Quite a lot of pictures. Also some words.

Helloooo knitters! I’ve missed you. The past couple of weeks have been… interesting. As I mentioned, my mother was in town; a big personality in a small flat. She is a lovely, sweet, generous woman, but remarkably exhausting to be around. And of course I’ve had very little time to tend to my usual business. But I’m back; and this morning the sun was shining, Beloved was sleeping (so his camera was untended), and I figured that would be the perfect opportunity to take some decent pictures for once. You know what I found out?
Even with a great camera and in beautiful sunshine, I still can’t take decent pictures of knitting. So my hat is off to all of you who make it look so easy. I will just never be one of those yarn pr0n superstars (you know the ones I mean… the ones who make you want to reach into your screen and touch their knitting). My pictures are strictly for information, not excitement.
With that disclaimer in mind… wanna see some knitting?

As previously seen and spoken of, we have some socks.

I’m hitting Second Sock Syndrome big-time on these. Didn’t happen with the Jaywalkers, but then I really haven’t enjoyed using this yarn. Squeaky. And dark. Turns out I don’t really like these colours, though I do think they’re a good masculine combination that Armin should be pleased with. Actually, even the first sock isn’t really finished – I thought I could get away with a regular cast-off, which just shows how little I know. I need to redo that with some more elastic technique, or they’ll never make it over the ankle.
Then again maybe it’s not the second sock problem – maybe it’s just that I haven’t had much knitting time At All, as shown by my dramatic lack of progress on the thicker socks I’m doing in Wollmeise’s Granatapfel, to learn the magic loop technique (which is an absolute blast, and I love the yarn, and I love the socks, and it’s all fabulous but I hit that point at the heel – having done it once and frogged – where I need to pay a bit more attention, and that just isn’t happening right now.

I need mindless knitting. Which is also why that denim jacket I got so excited about is languishing.

I got cold feet. I have absolutely no reason to worry about my design for this, except that I don’t seem to have the time/focus needed to get my calculations right first time, and this is denim yarn, made to shrink, and I’ve never used it before, and yes of course I swatched and washed the swatch and all… but I got cold feet. Do I need the stress? No I don’t. So I’m going to make this instead, with maybe just a couple of cables thrown on for fun, and a rather shorter length. It’ll do. It won’t be quite the adorable thing I had in mind, but there’s a strong chance my version wouldn’t turn out that adorable *anyway*, so I may as well try my hand at basic pattern following. It’ll be fun! And so novel.
So last weekend, on a little trip to Dorset with some friends (and what a glorious weekend it was), I decided I wanted to try something completely new. None of these just-a-little-bit stuck projects I had already on the needles. Something new. Something gorgeous. Something utterly clever, yet mindless.
A moebius.

It is perfect. Absolutely perfect. I just keep knitting stitch after stitch, round and round, with only the teensiest bit of wrapping and such to provide variation; but the innate freakiness of the Moebius structure, plus the magical wonder of the beautiful colour changes (this is Artyarns Silk Rhapsody, by the way, of which I am deeply enamoured), keeps me absolutely riveted. Such fun.