Well, well, well.

Hello there.

A new account on Ravelry (I'm fleurdiabolique, if you're over there) has prompted me to think that maybe I should start trying to update the blog again. Sorry for the long absence. Life has eaten my free time. I am currently in a Master's degree program in English, which means I can have as much as 800 pages of reading in a week, and that's on top of now having to do things like cook and clean for myself (wooo apartment living) and having an increasingly active social/extracurricular life.

That doesn't mean that the knitting hasn't been moving along, however. :)

I've started doing much more knitting in my spare time. Since I wrote last, I've almost completed Tasha. All of the knitting is done; I've sewn a backing on the strap, and have seamed the cabled bits to the sides. So a bit more seaming, another block, adding a lining... and I'll have an official knitted knitting bag! (Pictures hopefully to come, but I make no guarantees; it's one thing to get myself to post regularly and quite another to actually dig out the camera and upload photos.)

I have also, as a side project/break from seaming, knitted Tudora, using the same yarn as I did for the Snakes and Ladders scarf. Right now it's waiting to be blocked and to have the button sewn on. Again, hopefully there will be pictures... but don't hold your breath.

And finally, as yesterday was my birthday and I will soon be in need of a new project, I went down to a LYS I'd never visited before (Commuknitty in San Jose, and it was AWESOME) and picked up a GORGEOUS skein of variegated-purple handpainted laceweight silk with which to make Juno Regina. It'll be my first time working with charts! We'll see if I need to write them out or not...

...aaand I think that's all the news for now. (As though that's not plenty!) Hopefully this won't be a one-time post before a lot more silence...

Is my ruler growing and shrinking?

Measured today again and, having not done any knitting or ripping, got something a bit under 9". ... so apparently my knitting is being done in an alternate dimension, and also being ripped in an alternate dimension.

Going on a two-day trip to Nantucket with the family tomorrow. Hopefully I can finish the sides and get started on the cable sections on the ferry/in the car/while bumming around various places... hopefully I will also get to visit at least one of the two yarn stores that Google tells me are on the island. (Hopefully I will restrain myself from making major purchases in said stores, being a poor semi-grad student who has plenty of yarn already...)

Also -- remember that scarf from waaaaay back when? The one I was knitting in, like, December? I finally started threading twine (best thing I have) up the sides so that I can block it. I have my own apartment now and my roomate has yet to show up (it's school housing, so I theoretically may not have a roomate), so I should have plenty of space to block it, too. It's kind of boring, though, so it's going relatively slowly.

Yeah, yeah...

Haven't been knitting much (end-of-quarter rush equals both no time and using my hands too much to make knitting a good choice for the breaks I get). I did get two rows done yesterday at Class Day, and somewhere between 2 and 4 (can't remember how many, heh) today at graduation. It's 9" long!!!!! Just another half inch, and then something more interesting to knit...

I've managed a slightly modified technique that seems to take some of the work off of my right wrist, enough to make it more comfortable. Rather than "picking" the yarn with the right-hand needle, I use my left index finger to wrap the yarn around the needle. Of course, this will end up giving me a RSI in my left hand... heh.

Augh.

Knit another couple of rows this week. Am unable to measure at the moment, as I don't have a ruler. But I might have to stop again... arm is really acting up again. So probably no updates for a while, once more. Sigh. Sorry, folks... I know this must be just about the boringest knit blog ever.

My knitting is being done in an alternative dimension!

Two rows since I last posted. It's 7 3/4" long. ...and two rows did NOT add 3/4"... I don't know where all of that length came from, but I'm not going to complain.

One and three-quarter inches left... one and three-quarter inches left... one and three-quarter inches left...

Hand is hurting more. I think it's lack of rest plus tennis plus knitting.

Slow and steady...

I've knit a row or two at each weekly meeting of the writing group in which I participate, but it still hurts me so that's been about it. Right now the sides are 7" long, so I've knit 1/4" in two weeks... just FOUR MONTHS left to go at this rate... argh.

Eeeeensy bit of progress...

Knit about three rows at a writing group meeting. It didn't bother my hand too much at the time, but it was pretty stiff the next day. So, progress.

The work is currently about 6 3/4" long. At some point maybe I'll actually take a picture for you, heh... Anyway, so in 11 weeks I've knit one inch. I guess technically an inch in three weeks, since between January 28 and March 25 I didn't do any knitting. (My God, almost two months... how did I survive? ;) )

Slowly picking it up again...

Knit on Monday when my dad took me to Town Meeting -- probably six rows or so -- and another couple of rows tonight while playing a board game with Jason and his mom. It definitely still aggravates my wrists, and I haven't been icing or even really taking ibuprofen so it's probably going to get worse (although I have DEFINITELY been stretching, and doing my exercises, at least). I'll take it slowly, still -- definitely no in-class knitting this quarter, or anything; probably just a bit snatched here and there when I can. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll have the purse done by midsummer. Sigh.