Sales a escena y eres immortal

It’s funny how my life seems to alternate between insanely productive and absolutely lazy days.

The day before yesterday was a really productive day. In fact, I cut my WIPs on Ravelry down to two – though I do have to admit that I moved the HSJBTM socks in the hibernating section. Oh well.

In any case, I finally sewed the buttons onto my Tempest cardigan!

This means that only eight months after I finished knitting the thing, it’s finally done. It only took an hour. I can’t believe I haven’t been wearing that thing for months now.

Anyway. I also worked on the Baktus for my grandma some more:

I believe I’m about halfway done with it, but I couldn’t get myself to get up, which is why I put it aside and instead continued with my slip-stitch socks.

Usually, I’d say they’re too colorful for me, but man… these are the perfect rainy-day socks. Plus, with the slip-stitch, they feel about twice as thick, and they’re all squooshy, and of course them jewel colors… I’m very much enchanted. I love them.

But, here’s what I hate about holiday season. I mean, apart from the fact that I don’t really know what to do with my Fridays, since there’s no new Grey’s Anatomy or Supernatural on.

It’s the vicious cycle of Christmas Knitting.

You start to knit something, and it’s all good, and then you realize you’d rather work on something else. But you can’t, cause you’ve got that deadline hanging over your head like a sword of Damocles, which makes you start to loathe whatever Christmas present you’re knitting. Which makes it harder to force yourself to knit it, and knitting makes you loathe it even more, but there’s Christmas, and oh god, only two weeks, and…

I just wanna knit some socks.

Instead, I finally started the Christmas ornament mini Weasley sweaters for my host family back in the US. Three weeks late. They’re tiny (14 sts wide, 21 rows high), they’re easy, they’re technically entertaining, they’re technically great TV knitting… and I can’t stand the thought that even though I’ve already finished two, there’s four more to go. Ugh.

At this point, I’d rather work on Ruba’iyat. Or, you know, the sock. Or study vocab.Which reminds me, I need to block my mom’s scarf.

I’m so, so ready for Christmas to be over.

Fight the good fight

So, technically, I’m cleaning up my room. I’ve already unearthed a treasure trove on the bottom of my wardrobe, done a load of laundry, sorted some books, cleared off my armchair, counted my scarves and shawls… there’s twenty of them. Twenty. I do hope they don’t mob together to plot my ultimate demise, one day…

(about half of my scarves and shawls)

… and then I kind of got distracted, and started writing birthdays and my schedule in my new calender for next year, and photographed my new Baktus, and stroked some yarn, and now I’m blogging to avoid sewing buttons on my cardigan as a last resort of procrastination. Cause mysteriously and unexpectedly, I’ve lost my interest in cleaning up my room halfway through.

Ahem.

When I said I ‘photographed my new Baktus’, I might have also meant camwhoring. Just a bit. And without any makeup, too, which is unusual for me, cause usually I look like shit without it. But somehow, I think those photos are kinda cute, which might also be due to the freshly dyed jbf-look my hair’s rocking.

By the way, Drachenwolle Merino/Silk/Bamboo, in THE most gorgeous fall colors, on 3.5 mm bamboo needles. Started Oct 29 – took me forever because I kept getting distracted, and cause it’s not really that much of a riveting project. But, yeah. Now that it’s done, I’m rather enchanted by it. The only thing about it is that with the high percentage of silk and bamboo, I don’t think it’s gonna be quite as warm as my Zitron XXL one. On the other hand, isn’t silk supposed to be super warm? I’ll have to put it to the test.

I went slightly overboard with the tassels this time. I braided for pretty exactly 20 cm, then another 7.1 cm of actual loose tassel. (How do I know exact measurements? Well, Sam Winchester isn’t the only one who keeps a ruler by his bed.) But yeah, almost a foot of Dangly Stuff, that’s pretty cool. They’re thicker this time, too, and I can’t wait to unply the tassel strands.

Well, anyways. Spanish isn’t going fast enough, so I’ve been teaching myself the perfect tense, which is not as much work as I’d feared, and fun, too, but I’ve let my studying slip for the past couple of days, and it’s time to pull one of these again:

Study night with Saskia. We’ve replaced the alcohol with tea, the chocolate with baked beans, and the watching movies with actual studying. We’re getting old. And I have more vocab index cards after five weeks of Spanish than Saskia after over two semesters of Chinese.

