Good News... and Bad News

Bad news first:
Don't ever entrust me with your camera, because there's a good chance I'll break it. Ugh. It's been two months, and I've broken both our cameras. Number one was an old school, rather large, unpretentious Canon digital camera, which I bought a couple of years ago after I had broken (!) a very nice, very posh, very fancy teeny tiny Canon. Number two belonged belongs to Monsieur; he was kind enough to lend it to me after I had massacred number one. Wanting to take pictures of an FO tonight, I noticed number two must have died since our last play date (Sunday?): it no longer worked. This is inexplicable to me; I neither dropped either camera nor did I harm them in any other way. Now I'm camera-less, which breaks my heart ever so slightly. *sigh*

Good news:
I finished the Basalt Tank. Given the bad news (see above), I wasn't able to take pictures of it other than with the iPhone and the laptop camera, and the quality is rather... poor (it doesn't help that I'm sticking out my tush and have post-swimming hair):

These are pictures of the pre-washed tank; in the meantime, the top has gotten its bath and is currently drying. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing tragic will happen to its size. I like it as it is!

I post specs on the blog and/or Ravelry once I've coped with the loss of the camera (and have gotten some sleep).

Le week-end dernier

I watched the lilies bloom.
I knitted many Icarus stitches.
I took my silver clutch and went to a chorus concert.
I finished the first hexagon of the Basalt Tank.

And I learned how to create a photo mosaic:

1) Lilies. Fresh flowers remind me of my mother. She always has several vases around the house filled with them. One thing I immediately noticed when I moved to the U.S. was that fewer people care for fresh flowers. At home we frequently give flowers, certainly at all special occasions, but also when invited to dinner parties or when meeting someone new, and sometimes for no particular reason at all. With the exception of New York City (of all places), I noticed that flowers cost a lot more in the U.S. Hopefully my husband and I will eventually move into a house with a garden; I want a garden to grow my own herbs and vegetables, but mostly I want to plant flowers.

2) Icarus. The past few days occasionally made me think of Penelope, who, after a day's worth of weaving, spent the night unweaving her husband's burial cloth, in order to keep her suitors at bay (whom she promised to face once the cloth was done). Of course, my story is hardly as tragic, although having to tink (to un-knit) provoked a few dramatic scenes (in which I took the part of a sailor, swearing like one). In charts 2, 3, and 4, sequences of "2tog (...) ssk" suddenly become "ssk (...) 2tog," and I missed the change every single time! The shawl has developed its own geography: the pattern has grown little hills on the wrong side. Cute!

3) Sunday. I went to this season's last concert of Coro Allegro, my very favorite classical music chorus that performs several times a year in Boston's Church of the Covenant. Among other pieces by American composers, the chorus's very talented (and hard-working) singers performed Ronald Perera's "Why I Wake Early," which is based on poems by New England poet Mary Oliver and involves frogs, bats, crows, ponds and rain. I loved it!

4) Hexagon. Whenever tinking Icarus became too painful, I did a couple of rows of the Basalt Tank as therapy. The plain stockinette and garter stitches were soothing enough.

Plan, Travel, Knit

Here's an update on those projects I'm planning to knit on my trip to New Mexico. (Mind you, these are not real WIP's yet... this is all part of the planning stage. I haven't actually started knitting yet. Nope.)

One...

Searching for a pattern for those toe-up, two-at-a-time socks, I played around a bit, trying Wendy's Sprucey Lucy design, among other things. However, since I want to take the socks on the plane and don't feel confident memorizing charts (not yet anyway), I ended up frogging and started over again. Inspired by the eyelet columns of the Icarus shawl, I decided on the same columns, with ribbing in between: for 33 stitches across the foot, the pattern is something like this: (p, k, 2tog, yo, k, yo, ssk, k) four times, ending with an extra purl stitch. A real no-brainer. I think it will look nice... the yarn is so pretty, a simple stockinette stitch would probably do the trick as well.

