of rain/snow mix. On seeing the driving rain on Saturday, I decided it would be a good day to watch silly movies and knit. Of the current projects, nothing much appealed; all of them required thinking of one sort or another. Grummble.

Well, when nothing looks appealing and the weather's making the arthritis so cranky that going anywhere is out of the question, what does a knitter do? Go stash-diving, of course! Happily rummaging through boxes of yarn, I discovered several balls of worsted weight cotton. "Aha!" I thought. "Washcloths are mindless!" So the cotton found its way to the knitting stand next to the Throne, the coffee finished brewing, and I settled in for some mindless knitting.

Much to my surprise, I discovered that BBC America was showing an April Fools' Day marathon of Monty Python's Flying Circus. What a perfect combination - mindless knitting (for charity, yet!) and industrial grade silliness. Now, though, I wonder whether this was such a good idea. These washcloths are intended for Cloths for Crisis, to be distributed to people evacuated from their homes by natural disaster. Is it really wise to spring something infused with the Python brand of insanity on a victim of tragedy? Or, perhaps, would the "vibe" knitted into the cloth bring some spark of laughter to the person who receives it? Oh, the ethical dilemma of it all.

Pay no attention to the crazy lady with the pointy sticks, she's really harmless.