Showing posts with label socks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label socks. Show all posts

Sunday, June 3, 2012

projects projects everywhere, and nary an FO

Although I did knit a couple hats a few weeks ago, and pump out a few little gifts in April, I have been getting "nothing" done.  Knitting on projects that take time, these days.  And as usual, knitting on all of them at once, so making incremental progress on them evenly, but not quickly!  I really need to embrace the one-project-at-a-time rule...

My husband's indestructible socks have been getting a lot of attention from me, and I am on the sole flaps,

so certainly there will be a blogpost when the heels are done, if ever! Talk about stitch patterns that take time!  They are constructed using many different slipped-stitch patterns, that change with each new section.  Lots of close pattern following, examining the work, and two different sized needles to keep track of flying around with these guys.

I started a skirt for myself, but have lost interest in miles of stockinette the width of my hips (oi!) and have been working on that sparingly.

My newest projects are socks for my daugher (which I started to have a take-along-not-attached-to-a-pattern project,) and a shawlette.  No, not the Milo shawl I was planning earlier, but something simpler that I think I will actually complete!!  It is the sand and sea shawlette and it is just lovely.  It took me two nights to cast on all those stitches because I felt like using the cable cast on, and I'm glad I did - it really makes a nice, smooth and even edge. I'm really enjoying how the colors in the yarn are coming out, and think it will look great with the mustardy gold color the trim will be (well, hope so!)
Pretty soon, hopefully it will look like the picture!
I'm really enjoying working on this one and the socks the most.  No big surprise.  Love skinny needles and yarn!

The sweater for my mom got frogged, as I finally realized that it's just not the sweater for her.  So I have frogged it, and bought a new pattern, still with cables and still with the gauge I want, but a cardigan, like she really wants: and it is just fit for a queen!  It's a chic knits pattern, and I've never knit one before, but their stuff always looks so nice.  Unfortunately, I am too overwhelmed by such a big undertaking to even begin.  So the yarn sits, frogged and alone, haunting me, until I get the courage.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

knitting action

Yup, another uterus.  This one was sent off in the mail today to my senator, accompanied by a strongly-worded, yet very civil and polite, letter.  I hope he will pay attention to it.  I hope this madness will end.  I'll keep knitting them and sending them to the-powers-that-be who are in need.


Oh, and ps....
I finished the commissioned socks!  Hurray!  They will be given to their new owner this weekend. :)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

uh-oh

I am 75% done with the commissioned socks.  Hooray!  I rarely stick to one project at a time, and tend to work on something different each day, but since these are on a self-inflicted deadline, (and I am sure they are expected in a timely manner by their recipient,) I have been working on these, and nothing else.  I am learning that I have even less knitting time than I thought I did, and that I miss my other projects, too!

Sadly, though, I am running out of yarn too quickly.  Yeah, when you knit a tighter gauge than the yarn calls for, you're going to run out sooner than expected.  So, not much profit going to be made on these after my near-future yarn purchase for them, which stinks, but c'est la vie!

I'm glad about being almost done with these, and really glad about the weather we've been having.  You gotta know we could use a little spring around here in this house!  Finally everyone is healthy, which is fantastic, including me!  But hubby is still out of work, and my work goes slow, and these things are very straining, especially when you're all cooped up.  Being able to be outside almost all day, with warm sunshine and blue skies, is so wonderful for my mood and mindset, and I welcome it entirely. Here's to open windows in March, yeah!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

persevering flower

Finished the herringbone cowl!
It was murder on the hands, so luckily I ran out of yarn and it's a bit less wide than it should be.  Ah well.  It's warm and soft and striking, and looks good on me!  Success.

Began hubby's indestructible socks.  Have a toe and a half done (and my, they are slow-going toes...)
Mom's sweater is hardly worked on at all I'm afraid...
...nor did I get to start that shawl, as I got roped into doing a pair of commissioned socks.  And no, I didn't ask nearly enough.  Decided to go with Sunday Swing again, as the pattern is burned in my brain, and moves along very nicely.  Also shows off the yarn well.  I altered it by doing a 1x1 rib for the cuff (better elasticity) and a normal heel (the other heel was tedious to me, and comes out large.)
Unfortunately, I do not have a second needle in this size, so am working on only one sock at a time.  Here is hoping I will persevere and move on that second sock upon completing the first!  I must; there is no option this time (I hate that!)

If that all isn't enough, last night I started toast mitts in some Ella Rae Kamelsoft that has been sitting in my closet since the Bella's Mittens days.  Just for me, and just because.

