Confessions of a repentant knitter

Here we are January 29^th. The month is over and I’ve yet to touch anything lace-esque. After Christmas I launched into a sock knitting frenzy. Yet, the end of the month sees nothing completed. A day was spent working on a UFO which resulted in the completion of the first sock and beginning of the heel on the second. I’ve finished an alpaca cloche hat for myself. I’ve begun a sweater for myself (the Placed Cable Aran from Interweave Fall 2007) and an insane number of baby items. Baby hats are flying off the needles and baby socks are slowly appearing. I have to have something to post on the 52 Pair Plunge. IN case you are interested I’m 17 pairs in when I should be on my 29^th pair if I were to be on par with a pair a week.

What to do about this lack of lace? Well the SK’s have opted to have a knit along for the Twinnings shawl starting February 1^st. I’ve skeined my yarn and am considering jumping in. The Haruni shawl looks more interesting to me but the peer pressure may serve as a better lace incentive. After completing my first shawl and finding it too small to wear my momentum to complete lace was drastically reduced. The Enforced has encouraged me to re-block (stretch) it and see if I can get it to the correct measurements. We’ll see.

The Boyfriend is back at school which means I have two free nights a week. I’ve also started shopping for a MOH (Maid of Honor) dress for the VS & Zissou wedding. Shopping isn’t really my thing, I’ve ordered two dresses but I’m starting to think a trip to David’s Bridal would settle the matter completely. I’m sure they’ll be more on the wedding to come. A couple weekends ago, VS and I, and a bunch of other ladies, went to see a potential wedding band perform. I was highly amused when the lead singer came to the table (he knew why we were there) to say hi. VS implied that she and I were glad that we could see them before our wedding. Our Wedding!?!?! I held it together until he left but lost it afterwards since yes it is technically “a wedding we’ll both be in” but we’re not getting married. It still amuses me!

Hopefully they'll be better than this wedding singer.

Need I say more?

It may not be a total mending fail, as there are two socks and it is possible that it's the other sock with a whole in the same place...

Progress

I’m quite proud of today’s progress.

First I darned the hole in the toe of my “My Friends” socks. I’ve never had that happen before and I wonder if it’s because these were a cuff down construction and perhaps I didn’t Kitchener so well.

Then I conquered a major chunk of the Canute socks (while watching Rome with The Boyfriend). I almost have a full sock and the foot of another. The color of today’s photo is much closer to the actual color. Plus I’m supper motivated to finish these.

Maybe there’s something to the notion of taking a day a month to work on UFOs. I think the mountain of snow falling also helped keep me focused on knitting with the fingers flying.

The Boyfriend is currently signing me the song "Re: Your Brains" which is a hillarious email from a zombie to a coworker who's locked himself in an office. It's very romantic!

Rise of the Hibernating

Today is the a rise of the hibernating socks. I forced myself out of bed and down to the French Press. I know it’s a holiday but if I sleep in today it’ll make getting up tomorrow all the more difficult. As I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen I remembered the Canute sock I had been working on last June. I think it was that The Baudelaire socks are knit with the Semi Solid Kettle dyed Knit Picks Yarn and yesterday I felt the urge to cast on another pair of socks with that yarn but only found army green. Obviously while I was sleeping my brain reminded me that I had a wonderful rust colorway that I cast on last June for a pair of Canute socks.

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The Canute socks have a very warm spot in my heart. I knit The Boyfriend a pair but he never wears them. I really wanted them for myself but they were designed with Men in mind and knit to fit his foot. Last June I cast on this lovely pair for myself and promptly stopped all work on them in favor of a simpler pattern (this bad boy has an 18 row repeat with cables and the like). It’s not something you can pick up and put down easily.

