blargh, christmas

Things have been pretty hectic around here in Yarnia. The last two Christmases were studies in knitting hell. So this year I said to myself, I've learned from my mistakes! I'm not going to knit anything for Christmas this year! Store-bought gifts are definitely the way to go! I love knitting for other people, really I do, but I'm awful at knitting on a deadline. It's stressful and hectic and it makes me feel like crap when I'm not able to finish on time because A) I drastically underestimated how long something would take, or B) something goes terribly horribly wrong causing me to take much longer, or C) all of the above.

Which is why, of course, here I am with less than a week to go until Christmas, frantically knitting away despite the fact that there is No Way in Hell that I am going to finish in time. I've prioritized which projects absolutely must be finished by Christmas, and which I've got a bit of wiggle room with and if I finish them a little late it won't be so bad. My mom and grandmother are getting two pairs of socks each (I made this brilliant decision on the 9th of December. yes, I'm absolutely off my rocker) and I've finished two pairs so far. So if I'm a little late with the other two pairs it won't be the end of the world. The other parts I won't go into detail on because I'm not sure who else does and doesn't follow my blog.

In other happier FO-news, I've gotten some great things taken care of. I've finally finished J-L's hat. That awful evil intarsia beast I've been complaining about on and off for the last year? Yeah. Done. Well, nearly done. I've just got to add braided tassels to the earflaps and felt the whole mess. I'll be posting finished pictures in a blog post of its own with probably a documentation of the whole sad tale.

I've also finished Jon's mitts and scarf. Still haven't presented them to him, because life keeps getting in the way. Namely, my work schedule and his finicky car. But they came out quite nice, and I'm very pleased.

I've also completed Abby's shawlette. I used the pattern Spring Thaw, and Malabrigo sock in the colorway Abril. Lovely yarn, lovely pattern. I did have some trouble starting it. The charts only show half of the shawl, and I didn't realize this at first, then couldn't figure out why the written instructions and charts didn't match up. Two froggings later, it finally clicked. The pattern was quite easily memorizable, and the yarn is a dream. I'm so in love with the color that I want to make myself something with it. Someday, after I downsize my stash quite a bit more...

Abby seems to love it. She's worn it several times since I gave it to her, which pleases me to no end. The best part of knitting for other people is seeing them use and enjoy what I make.

And that's probably why I'm sitting here, half-finished Christmas gift beside me. The thought of it being used and loved is what keeps me going.

socks, hats and mittens

So, my knitting is coming along. My pink lace socks are farther along, and I'm sure they'd be even farther along still if I'd worked on them at all since last Friday... I'm just past picking up the gusset stitches. The instructions at that point of the pattern didn't make much sense to me (possibly because I barely skimmed the pattern, went "that's not usually how I do gussets!" and then went along on my merry way doing the gussets as I've always done them.) I re-read the instructions after doing them my own way, and still don't quite get it. Something about k2tog in a place I don't recall ever knitting 2 together before...

Anyhow, socks!



Not a terribly good picture of the yarn, I'm afraid. It comes out looking far too orange-y. It's a really pretty pink in real life, and one day I swear I'm going to take a picture of this thing in natural sunlight. Although that might take a while because, oh yeah, I live in Pittsburgh, where the sun apparently abandons us every winter.

Anyhow. I'm probably not going to finish these socks by the end of January like a good little KAL participant would. And that's because I'm a horrible procrastinating project tramp. But oh, I have justifications. And don't I always?

The reason I haven't touched the socks is because I was being responsible. Yes, I know. Me. Responsible. Ha. But I really was! See, Sunday was the Steelers game that determined whether or not they'd be playing in the Superbowl. (and they are hurrah go Steelers!! ahem...) For this game, the FH and I decided to go enjoy it at a local sports bar. Unable to be parted from my knitting for even a few hours, I had to take a project. Now, since I'd planned on having a few beers and have learned from my past drinking-and-knitting experiences, I wanted something simple to work on. And honestly, who wants to be caught knitting pink lace socks at a sports bar?? Nope, knitting a goofy bright-orange hat is faaaaar better. *eye-roll*



(yeah, I was real productive knitting-wise during that game, wasn't I...)

Yep, that's my skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Orange Creamsicle that I bought several months ago because I liked the color but had no idea what to do with it but that's okay because now I do and I really like the pretty things the colors are doing! Except, dirty dirty knitting tramp that I am, I now have no interest in my pink lace socks, and instead am itching to knit this hat. I'm on such a hat-making binge right now. It's kind of silly, but there we are. My addictive personality strikes again.

