Oh, and a wrap-up:

"Start-over" projects finished:

Bloom from Knitty
the Neapolitan socks
the Stansfield 27 scarf
the really bright Retro-Rib socks

Stalls broken on
Crochet Totoro
Landscape shawl

Progress made on
Kenobi
U-Necked vest

Didn't even touch
the crochet blanket
the quilts
Samus
Cozy

And now, it's November. And I'm giving myself license to start some new things. I wound off the Noro Iro last night and cast on for the Lady Detective Hat - this looks to be a fairly fast knit. I want to do this one because I can take it (either in-progress or finished) with me when I go visit my folks over Thanksgiving (less than 2 weeks! I go in less than 2 weeks!) and can look through the buttons and buckles and stuff from my grandma's and see if there's a buckle that will work. (And if not? There's Sewing Studio with their wonderful dressmaker supplies).

I also photographed some of my "stash" and posted it on Ravelry. Not sure how much of this I will do; I might put up some of the more "unusual" yarns (the ones not widely available everywhere) or the yarns I bought for one thing and decided I didn't want to use for it - so I can "browse patterns" and see what else I could do with it.

I dug out the skein of Mer-Made from Blackberry Ridge to photograph it. It's sitting on the desk next to me now, tempting me to try casting on something from it. I might browse slipped-stitch patterns - this is another VERY busy variegated and I'm coming to the conclusion that they need something like slipped stitches to quiet them down.

I was originally planning on doing (I think it was) the New England Socks out of Knitting on the Road - but I'm not sure how the yarn and a lace pattern will work together. I might just do another pair of the "classy slip-ups" slipped stitch socks from "Knit Socks!"

Well, I chose EricaFillyjonk as my Ravelry name. Sadly, I will not have time to upload much to it this week - Thursday and Friday I have meetings to go to, and Saturday I have other commitments.

(Okay - spent a few moments making a queue of a few things. And hunting down a few "friends" - which feels odd to me; I'm so out of the whole social-networking loop thing that...well, it just feels odd.

I added a couple people I could find right away (because I knew their "handles" as friends. Please do not be hurt or insulted because I haven't added you [that's one of the reasons I find social-networking sites uncomfortable; there's too much potential for things to devolve into bad memories of grade school and not-getting-invited-to-birthday-parties])

It looks like it will take considerable time to make my page pretty.

And man, what a fun time-suck. I've also been playing with the "library" function - not that it serves a purpose outside of boasting "look at what I have!" - it's still fun. Kind of like a very slow-paced video game for knitters.

****

On to the photos!

First off:

Totoro lives!



Well, almost. I got the body all done last night and put the eyes on - you have to do it before stuffing the thing. And I started the belly - which is next to him in the picture.

I think the next amigurumi I make will be of tightly-spun acrylic yarn. I think one of the reasons I got so frustrated with this is that I was using a heathered color of wool-ease ("blue mist"), which, although it's a great Totoro color, splits like a monster, and is hard to work with.

I also have some shots of the Stansfield 27 scarf:



Here is a full-length shot; it took just about 2 skeins of Cascade 220. I just knit and knit in pattern until I had completed a pattern repeat and realized I'd not have enough yarn for another one. It has 3 garter stitches along each edge and 3 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and end to "frame" it and also cut down on the rolling.



It does roll a little, though, but that's kind of nice because it makes it easier to tie and it enhances its insulating properties.

And here's a closeup of the stitch pattern:



So: one "Start-ober" project finished, one with a major stall broken on it.

Another project that had stalled, which I have pulled back out and re-started, is the Landscape Shawl.



This will probably be the last in-progress shot - not because I am so very close to being done (I just started the Moss Stitch pattern, and that's only the next-to-the-last pattern on the shawl, and there are 60 sts of that to be made, and then 60 sts of, IIRC, reverse stockinette). But it will be the last in-progress shot because, if you look closely, you will see I have it on the very LONGEST circular I own (which may well be the longest size of circular that's available ready-made*), and very soon it's going to get all bunchy so it won't lie nice and flat for a photo.

No, I don't feel like using 2 circulars. I'd rather have it a little bunched up while I knit on it and only have to worry about two points where stitches could drop off (and besides: if you have two circular needles that "midpoint" where the stitches are is a perilous place - ripe for dropping stitches.)

