kentucky... (and finished arms)

I spent this weekend just over the mountain in Kentucky with some friends. What a good time... I live in a rural area, but I spent most of this weekend at my friend's cabin. To get to this cabin, you need to drive up a dirt road, ford a stream, and deal with some serious hills. That's real country... and it was exactly what I needed. I listened to and sang a lot of good music, ate smores fresh off a bonfire, drank some whiskey and even more coffee, learned new flatfooting steps, and, most importantly, spent a lot of time thinking about my dissertation. I feel rededicated to work and ready to throw myself into this research. This was exactly what I needed!



Oh, and did I mention that I finished my shrug? I decided to rip out the ribbing I did before and try again, this time picking up even more stitches. Sure enough, it did the trick. I actually think the ribbing is a little loose now, but it's something that could easily be remedied with a little elastic thread around the edge. But all in all, I love it. (excuse the uncreative and somewhat blurry pictures... i wanted to take them outside because it FINALLY snowed here today and it was so beautiful up on the mountain (not that you can see it in these pictures...)



Pattern: "Arms," of my own concoction...
Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Treasure 100% baby alpaca in "Embers"
Needles: Takumi Clover dpns US 4; Skacel 24" Bamboo Circulars US 4
Started: 15 January 2006
Finished: 4 Feburary 2006

Notes: Let me begin by saying that I never used to like shrugs. I made fun of them. I laughed and said "what's the point of just having arms with no body? what good does it do?" Then, a few weeks before I left Philly, my roomate made a shrug. I tried it on. I liked it. I started thinking "my, jennie, this might be nice to have on those in-between days, when it's not too cold, but not too warm either..." Eventually, my curiousity got the better of me, I had this lovely alpaca that I had bought to make my mom a shawl (it was too itchy for her) and while watching the Golden Globes, "Arms" was born. I call my shrug "Arms" because of the six million times I had this conversation in the three weeks I was knitting:

[Person]: Hi Jennie. What are you making?
[Jennie]: A Shrug.
[Person]: A what?
[Jennie]: It's... Arms. I'm making arms.
[Person]: Oh! Cool.

Overall, like I said, I'm really pleased with my arms. I like the cable running up the back of the sleeves, but I wish that I had split the cable and had it run on both the top and bottom when the shrug crosses the back before coming back together on the opposite arm. I think it would be more organic that way. But... I'm not about to reknit it. I'm a little tired of knitting in a circle (this does not bode well for the hourglass sweater to come). This got more than a little tedious in the middle. Maybe next time I make a sock-distraction project it shouldn't be round...

And, on the sock note, I arrived back in Virginia and was greeted by these:

Hurrah for Socks that Rock! The colors are (on the left) 'Fire on the Mountain' and (on the right) 'Marbles'. It is taking all my self control not to start knitting with them tonight! Instead, I cast on for Sara's purple jaywalkers and did a few rows on the Elfine socks. Slow and steady wins the race...

p.s. thanks for the feedback on the holes in spitey's sweater. When i send it back to him, I think I'll include a sweater bag for it, since the sweater is particularly important to him. I don't know why I didn't think it was moths... the holes seemed strange to me. But then, it is such a thick-knit sweater, that might explain why it looked different.

p.p.s. Anna pointed out that my site wasn't letting non-blogger folks comment. stupid. i changed that. so comment away, good or bad :)