post . . . . . gooooooooood

In a fit of optimism, I have dubbed November to be UFO month. That's right, during the month of November, I am going to go on a project-finishing rampage. I certainly have enough UFOs lying about to keep me occupied for the whole month.

My fit of optimism quickly became a fit of delusion, as I followed that up by dubbing December to be stash-busting month, in which I will start AND FINISH all the projects that I've got yarn for but just, erm, haven't started. All my UFOs will of course be, by this point, completed.

In a following fit of sobering insight, I realize that I'll be lucky to get one or two projects done during November. Heck, if December goes well, I might get another couple done by Christmas, though I'm sure I'll cast on for many more now that I've given myself leeway to do so. Also, regardless of how UFO and Stash-busting months go, I'll still be buying more yarn after the new year, simply because that was the limit I've set for myself. *sigh* I have a suspicion that there will be another strict yarn diet in 2009.

Speaking of yarn, and yarn lust, I have recently stumbled across this: Harry Potter sock yarn. Words cannot describe the depth of my lust for this. It's Harry Potter. And sock yarn. Harry Potter. And sock yarn. Harry potter AND sock yarn. Together!zomg in one skein!!! I'm not quite sure how exactly it could get any more awesome than this. I'm rather partial to the Hedwig colorway, though the Draco is pretty nice too, as is the Ron, and the Tonks is pretty in a bubblegum-bright sort of way...

Even now, the naughty corner of my mind is whispering that surely a couple skeins of that couldn't hurt, seeing as how I've only got enough sock yarn in my stash for one more pair of socks. Ignoring the two pairs I've already got on the needles, of course. But I am not fooled. Yarn is yarn, and I have way too much already. Plus, the Opal is not exactly inexpensive at $23 per skein and part of the reason for my yarn diet was to save money. So instead I've added it to the mental list of yarn I'm going to spend my Christmas monies on. Yes, I've got a list. An actual written-down, I've-put-lots-of-thought-into-this, planned-out list. Why no, I don't have a problem... Why do you ask?

Eff-oh!

That's right! Another finished project, go me!! I finished up that scarf I said I was thinking of.





Ta-da!

...just ignore the partially finished project graveyard on the bottom shelf there... why no, that's not at least half a dozen things I'm pretending are finished but aren't really. Like my Special Effects tote, which STILL needs to be lined, or... *ahem*

Anyhow. Moving right along.

See, I was sorting through some old papers and stumbled across some notes from the chemistry class I took freshman year in college, and mixed in with it was a handout of the emission spectra of various elements. My first thought, upon seeing them, was "oh hey, those are scarf-shaped! I bet I could crochet one up in no time!" And so I did. I botched the ending of it - two of the darker purple stripes are spaced too far apart - because I seem to have a complete inability to follow patterns. Although random measurements scribbled on a post-it don't really count as patterns, do they? Ah well. It came out nifty enough, and I figure most people won't be able to tell the difference...

Now I'm back to working on my afghan, henceforth to be referred to as The Blanket That Will Not End. Because it won't. I crochet and crochet and crochet, and the damned thing never seems to get any bigger. It's like it just eats my yarn and expects me not to notice. Well, I have noticed, you evil thing you! And it has become a battle. I'm armed with NINE MORE SKEINS of yarn. No blanket could eat that much without growing! It will become blanket sized if it's the last thing it does!

My mother's socks, however, are behaving themselves quite nicely the little suck-ups... They're taking longer, because they're worked on tiny little twig-needles, but they're pretty and coming along at the rate I more or less expected them to come along at. And did I mention they're pretty? Because they are. I love cabling.

My yarn diet is going better than I thought it would. I bought some yarn for my Hydrogen Scarf, but it was on sale and I only bought a few skeins so it doesn't really count. I placed another Knitpicks order, and there was not one lonely little skein of yarn on it! And if that's not willpower, then I don't know what is! Yarn, I can put off buying by making a mental list of all the lovely yarn I'm going to buy after Christmas when my diet is over. But a set of six sizes of sock needles on sale for $20?? Who could pass that up? Yes, yes, I know I already have the Harmony wood sock needles. But I've discovered that I dislike working with wood needles at that small a guage. I'm afraid I'm going to snap one of them, and then where would I be? So I ordered the nickel plated ones. Because they were on sale. Erm, yes.

Beyond that, nothing's really going on. I still need to swatch for my Sesame sweater, but I'm dragging my feet on it. That's going to be the project I work on while I'm home for Christmas, plus I've got this BTWNE that I HAVE to finish by mid-December, and the socks I really should finish by Thanksgiving. Plus Jason's binary scarf that still needs to be tinked back several rows... ::sigh:: Plus I'm in a bit of a knitting slump at the moment. Probably because I'm neither buying yarn nor starting a billion projects at once... Bluh.

bad blogger!

When I first started this blog, I told myself I'd update it at least once a week. Well, we can all see how well that's gone...

It doesn't help that I've been pretty neglectful of my yarn habits as of late. I've fallen into sort of a slump, mostly due to my big evil gifty blanket. I'm a little shy of halfway through the stupid thing, and I just. don't. want. to. finish. It's like when you're running, and at first you're just flying along and thinking 'gee, I could do this forever!' and then all of a sudden you feel like you're slogging through mud. I know my second wind is coming, and if this is anything like other projects, I'll hit it when I'm coming up on the end of it. But for now, I'm having to force myself to work on it. Good thing there's still a couple months left until I've GOT to have it done...

My second pair of properly fitting socks are sitting on the back burner, were they've been since I finished the first one. For a while I was stuck between wanting to start the color pattern in the same place on both of them, but not wanting to waste a big chunk of yarn to get them to do so. Now, I'm thinking maybe it'd be best if I frogged the toe of the first one and did another quarter inch or so of non-decreasing rounds to make it a bit longer, because it's just a tiny bit too tight as it is. I like my house socks a little looser than I like my shoe socks. Mostly, I think I'm just making up excuses to explain away my SSS. Blah.

Birthday socks for my mother are coming along, though slowly. Since she's not here and I can't make her try them on as I go, I'm constantly doubting my measurements and going 'what if they don't fit?? These are taking forever, I don't want to send them to the frogpond! wah wah wah, whine whine whine.'

Jason's binary scarf has also come to something of a standstill. I accidentally entered the wrong byte in several rows down. Now, my mother always told me if I made a mistake and "you can't spot it from a running horse at ten feet, it doesn't matter." And it looks fine, and if you weren't actively looking for it you probably wouldn't see it. But the perfectionist part of me is screaming "there's a 0 where there should be a 1!!!" And it's going to drive me crazy if I DON'T fix it. But it's several rows of characters down and I really also don't want to rip all that out. *sigh*

In the meantime I've started a couple of different scarves, but ripped them out again after just a few inches. I don't actually need any new scarves, I'm just experimenting with different stitch patterns.

Though I do have a really good idea for a super-awesome and suitably geeky scarf that I think I'm going to work up fairly soonish. Maybe it'll break up the monotony of the big evil blanket and aaarrgh, more socks. Plus, it's crocheted and I haven't been crocheting much lately (other than my big evil blanket, of course....) Maybe this'll help get me back into it.