N=4

Monday already? 4 days left to finish packing, run the errands, and head for the hills. If I buckle down today, I can probably get the bulk of it finished.

I'm still hanging on to this as my excuse for being a less than motivated blogger. That, plus not too much knitting going on.

This is my latest - ages and ages ago, I started the Lizard Ridge Afghan from Knitty. Still think it's a cool pattern. Still love the color effect. Think it's a beautiful thing. Will never, ever, ever attempt to knit it again.





I completed about 6 squares of the blanket before giving up. Then I used the rest of the yarn into a garter stitch blanket. I kept 4 of the squares from the original project, and blatantly copied an idea I saw on Ravelry. I seamed the 4 squares together, then started seaming them together at the corners. My seams are wonky, but it's a pillow, and doesn't show that much. (I used mattress stitch, more or less.) When I was almost done, I folded some batting into a shape close to the pillow, stuffed it inside, and them jammed polyfill into the pillow until it was roughly pillow shaped. I finished seaming, then attached 2 buttons to the front and back of the pillow to give it a more interesting shape and to hide the join at the center front. It worked pretty well, although evidently I kept my first square attempt at LR, which has some interesting interpretations of short rows. It's not really obvious though, and the colors hide a lot of sins.

I am actually very fond of the pillow, but I don't have the patience for a project of the scale of the afghan. I strongly prefer the afghan in lots of shades of Kureyon.

Back to packing - the end is in sight. I can't tell if I'm taking hardly anything, or way too much crap. Something inbetween, probably.

Time for changes.

I'm feeling like a lazy blogger, but I want to get back to blogging. Hence, a collection of random bullets.

• It's Friday, and since my ersatz boss is a) on vacation for the next 2 weeks and b) as of 2 weeks from now no longer my boss, I'm taking some extra time this morning. I have almost nothing to do for the last period of time. Mostly cleaning up, documenting things, and transferring a little bit more of what I know. In general - as little as I can possibly get away with.
• I'm not going to say anything more than I'm glad that it's over.
  
• I have a whole weekend ahead of me, and a little less than a month before I start my new adventure. I probably need to get going on the packing.
• One of my biggest tasks has been checking to see that I have PDF files of all the research articles I own and recycling the paper copies. I have 1 file drawer left to go through, but I have reduced my paper weight by at least 1/3 already.
  
• Summer of Socks '09 has started, but I haven't knit any socks recently. I completed another garter stitch square for my ever-growing afghan. I'd like to finish 3 more, then it will "just" need to be put together.
• On my list of things I would like to accomplish before I leave town, I have a sweater that needs seaming, and my tangled-yoke cardigan could easily be finished in a week.
• I'm planning on giving away some of my yarn, either to Goodwill or to the school district for using in art classes. I have some single balls of stuff that I will never knit, don't like, and don't want. And no, it's not stuff I'm going to gift away on the blog - I'm terrible about going to the post office, and trust me, you don't want this either.
• I don't really feel like going to work today, despite knowing it will be much much less stress than usual.
• Thanks to the tutorial on Yarn Harlot's blog, I realized I have been picking up stitches incorrectly in garter stitch. Makes much more sense her way, but I'm completing my blocks the way I've been knitting them anyhow.
  
• I'm running out of things to say, but I've got some ideas for other posts (and photos) that I'll try to get to this weekend.
  

I see squares.

Lots of squares.

At last count, there were 14 of them. I'm knitting #15 now.

I'm shooting for 20, which will require a lot of seaming. This may wait until after I move.

Have I mentioned the move? Slightly more than a month away. I'm ignoring it as much as I can. Did I mention I was knitting squares? I watched North and South, the one with Richard Armitage, not anything starring Kirstie Alley. He's not hard on the eyes.


Does that make up for a not that exciting blog post?

If I were more focused

I could probably have more finished things to show off on the blog. But, instead of finishing a sock or three, instead of finishing Ishbel (did I mention I started that?), instead of finishing a sweater or a lace scarf or 3, I knit square things.



This is one of those very polarizing projects - you're either going to love it or hate it. I've noticed that Noro is a yarn that people have strong feelings about. Sort of like posts on Ravelry about dpns vs. magic loop. Right now, this is the best thing ever for me to knit. Yes, all garter stitch. Log cabin blogs, from the instructions in Mason-Dixon Knitting. Gauge? Approximate. My tension is variable. The last 2 days, I was clearly more tense than the first 2 days I was knitting this. The blocks are smaller. Decidedly so. I'm not going to explain why, I'm just going to keep knitting square-ish things.

I originally was planning to make the Lizard Ridge afghan. I have the yarn for it, but I like it better this way. It's not subtle, it's not delicate. It's a large-scale project, it may look very home-made, and I don't care. I know the seaming is going to suck. I know knitting and quilting are different media, and perhaps should stay separate. Regardless, I'm totally entertained by watching how the colors play out in each block, and thrilled by the fact that I can crank one of these out in a day or so, with little time or brainpower invested. I need something bright, cheerful, and simple right now. This puppy fits the bill.

More later, but for now, I'm back to making square things.

ETA:(Oh, and the color here? Totally wacky. This thing is so bright it blasts out my camera. I'll try again in the daytime.)