Ombre Monkey Socks

Monkey socks are the best socks. And they're even better when they change color all by themselves. Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. Yarn: Bounless Sock Moki by Play at Life Fiber Arts in Acid Trail

I Have Lost My Mojo

I have lost my crafting mojo. My loom sits warped, but unwoven. My quilt top is still in strips. And my knitting is going just about nowhere.

I finally finished the second toe on my Whirly Socks this morning, though, so maybe things are looking up? I can hope.



Yarn: GothSocks in Fairy Folk
Pattern: Whirly Socks by Louise Robert

I finally finished my first pair of Wollmeise socks! They're a bit snug, but absolutely lovely.



Yarn: Wollmeise Twin in Tiefer See
Pattern: Firestarter by Yarnissima

And I have cast on yet another pair of stripey socks - this time with spiraling eyelets for a bit of interest.



Yarn: Gothsocks Laudenum in Fairy Folk
Pattern: Whirly Socks by Loise Robert

Bookworm Socks!

And here are my completed Bookworm Socks! They are so cozy, between the MCN content of the yarn and the snuggly 2x2 ribbing.

Socks!

I have actually finished something! A pair of somethings actually. I finished some stripey socks (with heel/toe in order to disturb the striping as little as possible).

Yay socks!



Pattern: Hug Me Socks by Terry Morris
Yarn: Canon Hand Dyes Jane MCN Self-Striping (purchased at sock summit)

Progress - somewhat

So I'd really like to finish up some of my projects, but work is seriously getting in the way. Ah well, I finally finished my stripey socks (KnitPicks Felici) that I cast-on during my bar trip in August 2008 (yes, a year an a half ago, really).



And I'm making some progress on my Sundara Sweater - which is taking forever. I know it's largely so slow due to the fact that I got to the waist and then had to rip back to before the bust-darts, but it's still bugging me. Ah well. I'm through 2/3rds of my hip increases, so the end for this one is actually in sight!


Pattern: Skinny Empire from Custom Knits
Yarn: Sundara Fingering Silky Merino in Flaming Flamingo

I have chosen my yarn and pattern for Ali's wedding afghan. I'm going to make brooklyntweed's Hemlock Ring Blanket in Lorna's Laces Shephard Worsted in Cranberry. I bought 900 yards (4 skeins) which should be plenty. Now I just need some size 10 DPNs so I can get started.

I have also finished my October Sockdown socks (Spring Cable) and I love them. I wore them on Thanksgiving and they were super cozy and comfortable. Love.

I feel like a hero when I manage to fix mistakes. Of course, the fix doesn't always work (last time I messed up on my Mystery Stole I had to rip back to my last lifeline and I haven't picked it up since) but last night it did. I realized that the line on my Jaywalker was wonky, and realized my mistake. About five repeats back I had done my decrease one stitch early. So I dropped back those stiches and fixed it. Now, that doesn't sound too hard, but each repeat I ripped back gave me two more stiches due to the nature of the stich pattern. It took about twenty minutes to pull everything back up right, but it worked, and now you can't even tell where the mistake was. I feel like a superhero.

All in all I'm really loving this pattern in combination with this yarn. It just looks amazing.

I am knitting socks. These are my jury duty socks, although they are really too pink and lacy to called jury duty socks. I abandoned the first sock right before the cuff last week because it wasn't going to be enough knitting to get me through a round-trip train ride to NYC. So I started the second one (lucky I'd just gotten my knitpicks sock needle set). I didn't actually get very far on the train (I wasn't feeling well - stupid vitamin) but I did a ton of knitting yesterday and went from an inch from the toe to turning the heel. I actually spent about an hour in the park near my apartment knitting in the open air. It was really lovely and refreshing. I didn't even take my MP3 player - I just sang to myself a bit. I'm going to try to go again today. Sooner rather than later because the weather report is suggesting rain.

I think I may be able to finish both of them today - though I may take some time off from the socks to work on the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight I'm making for my mom. The Yankees game should be an ideal time to work on the 21 inches of 2X2 ribbing. I'm about 9 inches in right now. Not too bad for a week's work.

