Cast On: Basic Gloves

I cast on this weekend for a pair of basic gloves, recipe from the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns (which, by the way, definitely needs to go on my “to-buy” list!). Knitting for me seems to happen in spurts – the last time I knit anything seriously was last January when I made a bunch of hats for a knit-along over on Ravelry.com. Yes, it was for the January Hat Trick in the hockey group… no one should be the least bit surprised by that!

These gloves are going to be hockey-themed, thanks to Brynna, who recently opened a shop on Etsy called Draygone Yarnes. I bought a skein of fingering-weight wool in the “Boston Bruins” colorway.

I’ve never knit with such fine yarn, but now have about 2 inches of ribbing done on the first glove. So far, so good!

Stay tuned for more progress photos next week.

Cutest Hat Ever

Thanks, Mags! I can’t wait for the season to start so I can wear this all the time.

A Hat Trick of Hats

Guess who started knitting again? That’s right, yours truly. After …mumble.grumble.shuffle.the.feet… a while, I was finally inspired to pick up the sticks and string again after reading about a knit-along over on the Puck This forum on Ravelry (requires login).

The goal of the knit-along? Knit three hats in the month of January. Since I’ve made a few hats, I know the amount of work that most of them would take and it seemed like a reasonable commitment. Besides, looking over all the other fantastic hats was pretty inspiring!

So without further ado, here are my three (so far) hats for the month of January.

Goal 1: Not the Carolina Hurricanes Hat, finished between two hockey games at a tournament we played in a couple of weeks ago. I’m a little nervous about taking photos of myself in hockey gear and a knitted hat, in case you can’t tell. AKA the Hurricane Hat.

Me, vaguely thuggish, in my extremely large shoulder pads, before playing a game

Amy and me, at dinner with the team on Saturday night

Goal 2: SCORE! Turn a Square – finished last weekend, knit on needles that were a little too small for the yarn (but the hat is thick, so it did what I wanted it to do). AKA Turn a Square.

Me, modeling the slightly-too-small-for-me hat

Amy, hat recipient, shoveling and not knowing I was taking her photo (aside: we’ve gotten a LOAD of snow this year!)

Goal 3: Kind of an Avs Hat (But Not Quite) – finished today, right before I headed to hockey practice. This yarn was a gift from my mom a few years ago and it’s 95% cashmere/5% lycra. I LOVE it! Of all three hats, this one is my favorite. AKA Robin’s Egg Blue Hat.

Traditional hat modeling self-portraits

Post-practice photo, no longer feeling as awkward about posing in hockey gear with knitting

Why did I do this? Well, given the way I play, combined with the position I play, it’s unlikely that I’ll get a HOCKEY hat trick anytime soon! I’m getting my hat tricks any way I can, and if I’m wearing hockey gear to get some laughs from the knitters when I take photos of the hats, I’m going to do it. It was fun and accomplishable. And it got me knitting again. Who can argue with that?

Carrots, Sticks, and Small Nothings

Apparently I need the specter of NaBloPoMo over my head to get me blogging every day. Or every week. Whatever. Kind of like Otter needs me to put treats on his nose so he’ll behave. (He hates me for this trick.)

Some small nothings for your entertainment this fine weekend:

Work: This semester has been a doozy – lots of stuff going on at work (mostly good) and lots of stuff going on at home (hockey, mostly). It’s kept me busy and exhausted most nights. I’m looking forward to the December break and January’s wintersession on campus. Our group has a bunch of mini-workshops lined up, the first time we’ve taught most of them. Wintersession gives us some time to test-run courses to see if they should go into regular rotation. We’ll see – I’m hopeful.

Married life: Amy and I have been horribly lazy last night and tonight. The sofa has buttprints in it.

Food: On Thursday night we went to eat at Ka Carlos, a Cape Verdean restaurant in Dorchester with our friends Lib and Steph!TP. The service was definitely on island time, but the food was good. We all shared sauteed octopus and friend yuca. Lib got a spicy shrimp and veggie dinner, Amy got a spicy cajun-like chicken dinner, Steph!TP got conch, and I somehow managed to order a Denny’s Grand Slam (without pancakes). It claimed to be Portuguese beef with eggs. I guess I didn’t read the menu very carefully because there were some words next to the English description which apparently meant “with a heart-attack sauce and french fries too.” Ah well, it was still pretty tasty, my arteries notwithstanding.

Dogs: Maggie and Otter are funny. Ever since their Thanksgiving kennel trip, Maggie’s been all chow-houndy. Normally she’s happy to sit back while Otter inhales his meals, eating only when she’s good and ready. He probably snarfed up all her food in the kennel, causing this backlash on her part. Whatever it is, I love watching the two of them eating at the same time. Otter’s so tall that when his tail wags it completely clears Maggie’s back.

Knitting: I started knitting again, on my Janda sweater. Finally did some frogging on the front piece, which I made too long. Finished that and cast on for both sleeves last night. The easiest way to make sure your sleeves are the same length? Knit them at the same time. No photos this time – alas – but perhaps in the morning when the light is better.

Speaking of knitting, I’d like to get back to it, maybe finish the cuffs tonight and start in on the actual sleeves themselves. It would be nice to finish this before 2008, given that I started it in 2006… Ack!

What Might Make Me Start Knitting Again

I’ve been majorly stalled on my knitting lately. Janda is still sitting upstairs, front done, back half-done, and sleeves and hood still in their pre-knitted form. I’ve got nothing else to speak of on the needles, and no real plans or inspiration either.

And then… then today I got an email from Ravelry.com inviting me to participate in their beta test (okay, me and about 2000 other knitters out there.)

Oh wow oh wow oh wow. What a fabulous amazing incredible site! They’ve really thought about how to create a site that will help knitters manage their projects, connect to other people who are making the same projects, and find inspiration for new projects.

This is an example of the “notebook” area (click to see it larger) which includes projects and all the other things you see listed on the left side. More screenshots are here.

If you’re a knitter or crocheter and want to find a good web-based management tool, go on and sign up for an invitation. Eventually you’ll get an invitation, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If and when you do, add me as a friend – my user name is librarygrrrl.