cosmicpluto knits!

on blanket-making and distraction

I was digging through my closet the other day, trying to organize my stuff ahead of a trip to Ikea (gotta plan to figure out what I need!), when I came across a long, long neglected WIP. This one was stuffed into a bin with a bunch of other WIPs, but it’s the only one I actually bothered to pull out!

A handspun log cabin blanket! I made one a long time ago, but have since given it away. This one is very random, with snippets of ends and unevenly sized strips, and is knit mostly with double-stranded worsted-ish weights on 8mm. I found a bag of handspuns I’d been using for it, too, and brought it all out to the couch to work on over the weekend. It’s perfect weekend knitting – simple and meditative, but with awesome colours to entertain me!

Working on it did derail my sweater knitting a little bit, but I’ve managed to get just about up to the armholes of my lace cardigan. I’ll be starting sleeves today.

return of the handspun log cabin

Loooove.

Really I was a bit fed up with all the wee little bits of handspun lying around, and needed some garter stitch therapy, so on it went! A few hours later (and a few episodes of HBO’s Rome)….

I’ve used up a number of the smaller bits that I had, but still have rather a large bag of balls of handspun to choose from, and I’m sure more will pop up somewhere. But for now, the blankie is kind of on hold, in favour of this:

A fabulous sweatercoat, being knit out of Dream in Color yarn (which lettuce knit will have at the Frolic this Saturday!) – now I’m in a bit of a race with myself to see I could possibly finish this for Saturday. I’m done the back, the left front, and a sleeve, and am a few inches into the second sleeve. Still another honking front and the collar to knit, but then again it’s only Tuesday.

I’ve blocked the left front and the sleeve, not really having enough space to block the back at the moment. I need to mark buttonhole placement too, so I can knit the right front with the holes in the right places!

And….trying to study for an exam tomorrow too (history of medicine, modern period). The easy sleeve knitting is good for studying, though – I close my eyes and try to recite things, and can knit it with my eyes closed.

It’s beautiful again today. If I can finish this soon, I can wear it as a spring coat!

gratuitous log cabin photos

I’m so relieved, I can hardly tell you. I wrote my last exam for the session on Thursday afternoon and promptly went shopping. I really need to get my giftmas act together – I’m feeling the crafty vibe! I’m planning on making some cards and printing some wrapping paper, and I need to sew up some presents as well. Yay!

I finished up the Log Cabin blankie this week as well:

Log Cabin Blankie
Pattern: basics from Mason-Dixon Knitting; strips were about 10 ridges deep.
Needles: Denise US10
Yarn: All my own handspun, handdyed merinos! There’s a good couple of early ones in there, as well as oddballs that were completely used up (yay). It’s a whole lotta yarn!
Finished Size: approx. 48″ by 48″

How big is that?

Closeup. The fabric is nice and heavy.

And the back – quite neat, really. I knit in some ends as I went.

It’s just lovely. Just lovely.

squares are eating my brain

Ah, squares. So soothing and easy and fun. I’ve been planning a blanket out of the Pakucho organic cotton I’ve got, and here’s the start. Well, “planning” is a stretch; I’m just going to knit random squares until I run out of yarn. I only have a few skeins of the green (yeah, it’s green) so I’m doing striped ones with that, and then the rest will be solid cream. It’s going to be great.

Aaaaand again it’s the end of the weekend, and I’m tired and stressed and somewhat hungry (although I did have a big supper – roasted veg, veggie sushi, squash). I’m sort of wanting to cast on a new sweater, but at the same time wanting all my other projects to be done already! At the moment I’m finishing up a toe on a sock, which has been long neglected.

The grey cabled cardi has all its pieces done; it just needs tobe sewn up and the collar knit. I should do that soon, since although it’s very warm this week (16 C on Wednesday!) it’s going down to freezing and below by next weekend.

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the stash and the stack o’ projects, and yet I just keep being more inspired and adding stuff to the stash! Anyway, here’s an opinion question for you all – I’m going to knit a blankie (yeah, it’s a blankie epidemic over here) out of Socks that Rock from the stash. It’s all kind of random colourways, but I think it’ll work all together.

So – what kind of blankie do I do?
a) log cabin – one big square
b) log cabin – small squares
c) mitred squares
d) something else?

insert creative title

The log cabin blankie is growing; it’s really quite large now. I have this feeling that I might not stop until it’s actually big enough for say, the bed, but on the other hand I have a set amount of yarn now, and maybe I’ll just stop when it runs out.

Someone asked for a shot of the back – here tis:

Not too bad, where the ends are concerned. I’m knitting in half of the ends as I go – when I start a block, I knit in the tail from the new yarn. So when I’m done I’ll just chop those off and weave in the other half of the ends.

I don’t have much time to work on it right now, but I did finish that pink block on the right while my lentils were cooking last night. That yarn is not the greatest, but it was one of my earlier wheel efforts. Not bad, not bad.

I have so little of the grey cabled cardi to finish, but I don’t know when it’ll get done…I have so much to do!! Plus I just keep adding sweaters to my “to-knit” list. It’s nuts, I tells ya.

Skin and diet stuff:
Thanks for all the encouragement and stories. I’ve been going to doctors and using topical prescriptions for my entire life (that’s a whole lotta steroids) and decided it was time for a change. So off to the clinic at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine I went (they have great rates btw). This diet was prescribed by my doctor there, and I’ll be on it for two weeks. It’s been three days (today’s the fourth) and my hands already look better – it’s going to be interesting reintroducing the foods to see what makes them worse.

I’ve bought a lot of food to try and have stuff on hand for when I want to eat, but it’s been pretty tough. Especially resisting the cookies at last night’s snb! I did finally find something to help satisfy my sweet tooth (it appears I’m hopelessly addicted to sugar..): blueberries! Yum. Anyway, it’s going to be a big fat challenge, along with knitting and school deadlines, but hey, week one is half over.

file under: fast and easy

These days I’m all about the mindless knit most of the time (while reading), with more complex stuff thrown into the TV time (where I can actually look at a pattern). Easy-peasy: log cabin-ing!

My handspun log cabin is growing and dude, I love it. I’ve already added another layer+ since I took this photo. And it’s actually using up balls of handspun! I’m doing 10 ridges in each section, but if I run out of a colour I just add a couple ridges the next time I’m on that side to make up for it. I want this one pretty big, and I’m already starting to think that I might have to actually spin yarn for it. I’m already planning another out of pakucho cotton, maybe double stranded on huge needles for even more fast-ness.

In other fastest-ever news, I’m progressing so fast on the handspun top-down I showed yesterday that the next post about it will likely be an FO! I’m done the body and neck edging (just some single crochet), a sleeve, and am working on the other sleeve. Here’s hoping I divided that yarn equally, and the second sleeve will be the same length as the first one. Hooray for using up stash!