arrival in paris

(It is now the beginning of April, and I am finally getting to writing up our trip to Paris - I've backdated the posts.)

This time, we decided to fly to Paris, instead of taking the train. This was not a bad idea. We took the RER and metro into the city, and when we emerged, the first thing both of us did was be tourists.

december

December brought a number of things.

things got knit

Things I've knit since the Paris trip. At least, the things that I both knit and photographed... Actually, some were knit prior to Paris, but got photographed after. And some things have been knit without being photographed.

Links under each photo to more pictures and description of each project.

socks

coin lace stole

small towel

sweet pea socks

revontuli

big tease socks

mad color weave socks

julissa sweater

cadence socks

catkin shawl

elementary watson socks

artichoke socks

soleil tank top

leventry shawl

bricks

I have joined a Ravelry sock knitting group.  Every two months, they have a "knit-along" - where people choose a pattern based on a theme, and attempt to complete a pair of socks in that pattern within the specified time frame.

floppy yarn

A somewhat floppy ball of yarn with the tangled center for a center-pull ball of yarn.

Closeup of tangled center.

The remains after most of the center has been pulled out.

This yarn was knitted into half a dishcloth, and then I ran out.  It sat as half a dishcloth for a while, but I decided to make it a ball.  You can see the difference than some steam and a bit of tension makes on yarn - the near side is the kinky immediately-post-knitting yarn, and the far side is after holding it over a pot of boiling water and pulling a little.

Fish-shaped crochet dishcloth. You may recognize this yarn from the previous post.

Reverse mitered knit dishcloth.

A somewhat floppy ball of yarn with the tangled center for a center-pull ball of yarn.

Closeup of tangled center.

The remains after most of the center has been pulled out.

This yarn was knitted into half a dishcloth, and then I ran out.  It sat as half a dishcloth for a while, but I decided to make it a ball.  You can see the difference than some steam and a bit of tension makes on yarn - the near side is the kinky immediately-post-knitting yarn, and the far side is after holding it over a pot of boiling water and pulling a little.

Fish-shaped crochet dishcloth. You may recognize this yarn from the previous post.

Reverse mitered knit dishcloth.

The photos for this post are sort of a followup to yesterday's post to illustrate things.

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As I slowly work on sorting/cleaning/tossing/whatevering my stuff from after my apartment fire, I have turned my attention to the large plastic bag in which resides my yarn stash. The soot, it turns out, gets everywhere - including closed drawers, where the yarn was stashed.

I talked to somebody at one of my LYSs*, and have been told how to wash yarn that has inhabited the homes of smokers - and as my yarn has been contaminated by, but not totally coated in, soot, I thought I'd give it a try.

toilet paper rolls

When using a ball of yarn, there are generally two choices - use the yarn from the outside of the ball, so it unwinds from outside-in, or use the yarn from the center of the ball, so it unwinds from inside-out.

When you start from the outside, you have to figure out a way to keep the ball unrolling smoothly and not bounce/roll around all over the place. I'm sure there are other disadvantages as well, since I'm pretty sure at some point that I was told this is the "wrong" way to do it. However, it works, mostly.