Attack of the Creeping Crud...and Photos!

Not of the creeping crud. And no self portraits as unfortunately I am not laying back gracefully amongst the pillows wearing a fetching bedjacket. Instead I'm propped up on pillows, nose dribbing everywhere, coughing every half second, with greaseball bedhead.

...I'm sure you really wanted to know all that.

Anyway, as promised, I have pictures of knitting, which I'm sure will be a much more welcome sight to all of you out there in blogland.

I also never did my update for the rest of August and the beginning of September which, well, really, there's not much to update. I worked on my yet-to-be named Koigu socks. I'm kind of thinking "Kasshabog Dusk", as the colours remind me of the colours you see at the cottage we rented a couple times on Lake Kasshabog in the Kawarthas, north of Peterborough. It could also be because while I was working on these socks Mom and Dad were headed up north to another cottage we used to go to and I wasn't. *pouts*

Anyway, I'm almost finished them as you can see in this photo. I'm probably going to start the ribbing soon as they're getting to about the length I like them. However, it also means that I still have the subject of the photo on the right: another entire skein of Koigu (in ball form, of course), as the store owner where I bought the yarn said with Koigu you needed 3 skeins for socks, unless you wanted ankle socks. My feet being of mammoth proportions, I bought the extra skein. Now I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. Lacy handwarmers maybe? Hold it together with the white cashmere/wool blend I was going to use to make myself handwarmers? I'm not sure. Will have to ponder this.

Meanwhile, have been working on a couple other things, of course. I've been doing some destashing by working on a scarf for donation. I had an entire skein of Paton's Shetland Chunky in a charcoal grey, as well as a skein of Naturally Tussock 8 ply in a charcoal grey with little tweedy flecks. Not enough to make a scarf from either alone but held together, and knit on gigantic needles, you get a proper adult-sized scarf. Am doing it in boring garter stitch, but it's going fast enough that I don't care about the boredom of the endless knitknitnknitknitknit... Besides, it's great for talking on the phone and knitting as I don't really need to pay too much attention to what I'm doing.


As for the stash additions, they're mainly single balls for testing out yarns I'd like to use for my first sweater, which I'd like to do sometime soon. Particularly as at the moment my LYS is still having a 40% off everything sale, which would certainly help a lot. The stuff I'd really like to use is Kathmandu DK, in this gorgeous deep plum/burgundy colour (which you...really can't see in the photo at all, unfortunately), with subtle flecks of red and beige. It just screams to be made into a warm, earthy-looking sweater (maybe cabled?) that would be great to cuddle into in fall. Only problem being that even with the sale, and considering how much I'd have to buy to cover my plus-size body, I'd have to be very careful with the pattern; ie. making it one that I Would Not Screw Up. And did I mention the part where I'd be making this pattern up?

There are a couple alternatives, other yarns I'd looked at that I don't remember the names of at the moment, and I'm too lazy and tired to get up off my perch and hunt down the ball bands for. But I am seriously in love with the Kathmandu. The others are nice and soft and very pretty colours (one burgundy, the other teal), but they're solids, and I love the tweedy look, especially as it's getting more into fall and getting cooler.

Eh, we'll see.

Only other news is that the Swallowtail Shawl is proceeding slowly, though I've only been working on it at occasional moments, when the urge takes me, so that's nothing to be surprised at. I also went through my knitting basket (well...one of them...) and took out a couple UFOs that I really need to work on--including a pair of socks, quel surprise. At the moment, though, I'm trying to finish up another pair of handwarmers in a lovely soft alpaca/wool blend. It'll only take a couple more hours' work to finish them, really, as they go so quickly. I'll post photos when they're done but if you're curious, they look the same as the green ones I did back in April.

Other than the couple balls here and there I'm just trying to save up my $$ for the Creative Sewing And Needlework Festival in Toronto in a month's time. I really want to go this year as I missed both the spring and fall shows the last couple years, and besides, I need to scope out more laceweight...and maybe more Koigu. And some Trekking XXL. Because you can never have too much sock yarn, right?

Oh! And have completely forgotten to mention here that my boss approached me a while back about doing a knitting program at the library and it's scheduled to start in a couple weeks. It's for 12 to 18-year-olds and while there was only one person signed up the last time I saw the sheet, I got an email from one of my coworkers to say that someone else signed up the other day and mentioned that a bunch of homeschoolers they knew would probably be signing up too. More news on that front as I have it. Anyone have any advice for beginner knitters that you think I should pass along? I plan to try and get across that there's nothing to be scared of in knitting, that everything will feel awkward at first and smoothness just comes with practice.

And now off to listen to the new Cast On and get myself some more cough syrup. Fun.