Socks!

I finished a pair of socks that I'd started knitting in January.  The first of the pair went quickly - I completed the majority of it while on vacation in Atlanta, watching Arrested Development on DVD with a college friend.  The second sock took me much longer.  I got busy and kept putting it down.  But finally, almost a year later, they're done!

They're big, wintery socks to wear around the house on cold Wisconsin nights.  I might also want to try them with colored tights, a short dress, and my blue Converse low-tops.

They're made of self-striping yarn, which I love.  The yarn is dyed to create the pattern - I never had to switch skeins or anything.

Check them out!

A finished scarf

Here are some photos of the scarf I recently finished knitting (no song is associated with this one, I just made it because it's pretty).  I've been working on it verrrry slowly since November, so it's exciting to have it finished.  You can see the wavy pattern in the close-up.

The scarf becomes...

A shrug.  I've decided I'm going to make my Sleepyhead scarf into a long-sleeved shrug.  So far it is just an idea, no execution yet.

New single you ought to download: "Remedy" by Little Boots.  She's a pretty big star in England, and does catchy electropop sort of similar to Lady Gaga.  I've already been overplaying "New in Town," another single of hers.  After hearing "Remedy" at Berlin Nightclub in Chicago this weekend, I'm now super-into it as well.

Still reading Carrion Comfort.  I doubt I'll end up loving this book, or even kind of liking it, but it's hard to leave a book unfinished.

Adrift on my scarf

So my progress on my Sleepyhead scarf has stalled because of fabric issues.  Sewing the fabric to the knitted scarf has resulted in the knit part being stretched kind of strangely, plus the ribbons are rather stiff.  It's not something easy to wrap around your neck.  I'm thinking of trying to convert it into some other sort of garment, but I'm not sure what yet...

Still minimal progress on Carrion Comfort.  It hasn't gotten any better.  Saul is talking to a woman in her 20s, and let me just say, they BETTER NOT end up love interests, because he's at least 60.  Enough already.

Scarf

I've bound off on my Sleepyhead scarf, and am now adding its layers of ribbons and fabric. Here are a couple of photos of it, as it stands now. I've got a couple more types of fabric to add, and I'm going to add another ribbon to run the length of the scarf on the opposite side.

Swans and Scarves

Do you ever look at your spot in a book and feel mournful, because you know it will end at some point? I'm doing that right now, and I'm only about a fifth of the way through the book.  That's the sad part about good books, their finiteness.  I think the same thing when my sister and I go to Panera.  I get a hot chocolate and an asiago cheese bagel with cream cheese, and I eat it, and then it's over.  (I'm mourning Panera... that's pretty pathetic.)


Here's the base of the Sleepyhead scarf.  I'm going to add ribbons and strips of material and possibly tinkly little bells.  The yarn is silver and off-white, and it's made entirely from recycled pop bottles.

The Swan Thieves etc.

I am about 60 pages into The Swan Thieves.  Twelve pages in, I was hooked.  The main character is a psychiatrist working with an artist who attacked a painting in a museum.  I'm hoping the main character ends up married to Kate, the artist's ex-wife...  I'm hoping he DOESN'T end up married to the girl from the museum, because really, there are enough older men/younger women couplings in books and movies.  I don't need to read about one more hot 25-year-old falling for someone her dad's age...

I am nearly done with the base of my first project in a series I'm calling Synesthesia Scarves.  This one is the visual representation of the song "Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit.  I'm planning one after it for "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga.