The new school year and fall are coming

I thought I'd share my progress on the Josephine Top and my Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. The first photo shows the overall progress and is taken of the back. I knit the bottom in the round and separated after knitting a row. The eyelet round looks good and the pattern on the back doesn't look as pronounced on my top as it does in Interweave Knits.



This shows a highlight of the pattern and I expect it to block out nicely.



As I was reading blogs last night, I see that the Yarn Harlot is making the Josephine Top too. She had some trouble with a portion of the instructions that say 'at the same time and separately' - I will have to pay close attention to that when I get there. I am going to find a long sleeve slim fitting shirt to wear under this so I can get a little use out of it this season.

And here's my gentleman's fancy socks. I want to wrap those up shortly because sock weather is right around the corner and I love the look of these. I think they're going to look great with my brown Dankso clogs.



And then I need to put the Tilted Duster together - I can't believe I have set that aside for so long, but I wanted to wait until it wasn't such a hot mess on my lap during the warm summer months.

School starts next week and the throngs of freshman are on campus walking around in packs with a sort of stunned look on their faces. They are busy making friends and establishing themselves in their new environment. They are trying on new personas and figuring out how to be away from home. It is all very exciting really - I like this time of year. The leaves on the trees will be changing color soon and campus gets more and more beautiful until the snow flies. That I am not ready for - not yet anyway. We've got a gorgeous warm and sunny long weekend (staying indoors because the Republican National Convention is in my town) and we're going to work on house projects.

No knitting and no keyless entry

I just got back from a week camping at St. Croix State Park and had a great time hiking and sitting around a campfire. We recently purchased a bunch of new camping equipment including a new Coleman Weathermaster:



The new tent has a battery powered light that is operated by remote control. Can you believe it? The technology. But it did not have keyless entry - that would have been super cool. We also got a new camp stove:





We had great food - hamburgers, bratwursts, macaroni and cheese. Real camping, you know?

And here's the fire tower I was too scared to climb:



The park suffered storm damage on July 11th - a storm came in at 8 pm just as the camp was filling up and the main campground and surrounding trails were hit by 70 mph winds. The camp lost power and cars were blocked in by downed trees. Rangers had to use car headlights to see to cut back and remove the trees that were blocking cars. Campers occupied every single building including the bathroom and gift shop for safety. Large sections of the park are scheduled for clear cutting because the trails are not safe. We were standing on a trail, I heard a creak, I pointed, and Mark yelled 'run' and we ran as fast as we could as a HUGE tree fell behind us. I told the ranger and she calmly said 'oh, that happens all the time'.





We hiked to a CCC site - from 1931-1939 unemployed men worked at sites as part of a relief program. Here's the fireplace from their rec center at the current St. Croix State Park.



And here's the Kettle River:



And no knitting all week long. I have made good progress on the Josephine Top and will have a picture of that soon.

I started my new job on Monday - this position looks very promising.

Progress

I have made progress on three fronts. First I have made progress on the Josephine top from last summer's Interweave Knits.



I was having trouble making any progress because I wasn't happy using open stitch markers instead of the rings (I need to use markers to make doing the pattern easy for myself) and I wasn't happy using Addi Turbo needles. The Addis were much to fast for this project and I was struggling to hang onto the project. I stopped at Depth of Field today and picked up the necessary accoutrement for adjustments and I am now set. I picked up the project last night after finishing the Woodsman's socks and I thought 'something's got to change with this'. I switched needles and I am cruisin' now. I must say that I am surprised about how well I like these needles. It is a size 4 Harmony bamboo and it is speedier than Clovers are at first, but the real treat is the flexibility of the plastic part - wow, very flexible. I thought the Clovers were fine until I tried these. I love 'em.

More progress...I have a new laptop. It is a Gateway something or other and that too is great.



But the real progress is track lighting in my hallway.

I am finishing things.....

I finished a pair of Woodsman's Socks from the Opinionated Knitter. I have made these once before and I made some modifications for this pair. These are for my husband and I think I will make him a few more pair. The socks are featured with Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd during some kind of inventory reduction sale. I got it for about $5 - what a deal. I might be inspired to make something out of there.



Yarn: Jarbo Raggi Wool
Needles: size 6 dpns
Pattern: Woodsman's socks

I made the heel with a slip 1, knit, turn, slip 1, purl back - this makes a very sturdy heel which is important for a thick wool sock that might be rubbing inside of boots and leather slippers in the winter.



I also made the cuff with a 1x1 ribbing before switching to a 2x2 ribbing. And I skipped the garter stitch section on the ends of the heel flap. I know...several modifications...but EZ would say 'be the boss of your own knitting', right?

And look Sue, no holes:



I finished celebrating my going away with colleagues last Thursday where we had an ice cream sundae bar and and I got a couple very nice gifts. I work with graduate programs and my colleagues gave me a mug made by a third year graduate student in art:



And then the really thoughtful gift was the little bird below. The picture isn't very good - you can't really see that it opens up and has a note inside. It came in the pretty box with birds next to the mug. This was given to me by my friend at work - she's the one I made the lace leaf scarf for back in December as a thank you for how supportive she's been to me this past year...now going on two years.



I finished handing off most of my project work today and am detaching very nicely from this job, am clearing my head of this work and starting to think about preparing for the next position. Although that's just on my to-do list (much closer to the start date).

I will have be starting lots of new things in the coming weeks...have any of you read Eunny Jang's editorial in the new issue of Interweave Knits? All about fall and the beginning of things. That will be true for me this fall.

High School Reunion

My reunion was great. Here is a group shot and a shot of me with the gal pals. It was at a beautiful park, very little planning involved, potluck, great weather and good time had by all. I wish a few more people had attended, but those of us who did attend had a great time. Our high school English teacher came too - ugh....you think they could have sent a representative from the school that actually liked us. But it was something to laugh about.





I wonder when I will ever get back to some knitting content here. I don't seem very inspired lately. I have a few unfinished projects and I don't know quite what's going to trip my trigger. I have been reading tons of books though - two Harry Potter books in a week, a couple Janet Evanovich books, and The Thing about Jane Spring by Sharon Krum. This last book listed was very fun - it is about a tough as nails lawyer who wants a man in her life so she transforms herself into Doris Day and makes it her mission to succeed in love. I read this rather quickly, but the vibe of the book has been staying with me.