A naye yor, a naye leben*

Sunday is International Clean Your Bedroom Day (if by "International" you mean "my house"...and I do), and yesterday the project du jour, once the laundry was taken out and the toilet swishied, was to clean out from under the bed.

No wait. You don't understand.

We have a custom built bed (if by "custom" you mean "your husband built that himself, didn't he?"...and I do)**, and there is right about 18" of clearance under our bed. My husband and I are both quite tall, and therefore so is our bed. This is made of logic. In any case, 18" deep by Queen Size wide and long = a hell of a lot of space to keep a hell of a lot of junk, and a hell of a lot of dust.

Man, was that an adventure.

So anyway, we threw out or made the decision to donate (as appropriate) a bunch of stuff we'd long since forgotten that we own, and we vacuumed out 3 metric effing-tons of dust (approx. by weight). My Harry Potter legos, I am pleased to report, are now put away upstairs, where I could conceivably play with them; AND I went through my "second string" (hahahah) yarn stash.

As mentioned earlier, I really started knitting ca. 2004-5. And, as many have done before me, I went through an acrylic stage (much like a larval stage, only with more petroleum by-products.) As my taste in yarn, let's say "matured," all the acrylic got shoved under the bed, in three banker's boxes and a big plastic tub, as the "good stuff" (read: natural fibers) took pride of place on my yarn shelf.

People, I was ruthless.

I mean, I found one unfortunate yarn that clearly wanted to be Lion Brand Homespun when it grew up... only it wasn't nearly so classy, if you are picking up what I am putting down. And sweet baby Buddha on a cashmere rug, it looked like a moldy peanut butter and jelly sandwich had been extruded (not spun) into yarn.

It was too terrible to even take a picture of. I care about my readers, and do not want to put them off their collective lunches.

Once the dust settled, and I do mean that quite literally, I am left with just the plastic tub, and that only about two-thirds full. The rest is going to a local thrift store, and may the gods bless whoever ends up with it. Everything I kept I could conceivably imagine myself knitting someday, and really that's all I ask of my stash.

Having gotten rid of so much yarn yesterday (and I don't mind telling you, even though it was all acrylic, and mostly awful, it was a bit wrenching), I received a sort of karmic reward in the mail today.

Aw, yeah.

Okay, I grant you that I actually am the one that ordered that box from Knitpicks, but even so the timing was pretty darned sweet.

What did I buy? I hear you asking. Well, I will tell you. I got a box of joy.

(Or more specifically, the new Chroma, in both weights, and some pretty charcoal grey Andean Treasure to make myself a scarf to match my new red coat. Not all of the Chroma is mine, alas. But I may have squeezed it a bit, you know, just to check and see if it is ripe.)

---

* A Yiddish phrase meaning "New year, new life."
** I actually adore the bed my husband made for me, both despite and because of it's... unique qualities.

One is the Loneliest Number

I finished up the first of my Winter Marigolds (I keep changing what I'm calling them) two nights ago, and then very cleverly cast on the next one last night.

The toe on the second sock went together better and easier than the first one did, so I'll call that progress. Let it be known, however, that it still looks of ass, and I'm hardly convinced. Further forays into the world of the toe-up sock will utilize different toe conception techniques, cuz this shit's for the birds.

I took the sock outside to get some pictures...



Oh, you didn't just want to see the cat? Here's the sock then...

February is For Finishing, 6th Annual Finish-a-pa-looza

I started really knitting back in 2004-2005. That's also when, the observant amongst you will note, that I began blogging. So anyway, by 2006 I had racked up a gracious plenty of UFOs. I decided that drastic piles of yarn required drastic action and cooked up "February is for Finishing." I've been trying to con others into doing it with me ever since.

As a side note, I did learn after some Googling that others have hoisted the February is for Finishing Flag. I suspect, human nature and alliteration being what they are, that the idea for FISF arose, full-formed like Athena, into the minds, blogs and knitting needles of folks all across the country. Which is to say, I thought it was an original idea when I thought of it, and I bet they did to. S'alright, the point is that more UFOs are getting FO-ed this way.

All of which is merely prologue to this:

6th Annual February is For Finishing-Palooza

The Rules:

• List, list, oh list. By February 1st, have an accurate and complete list of ALL of your UFOs. Yes, even that one that you stuffed behind the couch in shame and despair last August.
  
