Ignore the bright orange shirt, okay?

In this grainy iSight photo, you can see the complexity and inner turmoil of the knitter as she contemplates the latest episode of House, wonders how she acquired a callous on the tip of her index finger (from picking up stitches on US 1s, through the back of the loop, without a crochet hook, perhaps?), thinks about writing the next chapter of her educational book (AIDS & You) and considers the fact that she has knit almost an entire sock in two days.

Which is to say: between swing dancing, watching dumb television, knitting, and working, this summer definitely kicks ass and takes names.

It's New York in the middle of May... I think I'll finish a scarf!

At last, after two months and a lot of knitting in class and in the car, my Santa Cruz Malabrigo scarf is finished. This scarf is absolutely perfect for the yarn, and the color is amazing. This is as close as I've gotten to capturing the actual color. Also, it's in the bathroom of the publishing house where I'm working this summer... which is full of nice clean lines and black and white tile. I suspect that more finished objects are going to weasel their way into getting photographed in this bathroom, because the light is perfect for knitted objects.

Here it is!

For some reason, lately I've had a real fondness for bold color combinations... the roomie and I went swing dancing the other night, and I wore a black wrap dress with a sky-blue scarf - "Very European," the roomie commented - and today it's a red dress with a blue button-down shirt. My taste in clothes, it is crazy! Good thing I don't really leave the publishing house...

Here is the fringe of doom... it was actually relatively easy, only requiring scissors, a crochet hook, and lots of patience. I had to cast off three times in order to make the end match the cast-on - it's always a little frustrating to try to match the cable cast on, especially with different stitch patterns. This one made these huge gaps when I cast off knitwise, so I searched Ravelry and found a better one: k1, *sl1, k1, psso, psso*, repeat until 1 stitch left, k1, psso. The double psso didn't make sense at first, but it was nicely in line with the stitch pattern, and although it left small gaps, they were filled in by the fringe and the weaving in of the end.

Pattern: My So-Called Scarf
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted
Color: Azul Bolita
Yardage: 1.5 skeins, 216 yards each
Started: April 19th, 2008
Finished: May 23rd, 2008
Modifications: Slipped-stitch selvedge, different cast-off

The hexacomb cardigan is coming along too... I will post pictures when it's a little less skeletal.

1 year down, 3 to go...

I finished my first year of college last night at 9:30 pm, after taking the worst calculus exam I have ever encountered. But it's over, and that's what counts. Since then, I have knit about 2 feet of my Malabrigo scarf, which I haven't photographed yet... but, according to Emily's grandfather, could possibly make or break my future marriage. It's this electric blue color that he said clashes in a nauseating fashion with a particular shade of green, and if I wear that scarf with that color green, maybe I'll scare my future husband away! I was amused by this sentiment.

Today was spent cleaning and driving, and I'm starting work tomorrow. Hopefully I will have more knitting content to share soon, seeing as most of my free time will be spent chilling with Emily or knitting! So instead of yarn pictures, I have included a Roomie picture. This was taken yesterday as I was quietly (and sometimes not-so-quietly?) freaking out about my calculus final. Luckily, I was able to do some last-minute cleaning to calm my nerves a little.

One of my favorite people in the world!

My to-do list for this week:
Read Lolita again
Finish my Santa Cruz scarf
Visit local yarn stores
Eat Korean food
Work on the Hexacomb Cardigan

Oh wow, I love my life a lot more now that finals are over.

Finals Eat My Soul

Okay, so I'm elbow-deep in Chinese film and literature. Well, actually not, but close enough - for my final Chinese lit paper, I'm writing a compare/contrast essay using Brokeback Mountain (Annie Proulx's short story and Ang Lee's film) and To Live, a really depressing book by Yu Hua that was adapted into film by Zhang Yimou (the same guy who did Hero and House of Flying Daggers). I'm actually really enjoying it. This being such, there hasn't been a huge amount of knitting lately.

However - I bought some Queensland Cotsoy for the Hexacomb Cardigan from the spring issue of IK. I love the drape of this yarn - it's really soft and almost silky in character, and I'm hoping that the cardigan will be a good match for the yarn. So far I'm liking it, but I've also never knit a short cardigan, so we'll see how flattering that is on me.

I had to tweak the color a little - for some reason, my camera doesn't like photographing blues!

The one thing that's driving me batty is that this is going reeeeeeally slow. I don't know if it's the lack of knitting time, the 200-odd stitch rows, or the non-stretchiness of the yarn, but it feels like 5.5 inches of this pattern has required way too many hours of work. I do love the color, though, and the finished look of the yarn - it's very polished, like something you would buy at a slightly more inspired version of The Gap. (Yeah, I'm lame, I love The Gap. Bad me!)


Luckily, I have five movies to keep me busy during reading period. I had to get Brokeback Mountain and To Live for my paper, but the other three are strictly for watching with Boy Person: Dogma, The Motorcycle Diaries (and the ridiculously tasty Gael Garcia Bernal!) and In The Mood For Love. (Once again, I show my disgusting affinity for East Asian films. Oh, how I love you, Wong Kar-wai...!)

The Stall at the End of the Semester

So, things are happening... I will post pictures when I have completed objects. I've been working on Tubey religiously. I'm about 5 inches away from binding off, weaving in ends, and blocking the sucker. She has been in progress for almost two years, and I'm ready to free up the needles and to have another wearable sweater. I also finished an Anniversary sock that was having some massive gauge issues. I haven't knit for about two days, but hopefully this week will get me back into the churning-out of socks!