Another Distraction

A somewhat eclectic blog by a woman who's easily distracted...

Friday, July 27, 2007

Catching Up. Maybe...

Well, I don't think I'll ever be totally caught up on anything, and I certainly won't catch up on the Mystery Stole, but my first SOS07 sock is just about done, and I finished the latest Harry Potter, so it's safe to go back to the Internet. Of course, I cheated. I listened to the CDs, which really helped reduce commute stress: "that's okay, go ahead and cut me off--just gives me more time to listen."

Lots of stuff going on, and lots I want to write about here, but I never seem to have enough time any more.

Anyway, here's some not-so-great eye candy Friday of some surprise visitors I encountered in the grassy area between buildings at work. I only had my camera phone, so they're not the best pix I've ever taken, but they make me smile, and I hope they do the same for you.





Happy Friday!

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Still in Progress

Sock


Mystery Stole, completed chart A.

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Friday, July 13, 2007

Nothing To Report

Sorry--no eye candy Friday today, and no progress pix.


The sock is now just over 5" long--about 2 more to go before I start the heel.


I'm on row 32 of the Mystery Stole, now putting lifelines in every 10 rows because, like the sock, there has been much frogging. I may be too slow to even be considered a slow bee, but Bonne Marie Burns made this nice little button for many of us lagging behind. The third clue comes out today and I still haven't finished the first chart on the first clue. Between the Summer of Socks and the Mystery Stole, I may well have overextended myself. Too bad I have to work...



There's too much going on in other parts of my life right now to spend much time knitting or blogging, so things may be a bit quiet here for a bit. I'll try to do better about eye candy Friday, and if I make any progress worth photographing, I'll try to post pix.

Have a great weekend!

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Friday, July 06, 2007

Lots of Movement--Not Much Progress

First, let's start with some eye candy, since it's Friday, shall we?

And now, we'll move on to knitting news. This is where I'd show you a modeled shot of the Boyfriend Socks and tell you all about them, but since I didn't get a modeled shot yesterday, I'll show you a quick "laying there looking like handknit socks" shot to prove that they really are done,
















and go on to the Summer of Socks update, such as it is, pitiful little progress and all.

Here's my sock-in-progress.

Not much done in the last two weeks, is there? Yeah. Hmm. Let me explain--no, there is too much. Let me sum up*: Poor planning.

It was perfect, or so I thought. (You knew I was going to explain anyway, right?) I signed up for a sock club during the months of June, July, and August, so somebody else would decide on one pair of socks for me to make each month during the summer of socks. Each kit should arrive on or around the 15th, so it seemed like a shoe-in (so to speak...) for the first pair of SOS socks. What could go wrong? Me. That's what.

Apparently, I've forgotten that I'm not so good at having other people pick things out for me. I got the kit the day before the -along started, and although the yarn is a nice Tofutsies, and the pattern looks interesting, the colorway is really not me. Don't get me wrong--I will knit these socks, and the whole concept of knitting a pattern you might not have chosen in yarn you wouldn't have chosen is part of the appeal of a sock club. They just weren't right for the first pair. And I determined this the day before the -along. With no back-up plan.

So, I had a "brilliant" idea for my first pair of "Summer of Socks" socks. Managed to find the yarn I needed, and started playing with charts. I still want to do those socks, but it was going to take too long to get it all figured out, and I needed to cast on IMMEDIATELY. It just so happens that in procuring the yarn for the more ambitious project, I also bought (ahem, among a couple of other items) some Panda Cotton in the most gorgeous "Misty Greens". This stuff is beautiful, and it's bamboo, cotton, and elastic nylon. It feels very nice--especially knit up, and it just seemed so darned summery that I needed to cast on immediately. Without knowing what I was knitting.

I wasn't sure how much sock I could get out of the 170 yard ball, and one of my goals was to do a toe-up sock. I had just seen Ann Budd's article about toe-up socks in the Summer '07 IK, so I cast on. But it was too loose. So I tried again. And again... Finally leading up to:

Discovery #1: For me, it is best to do the Eastern cast-on on needles about two sizes smaller than the needles I'm knitting with. I'm using 2s for the socks, so a cast-on using 0s worked well for me.

I moved on to the foot. (We're ignoring the whole "toe incident" where I skipped a section of instructions twice, saying to myself "if I were creating this pattern, I'd have decreased every round at first so the toe wasn't so dang pointed, but Ann Budd knows more about knitting than I do, so... oh look--Ann Budd says decrease every round at first. $#@!" ...and I frogged. Again.) So, ignoring toe incident, we move onto the foot. I thought a lacy rib would look nice, so I got out the stitch dictionary, found a stitch I almost liked, modified it and tried it. And hated it. And frogged again, leading to:

Discovery #2: I cannot just "design on the fly"--without swatching. There's actually no proof that I can design "off the fly", with copious swatching, but I digress.

-and-

Discovery #3: The knitting gods aren't crazy about my starting a new sock when I haven't quite finished the last bit from a pair that have been on my needles for almost a year. I had to finish the Boyfriend Socks to appease the knitting gods before moving on to my SOS socks.

As soon as the Boyfriend Socks were done, I picked this baby up again. Since the yarn got more and more unravelled every time I frogged (and, truth be known, so did I), I used my fall-back, tried and true, 2x2 rib.

So, not much progress, but a whole lot of frogging and restarting. Also, I may have been a little distracted by Ravelry. And the whole Mystery Stole 3 thing.


Oh yeah--there's also that pesky little "work" thing.

A note of caution to anyone considering the Panda Cotton. I love this yarn--truly love it--BUT it is very splitty. And it becomes increasingly so with each frogging. (I got to the point where I was just knitting with the plies held together.) Just something to think about.


Have a great weekend!

*Anybody out there get the reference? No prize, but I'm curious to know if I'm the only one who gets me...

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

They're Done!

Boyfriend Sock 2 of 2 is done, which means the pair is done! Photos tomorrow. I'm off to celebrate my independence of this project by going to bed!

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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Still Here...

Just a quick post to let you know I'm still around, even though I missed eye candy Friday last week, and haven't posted in a week and a half. I'm hoping to post tomorrow, but I've been saying that for quite a while now, so I figured I better do a quickie now.

Boyfriend sock #2 is *almost* finished. Really. I swear. I'm on the toe decreases (this one's leg-down), to 44 stitches (started with 84). Dang work gets in the way.

And as soon as that's done, I can get back to my very first toe-up sock, which is also my debut in the Summer of Socks. (See link to the right--I'll put links in later. Must post this and go to work. Again--pesky work!) That poor sock has been ripped out multiple times. I finally decided the knitting gods weren't going to let me create a new sock until the boyfriend sock was done, so...

Pics when I get the camera back. (I know--it's been forever...)

And since it's possible I won't get around to posting tomorrow, happy fourth to the American crowd! (Well, happy fourth to everyone. You know what I mean.)

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