Finishing

My knitting group companions Erin and Jessica of the Doubleknit Podcast have decided that 2012 is the year of FFS - the Finish, Frog, and Slog along.

As someone with far too many WIPs, I think this is a splendid idea. So here's my first finish:



I started these plain socks for Halloween, but as you can see it took me a while to get to them. I like wearing plain stockinette socks, and I have a lot of variegated yarn, so I try to keep some going most of the time.

Started: 10/6/11
Finished: 1/19/12
Yarn: Crash Into Ewe in Monster Mash

So, after finishing these plain socks, I started another pair in the yarn I dyed at Stephania's class. It started off like this:



And changed to this:



And is making some interesting striping socks, which I'll show you in a bit!

I've also been putting in some time on some languishing non-sock projects, but more on that later.

A couple more FOs

I went to a holiday party for my knitting group, and a couple of things happened.

We have a gift exchange, and I got this lovely yarn spun by smallsmallfaery:



It's about 130 yards of Romney, and although it says 11wpi, which is a worsted / aran weight so it will be perfect for my big Chevron blanket*.

And I was thoroughly embarrassed that nearly everyone was wearing a Noro Striped Scarf, and mine (which I started ages and ages ago) was still a WIP. So I got motivated:



Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in colors 40 and 233, 2 skeins each
Started: 1/18/2009
Finished: 12/18/2011

So, just shy of 3 years later I have finally finished my scarf! I feel pretty silly admitting that, but I just don't often get into the mood of knitting something in 1x1 rib. Now that it's done I've been wearing it most days!

Then while traveling for the holidaze, I finished a must more recent project, Melanie's 2011 Birthday Socks.



Yarn: Sophie's Toes in Grandma's Blueberry Pie
Started: 11/6/11
Finished: 12/24/11

Melanie modeled them and had the idea of posing with the lights leading from the tree to the plug, so we did.


*another WIP I really should put some stitches on

Skew

First off, Stephania graciously lent me a picture of my socks hanging in the Three Fates Yarns booth at Sock Summit:



L to R: Jera, Falling Up, Intercalate, Isaz
I'm pretty sure that's the end of Sock Summit stuff, so moving on...

Skew is one of my old WIPs, Started February 12, 2010 - let's hope I finish it before it's 2nd WIP birthday. Shortly after starting it, I heard a lot of people were having problems with the fit. And, given my very high instep, I worried.


Skew, toe and foot

Then I learned about the high instep mods on the designer's blog, and a KAL for Knitty patterns inspired me to work on it more.


After the "inner ankle" increases

I think for me, the issue was that the sock is simple, but not *that* simple. It requires a bit of concentration, but doesn't have quite enough interest to hold my attention during the straight foot section.


more increasing, and see the bump where the heel will go?

I like my knitting either interesting or boring, this pattern is intermediate and switches back and forth too often for my knitting style.


separating heel stitches

But after finding about the high instep modification, I was convinced to persevere.


grafting the heel - hope you like Kitchener!

Besides, I really wanted to figure out if this thing was ever going to become sock-shaped!


hmmm.... still looks funny

It doesn't really appear all that sock-shaped...



... but it fits, I checked.

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.

Summer of Stash

After finishing and mailing my secret and complicated project, I was glad to be able to get back to some simple knitting this weekend.

I got quite a bit of knitting done on Blurple Waves, and thought about taking a better progress picture. Of course, I didn't get around to it until after the sun went down, but it works:



As you can see, it covers my double bed, and is almost halfway done length-wise! Java thought she would help me take the picture.



Which was appropriate since her brother Pan was so helpful with my designing earlier.



As for the post title... I've decided to knit from my stash this summer. No new yarn! I have a lovely bunch of yarn already, and I just picked up some more on the LYS tour in May. I figured the summer would be a good time to focus on using yarn I already have. And because I don't think I really showed it much after I moved, here is the stash in its home... the knitting nook.



It lives there with my knitting books and patterns, my spinning wheel, and the little table that I like to photograph yarn and socks on.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

I finished my Nebula socks.



Pattern: Nebula
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Lilac
Started: 4/14/09
Finished: 9/27/09

The detail in this picture is better:



Yes, it's been a very long time. But, you see, I have second sock syndrome and it is a horrible condition.

You may have noticed that I almost always knit my socks two-at-a-time on one long needle. There are a couple reasons for this - one being that then the socks turn out with exactly the same number of rows and have the decreases starting at the exact same moment and all those lovely things that make my perfectionist self unreasonably happy.

The other reason is that I can crank through a single sock in no time at all, but once it is complete it takes me ages to finish the second one. My Conwy socks took well over a year, if I remember correctly.

