Alive and well, really!

Yes, the binge to finish my own Clapotis has resulted in me...not knitting at all. Mind you, still have that September 15 deadline looming, but I figure, Eh, I did the last one in a little over two weeks total, so why rush? This will come back to haunt me, of course.

I do have some serious mailing to do...I'm sending out my final package to my SP8 tomorrow. It'll be the big reveal! Dum dum dum...

Done, with time to spare.

All righty, so it's only one day to spare, but that was an impressive knitting streak I went on there to finish half of the thing in a week. I was knitting in spare moments at work, and pretty much every night I sat vigilantly in front of the TV (or listening to audiobooks) and working away.

I'm really happy with how it turned out; if it wasn't 80 degrees and August, I'd be wearing it every day. I'm really excited to be taking it on the big vacation - it can double as scarf, shawl or general blanket. It was about 5 and a third skeins of Noro Aurora in color 1 - the majority grey one. It's part wool, but diluted enough that it doesn't make me itch like a crazy woman.

Half Clap

So here is exactly one half of the Clapotis! My goal is to finish this by August 15, so that I have a good solid month to work on the one for my aunt. Once I actually sit down and start knitting, this pretty much flies by - but I think I'm going to have to knit at stoplights, during meals, etc. to actually finish this in a week. And then do another whole one in a month. I think of it like NFL training camp or something...

Knitting on consignment

Well, not consignment, exactly. Maybe it's better to say I have a sponsor? A patron of the arts? Actually, that's all crap. I went down to San Diego this past weekend and brought by Clapotis along for knitting amusement. My aunt is a big Francophile, and her birthday is Sept. 23, so my mom and I plotted for me to knit another one for her. So my patron of the arts is, uh, my mom. Who has pretty much been a patron of my arts for 31 years now.

Now, in theory, this should be easy...but in reality I really suck at knitting on deadline. (As my progress on the Sexy Knitters Club Somewhat Cowl should prove. Current status: One sleeve and 3/4 of the cowl yet to do.) So I'm going to use this blog as a public method of shaming myself into finishing the thing by Sept. 15, so it can be wrapped up and shipped to Ohio in time to arrive for her birthday.

The game plan is as follows: Finish my Clapotis so I can get all the kinks out (literally) before I start one that's going to be a gift. Hopefully I'll do this by Aug. 15, so I have a full month to work on Shirley's. Woo, go team! Go!

A wee renovation

Now that I've had the time to blog like a fiend, I figure it was best to do a little rehab to the ol' website here. I swapped out my increasingly ancient found objects on the right for Flickr zeitgeist, which flips between all your photos. I put all my humble found objects up there, and it's oddly entrancing to watch them swap out. Although I think I need more FO's in order to fill up the 12 little slots. Hee!

Secret Pal? Continues to rock

My second packages of goodies arrived from my Secret Pal yesterday...it's a collection of three incredibly fab knit baby caps for me to donate to charity (which is so incredibly thoughtful and lovely), two cushy balls of beautiful yarn, and a great twisty sorta Moebius scarf pattern. Love it all! Thanks, SP!

That's gotta be a record...

My friend Mike, the father of a two-year-old, has a pretty funny feature on his blog where he discusses movies that the rest of the world saw three years ago that he and Maria have only had time to watch now. On that note, I am pleased to reveal that I have started the knitting world's hit of 2004: Clapotis.

I've just booked a big trip for the end of September, so I sat down and tried to figure out the one thing to knit between now and then that would be warm, stylish and that I would actually have a snowball's chance in hell of finishing between now then.



This is the result of one night's knitting. As has been well-documented here, I'm a sloooow knitter. I'm rather proud of my little triangle here. I'm knitting it in Noro Aurora on size 8s. I'm halfway through the increase repeats, which are both easy to memorize and fun to knit. I can see why people became so, so obsessed with this. I'm a happy lemming.