May and June

My goals this month were set pretty low, but I miscalculated how long it would take me to knit ~30,000 stitches on my Log Cabin Blanket, so I'm not quite done yet. The rest, however, was a full success.

(1) finish 2 WIPs (10 at the moment)

Done and

done. Down to 5 WIPs total.

(2) rip out stockinette socks and My So-Called Scarf
Done.


(3) put Montego Bay Scarf and Swirl Scarf on hiatus
Done.

(4) finish centre panel of Log Cabin blanket
Not quite done.

I finished 2.5 more panels of the centre square (the two dark red, plus half the light red), only one more (or 10,800 stitches) to go...

June:
(1) really finish the centre square
(2) seam squares that are finished together
(3) finish the knitting part of my Knitting Needles Knitting Bag
(4) knit the Odds n Sods Socks

PS: Results for the Ravelry survey drawing will be up this afternoon! Just that much: there will be additional surprise prizes!

Figures.

Of course, the day after I write about haing SoSS, the new pattern for the last round of Sock Madness is released and I want to start knitting it right away.

I haven't started yet, however, because I'm still trying to finish the centre piece of the Log Cabin Blanket (I don't think I will succeed. That'd mean knitting over 15,000 stitches today in addition to a load of other work I have to do.) for my monthly goals. But at least I did some more work on it when I hadn't touched it since Easter.

But even though I haven't started the socks yet, I have selected the yarn for them.


(Click on the photo to see which yarns I chose)

The leg of the pattern is made from three stripes of triangles, so I chose three colour families and then 4 different yarns in each colour family to make the triangles from. I'm so excited to start these soon. :)

Also, today is the last day to fill out my Ravelry survey! Almost 1500 of you have filled it out already and I can't say how grateful I am for that. My professor was quite astonished when I met with him last week and told him the number. :)

Not SSS, but SoSS

For once it's not SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) that's keeping me from finishing my two sock WIPs, but instead it's a severe case of SoSS (Sick of Socks Syndrome). The Yarn Harlot suffered from it recently, but seems to have recovered nicely, so I'm not worried, but I just need to do something different than socks.

And can anyone blame me? In the last 5 months I have almost doubled my output of handknit socks (before I had knitted 16 pairs, now it's 28) and my last 7 FOs were all socks.

In addition to my two WIP busting projects I also finished the 6th round pattern of SockMadness and another unrelated pair.

WIP 1:
Gentleman's Socks With Lozenge Pattern Without Lozenges are done (explanation here) (pattern by Nancy Bush in Knitting Vintage Socks)


As predicted, the colourrepeat is slightly off in the second (right) sock, but I'm not bothered by it. At least the general change of colours is still the same.

Can you see which of the socks is unblocked? Boy, is there a difference in the softness between the blocked (left) sock and the unblocked other one.

WIP 2:
Waterfall Socks (pattern by Charlene Schurch in Sensational Knitted Socks)


The first picture is the right side, the other the wrong, since I thought the relatively large colour blocks of the Colinette Jitterbug would look much better in reverse stockinette. But now that I'm done, I'm thinking the wrong (stockinette) side also doesn't look too bad.

SockMadness Round 6:

The Godmother's Socks turned into Mother's Socks for me, or rather my mum. The yarn is Plymouth Sockotta and I have to say I'm in love with the yarn and the pattern. The pattern was incredibly well written even though parts of it are a bit complicated (like picking up the cuff), but I never had any problems as long as I followed the instructions closely.

Close-up of the cuff pattern and a more true-to-colour picture. My mum was very happy to get these. :)

Additional Socks:
Flutter-by Socks by Shannon Robalino

I'd been on the lookout for patterns that would work well with Jitterbug since it's quite a bit thicker than standard sock yarn and I'm very happy with how these turned out. And amazingly I'm down to one skein of Jitterbug in my stash!

Okay, so that was the catch-up for all my finished socks, but what am I knitting on instead of yet more socks?

Well, it's the P15tog Scarf I posted about a while ago (and accidentially called the k15tog scarf). :)

The actual name is Shetland Shell Lace Scarf by Frances Goodman and I'm knitting it in doubled up Elann Peruvian Baby Lace Merino. So soft and the p15tog isn't as bad as I thought it would be. In the row before you have lots of yo's that are then dropped before the p15tog, so there is enough give to execute the stitch without a problem.

