Here’s my pashmina scarf.

Here’s a closeup!

Why didn’t I enjoy knitting it? It was too soft and silky with not a lot of body. I did the whole danged scarf in seed stitch and the little rascal writhed and squirmed all through the knitting. I’m a wool snob — I hate knitting cotton and silk, and this felt very much like knitting with silk. It was a difficult birth. But a beautiful baby, no?

Izzy helped me pick up my neckband stitches on Valtos:

And here is a better pic of Valtos.

The pattern calls for an 8cm neckband, but I may make mine a little shorter as I don’t have a long swan-like neck. I think I’m at 5cm right about now, and that may be enough. I’ll see how I feel about it when I get to it tonight.

Ooh! Ooh! I’m wearing my Fearless Fair Isle today.

I shall leave you all with a photo of The Sock Yarn Hall of Shame. Would you believe I ordered 8 more skeins of Regia yesterday?

Sigh. If only I would use my power for good.

Monday morning on the train there was a guy who stared at me the whole way in. I usually get some interested glances as people check out the sock-in-progress but this guy never let up.

Yesterday morning as I boarded the train, I saw him again. I sat next to him, figuring it would he harder for him to stare that way. He looked at my sock-in-progress and said “Hey! You got a lot done — you had barely started that yesterday.”

And here is Izzy, modeling what all the chic cats will be wearing this winter. Though she’s not too happy about it.

Yes, it’s a scarf made out of handpainted pashmina. I ordered the skein of Pashmina from Patternworks just before New Years last year when they had it on sale. It’s made by the Great Adirondack Yarn Company (though maybe it’s discontinued and that’s why it was on sale). I made a seed stitch scarf out of it. It’s beautiful — luminous, glowing colors, incredibly soft. And I hated every minute of the knitting of it. Could barely stand to pick it up.

Yeah. I’m odd.

But when (if!) the weather gets colder it’ll be great to have. I can alternate wearing it with my qivuit lace scarf (the qivuit was a Christmas gift from a very thoughtful friend a few years ago).

In my continuing efforts to sock it to you (snort!) I have rewritten my generic toe-up sock pattern to incorporate double-wraps on the short rows. Ta da!

Hopefully I didn’t write in any errors.

In Valtos news, I’ve finished the second sleeve! So tonight shall be devoted to laundry and the picking up of stitches for the neckband. And the beginning of knitting the neckband. See what an exciting life I lead?

In Fulmar news . . . I’ve found an online knitting buddy who will be making it at the same time. How cool is that? Gwen (Hi Gwen!) from the Yahoo Aran Group is gonna knit along with me. Anyone else who wants to join in — come on down. The more the merrier!

The answer is . . . I doubt it! For here is my new favorite toy: my beloved blue Honda Civic ZipZap.

Izzy is now at the point where she barely tolerates it.

Ooh! Ooh! Got some sock yarn in the mail!

The one on the left is Lorna’s Laces shepherd sport (the color is mocha) and the one on the right is more Regia Stretch — part of my original order a while back that was back ordered.

Speaking of sock yarn, I printed out the free sock pattern from Ozyarn yesterday. They have a slightly different short row heel technique where you don’t do wraps on the short rows. Interesting.

Got some Valtos sleeve knitting done. Here’s the photo.

For those of you who think Izzy spends her life lounging on the couch, here she is in her chair, asleep on her quilt.

In knitting news, I got my first Valtos sleeve done — look here. I’ve got a fair amount done on the second sleeve, so Valtos is chugging along down the road towards FO-dom.

So my next big project will be Fulmar . . . but I think I’m going to knit a pair of socks at home before I start it. I want to make a pair for Odie for Christmas, so I don’t want to bring them to work for commuter knitting — she would probably see them. So I’ll be digging around in the sock yarn stash to find a likely candidate for sock yarn. I’m thinking of making them with a waffle stitch (like the blueberry waffle socks that are widely available on the internet).

You got questions? I gotcha answers (though some of them not very good) . . . right here!

Stasia asked some general knitting questions. Look here for the text of an interview I did earlier this year. A lot of answers to questions of how and why I knit they way I do. How do I keep my hands from hurting while knitting? I think that might be because I put it down and pick it up a number of times throughout an evening. So my hands get a lot of rest and varied movement throughout several hours of knitting.

Oh and Stasia — sorry, but I don’t know how to do a curly or twisted i-cord. Can anyone help her out? I think Caroline F. did one when she was experimenting with making an i-cord ID chain out of sock yarn.

About my double-wrapping sock heel technique. I don’t know if it is the same as Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, not having read her technique. I picked up the idea of double-wrapping through browsing sock tips on the internet.

And for Lindsey-Brooke — I don’t recall any problems with the Inishmaan pattern. I do remember it was great fun to knit, and unusual in that the center cable pattern is different on the front and back. Sorry — I don’t remember how many skeins it took to knit. It was a few years ago . . .

Well, have a great Monday everyone!

Working away on Valtos. No pic today, but I am close to completing the first sleeve. I’m well into the sleeve cap decreases so I’ll be able to start the second sleeve tonight.

Here for your entertainment is a photo of my sock-in-progress.

And here is a close-up of the heel. Can you stand the excitement?

It’s a short row heel with double wraps. That’s my current fav. It really eliminates those pesky heel-holes for me.

What’s next?

After Valtos, I think I’m gonna knit . . . (drum roll) . . .

Fulmar.

Yep. I’ve made one Fulmar and gave it away. I have a bunch of olive green five-ply guernsey wool that I bought via mailorder this summer from Frangipani Knitwear in the U.K. that’s been calling out to me. So I’m thinking I’m gonna knit Fulmar out of it.

Aside: Frangipani Knitwear has sixteen colors of five-ply guernsey wool at extremely reasonable prices. And their service was excellent.

For those of you who don’t know — Fulmar is the design that is on the cover of Alice Starmores Aran Knitting.

Got a catalog in the mail from a company called Knitpicks — I think this is the second catalog they’ve sent me. Very nice full-color catalog with lots of photos of projects and yarn. Anyone ordered from them?

Y’all have a good weekend, hear?