knitting blues

Literally. The two projects I'm mainly working on now are blue. I'm really digging it right now, heck if I know why.

So. Anyhow. Last post found me whinging about how I have nothing to knit. Next time I start that crap again, I want someone to point me at this photo:



(please note the copious amount of blue yarn scattered throughout it)

And the next time I start up my Oh woe is me I've got nothing to knit! the appropriate response to that is "Horseshit! You have enough yarn to cover a queen sized bed. Put on your big girl panties and go knit some of it!"

Which is pretty much exactly what I've done. I've pulled out that one lonely skein of Smooshy I've been meaning to knit up, sat down at Ravelry and dug up an appropriate pattern for it. And then I picked up my needles and started knitting it

(swatch? what swatch? swatches are for the weak, baby, I live life on the edge!)

I'd love to say how much I love it and how happy I am putting this yarn with this pattern etc etc etc. I'm really loving the pattern; it's not too difficult, but looks pretty and complex and, well, lacy. I'm ecstatic over the yarn; it's gorgeous and soft and every bit as smooshy as its name implies it should be. But what's coming off my needles . . . well . . .

Frankly, it looks like ass.


Pretty colored ass, but ass nonetheless. To be fair, this is simply the nature of lace, and it's just a blocking away from becoming gorgeous lace, but right now I look at it and all I see is a garbled messy blob of pretty colored ass. And this right here is why I hate knitting lace. I don't mind following a chart. I don't mind counting stitches and desperately searching for where I missed that one damned yarn-over because my last row came up a stitch short. I don't mind actually having to concentrate at my knitting.

But I do dislike looking at what I'm knitting and going "this looks like ass."

I read somewhere that there are two types of knitters: those who do it for the process of knitting, and those who are motivated by the end product. I'm definitely the latter. The best part of knitting for me is the feeling of pride when I look down at my emerging project, and think to myself "hot damn, I made that!!" or "hey, look! I've knit another two inches!" With lace it's all about delayed gratification because it doesn't get pretty until all the way at the end when it's pinned to the blocking board.

But for now it's rekindled my knitting mojo, so I am grateful for that. Also, it's a gift for someone. Hopefully that will motivate me to keep going on it. Time will tell, I suppose.

I'm off to Virginia this weekend to visit Husband's grandfather. This will be the only project I take along. I'm curious to see how much I'll end up getting done on it. Stay tuned!

sock yarn!

My order from Simply Sock Yarn got in today!!! Eeeeeeee!!!! I also did a bit of shopping today...



From the left: two sets of double-points in size 10 and size 10.5 from Natural Stitches.

Center column: Dream in Color Smooshy in Some Summer Sky; Lamb's Pride Bulky (from Natural Stitches) in Red Hot Passion; Patons Kroy Socks in Bronzed Berry Stripes (on sale at Michaels); Cascade Fixation in Paint Bucket.

From the Right: Arucania Multy in Colorway 312; Noro (I chose the grabbag option on this, and am very pleased with the color chosen for me!); and last but not least, mmmMalabrigo Sock in Solis.

I'm so very very excited over all of this wonderful pretty yarny goodness. I'm very much looking forward to knitting up all these lovely socks (and my Red Hot Passion hat!)

yarn pr0n

Yep, that's right! Time for more showing off of the yarn! Apologies for the less-than-awesome pictures. These were taken with my phone, and it's way overcast today.

Here we have one skein of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Deep Pine (which is actually a brighter deep emerald-like color, not the washed out bluh the crappy picture implies.) It's for Jason's Binary Cable Hat. This is my attempt to put a little color into his winter attire. I figure I can trick him into wearing something a bit more colorful than his comfort zone seems to allow if the pattern is geeky enough.


Then there's a skein of 6-ply ONline Supersocke. The ball band is in what appears to be German, and the colorway as best I can figure it is just "1092." This will eventually be socks for Jason. I'd already bought two skeins of Knitpicks Palette for socks for him, but after starting to knit up my mother's socks, I realized there won't be enough yarn there to knit up socks for his great big man-feet. So here we are with this. He picked it out himself. This is a perfect example of his "comfort zone" of colors. ::sigh::


And last but not least we have two skeins of Cascade's Sassy Stripes. Again, the colors are much prettier than the picture implies. Because I have tiny feet and stick legs, I'm betting that I've got enough yarn here to make me a pair of knee socks. I intend for this to be my first attempt at toe-up socks. Probably won't get around to it until after Christmas, but until then!

So, yes, I did cheat on my yarn diet. Technically. But all the yarn was on sale. The majority of it is for gifts for someone else. And we all know that sock yarn doesn't really count as stash. So, all in all, I think I'm okay. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

In other fabulous news, my mother's socks (which you can see being neglected in the upper right corner of the photos) are coming along nicely. I finally hit the heel flap on the first sock and I'm a little alarmed at how long the leg is. It's definitely longer than I expected. I poked around pictures of other people's FOs on Ravelry, and some people's look as long as mine, while others look to be a good three to four inches shorter. I'm very confused, because I followed the pattern correctly. I figure I'll just keep going with it, mostly because I'll be damned if I have to frog this thing. It took me a ridiculously long time to do.

The BTWNE is still not ending. I didn't work on it at all yesterday, because I hate it and am avoiding it. I'll probably work on it some tonight during Terminator and Heroes. At least good tv makes its endless monotony bearable.

Tomorrow night I'm going to my very first knitting group ever! Natural Stitches here in Pittsburgh has a Ravelry group on Tuesday evenings, and I'm going to go. And it will be awesome.

mmmm, yarn

IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME!!!! MY BOX IS HERE!!!

Naturally, I ran up the stairs to my apartment where I promptly shredded the packaging in my eagerness to get at the yarny goodness within. After wasting devoting about five minutes of my life to petting, I grabbed my camera to share it with the world.

Caution! Yarn pr0n ahead! May cause yarn-lust, especially to those on fiber diets!


Knitpicks Swish DK in Merlot Heather and Cobblestone Heather.

I ordered this for the Sesame sweater I'm planning on making. The yarn is a little more brownish than it looked online, but I like it and I think it still works with the grey.



Knitpicks Shamrock in Beckett.

I'm in love with the colors. Bought for my calorimetry.



Knitpicks Palette in Rainforest Heather and Ash.

For socks for myself and the fiance. Green is mine, grey is his.



Knitpicks Cadena in Leaf, and Knitpicks Andean Silk in Slate.

Not for me, sadly, but for a friend. The Andean Silk is very lovely and oh-so-pettable.



And last but not least we have the reason I try to avoid yarn stores. I went in to pick up some dpns for the socks I'm going to make, and ended up walking out with not only the needles but a $20 skein of yarn. I've heard lovely things about Noro, and have been curious about it for a while, but I *just* ordered a big box of yarn. I do not need MORE yarn. But I saw the colors, and so here we are.



Isn't it just lovely? The picture doesn't even begin to do justice to the gorgeous, gorgeous colors all twined into one disappointingly scratchy ball of yarn. But I've been told it softens in the wash, and I have high hopes.

Now that my yarn is finally here, what do I want to do with it? Why, knit it, of course! Never mind that I already have about a billion other projects going. Never mind that I know myself and that once I start I'll lose interest in a few weeks and start something else new and exciting. Hence why I am forcing myself to finish what I start at least reasonably close to when I start it.

I'm trying to be strong and resist the seduction of new yarn, but I am only mortal here...