Sock Teasers and Thank Yous

I promised sock pictures for today, didn't I?

Oops. Well, two pictures now, story behind the socks on another day.


Just that much: they're both Colinette Jitterbug colourways. :)

And now the reason I'm actually posting today even though I should be in bed:

Thank you.

Seriously. I had not expected to already have that many answers to the survey only 24 hours after I opened it. I'm extremely grateful that so many of you are taking the time to answer the questions, have encouraged me and also told me that you think it'll be interesting to see the results. It's very, very much appreciated.

Another reason is that Jorun posted an interesting comment and since I think that some of you might be wondering the same thing, I thought I'd share my answer to her here as well.

I just completed the survey but I must admit it left me feeling a bit confused. Everything seemed to focus on collaborative pattern-making. I'm not a very active member, but pattern-making has never come up in nay of the forums I follow or in discussions with Ravelry friends.

For me, Ravelry is about community, to see what others have done from a certain yarn or pattern, quick access to blogs and the possibility to keep track of ideas. I felt that these concepts were not present in your survey.

I agree with your last part. I'm not that active myself and for me the allure of Ravelry right from the beginning were the various database functions. I've come to like and enjoy the groups as well, but I'm still not terribly active in them.

The whole database thing is underrepresented in the survey simply because it's not the focus of my seminar. The first draft of the survey actually included many more questions about all the functions of Ravelry (because I was interested in that as well), but the seminar is about innovation management in online communities, i.e. the collaboration of people to develop something new online. So I had to focus on that aspect of Ravelry.

I'm sure some of the questions may seem a bit weird, for one thing because of the point mentioned above, but for another because there are several other people doing basically the same survey in other communities and we have to be able to compare the results, so some of the intricacies of Ravelry got lost.

Nevertheless, although the focus is on collaborative designing, everybody's answers and opinions are important to get a representative result, not just those of the people who are very active in the designing of patterns. I'm sure without people (who don't design) using and liking their patterns, many designers wouldn't even design and they and their patterns certainly wouldn't be as well known.

The Survey Is Here!!!

I finally got the survey for my term paper online today, so if anybody would like to help me find out what Ravelry's success is all about, please take 20 minutes and fill it out. Any member can fill it out even though some of the questions are more geared towards designers or people heavily involved in the community. It's just as important to get answers from the less active members. Every voice counts, you know! ;)

The Survey

Among everybody who answers the survey I'll also be giving away 4 skeins of Tausendschön sock yarn! The colours will be chosen when I know who won, so I can take your tastes into account, but they're all pretty!

The survey is online until midnight May 31 and the winners will be announced here the day after and contacted however they choose.

In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm really excited about this. :)

I also have some sock knitting picture to share, but that'll have to wait till tomorrow. I've typed so much today that I only want to knit instead of write about knitting.

Looking Good

Goals for this month are looking very good. :) Not that difficult with the small number I set out to accomplish, but I really need the pick me up this month.

So, the organisational stuff is dealt with.
This mess

turned into this

Right upper side on the first picture are the stockinette socks in Opal Regenwald, which I ripped. Don't know yet what I'll make out of the yarn, but it certainly won't be stockinette socks.

Then at the bottom is My So-Called Scarf, also ripped. I really like the pattern, but I think I'm either gonna have to get more yarn to make it long, soft and cozy or find a different yarn for it. Oh, and also knit it in winter, because this just doesn't feel like summer knitting.

The turquoise on top is the beginning of the Montego Bay Scarf. I still want to knit this, but need to make a few modifications. Also, the yarn (Lana Grossa Cambio) is an absolute bitch to wind up. As you can see in the second picture, I had to resort to cardboard holders so the yarn wouldn't slide off the ball. It's lovely to work with and feeel and looks incredible, but the winding and untangling was no. fun. at. all.

The little bit of purple between the stockinette socks and the turquoise, is teh first hexagon of the Swirl Shawl by Lijuan Jing. I ripped it because I need to go down a needle size, and again, it's better suited for fall/winter knitting.