I have also found my Leyburn sock and partial-sock and am working on that too. Time to clear out those WIPs!

Sock WIPs for Summer!

I participated in Summer of Socks this year, and my goal was to finish WIPs. Well, SOS ended at the beginning of September, but since I was under the impression that it would go until the end of summer, I decided I would work on sock WIPs through the end of the summer.

Yet another finished sock WIP - this one was from Labor Day Weekend, but did I blog it? Of course not!



Pattern: Kai Mei by Cookie A
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Go Go Grassy
Started: 5/26/09
Finished: 9/4/09

I just noticed those were started Memorial Day weekend and finished Labor Day weekend. Go figure!

And a little detail of the stitch pattern:



This is a wacky stitch pattern. Not hard, but definitely different. It turns out beautifully, though!

I made some really good progress and finished some socks that had been languishing for a long time, along with a few new pairs. My goal is to finish my second Nebula sock before the end of Summer (which is September 22nd, for those of you wondering).

So far I have this:



I only have a few more repeats until the heel, and the foot honestly goes nearly twice as fast since the bottom is stockinette. Those little cable twists, while gorgeous, are very time-consuming. For some reason the spiraling isn't showing up on the left sock. Hopefully it will when the sock is being worn.

My other sock WIPs include my second Leyburn - which I would try to finish if I could find it... I'm going to do a bit more searching tomorrow.

I also started a couple pairs of new stockinette socks to work on while watching movies or riding the bus:

The Candy Corn socks - these were supposed to be self-striping, but I think they're cute even though they don't stripe.



and my little sister's birthday socks:



The yarn is Lisa Souza "Little Devil", which I bought a few years ago with my sister in mind. It's rough being a blue lover with family members that love red and black. ;)

Knitting Fun

Thursday evening I went to Stitch & Pitch. I learned that Seattle was the first city to do one, and I believe this year was the 5th. My socks had fun hanging out at the ball game.



Then Saturday morning the same socks and I headed down to Salem. The socks got finished on the train!



Pattern: Summer!
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in Dusk
Started: 3/4/09
Finished: 8/28/09

Then I got to give Snarfy her socks, which she tried on:



They fit! And I think she likes them!



Now, my goal for Summer of Socks this year was to finish my sock WIPs. It's ending September 1st, but I had been thinking that it ended at the end of the summer (September 22nd). So, I've decided to continue working on sock WIPs for the rest of the summer.

Next up? Kai-Mei.

Socks and Winners!

Well, it's time to announce the winners of my contest!

The first prize goes to MJ, who guessed 20 pairs worth of sock yarn - which is exactly how much I bought! She'll be getting the Toe-Up book.

There are two runners up who guessed 21. This is a "more correct" answer than 19 because I actually came home with 21 pairs worth of sock yarn, just one of them I didn't buy and I realized the question for the contest was how much I bought, and also one of the 21 is not for me. This question was more complicated than I realized!

So Tece and Dawn are the two runners up - I'll email you copies of Falling Up. (Tece, I need your email!)

In the past few days I've also finished a couple pairs of socks.



Pattern: (Black)hearted
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Night Watch
Started: 8/1/09
Finished: 8/21/09



Pattern: Twisted Flower
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Wisterious
Started: 3/10/09
Finished: 8/25/09

Sorry for the blurry picture, the beautiful twisted stitches don't show up with flash and I apparently couldn't stand still enough.

I started the Twisted Flower socks so long ago as twin socks with MJ, but I got distracted when I hit the heel flaps. Also, there is a 38 stitch by 49 row chart for the foot, and that requires a bit more attention than my usual knitting situations allow. But the past week or so I decided I'd go for it and put on an audiobook and just did it. And I'm so glad I did!

Listening to: Heaven Beside You ~ Alice In Chains

Wow, I have a fan club?

In the wee hours of this morning, my dear friend MJ sent me a message on Ravelry to inform me of something I never would have dreamed...

Apparently I have a fan club. I totally thought she started it, but she didn't. A person I don't even know in real life started a fan club for me! Quite the ego boost. But I didn't join because, well, that just seems conceited.

Well, my fan club and maybe even the rest of you will be happy to hear that I have a few new patterns in the works, and hopefully a couple of them will be out in the next couple of months. And there's another one that's all done in theory, but I really need to get around to knitting up one of these days...

Since I can't show pictures of any of that, here's one of my current socks in progress:



The pattern is Nebula and the yarn is Three Fates Knitting. It's a sample sock for Sock Summit, and I think it's turning out beautifully.

Listening to: Hollow ~ Remy Zero, Die With Me ~ Type O Negative

Horcrux Twin Socks!

