~ Johnny Appleseed ~
I am absolutely thrilled to be able to show off this project. It was on the needles for a number of months and before that it was in my imagination for some time. This was a "flying by the seat of my pants" project that underwent a number of revisions once on the needles.
The backstory to this project is that many months ago, I dreamed of having a bohus shrug with poofy sleeves. Clearly, what you see here is not a bohus shrug, not by any stretch of the imagination. The original "plan" was to work the "Wild Apple" bohus yoke pattern from Wendy Keele's Poems of Color, but somewhere along the way that changed. If memory serves, it had something to do with not wanting to manage so many colors (the pattern calls for, something like, 16 different colors). As this was going to be a stashbusting project, finding so many complementary colors of comparable weights from my yarn stash was unrealistic.
Ulimately, I decided on using the colorwork pattern from Neiman, which outlines those wonderful wonky circles. The yarn that I employed is fingering weight, lighter than whatever yarn Neiman calls for, and so I recharted the circles to be doubly-thick. I knit the yoke in the round with a steek, which I cut up the middle and hemmed to the inside. This was my first steek and I was surprised how easy it was.
As I worked through various sketches, translating my dream shrug with poofy sleeves into something a little more tangible, I eventually concluded that I wanted something with a flowy drape around my torso, which kicked out the idea of a shrug. A swing cardigan it became.
The poofy sleeves worked out perfectly from the beginning and underwent no modifications as I knit them up. Seriously, I am lovin' them poofy sleeves!
The blue yarn is Koigu's Painters Pallet and the other two yarns were harvested from thrift store sweaters. Harvesting yarn from thrift store sweaters, unfortunately, can yield an insufficient amount of yarn for one's knitting needs. For the particular sweaters that I harvested here, there was a good deal of yarn that was unsalvagable. In addition, the yarn was so incredibly thin that I had to knit it double, which meant that the possibility of running out of yarn was very real. Combining the two yarns worked out nicely, though. The more grey yarn is a silk wool blend, and the more brown-yellowy one is pure wool. Colorwise, I think they compliment each other well (though, I'm not the most matchey), and in the photos, you can see where I blended the two yarns before the full color transition.
It was the finishing work that really made this cardigan turn out. I worked folded knitted hems along the bottom and the neckband. The neckband took a lot of thought and I tried several different approaches to get it to look good. I cast on for the yoke without a plan for the neckband (bad idea), which left me wondering the past few days what in the world I was going to do about the neck area. It was a good opportunity to stretch my creative muscles. I also worked a crochet chain for the buttons and gave it a good steam block.
I'm looking forward to knitting mostly according to a pattern for a while. "Knitting by the seat of one's pants" is hard work!
~ Riding Along ~
Saturday evening, Josh, Elizabeth, Edvin, and I went on a bike ride down the Greenbelt.
Along the way, we saw an elk.
Then we stopped and got pizza and beer. The pizza was amazing and the beer totally satisfied.
After filling our bellies, we played smashmitten on the grass. We played boys against girls and forgot to keep score.
As the sun began to set, we rode back to town. It was apparent that we had enjoyed some beers. (Also, my bike broke... please note how Josh is carrying my partial fender in some of the photos... that's some high quality materials on my cruiser).
Some were more obnoxious than others.
I had a lotta funs.
~ Reynolds - Salmon Creek ~
Despite having a full-blown bronchial infection, as I promised myself I would, I went on a good ride yesterday. Josh and I did a 20 mile ride in the Salmon Creek area. If you remember, Josh and I had previously tried to ride Salmon Creek during an epic Wilson Creek adventure, but that route was way too muddy. On Saturday, it was a perfect day to ride Salmon Creek. It was warm, but not too warm, the trails were dry, and it was beautiful outside.
We parked the car outside of Reynolds and rode up Salmon Creek Road. Up until the intersection with the creek, the road is a normal dirt road, but at the creek it becomes more of an ORV road and goes up into the mountains. Next time we do this ride, the plan is to drive farther and park closer to the creek. Riding along the dirt road was fine, but it was so much more interesting, pretty, and fun once it branched off into the mountains.
Because of my bronchial infection, I had poor lung capacity and my energy was low, but I had a good time anyway. It was so glorious outside that my mood was automatically lifted. The wildflowers, in particular, were stunning and added a lot of color to the high mountain desert.
More photos on my Salmon Creek photoset.
~ navigating through change with swine flu ~
Shit. My life has changed a lot in the past week. One week ago, I turned in my final paper of the semester and moved my ass into a new apartment. Josh and I managed to get ourselves put together sufficiently to host our first BBQ.
Moving is hard work, both moving out of an old apartment and into new one, but also the cleaning of the old apartment. My back is still achy and I've got bruises all along my shins because I'm clumsy. Also, because the school semester is done, I'm left with a strange feeling - - one in which I have nothing to be stressed about, which feels very odd and empty. Adding to the strange feeling is that I am suffering EITHER from swine flu OR a bad case of allergies. Considering the high pollen count and my history as a chronic allergy-sufferer, I've gone ahead and diagnosed myself with swine flu. Luckily, allergy tablets have helped relieve some of my symptoms, but considering their severity I continue to feel a bit under the weather.
