Today I went through my yarn collection to try to trim it down a bit. There is a substantial amount of beautiful new stuff that I just haven't gotten around to making anything out of yet (lots of different awesome sock yarns, a few large stashes destined for sweaters/cardigans, some gorgeous laceweights), but quite a bit of what I had clogging up the closet was odds and ends left over from previous projects.

It's cheesy to say, but it was fun picking through all the scraps and remembering what I used them for—you know, "oh, this was from the very first thing I ever knitted" (man, that was many years ago—it was a little garter-stitch alligator-shaped toy in faux mohair), "here's all the ends of Lopi from that Icelandic sweater that came out looking gorgeous but was so itchy and too warm even for a Chicago winter that I never wanted to actually wear it," "this is the leftover from some socks I made for wallacecat that got a hole in them so fast that I swore never again to make socks [for him] out of 100% wool sock yarn," "hey! I made mittens for obsessical out of this," etc. etc.

Ah, memories. And that was a nice trip down memory lane, but really, there's too much junk in that closet and I had to get rid of some of it. I'm a pack rat so it's really hard for me to part with anything, even that 2-inch ball of of a discontinued yarn that deep in my heart I know I would never use again even if I could think of something to make out of that small an amount.

I was kind of thinking I might make a wacky rug out of all the different scraps...I might still change my mind and do that, but for right now all those partial balls (and a few whole ones that I just didn't want to keep around) are in a couple of grocery bags in the car, waiting to be taken to the convenient local Goodwill drop point. I'm not sure they'll actually accept something like this (I'm sure radiantwterror knows more about that than I do :) ), but, I don't know, I'm sure there are crafters who could use small amounts of different colors, or it might be good for a school for student art projects.

Or I might end up keeping it and making that rug.

So, cptmoll and I went to that live This American Life show last Thursday. It was pretty excellent. No, I still haven't forgiven Ira for moving the show to New York (and judging by the hissing from other parts of the audience, I'm not the only one), but he can still put together an entertaining program.

I actually liked Sarah Vowell's segment the least—the humor seemed a bit labored, or maybe it was a little too much like stuff I've already heard from her. David Rakoff and Dan Savage were both splendid, though. And I did enjoy the preview clips from the soon-to-premiere TV series, although I'm still not totally won over to the idea. But as I don't have Showtime and don't plan to get it, it doesn't really matter to me.

I was also thrilled to discover, after we got into our seats and perused the program, that the house band was to be Mates of State, whom I adore but had never gotten to see live yet. They only performed like five songs, but it was still pretty awesome. They did, after all, include their cover of Phantom Planet's "California" (aka the theme song to The O.C.). TAL does always have excellent music at its live shows. (And when Ira mentioned having seen Quasi play at the Empty Bottle, my respect for his musical taste only increased.)

So, definitely worth it. I had a most excellent time and cptmoll gave me some useful career advice. Then Friday leahrosmerta did a wonderfully generous thing and bought me some yarn, which is so pretty that ( I must post a picture of it. Yes, just a picture of yarn. )

Yeah, I've been pretty negligent with the updating, but there really hasn't been anything happening. I've just been going to work and sitting around and stuff. But Thursday was wallacecat's and my anniversary, so I skipped work and we went out and got sushi and then went over to Myopic Books. After a bit, while wallacecat browsed around the bookstore, I strolled over to Nina. I'm not really supposed to buy any more yarn, but as a special anniversary treat I was permitted to pick up a couple skeins of Alpaca Silk (in amethyst), which I have already cast on for a pair of rather indulgent socks.

Speaking of which, I finally have pictures of the xtreme socks I kept talking about last summer. I actually only finished them in December—I started them in June and by September had just about 3-4 inches left to do on the second sock; then school started and what with teaching my two classes and the extra hours I took on (to buy the beloved and totally worth it MacBook) I didn't get much knitting done. But I picked them back up over the winter break and finished the last bit off in a couple days; now, a month or so later, I have ( 7 photos and the usual commentary. ) They were fun, too, so now that those are done, I'm thinking I might want to take the lovely 140g yarn left over from that baby set and try another of this kind of thing—perhaps Eunny Jang's Bayerische sock pattern adapted to a knee-high? I probably wouldn't get it finished before the weather got too warm to wear them, though. Hee.