I also finally got rid of my collection of ball bands. With all the information up on Ravelry I don't really need them anymore and I have had the urge to declutter my life.

I can't believe how many of these I collected over the last three years.

April and May

I'm a bit late with my monthly clean-up, but I lost my knitting mojo for a while this week, along with any interest in knitting-related activities.

April
Bad month for my resolutions, but they just stressed me out too much with the new semester starting.

(1) Third round of SockMadness, possibly fourth
Done and done! Got kicked out the fifth round, but I'm still knitting on that sock, only modifying it quite a bit.

Third round

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Verde Esperanza and Purple Mystery
Pattern: Slippin' Stripin' Socks

Fourth Round

Yarn: Wollmeise 6-ply wool in Veilchen (discontinued)
Pattern: Something's Shady Socks

Fifth Round (Modified version)

You, can see the first version here (last two pictures).
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM and Lane Cervinia Le Fibre Nobili Merino as contrast for stripey cuff, heels and toes.
Pattern: Hippy Ripply Retro Socks

(2) Finish centre piece of blanket
nope

(3) Rip back So Called Scarf
not yet, but I'll do that today

(4) Finish first Estonian sock
nope

(5) Start Gentleman's Sock in Noro sock yarn
kinda - I started the sock, but didn't like the pattern with the yarn, so I just changed to working the whole sock in the cuff pattern. First done, second started.


(6) Start Candle Flame stole in Kauni
nope

So, the load for May will be much lighter, especially since I have one 2-day and one 4-day seminar for which I need to prepare. And lots of reading to do during my one week Pentecost holiday.

May
(1) finish 2 WIPs (10 at the moment)
(2) rip out stockinette socks and My So-Called Scarf
(3) put Montego Bay Scarf and Swirl Scarf on hiatus
(4) finish center panel of Log Cabin blanket

Brainy Things

Brainless


A screenshot of my Ravelry queue yesterday. I queued exactly the same project within two days, with exactly the same idea for yarn and couldn't remember ever seeing the pattern before.

Brainy

Today it's finally official: my prof approved my topic for my term paper in a seminar on 'Modern Innovation Marketing'. Now, why is this interesting for my knitting blog, you ask? Well... the online community I'm researching is Ravelry! :D

I don't think I've ever been so excited about a term paper before. The topic of my paper is the mode of operation in virtual communities of innovation, i.e. why do people participate in online communites, publish their ideas there (instead of trying to make a profit from it), how does the whole process work and what performance indicators are there.

I'll be posting an online survey in a couple of weeks and would be eternally grateful if as many Ravelers as possible answer it. There are prizes to be won! *dangles the carrot yarn* :D

Insanity, Take 2

So, London is all booked. :) I did change my plans a bit, though. I found out that the event the Yarn Harlot is going to speak at, is actually I Knit Day, organised by one of the yarn shops I went to the last time I was in London, and they also have a market place, workshops, etc. Since it starts at 11 and I wouldn't be able to get there until 1, I decided to leave a day early and have enough time to go to Stash Yarns, the British Museum and see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe on Friday and then have a quick trip to Waterstone's in the morning on Saturday before going to the event. I booked a hostel not far from Victoria station at a good price (23€ in a 6-bed female dorm) and also already booked my ticket for I Knit and the play. All of this is stuff I've been meaning to do once I get to London the next time and this is going to work out great. I hope. :)


The new insanity is Sock Madness, round 4. The pattern was released at about 4pm my time on Monday and I finished the socks at 1.30am on Wednesday. That's 33.5 hours, 6 of those asleep and 8 of those in classes (fortunately, most of the classes were lectures and I could knit while listening :D)

The pattern is absolutely gorgeous.

There are small cables running up the back of the leg and even though I usually loathe cables, these were fine. The front of the leg and top of the foot have a lacey leaf pattern running down, framed by reverse stockinette and a yo-border. The red yarn shows where the afterthought heel is going to be attached and the toe is especially notable, because the leaf pattern slowly phases out into the plain stockinette.



