FO: Lateral

So, on Vampire Diaries last night . . . I kid, I kid.  Though there was one part during which my jaw dropped and I sat with my mouth open for like two whole minutes before I realized what was going on.  If you watched, you know what I am talking about.  If you are behind, catch up please, I want to discuss!

This week's FO has been keeping my feet warm all week because, surprise, the temperature dropped back into the thirties again.  I had thought March would be our salvation from cold, but it looks like not even the prospect of April will be able to save us.  Luckily I finished these socks over the weekend and was all set to wear cozy cashmere blends on my feet.

Lateral is my third project from Cookie A's latest book Shapes + Form.  It is a simple pattern, but it looks lovely and it was nice to knit a Cookie A sock without being married to the chart.  Despite its simplicity it does have that Cookie A feel that I have found runs so consistently throughout all her patterns.  I did sub in the heel from Hermoine's Everyday Sock as that is my current favorite.  I find that it fits the shape of my heel well while still having durability that seems to cope well with how hard I am on my socks.  I also just love how the garter stitch looks when it is picked up for the gusset.  Something about it is just so charming.

This was my first skein of Tempted and I love it.  It is her Lil' Luxe Grrl, which is a MCN blend with just under 400 yards, in the Oasis colorway.  I found this skein on destash on Ravelry for a very good price and have hoarded it for months.  I have worn these socks twice this week and they have been super cozy -- totally decadent for socks.

For more lovely FOs, head on over to the links on Tami's Amis!

Geektastic Thursday -- GI Joe: Retaliation

One of the advantages of working at a facility with an IMAX theater is that I get a discount on tickets.  So anytime a movie comes that I think Chris and I might enjoy I give him the option to go.  And then we go about half the time.  But then there are those films that I start talking about as soon as we confirm the contract and drag Chris despite his skepticism because I only get the discount on two tickets (I know, it's a weird loophole).  GI Joe: Retaliation?  One of those movies.  Chris and I were dating when the first GI Joe film came out.  It was the day before we each started different graduate schools and so we decided to check out the movies.  He hated it.  More than when I drug him to see Transformers 2 at midnight.  Just convincing him to go to the theater last night involved bribes including lots of popcorn and gummy bears.  So there we were --  Chris expecting to hate the movie, me hoping to get some knitting accomplished.  And we actually both enjoyed it.

Let me say, this is not a deep, meaningful film.  If you are looking for that you probably should not watch a movie based off a toy line.  But if you want a film that is visually stunning, full of action, has a lot of heart, and is just this side of campy, this is one you should check out.  I liked the last GI Joe, but I have never successfully rewatched it.  This one I may actually try to see in the theater a second time.  The visuals were great, both of the hot men and their fight sequences.  Most of the impressive vistas were previewed in the trailers, but that does not diminish their effect.  I've seen many films in IMAX in my two years there and the best I can compare it to visually is Mission Impossible: 4.  And that wasn't even in 3D.  I especially loved how the cinematography in the cities focused on smoke and pollution, symbolizing the rotting within.

For me the best part of the movie was the acting.  Not necessarily the quality of the acting, but the way that the actors clearly did not take themselves too seriously.  The interplay of Channing Tatum and The Rock was completely believable and the overdramatized dialogue of the ninjas was sparing enough not to pull you out of the experience to realize just how ridiculous the premise of a movie about a man covered in nanobots impersonating the president.  I did call a specific plot point based on the trailer, but it actually did not diminish the experience for me.

Overall, if you are suffering from cold-induced cabin fever and are looking for a good popcorn flick, check this one out.  It is particularly good for knitting because a lot of the action actually takes place in daylight, unlike a lot of films these days.

I had one row of my Drizzle on the needles when I got to the theater and knit two inches by the time we were done.  Considering I spent a lot of time staring at the screen with my knitting in my lap, I think that was pretty good progress.

Knitting for Butterflies

You want to do something fun, knit a gift for someone while you are at work with them.  The baby cocoon I am knitting  (Evidently it is a cocoon.  People don't really react that well when you call it a baby sack) is for one of the women who works in the store with me.  My office is part of the storage area behind the registers and so every time someone needs something they have to come back there.  Monday night I realized that the baby shower for my coworker is next week, so I really needed to get moving on this cocoon (seriously, I feel like I'm knitting for a mama butterfly).  I took it with me on Tuesday to work and tried to knit on it while on lunch.  Only the entire hour they needed to get things out of the office, generally sending her because she often helps organize the storage.  So as I sat, knitting away and watching a podcast on my computer, I had to keep shoving it under the desk every five minutes as she came into the office.

As you can imagine, after an hour of this sporadic knitting, plus scarfing down a sandwich, I did not make a lot of progress.  It looks no different than it did the other day and I'm working hard not to get discouraged.  I would say that I'll work on it as much as possible this week, but I'm sparing pretty much every spare minute at home trying to finish our taxes.  We are going to meet up with my family at the beach for Easter Sunday, and I want them done before we leave.  I'm hoping to get a lot of knitting done on the two hour ride there.  Provided I don't fall asleep, which has been known to happen a time or two.

To see more WIPs, most likely not ones for caterpillars, check out the gang over at Tami's Amis!

Slogging Mondays

Since I finished Twigs and Willows last week I decided to take a look at my knitting basket.  Realistically I should be working on the baby gift, but I really want to have a sweater on the go.  I could swatch for one of my laceweight sweater quantities, I do have several different ideas waiting in the wings, and it would be seasonal appropriate by the time I finished.  But what I really wanted to knit was my Riding on the Metro.  So I bit the bullet and frogged all the way back to the beginning.

