Lesson learned

I would like to share a lesson I learned yesterday. I use an iPhone app for a project row counter, and it currently has 7 projects listed. I took my diamond gansey socks to the LYS last night. I opened the project counter for the socks, and started knitting. My counter said I should start on row 6. I noticed that the diamonds didn't look quite right, but I was experiencing an awesome sugar high and didn't think anything of it (a mtn dew and a jelly-filled donut, if you're wondering).

Finally, I admit that something is wrong. Diamonds don't normally have 6 points. I had copied the chart for the socks into excel so that I didn't have to carry the book around, and I figured that I simply copied the chart incorrectly and that I am incapable of reading said chart. After knitting 2 rows, I carefully frogged the pattern rows back to the beginning (that's about 7 rows), only to realize that I had opened the project for Fred's surprise project instead of the diamond gansey project. I started knitting row 6 when I should have been knitting row 8.

Lesson: If you're going to use technology to make knitting easier, at least make sure you open the right project or you'll get to do unnecessary frogging.

Big update

In case you haven't noticed, I tend to post in spurts. I'll post 2 or 3 days in a row, and then accidentally let a week slip by without a peep. I figured someone would want an update, so I'll give it you. You'd think I'd be smart and spread the progress report over a few posts.

First up is the elefante for Fred's D. I've been done with her for over a month, but have been procrastinating on doing the eyes and tail. I finished on Saturday.

Details:

Yarn: Berroco Comfort

Pattern: Elefante by Susan Anderson

Since I like D, I thought she'd like some booties too.

Details:

Pattern: Saartje's Bootees (link goes to blog-pattern on right)

Yarn: Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM) in P713.

Next up is a secret I'm making for Fred. Since I'm a tad bit evil, I'm going to post a teaser. If you know what it is, don't ruin the secret.

In the last post, I said that I had decided to join a cabled sweater KAL (rav link, tempted link). This is my progress to date. I had originally decided to use the worsted weight alpaca that I bought on vacation, but when I swatched, the yarn is possibly not worsted. So, I'll just use up my paton's classic wool instead.

Details:

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies (rav link)

Yarn (for now): Patons Classic Wool

The second sock pattern of the Wendyknits Socks from the Toe-Up KAL is the Diamond Gansey socks. I busted my butt to get the first pair of the month done, and it kinda looks like I'm not going to finish this one by next Monday. But, alas, they are for my DH and I'll finish them anyway, eventually.

Details:

Pattern: Diamond Gansey Socks

Yarn: Tempted Good Grrl in Moonlight

I've really slowed down on knitting the girasole, but I'll throw in a progress picture anyway.

Finally, this is what 2 mini schnauzers look like when you neglect grooming. I'm going to have to do it sometime this week before they go to their grandma's house for labor day weekend.

What is the deal?

Just today, I've CO a secret project and I was "convinced" to join a cabled sweater KAL. This has to stop! I won't tell you much about the secret project beyond the fact that it uses this Cascade 220 yarn:

For the KAL, I'm going to do the Owls sweater. I had planned to save that for the YH's knitting Olympics in February, but I have another sweater in mind. I'm going to use this yarn:

Sheesh.

I just keep CO

Since I finished those socks, I have CO a scarf and the diamond gansey socks (rav link) for DH. I'm using Lorna's laces (colorway is Franklin's Panopticon) for the scarf and Tempted Good Grrl (link goes to my stash-colorway Moonlight) for the socks.

Here's the scarf so far:

Please forgive the stoned look on the visible part of my face. Its is 2:30am CST after all.

Almost made it

I almost made it. I ended up knitting the ribbing on the cuff of the second sock, binding off, and sewing in ends in my mom's living room yesterday. I made a mistake and did an extra pattern repeat in the gusset of the second sock, making it about o.5" longer than the other. Luckily, Mom said one of her feet is longer than the other because of arthritis in her toes. Guess that worked out well.

The details:

• Cast on: 8-1-09 @ 7pm CST using Judy’s magic CO. I CO 22 sts and did 3 increase rows before starting the increase pattern in the pattern.
• Finished: 8-9-09 @ 5:30pm CST in my mom’s living room. lol.
• Heel: slip stitch
• Bind off: sewn bind off
• Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Oxblood
• Needles: US Size 2 dpns
• Size made: Medium

Birthday socks progress

I have had a minimum of sleep over the past week. We are not going to mom's house until Sunday, so I'll have an extra day to knit (thank God!). I was up until 4am knitting this morning.

Sock update

I've finished the heel on the first sock. I hope to have the majority of the leg done tonight, if not all of it. Either way, the goal is to CO the second one tomorrow. It took me until 3:30 am to finish the heel. Thank god for Hulu! I watched 1 episode of family guy, 3 episodes of Cities of the Underground, and 2 episodes of Biography while I knit. I didn't start until 8pm last night-I think I'm going to start earlier tonight.

Guess what! I started a new pair of socks.

I want to make my mom a pair of socks for her birthday, and the Seaweed socks seem to fit the bill. They're the free pattern for this month's KAL, and I have some pretty maroon yarn that fits the bill. Here are the catches:

1) Mom's birthday is a week from Monday (Aug 10). This means I have to have them done by next Saturday.

2) The maroon yarn is Madelinetosh.

I'm going to try to do it. Chances are decent that I'll be finishing them in the car on the way to her house (its a 2.5 hour drive). I went to a minor league baseball game tonight, so here is my progress to date:

Fingers crossed that I finish them.

Girasole update

Here is my girasole to-date. I love it! Working on this shawl/blanket has seriously slowed down my knitting on other projects. However, I only have ~1/3 of a ball of yarn left, and Tempted very kindly offered to dye more for me. So, I'm slowing down on the shawl so I won't get into a situation where I want to knit on it and don't have any yarn to do so.