We're driving up to Seattle for the long weekend, and I'm trying to be reasonable.  We'll be gone about 48 hours, total; approximately six of those hours are driving hours-- and I'll be driving.  Probably sixteen of those hours I'll be sleeping (as one does).  So, at most I'll have 26 potential knitting hours-- and that's pretending that I will actually be knitting all of those hours, which I won't be.  

I have 40 more rows on the cuff of one sock, and half a foot, the heel, and the cuff of a different sock.  I don't need to take more than these two socks with me... I'm not a fast knitter, that's plenty of knitting, and the idea that I might run out in the 48 hours I'll be away from the stash is ludicrous.  I don't need an "emergency" skein of yarn.  I really, really don't.

So why do I keep trying to pack one?

... is change.  Just in case I was starting to feel comfortable with the amount of upheaval in my life this summer, my web-host (Weebly; I'm quite fond of them, mostly, except when I run into something I want to do but can't.  Great customer service, though, even when they're politely saying "No.") has decided to upgrade the interface for editing, and it remains to be seen how rough of a transition this is going to turn out to be.  

Hopefully, what's showing up on the left is the weird floppy saucer thing that is my version of Celestarium; I'm knitting it in Knitted Wit Bantamweight, which is a light fingering.  I didn't really check my gauge, and now I'm a little nervous it's going to be too small--  beading aside, it's a basic Pi shawl construction, and I just increased for the penultimate time, and it's only 10.5 inches across.  Of course, there's another 50-ish rows to go on this chart, the last set of increases, and 50-ish rows in the last chart, so maybe it'll be ok?  Not having a gauge swatch, I have no idea if this yarn (superwash corriedale) will grow when it's blocked... actually, I have no idea how to block a circular shawl at all.  Toss in a comment if you've got a brilliant, tried and true method, please and thank you.

(I can't believe the best link I could find for Pi Shawls was the Wikipedia entry on EZ.  Clearly I need more/better caffeine.)

There's both a lot of things happening around here, and a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. All of the (lack of) activity has thrown off my ability to reliably keep track of the little things-- like what day of the week it is.

I'm really looking forward to having a more structured life in August.

In the meantime, for the first time since April, I present to you my YOP many-times-revised list, a day later than I had planned, since apparently it's Monday.  Who knew, right?  I'm changing the order up a bit because I'm starting to think about what happens after next month (since my "year" of projects is actually only 50 weeks long).

Sometimes, I just need a break.  Something that's not a part of the wedding-moving-new job topic of conversation that's dominating all conversation around here, 24/7.

JulieSpins, Shetland combed top in "Bright Redwood" transformed into 448 yards of two ply yarn.  I love Shetland wool.

I should start by saying that the list looks almost exactly the same as last week.  Miniscule movement includes a new vanilla sock that's in the process of being gusseted, and a nook cover that's got its knitting done, but still needs making up... which means that I need to spend some quality time with YouTube (or possibly Purl Bee or Knitty tutorials) to learn the mattress stitch.

No pictures, though, which means (according to blogland rules) that none of this progress is necessarily for real-- which kind of matches my general experience of the week.

You know those weeks that include exciting steps forward for the future, but effectively leave you in the same place for the present?  I'm having one of those-- I have a job (yay!) but it doesn't start until August, and I can't even start planning for it because the school is still ironing out what classes they need me to cover.  We're moving, but not until the end of July (for those of you tracking these things, that means a wedding and interstate move in the same month.  We understand that this both makes us certifiable now, and will make us more so then.) and it's hard to figure out where we can rent when we're not prepared to sign a lease for another three months.  The wedding is a bunch of items on what feels like a never-ending list, and I swear for every one I cross off, three more pop up.  I also appear to be gaining and losing the same five pounds over and over again, which is really just a lot of fun.  Being a grown-up is definitely overrated this week.

So, I'm a little scattered 'round here, and I've been flitting like a bee from knitting project to knitting project, to spinning project, and back again all week... making progress miniscule at best.  At least I haven't had to rip anything out, right?

I've been knitting Devin a nook cover out of a skein of handspun.  It's a skein she kept petting every time she walked past the bowl of handspun, and it's the skein she would periodically pick up, squeeze, and then sigh as she put it down and glared subtly at whatever knitting was in evidence that was clearly not her handspun nook cover.

It's a little wonky (what of my knitting isn't?), and if I were inclined to perfect it I have a list of things I would do differently, starting with going down a needle size.  But, it's almost done now, so it'll have to do.  I deliberately knit it flat so I could have the opportunity to practice seaming.  I hate seaming.  I'm terrible at it.  And, it just occurred to me that I'm going to have to block it before I seam it since it's stockinette and it's curling like there's a competition.

On the other hand, I'm having a lot of fun knitting this rectangle of stockinette.  I stayed up late last night doing the "one more row" thing because I'm so easily amused.  Who knew it would stripe?  Not me!

Linking up with the WIP Wednesday crowd at Tami's Amis-- where many more fiber fanatics are crafting!

I was thinking about how to format this post last night, because I barely have pictures, and while there's been movement to the list, I hesitate to call it "progress".  Maybe I should have taken a picture of the white tee before I frogged it back to its balls, or collected the five pairs of socks I ripped out (it's less alarming than it sounds-- four of those pairs were being knit one at a time, and none of them were past their initial toe or cuff ribbing) for one last depressing group shot.  

I could just have a week that ignores the list, tells you my woes, and leave it as a cautionary tale sans illustration, but I've had such a poor YOP track record lately... I didn't wanna.

So, for the fourth (or fifth?  I suppose one of these days I should go back and look at the list in its original incarnation, but again, don't wanna) time, my list has had some rather drastic renovations.

I've discovered a deep and abiding love for The Second Sock.  

The Second Sock holds no surprises, its pattern has already been worked out, any quirks already addressed.  The Second Sock is not going to make me rip out a week's work of knitting in obnoxious un-wooly yarn because its stitch counts are so far off as to be unfixable... No, The Second Sock is so happy to be knit on at all that it's meek, and obedient, showing signs of being the ideal consort for King Henry VIII, actually (I've been on a kick.  I reread G.J. Meyers last week, and I started rereading Antonia Fraser last night).  I'm feeling generous and willing to ignore the fact that the dark green yarn makes me go a little cross-eyed and has a splitty nature. I may even buy The Second Sock better needles-- or scavenge them from some other pair of socks.

The Second Sock is good.

I'm 12 stitches short of the 96 I should have at the front of my tee.  That's two inches.  It's a top down raglan, in supremely un-stretchy yarn that shows every stitch like it's in high-def.

Devin asked me why I was glaring at my knitting, and I explained to her what had happened (not why or how, because I'm at a loss to explain why or how I have 84 front stitches and 96 back ones), and she said, "Oooh.  That's not good-- you need those stitches."

Yes, yes I do.  Damn.

While I'm cooking up some way to fix this that does not involve ripping back several days of knitting or leave me with a weird rippling front and center, I've been spinning for some measure of calm.