For whatever reason, in addition to hats, I also want to knit mittens. Why? I have no idea. I've never knit mittens before. Hell, I don't even ever wear mittens, and have previously had no desire to wear mittens. Yet I want to make mittens now. I went so far as to poke around Ravelry and queue half a dozen mitten patterns, most of which I'll never get around to making. Mittens mittens mittens. It's fun to say, but that still doesn't explain my obsession with the darned things. I'm probably going to make a pair out of one of the many skeins of yarn I've got lying about. Possibly the skeins of Bernat Berella 4 Ombrees in Terra Cotta Mist I've got. And then hopefully I'll lose interest in them entirely.

And speaking of yarn, I picked up another couple skeins when I was at Michael's the other day. Guess what I'm gonna make with it!



Go on, guess!! I'll give ya'll a hint: it's gonna be cunning!

I'm intimidated by my unknit sweater

There. I said it. I admit it. The damned thing intimidates me.

I've had the yarn for my Sesame sweater for nearly four months now, and not done anything with it. I swatched in October. I swatched again earlier this week. And not just my usual half-assed version of swatching, in which I knit a few rows, get tired of knitting it, measure, come up wrong, and go "eh, it's close enough." Oh no. I actually swatched like They say you should swatch. I knit up my little 4"x4" square, complete with a few stitches of garter stitch on each side, and a few rows of garter stitch on the top and bottom so it'll lay flat. Then I measured. Then I washed the swatch. Then I dried the swatch. Then I measured the swatch. Then I measured the swatch again. And I came up spot-on.

I have my needles.
I have my yarn.
I have my pattern.
I have my cute little square that tells me I'm good to go!

Yet I haven't cast on for this thing yet. I'm coming up with all sorts of reasons for it, too.

"I need to finish this hat because it's on a deadline." Technically true. But I don't have to have it done for another two weeks. And when have I ever finished something early when I could drive myself mad knitting it the night before?

"I have so many unfinished projects. I should finish some of them before I start another." Ha. I can hear some of you giggling from here.

"But I've got the project for my KAL!" This is how we can tell it's getting bad. I found a pair-of-socks-a-month knitalong that I joined. The last one of these I joined, I didn't even make it through the first month. I'm sure this won't be any different, but it's a little worrying that I'm seriously trying to use it as an excuse.

Really, I just need to man up and start the darned thing. I've looked over the instructions, and they seem very step-by-step and clearly written out. The toughest thing about this is probably the seaming, and I won't have to worry about that til the end. So why have I not started it yet? I don't know. Best I can think of is I'm intimidated by it. I've built up the idea of knitting a sweater so much that I don't want to do it.

This is ridiculous. My first knitted project was a pair of socks. "Start with a scarf!" I was told. "But I don't want to knit a scarf, I want to knit socks!" I said. "But socks are hard," I was told. "I don't care, I'm going to knit them."

And that's how I've always done things - by being too stupid to realize that I can't.

So, I really have no excuse. I need to just jump in. I need to stop being a wuss and just knit it. .....after I finish my hat.....

a slippery slope

Cheating on one's yarn diet, I have discovered, is quite a slippery slope. After my fiber splurge over the weekend, I went ahead about bought another two skeins of sock yarn tonight. Because I figured, eh, it's on sale, it's nothing compared to what I already bought, and damnit I had a crap day and sock yarn fixes that. I am very clever at talking myself into things I want to be talked into.

Anywho, it's another two skeins of the Cascade Sassy Stripes, this one in bands of blue and teal. It's very pretty and I wanted it this weekend but felt bad to buy two pair's worth of socks of the same yarn in different colors, so I asked the FH to choose for me, and I went "aww" in disappointment when he didn't pick the blue one. Though I'm sure I still would have gone "aww" in disappointment if he hadn't picked the green one either. In any case, but tonight I'd have both so it wouldn't really matter, would it? I am an EXPERT at talking myself into things.

So tonight I went to my very first knitting group, and I'm definitely going to be going every week. It will be wonderful. Everyone there was very fun and friendly, and it was a pleasure to be among them.

I also fucked up my mother's socks AGAIN. Because I apparently cannot read a pattern to save my life. One of the ladies there was super-nice, and fixed them for me in a way that didn't involve ripping a dozen rounds. I learned some advanced mistake-correcting techniques, and learned to read charts. (and bought more yarn) All in all, the night was a success, and I can't wait for next Tuesday to come round. This is totally worth having to watch 90210 online for!

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.

arrgh

I was at the LYS again today. In an uncharacteristic show of self-control, I walked out of there with nothing more than the size 8 dpns that I'd gone in there intending to purchase.

UFO month is, erm, coming along, I suppose. After my victorious FO on the second, I haven't really done much of anything else. I'm rapidly approaching the heel flap on my mother's socks. I've also fed the BTWNE anothe skein or so of yarn, though you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at it. It's like there's some yarn-sucking black hole hidden somewhere within its row upon row of mind-numbingly, eye-crossingly, soul-crushingly boring "3dc, ch1 ad nauseum." I am so so so frigging sick of this blanket that I'm sorely tempted to toss the damned thing out the window and just be done with it. I won't, though, because I am a stubborn little brat and no afghan will ever get the best of me, no matter how evil it is.

