Final photo: Anniversary socks

I did finally finish these. The reinforcing thread in the toes is a different color than that in the heels. That's because I neglected to bring the navy thread along at Christmas, and ended up getting beige needlepoint wool from the yarn shop and un-plying it for thread. Worked pretty well, in the end, I think.

Here they are and she really loves them already.

Photos!

First, a photo of the cuffs of the Anniversary socks. You'll see that the yarn did a lovely striping thing, and then when I switched from size 2s to size 1s, it pooled in a big way. This is good, in the end, because one sock did end up a smidge bigger than the other, and K has one foot bigger than the other. So the pooling helps to tell them apart.










Finished sock photo soon to come!

Now, my currently active project (did you like how I neatly avoided saying "my current project," as if I have just one?), Cozy. I have about 1' done and am 1.5 of 8 balls into it. And LOVING it! Some folks think yards and yards of knitted lace are awful, but I am really enjoying getting into a rhythm and am also enjoying the WS purl rows for some time off.









I think, despite what Rabbitch says, that this actually does not look like boiled ass. It will look lovelier when I'm done and it's blocked, but I already find it quite pretty--and downright cozy. Really. Yum.

FO, mostly

Oh btw, I did finish the Anniversary Socks, by the 5-month anniversary. But (there's always a but!) they are a smidge too short. I'll be pulling out the toes today and re-knitting them. Am hoping to be done (done done DONE!) today.

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee

I have the happy task of deciding what I'm going to take on vacation in terms of knitting projects, wool, needles, and patterns. Yippee! I am already having fun. There are too many candidates, though.

UFOs (that I intend to finish)

The anniversary socks (top-down; halfway down the foot! size 1s are so slow though)
oh, crud--I'll need to either bring the book or xerox the finishing instructions. Yoiks!
The "Sublime" v-neck sweater I hope I don't hate the bell sleeves. Of course, they are bottom-up, so if I rip them, I rip them entirely. At least this very fuzzy yarn does, indeed, rip.
Son's scarf hoping to finish this by Christmas. Not sure if he realizes it's a gift. Maybe that's a good thing. (my own pattern; this will be the fifth one, I think!)

Knitting Dreams

Kiri Instead of Birch. I keep hearing its praises--why not? In Cracksilk Haze, Smoke.
Icarus Probably from the blue Misti baby alpaca I got from Little Knits a long while ago. I have the pattern from the Interweave Knits issue. (Color of the yarn is spot on.)
Shetland Triangle Out of what yarn? No idea.
Odessa For the gf; she chose the beads and prestrung them for me.
Anemoi mittens Finally, a stranded (Fair Isle) pattern that really makes my heart go pit-a-pat!
Tiffany Well, ditto the above. :) (but I'd choose different colors)
Ethereal Fichu Bought the pattern; still looking for the perfect yarn. Fell in love when I saw it on JoVE's blog.
Backyard Leaves I've always wanted to make this and was thrilled to find it included in Interweave Knits' Holiday Gifts issue. I think I already have yarn from which to make this.
Cozy Isn't that the perfect name for a Christmastime knitting project? Already have the yarn for this one, too, from Elann. Two different dye lots, but the oatmeal color probably won't matter.
Sleeveless top (to which I will add sleeves) from Lang Yarns Viva. In the green. (big needles--that's a draw right there.)

See my dilemma? Votes and opinions welcome.

Later: Oops, forgot one: another 3-way scarf like the one for my son, but for me, out of chocolate fuzzy stuff from my late, lamented yarn shop. OK, I think I'm done now.

Much progress

I am almost 4" done on the foot of the Anniversary socks. They really look good but damn, I swear those needles are getting smaller every time I knit with them!

While on jury duty (see my other blog), I buzzed along on the charcoal Knit One Purl Too Sublime Easy Fitted V-Neck. Man, does knitting go fast when your needles are 9s instead of 1s! I'm a little worried about the scratchiness of the mohair, but the color is great and it's even froggable, to my astonishment. I whipped out the front, back, one sleeve, and started another on the BART commute and while we waited (and waited and waited).

I also started and finished another Magic/3-Way Scarf for my son's young friend in a pink (#8; it is less blue than the photo) so bright it almost hurts the eyes. She'll love it. It is a Christmas present; nice to be able to mark that one off. While I was working on it on BART, a women asked if I'd made the one on my neck, too (my black one). I said yes and pointed out the 3 ways to wear it (long scarf, short cowl, hood) and she pointed out two more! You can pull the cowl up to cover your ears like a headband, and if you let the top scrunch enough, you can make it into a hat. Very cool!

After that, I started one of those scarves for my son in a Fluff Print (#26) he'd chosen a while ago. I'm betting on him having forgotten, as it will be one of his Christmas presents. When I'm done with that, I'm going to make myself another one with some soft brown yarn I bought when my beloved local yarn store closed. I don't know how well it will work, as the NY Yarns Fluff yarn has worked beautifully, and this stuff is a little heavier and the yardage is less (although I always end up with about 1/3 ball left of the Fluff).

I only have two more Christmas projects to finish (since I have chosen very few to begin with, for once!): a scarf for G's teacher and a hat for one of his Y-Kids teachers. The hat pattern came up in my 2006 Knitting Pattern A Day calendar. It's a simple mohair hat and I just found a ball of black mohair in my stash. Don't know where it came from. The teacher's scarf may come out of a ball of L!on Brand cashmere-blend yarn I got with my 40% off coupon at Beverly's and some gorgeous jewel-toned chenille I'm sure I got from Dharma. Neither is enough for a full scarf, but I'm going to attempt one of those "Cast on a million stitches and knit 2 rows with each yarn" scarves and see how the yarns hold out--and look together.

