Call me crazy if you must

I don't like wasting my time knitting a pattern if I don't like it. A while back, I decided that I would knit a pair of socks for my childhood best friend (Sarah) for her birthday. She's a big fan of the Lord of the Rings series, so I thought that the Aragorn socks in Tempted Good Grrl in Passion Fruit would be perfect. I quickly finished the first one:

That's when I realized that the sock fit me. It would all be fine and dandy except for the fact that I wear a 6 and she wears an 8.5-9. So, I abandoned the project and started the Skew Socks using Lorna's Laces in Purple Iris.

Before I was too far into the Skew socks, I asked my friend Muriel (aka bffofwendy) to try the Aragorn sock on her foot (the same size as Sarah's). It fit perfectly. I decided to continue on with the Skew socks because I'd already started anyway.

Fast forward to today. I just finished the heel of the first sock. Sarah's birthday was March 26, and I'm behind. Now I have a problem. I don't like the socks.

The pattern is ok; I mean, it's not my favorite but it is an good innovative and cute pattern. I don't like the way the yarn is striping. It just looks really dumb to me, and I don't want to waste my time knitting something that I don't like.

So, I'm going to let them sit in time out for 24 hours and then I'll frog it. In the mean time, I'm going to start on the second Aragorn sock and try to start on the sekret knitting. I've had an awful time trying to do the Turkish CO that the sekret pattern requires.

Now that I've had the Loopy Ewe Lite package for over a week, I'll go ahead and post a picture of the yarn. It is fantastic! It's blue! You know I love blue. Meet my first skein of String Theory Caper Sock in Bye Bye Blues.

I'm in love.

I'm finished!

I'm finished with my Labyrinth Socks!

The Labyrinth sock pattern (rav link) is available in Wendyknits's book "Socks from the Toe-Up." Here are the details:
Size: Small
Yarn: Tempted Luxe Grrl (cashmere!!)
Needles: US2.5 dpns
Started: May 6, 2010
Finished: May 23, 2010

I love them! I haven't taken them off since I photographed them. Next, the sekret knitting will commence.

Finally finished

It stresses me out to have too many projects on the needles at one time, especially because I have a chronic case of startitis. Until this morning, I had 4 pairs of socks OTN. Four. I don't know what's possessed me to let it get that bad. I'm not even counting the non-sock projects. I finally finished a pair this morning.

This is my second pair of lace and cable socks from Wendy's Socks from the Toe Up. The yarn is Jknits (that's a rav link because I couldn't get the website to come up) and I won it as part of the August 2009 Wendyknits KAL on Ravelry. These socks are mediums and will go to my bff (who's a huge fan of green).

I've been slowly working on the Skew socks. I had a big problem with using magic loop. I kept getting a very noticeable ladder on the starting side of the sock, and I couldn't figure out if it was a magic loop problem or if I had CO incorrectly. After asking the pattern's creator, it turns out that I just don't like magic loop. I've switched to dpns for now. I'm waiting for 2 circulars to come in from knitpicks so I can try using 2 circs instead.

Finally, I'm very excited to participate in Knitting and Crochet Blog week (you can get info here at Eskimimi's blog). I've read through the topics, and I really think my blog will improve for it. I recently joined a group on Ravelry dedicated to blogging, and I've already thought of some areas to improve my blog.

Change of plans

My aragorn socks (rav link) that I had intended to be a gift for my childhood bff won't fit her. They do, however, fit me perfectly. I finished the first sock yesterday. I'll just keep them for myself and make the Skew socks for her with some purple/green lorna's laces that I have.

Here's the lorna's laces that I'll use for the Skew socks. The colorway is Purple Iris. Thankfully, the socks appear to be mostly stockinette, so they should go quickly.

On Friday, I'm going to head to Gnome's house so we can go to the DFW Fiber Fest on Saturday. I'm so excited! It'll be a nice roadtrip and I hope to get some yarn for the Wendyknit's KAL Swan Song socks. It's been a while since I got to participate and I'm looking forward to it.

It's a good thing I'm not a werewolf.

I can see the full moon outside my window right now. If I were a werewolf, we'd have a few problems for sure. I don't have much to show you in the way of knitting; what I do have isn't even a good picture.

I haven't been able to knit as much as I like this week because I have an interview for the Master's in Genetic Counseling program at OU on Friday. I've been trying to prepare myself for it. I have 6 (yes, 6. God help me) 30 minute interviews with various faculty, genetic counselors, and the program director. My attention has been elsewhere for the past few days.

In other news, did you see the progress bar thingy on the right? I love it! I'm so excited that I figured it out. I had some help from a ravelry group. It's sometimes ridiculous how the littlest things can make me happy.

We're headed to the ILs after my interview(s) are over, so this will probably be the last post until Monday or so. Happy Easter!

Aragorn

I'm about 75% done with the first sock. I really like these socks, but once again I think I might have made a sizing error. I'd love to get it right one of these times. As you can see in the pictures (sorry that they're crappy iPhone pics; I had a bad night that included 8 hrs of driving between 10pm and 7am), the socks fit me well. The problem lies with the fact that I wear a size 6 shoes and the recipient wears a 9. Hopefully blocking fixes all.

Quick update

I'm knitting like crazy on my trilobite socks. The KAL deadline is 11:59pm on Sept 30, which is next Wednesday. This is the first sock, and I'm about halfway through the gusset. I think its possible to finish, and I'm not going to skimp on the leg (it'll be at least 4" long). The crazy part is that I started the darn things last week. I always wait until the last minute!

