Originally uploaded by dormousie

You can tell that school is over and I’m on vacation because I’ve started knitting again!

I’ve been wanting to make Peapod for ages, but never had the time or the right yarn coinciding with the appearance of a baby in my extended family/friends circle. I went through my yarn to find projects for the trip to France, and I found some Knit Picks Merino Style that Dell gave me a long time ago. It’s such a pretty purple, but it definitely makes my Peapod a girly Peapod. I don’t really have a baby girl coming to our lives any time soon, but I might as well plan ahead. The next little girl will be lucky enough to get something BEFORE she’s too old for what I knit. (I hope.)

Anyway, the project works up really fast (this is just since Thursday, and only done a bit at a time) and it’s very easy to follow so far. I had to give myself a quick refresher on reading charts, but this is really simple as far as charts go. The yarn is nice to work with too; I just hope that blocking the sweater will make the leaf lace pattern stand out more.

We’re headed to France for vacation tomorrow, and I stood over my knitting boxes puzzling over what I should bring.  I wanted Eris to be finished (it isn’t) so that I could wear it around freezing cold French countryside.  Will suggested bringing it with me, but it still needs sleeves, then weaving in, then blocking, then adding the zipper.  I don’t want to take that much time and that much yarn!  At this stage, Eris isn’t exactly a portable project …

I’m thinking about frogging the “Sydney Socks” that I started to make while I was on an airplane for bazillions of hours going to and from Sydney.  I think I want to do the Monkey socks (like everyone and his or her dog) but I can’t make up my mind.  Whatever form or pattern it takes, that project will go with me.  If I can find the socks I’m making for Mom, those will come with me too.

I think that I’ll take Something Purple with me, too. I’m still on the first skein of yarn, so this is definitely at the pack-and-go stage.

I’m just so glad to have time to knit again!

Originally uploaded by dormousie

Why yes, it is! This week’s cast-on, again brought to us by Southwest Airlines, the BWI Airport taxi system, and soon to be sponsored by the Washington, D.C. metro system*, is my second attempt at Jaywalkers. I’m really hoping that these socks don’t end up as a donation to Southwest Airline’s lost and found. They’re intended as a Christmas gift!

Other pictures are at Flickr, and I’ll post ones showing more progress once I actually have some. Still, this isn’t bad for about 1.5 hours on a plane and in the taxi!

The five-year-old next to me on the plane was fascinated by my knitting. I was fascinated by him, because he looked at my yarn and needles and asked, “What are you knitting?” Very impressive, little man! His mother said she doesn’t knit, so extra impressive.

Then he looked at the yarn cake and exclaimed, “That’s a lot of yarn! You know how much yarn I think it is? I bet it’s a 100!”

I told him (and his surprised mom), “You know what? You’re exactly right. That’s about 100 grams of yarn.”

I think that made his five minutes.

*This sponsorship has nothing to do with proposed Metro rate increases, trust me.

Originally uploaded by dormousie

I had two weeks between the end of my summer semester and the beginning the fall semester. Amazingly enough, the timing worked out for us to spend most of those two weeks in Sydney, Australia, for the wedding of one of my husband’s good friends.

The travel time from Houston to Sydney is about 23 hours, not including delays. And yes, we had some. Remind me to tell you about the one with the airplane getting a “Door Open” light during takeoff, coming back to the ground, slamming on the brakes, and blowing 8 tires.

Thus these socks, a combination of a broken rib or twisted rib or something rib sort of cuff, and the start of a simple cable for the body of the foot. It’s a little fun not knowing exactly what you’re doing!

Have you heard about Blogathon? It’s a way for bloggers to band together and raise money for charities. This year I’m part of a group blog called Potterthon — you guessed it, all about Harry Potter. Don’t worry, though: we have a strict spoiler-free policy for Deathly Hallows!

We’re going to take shifts during Blogathon to entertain the masses while we raise money for First Book. Here’s the mission of First Book, straight from their website:

First Book is a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. We provide an ongoing supply of new books to children participating in community-based mentoring, tutoring, and family literacy programs.

You can still support Potterthon by going here and registering to sponsor us.

I’ll start adding my posts in later today, and I have a feeling that I’ll be focusing on knitting patterns. I do love knitting patterns, you know.

Speaking of knitting patterns, I did NOT get my Horcrux socks finished in time for the big ol’ Harry-fest in the middle of this month. I have one sock finished and the other sock started, but there just wasn’t enough time to get the second one finished. Maybe I’ll work on that today as part of my Potterthon …

I’m also tempted to whip up some sort of knit wizard hat and slap it on Clive, just to see what the poor cat would do!