Even with everything it really was good to have Matt here - he was in town (from France, where he is working in Toulouse) for just over a week visiting Berkeley for his prospective grad student's weekend, so his parents took advantage of the fact that he was here to visit too. In the end the atmosphere on campus, the proximity of his friends from undergrad and his brother, combined with the glorious weather we have been having (70's and 80's most days) may have convinced him that this is the place. He'll make his final decision in April - I know what Nathan is pushing for!
When I could find some quiet time I did take advantage of it to just sit, read and knit and try to get myself back on track. I finished winding the ball of t-shirt yarn just before everyone descended (pushing myself to get it done and out of the way seemed easier than trying to explain what on earth I was doing with all those bits and pieces of clothing). In the end, the ball weighed over 3 pounds and needed its own basket to be contained while I worked!
I have been slowly plugging away at this, trying to get through a color a day if I can. It's harder to knit anything more than that with the giant size 19 needles, which start to hurt my hands after a while. I actually think I should be working with 17's since the rug is turning out to be HUGE - it is already 3' long and I am only at color 9 of 17! I decided to take out the grey 'yarn' - the only non-color color - and will use that instead for a crocheted border. It does seem the rugh will need something like that to finish it off. It is interesting though to see how the different t-shirts knit up. Some are ribbed and sort of scratchy, others soft and wanting to curl, some with side seams that stick out randomly and some made from a single tube of fabric that just flows through the fingers. Definitely a different knitting experience overall!In breaks from working on the rug I have also been steadily making progress on my Lady E and am up to row 20 - over half-way there! The good news is that the extra yarn from Handmaiden finally arrived . The not so good news is that it is, of course, a slightly different dyelot and is definitely more pink that the original skeins I had:
I am disguising this shift not so very well by using the new pinker yarn for the center sections, planning to go back to the original darker yarn for the final edge. My hope is that only the people who see me from the side will see the difference between the two!
My major progress, though, was with my Argosy scarf which just flew by and is now complete! And this time I really did manage to use up all the yarn, with no more leftovers from my leftovers project. This is all that is left! In the end the big foot really isn't noticeable with everything all together so I think my changes worked out well if I do say so myself! How do you think it compares to the original?
I'm glad to see that we both managed to complete scarves over the past few weeks - is that the same pattern that you used for the scarf to match my first-ever sweater? I really like the way it falls. But while I know what the IODE is, I'm pretty sure you're not one, so I'm a little confused about that part! I'm sure they will be more than thrilled with your contribution in any case, though, even if it does come from one of those questionable American types...
Your dyeing class seems like it was a lot of fun too. I have 9 skeins of wool that need to be overdyed (given to me because they needed to be overdyed so there were no other takers) so I definitely have incentive to learn. If only my kitchen weren't so small - I feel as if any mistakes could have major impact on all the surrounding surfaces! I've thought of trying Kool-Aid dying since that seems to be pretty straightforward. We'll see if I ever build up the nerve.
Right now I have cast on for some dishcloths to keep me occupied while I try to make some headway on my two big projects and think about my next small project. It should be socks given all the sock yarn I have recently picked up but with the warm weather we've been having socks don't seem all that appropriate. I think I will just have to wait for the weather to shift and the fog to roll back in.
In the meantime I am loving the fact that it is warm enough to actually sit on the deck in the sun - we even had a bar-b-que on Monday with Matt, the first time we have had it on since we moved here (usually it is just too windy to be outside in the evening where we are). I even picked up a really pretty Jade tree at a plant sale at the SF Botanical Garden on Saturday. Feels like summer - I love it!Happy knitting,
Megan
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