Very, very pretty and a quick knit. I actually made second in my division again even though I was sure I was going to get kicked out, but I'm already quakin' in my boots about the next round. ;)

Insanity

I think at some point in the not so distant future, I will be declared insane (possibly when my mother calls tonight). The Yarn Harlot is coming to Europe in September and I'm considering flying to London just for the day to go see her speak.

I was actually supposed to be in London that whole week with my mother, but various factors contributed to the fact that we can't go and now I'm thinking I could just go alone, leave in the morning, come back at night and have a lovely (and likely very stressful day) in London.

In fact I checked Ryanair and at the moment I could get a return ticket for less than 20€ (incl. taxes). That's cheaper than taking the train from here to my parents' place.

I have to talk to my parents first, ask if they'd be willing to drive me to the airport and pick me up basically in the middle of the night (most likely, yes).

I need to plan this some more and figure out public transportation from and to the airport.

Socks, Socks, Everywhere

It feels like I just finished the last pair for Sock Madness and now the new pattern specs are already up and the next round is due to start on Monday. I'm so getting kicked out this round. :) We'll get the pattern between noon and 6pm my time on Monday, so even if I switch all the studying I had planned for that day to Sunday (which is usually my study free day), I still won't get that far. Maybe the first sock if I'm quick and the pattern arrives towards the beginning of that time frame. But then on Tuesday I have 8 hours of classes. I *might* possibly be able to knit during 4 of those, but that still won't be as streamlined as knitting at home. Not to mention that only 6 people from each division get into the next round.

Still, I'm looking forward to the pattern, because consensus appears to be that the next pattern is this one. Lace! I love knitting lace socks, so this'll be great even if I don't make it. The choice is to overdye the finished sock, so the yarn suggestion is for some light yarn. Since I know that I won't be dyeing the sock I can't decide what yarn to use.


I had planned to use my Claudia's Handpainted (the red/black one), since that is the one the pattern suggests, but now that I've seen the teaser of the pattern, I'm thinking it might be too dark to show the pattern.

So, I pulled out two lighter yarns (I really don't have a lot of light colours), Tausendschön Sockenwolle (yellow/white/black) and Thank Ewe's Sock Yarn (pink/blue). They are a bit thinner than the Claudia's, so I'm not sure if they'd work. I'm gonna have to actually swatch for socks.

Speaking of Sock Madness, I still haven't show off my socks from the last round.


They are knit in Malabrigo Lace, Purple Mystery and Verde Esperanza, with two strands held together and one of the colours of the strands switched every couple of rows. They are incredibly soft and warm. I'm actually thinking of knitting the pattern again, only as wrist warmers. But first I have to be allowed to buy yarn again.

I also finished half of another pair of socks in Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and with the cuff pattern from Nancy Bush's Gentlemen Socks with Lozenge Pattern.


Even though I didn’t like the green that much at first, now that it’s blocked and blended into the other colours, I quite like it. The yarn really did soften up with washing and I’d now put at at about the same softness as Regia, Opal, etc. The differences in thickness give the sock a nice rustic look, which works really well with the pattern imo. I used just about half a yard more than the colour repeat is, so the second sock will be slightly off, but I don’t have enough yarn to start at the start of the next repeat. And around the foot it’ll become slightly uneven anyway since there was a knot with the wrong colour attached. I think the purple just after the heel is slightly longer than it is supposed to be.

Small Things

I haven't been feeling like knitting lately. The Reversai took quite a bit out of me and all my other projects were either long term (Log Cabin Blanket), not that interesting (Stockinette Socks) or needed some kind of special attention, mostly in the form of ripping back (My So-Called Scarf and Estonian Socks). So I started off with a couple of small things to get the knitting juices flowing again. :)


In this case really, really small. Those are four socks made out of 10gr of fingering weight yarn (Tinsel Toes from The Unique Sheep, yummy!). It's a 50/50 Merino/tencel blend and I'm very happy with it. It has slight sheen, espcially after washing and knits up beautifully. If I wasn't on a yarn diet (and didn't have to buy text books this month), I'd be out buying more right now.

The yarn came along with a pattern (which I modified a bit, since my gauge is smaller) and a keychain sock blocker.

I plan on making quite a few of them for Christmas decoration with left-over sock yarn. But, since one of the rounds of Sock Madness uses left-over sock yarn I'm going to have to wait knitting those until I know which colourways I'll need for that.