In non-knitting news, my son gave me this geranium two years ago for mother's day.  The poor thing strained to live outside all summer, and at the end of the season, he was so upset that it was dying, that I brought it in, and sat it in my window.
It's managed to stay barely alive all this time, and then last week, it sprouted flowers!!  We could not even believe it.  They seem to be fading now, but it flowered!  What perseverance.  Hoping to learn from this flower, as we face our family struggles in this hard economic time we're having, as well as in my knitting.
Have a great week all!  And keep on plodding along... :)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

WIP Wednesday, and one FO!

Wednesday again, and one project out of the way!  Sunday Swing Socks are complete, but unfortunately, not perfect.  I could rip out the offending sock and re-do, but I'd rather move on.  They are warm and mostly comfortable, so fit the bill well enough for now. 

Problem one:  although the yarn is the same colorway and dyelot as last year's sock, the socks don't match; one is lighter than the other, so that kind of stinks.
Problem two: last year's sock is a bit too loose, and we all know how all set I am with too loose socks.
Moving on...

The Herringbone Cowl is underway, with still about forty rows to go.  Since I can pretty much only manage two rows a night for how hard it is on my hands (especially that second row,) I'm just hoping I'll be done by month's end!

Since the next four projects in my queue are begging to be worked on NOW, and one of them has been there since last summer, I am excitedly starting new stuff today.  Unfortunately all of them are big projects in one way or another.  One of them I don't even have yarn for yet, so in the queue it sits.

The yarn (hubs chose the color, thought it'd look great with jeans) arrived for hubby's socks...
...so those will have to be begun (a wee bit daunting to me as I have never worked socks toe-up before, and so I'm assuming this will not be easy-breezy-fun as socks usually are, and therefore not as excited to start them.)

In the queue since last summer is a sweater for mom, which I've been passing by for other, quicker, easier knits, but the time has come.  I'm a little excited!  The math and footwork is all done for this one.  Washed and re-measured the swatch last night, so I am all set to start Amused for mom, turning it into a cardigan.  Provisional cast-on, crazy collar, and major alterations, here I come!

Lastly, I have rarely succeeded at lace knitting while having small children about before, but... this time will be different I say!  I just can't give up trying; I am much too intrigued by it.  My first attempt was ultimately frogged, my second and third attempts were successful, although smallish, shawls, and my fourth attempt was cut short and rendered a shawl for a doll.  Onward with number five!  This will be the one! Right? Sticking to fingering weight, thinking that will be simpler, and saving all the laceweight yarn in the closet for now.  Anyway, here it is, and here's my yarn I'm thinking for it... I'm not sold on the yarn yet, but it's my favorite of what's in the closet, and I really don't want to have to buy more yarn...

What do you think?  Who's with me?  There's got to be someone else out there with strong urges to start multiple daunting projects at once, right? :)  After all, it's a bright and sunny WIP Wednesday!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WIP Wednesday

Well, to start off with a finished object, I finished the Happy Feet socks.  They are too loosely knit, uncomfortable, and sure to have holes in no time, and I am severely disappointed.  In a flash of rage I drowned them in hot water and threw them in the dryer on high heat with a towel, doubtfully hoping to shrink them at least a little. 

Going to go by the gauge recommended in this amazing book, and no longer by what the pattern says when making socks.  The only socks I've made with a fine enough gauge my sister has, and her husband threw them in the dryer on her, and they're a bit snug on her now.  Geez, man.  Holding out hope for the Sunday Swing I'm currently working on.  And so begins the WIP's...

Sunday Swing socks (almost to heel of sock 2)
Garter cowl for my aunt (which is moving along nicely)
My son's socks are still waiting patiently for me to feel like continuing working on them....as is that mitten... Poor thrummed mitten that I want so desperately on those bustop walks, but that I have lost interest in knitting...

So today, started Shroom for myself in some lovely and soft yarn (I couldn't help myself.  You should see the god-awful hats I've been wearing to the bustop!)

Stay tuned for pictures of FO's and the beginning of those socks for hubby in the dreamy Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock.  (can't wait til it gets here!)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

WIP Wednesday

With poor circulation in my toes, and all the trouble that causes, the doctor recommended taking a break from my knitting for others, and knit myself some wool socks.  This Wednesday, I am actually getting somewhere on that.  I have just a toe left to do on pair number one.  The cuff and foot are done in Happy Feet DK, a yarn I fell in love with at first stitch, and the heel and toe are Vintage DK.


Pair number two began on New Year's Day last year, not this month.  (I have severe second sock syndrome, what can I say?) But now I'm feeling it again, and will do sock two (for me!  Woo-hoo!)  These are with Aslan Trends Santa Fe.



I've started a cowl for my aunt, which she requested after trying on my mom's; I have a secret swap project in the works; and I've got to do the other thrummed mitten (hmmm.... maybe I have a touch of second mitten syndrome, too...)
My kids' socks that I've started are getting dangerously close to the closet with all the works-in-waiting I've got in my head.