an ent knits

I love backlit leaves.  And I like the way the thorns glow in this, too.  (This was taken a few blocks from my house, last Sunday.)

I’m still sick.  Not horribly sick, as I was on Monday, but sick enough that walking to work feels like a lot of work in and of itself, and I gave up on actually doing work after about twenty minutes yesterday.  I hate this.  I’m getting bored with sleeping so much, but I haven’t been able to do any of the things I want to do instead, from labwork to fiber night to cooking.  I haven’t even been knitting much, just sleeping and reading (rereading, really) and listening to familiar audiobooks.

I’m feeling better-ish today, so maybe I’ll actually manage to do something useful.  (First useful thing to do: stop whining about being sick.)

I hope everyone else has been having a better week than mine.

I spent my Thanksgiving in New York, as usual, which meant I got a lot of knitting time on the train and on various buses.

Salt Peanuts is past the lace. (This is just the back, but I’m still excited.)

And I’ve started a pair of half-finger gloves for lab. As much as I was pleasantly startled by how fast knitting on 11s seemed when I knit that ribbed hat last month, I’ve been struck by how slow it seems to knit on 1s…  (Yes.  It’s still slow, this knitting on 1s.  So much so that I said it twice.  I love this colorway, though.)

One of my usual stops in New York is the Strand. I’ve had good luck in the knitting-book section lately, but this is the closest I came this time:

A novel by Cat Bordhi.

(All would be great at this point, except for the fact that I developed a stomach bug late Sunday night/early yesterday morning. Oh, well.)

romanesco-&-parsnip, originally uploaded by enting.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating it today; happy Thursday in Northern-Hemisphere harvest season to those who are not.

I’ve had a lovely afternoon and evening with my family, after an excellent holiday dinner with friends last night. The cauliflower and parsnip pictured were for last night.

***

After being pleasantly startled last month by how fast knitting goes when it’s heavy worsted on 11s, I’ve been realizing how slow it is when it’s Lorna’s Laces on 1s. Knitting update soon.

I dug through my stash, I found two choices of yarn, I swatched with both (three different needle sizes in each swatch!), I expanded and then narrowed my list of pattern choices, I decided which yarn to use….and then, just when I’d decided how many stitches to cast on (I want to knit an in-between size with a different gauge), I discovered that my needle wasn’t where I thought it was.

And I still couldn’t find it this morning.

This is more than usually frustrating because I had finally, finally decided to knit another (actually flattering and wearable!) sweater, and worked out all the details…and because the missing needle is my favorite, an addi natura. And I don’t have any other bamboo 7s.

(The sweater I’m planning is a chocolate-brown version of Salt Peanuts, at 5 st/in. Do tell me if you think that that’s a particularly horrible idea.)

See?  Swatches!  Real swatches!

That needle had better come out of hiding soon.

10,000 sheep.

(via Margot)

I took this picture a few days ago, on my way to work.

This one’s from this morning.

I really love both types of weather–if it’s between 40º and 60ºF (~4-16ºC) outside, and it’s not pouring, I’m happy.  I also like both sets of colors, the super bright and saturated ones from today, and the more subdued ones from the greyer part of the week.  I’ve even gotten to wear my diamond fantasy shawl as a scarf for the last couple of days, so all is well between me and the weather for now.

I’ve finished things! One and a half things, I suppose…and I do still have some ends to weave in. But they look finished, and I’m going to be proud of myself for that. I’m always impressed by how much knitting I can get done on public transit (and airplanes and in airports), and I’d forgotten how quickly the sportweight socks knit up.

So I have a finished sock:

I finished it on Wednesday evening, but had cleverly left the other ball of yarn at home. Thus, my knitting energies for the rest of the trip focussed on Foliage:

I only got as far as the ribbing before I left California, but I still managed to finish it in just under a week.

Pattern: Foliage

Yarn: Colinette Cadenza, in copper beech

Needles: bamboo 4.5mm dpns for the crown and 5mm circ for the body

Mods: I missed the instructions for the between-chart set-up round (what happens when I copy the charts but not the rest of the pattern), so I did the decreases a round late. I also extended the pattern into the ribbing, which you might be able to see if you look closely–instead of starting the ribbing halfway through the alternate-repeat set of leaves, I finished them plain and just started the ribbing between them. I think it came out nicely.

Nicely enough that I wore it for the rest of the evening after taking this picture…  I’m a little concerned that it’ll be longish on my mom, since it fits me, but I think it’ll work out okay.

I spent a bit of last Friday afternoon wandering around Balboa Park with my friend M. Next to a cactus garden across the road from the natural history museum, there’s a lovely rose garden with what must be a couple hundred varieties of roses. I’m sorry I can’t share the scent with you as well as these pictures…

I found a sheep:

You can take the knitter out of the sheep and wool festivals, but she’ll still find a sheep. (This one’s advertising an automated hemocytometer.)

Sunset. This isn’t exactly hard to find, but it’s got an unusual foreground, at least for me.

Most of a sock!

I’m going to finish the first of the handspun merino-mohair socks pretty soon. Too bad I left the other ball of yarn in Philadelphia…. (I do have other projects, though; never fear.)

But now it’s time for sleep, so I can absorb lots more science tomorrow.

I took off for San Diego today, leaving not-bright and early.

Much as I prefer travelling by train or car for other reasons (airports, for example, and security restrictions), I really love the views I can’t get from anywhere other than an airplane.

Knitting update soon.