Handknit socks! (And a heaping portion of guilt.)

The Embossed Leaves socks are finally done! It was definitely worth frogging them back and starting over with smaller needles. They fit perfectly now and are on their way to being my favorite socks. I mean, they're pink.

Details:

cast-on: January 21
finished: June 27
pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks from Favorite Socks
needles: US 1.5
yarn: Chick Chick Studio Toes in the Grass Handpainted sock in Watermelon
mods: shortened the cuff and did 6.5 vertical repeats instead of 7.5

Then the guilt set in. I started putting away my needles and leftover yarn from this project and realized how. freaking. much. yarn. I have. I counted enough for ten pairs of socks and two sweaters alone, plus a gazillion miles of laceweight and worsted. And a few extra miles of dk and bulky. Sigh. So, I've decided to start stashing down. My next project will either be a pair of socks or the Whisper Cardigan from the spring IK. I can't decide, because the Outside In socks are calling my name, but I also just got Cookie A.'s new sock book and there are at least four in there I want to make. But I just finished socks, so .... the cardigan. For now.

I'm also going to stash down on books. My book purchasing has been fast outpacing my book reading--even with the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge--so my goal is to read all my unread books before buying anymore. I have very little willpower in the face of 15% Barnes and Noble coupons, though, so we'll see how long that resolution lasts.

I really do finish things!

I finished the lace scarf I've been working on this month. I played around with some stitch patterns until I found one I liked in laceweight. My original intent was to make a wrap, but once I got started I knew I wouldn't want something large in this pattern, so I made it into a scarf instead.

Details:

cast-on: June 1
finished: June 16
pattern: a little somethin' I made up
needles: US 3
yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in raspberry

Fun fact: It's the same stitch pattern as the Spring Forward socks, a fact I didn't realize until I was about halfway into my second repeat. I kept thinking, "Why does this seem familiar?" Ha!

Next up I'm going to finish my embossed leaves socks and frog my insanely girly ones. The girly ones ended up being a smidge too small, and I'm not crazy about the pattern with the yarn. Oh well. As soon as I get the embossed leaves finished, though, I'm going to get to work on another wrap idea I've got, in some fabulous Tilli Tomas yarn I scored on sale from Annie Amelia.

I haven't forgotten how to blog!

Who knew?

Since my last post eons ago, I've finished some Easter bunnies for the kids (very cute), a Rickenbacker scarf for a swap (cute, but the yarn ended up too scratchy, I think), and my Ophelia. The Ophelia is a winner. I wore it yesterday and it was a great fit, even with more negative ease than I intended it to have. Details follow.

Easter bunnies:

cast on: March 7
finished: March 9 (the faces were added the night before Easter, but we're not counting that)
pattern: Easter bunny by Christine Manitz
needles: US 8
yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Velvet Grapes (left bunny) and Violetas (right bunny)
mods: I was almost out of the Velvet Grapes, so I knit that bunny's body to pattern but shortened the ears. To make sure they were obviously different, I shortened the Violetas' bunny's body and did the ears to pattern.

Really cute pattern and very quickly executed. The yarn, of course, rocks.




Rickenbacker scarf:

cast on: April 22
finished: April 28
pattern: Rickenbacker scarf by Kirsten Kapur
needles: US 8
yarn: Araucania Atacama
mods: I didn't use a contrasting color for the ruffles, I just held the yarn doubled.

This was a nice little pattern too. The yarn was crap, though. It felt lovely in the skein, and the colors were gorgeous, but it didn't knit up well. If it hadn't been plan B for that swap already, I never would've used it, but I was sort of stuck. Ah well.




Ophelia:

cast on: May 18
finished: May 28
pattern: Ophelia by Elizabeth Klett
needles: US 8
yarn: Tahki Yarns Sierra
mods: none

Another great pattern. This yarn has wonderful drape and hand, but it was a bitch for me to get gauge with. It's already been two other projects that never got off the ground, so this was its last chance pretty much. Luckily, it worked out.


Now for some random thank yous. (Aren't I exciting today?) First, The Fold in Marengo, Illinois. I had a great trip to Chicago in April and met up with some Ravelers from the Traveling Scarves group. We knit, we drank, we ate Greek food, and we went yarn crawling. The Fold is about an hour outside Chicago, but well worth the trip. The owner let us stay for half an hour or so after closing so we could browse to our hearts' content, and she carries Socks that Rock. I ended up with three skeins. Woo hoo! So if you're ever in the Chicago area, GO. It's incredible.

Secondly, while in Chicago I bought some Lantern Moon US 0 dpns. Within a month, two of them had broken. I called their HQ and two brand new needles arrived yesterday. Customer service is a good thing, you know?

Is it just me?

Or is anyone else just flat burned out? I'm not talking about knitting, necessarily, just life in general. I'm exhausted and have very little energy for anything these days. Maybe it's just the end-of-winter blahs, who knows.

The dayflower cami is no more; it had some serious gauge issues that we couldn't reconcile. It's been frogged, and I'm giving the yarn one more chance to be something before it goes on to an extended hiatus. One might even say permanent hiatus.

The original embossed leaves sock got the frog-pond treatment too. I finally decided I liked the yarn and the pattern too much to settle for even slightly too big. I'm through the heel turn on the first sock again.

