October goals and successes

I'm doing this a bit early, because I am just wishing November 1st would hurry up and arrive. More on that in a mo.

I had two projects for October, the pseudo-Jack pullover and the Slytherin Jaywalkers, both for Arthur! And both are proceeding well, but not as quickly as one would like.

The sweater is a really nice thing to work on: not fiddly, 4.5 mm needles, so progress is visible, lovely cotton yarn in a great colour. I've got the body and half a sleeve done. I could indeed finish this by the end of October, if I put my mind to it, and I'd really like to do that!

Arthur refused to drape himself in the pieces, so you'll just have imagine sweater bits, and enjoy the sock.

So much for Socktoberfest!


The reason I am eager for November 1 is that then I am going to New York! I am going to meet Pixie (read all about it here!) and a bunch of other moms of 10-year-olds! Plus I want to go out on the Brooklyn Bridge, see the Chrysler Building, do a spot of shopping, see a museum or two, and just wander around. I am staying at a hovel in Greenwich Village, which promises to be interesting.

Now, not only am a wondering what knitting to take (carry-on acceptable, not fussy) but I also need a book. Any recommendations for things to read in New York? I need the Manhattan of books.

History lesson

Once upon a time, if you wanted to get a message to your colleague, you would have to actually use a pen and write words! Then go down the hall to the office to put the note in their mail box. All that trouble, you might as well just talk to them! My dad retired (ack!) 24 years ago, and still has a pad of Interdepartmental Memorandum paper. We always used to have this around the house. I think there were also big pages, for those really long memos. Now I happen to know that people just e-mail each other, "Lunch?"

And yes, this is a clever ploy to divert you from the lack of real knitting progress.

Not really!?

Just in case we need some evidence in a bit, here's proof that it's fall here. Lovely red leaf, having fallen from a tree. I walked past this the other day to go shopping downtown.

I had to venture into The Bay to find a pair of shoes. I still have the great power of picking out a $200 purse while just browsing through the store. And I still hate shopping for shoes. I ended up finding a pair of Rockports in the men's department, and I found that Arthur and I wear the same size shoes! Yipes.

But, that's not what I want to show you today! It's getting chilly and there were, of course, scarves and mitts for sale; there were big coats and woolly sweaters; and there were... aaack! Christmas trees!

In the middle of October! Oh heavens! Really, it's nowhere near time for this!

Socktoberfest progress

Man, have you seen these socks?! Wowza!

I am plugging away at the Slytherin Jaywalkers.

I have a couple of evenings a week where I have to hang around for an hour waiting for kids (tonight, baking and pastry class!) and that is when I tend to work on them.

I'm glad I used the zigzag pattern, because they would be a tad dull just plain. I'm not sure if we'll go for the blue toe as well as heel or not.


At home, it's the green sweater... I'm on the first sleeve and I seem to have misplaced my cable needle again!

I always buy the two-pack -- one big, one little. So I now have 3 little ones and no big ones. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

Ah well, it's only once every 10 rows, so I don't have a problem doing it without a cable needle.

Put this on my Christmas list

I once told you that I often look at the Daily Photo sites. I don't do it as much these days, but I always look in on London, London Nature and Paris. These three are always good, often amazing! There are a ton more! And Cambridge has one, but the last time I'd looked, things were sparse. Ho, ho, the reason for that has now been revealed: the author has been busy with reprinting The Night Climbers of Cambridge.

One of the things that we liked to think of as we strolled about in Cambridge was climbing the buildings.

Poor old Henry VIII lost his sceptre some time ago and has been holding a chair leg ever since. Who did that? Someone who climbed up there!

There are funny little spikes up high here and there, and they're useless for pigeons, but would be good at deterring an undergrad, and were perhaps installed because of the folks (I think all men) who wrote this book. They climbed the towers of King's College Chapel and can be called experts in their chosen field.

I like the very clever naughtiness of it all -- I wonder if they worked as hard at other things! In any case, I shall keep my eye out for the book on this side of The Pond. (Stephen says he once saw this book for sale in an used bookshop in Cambridge; it was an original edition and a couple of hundred pounds!)

Saturday sky

Taken early in the morning from the top deck. Now, at noon, the grey has completely chased away that bit of blue.

WIP Wednesday

Ah, more pictures of half-done knitting. Taken indoors on a grey day, sorry!

The green pullover.

It's quite fun and quick, and I'm pretty sure it'll be done at the end of the month. The cotton is nice and soft, with a bit of nubbly texture and the colour is just the perfect Kermit green!


And the Jaywalkers.

I am attempting to not mess up the stripe pattern around the heel, so am making the actual heel of a different yarn.

Not so Slytherin-like this way, but, I hope, neater. I'd like to get these done this month, too.

I'll work on these tonight while watching the election results come in.

Eye Candy Sunday?

I just wanted to show you this wet morning glory. Last night it poured rain, like a river falling on the house! After a summer with half the rain we usually get, it was quite an event.

Eye Candy Friday

My pink chrysanthemum. Soon, you'll be getting fall leaves!

Socktoberfest

Well, I love a button!

So, since I am knitting socks, and it is October, I will get me a Socktoberfest button! (I found this on the Flickr group.)


I will certainly enjoy watching everyone else knitting socks, as well!

These are yarn-brothers to the ill-fated red and blue ones, one of which I lost this summer. I'm doing the Jaywalker, but since people have had trouble with the fit of them, I'm making the big size, and doing the increases with yarnovers, rather than knitting front and back in one stitch, to maybe make them more stretchy. They are, of course, Slytherin socks, emerald and silver, though you might think they are just green and white! (We really all belong in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, but I only found Slytherin yarn, so there.)

And these chrysanthemums just appeared in the box on the back deck! I guess we planted them there last fall, but can't really remember. They often don't come back, but we were lucky this time, I guess.

September knitting goal score sheet

September's goals:

1. Finish the Basalt Tank.


Ah. No.












2. Finish the pink blotch socks...


Hooray for me! I did it, I did it!











3. Grey lacy gloves for me.



Nope.












4. The green pullover for Arthur.
Getting there. Halfway up the front, perhaps. Stay tuned.

I'm beginning to see the wisdom of "one thing at a time." I always used to knit that way, but lately I've been all over the place with projects. By the end of October I'll try to have Arthur's sweater done, and, oops, I did start another pair of socks, for Socktoberfest!

And guess what I'm doing at the beginning of November?! I'll need plane knitting, and holiday knitting, because I am going to New York, New York to visit with Pixie and a bunch of others! There'll be much nattering about children, and I hope a morning (or day!) of yarn and fabric shopping, perhaps enabled by Kay! Oh, need new shoes, must get a teeny tube of toothpaste... and dang, what shall I knit!?