I'm hoping to just do fun knitting while away at Christmas--maybe a lacy scarf from an insert in a recent Interweave Knits, maybe some Fair Isle (OMG are these gorgeous?!?) with the yarn I got at Yarn! and the Palette sampler I got from the Destash blog from YaiAnn. I have spotted a Fair Isle sweater I want to knit (interesting note: there are very few I find attractive) and I need to know if I hate it, first.

And someday? I'll restart Birch. Because I must prevail, dammit.

Update on UFOs

childHood: side seams done, I need to do 1" on the hood and do a 3-needle bindoff. It'll need buttons (for show, with snaps behind), but I doubt the child will wait for that!

Super Secret Project #1: is done! Needs blocking and weaving in of 3 tiny ends.

Anniversary socks: well, I started turning the heel (with reinforcement thread, bought in Windsor weekend-before-last) at the Borg/Smith talk at First Congregational of Berkeley. Listening to religious discussion while starting a heel I'd not done before... well, too much for this bear of very little brain. I read the wrong number of stitches from the Knitter's Handy book and started a too-narrow heel flap. I also did the wrong thing for the purl row: the knit row is slip 1, knit 1; the purl row is slip 1, purl to end. I did slip 1, purl 1 for the whole row. (It was hard!) Undid my erroneous purl row, restarted the heel flap, and did all 34 rows (still wondering why I had to exclude 7 lonely stitches). Oops, I was supposed to do the heel flap over 34 stitches on this size/gauge sock. Riiip.

So now I've finished the heel flap and the first part of turning the heel. The next part is knit over the instep with the heel stitches, so I've discontinued the reinforcement thread (as thread through the instep seems quite uncomfortable). I moved all the stitches around so the middle of the heel is the start of the round and started the heel flap (with reinforcement thread) on the other stock. The heel flaps look really great in this yarn!

Not much else going on in my knitting world...!

Finally, a photo!

Now, with photos!

Here are the anniversary socks to date:




Envision Here are some beautiful k2p2 ribbing on size 2s and then size 1 needles. Envision They are socks at 6.5" that only need 2 more inches before foot shaping. Unfortunate that they were not finished by the 3 mo anniversary date (last Sunday). They are lovely, though.

Moving right along

I have about 3" done on the gf's socks and they really are gorgeous (photo as soon as I find my blasted camera, I promise!). Even though I decided on k2p2 ribbing, it really is going quite quickly.

It went really quickly last Saturday during my son's incredibly exciting soccer game. Well, that and the half cup of regular coffee really had my needles flying!

Another 2-socks-on-2-circs hint

The ones I'm doing for my gf are currently on size 2s, which I only have in regular Susan Bates (not QuickSilver). I thought hard enough to buy this pair in differing colors--and that is making a huge difference. As long as I'm paying attention, I can remember to knit only with pink together or only green. If I find myself knitting pink with green, I'll know I've made a mistake.

Does that make sense? Each circular has needles on each end of the same color, and they differ.

It rocks. Seriously. :)

Coming along

I ripped out the stitching of the sleeves on childHood on Tuesday night, while my sweet gf was holding my arthritic, painful ankle and trying to do something to ease the pain (my strong anti-inflammatory and sucking down an entire beer finally helped, well, conk me out at least). So that's ready to move forward. I think the part I messed up in stitching is called the armscye--the straight-across part at the armpit. I had stitched the sleeves up to, but not onto, the armscye. Fortunately, ripping out was pretty easy. I did un-cast-off a stitch on one sleeve, but was able to restore it even in my drunken stupor.

And last night, I got 1" done on gf's socks! I'm doing the K2P2 ribbing and it really looks great in this yarn. My son and I watched Sinbad (the new animated one) while eating comfort food--ice cream and then grilled-cheese sandwich for him, potluck noodle salad and then quesadilla with salsa for me. Then I sent him off to get ready for bed and watched half of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. K called partway through and realized I was knitting madly while holding the phone squished to my shoulder. I love productive knitting!

When in doubt, start a new project

K had expressed interest in the KnitPicks Redwood Forest socks I'm making in the Child's First Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. They are lovely but a little dainty for her, I think. And too slow!

She gave me a lovely pearl and amethyst necklace for our 2-month anniversary (last Friday). I told her I would knit her socks (despite Yarn Harlot's admonishment, as it was similar to the Boyfriend Sweater and, in her opinion, just not worth it). I brought up 4 possibilities from my sock yarn stash (mmm, I just love typing that!) and she gave me the choice. I chose the other set of skeins from KnitPicks, the Cape Code colorway.

I cast on last weekend, using the basic directions from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (a requested Christmas gift, yeah!). My only complaint is that they are top-down. I really like toe-up, but am unable to translate the pattern into toe-up (OK, that is another complaint). I think they will go quickly. I did choose to do K2P2 ribbing and will continue it onto the instep. Otherwise, very basic sock. With lovely Cape Coddish colors (as if I would know--but beautiful dark and lighter and greener sea blues and beige sand colors).

The pessimist in me says, well, we damn well have to stay together till I finish these freaking socks.