You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2008.
You organize your stash, of course.
I started a pair of awesome socks just in time for my wrists and shoulders to get jacked up and have to go on a knitting hiatus. The pattern is Barrow, from the Sock Yarnista club’s August shipment, but the yarn is Sanguine Gryphon’s Sea Sock in Father Ailnoth’s Sin.
This is the front, halfway through the first of three repeats of a twenty row chart. The cable in the middle will continue straight down, and the bands on the left and right will meander around and become lovely and winding.
This is the back, somewhere in the middle of the third repeat of a four row chart. The effect is kind of lost in the picture, but some of the cables are normal old cables, and some of them are openwork.
I think the whole pattern is very clever and while some of the rows leave me feeling a little breathless, I’m loving it. Or, I was loving it, until I had to stop.
I was home all day yesterday resting and icing and eating Advil and I couldn’t knit, so I dragged out my stash, sorted it, fished out all the icky old acrylic and set it aside to give away, and repacked everything that was left in a logical order. Logical to me, anyway. I almost took a picture of the whole mess while it was spread out on the living room floor, but I worried that it would make my husband’s head explode if he was forced to really see it all in one place at the same time, and decided against it. Suffice it to say, while I don’t think there’s any such thing as too much yarn, I may have had more than I needed.
1. I finished the first of my Ravelympics socks. They are just as ugly as ever, and I am trying not to think about needing to knit a second one. I’m giving myself a break and knitting something I really love before I finish them. Clearly, this means that I lose and Ravelympics.
2. I’m ripping out the heel on the toe up socks, adding an inch to the foot, and trying the heel again. I suspect that the pattern I was using makes it more fiddly than it needs to be, so I’m going to consult one of Wendy’s patterns to see if she does it differently. I still think that the yarn is beautiful and happy and I can’t understand why everyone I’ve shown it to hates it.
3. My August Sock Yarnista shipment came yesterday. I won’t post any more details until more people have gotten their yarn (I have to love loving a few zip codes away from the dyer), but I am beyond thrilled. The yarn base is new for Three Irish Girls, but I feel like I’ve seen it someplace before. Its sproingy, like Gryphon’s Sea Sock, but not nearly as silky, and has just slightly more halo than something like Louet Gems. The pattern that came with it is beyond gorgeous, but its too intricate to use with the highly contrasting hand painted color way I ordered. I have no idea what I’m doing with the yarn, but the pattern has jumped to the top of my mental queue.
4. I’ve kind of spaced on the whole Summer of Socks business, despite the fact that I’ve knit almost nothing but socks all summer, but on Friday I noticed that my picture of Darth Maul holding my sock made it into the Socks on Vacation contest voting. It closes tomorrow at noon EST, so you should take a look at the set and vote (preferably for the Sith and his Sock), even if you’re not part of the knitalong. To vote, send a blank e-mail to summerofsocks at gmail dot com with the subject containing only the number of the photo you want to vote for. Leave the rest of the e-mail blank.
I never expected to be the Michael Phelps of the Ravelympics, but I didn’t think I’d be the kid who parties a little too hard after the opening parade and slept through the first elimination round. I’ve made a ton of knitting progress this weekend, but do you think I’ve touch that project? No. No, I have not. Even my husband, who couldn’t care less the Ravelympics has started asking me what the deal is. (I dropped two stitches by carrying it around in my purse, I can’t get them to pick up properly, and I’m sulking about it. That’s what’s really going on here.)
Saturday, I put the heel in my toe up socks. I’m not sure about this short row heel business. All that wrapping stitches and moving them around felt way too fiddly and by the time I was done, I was calling them nasty names. I haven’t decided yet whether it was tedious because I didn’t know what I was doing, or if it really is just way too freaking involved for my tastes. Either way, I have to admit that it was nice to finish the heel and know that all I had to do was the leg. There’s no going through decreasing back down from the gusset, so that makes the process feel a little faster.
The good news is that the heel is finished and they fit my feet. The bad news is that they fit my feet. I totally didn’t intend for them to be for me. I’m wondering whether they’ll stretch, or whether I can block them out a little bigger, but if those aren’t options, keeping them for myself wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. They are awfully pretty…..
To celebrate, the sock, Jason and I went shopping, and came home with this:
The Popsicle socks are finished, and just in time for the August shipment to come in. The right foot gave me fits on the toe, and I’m not sure why. Also, the ribbing isn’t quite the same between the two. One has a more gentle curve off the top of the foot. I’m not sure what’s up with that, but I don’t think anyone would notice it if I didn’t go around pointing it out. I’m still totally smitten with the yarn and the pattern.
