Knitting Update

I finally finished my blue Koigu striped sock! Just the first one, but you know, still an accomplishment.



I lovelovelove the colors in this sock. Very vibrant.



I also finished the bridesmaid shrug. I'll get some pictures of me modeling it later. For now, a sneak peek.



I really wanted to work on Dawn's Summer Lovin socks, but I decided that the yarn I was using wasn't working, so I switched to Smooshy in Cocoa Kiss. As I knit the cuff, Jenny wound the yarn into a perfect cake. It was a beautiful thing. Then, we went to dinner and I forgot to lock the yarn away. Now, this is what it looks like...



So, I'm taking a break from that. And also, Vera is a whore.

A Knitting Tragedy

Remember a couple of posts ago, when I talked about learning with knitting? Remember how I said that I was going to be more careful and crap? Well, I forgot to be careful.

I wish I had a picture to insert here, but I think Jenny has the camera. I'm knitting the Cable Vest. It is a child-size sweater vest with a cable down each side - on mine, just on the front. It has a V-neck.

That's the part I forgot. I did the body in the round, split it and knit the back. All good. I knit the front. I bound off. I admired my work. The next day, I picked it up and it didn't look right to me. I was trying to figure out how to join the front and back sides at the shoulders and I figured out what was wrong. I had a lovely boatneck cabled sweater vest. No V-neck. No neck shaping at all.

Today, I had to CUT my knitting and rip back a few inches. I can rip a project like there's no tomorrow - I've never had a real problem with frogging a half-knit sock. I've done it on several occasions. But CUTTING a project? Oh, it's like murder!

I will never again let it get that far. I will check and re-check and check thrice that I have not made any critical errors before I bind off.

Fiber Festival Swag

This is everything Jenny and I got:

From Marlene's Felting Madness:
-2 2oz. balls of white merino roving for me to dye!
-2 2oz. balls of a green stripey merino roving for Jenny to spin.

From River's Edge Weaving Studio:
-2 braids of BFL roving

From Creatively Dyed Yarn:
-1 skein Calypso sock yarn in colorway Lord

From Carriage House Woolens:
-2 skeins of Cool Wool - this stuff is so soft and yummy!

That's what we scored! Not a bad haul, I'd say!

Learning

My knitting break is over. I started a vest for my ex's son's birthday at the end of June. It's the Cable Vest from Lion Brand. It's looking pretty good so far. I'm learning from my mistakes... If I notice that something isn't quite right or doesn't look good, I rip back and re-knit. Otherwise, when I make a mistake halfway through the project, I'll just frog the whole thing, telling myself it sucks anyway. So, fixing mistakes as I go and actually trying to pay attention as I go... I'm learning.

The Great Lakes Fiber Festival rocked today. I got a gorgeous skein of Creatively Dyed sock yarn and some roving. Plus, I got some Pigeonroof Studios sock yarn from a swap in the mail today. I will post pictures of my new goodies within the next couple of days!

The Knitting Blues

Knitting is starting to bum me out. I had to rip out my blue Snake River socks tonight. I was frustrated about not being able to find my spot when I went back a few rows, so I decided to rip back to before the heel to make it easier on me. I figured I would then do a short row heel to simplify things. But when I ripped back, I noticed a couple of mistakes when I went to restart and my perfectionism kicked in.

It seems like all I've been doing lately is knitting and ripping, knitting and ripping. I know I shouldn't be so picky and just keep knitting through the mistakes, but I just can't help it. On top of all that, the projects that I currently (still) have on the needles aren't exciting me. They're all so boring.

I'm in a slump. I just have to wait for my next knitting surge. Until then... the card making bug bit me again, so I've been keeping myself busy with that.

Spinning

I haven't been doing much knitting lately. Ever since I messed up my Snake River sock at knitting last week, then spent a couple days trying to figure out where I was in the pattern, then throwing the darned thing aside... Well, I'm slightly perturbed with the knitting, so I'm taking a break.

But! I did spin my first yarn. Other than the couple of times I tried spinning when Jenny got her wheel, it was my first attempt. It is by no means a great finished product, but I'm proud of it. And the good news? I got the hand of it a little more toward the end, so next time I try, it'll probably be way better! Hooray! Anyway, here is my very first handspun...



See those huge lumps of poorly drafted fiber on the left there? That was totally toward the beginning of the process. Improvement, I tell you! :)

Double Crap

Two of the fancy online yarn stores that have the hard-to-get yarn updated today. AND I found out that I had a positive balance on my Paypal account. (How'd that happen?) Everything just lined up so well and... Oh goodness. I'm so weak. So very weak. But, since I had that positive balance, I only really spent like $15.

I know. There's no excuse. And I really hope Jenny doesn't read this blog...

Too Many WIPs!

After I finish my current WIPs, I seriously need to look into going one at a time. No. Two. I will be able to have two projects on the needles at any given time. One pair of socks and one other project. It's so frustrating when you knit and knit and knit and rarely finish anything. I keep switching between projects, so of course it's going to take longer.

I really just need to stop looking through patterns on Ravelry so I don't tempt myself into starting new projects all the time. I wish I had some will power. Is there some sort of herb or vitamin I can take for that?

Kitchener Stitch

This whole kitchener stitch thing is bullshit, pardon my language. I've followed different tutorials, all with the same result. Their picture looks all nice and neat. Mine looks like a heaping pile of crap. According to the pictures, the grafting should result in a row of stitches. Like the knitting just goes around the toe, not like there's a big old line there. So, what's my problem? It's clearly my problem, since I've tried different tutorials, all with a poor result. Surely they can't all be wrong.

Last time I grafted a toe, I had the hardest time with it and Jenny assured me that it's supposed to look like that. She totally lied. She was just trying to get me to shut up. I know it.

