The Wearable Bam Boo sweater is done!

Yarn: Classic Elite Bam Boo (100% bamboo)
Pattern: Of my own devising
Needles: #6 Knit Picks Options
[I’m working on writing up this pattern, at which point I’ll link to it here.]

In other news, I did the preparatory stitching on the Dale baby cardigan, so it’s all ready to be cut at knitting on Wednesday. With that off my plate, I’ll be down to just three projects: the calla lily/hydrangea socks, the alpaca lace stole, and Mike’s sweater. I did some ripping back on it yesterday and got back into the cable pattern with little difficulty, so I’m thinking it’ll move along pretty well. Which means it will be time for me to hit my Ravelry queue and start a New Project! Yay!

I’m thinking about changing the theme on this here blog of mine. To what? I have no idea. I like the pink, but I’m not totally tied to it. And while the 3-column layout lets me pack in all kinds of info, I wonder if it’s a little bit overkill. Anyway, if things go a little wonky around here over the next week or so, it’s because I’m experimenting with new looks.

It felt so good to move a couple of my projects from “in progress” to “finished!” Here’s the results:

Yarn: Zitron Trekking (XXL) color 105
Pattern: my basic rib over 56 stitches
Needles: #2 Addi Turbos (2 circs method)
This picture is the best representation of the color of the yarn, which I love. And they felt even better on my feet than I expected them to. I’m not a fan of the Addis (not pointy enough), but the 2 circs method makes it a lot easier to take socks to the movies and such and not worry about losing a needle in the dark.

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare 100% merino laceweight
Pattern: Mystery Stole 3 by Melanie Gibbons
Needles: #4 Knit Picks Options
I am so pleased with how this turned out. I boxed it up last night to get it ready to give as a gift, and with a piece of dark tissue paper just under the top layer, it looks pretty lovely. I’m finding myself somewhat hooked on lace, although not so much on the alpaca lace thing I’ve been knitting for a year and a half.

I’ve also made great progress on re-knitting (again) the Classic Elite Bam Boo sweater. The front and back are done, and I’m ready to work the math for the sleeves. Maybe I’ll wear it this summer yet!

Remember how I was complaining about not having many finished objects to mention? I’m so close on these it hurts.

The Dale of Norway Yoked Baby Cardigan is almost done. The only thing left is cutting the steek (which I promised my fellow local knitters I would do in front of them) and then knitting the plackets. I already wove in all the ends that won’t be caught in the machine sewing up the front.

Seriously, after I took this picture, I had just enough time to Kitchner one toe and weave in ends. That’s all I have left on the other sock. They’ll be done tonight, I swear.

My Mystery Stole is blocked and drying as I type this. Sorry the photos are so dark — it got all dreary all of a sudden when I was about to take them, but I decided to go ahead anyway. I’ll have to post about the blocking frame at some point, too, but not now.

I baked this morning, taking advantage of a relatively cool kitchen.

I’m so pleased with how this pie turned out, and I would have loved to have tasted it, but alas, it was not for me: I donated a homemade pie as a prize for our staff Summer Reading Program at the library, and I owed this to the winner. She requested peach, so Mike picked up some beautiful peaches at the Barr St. Market this weekend. I might have to get some more and make another for us.

I also baked some of my ridiculously tasty chocolate chip cookies. I pretty much use the Toll House recipe, but I have made enhancements:

• Use good unsalted butter.
• Use good vanilla.
• Replace one cup of regular flour with one cup of whole wheat flour. (I didn’t let the flour mix quite as long as I usually do, resulting in less gluten production, and thus somewhat flatter cookies than usual, but it still gives ‘em great texture.)
• Use good chocolate chips — Ghirardelli are my current favorite.
• Instead of baking the whole batch at once, I only bake one sheet. Then I drop cookie-sized globs onto a sheet with waxed paper on it until the batter’s all gone, and I freeze them. Once they’re hard, they go into a zipper bag and stay in the freezer until we’re in the mood for cookies. Baking them frozen only takes a couple minutes longer than normal.