You know, having made my lovely brown cabled hoodie cardigan, I wouldn't have figured I'd need another one, but then yesterday in the mail I got the new Interweave Knits and now I'm feeling like I need one of these (small view of the front here, third photo down). I don't really have any appropriate yarn in my stash, though—I mean, I do have some worsted weight in black, but I kinda feel like making black cables sort of defeats the purpose, since you wouldn't see the patterning anyway. I'm not supposed to buy any new yarn (and I'm going to be spending $$$ on the new computer soon as well), so...yeah, that's a problem.

I always forget that all the non-dining-hall food places are closed the week before classes start. I guess it's to train the first-years to eat at their house tables and not find food independently? All I know is, that means I had no lunch today. Boo-hoo!

Anyway, it's back to school on Monday so I guess that means less time for me to knit. Ha! not really, but I've managed to finish quite a few items while I've had lots of idle time during the summer. My insane socks are still coming along, but the second one is going pretty slowly—it's not that I've lost interest in finishing the pair (the pattern is too elaborate to get boring, exactly), but since I've already completed one, the other one is less...exciting, I guess, since I already know what it's going to look like and how to make it. So while that one is malingering I've already begun and finished several other projects, including that baby set, another pair of socks, 1 2/3 of a third pair of socks, and ( this fair isle bag, with 10! pictures and extensive commentary. ) I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I'm less wary of doing fair isle now, but still. I'd never wear a fair isle sweater, so I doubt I'll have call to do much more of it in the future. But it's nice to know I can do it if I want to.

The aran baby set has finally been blocked, wrapped up and sent—it had been done for a while but I just hadn't gotten around to getting it out of here. Baby's not due until November (October?) anyway, so I had plenty of time. ( Here are 6 pictures and my commentary. )

Now I have 140 grams of this yarn left, and I've already got big plans for it. Extremely Intense Socks, part 2, here I come...when I've finished the first pair.

Poop. I've been working on this baby set for some friends and it's coming along well and looking really cute (there will of course be pictures in a few days, when everything's done), but then today I started sewing the side seams (and I hate seaming, but that's not the point at the moment) and when I got down to the bottom I realized that I miscounted the rows of ribbing on the different pieces, so the back piece is two rows longer than the front. ARGH! I hate making stupid mistakes like this. I seamed it together anyway, fudging the stitches, and I'm pretty sure when it's blocked it won't be highly noticeable, but...it still bugs me. Some mistakes I can overlook but I'm not sure this is one of them. I could fix it by unraveling from the bottom and either adding rows to the front or subtracting from the bottom, but then the bind-off row won't match the cast-on; or I could unravel both and bind them off in the same way, and then they won't match the cuffs...

I guess you could say I'm detail-oriented. What do y'all think?

Poll #815247 broken baby sweater
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

what to do about the messed-up bottom edge?

Still working on my xtreme socks as well...couple more weeks on those maybe.

So we're sitting there peacefully having our bagels with lox and cream cheese, and then Wallace jumps up on the table and starts whipping his tail around, as cats do. ( The result... )

Yesterday I spent quite a while petting some new yarn that I bought for a sweater for some friends' baby (due in November). I needed a fingering-weight yarn and didn't have a good color in my stash, so I got some of that new Gloss from Knitpicks. This was my first order from Knitpicks after hearing so much about them, and I have to say I'm very pleased. First, the stuff is so inexpensive, and second, this yarn is hella soft, and the silk gives it, as the name would imply, a gorgeous glossy sheen. I'm making an Aran sweater and the cables are beautifully defined. It's nice stuff. This is gonna be one fucking lucky baby! I'd love it if somebody made a sweater for me out of this yarn.

But there should be enough left over to make a pair of socks for me. Speaking of which, I'm working on the most intense pair of socks ever. There will definitely be pictures, but probably not for at least another month. I'm telling you, extremely intense socks. I'm excited about them.