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While the coffee was brewing I started digging. And the more I dug the more I wondered just how many hibernating socks are in this house. I pilled the couch high with project bags and socks in various stages of construction. Wait now, it wasn’t too high. Like a foot high. Not super high. I don’t want you to get the impression that I take pleasure in starting and abandoning socks in progress. There are 18 socks in progress in my house. I consider 3 of them to be active projects (I’ve knit on them in the last 10 days), 3 of them have holes that need mending before they can be worn again, and 12 of them were languishing in the UFO pile.

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Well, it’s time to revaluate these socks. Why did I lay them aside and do I have any interest in finishing them. I can say that 9 of those hibernating socks passed the test. The other 3, including my Can’t resist socks were frogged, ripped, trashed, demolished, destroyed, and left behind. It felt great.

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Sipping some coffee I and looking at the snow that started to fall around 11 last night, I wondered if today might be a good day to take a holiday from my usual knitting. To take one day and devote it to working on the hibernating socks. I could probably do the darning and finish off one or two other socks. At least get past the heel on the Canute sock. Seems like a good idea to me so that’s what I’m doing on this snowy holiday.

Mac's Cloche

I have a finished non-sock object to report on. I just finished the twist on the Sideways Grande Cloche by Laura Irwin from Boutique Knits. The Boyfriend gave me the book for Christmas so I could make this hat. I used the yarn my parents had given me for my 28^th birthday, Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky in what I think of a Turkey Red. I was worried as I was knitting it since the construction is unusual but it turned out wonderful. It is a seriously heavy hat and very warm. I love it with my black coat. MacOban enjoyed the winding of the yarn ritual. When did he learn not to fight it and just ignore me as I torture him?

The socks are still rolling along. I’m almost up to the heel increases on the second Baudelaire sock. I mustn’t forget to go up a needle size once the sole of the foot is finished.

Also there continues to be a lack of lace knitting. Maybe I’ll cast something on tomorrow…

Today was supposed to be a giant storm 6-9 inches starting at 5pm. As of 8:30 it had only rained for a little bit this afternoon. I was so excited to hear the musical sound of the plow trucks tonight. It’s been such a drab non-snowy winter. So I’ll be spending the rest of the evening working that heel, gazing out the window, listening to KIPing It Real Podcast pausing occasionally when I think I hear the sound of a big diesel engine outside.

The Most Beautiful Girl in The World!

Check out some post Christmas sock knitting

Check out some post Christmas sock knitting.
First is the Twinkleberry sock in Knit Picks Felici. This yarn is threatening to become my favorite sock yarn. Its super soft and the color changes mean I want to knit just four more rows to get to the next color and the next and the next.
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I’m also using the Knit Picks Essential for these Baudelaire socks. I’ve mentioned them before. I think it’s the same base yarn since it just glides through my fingers and knits up so soft. Are you noticing the purple theme? The Boyfriend picked out the Eggplant color. He thought it was me and thought two 100gram skeins were better than one. Yes the color is ‘me’. I already have enough for a pair, and after Christmas I have enough for 3 maybe 4 pairs. I’ll have to space them out but I don’t think I’ll tire of the color. It’s such a rich saturated semi-variegated shade of deep purple.
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And lastly these are the Thuja socks with Berroco Comfort.

I’ve never knit with a 50/50 nylon acrylic blend. The yarn itself is spongy and perhaps too thick for my standard size 1.5 needles. The pattern is super mindless, vanilla socks by some standards. Just enough to keep them interesting. The color is a steal grey. Not the best choice for mid winter but what are you going to do when the men in your life request grey socks? I’m curious to see how warm these are compared to my usual yarn of choice 75/25 superwash wool and nylon.

I'm not that into you!

Socks Socks and more socks. And when I said I wanted to knit lace this month, clearly I meant socks. It’s been a busy couple of weeks and socks are the most convent thing to knit. Although I didn’t knit at the Frozen Fenway game this past Friday. It was a bit too cold at 20 degrees to be moving the needles. But I lasted through the entire game with hand knit socks, mittens, hat, and scarf (none of which matched). The only part of me that was cold was from my knees to my ankles…can you say legwarmers?