Now that I established the pattern I won't touch those socks until I'm on the plane Friday next week! (Promise! Really! Won't touch... no no no. Memo to self: no!)

...Two...

I figured out (duh!) that reading a chart is much, much easier than following written instructions, simply because the chart gives you a visual clue on what's going on, preventing silliness (i.e., mistakes). So I transcribed the instructions into a chart. Knitting the stole will be a breeze now.

...Three!

I cast on those 212 stitches for the linen tank (Norah Gaughan's Basalt Tank). Using the continental cast on method, the meaning of "measure the yarn, 2 cm per stitch" (for the tail) became clear: I didn't measure, and I met the end of the tail at around 190 stitches. So I cast on again... The yarn is a bit funny to work with, 'cause it has an almost plastic feel to it, but I love the color!

Now that all is good order, I can simply pack those three projects and go to New Mexico! (We'll see how much knitting I'll actually get done on the trip... I have a record of planning which five or six books to read while on vacation, returning home with a bunch of unread books. That reminds me... which books am I going to read on the trip...?)

New Mexico Dreamin'

This blog post is dedicated to my wonderful mom-in-law, who sent me an email this morning saying that she reads (and likes!) this blog and makes all the ladies in her office read it as well. Thank you so much, J. And greetings to the ladies in your office!

My hubs' parents live fairly far from us, and we don't get to see them very often. This year we've been planning a trip for the four of us to different places in New Mexico, where my mom-in-law will paint en plein air (she's a very good pastel artist). I'll knit on her side, and the men will engage in physically more strenuous outdoors activities (or so they say). At night, we'll count stars and share stories... I'm very, very excited about this trip, especially since it's coming up really soon: we're leaving in two-and-half weeks! (I'll get to pop by La Lana Wools! How cool is that?)

For a while now I've been daydreaming about all the knitting I'll get done on our vacation, and I've decided on these different projects that I'll take along:

1) A new pair of socks, toe-up and two-at-a-time (!!!), made with Malabrigo sock yarn in a really cool color (green-blue-purple; the colorway is called Indiecita); 2) the Children of Lir stole I discovered last week, in the purple Malagbrigo Lace yarn I brought back from Ithaca; 3) a summer garment made of a linen yarn.

As for 1) and 2), I couldn't help myself but cast on, just to get a feel for it... Here are a few pictures of my beginnings. Note that for the socks I only advanced as far as the toe caps: I still need to decide on a pattern (help me, please!). I've also done one repeat of the stole pattern to get an idea what it looks like.

I love to work with Malabrigo yarn! Although I must say that hand winding the lace yarn was a bit of a drama that took a whooping two hours. The yarn was full of little knots and a bit fleeced where it had been on the outside of the skein. Maybe that's why it was on sale. My big thanks to yarn stores that let you me use their ball winder and swift!

As for project #3: I've tried to knit one sweater-type garment before, and the result was disappointing (remember the cardigan that came out huge?). Now I'm slightly intimidated to give a second one a shot. However, I really love Norah Gaughan's Basalt Tank, and I have enough of Gedifra Korella yarn to make it. Should I... will I...? I need to build up courage to embark on this little adventure.

Those are the projects I'll be taking to New Mexico with me. I'd like to finish the Icarus Shawl before going there; after all, I had picked the yarn with the colors of New Mexico in mind, envisioning myself wearing it in Taos and Santa Fe... I've made decent progress: I finished five pattern repeats and could start with the feather edging, however, I'll add more pattern repeats before doing so, to make it a really big shawl.

I had a moment yesterday where I felt slightly guilty for casting on and planning three projects while having four or five projects on the needles already. Then I remembered the lady who works at my LYS: she told me she's had 47 projects going at one point. Let's spell this out: forty-seven. FORTY-SEVEN. I gave her a funny look and mumbled that I didn't have that many needles. She laughed and said she had hundreds of needles. Well, I guess, if you work in a yarn shop... How many projects do you currently have on your needles?