When I finished the body of my Garter Yoke Cardi, back in the middle of June, I knew that I wanted to set it aside for a while.

(Originally, this was because I thought I’d need my 4mm circular needle for other projects – namely, both my Ishbels and the Featherweight Cardigan. Since sitting down and organizing my circs, I’ve discovered that I actually have seven 4mm circular needles, in a shockingly wide range of sizes and materials. Oops.)

Uh, I don’t know if you know this, but worsted weight yarn on 4mm needles goes super, super fast. I am pretty sure I did not think this was the case when I first started knitting several years ago, but after working on fairly fiddly, small-gauge projects for the past few months, this was like heaven. Instant-gratification heaven. I can’t believe how little time it took for me to take this sweater from just one more unfinished project to very nearly done.

Song of the Entry: Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (Listen)

This post isn’t knitting, but it is knitting-related: I sat down this afternoon and turned a binder into a circular needle organizer that suits me perfectly.

I’m a big fan of productivity blogs (I subscribe to Lifehacker’s RSS feed), and repurposing easy-to-shop for things to suit my needs, so when I took a look at my knitting shelf and thought “How the fuck am I going to get my circular needles under control?” my first thought was, “Why don’t I go to Staples?”

I picked up a few things, looked through my apartment, and ended up with these supplies:

(From left to right: 1” binder, package of 25 heavy-duty sheet protectors, ruler, kitchen scissors, white-out pen, Sharpie, pack of 60 mini (9/16”) binder clips)

Then, I used the ruler, sharpie, and scissors to trim the sheet protectors down from 8.5” x 11” to 8.5” x 8”. After that, I went through of my circular needles. I wrote the needle size and length on the bottom right corner of a sheet protector for each needle:

I tucked the needle into the sheet protector, with the original packaging if I still had it. I sealed the tops of each sheet protector with two mini-binder clips, so the needles wouldn’t fall out if I dropped the binder or flipped it upside-down, creating chaos.

And there you have it. I’m very proud of myself.

Finally. The body is done.

(Well – it’s not actually done, I still have to pick up 124080 neckline stitches and knit that, but I’m repressing for now.)

This doesn’t look like that much knitting, but it took forever to finish – laceweight yarn on 4mm needles feels phenomenal, and it’s knitting up into the most beautiful, gauzy fabric, but that took me a solid month to get through. (I have knit full-sized cabled aran cardigans in that amount of time. That is very slow.)

However, the point is not that. The point is that the body is done, and now I get to start the next big adventure for this sweater: the sleeves.

Song of the Entry: Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (Listen)

(this looks cooler bigger)

As you may have noticed, I took a bit of a break from blogging – I went to visit family for a bit, didn’t bring my regular computer with me, and keeping up with the blog while I was gone just didn’t seem worth it.

I’m back, though, and I did get some knitting done while I was gone. In the meantime, enjoy these photos – I took them during the Celebration of Light in Vancouver, during my trip.

(bigger)

Song of the Entry: Ashley Tisdale – I’m Back (Listen)

I suppose I should blog this, since progress on my cardigan is going, but not as dramatic as I’d like. These are the socks that sprung from the Knitters Without Borders yarn, a few weeks ago.

They’re – actually, having put them away and taken them out after a break, they are not as bad as I remembered them being. But the pooling is pretty vicious, and I don’t think there’s really anything to be done about that.

However, the yarn itself is fantastic. This is my first time knitting with BMFA Socks that Rock, and I am really enjoying working with it. It feels nice in my hands, and I’m hoping it holds up well to washing and wearing, because it’d be lovely to have an excuse to work with it again.

Song of the Entry: Cash Cash – Party in Your Bedroom (Listen)

I’m going to talk about this project, first, even though my socks are far closer to being done, because is is much, much, much prettier.

This is my Malabrigo Lace, being knit up into a Featherweight Cardigan. I’d like to modify this a little bit – I’m thinking maybe a hood, and definitely long sleeves with thumb-holes, because I am nothing if not predictable in my dream sweaters.

I wish photos did this justice, but they really can’t – the stitches look big, because I’m working it on 4mm needles (which is what I use for a “normal” sweater), but because the yarn is laceweight it’s working up into this light, fluffy, gauzy fabric that I honestly want to just rub against my cheek, it’s so soft.

Song of the Entry: Hannah Montana – Ice Cream Freeze (Let’s Chill) (Listen)

Since finishing my socks, I have – not startitis, per se, but a couple of different projects started this weekend that I’m hoping will get me through the next few weeks and a trip home at the end of the month.

The yarn above is Socks That Rock Mediumweight, in Knitters Without Borders. Which, tragically, is turning out to be one of those colourways that looks much, much better in the skein, but whatever. I kind of saw that coming, and it’s kind of a cool idea – a couple dollars from the proceeds of this colourway go to MSF.

I’ve also started something with this, and I’m very excited about it – that’s Malabrigo Lace, in Azul Bolita, and it’s exactly as blue as it looks in that picture. Expect a lot of Tobias Funke jokes.

Song of the Entry: Mest – Cadillac (Listen)

My socks are done! Just in time to go into my closet until it’s cool enough to wear them!

Knitting two socks at once was an amazing idea, they went so much faster when I knew I didn’t have to do the same thing all over again, and I’m definitely doing it again with the pair I just cast on.

In terms of details – the yarn is Koigu KPPPM, in ridiculously pooling pink and purple and black, worked on 2.5mm needles. I knit them toe-up, and worked an afterthought heel, which looks a little like this:

I photographed the process, so I can put up a tutorial if anyone would like – this is my absolute favourite way to do a heel, and really cool with toe-up socks if you want to use absolutely every scrap of your yarn, because you actually can.

The only other little detail I added was the i-cord edging when I bound off at the cuff – this was mostly just for fun, but I think it looks sort of cute, I might try it again.

Song of the Entry: Ingrid Michaelson – You and I

The one drawback to knitting socks is that really, once you get past the initial “this weird tube thing is going to be socks,” there is not a lot to blog about until you’ve actually turned them into socks.

I’m not quite there yet, but I’m close – ready to bind off at the top, at least. I’m knitting these with an afterthought heel, because I have many ambitions but short-rowing two socks at once is not one of them. It’s actually my favourite kind of heel, I think it makes the socks look really polished and neat, and I’m really stoked about being able to get both out of the way at once. This technique is exactly what I needed to actually be able to work on socks.

The Koigu is, of course, pooling terribly, but I’m not surprised. I think it’s something about the size of my feet, but every variegated yarn I’ve ever used just turns into diagonal stripes when I knit it into socks for myself. Oh well.

Song of the Entry: Lady Gaga – LoveGame (Listen)

So, this is the new knitting trick I learned at Lettuce Knit last week, and it is omgsofun. It’s not even a difficult trick – basically, I am magic-looping a pair of socks, but I’m knitting both of them at the same time from two balls of yarn, instead of one at a time from one ball of yarn at a time. It is exactly like knitting one sock using magic loop, it just takes longer. But I am still SO EXCITED, because I am awful for not finishing socks and this is like. A built-in finishing mechanism. It’s a little bit thrilling.

Song of the Entry: Demi Lovato – Here We Go Again (Listen)