Whew! I survived camping with my in-laws

My DH is Native American (Choctaw tribe). Every year, we camp out with his family at the Choctaw Labor Day Festival, and this year was no different. Hanging out with the in-laws for 4 days can be a bit rough though, so I took 5 knitting projects with me. I am a relatively new knitter, and the only time they've seen me knit was at Christmas last year while I was trying to finish a scarf for my mom.

Before I even left, I decided that some new yarn was a great way to make the weekend better. So, after knitting at SWAK, I bought some brand new yarn. It is bright red, but my camera decided not to capture the true color. I'll have to try again. The yarn is Knitty Bits 2 Sock yarn, and I'm unsure of the colorway. It is likely destined to be Trilobite socks.

I finished Fred's Owlings mittens a few weeks ago, but I wanted to make sure she got them before I showed them off. She did managed to guess what I was making and therefore got to see them, but she didn't see the finished product complete with seedbead eyes until she opened the box today.

I gave up on trying to finish the diamond gansey socks before the KAL for August ended. I actually could have finished them in time if I hadn't forgotten about them for a week or so while I was distracted by other pretty projects. DH specifically requested ankle socks, so while I don't think it is very attractive for this pattern, I only put 1 pattern repeat on the leg before starting the ribbing. I have one sock finished, but I don't have a picture of it yet. Here is a progress pic from this weekend (I had Wendyknits' book Socks from the Toe-Up spiral bound at Kinkos to make using it easier):

All in all, it was a good weekend. My main fear was being taken advantage of and being used as a babysitter, but I only had to keep the 1 month old nephew alive for 5 minutes while one of DH's nieces took two more kids to the bathroom. I am happy to report that I even touched the kid's arm and nothing bad happened lol. That is progress.

My favorite comment from his family regarding my knitting came from my FIL: "Are you still doing that?" My reply was a faux-cheerful, "Yes."

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.

Gah, I suck at blogging

Ok, I suck at posting progress pics. But all I've really worked on lately is the girasole (I vote for a new definition of girasole-it should read "time suck"). I was going to do both pairs of socks in the KAL this month, and I'm barely halfway through the first Nanners sock. How about a pic of that? I have it in front of me, and I'm at work..... ok, here's a pic:

Yup, that's all I've got for today. There is a sale at my favorite yarn store tomorrow (SWAK), and my DH has decided we are going to a powwow in Tulsa tomorrow. Sooooo, he's only given me 30 mins to shop. That's not nearly enough time, but I've already scouted the store to locate what I want in the hopes of getting out of there in time with the yarn I want. I won't tell you what I'm eyeing because this blog shows up on Ravelry. Gotta keep it a secret lol.

Nanners

Here is today's progress on the Nanner socks. I still don't love the yarn, but I think I'll be able to live with it.

The socks are done!

I am finished! Well, except for the blocking. I have to wait for my sock blockers to come in the mail (I'm hoping they'll be here Monday). This is the first pair of socks from the Ravelry Socks from the Toe-Up knit a long (KAL). The socks are a tad bit looser than what I like, so I am giving them to my best friend. Here are the details:

Needles: Size 3 dpns

Pattern: Wendy's Lacy Rib Socks (rav link) from her Socks from the Toe-Up book

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, colorway Pool (not happy with the yarn btw)

Toe: Judy's Magic Cast-on, CO 20 sts and did 3 increase rows before increasing as indicated in the pattern.

Heel: Slip-stitch heel

Started: June 4, 2009

Finished: June 27, 2009 (I was distracted by other projects)

Project notes: Pattern very easy to memorize; is very stretchy! Go down a needle size or 2. I made the small size, but they fit my bff's medium sized feet.

Found something bright and shiny to distract me

I've bought the yarn to CO this pretty pretty distraction: Elefante. I've got a cute light pink for the body, a darker pink for the ears, and a chocolate brown for the end of the trunk and feet (its all berroco comfort by the way). Adorable, no? I've been effectively distracted.

Oh, and here's the sock progress after SnB tonight:

One thing I'd like to note. This is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Pool. Numerous people have told me that they've never had a problem with this yarn bleeding before, yet it has turned my needles greenish blue and leaves marks on my fingers after I've only knit a few rows. I have messaged Madelinetosh and asked for advice on how to stop this; I'll let you know what she says (you know, in case something like this happens to you). 

I'm going to go cast on an elefante.

More sock progress

Since I'm too lazy to drag out my digital camera, you get a iSight pic. I've turned the heel, and now I've just got to decide how long to make the leg portion. It looks like the spiral coloring is going to be gone on the leg. Oh well.

I went to the local yarn store today, just to sit and knit with friends. There was also a learn to knit class going on at the same time. I helped some of the students wind their hanks into cakes (ball of yarn), and helped one girl cast on. It was fun.

Sock progress

I think I'm making decent progress. I'm in love with the spiral striping! I wonder what the variegation is going to do when I get to the heel.

This makes me incredibly happy!

I'm on the Yarn Harlot's blog post about her Dallas stop. Link. Squeeee!

In other news, I CO a new sock. Its part of the Socks from the Toe-Up KAL on Ravelry. Here is my progress so far:

I think the pooling is interesting. I'll keep going for another few inches to see how it turns out before I decide whether or not I'm going to change yarns.

As always, I'm easily distracted. In keeping with that trend, I'm going to try to learn how to knit continental tonight (I'm a thrower).