Hopefully this will eliminate Mike’s sad face when we walk past the cookie aisle at the grocery store.

I came downstairs yesterday morning and Basil was actually curled up in the basket liner I made for her last summer. I know in that first post I got a picture of her in it, but that was really a staged photo — she didn’t climb in there herself. All four of her paws are pointing toward that upper handle there, almost like I could grab ‘em all at the same time and pick her up.

In other news, I finally got my blog attached to my Flickr account, so now I can email a photo directly to Stuff and Things and Whatnot: too cool!

And don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Yeah, it’s a phone, and yeah, it’s an iPod, but what I’m loving most right now about my iPhone is that I can take pictures and immediately email them to my Flickr account. They’re magically online without my having to turn on the computer (which overheats so easily in hot, nasty weather and makes the most annoying alarm sound until it’s shut down or cools off (so until it’s shut down) (we figure it will die any day now and then we’ll be able to justify buying a new computer)), which means they’re ready for blogging instantly.

To that end, enjoy clue 6 of the Mystery Stole. The theme was released last week: it’s Swan Lake. The stole is caught mid-transformation into a swan, so this end of the piece is a wing. It’s looking pretty sculptural right now, but when it’s blocked, the bumps will look more like feathers.

My husband was looking through the box that came from my upstream sock pal, and was perplexed by the additional little gifts of soap and bunny toy and chocolate (chocolate!).

Him: I thought this was a sock swap.
Me: It was.
Him: Then what’s with the other stuff?
Me: It’s just nice.
Him: So did you have to send other stuff with your socks?
Me: I didn’t have to, but I did — I sent a little notebook and some tissues with funky designs on them.
Him: But why?
Me: Because it’s a nice thing to do.
Him: But it’s a sock swap.

You can see where I’m going with this.

My downstream sock pal wrote the loveliest post about the socks I knit for her, and made me feel so good about participating in this sort of thing. I shall quote:

Lynn was able to look at the colorway, be satisfied in the not-purple-ness of it, and go with it so I have a pair of socks in a lovely colorway that I would honestly never be able to purchase for myself.

The other reason I’m really pleased with these socks is because they’re not the same stupid socks everyone else knit. They aren’t Jaywalkers, Monkeys, or Waving Lace Socks. Yes, I’ve seen Conwy on some of my favorite blogs; but they are not the stupidly trendy socks that sweep the blogosphere, whipping every knit-blogger and her sister into a frenzy. They are, instead, classic and traditional socks that will only look more beautiful over the years instead of making me wish I could get rid of last year’s trend. And I appreciate that. In fact, I love that.

In short, Lynn nailed it.

I like to think I’m a thoughtful gal, and indeed, chose the Conwy pattern because it isn’t something everyone and her sister is knitting — it’s so cool that the thought I put into the swap was appreciated. It’s just more of the niceness of knitters.

They came! They came! My beautiful Sockapalooza 4 socks came!

Michal sent them from sunny LA along with some yummy chocolate and other treats. Her struggles in the knitting were worth every stitch. They fit perfectly, avoided the dreaded pooling, and are a great demonstration of why everyone loves Lorna’s Laces so much.

Knitters are such good people. Having a perfect stranger knit and send something so wonderful… Well, it’s something really special.

I’m sitting on my bed, watching reruns of Charmed (after Shannon Doherty left the show), and posting to my blog. Unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot to post about right now. I got my socks sent off to my pal, and she did comment that she received them, but it’s the beginning of the semester for her right now, so she’s pretty busy and hasn’t posted about them herself yet. I’m still waiting to receive my socks, so there’s no news there.

The best I can do is this:

It doesn’t look like much, but it is progress on the bamboo sweater. I actually had to rip back a bit because I messed up the armhole shaping a little, but I’m getting close to having the back done. Again with the not having finished objects.