Speaking of Sock Madness, the new pattern is going to be released very early tomorrow morning (my time) and I'm all ready to go. Still need to do some studying and cleaning today, but then I only have a class and meeting on Friday and otherwise can spend Friday and Saturday knitting.

This round's socks are knit in lace weight and I got one skein each of Malabrigo Lace Purple Mystery and Verde Esperanza. I'm looking forward to (and a bit afraid of) seeing how this'll work out.

March and April

I'm a couple of days late with my round up of my March projects, but I was busy knitting for http://sockmadness.wordpress.com/. And madness is the right term: One pair of socks knit in 47 hours, ~16 of those asleep, to the exclusion of such important stuff as cooking and packing away all the stuff I brought back from my parents on Sunday. But this is the result:


Knit with 2.5mm KnitPicks Harmony needles (who'd have guessed at my sudden love for wodden needles? - not me!) in Lorna's Laces Amethyst Stripe.

So, now on to the March goals:

(1) finish Child's French Sock
Done!


(2) finish Ella
Done!

I had planned to make this for me, but when I had it finished my mum tried it on and it fit her so perfectly that I gave it to her. I'd probably have been too small for me anyway, since it's knit in smaller yarn and I only increased one repeat each in the triangle and v-parts of the shawl. Not to mention my mum will get a lot more use out of it, since she's always freezing.

(3) 4 parts of the centre square of the Log Cabin Blanket (equivalent to 3 squares)
Done!

In fact I got more done than that. I also finished the small square I didn't manage last month and added an extra section and a half to the goal for this month (+ 1.5 squares since the sections are getting quite large for the center piece), which brings me up to

10 / 35 squares. 29% done!

(4) knit So-Called Scarf in Malabrigo
not done, but at least started

I only have a third of the skein of the bright pink left over, so I thought some stripes at the end and the middle in purple would be nice, but I'm not happy with the way it looks. I'm thinking about ripping it out and spacing the pink throughout the purple (probably 6 rows purple, 2 pink). I also need to do something about the edge since it looks messy and makes the scarf uneven.

(5) finish RPM socks
Done!


(6) finish Felted Tote
Done, as seen by last month's ETA to the goals post.

(7) knit first Estonian Sock
not quite done

I finished the cuff and am happy with it, but the heel keeps kicking my butt.

The travelling stitch pattern is continued in the heel flap and I just can't get it to work. I know I only need to sit down and change the chart to finally get it right, but I didn't have the patience when I was at my parents.

(8) rip back top of Column of Leaves Hat and make longer
Done!

So, all in all, a very successful month. Of course, I also got a boatload of yarn from my binge and a couple of things I bought when I was at my parents, so I don't know yet if I actually have less stash now than a month ago.

Goals for April:
(1) Third round of SockMadness, possibly fourth
(2) Finish centre piece of blanket
(3) Rip back So Called Scarf
(4) Finish first Estonian sock
(5) Start Gentleman's Sock in Noro sock yarn
(6) Start Candle Flame stole in Kauni

Threesome

I'm calling this sock week.



From left to right I have RPM socks in Thank Ewe sock yarn, Child's French socks made from Wollmeise and the Zombie socks in Koigu. All of these got finished in the last 7 days.



First were the RPMs. My second pair of them and I'm still in love with the pattern. It's just so perfect for so many of the highly varigated yarns I have. And even though I usually don't like ribbing because I can't get a proper rythm going, I somehow don't have a problem with these.

I used 2.5mm DPNs and Thank Ewe's merino sock yarn. The yarn is probably the softest I have ever worked with. In addition to that the skeins are quite large (~500 yards), her prices are great and she is incredibly nice. In fact, I contacted her to get three more skeins dyed up in a few of her colourways and am looking forward to getting them.



Sock Madness 2 started last Thursday. The Zombie socks are the first pattern and I knitted them in about 2.5 days. Started Thursday at 10.30pm and finished Sunday morning just before 11.

The pattern is a simple ribbing with a few dropped stitches every couple of rows. Very pretty, very easy and quick to knit (and again I enjoyed a ribbed pattern, maybe I should rethink my stand on ribbing? :D) and they are so squishy it's a pleasure to wear them.

