There and Back Again

And knitting the whole way.

I flew to my parents' house last Monday and then drove with my mother for 10 hours to my grandparents' house (I know it doesn't make sense to fly and then drive, but if I had flown directly there my mom would have had to make the trip alone, and I figured, why not keep her company?) and boy were my fingers tired.

I knit almost the entire time I was away, in various situations. I did some work on MS4, and got through almost all of a chart:



(Jaggerspun Zephyr in Marine)

I finished the socks for my beloved sasquatch, and he was kind enough to model them for me:





(Plymouth Happy Feet)

And, I finished a pair of socks for me!

Unfortunately...It was not a pair of MATCHING socks. See, I had planned to work on the panda socks and take along a skein of Casbah as a backup, but it turns out I left the second ball of the panda yarn at home. So, I finished the first sock:



(Crystal Palace Panda Wool Prints in Raindrops on the Window from Pink Lemon Knits)

and then I went onto the Casbah (Hand Maiden Casbah Sock in Topaz). I had looked for a pattern and found the Blackrose pattern from Knittyspin on Ravelry. It seemed perfect, so that's what I used. I centered the pattern because I don't like to have to worry about which sock is the left sock and which sock is the right sock.



I finished one and I'm at the heel flap on the other.



They are gorgeous and this makes me happy because I nearly lost my mind trying to wind this yarn. I don't know if somebody at Fleece Artist or Colorsong was just messing with me or what, but I could not wind this skein to save my life. There it is, 10 p.m. the night before I leave, and I'm trying to untangle the disaster that is this yarn from my swift and winder, and every time I THOUGHT I had it, something else would snag up. Extremely frustrating. On top of which, there are more flaws in this yarn than in the previous skein of Casbah I worked with - fluffy bits sticking out here and there that refuse to lay flat but that you can't pull out without tearing up the neighboring plies. Ah, well - c'est la vie. If I hadn't tried to do it at the last minute I wouldn't have had any problems, I'm sure!

My mother actually said she would like a pair of fingerless mitts to keep her fingers warm while typing, so I'm thinking that I will make her a pair of the Blackrose mitts from the leftover yarn when I have finished my socks. Casbah is beautiful, velvety soft, washable, and durable (though my other pair of Casbah socks is sadly faded), and she will hopefully remember our trip when she looks at them.

I also worked on the lace shawl I started from A Gathering of Lace waaaaay back at least two years ago, the year I learned to knit. I made a mistake on it a while back and I didn't get around to fixing it until just a few days before this trip, so I took it with me. I started that shawl (Beginner's Lace Triangle) on my way to my parents' for Christmas the year I learned to knit and I have picked it up off and on since. It's astonishing how much easier it is now. I had so much trouble when I first started and now it's all so easy! I zipped along, hit the halfway point and on the flight home, I started the decreases (this shawl is knit from tip to tip, so you increase until "you are halfway out of yarn, or you are bored" and then decrease.

I don't think I will work on it much at home - I'm thinking it may become my game night knitting. It's a little complicated, but not so much that I think it will be a problem. We'll see. I'll probably take the topaz blackrose socks and see if I can finish them this week.

My aunt was excited by my knitting, so we found a LYS and went shopping. Souvenir yarn does not count against the yarn diet so I didn't feel too badly. Besides, technically my mother bought it for me since she gave me the money.



LSU sock yarn. I have no particular attachment to LSU, but it was dyed specially for the shop and I like to have something local to remind me of the trip, so that was my selection. If you're ever in Baton Rouge, I recommend Knits by Nana, they were very helpful to my aunt and they have a great selection of yarns, and Nana was careful to make sure we didn't feel rushed even though we arrived only half an hour before closing. Very nice. Go there!

Thus endeth my trip, and I'm now back home and exhausted thanks to a very late flight back. I should be in bed as we speak. Yes. Bed. Just one more row.

Everything is Relative

I had to work late last night so there wasn't much Scheherazade knitting progress. I think I knit about six rows (counting wrong side rows, so 3 chart rows). I was just too tired.

When I moved upstairs to the bedroom I wasn't quite ready to quit knitting for the night, but I realized I had left ALL my projects in the living room, so I didn't have anything in my room except the Beginner's Lace Triangle from A Gathering of Lace, which I hadn't touched in kind of a long time. It's charted lace but I am not that concerned about mistakes on it (since it was my first lace and there are plenty of mistakes in the part I have already done), so I decided just to pick it up and give it a try even though it might be too much for late night, prebed knitting.

I was shocked at how easy it was. I had so much trouble with this project when I first started it last Christmas. Even after I had gotten a ways into it, it was tough for me. Now...it's like nothing. I think it helps a lot that I have finally gotten into my head which decrease leans right and which leans left, so reading the chart is not nearly the chore that it used to be. I was really genuinely pleased.

The needles at size 7 seemed huge in my hand, and the yarn (Fleece Artist Suri Blue) seemed quite thick. Everything is relative, I guess, but it's nice to feel like I've made some skill progress!

Can it be?

I might be mistaken, but...I think I only have one more project to do that's for someone else. I finished Odessa this weekend and gave it to the recipient's sister for delivery. I have pictures, but they're not uploaded yet.