Anyhoo, I've been working to get settled in my new lifestyle. The big change is, of course, the fact that Josh and I are now roomies. I have not lived with anyone for a number of years, so that alone is a big change, but living with my partner is a completely new experience. It is very nice.
It's been just about a week of being in the new apartment and it does not yet feel like home to me. This new place is sufficiently different from any previous living arrangement that it will take me some time to get used to. I must say, however, that the new place has a number of amenities that I really like. For instance, the onsite laundry facilities, a private patio with garden space, two restrooms, and lots of closet space for me. In addition, it is located in a different neighborhood and closer to the river, which will provide me with some new walking routes - - very exciting, as I've been walking the same old neighborhood for over five years and it's time for a change.
As for mountain bike adventures, I've been a bump on a log. During the end of the school semester, final papers and presentations were occupying my spare time. Then, moving into the new apartment kept me off the bike. And now, swine flu is kicking my ass. In all honesty, I think I have more than just allergies - - I've been feeling really really really lethargic for several days. I keep dragging myself to the gym to workout and leave after being unable to get my legs to move. This weekend, before I came down with swine flu, Josh and I did a couple rides in the foothills and it was fun. Actually, it was a lot of fun and reminded me of what I've been missing. This weekend, swine flu or no, I'm doing some good rides.
As for knitting, swine flu accommodates this activity nicely. I continue to work on this one project and am nearing completion. This is the project for which I had the opportunity to do a steek on the colorwork yoke, which was successful. Currently, I'm finishing up the sleeves, which will extend to just below the elbow and end with a poof, and then I need to work a hem along the bottom and along the steek. The blue yarn is Koigu Painter's Palette (a merino sock yarn), which is AWESOME (nom, nom), and the other yarns I harvested from thrift store sweaters. The dark grey is a silk-wool blend that has a wonderful drape, and the variegated grey-brown-yellow is pure wool. The colorwork pattern I took from Neiman and I'm using Elizabeth Zimmerman's instructions for the hems. I hope to finish this project soon.
I know it looks a bit funny in the photo. The hems and a vigorious blocking should do wonders for making it less wonky. Just wait, you'll see...
Because I've been working on this project for some time, my attention has been wandering to my yarn stash and other patterns I'd like to knit. A few days ago, I cast on for a new project, a modified version of the Silk Cocoon Cardigan using Knit Picks Andean Treasure yarn. Here, the plan is to knit this seamless, adding the cocoon stitch at the bottom and either working the shoulders as a raglan or a rounded yoke.
Both of these projects employ a godawful amount of stockinette , so I sense that I might be casting on for a third project soon. I have a hanrkering, in particular, for some cabling... or maybe more stranded knitting.
~ an update ~
I have been aware that time is passing and I have yet to update my weblog. This is mainly the result of having nothing very interesting to write about as well as having a lot to do in real life. Here is a bit of an update.
...ON MY CAR
So, when the tow truck driver came to haul away my car a few weeks ago, he made an offhand comment about how I'd never see it again. Later, I had a conversation with the insurance company about how if the cost of repairs were more than the value of the car, they would send me a check for the latter... thereby leaving me with having to spend howevermuchmoney to get another vehicle, which I was not happy about. Luckily, because I have put so few miles on the car in the ten years I've owned it, its value was estimated at $6,000 and the damage was $5,000. While the car was being fixed, I declined the insurance's offer for a rental car and had the opportunity to discover that our local public transportation system doesn't suck as much as I thought. The one time that I had to transport myself to somewhere that was not within walking or biking distance, I took the bus and it was great. The car has been fixed for a week and the only driving I've done has been to get it home from the body shop.
...ON MY SCHOOL
So, the end of the semester is 'nigh and I am suffering the consequences of procrastination. A few weeks ago, I was discussing my procrastination habit with a guy in class who said to me, "You know Jennifer, procrastination is like masturbation. It feels good at first, but in the end you're just screwing yourself." Wise words. At any rate, I haven't been having any weekend adventures for a while because (other than the fact that the weather blows) I've had to finally buckle down and write some papers. I'm currently procrastinating on a paper that is due next Wednesday, at which time I will be done for the semester. And let it be known, I am really looking forward to not having any procrastination to do.
...ON MY NEW HOME
So, today Josh and I signed the lease for our new apartment. For me, this seems really wild and crazy. And exciting. Though, I won't be moving in until after next Wednesday because I have way too much procrastinating to do, and I don't want to be distracted. But I will mention that I was pleasantly surprised to be given a covered, off-street parking space at my new home. This could possibly revolutionize my non-driving existance. Not only will I have to worry less about people slashing my tires (happened twice at current residence) but the probability of drunk drivers hitting my vehicle and then driving away (also, has happened twice) is almost impossible. Simply given how little I drive, it has been RIDICULOUS how much time I've had to spend getting my car repaired for damage that it sustained while it was parked on the side of the road. Hurray for covered off-street parking! More deets on the new home and the moving in with Josh later...