The yarn is mostly Koigu in P809. Since the socks are top-down and the leg much longer than I usually make it, I was worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn. I decided to stripe the heel flap with some Wolle Rödel Siena, but then when I was done with the first sock and found that I did have more than enough yarn (about 5gr left), I was thinking about cutting out the heel flap and reknitting it in all Koigu. In the end I decided against that because it seemed a bit too adventurous for my first round of Sock Madness. :)

This is also the first pair I made on wood needles. I fell in love with the colours of the KnitPicks Harmony and ordered a set on a whim. Now I'm very happy I did. The wood needles force me to knit more losely, always a good thing for me and my hands, but they are also only 6in long. I usually use the normal DPNs with 8in length and now when I finished the Child's French socks after the Zombies, I realized how much more handy the shorter needles are. I never believed it before. I might have to get some more sets of those in different sizes.

These are actually the first socks I have finished in Koigu. I started two pairs in a different colourway before, but always felt like I didn't have enough yardage, or the yarn was too thick for my needles or looked too bulky. Now I'm really happy to have found at least one pattern that works because I'm still in love with a lot of Koigu colourways and only resisted buying them because I didn't know if I would ever use the yarn.




The last pair I finished is one I started a couple of weeks back, but then planned to finish in March. So, one goal achieved. :)

The pattern looks great and I love the finished socks, but I somehow couldn't quite get into a rythm with knitting them. The change of the staggerd ribbing and the lace part meant I constantly had to focus on the socks and they didn't go as quickly as they could have. I shortened the leg slightly and lengthend the foot compared to the pattern. I also added six stitches by adding one repeat to each staggered rib section.

The yarn is Wollmeise sock yarn and I'm in love with the yarn. It's soft and squishy and very non-fuzzy. I don't think I even need to talk about the colourways. :) It's a pity that the owner of Wollmeise announced that she won't be doing scheduled updates to her shop anymore since her server can't take it and now it's even more of a hit and miss to get new yarn than before.

Sorry, no links again since I'm on dial-up. All the info is on my Ravelry profile, my nick there is Honey. Link to Sock Madness in the sidebar.

STOP!

Seriously, Sabrina, stop it! Stop buying yarn! Step away from the computer, do not click 'log in' on Paypal and put away your credit card. Go not trawling for new yarn on Ravelry/random blogs/every damn online store you can find.

I don't think I've been this bad in a long time. I bought quite a bit of sock yarn in February, fully intending that to be my last purchase for quite a while. Well, I might have got a slight serious case of yarn deprivation. Or rather fear of yarn buying deprivation.

It started out quite well. I managed for a week and a half and then I started to slip. I sold some Wollmeise, so I thought since the money hadn't made it from my Paypal account to my real account yet, I could just spend it on something. Since, you know, that'd be almost like a trade and trading doesn't count, right?

So, I ordered a lace pattern and two skeins of JoJoLand Melody Superwash at the Knittingzone. That was last week.

Today I went absolutely crazy. Actually, it started last night. I decided I needed to do something with my Elann lace since the Candle Flame Shawl (see Goals post) didn't work out and instead found the absolutely incredible Shetland Shimmer Scarf. The only problem is that it has a k15tog (no, that's not a typo) in it. I was actually glad about the excuse to order more Addi Lace needles. (And some Harmony Birch needles might also have dropped into my shopping cart. Just because they are pretty and I want to try knitting with wooden needles again.)

Then I realised that that shop didn't have the j-shaped needle the pattern was talking about. I googled. And googled some more. And found out that it's talking about the u-shaped cable needle. I have never seen those in a German yarn store. But Clover produces them. And of course I go to the only German online store I know of which has Clover stuff. Notice that so far I haven't really bought any yarn (except for the Melody, and that was trade, remember?), but this store also has a wide selection of Malabrigo. And I need a skein of Malabrigo for SockMadness. So, okay. I can still justifiy one skein as if it's almost for a started project (because buying more yarn for started projects also doesn't count). It's only one skein and I really don't have any other lace weight with the same yardage. And I need it to take part.