When I look at my ravelry queue, I see:

--Lace stole for me
--Socks for me
--Lace shawl for me
--Another lace shawl for me
--Scarf that I was going to make for a friend with the yarn leftover from the hat and gloves I made her
--Fingerless mitts I plan to make for Sbodd
--Santa Claus hat that I plan to knit a bunch of for the Tree-hunting expedition next year (the handknit hat I made Sbodd was banned by his mom on the grounds that it is tradition to wear a Santa Hat...well. I'll show HER.)
--Oven set (oven mitts & trivets) I thought would be nice to make for Sbodd sometime
--Scarf for Fletch, who requested one

Okay, so maybe I do still have stuff to knit for other people. BUT, I don't have anything I'm in a HURRY to knit for other people. Except maybe the scarf for Fletch, I should probably get on that, it would be a quick and easy project and he did ask me for it ages ago BUT a) I was careful not to promise I would do it, since I was just coming off of the string of projects I had promised other people and I was not about to get in the same mess again b) it's kind of getting past scarf weather so he won't need it until fall anyway. I have plenty of time.

The other things for other people are all things where I thought "so and so would like that."

But for now, I'm spending a little time knitting for myself. Last night I finally got out the Beginner's Lace Triangle, replaced the broken needles, and went to work. It is amazing how much easier it seems now.

Having said that I am now doomed to an unfixable mistake...yeek...but really, after all the other complicated stuff I have done, it is not killing-me-hard anymore, and that's a really nice feeling (it also helps that I have learned to yarn over correctly).

I'm not sure whether I'm going to use all 1200 yards of Suri Blue on it though...I may use just the one skein. I love that the instructions tell you to increase until you are halfway through your yarn, the shawl is big enough, or you are bored. I have found myself spending some time trying to decide, "How big is big enough?"

I believe the next projects up are a pair of socks for me (since I finished the last ones) and the Scheherazde stole from Pink Lemon Knits, which will be my vacation knitting. Until the vacation I will keep working on the triangle. I'm not sure what to do about the socks...I'm thinking about a plain easy stockinette pair in Lorna's Laces, but I also have the pattern for the Caledonian Mist socks from Pink Lemon and a skein of Hand Maiden Casbah Sock in peacock. I have several other sock yarns I could try as well. I'm not sure...we'll see.

I've got about 11" on my 2nd SFS sock so I need to get another inch and turn the heel. I'm going to try to finish the heel sometime this week - once I get past the gusset decreases that will be the most mindless knitting that I have and it will also go really quickly. It takes me this long to do them because I knit the whole leg in rib. I could do it faster in stockinette, but I thought the rib would make it fit better.

Just a Little Bit

This weekend I brought the pups home and we have been getting acquainted, getting our routine down, and working on our potty training. They are old girls, very sweet and loveable, but prone to sleep a lot. One is curled up by my side as I type this. I am grateful she is sleeping because otherwise she would be pawing at my hand for pets. She is very demanding.

I went to a drop spindle class yesterday, and it was interesting. I can't show you a picture of my God-awful first homespun skein, because I left it behind!! Oops!! I am not settled on whether I like doing it or not - I think I will have to practice more and get at least marginally decent at it before I can decide if I like it. Still, I'm glad I took the class - even if I did have the absolute worst skein of yarn in the class, hands down!!

I have not finished the Snug Harbor for them.



But I will. Tonight I am working on Shedir. Getting a little bored with plain stockinette, so the change is nice.

I still haven't worked on my Beginner's Triangle. Once again, teh stuff for everyone else is taking precedence over the stuff for me! That's okay, though - I will work on it when the time is right. I'm not going to fret over it.

Successes & Setbacks

Look how cute it turned out with all the finishing touches!!



I'm very pleased. The recipient liked it very much.

Here is the hat that went with the gloves I posted previously, finally photographed:



The imperial armwarmers are finished and gifted. That means I am done with all the things I promised to do for other people! I feel very relieved - I will be careful not to promise so much in the future. I will still give stuff away regularly and make notes of things people say they would like to have, but I won't tell them until it's done.

I am currently working on the Beginner's Triangle from a Gathering of Lace, but I don't have a picture of it yet. It's working well, but I discovered after several pattern repeats that I have been doing yarnovers wrong this whole time. Once I started doing them right my lace looked much more open, and I had a much easier time overall. The way I was doing them before caused the yarnovers to be backwards, and made the next row a real pain to knit because of the way they pulled the stitches. I had to start over twice after one or two pattern repeats because I just kept getting confused and losing count and a million other things. Now that I am doing yarnovers correctly and using stitch counters and a lifeline, things are going much more smoothly. The yarn is Fleece Artist Suri Blue, and it is very sticky, so unknitting can be a bit of a challenge - and I am doing a lot of unknitting. It seems like I can't make it more than a row or two without getting messed up and having to back up and redo it. The thing would be twice as large if I did not keep having to stop and backup. But, this is part of the process of learning, and I am trying to take it in good humor. At least now I am able to recognize mistakes sooner and figure out what I probably did, and back up and fix it, rather than just wailing and weeping and ripping. I think I will improve with practice, and I am still really enjoying the piece despite the frustrations. However, last night when I crawled onto the bed I landed my knee right on my Knit Picks Harmony needle and snapped it in two. I've ordered a replacement pair, but work is stalled until it comes.

I had a mishap with the second skein of Starry Night yarn for my socks. I did something really stupid and ended up with a horrible tangled mess that took me a couple of hours to fix. I did eventually fix it, and rewound the skein, but the yarn is looking a little worse for wear.

This weekend I knitted a pair of wristwarmers which are intended for hospital patients that one of my church friends serves. That was a quick, easy project from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and it only took one skein of KnitPicks Swish Superwash.

I have also joined Socks for Soldiers, and my sock kit came in the mail this week, so starting those Big Black Socks is on my radar.

I can't decide what else to start on - the lace is great for a big complicated project, the socks (both black and otherwise) are great portable knitting, but I need a project sort of in between those levels of difficulty. Time to browse my ravelry queue!