• Take Inventory. Now that you have your list, decide which of these projects actually bless you. Did you not finish this UFO because you were led astray by that fancy new sock yarn? Or have you not finished it because its uglier than a really ugly thing, and will not fit man nor beast?
• Make Decisions. Finish, Frog or Fling. In my little world, UFOs can be sorted into 3 categories. Finish — I totally still want to make this. Frog — in the immortal words of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, "I like yarn better than I like bad hats." And, Fling — Wow. This is so bad that not even the yarn is worth saving. I'll say a passing prayer for the Acryls who gave their lives to make this fugly yarn, and move on with my life.
• Prioritize. At this point, you have to decide what your end goal is. Are you in this to finish as many items as possible? Or is there one specific UFO that you'd like to push through and finish? Some folks like to have a plan "I'll knit the last sleeve of Auntie Mabel's sweater, and then I'll finish up that scarf I've been knitting since the Carter administration." Others prefer a more holistic approach and simply knit what suits their mood and fancy at the time. Do as best pleases you.
• Be Strong. Do not, and this is very important, DO NOT cast on anything new during February. We're finishing here, people, not starting. The object of the game is to clear the slate so we can cast on a whole slew of new UFOs in March and April.
• Take a Button.

As an avid, yet inconstant sock knitter, I also have an optional rule.

• March is For Making Mates. If you have the first of a pair of socks on the needles, finish 'em up in February, and then set them aside. February is for what's already on the needles. Then in March, make the second sock for all of those first socks (or gloves, or mittens, or whatever) that you finished up in February. Clever, eh?

Knit Like You Mean It

I made some wicked progress on my Marigold for January socks. And then I hit the heel. (Cue ominous music here.) My first go at the short row heel ended with me ripping back after I'd done the first half of the wraps. I was sent to do the second half (wherein you pick the wraps back up) and I buggered it. So I pulled back and started again. Finished the heel, and then started doing the calf.

Funky afghan added for contrast.

Here is the part that makes me cry. I knew that it was likely to be a bit small for me (I usually need a 72 stitch sock, and these are 64), but I was planning to make them for Number Two Daughter. I got her to "model them" for me (read "try them on") this afternoon, under the premise of helping me get blog pictures. The (@&&!^% things are too shallow through the instep for her. So back I've ripped again, and this time I'm saying Eff the pattern sideways and through the wall, I'm trying a different heel. Yes, I'm here to learn new techniques, and one of those techniques is how to flee like a rat from a sinking ship when a pattern decides to turn on me.

I'm trying Wendy Johnson's reverse-engineered gusset heel next, as it is meant to add more ease through the instep. Wish me luck. The picture above is pre-ripping. There is considerably less sock now... I didn't have the heart to take another picture.




Oh! I did finish a thing though! Socks that I'd finished all save the last wee bit of kitchener stitch, are now officially done, off the needles, and ends woven in. We will not speak of how long they sat in that sad and abandoned state.










A Word To My Commenters:

First, let me say Hello and Welcome! I was thrilled to see comments from someone that I don't know in what passes for my "real" life, so let me say thank you for reading, and I hope you keep commenting!

One thing that LiveJournal does that beats Blogger hands down is how it manages comments. In LJ it is really easy to respond to a comment and to keep a conversation threaded. Here... not so much. But here's my plan — and I imagine that this is what most bloggers do anyway. If you comment in one of my posts, I'll do my best to respond back in the same post. The only way you'll know, of course, is if you go back and check (or clicky the little box when you comment that will prompt Blogger to email you.) So anyway, if you ask me a question in the comments, that's where to look for an answer.

Come on in, pull up a chair, and have some coffee. It's nice to meet you.

Begin as You Mean to Go On

I got my daughter to help me select my sock kit for January-February yesterday afternoon. This was accomplished by me holding out the box and saying "Just grab one!" while she eyed both it and me suspiciously.

Once I'd dashed her hopes and informed her that no, the socks would most likely not be for her, the deed was done, and my course laid.

I'll be making Marigold (Ravelry link) out of a lovely couple of skeins of Jojoland Melody wool, in the descriptive (and intuitively lovely sounding) colorway of "MS08."

Part of what I'm after with this experiment (other than to justify the purchase of more sock yarn, of course) is to broaden my proverbial horizons and to utilize techniques that I'm usually just too darned lazy to bother with. I have a basic, cuff-down, vanilla sock recipe that lives in my head and that I can knit in my sleep. That way lies boredom and sock-driven ennui. Hence the kits and the patterns.

