Continuing to Catch Up

So, as my Year in Knitting recap showed, my blogging really has just not kept pace with my knitting thus far, and I really must fix that. So, toward that end, I will first endeavor to catch up a bit.

Here is one of the oldest un-blogged FOs - a scarf I made for Caz in a lovely dark purple, which is his all-time most favoritest color ever!!!!111!!1111one1!


Yarn: Cascade 220, colorway 8885 (at least, I'm pretty sure), used 1 2/3 skeins roughly
Pattern: Feh. Made it up. Just a simple basketweave stitch on, I think, 40 sts
Needles: US7 bamboo straights, US7 Denise Interchangeables
Started: Sometime in winter/spring 2006
Finished: Early November, I think - just in time for the first (and so far only) big snowfall we've gotten

It was a simple knit, and nice to kind of go back to when nothing else I was working on seemed to be going right. Though man, by the end of it? I was sick to death of basketweave stitch. blegh! Caz is pretty darn happy with it, so that's good. Now if we just had weather that he could wear it in without lighting his already pretty-woolly head on fire.

Here's another -


Yarn: Trekking XXL Colorway 100
Pattern: Basic stockinette socks
Needles: US1 Susan Bates Silvalume dpns
Started: Sometime this summer
Finished: October or November, I'm not sure exactly
Modifications: I decided the funky stripiness of this yarn merited a short-row heel, so I looked some up and wound up using these instructions for a "Sherman" heel, and they worked out really well. I'm not sure a short-row heel is my favorite ever, but I figure I'll give them another try one of these days. Will probably mess with them a little more, as these are a smidge tight through the ankle, and the "corners" of the heel stick out funny, and the whole thing doesn't cup my heel quite right. I think it could have used more stitches left un-short rowed.

You may note that these socks don't look much like the Trekking 100 socks you've seen other people showing off. Yeah, I've kind of wondered about that too. I thought at first that I'd just gotten a bad skein, but then I discovered that Crazy Lanea had the same problem, and even gave it a name: Ground Clown. Which, really, is the best way to describe these.

The overall effect is, admittedly, not torturously ugly, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement. They ain't pretty, that's for sure. I finished them and I wear them, because dammit, I knitted 'em, but... I dunno. They're the socks I wear when I've worn all my other handknit socks except the first pair I made, and only because the toes are a bit too short on that pair and so they aren't wonderfully comfortable like the others. And I prefer comfortable to pretty in 9 out of 10 situations.

In other news, my whole "knit the stash" business? Oy. I posted about that, then went to the LYS with a friend of mine, who I permitted to talk me into buying some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in order to make a scarf for my MIL. She didn't have to work too hard, honestly - there was a sample scarf on display that really caught my fancy, and so I was leaning pretty heavily in that direction already.

And yes, I had allowed myself a "Gift Making Exclusion Clause", but still. I felt kinda silly, going right out and buying yarn after all that "No more buying yarn!" talk. sigh.

However, the next night after the kids went to bed I stayed up and organized the "active" stash and got a bunch of things moved out of that because the kids kept getting into it. And I have to say - I soooooo do not need more yarn. Seriously. It's just gotten ludicrous.

Ooh, and before I go: it is apparently Annual Delurking Week, so assuming there's more then four of you out there, go ahead - delurk! Tell me you're reading! Though really, if you're happier lurking, I won't judge you. I just needed an excuse to post up this genius button: