Sunday, March 30, 2008

too early in the season...

to have a cold. one walk in the brisk morning air on thursday and i come down with something nasty. its not a full blown flu but enough to be annoying. people told me when i finished the pensky i could expect to come down with some evil sickness but i have been spared till now. at least now i feel like my mental malaise is at least somewhat justified!

i am still struggling a bit on that front, it is a difficult transition to make and i think i expected the whole world to be changed by my doing a phd but it has not, and applying for jobs is proving difficult as i am still less than enthusiastic about academic life. i am trying to focus on its personal advantages, but even my own once innovative theoretical ideas seem not really worth fighting for anymore. but i am putting one foot in front of the other hoping that enthusiasm of some sort will return.

i am enjoying the rest of my guilt free life immensely however, and i think i am actually reaching the stage of being guilt free now. i have settled into a bit of a personal time-management rhythm (altho slightly disrupted with illness this week) which includes walking dogs, eating properly, enjoying flyball, and knitting! ah yes, the knitting.

i am pleased to announce the latest Finished Object, and i am glad to have these finished in time for the end of SSoS - the Fancy Silk Socks:


once i came back to these with a clear head they were a dream. they are delicious on, the pattern feels lovely and the yarn is gorgeous. i will put full details over on the sock blog.

i am about 19 centimetres into the leg of the first of trents lichen rib socks in burrawool but it has been delayed because i am now quite addicted to the shetland triangle:


there is an issue however, that because you increase by 4 stitches every row, and its a 10 row repeat, when you get around to the second, third, fourth repeats etc, you need to do multiples of the red-squared 'pattern repeat' section. this is the bit that makes the fir cones:

but it doesnt say how many times to do it for every row, of course, and i am finding that when i do as many as i can, i sometimes dont have enough stitches left before the centre stitch say, to do the normal specified stitches in each row. that doesnt make sense without me showing you what i mean on the chart. i have figured out which are the important stitches to do, eg, always a yarn over on either side of the centre stitch, so i am concentrating more on making sure the stitches for the fir cones are lined up, and i think for the most part it is working. there is one part i can see i have botched a bit, but i am not ripping this one back. this is my practice shawl - it has no lifelines and i am working without stitch markers, and once its blocked i doubt very much you will see the bits where i knitted four instead of three, or knitted two together where i had one too many! it is a lovely pattern though and will make a beautiful shawl.

now im off to eat eggs and drink orange juice and rest some more. hope you canberrans are enjoying your frosty mornings!

k xxx

7 comments:

Michelle said...

No frosts yet, but I was a tad frozen riding into work last Thursday morning!

The socks are STUNNING. They make me wish I liked knitting.

Enjoy your time as it is right now. The right job and the right decision for you will come in time! As Frankie said, Relax.

Anonymous said...

Oh!! I just started the Swallowtail Shawl for my aunt yesterday and it is the same with their chart too: a little box around the repeats. But, once I had the shape of the pattern, I was pretty OK. I have no lifelines either. It is my first shawl. I love the colours in yours, mine is just plain blue!!!

Bells said...

i had similar problems with the forest canopy shawl - but worked hard to keep the spine, as I liked to call it, consistent.

It's looking fab!

And good work on the socks. Lovely to see them finally done without stress.

Rose Red said...

Lovely knitting - socks and shawl both. Good to hear you've gotten into a habit, it's very easy to slip into bad ones (like me - on the computer all morning, have a shower at lunchtime or later etc).

lilypotter said...

Love the socks and the shawl. Both have such nice colors in them.

Hope you feel better soon!

Denise said...

Hope you're feeling better soon - and it's not surprising you're feeling pretty burn out about academia. Just take it a day at a time, as you say.

Great socks, and the shawl is wonderful too! The pattern looks pretty bloody good to me, I'm sure no-one will notice any slight 'mishaps'.

TinkingBell said...

Hi!!! I'm back and catching up!! _ Hope you're feling better! Love the silk socks and adore the gorgeous nepalese red bag (covet covet!) How wonderful to get congratulatory presents from knitters(I think knitters are wonderful too!) and well done on the whole winning at Sydney Show - did you just want to burst with pride?