(*And it occurs to me that if there are shops that could custom-make circular needles - it probably wouldn't be so hard if you could get the right kind of cables and whatever kind of cable-stickum they use to attach the needles to the cables - they could do special-orders. So they could make a 110" cable needle for someone. Or if a 24" needle is really kind of too short, but a 36" needle is ungainly long, they could maybe split the difference and do a 28" needle for the purpose. Oh, I know - there is Magic Loop where you fold the cord up and stuff, but to me that just feels really ungainly, and I worry that it might prematurely weaken the cable. And I'm just not into replacing my circular needles on a regular basis. ).

It's been a sock-y kind of weekend.

First, I finished the Retro Rib socks (another on-the-needles project done!)



Yes, they're bright. But they're very comfortable. Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn (which is what this is; I think the color's called Monet - it was purchased well over a year ago from Simply Sock Yarn, I think one of the first orders I placed from them) is an extremely comfortable yarn, both to knit with and to wear.

The colors actually put me more in mind of changing leaves than they do a Monet painting, but whatever.

The only alteration I did to the pattern was to make the leg shorter - I think I did 64 rows of the pattern rather than the greater amount that was recommended. I was afraid of running short of yarn. (I didn't need to be; I have a little left, probably would have been enough to have made the legs the full length).

Very dimly, in the right of that photo, you can see the curled-up Kaffe Fassett sock I'm working on right now while re-reading the chapters I'm going to be teaching tomorrow. Simple socks are good to have on the needles, because I can always pick them up when I'm reading over my teaching prep or reading journal articles.

I also did the heel flap on Snicket:



This is a pattern alteration; the original pattern calls for an hourglass-type shortrowed heel, but those fit me badly, so I'm doing a traditional flap and a half-handkerchief heel turn. I'm actually farther on these than the photo shows, but it's kind of hard to get a good picture of them right now because I have all the instep stitches on a single needle (to try and avoid ladders) and it's hard to arrange the sock so it shows well. (The foot does go faster as only half the stitches need to be knit in that rather fussy pattern.)

I really needed this break. I feel more ready to go back to teaching and research tomorrow than I usually do on a Sunday. (The "Mythbusters" marathon yesterday was also good for my sockly productivity and my relaxation.)

I'm going to keep working on the on-the-needles projects and see how many more I can finish, but when November comes...it's going to be "New-vember," and I'm going to give myself license to start the new projects I've been wanting to start. (So I hope to get a few things that are in-progress done and off the needles first).

Happy all around

Happy feet:


(The Neapolitan socks)

Happy shoulders:



(Bloom, all finished).

The Neapolitan socks didn't come out 100% identical - I attribute that to the fact that the first sock was the one with the breaks and joins in it, so the foot part wound up with shorter repeats of some color. Still, it's close enough to please me.

More views of Bloom:



The rear view of the shawl

It's also a lot of fun to play with, to kind of swirl and twirl like it's a cape or a circle skirt:



Now I just need for it to get cool enough to be able to wear all these good things.

Well, I've decided to let myself have that "fluster." I have a good coupon for Books-a-Million and I saw an interview on Sunday Morning this morning with Ken Follett - normally I wouldn't think of reading him, but he wrote a book (actually, quite a while ago) on a 12th century or so cathedral. And I LOVE historical fiction. And I am fascinated by the Middle Ages. And it sounds like a good book, based on how widely-read it's been. (And he's written a continuation that incorporates the Plague and its effects). So I'm going to go looking for that, and any of the new magazines I don't subscribe to.

I generally don't shop on Sunday - trying to make a feeble attempt at keeping the Sabbath and all that - but once in a while I allow myself an exception.

(I also have a good JoAnn's coupon; might try there first for one of the magazines I'm looking for, or might use it to stock up on thread).

The fact that the thought of going out and doing something makes me want to Snoopy dance means I'm over the funk of Friday and yesterday. (I tend to react strongly and violently to things but get over them fairly fast).

And I finished Bloom.

And I finished the Neapolitan socks!

And I pulled out and re-started the Miranda socks, and now feel motivated to finish them. ("Start-over" rules! I may crank through many stalled projects this month).

Pictures will come tomorrow. I'm very happy with how Bloom blocked up; the yarn lost a lot of its scratchiness when treated with wool-wash.

****

Oh, and TChem: I kind of figured that was the case. In my experience, insects tend to be ATTRACTED to electromagnetic waves, not repelled. I used to have a halogen lamp that had, I guess, a step-down voltage transformer in the plug. I came home one day and found about 10,000 ants clustered around the plug - they found their way into the house and were attracted to it. ("We welcome our new Electric Overlord"?)

Oh well. I guess I'll keep periodically spraying with clove oil (the only thing that seems to work but that doesn't make me cough or twitch) and just stomping the odd "waterbug" that finds its way in.

