Thursday, January 17, 2013

Finally -- a Finished Object!

Actually, two finished objects. Here's the first pair, Seaweed Socks from a pattern by Wendy Johnson.  This pair came off the needles last Friday, after a mere two years in the making. (One of my lovely friends gave me this yarn on the occasion of my wedding--only a true friend would know to give sock yarn as a wedding gift!)

Love this sock even though I'm a little iffy about the heel. Actually, it's probably the gusset and heel you've been knitting ever since you learned how to knit socks--it's that slip one, knit one that makes a padded back-of-the-heel. This sock is knit toe up but it's done in much the same way, after you knit a sort of Fleegle-ish gusset increase on the bottom of the sock.

The reason I stopped doing this heel is that most of my shoes don't want a big, padded heel in the back--it makes them uncomfortable. I took a chance on this one because I love, love, love everything Wendy Johnson does and I trust her.




This pair of Opal socks, finished just this morning, are my old familiar, Ann Budd-ish socks with a short row heel (also toe up, of course). There's nothing better than Opal, ever, and if I had another skein of Opal at hand, I'd cast on today. Just the best all-around sock yarn ever!

Oh, who am I kidding? There's got to be more Opal in the stash somewhere--I just have to dig around and find it!

Finally, here's a hint of What's On The Needles: I started these on Saturday after finishing the Regia socks. It's a toe-up pattern called Socks on a Plane, with one cable going up the side of each foot. The yarn is Mini Mochi from my stash. Fabulous colors, and I do love my MM socks. The original MM yarn was more splitty and more fragile (it's a single) but the newly formulated yarn is more durable.


And, of course, it's got a weird heel variation, too--somewhere in between the Fleegle heel and a short row heel. I don't like it at all but I'm trying to give it a chance.

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Knitting Forward

So, I've been knitting since I was in elementary school, blogging since about 2004, and on Ravelry since 2007. That means I should know better, because my track record of being able to predict what I'll actually knit in a given year isn't that great. I get distracted easily.

But every year I prognosticate about the coming year so it's in the nature of a tradition at this point.

So let's make it easier this year:

  • I will start the year promising to finish a bunch of UFO's but will end the year with more than I started with.
  • I'll have really good intentions about organizing my stash but will end the year in the same state of chaos that exists right now. Maybe worse.
  • Ditto my intentions to knit strictly from stash. Let's face it--I'm like a crow with yarn. If it's pretty, I'll dive on it from a mile in the sky to grab it. 
  • Six months after I dive on something pretty, I'll look at it in wonderment and try to remember what I thought I was going to do with it.
  • I'd like to make Christmas gifts and ornaments all year but... Well, do I even need to say I probably won't?
  • We're not even going to talk about my abysmal record of updating this puppy. Doesn't seem that likely, does it?
On a positive note, I'm trying really hard to finish Fifty Shades of Red within the next two weeks. I'm down to four half blocks, then need to connect the shoulders, and then knit several miles of I-cord. Sounds do-able, right?

After that, I'll either get back to Smitten (yuk!) or do the crab stitch edging on the patchwork jacket. 

I'd like to knit Canyonlands as a Rav KAL. Dream in Color Smooshy.

I'd like to do a Goddess Knits shawl as a KAL.

I'd like to knit one of the sweaters I have yarn set aside for--Three Sisters or Carter Cardigan or Simona. 

Is that too much planning? Or not enough?