And once again, I'm knitting socks.

Yep. I finished my Alhambra scarf. It was so nice to have a project that had no deadline - just being able to pick it up or put it aside without the pressure to finish it has been really helpful with my work being so stressful the last couple of months. The scarf is just the right length, but I won't know its finished length until I block it, which probably won't happen until Christmastime. I'm sure this will end up as a gift for someone, but I haven't yet decided whose it will be.

Once I'd finished the scarf, I was casting about for my next project. After having done so many green projects lately (the Team Flora hats, the Alhambra scarf, the Portico shawl), I was feeling like a pink project might be the way to go. I had two skeins of a pink variegated Shibuiknits Staccato sock yarn in my stash, so all I needed to do was find a pattern that was right for it.

The first thing I did was look through all my books - I have seven books with sock patterns in them, and there was really only one pattern I wanted to knit. Sadly, it was a pattern that really needed a solid yarn, so I had to keep looking. After a Ravelry search, I thought I'd try Zirkel, by Stephanie van der Linden. It's a cute stranded pattern that turned out not to work with my chosen yarn, as the yarn had too much variation and obscured the colorwork. It was back to the drawing board.

After another look through the pattern books, I decided that I would knit Hummingbird again. It's been about a year and a half since I knit that pattern, and I remember that it knit up quickly. I thought that this time, just for kicks, I'd knit the socks toe-up with gussets and a heel flap, rather than cuff-down with a short row heel. I started a little more than a week ago, and I'm already doing the gusset increases. I'm sure it won't be long before these socks are finished.

Well, that's all I've got for today. Until next time, Friends.

Unstuck!

Louie loves cashmere. He has good taste.

Well, I laid a big, fat egg for Knit & Crochet Blog Week, what with my one sad post and no follow-up. I'm still thinking that I'll get around to writing posts for all the other prompts, but for tonight, I'll just give you an update on the Portico Shawl.

I managed to finish it the day after I posted on it, I think. My kind friend, Cindy, happened to have another skein of the wasabi cashmere, and it turned out that I only needed about 15 yards of it to finish the shawl. The blocking went pretty quickly, and once I had it pinned up, it dried quickly as well. I haven't had an opportunity to wear it yet - I might not get to wear it until Fall, as it's been pretty hot the last few days and will likely stay hot until October.

It has turned out just as light and airy as you could imagine. It practically floats! I won't dare call it "ethereal," because that adjective is so over-used, but it is pretty effing nice. It has just a hint of a halo from the cashmere, and it's so soft against the skin. I will definitely love wearing this around my neck.

Anyway, that's about all I've got for tonight. Next time I'll have photos of the Amaya sweater, and maybe even of the Frankenanklets I made from some leftover sock yarn. Until then, Friends.

Stuck.

See that picture there? The one that looks like a nearly finished shawl? That's a picture of frustration. Of the heartbreak felt by the optimistic knitter. The one who read that bit in the pattern where the designer said she nearly ran out of yarn. The one who thought that a 100% cashmere yarn would have more yardage in its 55 gram skein than a 55/45 silk/cashmere blend.

The one who was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I'm three 300-stitch rows & a bind off short of a shawl. And I only have about 5 yards of yarn left. And another skein of this yarn will run me $47 + shipping. I am stuck but good.

What's most frustrating is that this project started out so well! Those first few charts just flew by! I mean, it's been a mere two weeks, and I could have had this thing finished, soaked and blocking by now. And it's such lovely, soft cashmere. That isn't yet a pretty lace shawl.

I'm going to have to set this aside for a minute, and think about what I want to do. I could rip back a bit and bind off where it might make sense. I could message a few people on the Rav to see if they're willing to let go of a few yards of their yarn. Or I could buy a whole 'nother skein. I can't think about this right now. I'm going to go start something else. I don't know what that will be, but I hope it's one I have enough yarn for.

Until next time, Friends.

My favorite gloves are about to bite the dust.

I'll have to darn them, so I can wear them until I can knit myself another pair. I knew this day was coming; the last few times I'd worn them last season I noticed that the fingertips were showing quite a lot of wear. Today a hole appeared in the thumb. It was small this morning when I got on the bus, and when I put them on this afternoon to go home, the hole was about the size of a dime. By the time I got to Stitch 'n' Bitch, it was the size of a quarter.