I really want to buy more sock yarn. I'm also freaking out a bit over my budget and I've been going out to eat a lot lately. Intellectually I know I'm not overspending (I barely went out at all in September) but I can't bring myself to spend money on yarn when I have yarn at home. After these socks are done I'm going to use my  KnitPicks Gloss to make Maia's Mystery Socks, I think  they're called Scherezade, because they look awesome. After those I have two socks worth of yarn left (well, 
technically three, but I hate the Clown yarn) before I have to go out and buy more. And if I like the Gloss and Risata I may just make a big KnitPicks order and get cheap yarn with free shipping. I wish I could be less of a miser, but money (and the fear of running out) makes me crazy.

I have jury duty tomorrow. It will likely be quite boring. So I bought some new sock yarn (Louet Gems Pearl) in a lovely, pale pink and cast on for Cookie A's Baudelaire socks. They are lacy and pretty. The figure eight cast on nearly gave me a coniption, but I finally figured it out, and now I have the definite start to a sock. I'm a bit unsure about the size of the sock though. The largest size has a 8.5" foot circumferance, and when I measured around my instep I got 9". So we'll see how this goes. I mean, I only have a size 8.5 foot, I shouldn't have to make the largest size.

I have also finally conqured my fear of sweaters and cast on for my Something Green. I'm about halfway through with the initial raglan shaping, and I'm loving it. It's such a neat way to increase. I'm knitting on size 8's (7's are recommended, but I'm a super tight knitter) and the yarn is just so lofty and squishy that it's almost hard to work with. Especially since I'm working with sock and laceweight yarn for my other projects.

I have successfully avoided SSS and I'm about halfway through my second sock. I had some problems picking up stiches, for some reason I was knitting from the wrong side of the sock (ie I would have had to purl every stich on every row for the rest of the sock). I fixed that, although I don't know if I did it right. Eh, it still looks like a sock.

I finished the second clue of the Mystery Stole and it's looking good. It's so satisfying, especially the purl rows, because I can just watch my hands. I'm using Addi Lace needles and I like them, but they're a bit too grippy for tinking. Sometimes I find that getting the stiches back onto the needle can be difficult.

I finished the Branching Out for Millie and I think she loved it. I've taken a bunch of pictures of different projects to post on Ravelry, and I really like having them up. Since I give so many of them away it's nice to have some of them preserved.

Oops. I think I turned my heel inside out. It looked like a triangle and it just didn't seem like the right thing to be doing. So I took a look online. The decreases were running towards the center of the work, instead of slanting towards the edges. So I ripped it out and put the stiches back on my needles, I didn't even drop any. I'll try again tomorrow.

I realize that if I was a proper blogger I would have taken a picture, to explain my mistake, but I was too annoyed to think properly when I realized my mistake. I'm just not a Knitter yet, not with a capital K, for further proof, see this afternoon. I went into a yarn store and didn't buy anything!

I have started my heel flap! I'm using the Yarn Harlot's sturdy heel, which has right-side rows as Slip 1, k1 all the way across. And I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Or rather, I'm pretty sure I'm slipping correctly I just don't understand why that would make the heel sturdier. Eh, we'll see. I bought some more sock yarn yesterday because I wanted to buy some yarn and I couldn't find it in me to spend much money. Sock yarn to the rescue.

Also I bought an Addi Turbo Lace #4 circular, so my mystery stole should start to grow. I'm hoping to get some quality time to work on the stole when I'm at home. It's just so cool to see it developing. Of course, I need to print out the rest of the charts (I forgot to do that at work) but I've barely started Chart 2 from the first clue, so I don't need to worry about that just yet.

I did it! I started my first sock! I'm using Tofutsies yarn from South West Trading Company in a sort of tweedy, variegated, grey/blue/brown. It's 50% Superwash Wool, 25% Soysilk, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% Chitin. I'm using Yarn Harlot's "Good, Plain Sock" non-pattern pattern. I'm using size 3 needles (American sizing) and I think I'm getting around 8 stiches to the inch. Using the four DPNs is getting easier as I get farther in, though it's kinda hard to see progress given the tiny stiches. But I'm super excited. Probably way more excited than is merited, but I'll take my happies where I can get them.

Also, I'm not finding any discomfort with using this half-wool yarn, and I'm hoping that this means my historic wool allergy will not interfere with my knitting and stash aquisition.