Anyway... I've finished one Spring Cable sock. Unless I rip it apart and try to re-graft. :(

(I would show pictures so maybe someone could tell me what I've done wrong, but the camera isn't home right now.)

EDIT: I've tried on the sock and studied it properly. It turns out that those 4 stitches I decreased too much on the gusset were imperative to the fit of the sock. It stretches out a bunch there and isn't pretty. I am seriously bummed.

Also, in case you might be thinking I am overreacting, you should know that it's not just the sock. My cat went to the vet yesterday and we found out he has an abdominal tumor. It's starting to sink in now that he might not be around long and I'm getting downright sad about it.

Smooshy

Oh crap. I fell off the not-giving-in-to-yarn-buying wagon a little bit and...





I'm afraid it's love.

2 skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy in Cocoa Kiss

Knitting Lists

I've decided to make a list to organize my knitting projects, future knitting projects and figure out how to get the most out of my knitting time. I believe a list can help in any situation.

Current WIPs:
1. Wicked sweater - it's still progressing slowly.
2. Spring Cable socks - not so much progress.
3. Claudia Hand Painted Boot Camp socks - no progress, which is stupid since I'm halfway through the second sock. I'll get to it.
4. Baby Blanket squares - I don't work on those if I can help it. I'll kick it into gear if someone gets pregnant. Until then, there are too many other projects for me to care.
5. Popped socks - These aren't really a "current WIP" because I frogged my first attempt, but I'll be casting on with bigger needles very shortly.

Future Projects:
1. Toe-up socks - Jenny brought home Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson from the library and there are lots of cute patterns in there. I have to learn to do toe-up.
2. Dream In Color shrug - I don't know yet what we're doing for bridesmaid dresses for Jenny's wedding, but if we do blue skirts with black tops, I want to knit this shrug for the wedding. And, of course, for every day wear.
3. Some sort of fair isle with all my new Knitpicks Essential Kettle Dyed yarn.
4. I want to design some socks. I feel like being creative.
5. I need to find a pattern for my seriously blue yarn that I dyed. It will have to be just the right pattern, though.

Yarns I Want (BAD):
1. I still want yarnlust's Glitter Sock Yarn so bad, but it'll be a long while before I have that kind of money to piss away.
2. DIC Smooshy - I still haven't worked with it and I think we've decided that it seriously works with every sock pattern out there. And the colors are gorgeous.
3. Numma Numma Toasty - I hear it's good. I'm intrigued.
4. sKnitches Syncopation Self-Striping - I'm not a huge fan of self-striping yarn usually, but this stuff is so pretty!
5. Goth socks - Same with the Syncopation. And I love the deep "gothic" colors. Want!

So, those are my lists. I will move forward into my knitting with a clearer head and a more organized idea of what I want. And I will accomplish my goals and finish my projects.

... Maybe.

No Pictures!

I have much to comment on, but Jenny left our camera at her fiance's family's house yesterday, so I have no pictures. It's a shame because Jenny got my freshly dyed blue yarn untangled and wound into a cake, so I'd like to get a picture of it sometime soon. It is a very bright royal blue color. There is definitely some very slight variegation of color. It will probably be just enough to give the knitting a bit of depth. I may knit a test swatch in the coming days.

I also cast on for Popped (which I keep accidentally typing as 'pooped'). I'm so excited about these socks, but there are a couple of problems there. First, all the knitting through the back loop hurts my hands so bad. I'm so tense and tight that my hands cramp up after 10 minutes of knitting. Second, because I'm so tense and tight, my gauge is very tight and I'll have to restart on larger needles - my foot won't fit into them as is. I've only gotten a few rows into the pattern, so it's not a big deal to restart.

My sweater is progressing slowly, but there's progress, so I'm happy. I know the pattern is extremely easy (Wicked), but I'm so excited I haven't messed it up yet. Like, at all! My sleeves are symmetrical (so far) and everything!

My Spring Cable socks are sleepy, so I'm giving them a rest. I'll wake them up in a little while. I have the knitting ADD.

Lazy Me

I have not done any knitting for days. I'm a slacker. :(

Spring KAL Sock

I have been sick since Saturday. I'm starting to feel a little better today and I'm extremely thankful that this doesn't appear to be the 3-week cold I had at Christmas. That was a serious bitch. Anyway, I figured that since I was sick, I would have a lot of knitting time. But, as it were, I didn't have the energy or desire to knit for most of the sick time. Kind of crappy.

Something else cutting into my knitting time? Reading. I've been rereading the Harry Potter series, I read Julie & Julia, and I'm trying to finish The Rules (Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right). By "trying to finish", I of course mean that I've glanced at it next to the bed a few times before picking up Harry Potter.

But, today, I got in a little quality knitting time and picked up the gusset stitches on my Spring Cable sock for the Cleveland Knits West Spring KAL. I hate picking up stitches. I really do. Like, on this sock... I was supposed to pick up 15 on each side. I just started picking up stitches as looked normal to me and got 19. I don't think this really matters as long as I decrease down to the correct amount of stitches for the foot, but I'd love to see someone show me WHICH 15 stitches I was supposed to pick up. I am confident that there would have been gaps.

Also regarding my Spring Cable sock... I put the heel in the wrong spot. I didn't read carefully and just started the heel where I thought it should have been and apparently I was wrong. So, my cable will not be quite as far to the side of the sock as the design would have had it. I think it will look lovely this way, thank you very much.

New Blog

I decided to start a new blog, just for knitting-related stuff. I will continue to post at the blog I share with my sister (jenandali.blogspot.com) but I will try to keep the knitting posts here. Should be fun...