Like the last two photos? I’ve discovered there’s a custom mode for color effects, and I’ve been experimenting. This one’s high contrast, low saturation, and remind me a little of 70s photos.

Oh, by the way, I’ve also started charting the Starbucks design for the raglan. I see a whole lot of test knitting before me. Maybe I should cast on Opus Spicatum.

Tingle in your fingers, tingle in your feet

I’ve been having a bit of a restless phase lately. An acute case of Startitis also plays into that, which leaves me unable to work on one project for more than twenty minutes before switching to something different, something new. It’s not enough that I’m doing another Baktus, and have the ‘Holy shit John Barrowman touched my socks’ dalek socks back, and started a potholder to go along with the TARDIS one, I also cast on an entrelac scarf and am seriously considering doing another hat. Like, today.

I have a feeling part of that is being back in the city, some lingering impression of being cooped up. I spent last weekend at my parents’, eating steak and helping a friend move and running a couple of errands and being dragged to a party that kinda blew and deciding I needed to wear rings more often.

Anyway, point being, I also spent hours driving through the fields and villages, enjoying the peace of mind that’s brought on by a brilliant autumn day, cold air streaming in through the windows, the sheer exhilaration of speed, and classic rock blasting so loud you can barely hear yourself singing along at the top of your voice. Seriously. 130 km/h on the highway, with ‘Eye of the Tiger’ blowing your eardrums out? Is terribly cliché, but also beyond awesome.

Part of that driving was just cruising for the hell of it, part of it was, however, going to Wickede and thus Atelier Zitron for pre-Christmas yarn fix.

Crazy colored Trekking XXL that tickled my fancy; scarlet and charcoal Gobi (40/30/30 Merino/Camel/Alpaca) I’m planning on using for Opus Spicatum as a chance to practice fair isle before embarking on the Sweater Project.

Saskia hinted at maybe wanting another pair of socks, so I picked up some pink-orange-yellow for her; passing by the bargain table, I couldn’t resist grabbing the 150g of blue-grey extrafine merino for €4.50.

Four balls of Nimbus – two green-blue for the Amelia Earhart Aviator Cap, pink and rose for an entrelac scarf for my grandma. Christmas is approaching fast.

Six balls of Lifestyle – one each of charcoal and purple for another, shorter, Doctor Who Scarf for Sassi (I still have tons of leftovers of all other colors; also, this one’s way back on my to-do-before-Christmas list, since I can always give it to her when she comes back the end of January), and six balls of scarlet for an Waves of Grain scarf my mother requested for Christmas.

Aaaaand long (1 m) 3.5mm circs for my sweater. Oh the sweater. I have the yarn, I have an idea of what I want it to look like, I have a currently AWOL swatch that I did before attempting (and subsequently frogging) Thermal, and I have a rough sketch –

– but I haven’t gotten much farther. Farther being, in that case, figuring out the exact gauge, how many stitches I’d have to cast on, how deep I need to make the neckline to be able to fit the design next to it, because hell if I’m doing intarsia on something like that, so it needs to be while I’m doing it flat… plus I need to chart the design, and test it, because fudging and frogging it would be too much of a pain.

Yes, yes, it’s the Starbucks logo. I know. Normally I’m slightly opposed to the big bad corporate evil, but thing is… dude, Starbucks. For one, and this is the deciding reason, I really do like the logo a lot.

Aand secondly, I’m so much of a regular at my local Starbucks that I know the names of the usual baristas, and they know mine and what exactly I drink. Which is a grande Chai Tea Latte with a shot of espresso and three pumps of vanilla syrup. And half the time they don’t even charge me for the syrup, and when I had my reward card full and asked if I could upgrade the tall size beverage to a grande, they said ‘sorry, we can’t do that’ while reaching for the grande cups.

So, yeah, Corporate Evil or not, it’s just people with a pretty cool logo on their uniforms, and, yay.

Good thing I vowed to slap my fingers to stifle the urge of just casting on.

Enjoy the Silence

I’m proud to be able to consider myself a good friend. I’m loyal, I make great tea, and my friends know that if they need me, all they need to do is call and I’ll be over there as fast as I can.

