Busy Weekend

After the success of last year, the knitters and I decided to go watch the Rat City Roller Girls again...



It was lots of fun, just like before.



I even finished a pair of socks there... (deja vu, I swear that also happened last time!)



Pattern: Leafling by JC Briar
Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Lucky
Started: 7/24/10
Finished: 1/15/11

Erin and I have decided to work through some of the old Rockin' Sock Club kits together, and apparently I need the motivation of having her do it with me!



This sock has very interesting construction. Despite the appearance of a semi-normal heel flap, the gusset is actually worked completely differently from how you might imagine. Very clever.

Then I finished another pair of socks!



Yarn: Regia Nation Color #5399
Started: 9/1/10
Finished: 1/16/11

This poor yarn has been waiting nearly forever. I love the socks, though, I'm even wearing them right now!

This puts me at 13.57 miles knit in my sock marathon, since January 1, 2009. Hopefully I can keep up the pace this year and finish before the end of 2011.

Sewing

As I alluded to in my earlier post about the steeks, I've recently borrowed a sewing machine from my knitting buddy Erin. This sewing machine is going to help me achieve a dream - something that I've been talking about for years!



I'm making a T-shirt quilt.

As you may have deduced from the music I sometimes put at the bottom of my posts, I'm a fan of the metal / hard rock genres. I have a *lot* of T-shirts. Some of them date back to 15 years ago or more - I started buying them towards the end of middle school. And, frankly, their condition is getting a little worse for wear. (I found several holes in shirts which I was still wearing up to their rather timely demise.)



A lot of strategy has gone into planning this quilt. My sewing skills are limited, and the sewing machine, while perfectly serviceable, is not one meant to sew knit fabrics. With the knowledge of my quilting friends and the internet, I decided to put interfacing on the backs of the shirt squares - to give them stability and make them easier to cut out. When I mentioned this to a much more accomplished sewing member of my knitting group, she suggested that I come over and use her rotary cutter, then put the interfacing on afterward.



Who am I to decline such a generous offer? I went over on Saturday and spent about 3 hours cutting out all the T-shirt designs. My sewing mentor also made me little scrap samples with some of her interfacing as well as the one I'd purchased - I severely underestimated how much I needed... I got enough for about 3/20 squares. Of course, hers was a much better choice, so I might be better off buying a different one.



I'm so excited to finally make this project a reality... but I think I'm going to need a lot more help. I've never sewn a binding or tied a quilt or done any of this before... but I can learn.

Listening to: Falling Snow ~ Agalloch, The Promise of Deceit ~ Katatonia

2010 Projects

I listed them before, but then I got bored and made a couple of mosaics...

The Socks



The Rest



(minus the soaker, which I never got a picture of)

click to embiggen, and all that jazz

First Socks

As predicted, the Fruity Monkeys were the first socks of the new year.



Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Fingering in Passion Fruit
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Started: 12/27/10
Finished: 1/3/10

Eight days, and believe it or not I worked on other things in the meantime. Mostly Girasole, which *will* be finished while the new year is still young. :)

~~~

A few years ago I had an idea about matching up stash yarn with patterns, putting it all in brown paper bags, and creating my own sock club. The Yarn Harlot later blogged about a very similar idea. (I have a feeling this was during the Fiber Cult era, since I can't find any mention of it on my blog but I *know* other people heard me talk about it.)

Anyway, I never did it, and this year I'm not quite doing it as planned, but I have decided to knit at least 24 pairs of socks and to choose two specific ones to complete each month. One simple pair, and one more complex. I've decided that WIPs count for this purpose, and this month's picks are Monkey - finished already, go me! - and Leafling from the Rockin' Sock Club in March 2008. (Yes, I'm behind, what?)

Hopefully this will help inspire me to finish some of the longstanding WIPs and also to get things done in a timely fashion.

~~~

A pattern I test-knitted also just became public. Though I usually knit socks 2 at a time, this is just the one finished - knit single in the interest of time. The second one is a bit into the leg, but not one of my designated socks for this month.



Yarn: Girl on the Rocks Superwash BFL Nylon in Caddy
Pattern: Desmondus Socks by Chrissy Gardiner

I believe this is my first purchase from Sock Summit that I've knitted up... well, partially.

1/1/11

Happy New Year!



These Monkey socks will likely be my first FO of the new year. :)

This year was a pretty good one for knitting. I had a few patterns released:

Diverged as part of Knit Picks IDP
Jera in Knitcircus, and now through my Ravelry Pattern Store
Intercalate in Yarn Forward Magazine #33
Isaz currently only to participants in a mystery KAL, but in the pattern store later

I finished:

Socks (22 pairs)
Leyburn
Mini Mochi
Redhearted
Intercalate
Diverged
Greenlicious
Birthday Socks
Twists and Turns Twins
Blue Moon Rare Gems
Jera
Solstice Twins
Trekking Socks
Lucy Monkeys
Intercalate II
Summer Sox
Gothic Summer KAL
Artichoke Socks
Handspun Socks
More Monkeys
Candy Corn
Garnish
Melanie's Birthday Socks

Non-socks (7 projects)
Pea Pod Baby Sweater
a soaker
Milkweed Shawl
Odessa Hat
Cinnamon Grace
Pretty Thing
Undercover

As far as my knitting goals, I stuck to my 1/3 yarn diet - buying only 1/3 as much yarn as I knit / destashed.

My 2011 Goals

1. Continue the 1/3 stash goal, but this year be better about not buying new yarn until *after* I have the "credit" for it (instead of buying and then catching up*).

2. Knit at least 24 pairs of socks, plus other things.

3. Finish items until I only have 6 WIPs left, and keep it that way. Casting on a bunch of new things at once is fun, but it means that some projects get set aside and take forever to finish.

* I'd gotten off to a pretty good start by not joining any sock clubs for 2011, but then I made an exception for Cookie's new club. I have already subtracted the 600g (approximate for 6 skeins of sock yarn) from my stash total for this year and will "pay it off" before buying anything new.