I’m Ba-ack!

Sort of, anyway. Just to recap: I did pass my defense, so I am officially going to graduate with my doctorate in August. It is fantastic to have the defense done, but I still have finishing up. I need to work on getting the three chapters from my dissertation submitted to journals for publication (1 is close to ready, 1 is far, and 1 is in between), and I also have a grant report to finish up before the end of June. And there is the whole searching for a job thing. All of which I am completely unmotivated to do. But—I have been knitting…..

I finally finished Erin!!!

Details:

Pattern: Erin from Hot Knits
Yarn: Light Green is Cascade 220; Purple, Red, and Gold are Brown Sheep Naturespun; Dark Green and Orange are Jaeger Shetland Aran. (I used way less yarn then the pattern calls for. Way. Less. I kept track so that if anyone is interested in making this, I could give more accurate estimates).
Needles: Addis size 6 for ribbing, 7 for stockinette, and 8 for fair isle.
Mods: Most of body and all of sleeves knit in the round.
Started: Last year
Finished: May 17^th, 2007
Issues: Seaming along a fair isle edge SUCKS!

I am pretty annoyed at myself for taking so long to finish this up, but I am thrilled to have it done. I finished seaming and ripped out and redid the neck. I was unhappy with how the stitches had been picked up on the first neck, and I am much happier with it now. Sometimes there is no good substitute for a complete do-over.

I also have started on a new sweater:

It is in Rowanspun DK in color Mouse, and I am using the retroprep pullover pattern from IK Fall 2002. Miles and miles of plain knitting…perfect for vegging with a movie. I am modding the pattern to be a bit longer in the waist and turning it into a turtleneck. This is going pretty quick, and I am almost done with the body to the point of attaching the sleeves (it’s a seamless in-the-round pattern).

I am totally behind on the Sweater a Month Knitalong that I joined at the beginning of the year. I was off and running in January….but knitting slowed way down for me since. I got my January sweater done (hourglass), and was working on 3 more (Erin, Cheesy Puffs, and Zara in Big Wool). I finished Zara, but decided that I hated it on me and I would never wear it. So, it is in a pile until I get in the right frame of mind to rip it all apart. Does it still count? :)

If I finish the rowanspun turtleneck this month (which I will), then with the finishing of Erin, I will have 3 sweaters for the year. Cheesy Puffs is about 1/3 done, so that could be number 4. I could conceivably get caught up…..I hope they don’t kick me out!

Next time: pix of the sock blankie I started as a worry blanket during the defense prep, and updates to my new year’s yarn diet resolutions (hint—it’s not going so well). Oh—I’ve been spinning a bit, too.

And—just because they are cute: