What was I thinking?

I thought the yarn was red, in the packaging, in the late evening, in the shop.


In the light of day, this yarn is clearly pink.

I have a sock in progress and two other socks cast on ready to knit.


Clearly, I have the startitis.

I had barely a moment to catch a photo.


Clearly a call for the photographer's little helper.



However you look at it, one thing is clear:



Resistance Is Futile.

Creeping Startitis

I've been infected.

Spitting Yarn pondered giving the credit or blame to the season.

I stayed up late (and I got home LATE) casting on 401 provisional stitches for a shawl snuggle to wear at home. Naturally I had to do a couple rows.

And there are two pairs of socks underway. And I wanted to start something else, but maybe this is enough.

I'm always happy when really skilled knitters like Elizabeth include garter in their inventories of ongoing projects. Validation, you know. Because yarn knows I don't always give myself enough credit to know that I know my own knitting mind and really DO want garter stitch or stockinette for soothing knitting, little projects for travel, projects to think about and projects to puzzle out....

P.S. I'm a dork

Thought about adding that last night:
P.S. I am just a big dork.
Naive.
Pollyanna.
Big old donkey girl scout.
(a phrase that is not my own but I remember hearing it and identifying...)

And the news anchor phrase is right: that's the way it is.

P.S. Also dork worthy:
I've been staying up too, too late so that I can get more day in my day. For example, P.S. - the Pomatomus Sock.



This is my third Cookie A pattern. Enjoying.
Wonder if there's a book on the horizon.

A Thank You Note

I don't have enough time to catch up on all the reading, but, oh, my, Magknits.

My heart goes out to the designers and site developers of Knitty and Magknits and Ravelry -- and to the independent bloggers who post their patterns at home. And here I've been sloppy, and just when exactly was the last time I said thank you! So.

I'm always a little amazed by those who put their patterns forward in the first place.

I'm duly impressed by the time it takes to put together the texts and the photos and sizes and what have you, errata or no -- just as my friends and family who don't knit are occasionally impressed by what I knit at all (or that I knit as much as I manage to do).

I'm in awe of those who capably wrestle with computer publishing and forum building and deft digital photography. I am happy bumbling along with my modest computer use. (See how I blog so as to pretend I'm computer savvy?)

I'm astounded by the knit designers who've deftly and generously made gifts of their patterns in new surroundings or in wonderful variations.

I have nothing but sympathy for and empathy with those who don't have access to their original digital information. I'm not going to think about what I've lost on occasion - and what can get lost on our many computers.

I'm fully in support of those who will move their patterns into other formats, forums, or media and will have a new opportunity to be reimbursed for a fragment of their time and efforts.

Whatever degree of business and income and love and business-building is part of these processes, I've had at the ready some WONDERFUL creativity to access, to change, to make my own, and to bring into my life.

I'm not going to mourn the things that go missing. Paper can age. Tastes can change. Art can be ephemeral.

I'll just be thankful.


I want to be the kind of person that sends everyone a thank you note every time I think it ought to be done. As it is, I don't take all the action I should, and I'm woefully behind. Perhaps this will be serve as one thank you note, done.

Not the worst thing

These are my February challenge socks. I finished them in April. It's chilly enough to wear them.



It could be worse. We didn't have 25 inches of snow in one snowfall.
(I'll shut up now. It might snow this weekend.)

Still ticking

Life is very busy. I'm regretting my plan to get regular amounts of sleep. I'm still not getting things done, and I still got zapped by some kind of crazy thing yesterday. (Lost a whole day to bedroom and bathroom, nothing beyond.)

I can afford myself very little time to knit, but I'm trying to take it when I can. Almost ALMOST finished with the Petrified Wood socks. Started a Pomatomus for my 15 minutes of knitting in the morning and evening. Also cast on some plain jane ribbed socks to replace the Petrified socks in my to-go knitting bag as soon as that last sock is finished.

Zipped up a dream swatch one Saturday for the next day's little bit of Easter flair.

I thought I had a picture of it in the camera, but I guess not. Seems all I captured were these bits of very vintage yarn.




I keep considering a nice dye project for them. That, too will have to keep.

I may be still ticking, but so's the clock. I can't stay to play today.

Knitting. Really.

This is the start of the second sock in a proof-of-progress photo I took a while ago.

The other night I progressed to within an inch of starting the gusset. Using Wendyknits toe-up gusset pattern, sport weight, since this yarn is a medium weight STR.

This is the end of the sweater. The one button looks like it's hanging funny. Part of that's the bad angle. The other part is that I find after a day of wearing and a little wearer's viewpoint that I did actually misalign the middle button.

I'd get right on that, but I'm wearing the sweater again today.

I really am liking this sweater.

Gone and Done

Gone but not forgotten forgetful.

I've barely been able to knit, much less have I been able to blog.
AFK. Gone.
SOL. Busy with life.

I have still been mindful of my self-imposed goals to move the knitting onward and to prevent knitting and yarn inertia. There is some progress.

1. Yesterday's business included tales straight out of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Land, as I was held captive at a volunteer gig by means of misunderstanding, held captive through a three hour block of rehearsal (for which I was officially not needed) and more than an hour of rehearsal notes when I MIGHT have been elsewhere actually doing some sewing for this volunteer gig. They have no workspace, no evidence of a machine. Seriously couldn't even do any more handsewing, as the joint didn't even have basic black or white thread. 6 spools of red, they had, sure. I also cleaned out their sewing box. It's much tidier now. While captive, I managed to knit most of a foot of my second February sock. There's always some progress if you carry some knitting.

2. I'm finding my way through a few appropriate and specific connections for freeing up some yarn to better homes. Package 3 is now ready to go.

3. I finished up the Drops cardigan. Seams, ends, buttons, all done. Will wear it this evening. Even took a photograph.

So I am getting a few things done.

Meanwhile, I appear to you photo-less. There's one in the camera. I just can't think where I put the cable for the camera after I loaned it to someone for a project.

Forgetful with a dose of being mindful.

Done with more to do.

Gone but still here.

A knitter stumbles

I sent an email this evening:

This is impossibly silly, but you do have the context, as it was discussed at large at ____________.

I gave myself a 12 month knitting challenge. I am two days away from the end of my second month deadline, and I won't meet it. The rules of the "challenge" were that I must somehow dispose of the project, a thing I doubt I could ever do. I altered the rule for myself to mean that I must give away an equivalency of yarn.

I just can't face pretending that I'll do nothing but knit an entire sock in the next two days. That'd be fine for a weekend, but not these next two days nor even this particular weekend ahead. A self-driven challenge is a challenge all the same.

You mentioned that you were learning to knit. Would you like to be the somewhat random recipient of some yarn? What colors are your preferred colors? Would wools be okay? Should it be sock yarn or can it be any yarn?

Sometimes you have to be clear about deadlines. I don't need two days of self-imposed knitting anxiety. The challenge was to move the yarn along, one way or another. I'll move the sock along, but as Elizabeth pointed out in the comments some time back, I couldn't just abandon a project I was enjoying just because of a silly challenge deadline. The real stash challenges for me were to get yarn moving and to try to perhaps move a few things out.

Meanwhile, I sent along a little mohair with sparkle to another knitty. The zip bag fell on my head from its shelf, so I looked around Ravelry until I found someone who'd liked using the yarn and had commented that it was no longer available. I decided the yarn had just made itself available to her, so off it has gone in the post.

There are extra reasons (beyond life & work) why I haven't made it into the second sock. I'm at the last stitching for the Drops sweater. I've also been making headway on the afghan my grandmother had been making for my aunt and uncle. My mother asked me if I'd mind finishing it on behalf of my grandmother.

It's a family thing.
I don't mind at all.

Business - Trips and Usual

Business as Usual:
I've been very productive, but not the sort that lends for blog interest.

Business Trips:
I went to Boston and met up with Batty, from Knittyboard, who met me for a nice little walk to the nearest local yarn shop. Very kind of her, that was. I bought just a little bit of yarn. Very restrained.


Usual Knitting for Trips:


More Business as Usual:
I bought one little extra bit of sock yarn.

One domestic Saturday

From a pair of cotton pants summer that were happily worn in grad school, pants that would pass for great pajamas these days, pants in which the elastic was shot and I just couldn't pitch them because I'd enjoyed the print so, faded as it is now, and it would make such lousy rags, tight and crisp a cotton as it was, why finally, some progress was made.
(Phew. Withstand that sentence, did you?)

I made a bag for bags. Even though I'm doing better with every passing day to shop less and to carry a bag, once in awhile there are some plastic bags. I save them for my trash bags. I have not purchased plastic garbage bags for years.

I also made a clothespin bag. It was a fitting set of little moments in a very productive, very domestic Saturday.

When is Stash Busting not actually Stash Busting?

Stash Busting:

I started out with a batch of sale yarn (Misti Alpaca Chunky, as it happens), determined to make a sweater out of the exact amount I happened to pick up.

Stash:

I became nervous and picked up a skein of charcoal heather, same yarn, to coordinate as backup for collar, cuffs, whatever.

Stash Busting:

The sweater moves along swimmingly, and I've made it through all but the seaming and the collar. It may be possible that the grey may never appear as contrast on the sweater. Or I may have left over, and then what?

Stash:

I need some needle replacement, and I ogle some yarn while in the shop. Same type of yarn. It comes home, as it would be just the thing with that leftover (or not exactly leftover) grey.

Stash busting:

I really like the swatch in moss stitch, so a modified-for-yardage-&-gauge Le Slouch, only less slouchy is the plan.


Note the grey. I expected I'd run out of the multi before I finished at the top of the crown. Not so.

STILL STASH:
In fact there is a multi oddball, and there's still the bulk of the grey. I'll see what remains when I'm done with the sweater. There may have to be mittens, but I swear it can ONLY be from stash, no matter how they look!

Progress!

A GIFT!

I finished up the baby hat from stash. There is still leftover. It hasn't been put away. I think I can eke out some booties - or make it part of another hat.

A KEEPER!

I've selected my choice of button for the Drops cardigan. I picked up these vintage buttons some time ago in a small town Minnesota antique shop. I filled small paper bags of them actually: most of the buttons were very large, so some have made their way onto costumes. These I kept, at least for the moment.

Had to go back and re-do the front because I forgot to make buttonhole room. Thought about loops, but it wasn't too painful to go back. Watched an installment of Pride & Prejudice and delighted in how painfully and heart-tuggingly awkward was Colin's Mr. Darcy. Zoom, unknit and reknit.

Also finished up a hat I zipped up for myself this week, but this is all the blog time I can afford today.

Having Fun

I wish I could help with that. I'm not helping the couple of people who've strolled past here have any blog reading fun.

Life is moving effectively here, even if the snows and the potholes and the black ice and the communities that run out of road salt and moneys for plowing seem to throw us into less effective moving.

There's been knitting. I finished a gift baby hat. I've started a hat for myself. I'm making progress on the sock. I've done all the pieces of the Drops sweater, except for some backtracking now because I overlooked buttonholes. I'm even rehearsing button options, and I've yet to block, stitch, and tackle the collar.

Work and its projects move apace. I'm even having a little fun. I'm enjoying some collegial team work. I'm enjoying the projects we're working on. I'm even enjoying getting a bit of regular sleep.

There's just not time for the blog fun of sharing.

Hope to catch up. Thought I'd pop by for good manners and say hello. I've been impressed with the work and the weathering and the writing others are doing with their winters (or summers, dependent upon your hemisphere).

Have some fun, however you measure it.

On Avoiding Identical Socks

Elfine Socks are done. The cuffs look a little floppy here, but that's really because I haven't bothered to block the socks for photo styling. When I finished them last night (one day before my deadline!) I tried them on and was content.

Since sock knitting can be both peaceable activity and learning adventure, I share with you things you can do to permit even the most matchy-matchy socks from becoming completely identical.

1. Sigh over the holes left at the end of the short-row wraps on the first sock. Do nothing about them, but consider stitching them up later if they continue to offend. Knit the second sock and solve the problem in that one altogether.


2. Realize mid wrap-session that the strategies for wrestling with double wraps have distracted you from the concept of doing them consistently. Sigh over this in the first sock but avoid frogging back, as these are going to live inside shoes most of the time. On the second sock, pay attention and earn consistently directional wraps.


3. Forget to use the matching dyed and spun reinforcement yarn in the second toe. Remember when you get to the heel, sigh, and look forward to the science experiment of comparing toe wear.

4. Move on to a hat from stash.


5. Cast on the toe of a new pair of socks.

Ravelry Double Dare

I have taken on a Ravelry double-dare. Mission Possible and Stash Down 2008.

Flashing Stash at Knitty was fun. Entering it on Ravelry was illuminating. Shocking. Revealing. Humbling. Embarrassing.

Has been, that is, not just was. I'm not quite done.

Decided that I rather liked the notion of tackling my own personal 12 missions for 12 months (or forfeit the yarn). Socks, I said. I have more yarn than fits into the sock boxes. And there used to be one sock yarn box. I liked even the progress of counting socks (witness the outdated challenge button I still keep updating), but last year I seemed to have fallen short. Upwards and onwards, I say!

Having taken some time to document sock stash more candidly, and having taken a severe look at the whole, I have outlined my list of 12 pairs of socks I MUST KNIT. Options for forfeit are to discard the unfinished item, have a bonfire, give it to a friend, etc. I decided that the penalty needed to be more generous donation than ritual discard. I hesitate to make my semi-finished project someone else's problem, so I landed here: I’ll have to give away the comparable yarn - especially since I do have some multiples. (Some. Sheesh. I should be smacked.)

Here's the list of monthly challenges.
1. January - a pair of second socks Have finished one (Yarrow Rib) and am past the heel on the second (Elfine)
2. Feb. - STR Petrified
3. Mar. - CTH Green Mtn. whatever
4. April - Trekking pastel
5. May - Red Jawoll
6. June - LL Jeans
7. July - Solid CTH
8. Aug. - Knitter’s Choice (can’t decide EVERYTHING now)
9. Sept. - Claudia Handpaint (any color)
10. Oct. - KPPM (any color)
11. Nov. - Bearfoot (any color)
12. Dec. - Mountain Feat (Really, it’s spelled that way.)

I’ll decide patterns as I sort out gauge. That’s the list. Sticking to it.

This mission coincides with the Stash Down. All the above have been in the stash long enough to be in the QUIT IGNORING ME category. Not to mention that most have been acquired because of some lovely gifting or some sale venture or out-of-town yarnsex. Stash Down goals will always include the Mission socks. Beyond that, I can add up my own monthly goals AND look to the group for some of their ongoing ideas. (I'm still not much of a chatterer at Ravelry. Knitty's got that spot in my heart, for all that I'm not exactly Chatty Kathy there, either.) Stash Down goals for (where was I?) for January were largely finishing. No penalty box here. I've packaged up the niece and nephew goodies, and I'll get that Tuscany blocked by Friday (as there are other things happening on the cutting tables at the moment). But mercy me! There's some work to be done.

I need to knit up and stitch up at a rate higher than my acquisition habits have been going. I'll have more to say on that another day. There are stories to tell, some habits to face up to. Today there are a few other things to do, not to mention this perfectly lovely sock I'm within days of finishing - and within days of a deadline FOR finishing. Three and half 16 row repeats and then some cuff.....sounds like a dare I can safely double and even double dog dare myself to finish.

It's Simple

I finished the scarf for my niece, as I mentioned.



I've also spent a chunk of time for the past few days facing up to some truths about the yarn stash. A few things are clear.

Ravelry is an amazing tool.
I am learning more about digital photography, failing and succeeding.
I have enough yarn now.
It's simple.

Last night I started a baby hat from stash yarn.
I should use those last three words a LOT.
It's simple, right?

Long Story Short

While I worked on the cold, I finished these:



Yesterday I finished the niece scarf.

I'm almost finished with the cold.

Lost Weekend

I enjoyed my own peaceable private version of a lost weekend:
I had a cold, so I lived in pyjamas most of the weekend. I barely left my dwelling.
I did little of the work I carted home, but I took care of some domestic concerns and I finished some knitting.

I also took some harsh inventory of sock yarn. Heavens to Betsy. I have to get home to knit.

Only gave myself permission for an hour of recreational computer, and my time is up. More tomorrow.

Holiday Breaks

On or near the Thanksgiving break I had knit this scarf for myself.

Over the December portion of this break I whipped up one for a friend, as a host gift. I didn't get it done in time, but it will be delivered tomorrow.


I zipped the Tuscany off the needles but have yet to block it.


Over the January portion of the break I started projects made to the specifications of a niece and nephew.


I think these will cure me of 1 x 1 ribbing for awhile.


And a corner of my office has broken.


AH, WINTER. It freezes. It thaws. The sky falls.


I'm going to go home and knit. I'm leaving the debris as evidence for my conversation with the appropriate Monday authorities. I'll have time to calm down. Knitting should help.