My very first sock out I'm doing a short-row toe-up sock pattern, and I'm suddenly reminded of why I always knit my socks the other direction. I suck at toe-up short-row socks. They look of un-mitigated ass. And they are a pain in my tuchus. And I'm not good at them (this bothers me to no end. The cure, one hopes, is practice.)

I soldiered on and am now a repeat-and-a-half into the lace pattern. All is well.

Self-Imposed Sock Knitting Club

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has the most clever ideas. Last year she invented a sock club for herself, and at the end of 2010 she had 12 new pairs of socks that were (and this is the best part) all made from yarns and patterns that she herself chose, so she was sure to like them. (Or if she didn't, there was no one to blame but herself, and there is some satisfaction to be garnered even from that.)

So, in the spirit of band-wagon jumping—if you have a bandwagon, odds are good I will jump on it...I'm just that way—I've decided to follow suit in 2011. Not being nearly as prolific as Stephanie, (and my current sock production looking something like "exactly zero socks every month") I've decided, in the words of Eddie Izzard, to scale it back a bit.


I now have six neat little packets that include sock yarns that have languished in my stash since forever, paired with patterns that are all a wee bit more complicated than my standard sock recipe. Good times.

I draw the first kit on Saturday, and will be back with pictures and reports of progress.

P.S. Don't forget that February is for Finishing. I haven't.

P.P.S. March is for Making Mates. So there is still some hope for all of the pairs of socks that I started in 2009 and 2010 that didn't get finished.

February is For What-Now?

February ought to be for finishing. And normally it is (and by "normally" I mean "any year that is not this year, or for that matter last year."

I digress.

Because you see, this year - this very February - there may very well not be any finishing. Because this year it's the Knitting Olympics-slash-Ravelympics-slash-whateverlympics.

Serious contenders this year include making a Weasley sweater for my eldest. She's nearly 16, but believes that since her name begins with the letter "R" that she has some entitlement. I am also seriously considering working to finish my Mystery Stole number... 10? I think? No -- 9. It's this one, anyway (Ravelry link). Or perhaps a shrug? A hat and mittens set? That afghan I started in 2002?

What do you think?

Remember When I Used to Knit?

I miss knitting.

It's starting to get cold here in Tennessee (I know those of you in more Northern climes would mock my concept of what qualifies as "cold" -- but hey, gimme a break, this is the South.) Anyway, the point is, my hands are freezing, and I lost one of my Fetching at a biker joint last year (true story), and I MISS knitting.

Right now I should be sewing Halloween costumes, but I'm surfing Ravelry looking for a good fingerless mitt pattern instead. In this particular instance "good" also means "dead simple" and "would look good variegated."

So far, major contenders are Jacoby and Mitt Envy. (Ravelry links). I saw some other cute patterns that would make for great Yulemas gifts.

And speaking of Halloween, I should be sure to get pictures of the kids this year. Rowan is going to be Luke Skywalker (Return of the Jedi era) and Morgan is going to be Fraulein Maria. It's Morgan costume that I'm supposed to be working on right now.

And in other, other news, Jess, Koren and I hit the Cannonsburg Fiber Festival this morning. We saw some wee sheepies, drank some warm cider, and I came home with some more fiber that I don't really know how to spin.

Good times.

Not Really Knitting

I have been amazingly cranky lately, and I couldn't figure out why. But then it occurred to me -- I haven't been knitting.

Like, at all.

I have a pair of socks that is less than hour from being finished -- and they've been that way for nearly a month. I have three sweaters (two adult, one baby) on tap, and two shawls. And we mustn't forget the ubiquitous clap. There's another pair of socks that I'm a solid 25% into, and a Dr. Who scarf. Surely I don't need to point out that I'm likely forgetting three or four projects.

Anyway, saving the socks and the Dr. Who scarf, none of these projects are at a place where I can just pick them up and start knitting. I need to sit down with pretty much every single one, figure out where I was, and what the frack to do next. And frankly, I just haven't had two brain cells to rub together lately to accomplish this.

I realized that the problem was serious last night when the Knitting Purchase Pushers Association (KPPA)* was placing an order with Knitpicks and I'm all, "Meh. Yarn. I don't need more yarn. I have yarn."