These gloves have gotten me through two winters and they are the warmest freaking gloves I've ever owned. I'm not kidding. I only ever want to wear gloves like these for the rest of my life. According to their Ravelry project page, I started them in mid-October 2009 and finished them on Novermber 1. It took a mere two and a half weeks to knit the gloves that have served me so well.

The pattern was Rococo, by Julia Mueller, which I purchased from the Fall 2009 issue of Twist Collective. As soon as I saw the photos of the gloves, I knew I had to make them. The complexity of the cables was the big draw, as well as their color. I couldn't wait to cast on! I ended up knitting them two at a time through the fingers, then did those one by one with double points. I'm sure I'll knit these gloves again, but not with the same yarn. I have some Canopy fingering by The Fibre Company which I think would knit up with better stitch definition to show off all those gorgeous cables.

The yarn I used for the gloves was Great Northern Yarn's 70% mink/30% cashmere DK weight in jet black. I know now that it was sheer lunacy to knit cabled gloves in black yarn that blooms. I've learned my lesson. The thing was that when I knit them, I had no earthly idea how much more the yarn would bloom after I started wearing them. After just a short period of time, it looked like the hands of a silverback gorilla were at the ends of my arms. These gloves are seriously hairy, but I keep wearing them because they are the warmest. freaking. gloves. Ever. I think my next pair of mink/cashmere gloves will be plain stockinette in a light color. I'll be checking out the Great Northern Yarns website posthaste.

Well, that's all I have this time. Next time I hope to be able to show off a completed baby cardigan. Until then, friends!

It could have been finished.

Except that I ran out of yarn before I could finish with the toes. You see, I was an art major in college. I can freely admit that math is not one of my strengths. For example, when I was trying to decide what pattern I was going to make from my two balls of Summer Sox, I looked at the yardage and figured that I had enough yarn to make the Kristi socks. The pattern calls for 465 yards of fingering-weight yarn. Each ball of the Summer Sox had 175 yards. When I did the math, it went like this: 175+175=450. But those of you who can add can see my error. 175+175 does not equal 450.

It equals 350.

So, I wasn't 15 yards short, I was 165 yards short. Quite a difference. And I feel like an idiot, because I bought this yarn last November on clearance. I didn't think I would be able to purchase it from a yarn shop, so I started stash-diving on Ravelry. Most people who had it in their stashes only had two, which they obviously planned to make socks with. One person had 10 skeins in her stash - turns out she's knitting it into a sweater RIGHT NOW. She didn't know whether she'd have any left over by the time she finished, but she was kind enough to offer to send it to me then. Sadly, I have a deadline for these socks, as they're a gift, so I thanked her and started looking online.

I didn't have to look too far - my project page had a handy little link (maybe it was an ad?) which said "buy this yarn from local stores." The recommended LYS was Blueball Mountain, located only an hour away from Louisville in Elizabethtown. The shop owner was so nice! She very kindly sold me one ball of the four she had, and said she'd get it in the mail this afternoon! I am so grateful! It looks like I'll finally be able to finish these socks sometime next week. Then I can start on my Sock Summit homework.

Since the socks are stalled, I have been able to get some length on the Monkeybread scarf. It's really coming into its own now, looking a lot like what I think it will when it's complete. I just hope I have enough yarn to get it to about 60 inches. We'll see.

Isn't that just the sexiest yarn pron ever?

Well, that's about all the ranting I have in me for this evening. Until next time!

WIPs Update

It seems an age since I posted about my knitting, so I thought I should do that tonight. I'm still working on the Kristi socks, which have been in progress for more than a month now. I only have about half an inch to go before I start closing the toes, but I'm getting a little nervous about whether my yarn is going to make it to the end. The socks are lovely, and I've gotten comfortable enough with the chart that I'm knitting both feet at the same time.

In Monkeybread news, I've completed the hat and started the scarf. This set will be for my mom for her birthday this fall. The last time I was home, we talked about it: about how soft the mink/cashmere yarn is, how nice the cables look, and how the blueberry colorway would look great with her winter coat. So after I ordered the yarn and downloaded the pattern, I called her to ask her to measure her head so I could make the right size. Her response?