I may have cheated on my UFO finishing just the tiniest bit. But, as I ever so cleverly rationalized to myself, presents for other people don't really count. So I finally frogged my failed beret and reincarnated all that lovely soft baby alpaca goodness as the Binary Cable Hat for Jason. Except the lovely soft baby alpaca goodness evilness was having none of that. After some minor gauge issues and some half-assed pattern recalculations, I sat down to knit, and three wasted rows into the hat I discovered that the damned yarn is so fuzzy that it completely obscures the pattern. Probably for the best. My calculations were probably off anyhow. They always are.

I don't know if it was only trying to keep me from deviating on my path of UFO decimation or what. I can hear it chastising me now. "No, Leandra! No more projects until December! That's only three weeks away - can't you even make it three measly weeks without starting something new???" That might just be my conscience - that voice I occasionally hear that tells me that I don't need any more yarn. I generally don't listen to that voice.

But so far this yarn is 2 for 2 in failing to become hats. Maybe it doesn't want to become a hat. Or maybe it thinks it's above being knit - after all, it is by far the most expensive yarn I have. Or maybe it's just evil. Well, it better get its act together, or so help me I'll make mice out of every last scrap of the stuff and give them all to my kitties. You hear that, yarn? You better shape up or you'll spend the rest of your miserably existence being slobbered on, clawed up, and getting lost under the sofa.

Tomorrow is probably going to show me breaking my yarn diet. The LYS is having a sale (whee!) and now that I've got the binary hat on my brain, I need appropriate yarn for it. And some more sock yarn because that doesn't count as stash. And appropriate needles. And, um, stuff. Yeah

Anyhow, look forward to yarn pr0n tomorrow.

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.

yarn dieting

Okay, very very quick update here.

First off, my needles got here!!! Oh. my. god. I am in love. It's like knitting with sunshine and rainbows and kittens. They are absolutely amazing and I want to knit all freakin' day with these things. All of them. At once.

Secondly, though much less enthusiastically, I have put myself on a very VERY strict yarn diet. No yarn, nada, not even one teensy little skein on sale for pennies even until after Christmas.

Thirdly, and the reason for the secondly, I bought more yarn. Yes, more. On sale. I picked up another skein of black for Jason's Binary Scarf. While there, I also picked up:

• - 2 skeins of Lion Wool-Ease in Blue Mist. Love the color. It reminds me of oil with all the rainbowy prettiness. I think it'll be great for my second attempt at the Twisted Maiden Fingerless Gloves.
• - 2 skeins of Patons Classic Wool Merino in Cognac Heather. And I've got just the project for this! I should be casting on for my very own Ribbed Lace Bolero in the next day or so.
• - 3 skeins of Bernat Berella 4 Ombres in Terra Cotta Mist. The name is pretty stupid, but the colors are nice. They reminded me of fall, and for a dollar a skein, well, who could resist? I don't have a project in mind for it, other than the vague idea of maybe a hat and scarf set. Who knows...

Thirdly, and most recently, I just finished my Calorimetry. It was a fairly fast knit. I started it and knit most of it during last night's D&D session, which was fairly slow and more devoted to figuring out puzzles and riddles than actual combat and/or roleplaying. Finished the last quarter or so of it today during a couple episodes of Firefly. The button is my absolute favorite part of it...





Isn't he just adorable??? ^__^

I can't wait until it gets chilly enough to wear it. I've also got plans for a matching neckwarmer. I think that this Herringbone Neckwarmer pattern may be just the thing.

blaargh, sickness

Yep, so I'm sick today. Luckily, I wasn't scheduled to work today, so I ended up spending the day crashed on the sofa with some knitting. I spent the afternoon swatching* and knitting up my calorimetry. But Leandra! the more astute readers will say, You don't have a calormetry! Well, I do now. Or part of one, at least...

*Where swatching means casting on the required number of stitches, losing interest a few rows in, measuring it anyhow and going "eh, close enough" when it comes up a quarter of an inch short.

Now, I bought only one skein of Shamrock yarn in Beckett, and when it got here I thought to myself, Gee, self, this looks awfully small. But I shrugged and assumed that I would have been smart enough when ordering to check the amount of yarn the pattern called for and ordered accordingly. After all, I'm the one that always orders on the side of caution and picks up an extra skein so if I thought one was enough, well dagnabit, then one's enough.