Popsicle Socks in Three Irish Girls’ Kells Sport Merino in Azalea Orchid, Size 2 needles
One of the cool things about working in Georgetown is that when I have space between clients, I can go get coffee and sit by the canal and knit. (Yes, that is my toe up sock. Yes, I am supposed to be working on my Ravelympics project. I don’t know what to tell you. Evidently, I lack any sense of sticktoitiveness. To further set myself back, I came home today and worked on my Popsicle socks.)
Today, I got to watch kids watch “giant catfish as big as their arm”, and then, I heard horses. I looked down over the edge of the wall I was sitting on, and I saw this:
I thought it was cool enough to see people in period dress walking with horses, and for a second, I forgot that it got even cooler. They hook the horses up to a boat, and pull the boat down the canal.
There’s an old house near the spa called, appropriately enough, the Old Stone House. Its open for tours during the week, and when I have time during the day, I like to wander through and think about the people who used to live there.
Most people wander through and ooh and aah over the old clothes or the cast iron pots or the simple bedrooms. I drool over the spinning nooks, one in each bedroom.
That is in the small bedroom and this is in the big bedroom.
I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to learn that neither of the wheels are antiques, and I don’t know anything about the yarn there. I’ve also got some pretty big questions about why there is a metric ton of yarn and two beautiful wheels, but no fiber for spinning.
I’ve been reading a lot of buzz on Ravelry this morning about the start of Ravelympics, which should be about an hour from now in my time zone.
For those not plugged in to Ravelry, the Ravelympics are pretty simple: Choose a project that would be a challenge for you to complete in 17 days. Cast on during (or after) the opening ceremonies. Finish during (or before) the closing ceremonies. You are a winner.
I’m playing along (Competition: Sock Put, Team Tardis), but with about as much zeal as I’ve put in to the Summer of Socks, which is to say not much at all. Really off to a poor start here. I have my yarn, but its not wound. I have my pattern, but its not printed. My needles are…somewhere. Clearly, I am not starting this project until tonight.
I had really hoped to finish my popsicle socks before today, but I didn’t get it together enough for that, either. They’re coming along–I’m in to the gusset decreases and melting ribs, and I’m not sure I can put them down until after the 24th.
I’m not sure how much of the Ravelympics project you’ll see. Its Christmas knitting, so I’ve to get creative with photos if I want to blog them.
Since I kind of went on a yarn buying bender a few weeks ago, I am on a self-imposed yarn buying hiatus until at least September. I should have remembered that the more I tell myself I can’t do something, the more I want to.
I’ve been good, though. New Yarn Pirate colorways? No thank you. Spirit Trail Fibers 60% off sale? I clicked, I looked, I walked away. I even went in to the yarn store earlier this week to return yarn and didn’t come out with anything in its place. Not the semisolid navy blue Koigu that would have been perfect for some of the patterns in my queue. Not the handspun Mongolian cashmere. (Okay, so it was $41 a hank, and never really something I was going to buy, but wow was it soft.) Kint Picks sock yarn samplers? Not even a temptation. Blue Moon Fiber Arts discontinuing one of the colors I’ve been meaning to get? I was strong.
But this morning, I got an email from Jimmy Bean’s Wool (awesome store, by the way) about possum sock yarn and it is about to be my undoing. Sock yarn! From possums! Well, 20% of it is from possum and the rest of mohair but mohair is wonderful in its own right, and come on! Possums!
It wasn’t enough for them to list possum yarn when I’m not allowed to buy yarn. No. They had to list possum yarn that’s only available every few years while I’m not allowed to buy yarn. I tried to be optimistic, and believe that JBW only stocks the yarn every few years, but from the looks of Cherry Tree Hill’s site, it really just isn’t available that often.
My husband has been trying to helpfully point out that I have plenty of sock yarn that I love. (This is true.) He has reminded me that I am currently working on a baby sweater and two pairs of socks. (He forgot about the scarf under the coffee table, and the Ravelympics socks I’ll start next weekend.) He has pointed out that if I keep getting new, exciting yarn, I will keep starting new exciting projects and ever finish anything. (He knows me well.) Even more reasonably, he has told me that buying more yarn will not make me feel any better about anything. (I don’t think he gets it.)
