More progress, less panic

So, my eagerness to have a completed pair of socks has combined with some recent insomnia to make a completed 2.5-3 inches of cuff on the second Sockotta #1 sock. I think what I like best with the striped yarn is the whole "fraternal twin" aspect. I think I would like it anyway, but having real live twins that "came from the same ball" but are still pretty different in appearance only increases my enjoyment of it.

Also, insomnia has given me a chance to work a second set of Straight Rows on the mini-Clapotis, and the strange striping which was less apparent to others than it was to me has moved along. I ran a life-line toward the end of the Increase Rows, so should I change my mind, I've still got the option of frogging. And never mind how silly it would be to frog a couple feet of scarf only to save the remaining six inches. For your information, the Increase Rows are a bit of a pain in the ass, so if I can avoid doing those again, I will.

Of course, all this Clapotis-knitting has teamed up with the lovely pics I discovered the other day of Alison's lovely Clapotis that she made out of Malabrigo, which is the same yarn I've got sitting in my stash which was originally for a Clapotis but then I made a mistake and frogged it all (and I'd gotten rather a ways, too) and got frustrated and decided to do something entirely different with it instead. But now I'm kind of thinking, "Gosh, how often am I really going to wear a vest I have to hand-wash? Maybe I'd be happier with a nice stole." Argh.

Also was pondering last night if I have enough yarn left over from my nephew's Harry Potter scarf I knit him last spring to make him a semi-matching hat for Christmas. I'm not sure I do. Well, I've got plenty of the gold, but probably not enough of the crimson. Alas.

And now off to do things which will hopefully make all this lovely insomnia less of an issue. It's tough - I hate what the insomnia does to my life, but man do I get to knit a lot more than usual. sigh!

Knitters' Malaise

So, I've been very dissatisfied with my life of late, and my knitting life is not helping. The "life" dissatisfaction thing is... well, a subject for another time, preferably one involving a nice hard cider and a real live person to whine to. But the knitting dissatisfaction - well that kinda fits into the stated purpose of this here blog, don't it?

Yeah.

So I just now realized why I keep cruising around knit-blogs, jealously eyeing all the FOs out there, sinking ever more deeply into self-pity that all the other knitters seem to have so much more time than I do.

No no no. Have figured it out. The difference is, all the other cool knitters are finishing things. Granted, I have finished several little facecloths, which helps ease the pain, and I've finished two rockin' hats, but they left the house almost as soon as they were finished. And while it was awesome to be out with Jeff (revised recipient of the Blasted Jayne Hat) and others for breakfast Sunday morning and, while we were waiting for our table to be ready, here someone compliment his hat, it's not quite the same.

The problem is, I haven't finished anything for me and mine. I've knitted my knuckles off for us, over the past several months. There's the sweater for one of the boys that I started and got about eight inches done on before I realized that a) I had no idea what I was going to do once I reached the armpits and I really ought to figure that out, and b) the darn thing is ginormous and maybe I should consider (gasp!) frogging it and starting over a bit smaller, if I actually want the thing to be worn this winter. There's the now three pairs of socks I've begun, but have only even made it to the second sock on one pair so far, and the other two pairs... not so much. The one pair is close, admittedly, but I find I'm still really annoyed with the yarn and uncertain that the course I'm on is the best one and beset with worries that maybe what I really should do is go back and re-do them on #1s instead of #2s and... yeah. Never mind. It's just a mess. We'll leave it at that.

Then there's my vest that I should oughta work on one of these days, but I still need to really settle down and choose a damn pattern before I can even cast on.

So yeah. I did, over the weekend, resist the lure of a really gorgeous ball of Trekking XXL which would have made lovely socks for the husband, and instead got some Galway with which to make winter hats for the boys. Of course, again I'm stuck on the pattern. I want to do stripey stocking caps, I think, but I was thinking about doing a nifty little edging around the brim (one of those series-of-triangles things which has a better name that I can't think of right now), but I can't remember where I saw a pattern for how to do it, and so... again. Can't cast on until I know just what the heck I'm doing. sigh.

Though I should swatch the Galway for gauge, rather than doing my usual guessing thing. Considering how infuriating that's been the last few times out, checking my gauge would be wise. Also I should gauge swatch the Merino Style I've been sitting on for several months now which is destined to become a Celtic Cap for me.

Okay. So that's the plan. Gauge swatch, find a pattern for the kids' hat, and get to knitting. And stop thinking, "Gosh, socks are so great - you can make a whole pair of socks out of just one or two balls of yarn - they must go so fast!" Six to seven stitches per inch is not especially "fast". Dur!

If one were to judge by how often I actually update this poor neglected blog which I until recently refused to even acknowledge as my own, one would think I didn't knit much. Not so! I knit plenty. In the past month or so I've done several face cloths, including one lacy six-sided star-shaped one. I've also knit the hat mentioned in the previous entry, plus finished the hat which did not get given to Little Miss Chickaboo. I also have knit about eight inches of a child sweater which is turning out to be ginormous, so now I'm going to... well... less said about that one right now, the better. But suffice to say, knitting has occurred.

