New Sewing Project

The pink grapefruit dress has served me well since May, but the time has come to switch to a new dress.  My body shape has changed over the past year as I continue to exercise and dance, and the pink grapefruit dress is now a bit loose through the bodice and too long.  So an order was made to Chrisanne, and this lovely box arrived on my doorstep.

Now with time-dependence!

Like any good physicst, having dabbled in the time-independent case, I then thought I'd tried to add time-dependence and see what happens.  So after looking at the usage of knitting books, I turned to study knitting magazines.

This thread popped up on Ravelry at the beginning of November, after a user received a copy of the Holiday 2014 Vogue Knitting magazine and started a discussion about how useful people found the magazine.  Several commenters said that they felt that knit magazines contained fewer useful patterns or had changed focus.  So I thought I would adapt the code I developed to study book use to see if magazine use had decreased through time.

I'm Back! And I have plots!

Whew!  In the last month, I have competed in 7 events in 4 competitions in three countries, while at work I've been wrapping up one half of one project, trying to launch the other half into its next phase, maintaining another effort, and getting started with a completely new one.  I am ready for my skin to return to its normal color and the bobby-pin-shaped bruises on my scalp to fade, hopefully while running between fewer meetings during my work day.  I have still been crafting, though, and I have so much to share, starting with a little project that took over my crafting time for a couple of weeks.

I love books, and am quite fond of my little collection of knitting and crocheting books and magazines.  While printed and electronic patterns are nice, I cannot plunk them on the table to browse through while I eat dinner.  However, pattern books are expensive, and as an American living in Belgium I would need to import English-versions to get something I could use, and would then need to port heavy books with me whenever I move again.  Every debate as to what book I would like to buy involves me trying to estimate how useful I would find the book and asking if it is worth the money.

Preview

Guys, I have so many things to talk about, but the to-do list is ten miles long and looks unlikely to change for at least another two weeks.  Here are a few hints of what's to come, when things are a bit more under control.

Finished: Pun'kin Socks!

Two pumpkin stems . . .

  . . . plus 32 pumpkins and 32 hay bales . . .

Vanishing Pumpkins

The pun'kin socks were almost done.  I still needed to graft the first toe, but the second one was just about ready for the toe decreases.

These have been my transit knitting.  I spend about an hour per weekday waiting for or aboard public transit, which for this pattern corresponded to getting 5-10 rows done in a given day, particularly once I memorized the pattern and stopped referring to the chart.  I had already picked out my next pattern and was looking for a time slot to wind the yarn.

A Deadline Whooshed By

I am clearly terrible at deadline knitting.  I have been working on my grandmother's shawl for 26 days and have just finished chart 3.  This means that I am 26.4% done with the body of the shawl.  At this rate, I can expect to finish to the body of the shawl in approximately 73 days, or December 21.  At that point I would still have the border and bind-off to do.

This shawl is not going to make it to my grandmother in time for her birthday.  It will be a Christmas present.  I would still like to pick up the pace a bit, but it is coming along nicely, if slower than I wanted. 

It doesn't look particularly nice at this stage, because right now it is a crumpled wad.  Its ugly duckling stage will end, though.

Meanwhile, the punkin socks are moving along nicely.  At some point soon, I should convince myself that I can use some home-knitting time to graft the first toe shut instead of knitting on Elizabeth, and then the first sock will be completely finished.  At my current pace, I should reach of the toe of the second within a week.  I should have pumpkin socks in time for Halloween!