Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What I'm Knitting Now

This knitted piece of geometry is my newest incarn-
ation of the Sonnet sweater from Knitty. There are so many online resources for knitters that sometimes I feel overwhelmed, and I always seem to come back to Knitty. I showed the yarn for this in a blog last year. It's from a sweater that had languished in a drawer that I unraveled, rewashed, reskeined and put it into balls where it has remained until now.

It was during the height of my moth infesta-
tion and this sweater had exper-
ienced quite a bit of munching. I discovered while knitting that the munching was considerably more that I had first realized. I have so many ends to tie in. It's like all the ends in a Kaffe Fassett sweater but without all the color. I do think it's going to worth it. The yarn is a triple-plied moorit Border Leicester-cross that I dyed in a vat of teal when Laura still lived in Reno, so that had to be ten years ago. The teal-over-brown produces wonderful depths of color. But there are so many ends to tie, and by the time I've knitted the two sleeves....ugh. I've decided to make it my last knitted sweater while employed, so it had better be good. I got my retirement date yesterday - June 21st. That's when I start eating beans and rice.
I always listen to the podcast of the NPR show, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on my drive home from work on Tuesday nights. It's my hardest day at work and thus my most tired drive home, plus today it snowed all the way in this morning. I can't listen to the show and not laugh, but that's just me. This show concluded with a group of Ravelry Knitters in the crowd. This is Mo Rocca. It seems that on an earlier episode he had said he never wears homemade sweaters because they are too itchy. They presented him with this sweater they had knitted to prove otherwise. Obviously, it's a radio show so I didn't see it, but they posted it to the website. Ravel on!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.


Ann

http://externallaptop.net

Valerie said...

woah...looks like a lot of work in that sweater. I'm not sure I would unravel a sweater and re-knit.

BTW...the above comment is a spam comment. I had one with different links but the exact same language in the comment.

I heard that episode of "Wait, wait...." very funny.

Retirement on the summer solstice?!...the longest day of the year.

Lee said...

That's Mo Rocca?? Dang, he's aged! I see him on those "VH1 100 Greatest (whatever)", which are apparently about 10 years old. It is a banner "Wait, Wait.." when he *and* Paula Poundstone are on.

weavinfool said...

I'm so jealous you're retiring! Your comment on living on rice and beans helps me keep going. i still have stuff I "need".

When I had some moths I put my fiber and arn into the washing machine with some dog flea and tick shampoo and let it soak for an hour to kill any eggs. It seemed to work as they disappeared. I also do this when I buy stuff at a yarn swap and such so I don't import any new critters. The pyrethrins (sp?) in the shampoo are made from chrysanthemums. I don't have to use all that much of the shampoo in the water, just a glug or two for many gallons of water.

Sharon said...

Valerie is right and I'm leaving this as a point of education. It's an attempt to redirect my readers to a commercial site for car insurance. The web is fun, also a mine field. This one is the most closely resembles a comment - most are more like "My brother likes your blog, She has property to sell you, good deal. Beware!

woolydaisy said...

i heard it too! wasn't that great!!! i love that show-the whole family does too. can't wait to see the sweater when it's done. think of all the knitting and weaving time you will have!

Birdsong said...

Great story! I am glad you know your official retirement date...and I love the color of your 'final' employed sweater. I feel the same about ends, and suggest you weave one or two in each time you sit down to knit, so that they all aren't left til the end. I want to know what shampoo Lindsey uses, so I better go and ask her.

bspinner said...

Seems like there are a lot of Wait Wait fans. We listen to it right after the Car Guys another one of my favorites on NPR on Saturday morning.

Congratulations on your retirement date. I love being retired!!

I don't know if I would put that much work into a sweater but then I'm sort of lazy. The yarn is beautiful. Can't wait to see it finished.

I had one of those strange comments when I first started my blog. Always some jerks out there.

Jodi said...

Sonnet's looking great! I'm very impressed by all the work that went into it -- I hope you get lots of wear out of it.

Hey, at least rice and beans are delicious. :-) Congrats on the big day that's coming up.