I also have been working on a few socks. In fact, last week I confirmed that I damn well better not have Second Sock Syndrome too badly, because I do enjoy knitting socks. As evidenced by the fact that when I took the kids out for the day, when it came time to go home for naps, I instead decided to haul children on a blitzkreig through the nicer craft store (has nicer yarns, but doesn't quite qualify as an LYS, imo, thanks to all the /other/ craft supplies they sell there) even though Henry had already passed out and slept through the whole whirlwind trip, so that I could get a set of US1 needles and yet another ball of Sockotta. Then, once I drove around enough that Ben also fell asleep, I drove to a nice park with a view of the lake, parked the car, rolled down the windows, and cast on for another sock. This, for those keeping score, would make the third pair of socks I've begun, without actually finishing a single pair as yet. (Don't judge me!)

However, in somewhat more exciting news, I have indeed finished my first ever sock!!


And then, like a good little knitter, I did indeed immediately cast on for the second sock. I like the stripes thing, honestly - the color changes do keep me going, wondering what color is going to pop out of the ball next. They're also a handy way to go, "Okay, knit one more stripe, and then you can knit something else." Which is sometimes necessary.

Anyway, for the particulars: Sockotta cotton/wool blend stuff, the ballband is long lost, and I'm too lazy to be arsed to find the colorway. The colors as shown here are pretty accurate, though. I did it on two #1 Susan Bates circs. I'm torn on that method, really. I like that I drop fewer stitches on the double-circs, but even so I'm not sure I love using that method. I don't know. I just don't feel as much like I'm Knitting A Sock as I do when I'm knitting a sock on dpns. Which probably doesn't make much sense, but there it is.

And now, for my problem. See, at my First Ever Sheep & Wool Festival in September, I bought a really lovely skein of autumn-y variegated wool yarn. It's really quite lovely, and so I quickly wound it into a ball so it would be ready to be knitted up as soon as inspiration struck. However, inspiration wasn't making its scheduled appearance, so I flailed a bit, and then hit upon the notion of making a half-sized Clapotis out of it. Considering how nicely good ol' Clapotis seems to show off other variegated yarns, I thought this was an excellent idea.

Unfortunately, I've got a pooling problem. The first bit was nice - the set-up rows went just fine, everything was quite lovely. And then, as I finished the set-up rows and started the straight rows, I began to see an unsettling pattern forming.



Can you see it? Maybe it's too early yet, maybe I'll have to work a few more rows so it's good and visible. Which is fine, because I need to work a few more rows to decide if this is going to be all right or if it's going to be awful, in which case, to the frog pond I go. sigh.

Here's a hint - where in the beginning it's all nice and random-y, the inch or two closest to the needle, you'll notice suddenly the bronze-y color migrates entirely to the edges, leaving the green and red to alternate rows in a somewhat obnoxious manner. Perhaps further knitting will prove this to be a temporary phenomena. Otherwise? Urgh. Sooooo not amused.

Knitting as contact sport

So, in light of the Yarn Harlot's recent surprise, I figure it's time to fess up what I did over the weekend.

(And I figure it'd be nice to actually produce some content for this poor little blog, especially since we've somehow misplaced the digital camera. Which is only fitting, as we just moved it from its somewhat precarious home of "sitting in a CD cubby on the desk, completely unprotected" into a nice padded camera bag. And so now, of course, bag and camera have vanished into thin air.)

So Friday night, I finally finished the hat I've been making for our friends' daughter, whose birthday party was yesterday. I'd swatched, and swatched, and swatched again, and even though I was using relatively thin yarn (KnitPicks Shine) and size 3 needles I was still getting a whopping 4 sts/in. But I went with it, used my handy Knitter's Book of Patterns by Ann Budd, and so knitted up this hat, confident that at last I had this stupid yarn figured out.

Nothing doing.

When I pulled the thing off the needles and put it on Ben's head (his being slightly larger than Henry's), it was a bit too tight. And since our friends' daughter is almost a year older than the boys, I was sure it would be too small for her.

Great. It's late Friday and I need to be ready with a hat by Sunday at 2 p.m. I get the kids to sleep and mid-nursing, I figure it out. I will take some of the KnitPicks Merino Style I bought ages ago to make a skull illusion scarf for a friend of mine, work it tripled and make a somewhat smaller "Fat Hat" out of Hip to Knit. Except I don't actually own H2K, so I need to go out to the library on Saturday and hope it's there, or else just finally buy the darn thing.

Well, Saturday afternoon rolls around, Caz goes out to run some errands, among them looking for H2K at either the library or the book store, I don't care which. He brings a copy of H2K home for my very own to keep forever and ever, and once he gets the kids safely corraled and focused on eating dinner, I start knitting.

I cannot explain why I thought this moss-stitch-and-cables hat would only take me two hours, except that's what I thought it took me when I made two of them over Christmas for various gift-recipients. Obviously, it must have taken me much longer, because I was working on that baby until 5 a.m., then went to bed, woke up at 11 a.m. and got going again. I finished it in time for Caz to leave with the boys at 2:30 (that's right, half an hour late) and I wound up going back to bed, as I'd not even had time to shower in all the hubbub. To be fair, I think it was mostly the damn pompom that slowed me down at the end.

At least the reports coming back say that our friends' daughter /adored/ the hat, to the point of wearing it practically all the time, except when she took it off to try to jam it onto her father's obviously much-larger head.

So there's my little tale of hard-core knitting, and we're not even going to discuss that I started writing this post on September 26. Not one bit.

I am also, btw, not actually admitting I have a knit-blog, even though I have at least now found the damned digital camera, so perhaps I can take pictures of some of the things I've got on the needles and my one big-news FO which I will have to post about... soon. By which I mean (or would mean, if I had a knit-blog) November.