Based on the result I got last time around, I decided to go down a needle size and knit the size small rather than the medium.  Even though this is a cotton yarn, it is a cotton blend, and so it has more drape than I initially thought.  Clearly I need to work through my fear of cotton yarns because they are much more appropriate for the climate here.  Well, if the climate ever becomes typical North Carolina weather and no longer this weird cold.

I seem to have started to make Mondays my slog days.  Last week it was finishing up my Twigs and Willows sleeves, this week it was getting to the point to put the sleeves on holders on Riding on the Metro.

Already this is looking a lot better.  I have not tried it on again, but I really like the fabric and drape that I have gotten with the US 6s rather than 7s.  My sister gave me a cropped jean jacket that someone gave her but that isn't quite her style.  At first I was unsure, but now I have this dream outfit in mind that involves the sweater, the jacket, and some crazy 60s-inspired head scarf.

I know.  I'm crazy.  But I am really excited!  If only cotton did not make my hands hurt after a day-long slog.

Mindfulness

On Saturday I had one of those days at work that just ends in chaos.  I came home cranky and angry and exhausted, feeling like the world must be out to get me (I'm known for a bit of dramatics when I have a bad day).  All I wanted was to sit and knit until I could make myself feel better.  Maybe even eat an entire tub of ice cream.  But as I looked at my knitting basket I thought about how wound up and stressed out I was and about how I would be putting that energy into whatever I decided to knit.  So I decided to go for a run and as I ran I tried to focus on all the things I am grateful for, rather than all of the things that drag me down.  I totally blame Amy Beth and her Gratitude KAL for this idea and the very lengthy list I came up with.

For example,  I am grateful for a job that I love that helps me pay the bills and provides me with insurance.  I am also grateful that my husband has a job, so that we cannot only pay the bills, but also go out sometimes or splurge on that extra bottle of wine.

I am grateful that even though it has been freezing cold it was just warm enough to run in shorts and a tshirt and the sun came out just for those few hours I would be outside.  I am grateful for the gorgeous trail on which I get to run and the trees that are beginning to trade bare limbs for flowers and flowers for tiny leaves despite the cold weather.

I am grateful for all the people you see outside on a nice evening.  For the sweet old dogs who trot on over to say hello and for the little kids who point at my blue hair and their moms who smile and say "Yes, isn't that cool?"  I am grateful for the retired couples out for a walk holding hands, who demonstrate that life is still beautiful as you age.  And I am grateful for the elementary school kids who are also out running and who tell me how much they like my Avengers tshirt.

I am grateful that my body will allow me to push myself, even when it isn't necessarily happy with me.  For the fact that runs get easier, mentally, after the first mile.  And for little moments when it seems God put something in my path to help me keep going.

And I am grateful for our craft.  That I live in a world in which I can come home, pop a pizza in the oven, and crash onto the couch to watch The West Wing and knit all these good things into a pair of neon socks.

FO: Twigs and Willows

When I dreamed about going to college as a kid I always imagined myself in the library, wrapped in a warm sweater or sweatshirt, hunched over a dusty pile of books.  Now that I'm done when I look back I have some of those moments, and they are some of my favorite mental images.  I may not be in school anymore, but this sweater totally brings me back.

This is Twigs and Willows, from Alana Dakos' new book Botanical Knits.  I knit mine out of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Pumpkin, a sadly discontinued colorway.  This is my second sweater in Wool of the Andes, and I still think it is one of the best values in worsted yarn (especially if you get it during a color-themed sale).

If you follow that link, you might be a little surprised by how much my version differs from the original.  I knit the 38.5" because the 35" would have given me zero ease and the pattern calls for 1-2 inches.  Well, that went interestingly.  I actually finished sewing the pieces together on Tuesday and was so distressed that it was so large that I shoved it in a bag and swore off of sweater knitting.

But then my buttons arrived.  I ordered these from Gnome Acres and they came so very fast to save my sweater.  On Thursday morning I got up early to sew them on and it all came together.  The coziness of the sweater is magical.  I wore it to work, I wore it home, and I am wearing it now as I write this.  I love the simplistic nature of its oversized slouchiness paired with the femininity of the branches.

I guess like a lot of things that I knit, this sweater is an example of how you can do everything right and still end up with something completely different.  I got gauge, I knit to pattern, I made sure all parts were the correct lengths, and it still came out as something unexpected.  But I love it!  It's perfect for this crazy weather that is sixty degrees one day and thirty the next.  I can actually pull it on without unbuttoning it, so it truly is the perfect, cozy-in-the-library sweater.

To see more lovely FOs, check out the gang over at Tami's Amis!

Geektastic Thursday: Knit and Crochet Blog Week, Year 4

It's that time of year again.  With the arrival of spring comes the annual Knit & Crochet Blog Week.  Earlier this week Eskimimi announced that she would be hosting this event for the fourth year in a row, on April 22-28, the topics of which have yet to be announced.

If you don't already follow Eskimimi's blog, I highly recommend adding it to whatever blog reader you currently are using now that Google Reader is leaving us.  She writes about a variety of topics relating to the craft and always has the best photography (also really cute graphics when it comes time for the challenge week).  If you are unfamiliar with Knit & Crochet Blog Week, it is a seven day period in which knitting and crochet bloggers all post responses to the same prompt and tag them so that they are all in the same collective search.  I highly recommend plugging any of these tags into your search engine to see just how diverse the various responses can be.  I missed out on the first year, but reading all of the posts introduced me to a lot of other crafty bloggers and really helped me to find the online knitting community.  Last year I successfully completed the week for the first time and really stretched myself with regards to my content and style.  This year I hope to do the same and find even more new friends to inspire my crafting.

Speaking of my crafting --

Wonder what could be waiting in the wings for tomorrow.