I finished the knitting on Bloom last night.



I know that neck edge LOOKS small, but when you put it on, it stretches because of the pull of the weight of the yarn (it is a very heavy yarn, weight-wise). It actually works up into a kind of a capelet, which is sort of nice, because it doesn't seem like it is so prone to slide off one's shoulders as true shawls are.

I also started the crochet edging:



It's pretty simple - a sc, dc, tc, dc, sc bobble. It doesn't look like much yet because this is something that definitely will need blocking when it's done.

The pattern, if you want to make your own, is here. I think it would also be interesting made out of a "plainer" but still ombre worsted-weight like one of the Auraucania products. Or I think something soft and cuddly (Noro Blossom is not particularly cuddly) would be very nice for it - especially as something to flip over your shoulders if you are reading in bed and are cold. (I'm trying to think of particularly cuddly worsted-weight yarns that aren't a pain to knit with. I'd NEVER want to do this one out of a chenille, that's for sure.) Perhaps a nice soft alpaca, or a merino-alpaca blend, or something like KnitPick's Andean Silk.

(I forgot to add: this will be the FIRST project that was re-started and ultimately completed because of "Start-over")

The first "October is for Start-over" progress shots.

First, the still-embryonic Totoro:



This is a slow project. It's all single crochet, and there's a lot of it. (I can see why so many amigurumi are small - it's not just that they're cuter, it's that they're faster to finish). I'm one or two rounds away from starting the body decreases here. I still have to do the "eye circles," the tummy, the arms, ears, and tail.

Still, as I said - I don't want this to be a "project obituary" like one of the other bloggers reported. (I'm nothing if not stubborn). I have to work on it in small doses because my wrists aren't that crazy about crochet.

I also pulled Bloom out of "storage" and started working on it again:



I have 11 of the 18 wedges done here. I think the reason this stalled out is simply BECAUSE I put it in storage - kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" situation.

I see from the notes I was keeping (about where I was in the pattern) that I last worked on this about a year ago...I guess what happened was I had to have people over, or workmen in, and I did my usual freak-out cleaning, where I gather up all kinds of things and shove them in rubbermaid boxes I keep for that very purpose (Samus wound up in the same box as Bloom. As did some yarn - a couple different colors of Berroco's "Keltic" I bought for a pair of heavy-weight ragg type socks and a pair of gloves - at about that time last year.

This is in a different place from my "normal" stash, so it's easy to overlook it.)

It's kind of good to go through and take inventory and see what I have. I don't know that I will do the stash-function on Ravelry (when I get my invitation, that is), because it would take quite a bit of time to enumerate it all ('specially all the two-and-three ball lots bought for gloves or scarves or whatever) and I also have to admit I kind of like the seredipity of "Oh, I knew I had this, but I had kind of forgotten it because I hadn't looked at it in a while."

Yes, you CAN has a mulligan!.

I wish I were more graphically-enabled than I am (have powerpoint, which you can draw some stuff in, but not like in the photo-editor programs like Photoshop.) I'd make a button advertising "October is Start-Over" and maybe have "yes, you can has a mulligan" on it somewhere. (Or maybe that's too busy for a button).

I pulled out the crochet Totoro this afternoon and restarted it - yeah, it's a couple days early but I was in the mood for it.

All day tomorrow is a "retreat" at one of the local Christian camps. I had originally signed up because a friend of mine (who no longer drives) wanted to go. Then she called me and said she had a cold and her hearing aids were broken and she didn't think she was going. And I thought, man, if the church hadn't paid my way I'd just skip it, and spend the day at home. But now she called me again, wanting to go. (I'm glad I didn't take her earlier suggestion and try to find someone else to take her place). So from 7 am until who-knows-when, I'll be occupied, but that's okay.

And my seeds (for a research project) came! Just in time for a light week next week (it's a testing week and classes are cancelled one day, and my Thursday lab won't meet.) I'm excited to get this going; it will be next summer's research presentation if it works out as I hope.

Edited to add:

I made a seal for Start-over/Start-ober:



Feel free to grab and use if you want, but please store it to your own server. And if you do decide to use it, please drop me a comment!

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of "Start-ober" for October.

So, who's with me? Anyone? ("Bueller? Bueller?")

If you have a stalled project you want to restart - or if you've stalled in blogposting and want to restart - or if you have a stalled story you're writing, ANYTHING - consider this an invitation to "star over," no questions asked, no, "Why weren't you working on this before?"

I'm even making a Start-ober label for the month.