It slices, it dices, it can save the world!

Ok, not really. But the seemingly never-ending Chevron Scarf is finished. Ends have been woven, and the scarf has been blocked (yes, you do need to block it even if the pattern doesn't explicitly state that. Otherwise it puckers, for obvious reasons.)



There's not that much I can really say about it. It's a simple, boring knit. Size 5 needles. 2 skeins Lorna's Laces. Knit until you run out of yarn. It took me about 3 weeks of working on it sporadically. Mindless, but the final result is kind of pretty, although too thin. Reminds me a bit of the marbleized endpapers you find in old books. It's rather purple, and a little moody, but I could see myself wearing this with a black sweater. I won't be going out of my way to make this again, but I would consider making one for a friend if she asked for one. I did use up some stash that I wanted to go away.

And just for fun, this is an in progress shot of the Rib and Cable sock that just seems to have happened. Simple, but with enough going on to keep it from being totally boring. This is my wandering around knitting, something I throw in my bag for spare moments.



Juno Regina is the current television knitting. I've knit about 6" of the 42" of a two-line pattern repeat. I have a feeling this will be sitting next to me for a while.

Oh, and if you were wondering about the last post - it's not me, but I don't really want to talk about it, at least not now.

Garage sales and living rooms

Clearly, it's still not done, and I'm getting kind of bored with it. The nice thing about the pattern is that it's so completely mindless that you can work on it anywhere, at any time. So my scarf has been worked on with my morning coffee, while listening to NPR, during the 10 minute intervals between doing something in the lab, while watching TV. But still, not done.

I have no idea why it's so important to me to finish this one over other things. Finishing my sweater would be less effort and more rewarding, but I never said I made any sense.

I guess the weekend is over already, and I spent most of it in the lab. I had really hoped to do more cooking, but I ended up out of the house for more hours than I had anticipated. I really wanted to make brownies, as I like chocolate very much. However, I forgot to get ice cream, and I figure if I'm going to make brownies with chocolate sauce, I might as well get ice cream to go with it. I still got to something though - in the oven right now is a pan of breakfast bars from Nigella Express. The recipe is extremely simple, essentially having you throw a bunch of solids into a bowl, mix with condensed milk, plop in a pan and bake for an hour. They're not done yet, but they smell good. Photos and a report on the taste tomorrow, when there's some light in my house, and if I have time to post after I run.

Elizabeth posted about recent kerfluffles regarding rude comments, and whether or not a blog was like a garage sale or a living room. I was somewhat surprised to find out that I have an opinion about this. I don't think I would ever tell someone their knitting sucked, but if they asked, I would (and I think I have) commented that a color combination isn't for me. I don't think it's the nicest thing to tell someone what they're knitting is fugly, and I don't know that I would do it. But I wish there was more constructive commentary on blogs. I think the lovefests on blogs get to be a bit much. I don't think everything I see other people knitting is great, and I've certainly cranked out some crap. I've still got a lot to learn, and I wouldn't mind it if people suggested better ways of doing something, or a means of fixing a problem that I may not be aware of. The key word here is constructive. Criticism is a big part of my job, and it's not always a negative thing. I do think it can be a challenge to find the balance between saying something overly critical and useless, being sycophantic, and actually providing constructive critique. I should do this more myself. I've gotten out of the habit of commenting. Blogging too.

Oh - but just for the record - I still can't stand the comments on how one should blog. The blog isn't my hobby, neither is photography. I don't have a great camera, I'm barely home when it's light out, and well, I'd rather knit than write or take pictures of my knitting. Nor do I really want to be told how often I should post or what topics I should or shouldn't address. Many options are out there. Read or don't read as you choose.

Small and blurry photos

Of small and blurry finished things.




Top photo is the first sock in the new Cat Bordhi book. Neat construction, strangely written instructions. I might knit a second sock, I might not. My level of motivation to make a baby-sized sock is pretty low, at least at the moment. On the bright side, it didn't take very long, despite feeling a bit fiddly.

Bottom photo - speaking of fiddly, a miniature sweater knit out of leftover sock yarn. No, I don't know why. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I have a second one in progress out of more sock yarn, but I stalled at the second sleeve and forgot I was knitting it. Mini sweaters take about an hour, pattern slightly modified from the one in LMKG. I'll get a better photo once I finish the second sweater, add something for scale.




Most of the knitting this past weekend was the Chevron Scarf. Mindless knitting that required no brain power, but was good for nervous hands. Something I could do over the weekend while not feeling so hot.