Osborn Fiber Studio

I should clarify: it isn’t that I haven’t been knitting. I don’t feel like I’ve been knitting as much, but mostly I haven’t been blogging about it. My general inclination is only worsened by my awful case of pregnancy CRS (can’t remember stuff), exceeded only by chronic ailment of CFMS (can’t find my stuff), and the latest side affect: BMS (breaks my stuff). Seriously, I lose and break the most inconvenient things, constantly. Most pertinent to you, right now I can’t find my camera’s memory card, card reader, or battery charger. I’ve been taking spartan sets of shots with a tiny card that can only store 46 pictures, and the battery threatens death any moment. Soon I’ll be back to resorting to taking pictures on my phone and emailing them to myself, assuming I don’t lose or break my phone, forget all my passwords, and somehow light our desktop on fire.

But I have been knitting. I have proof.

Take, for example:

I finished the skirt that I started for movie knitting some time in the spring. Yarn: Berroco Zodiac, about 8 balls; Pattern: Linen Skirt with Flounce Border by Drops. This was my first drops pattern, and it wasn’t as awful as everyone complains. I can also puzzle a lot out from not  a lot of directions, and you have to bring something to the table. I don’t know how it would be with a more complicated pattern, whose purpose in your knitting career was to be more than something to keep up your arthritis development while otherwise just sitting and reading. It’s shiny and ridiculous, but I love it. I wore it a couple of times with a bright pink top, until temperature and girth resigned it to the top of the pre-pregnant clothes box, right next to my favorite pair of jeans.

Then there are the ruanas. The ever-loving, never-ending ruanas. I’ve completed 2 so far, though they badly need a blocking, and I’m on the cast off row of a third. They are my big pieces for Holiday Mart, a craft fair I’ve committed myself to participating in. I crank out the center on the knitting machine, then pick up around the interminable edge and make some a pretty border by hand. I’ve embordered two with feather and fan and one with seed stitch; I’d like to do something different for the last border. Any ideas?

Sadly, the knitting machine seems to have fallen prey to BMS. With one half-ruana to go, too. I need to spend an hour with it and some WD-40 and a pair of needlenose pliers to see if we can repair our relationship for one last hurrah.

Oh, and I finished this. Sort of. Except for one sleeve border, all the pieces for the Cut-Away Cardi are done. This experiment with crochet has been largely successful, even though the pattern sucked a little. Dang, no wonder I blog; now I really want to finish this thing. I apparently have more of an allergy to a tapestry needle than a crochet hook.

Far and away, the most interesting thing I’m working on is Rachel’s wedding shawl. (I defy you to pronounce it.) It’s only been a couple weeks and I’m already on the last chart! That last chart will probably take 2/3 of the knitting, but circular shawls are notorious for being rewardingly speedy at the beginning and then slowing down to take the rest of your life on the last bit. But it’s so fun, in the way that only straightforward lace can be. I found the perfect color of MadTosh Merino Light (somewhere between Chocolate and Dirt; it’s darker than it appears in this picture), which is still like knitting with butter.

Let’s see, what have I missed? Ruffle scarves at work, which I really shouldn’t talk about except to tell you to GO BUY THEM PLEASE; the tube socks which will get a post of their own when complete; the last piece of the liturgical year project; a blanket made of colorful blocks… goodness, I have been bad. This blog is as much an accountability partner as self-expression.