People. This is clearly even more critical than I thought.

I clearly require some sort of intervention, or some cashmere or really fancy hand-dyed sock yarn.


* KPPA, or the Knitting Purchase Pushers Association is also known as "my friends, Gretta, Jess and Koren."

Not Dead Yet

Just a quick check in to let folks know that I'm still here. I am knitting socks at work, and I finally finished a scarf that I started two years ago. It was originally meant for a co-worker (from a job where she and I were both laid off). We've completely lost touch, so I donated it to Bardic Olympics instead.


Jess' wee little Iris chose it as her prize, so I feel that it has found it's best true home.

Starting to Finish

I haven't got the oomph to update properly just now, but I did go through my UFOs on Saturday. I had entirely more than I wish I did (some of which I had intended to frog last February...now that's just embarrassing.)

Anyway, for now I'm finishing up one or two small projects, like some Fingerless Mitts and a scarf or two. My main push is going to be to get my Hippy Chic Cardigan as close to finished as possible.

I'll post a proper list later.

No really.

Hush up, you.

Watch This Space

So, February is for Finishing is right around the corner. This will be my fourth year doing this (I think? Four? Yeah, four.)

Anyway, here's last year's rundown. I'll post my personal updated rules later this week.

I'll be hunting up and taking an accounting of WIPs this week, and post a full accounting sometime before the first.

Anyone want to play with me?

Counting One's Blessings

As Jess pointed out in the comments, I have recently gone back to work. This was not something that I actively wanted to do, so much as an obligation that I had to fulfill (as part of being a good mommy is seeing to it that the lights stay on.) So anyway, back to work with me.

Earlier this week, Carl and I very quickly realized that I had been doing a lot more of the housework than I at least (he claims he knew) realized. I discovered this when I came home two days running to a house that was not only not neat, but was in fact, trashed. Crankiness ensued. Negotiations were entered into.

The good news: Carl started doing laundry again.

The bad news: my hand knits were in that laundry.

The good news: Socks made of Knitpicks Dancing don't shrink when you wash and dry them!

The bad news: Socks made of Knitpicks Essential do.

The good news: Both pairs of Dancing socks went through the laundry together, so all environmental factors remained consistant.

Tha bad news: The Riverbed socks (made of the Essential) did not go through together. So only one of the socks shrunk to hell and back.

The good news: Morgan is getting a new pair of socks.


I just hope that when I wash and dry the second sock, it stays the same size!

(And to give the tragedy the sense of scope that it deserves (as well as some much needed scale) here is a picture of the two socks in their current state:

Not a Real Post

This isn't really a post, I thought I'd just wave and mention that I'm still alive and I totally WON NANOWRIMO, hell yeah!

ahem















I have no dignity.

Anyway, I've started teaching myself crochet, and am going through what I like to call my "dishrag period." I've also started The Clap, because I can't figure out what else to do with all the variegated lace weight I bought when Knitpicks ditched their Gossamer line.

So, that's about all the news that's fit to print. I have not been working on any of my shawls, and I suddenly want to make a Noro Scarf (but I blame the Yarn Harlot for that.)

Questions Answered

Dear Kelshei,

Unfortunately, I did not get the scarf finished. I've got right under 5 feet of very handsome (if I do say so myself) scarf.

However! I have a cunning plan! I am going to have a couple of balls of yarn (along with a yo-yo and a sonic screwdriver) in my pockets, and I'm going to walk around wearing one end and knitting the other. I choose to believe that this is adorable, and not just lame.

The pattern I'm using can be found here. I'm using the Season 12 pattern, and knitting it with Knitpicks Wool o' the Andes.

Purple: Lullaby
Tan: Snickerdoodle
Brown: Chestnut
Yellow: Wheat (now discontinued)
Red: Hollyberry (which is much redder than it looks on the site)
Grey: Mist
Green: Fern

I'll see if I can get some pictures tonight and post them.

Love,

Kadollan

Fair Warning

So, I'm not knitting nearly enough (and I fear that I will not get my Who scarf done in time for Halloween. Which is stinky).

Also, it is nearly that fateful time of year again ... November. A month filled with family, love, turkey and wild-eyed, manic, coffee-swilling novelists.

Yes kids, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to also attempt NaBloPoMo or not, but if I do, I'll probably do it over on my LJ -- as I discovered last year, it is really hard to blog about knitting when you are writing a 50K novel, and not, you know, actually knitting.