"What hat? You're making me a hat?"

She had completely forgotten the conversation and had also forgotten that we looked through the Great Northern Yarns website to choose the color. All I could do was sigh. She's still my mom, after all.

Anyway, the hat has been washed and blocked, but it turns out I misunderstood the directions, and knit 9 rounds too many in the beginning. I don't think it changed the hat a whole lot - it just made it a little slouchier, which will probably make Mom happy, as she likes to pull her hats way down. I think I may just make this set for myself, but I'll have to wait until GNY restocks. Last time I looked, there were only two colors available. (Editor's note: as of tonight, there are three colors, with a fourth available sometime this month. -SZ)

I'm making the small size of the scarf, since Mom is a pretty tiny person. Right now it looks a little narrow, but I think that after washing and blocking it will lay a little flatter and look a little less skinny. I'm going to knit until I run out of yarn on this one. I'm hoping I can get it to end up at least 5' long. That's a good length for a scarf, especially one made from cashmere and mink. I think she'll be pretty happy with it.

That's about all I've got tonight. It's less than three weeks until Sock Summit and I think I have a little homework to do before I get there. Next time, I hope I have at least one finished object, and I hope they're the socks! Until then, Friends.

Things to do, things to do.

You know how it is when you get really excited to cast on for a new project, that you're willing to cast aside all the others to get to it? Well, I'm kinda there right now.

I just cast on for Anne Hanson's Monkeybread hat & scarf. I'm making it out of Great Northern Yarns' luscious 70% mink, 30% cashmere DK-weight yarn. And as one would expect, it is fabulous. I love this yarn. A couple years ago I made some ridiculous cable gloves from it, in black. The reason the gloves were ridiculous is because anyone with any sense would know that knitting cables with black yarn is just plain foolish. Then, to knit cables in black yarn that blooms like angora is doubly foolish. I did all that work with complex, mirrored cables only to have them entirely disappear because they bloomed so much that my hands looked like they belonged to a silverback gorilla. I'm not kidding. All that work and I could have done them in stockinette in half the time. On the plus side, though, they are the warmest gloves I've ever owned and I'll be making myself another pair this winter, as I've nearly worn through the fingers on the current pair.

But I digress. The Monkeybread hat is what I'm so excited about! It's so soft! and the cables are lovely. If only I were better at reading instructions. See, there are two sizes to this hat: small and large. This set is a gift for my mom, whose head circumference requires the larger size. The instructions say to start the chart on row 13, and idiot that I am, I knit 13 rounds THEN started the chart, instead of just skipping the 12 previous rows. I'm not sure how this happened, but I think I can make up for it. We'll see what I have to say in a week or so. I'm using the Blueberry colorway, which is gorgeous altogether, and I kind of wish I was keeping for myself. But this really is for Mom, unless she decides otherwise. That's the only way I'll get this back.

Since I started the Monkeybread hat, I haven't touched the Kristi socks, except to photograph them. An amazing thing happened with these socks: when I finished the gusset decreases, each sock was on the same row of the chart, ready to go, not needing any adjustments from me. This is a miracle of the highest order and will probably never happen again in my lifetime. What usually happens is that I forget a decrease somewhere along the line, so that when I finally have the right number of stitches along the bottom of one sock, the other still needs at least one more decrease round. It can be frustrating, but so long as both feet use the same chart for the top of the foot, I'm alright. In the case of the Kristi socks, the charts are mirrored, which would have made it maddening to do them at the same time if they were off even the least little bit. I am grateful they're right. I'll definitely work on them on the bus tomorrow on the way to work.

Lastly, I'm on the home stretch with the Kusha Kusha scarf, finally on the smallest size needle and rapidly running out of yarn on the first cone of silk/stainless. For whatever reason, the scarf seems to be going a little faster, but may only be because I can see the end. Maybe I can finish it Thursday night at Stitch 'n' Pitch. A bunch of us are going to see our Louisville Bats take on the Gwinett Braves. It's dollar beer night, so I have to make sure I take something easy. I hope I remember to take some pictures.

That's it for now, Friends. Until next time!