Turns out I was only half-smart when ordering yarn. I ordered the recommended 50g of yarn, but the yarn used in the pattern is 93yd. Mine is only 82. Fuck fuck and doublefuck. Ah well, I thought. I knit a little tighter than the average knitter, and my gauge "swatch" came out a little short. Should be fine. So I knit. And by the time I got to here:



and the ball had decreased by a somewhat disturbing amount, I was forced to admit that, yes, I do not in fact have enough yarn. *sigh* Note the lovely, lovely way the colors of the contrasting strand are knitting up. Focus on that and not the paperclip stitch marker I've got sticking out the top of it.

The way I see it, I've got a few options. I can:

• A - Keep knitting and pray that I've got enough.
• B - Frog what I've got so far, cast on less stitches, do fewer repeats in the middle and pray that I'll have enough.
• C - Buy more yarn and pray for the same or a matching dyelot.

Option A is clearly silly and will end in me investing a significant chunk of time in knitting something that will inevitably be frogged.

Option B is less silly, but could quite conceivably have the same end result.

Option C makes the most sense, but will inevitably end up in me buying more yarn I really don't need. Plus I've had my eye on those oh-so-lovely Harmony straights, and my mother just gave me check for my birthday and it really would make more sense to do that because then I'd get the free shipping and - no no no! Bad brain! Do not need!

So what am I sitting here doing now? Well, obviously I'm blogging. But why am I blogging? To avoid starting yet another project. See, when the calorimetry failed, I eyed the lovely stack of Swish DK and thought perhaps I should swatch it for my Sesame sweater. But I've fallen into that trap before. Swatching is only fun for the first few rows. Then the novelty of playing with a new yarn wears off, and I wind up starting the project. And I certainly do not need to start any more projects, as clearly evidenced by my Ravelry page.

See, Ravelry shows that I have five WIPs. Nine if you count my hibernating projects, most of which are hibernating just because I don't want a billion WIPs listed. Then throw in the other three smaller projects (amigurumi and a granny square) that I felt were too small and would be finished too quickly to warrent calling them WIPs, and of course the calorimetry I just started. And we might as well add to that the bag that I haven't woven the ends into and lined so I can't actually use yet (aka: it's not done, aka: WIP!), and the beret that's too big to fit a human head and I still need to try to salvage with a few rounds of decreases but I went ahead and listed it as completed anyhow because it was mostly finished and that's close enough, right? And what do we have? A grand total of fifteen. I have over a dozen projects I've started and not yet completed, and I'm wanting to start ANOTHER one?? What is wrong with me???

Even now, that seductive little voice in the corner of my mind is whispering, go ahead, just swatch it! that doesn't really count as starting...

Except I know where it would go! Bad brain, stop trying to lead me into knitting temptation!

I'm going to go keep working on my socks. Maybe if I finish another project in the next few days, I'll reward myself with just one little eensy swatch. That can't hurt, right?

startitis - i has it

Yep, that's me. In one day, I started not one, not two, but THREE new projects. Yeah. Startitis - I has it!

Project the first: Another pair of socks. I had tons of yarn left over from my first pair of socks, so I cast on for a second pair. The first came out slightly too large, so I'm knitting these the next size smaller. What am I going to do with two pairs of near identical socks? I have no idea. Maybe I'll befriend someone with slightly bigger feet than me and give away the first pair.

Project the second: Binary scarf. I stumbled across this pattern while looking for something else, and decided that Jason just needed to have it. And since the Portal scarf I'd started for him way back in March had more or less fallen to the wayside, this would be a nice substitute. This is also my first attempt at colorwork in knitting. We'll see how that goes. I anticipate working like heck on it for about a week before putting it away indefinitely. Then a few months later I'll find a pattern I like better and the yarn will be frogged a third time.

Project the third: Granny square afghan. I've had this project planned for a while, and finally started hooking it up. It's supposed to be a Christmas present for my fiance's parents. I found the yarn on sale, and the colors match their living room. Only three and a half months to go until it's due. Hopefully I can make it in between trying to finish my billion other projects.

Startitis. I do indeed has it. I often wonder at people who only have one or two projects going at a time. Monogamous knitters. I marvel at them. I admire them and their monogamous ways. Even more revered are the people who have no stash. They'll go out, buy enough yarn to make one project, knit that project, and then go buy yarn for their next thing. The gears in my brain actually clunked and skipped a few turns at the thought of that. I'd love to ask how how how! they do that, but I've never actually stumbled across one of those people. Maybe they're a fairy tale, like Santa and the Tooth Fairy and people who don't like chocolate.

Me? I am a project tramp with a stash big enough to keep me occupied for the next couple of years.

In other stash-related news, my knitpicks order shipped!!! (Like I really need more yarn or more projects....) But my bff (a fellow knitter) and I split the order to get free shipping, and if the yarn is as lovely as the last batch I got, then it'll provide much-needed motivation to hurry up and finish the projects I've got cooking now so I can get started on new ones. (See? See how easily I lie to myself to justify buying more yarn and starting more projects??)