Way back in March, right before moving away from Salem, I started making twin Horcrux Socks with Eloise in our Harry Potter Draco yarn from our mini yarn crawl to Twisted. And today I finally finished them!



Pattern: Horcrux Socks
Yarn: Opal Harry Potter in Draco
Started: 3/1/09
Finished: 7/4/09
.26 miles for a total of 2.29 in Sock Marathon

Although the Harry Potter yarns are an exciting idea, I didn't really like most of the colors. But blues and greys, though a bit boring, aren't bad. One weird thing was that after my psycho efforts to match the stripes exactly, they get all wonky after the heel. But there wasn't a knot! Just all of a sudden the order of the stripes changed! Strange but true.

So I've joined Summer of Socks, because it's summer and I'm planning to knit socks as I usually do. I've decided that my first goal will be to finish all my sock-WIPs this summer, this is 1 of 9 1/2.

Listening to: Kimdracula ~ Deftones, Evil In a Closet ~ In Flames

WIPs

I have 22 WIPs on my Ravelry page. In truth, I only have 20 because 2 of those are actually design projects that are complete, but that I haven't marked as FOs because I like to wait til I can show pictures. In this case I might have to bend that rule.

I go through phases of casting on, I'll start many *many* projects and I'll work on them all a little bit at a time - or at least a good portion of the projects, there are a few that have been lonely a while. Then finally I'll finish them, and it will look very impressive like I finish a lot of things at once. That is a trick.

Here are a few pictures, mostly of ones that I seem to be lacking photographs for entirely.



I started the Horcrux socks as twin socks with Eloise back in Salem I think. The yarn is the Harry Potter Opal in Draco.



These are some plain socks I promised to Snarfy because the yarn color scares me, and apparently she finds it "OMG hot!" I was happy to relinquish it to her, but since I haven't used this brand of yarn before - Dashing Dachs, if you're curious - I thought I should actually knit the socks myself.

And for something a little different... one sock!



Yes, I started my other Nebula, which is something of a minor miracle since when I knit socks one at a time they generally take me years to complete. The DPNs are also a trick - I believe I cannibalized the needles for another more pressing project. :o

There's another project which I'll likely be finishing Saturday, so I'll just save that one til then...

Listening to: Sober ~ Tool, How Soon Is Now? ~ The Smiths

Dear USPS,

Today I got a lovely card from my Valentine's Day swap pal.



Isn't that panda adorable? It's a pop-up card! She says hi and tells me that there's more to come - I can't wait. :D

I also received a second envelope from the USPS:



Click to embiggen if you can't read it.

Now, I see two problems with this situation.

#1 (noted in red) - The collection envelope states there is 34 cents postage on the envelope, when there is very clearly $1.

#2 (noted in purple) - My SP went into the post office and had a postal worker weigh and put the postage on this envelope - that is apparent from the kind of label which is on it. I know, I spend lots of time at the post office, and even the label from the APC is not like that. So even if there *is* 34 cents postage due, that is not my fault and not my SP's fault!

Sorry USPS, you're just going to have to eat that 34 cents since it was your own mistake. After being incredulous, I was actually quite amused by this. Thanks SP for inadvertently giving me some extra amusement today.

Now, let me say that overall our postal system is very good. I know that, and I appreciate it. Sure, packages get lost. Sure, they keep raising the rates. But on the whole we have an efficient and affordable postal system, and I'm glad it works as well as it does. But this? This is just silly! :P

And yes, this post is only very tangentially related to knitting. Sorry. Um, look, socks!

Sock Madness: Round 2

Round 2 of Sock Madness was a pattern called Reversai. It's a totally reversible sock with a knit/purl stitch pattern on the cuff, a garter stitch short row heel, and a garter stitch sole.

I picked up my Yarn Pirate BFL in Solstice:



And I knit:



Did I mention they released the pattern on Monday morning? I've worked every day since then and I arrived home from work today to find that I'm out. In truth I was a bit relieved. I wasn't enjoying knitting these at all.

Now is when I should mention that the photos above were taken in the opposite of the order posted. The socks knit over 72 stitches - even on size 1 needles - were going to be way too big. I also really dislike the way short row heels fit on my feet, and I can't imagine ever wearing a sock with a garter stitch sole. No thank you! The yarn was just too pretty to waste, especially since you can't see the stitch pattern at all.

This leaves some needles and yarn free for endeavors I'm likely to enjoy more. :)

I'll probably knit more of the patterns, but only if they are something I *want* to knit.

Listening to: Schism ~ Tool, Parabol ~ Tool

No New Yarn In March!

