Almost There

Hey! Look what's blocking! In the time it takes most knitters to knit an entire sweater (or two), I am finally blocking my lace tam.

Sometimes life just isn't conducive to knitting. Or blocking. It's not always a bad thing, mind you; for instance, I had a fabulous, but jam-packed weekend. But that's for another post--perhaps eye-candy Friday.

The tam was a fun and relaxing knit (when I was paying attention). Ordinarily, I would imagine a reasonable knitter* could finish this in a weekend. The pattern, by Susan Rainey of The Rainey Sisters, was clearly written and easy to follow. I highly recommend it. (The blog is great, too.)

More pictures when it's off the plate, but for now, here are a couple more shots.

*reasonable knitter = knitter who is not me**

**me = quite possibly the slowest and/or most absent-minded knitter on the planet

What Conference Calls Are Good For

I had a conference call at 6:30 this morning. Ugh. Fortunately, I got to call in from home (which means I'm now running late...), so unlike many conference calls, I actually got something accomplished on this one. I finished knitting my lace tam.

I still need to weave in the ends and block it, but I'm done with the knitting. Woohoo!

Tink, Tink

Sigh.

Just a quick note to let you know there hasn't been much knitting here lately (although there is some unknitting going on...), but I expect to remedy that, at least a bit, over the weekend.

Basically, I've been distracted by other frustrations in life. Other frustrations that have distracted me to the point of making stupid mistakes in my knitting, which has resulted in my need to tink back three rows on the tam. I can't believe I've made another bonehead mistake on this wonderful tam. It really is an easy--and fun--pattern to follow. Just pay a little attention to what you're doing. However, I don't recommend knitting it while ticked off. (The Harlot Poncho, on the other hand, was great for that!)

At least some good may be coming of all the frustration. I finally reached my tipping point, and am actively working to find an alternative to the situation. I am now a woman on a mission! Everything, including the tam, will be sorted out in short order.

Progress

Susan Rainey's Lace Tam--sans twist this time!

Boyfriend sock number two--slowly but surely.

Boyfriend sock number one fits!

Boyfriend Sock, One of Two

Done! Finally!

(Sorry--the recipient and foot model was not available for a photo shoot, and I was too excited to wait to post.) In order to avoid (or at least reduce) the effects of Second Sock Syndrome, it's important to cast on the second sock right away, right?

I decided I wanted to use the magic loop method, but I couldn't find a 2.25mm 32-40" circular anywhere, so, I tried this:

The two circ method does seem to go a bit faster than using DPNs, but I don't much care for it. Very "fiddly". And it may be the cheap needles (which Cat Bordhi warns against), but I really don't like all of the pulling the join of the needle through the knitting. Still, I'd have carried on, except that it seems my gauge using this technique on these needles is noticeably larger than it is on the DPNs. So, the second sock currently looks like this:

No new technique to keep me motivated, but I do have the one completed sock, staring at me and looking lonely. That'll have to do.

Another motivational tactic would be not to start anything else until I finish this. But that's just not me. Besides, I just got this in the mail:

It's the yarn (and the pattern--not pictured) for Susan Rainey's Lace Tam that I won in the Rainey Sisters' bloggiversary drawing. (The pattern also includes a matching lace scarf.) This yarn feels SO nice--I had to start the tam.

See that twist? The instructions specifically state, "join without twisting". Darned knitting karma. Yeah, yeah--I'm going back to the sock. For now.