"Ему не нужна американская жена"

I have no new knitting news to share, thus the lack of posting. I got quite far on the foot of the Euni sock and discovered that it was quite small. Too small for the foot of anyone over five feet tall. I don't think this is a pattern thing, I think it's a yarn thing. I did kick myself for not thinking about the fact that the pretty patterning works like cabling in that it tightens up stitches, thus creating a *lightbulb moment* tighter fit. It broke my heart to tell my mom that I had to frog her sock yet again, but as it is still extremely hot for the foreseeable future, she won't be needing pink striped socks anyway. I am going to make them for her, but I've resigned myself to another pair of "dumb blond" socks. Toe-up, mindless stockinette that shows off the striping of the yarn. I'll be going to DC for a research trip in a few weeks so that would be the perfect time to work on them.

I want to reiterate that the Euni pattern itself is great. Liz has done an amazing job making up this pattern and the instructions are great for both beginners and more advanced sock knitters. I will someday make these socks, I'm just a little tired of them after knitting enough for a complete pair.

In the meantime, I did finish the knitting of my Kino Wednesday headband. This is just a plain-old stockinette strip, no pattern. Normally I'd knit something with a bit more interest, but since our films are subtitled, and I'm supposed to be trying to pick up dialogue, I needed something that did not require I look at it. And since today was the final film, it was perfect that I finished all but the grafting of the two ends.

Today's film was the best of any that we have watched (and we've watched some excellent ones). We watched Стиляги (Hipsters), a 2008 musical about the 1950s underground jazz culture of all things. And it was excellent! I've been singing the songs, or at least humming, all day. It's not available on dvd for US region 1 dvd players yet, but I'm forever hopeful that this will change. Until then, here's the music video for one of the songs (I'd post the trailer, but it's all in Russian anyway).

Oh, and then you should watch this somehow related video. Just because it is awesome. I mean horrible.

A Surprising Lack of Awkwardness

Today we started classes with our new instructors. The four of us from my class who did not go to Moscow were combined with the remaining students from the other intermediate class. They have had these instructors all summer, so it could have been a setup that made us feel very awkward. However, I don't know about everyone else, but it was a much smoother transition than I was expecting. Probably because I was rocking the new hat.

We actually had class in one of the nationality rooms, a major attraction of the cathedral.

See? It's the Austrian room. Doesn't it just make you want to waltz? Or join a convent?

Because I finished my Ishbel beret over the weekend, I am determined not to cast on anything new till I finish at least one of the Euni socks. The outlook is good as I have turned the heel and am now plowing down the gusset to the foot.

My ankle appears to be healing nicely. I ran two repeats of what I think is a one mile loop with only a few hundred meters of walking when the pain kicked in for a bit. But it's impossible not to run when listening to Rob Zombie. Anyone who's seen Angel 1.18 knows what I'm talking about.

Now if I could only fit in a hair cut. The mop is getting long enough that I can almost pin it back with my knitting needles.

The Case of the Ribby Stockinette

For the past two weeks my class has been eating lunch as a group, which means that they get to see my knitting as this is the only regular time I have to work on anything. This also means that they have discovered how often I jump projects. I'm not all that bad. I only have three projects going at the moment that can be thrown into my backpack on the way out the door (the poor Runaways Sweater is still sitting on the shelf begging to be finished). I was working regularly on the Wendy Socks, but I actually bound off one and haven't had time to do the very intricate cast on to start the toe of sock number two. Today I had Taryn's Traveling Woman Shawl with me and one of the girls asked if I ever actually finish any of the stuff I knit. I explained the term "knitting monogamy" much to the amusement of the table. Now if I could just explain it in Russian.

One of my three projects is a beautiful pair of socks that I am test knitting (YES! TEST KNITTER! ME!) for the lovely Liz Abinante of Traveling Woman Shawl fame. It is perfect for the yarn my mom picked out because she does not want, as she puts it, any "holes" in her socks (read pretty lace detailing that I crave like chocolate). I can't go into great detail, but this pattern is written as a tutorial for a stitch technique that I've never used before. I have nothing but good things to say about it, and I think everyone should immediately go on Ravelry and add it to their queue (it's the Socks for Euni pattern).

So Wednesday I'm knitting along, after turning the heel, completing all of the gusset decreases, coming down the home stretch, and then I see it.

Do you see it?

See that pretty patterned foot? Would you believe me if I told you that it is missing THREE STITCHES?! I know, I couldn't believe it either. I swore, I almost threw things (but I'm down to 4 needles in this set of dpns and can't risk losing another), and then sadly put it on the shelf to be dealt with later.

I lay in bed last night trying to turn off my brain and started thinking about this sock. It's so close to done it's killing me. But I decided that this was my perfect excuse to rip the whole thing out and start over to fix some small things that were bothering me. The biggest change I'm making is to go down a needle size from US2 to 1.5. I currently don't own 1.5, but I was not liking the fabric that the size 2 was making. For all the love I have for Wendy Happy, it does not do so well on a bigger gauge. The stockinette portion looks a little ribby because there is nothing in the yarn to "fluff out" between stitches. My Wendy Socks are knit in size 1 and I think the fabric is great.

The other change? I'm switching from dpns to circs. That's right. I'm going to teach myself the magic loop technique. Hopefully I can make this work. I'll be hitting Knit One tomorrow just in time for their giant summer sale (starts tomorrow and runs through the first week of July. It's going to be Legen . . . wait for it . . . DARY!) to pick up a set. And hopefully some new yummy, decadent, over the top yarn that I could never afford but am willing to starve in order to buy.