Earlier this month I decided to pledge not to buy any yarn in March. Next month will be a big one for me with my birthday, my trip to Seattle and subsequent yarn crawl, and sock camp. Eep! But I knew that March was a month when I could be good and avoid yarn purchases. And I've succeeded - yes I know that tomorrow is still March, but I promise not to buy any yarn tomorrow either. Of course I did still receive sock yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club, but that was purchased previously.

As for the knitting, there has been quite a bit of it this month but I haven't finished a lot. In fact as I type this entry there are four pairs of socks in progress sitting on my desk. :o

I did do quite a bit on my Undulating Rib socks in the Flat Feet. The yarn is still fine to work with for me, and the socks are coming out much like socks with any other hand dyed yarn. I think if the flat had been one of the more "artistically" painted ones that might not be the case, but as it was - three vertical stripes - it was quite like what a hank of that given size would be if you dyed it in the skein.



As you can see it's knitting up in the spirally pattern that's common in handpainted yarn. Very pretty though! Also I think my stitches look a little less even than when I'm knitting with yarn that comes in a more normal (skeined) put-up. I'm sure that will block out just fine.

I think this stitch pattern lends itself well to close ups:



Now back to knitting!

Listening to: Odal ~ Agalloch, I Am the Wooden Doors ~ Agalloch

Knitting Pink

I arrived home on Wednesday to find some pink yarn in my mailbox.



The yarn was from MJ for me to test knit the socks she's designing. Yep, she's come to take away my niche and has started designing socks too. ;)



See, pink ribbing! Oh, come on, you didn't really think I was going to show you anything secret did you? The California Socks in progress snuck into the picture too. They're actually getting a bit of attention after every few rows of the pink socks to give my hands and brain a bit of a rest.

Then because I can never have enough sock WIPs... I cast on for the Sockamania Simply Cables socks in Socks That Rock Lightweight in Blue Brick Wall. I've had this yarn sitting on my shelf for a while now because I wasn't totally convinced that I loved it. But then... I wound it into a ball:



Look at that blue beauty!

I also have a goal to spin more this month - I'm trying for at least 8 hours of spinning in March. So far I have 0 hours done and all these socks probably won't help...

January Goals

I've done pretty well on my goals for January. After going through my goals posts from the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 I've figured my goals are the following:

1. Reduce the stash
2. Try new yarns (from the stash)
3. Knit more Rockin' Sock Club socks
4. Knit a sweater
5. Finish old WIPs

So in January I did the following:

1. I bought 500g of yarn - all sock yarn - during the month of January. This includes sock clubs which I purchased last year but which arrived this year. I knit 200g from the stash. Not too shabby, almost all of it was sock clubs and "holiday" yarn purchases. Since I returned home to reside with my stash, I'm doing very well. ;)

2. I succeeded in this by trying the Panda Cotton (which I bought on my holiday trip) and Inspinknity. The Panda Cotton socks were started in December, so Inspinknity is my official January New Yarn.

3. I started my newest RSC package as soon as it arrived and I've made good progress so far. The yarn is wound and ready for Marble Arches as my February RSC sock.

4. No progress on the sweater yet.

5. I finished the Olympia socks this month, which were technically a 2007 WIP. I did frog Canal du Midi and make good progress on the California socks. I also found and made minimal progress on Mystic Sea - I intend to work more on those this month and finish them before sock camp in April for sure.

Socks in all stages

I woke up this morning and looked out the window to see this:



Ok, so that's not exactly true. I knew we were expecting lots of snow so I woke up when my alarm went off, called the weather emergency line, learned that work was closed, went back to sleep for an hour, woke up again and *then* looked out the window.

Now for the knitting:



I finished these socks last night.

Pattern: Ripples - the November pattern from Sockamania
Yarn: Yarn Pirate in Plum Gorgeous
Started: 11/23/07
Finished: 1/13/08

I've also decided that in 2008 I want to end the year without any of my 2007 (and earlier!) WIPs still on the needles. The one possible exception being the "fun blanket" since that's just something I work on when I feel like it, and it's intended to be a really long-term project. So that leaves the following (oldest to newest):

Hush Hush
Cabled Scarf
Mystic Sea Socks
California Socks
Baby Norgi
Stocking
November Mystery Socks

So on that note:

Out with the old...



Bye Canal du Midi socks. I know I said I would knit you for Rachel, but you have been haunting me for so long now it really isn't funny. What, 18 months or so? I just hate knitting you so much! Besides, I have a feeling you would be too small anyway. Instead I will pick another less crazy-inducing pattern and finally knit her the promised socks.

...and in with the new!



Hello BFF socks! I told Cathy I would knit her some socks with her cursed Koigu a while back, and you seem like a good choice. In fact, yesterday was her birthday so I took the opportunity to start you then!

Listening to: Ænima ~ Tool, Third Eye ~ Tool