See? Nothing exciting. Nothing to muster up a lot of enthusiasm for. I did finally finish my group 4 traveling scarf, which is semi-exciting, but there aren't any pictures of it, of course. And I'm working on a cloche for my Roald Dahl swap. It's going to be darling, but again, no proof at the moment.

So, there you have it. Apathy and burnout from this quarter! Woo hoo! Signing off ...

So ashamed ...

Wow, it's been almost a month since I posted. Bad blogger! Oh well. Here's what I've been doing in the meantime:

1. Finishing up the Pfeiffer Falls scarf. Love. It. I haven't had a chance to wear it since I finished the hood (stinkin' weather), but it's really a great project.

Details:
cast on: January 2
finished: February 9
pattern: Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf from the winter 2008 IK
needles: US 8
yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in violetas
mods: none

One of my all-time favorite projects, in part because of the Malabrigo. I can see why it's often referred to as Mmmmalabrigo now.

2. Working on a gazillion swap packages. I don't know how I do this to myself; I just can't resist a swap, I guess. I finished up this cowl to the right as part of the Odd Ducks of Ravelry Swap (theme: The Six Wives of Henry VIII. How awesome is that?) The cowl is to protect the neck, of course. :)


Details:
cast on: February 8
finished: February 13
pattern: Wicker Cafe Cowl
needles: US 5
yarn: Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo
mods: I had a yarn shortage so I didn't knit a full rep for the last pattern repeat, just half. That made the button band only large enough for one button. It's still cute.

It was a fiddly bear of a pattern that I probably wouldn't do again, although the end result is really nice. The Cotton Bam Boo went both ways, too: the addition of the bamboo made it a very soft, almost silky yarn, but it was really splitty. Not a favorite project in other words.

I've got several more swaps in the works of just finishing up, then I'm making myself take a break.

3. Reading. I'm still slogging my way through The Dark Side, but I'm almost there! I caught the tail-end of Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC the other night, and she was doing a bit on some of the key players in the book. It was interesting to see the ramifications of what I'm reading about now. I'm also rereading a ton of Roald Dahl books for yet another swap I'm in, but that's more fun than anything else. And I need to start my book club books since we meet in a couple of weeks.

4. Starting a new traveling scarf group. I've got my seed section mailed already, but I completely forgot to take a picture. I'm so mad at myself. I've got one scarf already to work on and another coming. I'm excited about this group because we're doing stripes. I chose yarn A and B and sent B on with my starter; my downstream will use my B and choose a C. Then she'll pass the C on to the next person, who'll use that C and choose a D, etc.

5. I've also cast on for the Dayflower Camisole. I've had the yarn for this kicking around in my stash for a while, but I just now got the pattern. (Thanks to--you guessed it--a swap partner.) The first few attempts were rough. I had to cast on a couple of times, and then when I finally got going, Squirt pulled it off the kitchen counter and lost more stitches than I could rescue. So I'm on attempt ... five? ... now, and things are going better. Knock on wood (and keep it out of Squirt's reach). No pics yet, but soon.

Oh, and I'm on Facebook finally. Find me!

Mostly about books

There used to be a bumper sticker I'd see around that I liked: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." I counted myself among the outraged. After 50 pages of Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, though, I realized I haven't been paying attention. It's partisan, of course--undoubtedly biased--but Mayer's arguments are hard to dispute, and I've gotten old enough to realize that there aren't always two sides to every story; that sometimes wrong is wrong, regardless of perspective.

So. This book is going to take me a while to slog through--I read most of that 50 pages sitting (for two freaking hours) in the doctor's waiting room Monday. I read the entirety of The Tales of Beedle the Bard in less time than that, and it had more than 50 pages. I'd been feeling guilty about putting that last one and the super short, super easy I Can Make You Thin! toward my 52 Books in 52 Weeks, but this one will make up for it.

And speaking of books, my book club is doing Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler next. I'm stupidly excited to read them again.

The scarf is coming along; I keep using it instead of picking up stitches for the hood, but it'll get done one day. In the meantime I've started another pair of socks, the Embossed Leaves pattern from Favorite Socks. It's a fun pattern, but the yarn is what I'm loving the most. I got it in a Ravelry swap, and it's amazing. It's got some bamboo in it, which must be what makes it seem so special. The label said it's from Chick Chick Studios, but I can't find any sort of online presence for them. Too bad, 'cause this stuff is addictive.

Forgot one!

I realized after I posted my knitting goals for the year that I'd left one off: I will knit something using brioche stitch this year. Brioche has become what socks were for me--something that intimidates me for absolutely no good reason and I know I'll like once I just buckle down and do it. It's a stitch! How hard can it be?

I also finished A Lion Among Men last night. It was decent, but more of a placeholder for the series than an indispensable volume in it, I think. (Still a good ending, though. Maguire is beginning to figure out how to write endings that don't disappoint--woo hoo!) Two books down, just fifty more to go!

The Pfeiffer Falls scarf is getting there. I expect to finish the second half of the scarf today and graft the two parts together tomorrow. The grafting should be interesting. I'm one of those weird people that not only doesn't mind grafting, but sorta kinda likes it. This, though, is grafting in pattern. Some will be purls, some knits, and I'm ... nervous. Here's hoping Squirt takes a looooong nap tomorrow afternoon!