Letting it Go

Thank you for the sympathetic comments about the penguin scarves. I was pretty upset for a while, but I've decided to just let it go. Great hacks are always removed, so I should have expected it. I guess I'd hoped they'd last a little longer. The penguins have been packed up and we have our fountain back now, so there isn't a constant reminder. (That wasn't my fault! They were already scheduled to go home.) I've decided that I don't want the scarves back, though I did think they were adorable. I don't have anything else to do with them (too short for people, I don't have my stuffed animals out anymore), so I'm just trying to let it go. it's not my usual modus operandi, but it seems better. And no, mom, I'm not the building trouble maker! :) Only knitting friends and some coworkers know about the scarves, so (as far as I know) building management doesn't know that I'm the culprit. And this is the other reason I don't want to try to get the scarves back -- I don't know how to do that without revealing myself. So I'll enjoy my penguin pictures and be proud of my clever plot, even if the building wasn't impressed. Knowing that I won't be here next Christmas to see those naked little penguins is a little consolation. :)

New Knitting

So, moving along with my life, I've completed the Flashy Lace sweater! I need to weave in the ends, and then hopefully I can take some pictures tomorrow. It's really comfy and cute and I really like it. Of course, I won't really be able to wear it for months, but it was a fun, quick sweater that I know I'll enjoy for a long time.

So now I need something new! I went to play word games tonight and needed something relatively mindless, so I pulled out the new wool-silk tweed and the Rowan 26 to swatch for "Mist". (Pictures of that tomorrow, too.) I didn't look at the sweater very carefully when I fell in love with it, but now I see that the entire thing is... moss stitch. I'm not thrilled by the tediousness of it, but I do like getting into the rhythm of the stitch, and it's easy to put down and pick up between rounds of Boggle. (Note: If you read off your list of words first, you can knit while everyone else goes through their lists!) And if I can learn to purl without looking, it will be great for watching my first and second season DVDs of Alias. Perhaps that can be the new skill to acquire with this sweater.

There are two other things I'd like to get started on, but they take more focus. I'm really drawn to working on the baby blanket for my best friend, but it doesn't need to be done for seven months. Its design is a long story that I'm too tired to tell tonight (but I promise I'll do it when I start the blanket), and I'm excited to make it work, but it takes paying attention, row counting, and deciding what kind of double-decreases to use (both for aesthetics and so as to not skew the pattern). It's microfiber and so soft, and having a little blanket in my lap during this season would be lovely.

The other project is swatching for Marcel's Sweater from the winter Interweave Knits. (See, I talk about it all the time. Why aren't I more excited?) I tried swatching for it at home, and I don't know whether it's the cables (come on, only one stitch - how hard can they be?), the twisted stitches (hello, back loop, also shouldn't be a problem!), or the yarn I was using (Taj Mahal - 70% extrafine merino, 22% silk, 8% chashmere - scrumptious but slippery, even on (blech) bamboo needles), but it didn't go well. I did maybe four rows and then gave up. My mom gave me a skein of Maulbeerseide-Schurwolle(mulberry silk*-new wool, 50/50) from Horstia, which is beautiful and should have awesome stitch definition and has fabulous colors . I think that, like the Rowan sweater I tried to start early this fall (in Berocco Linet instead of the cotton it was written for) and couldn't get gauge or a good fabric, I can become easily frustrated when swatching doesn't seem productive. Maybe I can let this sit for a week or so and then pick it up and try again. The pattern will take a lot more paying attention than I'd originally anticipated, and while I don't have a problem with doing complicated knitting, I know that I need to do it in the right time and place.

It should be bedtime, but there's a cat in my lap. Alias is in the DVD player and I have all the necessary remotes. Hmmm...***

* Mullbeerseide comes from caterpillars feed on mullberry leaves. The butterflies are recognized by their grey-white wings with fine brown lines. Maulbeerseide is as opposed to** Wildseide (wild silk), which comes from Tussahspinner, which are caterpillars that that come from India. The wild silk is of a lesser quality than the Mullbeerseide and is more likely to have burls and irregularities. I figured this out from a German textile website (starting here) and liberal help from my favorite online German dictionary, dict.leo.org. Ah, the power of the Internet. So here's something I don't understand, although I can literally translate it. "The [wild silk caterpillars] belong to the family of "night peacock eyes" (Nachtpfauenaugen). What does that mean? Is this a particular type of butterflies that I would know all about if I were a butterfly geek?

***My, I do ramble on, don't I?