dreaming ’bout brand new spaces and brand new faces

I have a bit of a mishmash of things to talk about, today. First of all, this sleeve.

It rose from the ashes of the sweater I started a few weeks ago, which I worked on for a solid eight or nine inches of body before I decided that really, it wasn’t going to look that good on me at all. I was so confident that I didn’t even take a picture – I just gave up, frogged, and drew a whole bunch of sketches. So, now I’m making up a sweater from scratch. (Give or take. I have an EZ book and a couple of tutorials that I’m hoping will guide me.)

I’ve also started a sock. This one is purple,, and really that’s the only exciting thing it’s got going for it. The yarn is (more) Tanis Fiber Arts, and at this point my affection for her yarn is probably starting to seem a little creepy, except that, okay. So, remember all of this wool, the sock yarn I bought that was going to be a pair of stripey socks and maybe an Ulmus?

I was really excited about it, and took it everywhere I went, and knit three-quarters of a pair of lovely striped socks, and then. Uh. Possibly I left it in class in a bag (with my spare Addi and a couple of spare sets of sock needles) and have yet to track it down. Possibly it has disappeared into the ether, forever. I’m still kind of in mourning.

So, when I was at the Creativ Festival a couple of weekends ago, I picked up some more yarn at the Purple Purl booth (a skein of sock yarn and a Fiddlehead Mitten Kit), and I’m making myself a new pair of socks that I definitely, definitely, for suresies won’t lose.

They’re purple.

Song of the Entry: Michael Bernard Fitzgerald – Brand New Spaces (Watch/Listen to the best music video ever.)

a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time when I stock up on coffee, retreat into my apartment, and start a very serious battle of wills with a stack of paper that looks a lot like this. (Fun-size box of Smarties for scale, obviously.)

Now that school’s back in session, I’m back to having to write a major exam once a month (give or take). Unfortunately, this month I’ve also been struck down with a pretty fierce cold, which is doing terrible things to my ability to concentrate on my notes, so my knitting progress has taken a nose-dive.

However, the past few days have been a sudden, bracing leap into autumn, and it’s too cold for me to not be knitting something. So I finally sat down, did some math, and started my fall sweater, which is basically the knitting equivalent of autopilot. Garter stitch on 5.5mm needles, which feel ginormous after knitting with teeny yarn on 4mm needles for most of the last year. It’s extraordinarily comforting.

Song of the Entry: Owl City – Fireflies (Listen)