But dude, I don’t remember it being so exhausting. I went over to Christian’s last night, because he was pretty beat up about the trouble he and his boyfriend were having yet again, and the time-tested solution to that is company, tea, alcohol and some movies you can geek out on. Which we did, and I lent a sympathetic ear and knit a bit, and we went to bed late and got up around 12 or so, and it was all like old times.

But now I’m home, and I’m so… drained. I just shut myself in my room; I can’t bear company right now. Or sound. I don’t even have music on.

How did I ever survive our hard-core seeing-each-other-every-day-for-two-weeks times?

**

To distract myself… STUFF I’VE MADE.

Awesome tomato soup (pureed tomatoes, crème fraiche, chicken broth, spices including lots of basil and a bit of chili).

Another Baktus, in Zitron Gobi (40/30/30 Merino/Camel/Alpaca), that I did as a big-needle-fat-yarn-instant-gratification project after Muir, and gave to Saskia because I realized I don’t really wear purple. I’ll have to buy some more of that yarn though, it’s delicious. Not in purple, though.

A plain garter stitch triangular shawl, to use up my sock yarn scraps. None of that pansy thin-stripes shit like the first SYS, just take a scrap ball and knit it till there’s nothing left. Seriously, I need to get rid of so many tiny useless balls that I somehow can’t seem to throw away. Cast on yesterday as I was taking the tram to Christian’s; very proud of my progress.

AND LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST

The thing that’s been giving me grey hair since June, that I’ve been obsessing and worrying about, until it became my anchor and… friend, I guess, and still I’m beyond relieved it’s finally finished, though as of yet unblocked… Ladies and gentlemen, I give you….

MUIR!

Still need to block that bitch, though.

This is Gallifrey: our Home, our Childhood

… which is the perfect title for a post that has indeed barely anything to do with Doctor Who, but it’s a simply gorgeous song, the live version’s even better, see it on YouTube here and marvel. Now. I’ll wait.

… no, really, I’ll wait. Zoom along.

So! Photos! Not one of the TARDIS potholder, it’s still not done, missing a couple of details, I have abandoned all hope for the writing, etc. Plus I guess I’ll need to block it, it’s all crooked. Sigh. Speaking of abandoning all hope, I’ve decided I hate what little I have of my DWSLCBP (you recall, the Doctor Who Scarf Log Cabin Blanket Project) and while I’ll not frog it, I’ll definitely abandon it. No point in knitting miles and miles of garter stitch of something I hate this early on.

But! Cool finished stuff.

First Baktus, modelled by our dinner table and a slightly bleary-eyed me – I’d just gotten up, or maybe it’s just the absence of makeup, but I do like the photo, and it shows how I and the rest of the world wear the thing, that is, tied in the front over the tip. I have to admit, the more I wear it, the more this thing is growing on me, and I’m already contemplating knitting a stripy version. In blues or greens, maybe. I’m still maintaining my opinion that it’s a pretty basic garter stitch triangle, but it’s comfy to wear, kinda stylish all knotted in front, and the little tassels I added entertain me to no end.

Then! Well, finished is too strong a word, but the first one is done, except for the weaving in of the ends.

The observant among you will notice that this is, in fact, not a Rose Glove in creamy white yarn. Indeed, I say, indeed. I cast on the Rose Glove with the Langora, and not only was my gauge off, the fuzziness of the yarn also did not go at all with the cables and seed stitch, plus I realized that fuzzy mitts will mean the fuzz stuck in my mouth.

So I whipped out leftovers from the Doctor Who Scarf and started a subtly striped mitt. Knit in the round, then knit flat for the duration of the thumb hole, then joined again. I added the red stripe just for kicks, I rather like it. The other mitt will be reversed – starting and ending with big grey chunks. I think. I haven’t cast it on yet, haven’t had time, and time is getting short. Well. I have all of tomorrow once I’m done packing and running around like a headless chicken, and there’s still the drive to and the waiting at the airport. Though knitting this in less than optimal light is, well, less than optimal. Because I can’t tell the purple and grey apart. Oops.

Update on TARDIS-Sock: Still not king. Uh, sock.

But other than that, it was a gorgeous day, I baked cookies, bought fabulous new shoes and a bright orange umbrella, zoomed around at 100km/h with the window down, sunroof open, and Queen’s ‘One Vision’ blasting as loud as I could stand, and the sun was OUT, baby.

I can already smell the autumn in the air.