Go figure.

Doctor Whooooo (Doctor Who)

I've always wanted to knit myself a Doctor Who scarf. (I exaggerate. I've always wanted to own a Doctor Who scarf. It wasn't until I learned to knit that it occurred to me that I might actually make my own...but I digress.)

Earlier this year I went through a Doctor Who jag, and watched a bunch of both Old and New Who. In a fit of wtf-ery, I decided to be Tom Baker's Doctor for Halloween this year, thus providing myself with the perfect opportunity to knit That Scarf (tm).

Jay-Walking Ankle-Biters

I finished Rhiannon's socks last week. This may be the fastest I've ever knit a complete pair of socks. I began them late in the evening on Aug 24 (right after I finished the last of my Ravelympic socks) and cast them off on Sept 10. That's right about 2 and 1/2 weeks.

Although, before I get too excited I should probably point out how short the things are. She really did want ankle socks, and ankle socks is what she got.


As I noted on my Ravelry Project page, I made the following mods:

Cuff: Since she wanted anklets, the cuff is very short (two full repeats of the stripe sequence).

Heel: I decided that I wanted a “bull’s-eye” heel effect, so I experimented with Charlene Schurch’s forethought heel. I knit the first sock that way, and am knitting the second with an afterthought heel (as it seems less fiddly). Either way, the striping is preserved, and it looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Toe: In order to decrease the instep stitches to the same number as the stitches on the bottom of the foot, I continued the DD from the jaywalker pattern. The first two rounds went like this:

Round 1:

Top of Foot: K1, SSK, K5, DD, K16, DD, K5, K2tog, K1
Bottom of Foot: K all.

Round 2: Knit All

This puts the same number of stitches on both the top and the bottom after one row.

Shifty Eyes

I may have ahem cast on another sock.

But only a little.

I'm trying Cookie A's Baudelaire from Knitty's Summer '06 issue.

Needles: Harmony 3.0 mm (US 2)
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential Kettle-dyed Auburn


But, fear me not! I am still working on Rhi's Jaywalking Ankle-biters. I'm a solid inch into the second sock already.

P.S. Stay Tuned for Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Fancy Sock in Plymouth Happy Feet. But I haven't cast them on.... Yet.

She's a Nightmare Hippy Girl

Those of you who know me well should be familiar with the blasé and carefree way that I add new projects to my ever-expanding pile of Works-in-Progress. Many of you are also aware of the tragic and seemingly inevitable slide of these new projects into obscurity and UFO status. If Stephanie is a Yarn Harlot, people then I am a Yarn ... well, my mother wouldn't have wanted me to use that word.

It was this lamentable characteristic of mine that led me to last month's frenzy of finishitude. Sane people do not try to finish five pairs of socks in two weeks. Moreover, project-monogamous people don't have five pairs of socks on the needles at once. (I am well, well aware that my little "problem" is not whatchacall unique. This does offer me some comfort.)

All of this is prologue to a confession. Once I completed my self-imposed sock adventure, did I congratulate myself on a pile of UFOs well conquered and carry the fight back to my knitting basket? My spirit renewed, did I pick up either of the two shawls or the fair-isle cardigan that I began earlier this summer? Or, brave warrior I, did I delve deep into the strata of the geologically improbable mountain composed only of discarded and lonely projects?

Not as such. No.

I immediately cast on a new sock.

You know.

Like you do.


Allow me to introduce you to a modified Jaywalker. These are for my daughter Rhiannon. She specifically requested anklets, so they are a mite shorter than I normally make my socks. The only major mod I made (say that three times fast) was to do a forethought heel, alá Charlene Schurch to preserve the integrity of the stripe. (Yes, I did just say "preserve the integrity of the stripe." Deal.) I finished the first sock in record time, considering that I wasn't power-knitting like I had been for the Ravelympics. The second is cast-on in an attempt to thwart second sock syndrome.

And, since a mere and lowly sock is hardly enough to fill the void left by all of those UFOs suddenly gone silent, I also cast on another cardigan. Here's the Hippy-Chic from the 2002 Knit It! magazine. As far as I can tell, this magazine no longer exists and all records have been wiped from the face of the Internet. Basically, it's a shaped cardigan with seed stitch detail -- cute and simple. I'm using Knitpick's Shamrock in Dougherty.


So far, we are pleased.