I’m not sure where that’ll leave me in terms of this months challenge, but the month is still young.

The final Christmas present was delivered this week. It was a success! Fit perfectly and she loved the color.

I'm going on a rank now, so stop reading if you not into that!~

We saw Sherlock Holmes and I worked on some baby stuff (lots of pregnant friends, what’s up with that?). It’s definitely a renter. Interesting plot but a bit long and definitely not worth 20 bucks. When did the price go up to 20 bucks!?!!?! I was shocked. I’ve resolved to leave The Boyfriend behind on future movie events. Then it’ll be half price! No just kidding! Well it would be half price but that’s not nice to do to him. Speaking of husbands, I watched “He’s Just Not That Into You” this weekend. Man that movie really wound me up. The women were just so dense. And the whole premise centers on the idea that as children girls are told that boys hit them because they like them. And that as adults that translates into indifference means they like you. Hello, gaping logic flaw…indifference is not the same as aggression. I should’ve turned it off at that point. Then the movie proceeds to portray women as un-insightful and completely willing to accept poor treatment from the men in their lives. The final kicker was that the three women who assert themselves end up unhappy and alone, or caving to their boyfriends demands. The other main character is the “exception” and gets the guy she wants. I’m so frustrated about the portrayal of women in this movie that I would not recommend to it anyone.

How’s that for some soap box time? I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I really needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening. I’ll be back soon with a happier more knit-centric post.

Relieved and have since Reconsidered

As the side bar indicates, I’m going with Lace for January. After such a disappointing first shawl, too small and too variegated to show off the details, I’m going to do something semi-solid for the next one. MMH and Lucy have suggested a knit along with the Twinning Stole pattern. At least that’s what I think it’s called. I’m leaning toward black (Misti Alpaca) or dark navy blue (STR) but I’m not certain. I have some wild Scheafer Nicole and Tess’s bunny feet that I’d love to have near my face but they are just too colorful to pair with a pattern with any interest, and then if there isn’t any knitting interest what’s the point? I’m thinking this weekend could be a good time to cast on for the next shawl. I’m sure I’ll talk more about it as I go along.

Did you know that since Christmas I’ve cast on 4 new pairs of socks!?!?! That’s crazy. I’ve soft of finished a pair (one sock of two different pairs). One of the pairs is the Baudelaire by Cookie A. All through the foot it was a smashing success. Beautiful design and memorized the pattern repeat the first time through. I was so confident knitting it and listening to Dragons of the Highlord Skies that I promised myself I’d knit another pair for myself, AND one for my mother! I was so pleased with the pattern that for first time in over a year I decided to follow the pattern exactly, including the heel instructions. And then the tears began. I knit the heel and started to wonder if it was going to be big enough to fit around my foot. As I knit another 4” of leg each round made it more and more difficult to fit until it was finally impossible. So I ripped back and followed the directions for “high insteps”. I’ve never had a high instep but it seemed like it could work since it added 8 stitches to the circumference, well beyond my usual stitch count for a sock. Again, the fear and the eventual conclusion that this wasn’t going to work either, after another 3” of leg were knit. R-I-P-P-P-P!!!! I was disgusted. Here was the perfect sock design. It is so lovely it looks like a piece of artwork and I can’t get it on. Forget about a pair for me, or Mum!!! I threw it down. The next day I opted to try it with a size 2.5 needle instead of my standard size 1.5. So 8 extra stitches and much larger needles worked! I am relieved and have since reconsidered knitting a second pair.

Also Cooking!
I’ve been cooking; Veggie Pot Pie and Chilean Corn Chowder are the most recent attempts. I’m stepping out of the box and looking for some really good go to veggie recipes that are healthy and aren’t too difficult. The Boyfriend is even getting in on it, making Irish Soda Bread. The pot pie was a definite success taste wise but it was an hours worth of work (that’s a waste of perfectly good knitting time).