So far, still all explainable. Nothing to get excited about. Then I started googling again.

Somehow I wound up with the idea of needing mini sock blockers. I found some very nice ones at the Unique Sheep, for a good price and I even get to try one of their yarns! Then something in my brain just... short-circuited... Because I also ordered two skeins of sock yarn. Absolutely no rationalisation, no justification, no nothing. Just 'I've wanted this yarn for so long and when am I ever going to order from there again?'. (Just fyi, it's the Verve sock yarn in 'Doctors Without Borders' and 'Velvet Teal'.)

But that wasn't the end. I started trolling Etsy. Bought a load of stuff that has nothing (or little) to do with knitting (earrings, envelopes and a zippered bag) and then I looked at the half-finished RPM sock on my table. Knit in the incredibly luscious Thank Ewe yarn. Long story short (ha, as if that's still possible!) I asked her to custom dye three skeins for me.

While all this is going on I'm also still waiting for the Noro sock yarn that should arrive this month (but is already paid for, thank yarn) and a trade I did on Ravelry where I send off some Lorna's Laces DK Swirl and in return get Kauni Effektgarn (450yards out versus 1000-odd in).

And now comes the latest brain fart, the one that prompted this whole post. I was reading Dawn's blog and she talked about some inexpensive wool yarn, which she had got in a very nice colour. Of course I checked it out. And ordered four skeins for two scarves from Knitting New Scarves for which I'd been lookin for a yarn.

And now I'll hopefully stop. And am glad that I'll spend the rest of the month at my parents and won't have to pay for groceries.

And now I'm actually going to bed trying to sleep and hoping that my possible thesis advisor will become my actual thesis advisor tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

PS: This whole post isn't made to mean that I don't love overy single yarn I've traded or purchased or commited myself to purchase. It just means that it's... more yarn.

Decisions, decisions...

I'm almost done with the next square for my Log Cabin Blanket and since my goal is to finally start on the centre piece I have to decide what it is supposed to look like. Or rather, I have to decide if the look I was going to do is still the one I want.



The right picture on this is the one I wanted to make, but now I'm not so sure.

• It looks a bit chaotic, since it not only uses five colours, instead of three like the smaller squares, but also because the colours are separated from each other.
• I use different amounts for the colour pairs (I need more lavender than grey and more light red than dark red) and I'm not sure if I'll have enough then to make all the 26 other squares.
  
• It doesn't look very log cabin square-ly. My first smaller square was concipated in a similar manner, with the same colours opposite each other and I very much prefer to have at least two part of the same colour next to each other, so those fields of colour almost create an optical illusion, like the newer squares do. But since this is the center piece and kinda acts as a unfying element with all five colours, shouldn't it also be different from the smaller squares in other ways? I.e. in the distribution of colours?
  

The left one on the other hand is one I just thought up and I'm just not sure if I like it more. Sure it uses them same amount of colour for each colour in the pair and it's not as chaotic, but

• isn't it too non-chaotic? The right one just seems to fit better into the surrounding mishmash of colour.
• I think it might attract too much of the attention to itself, since the colour fields will be so big compared to the smaller squares. In the centre square, the white alone is the size of one of the small squares and the fields surrounding it get progressively bigger.

Hmm, I just managed to confuse myself again. I like the left one better for purely symmetrical reasons. In the middle row the reds come together with their counterparts, whereas in the right on, one is light red/light red, the other light red/dark red.

Not to mention that I'd rather not worry about if I'll have enough yarn (even though that seems kind ridiculous at the moment where I still have mountains of the stuff).

But I simply can't decide if the center square should be more integrated (right) or more of an actual centre piece, that pulls the attention towards it (left).

February and March

February was a bad month for knitting. I had exams in the middle of the month and just didn't get a lot of knitting done before. And since then I've knit quite a bit, but not enough to make up for the first 20 days. However, March should be much better since I'm on holiday and have time to knit. :)

(1) finish Ella
not done
I did a couple more repeats (no photos, sorry) and I'm almost to the decrease rows on the right side panel.

(2) finish Bellatrix
Done!

I started these before Momma Monkey died and felt a bit weird about finishing them afterwards, but then I realized what better way to honour the memory of a designer than by knitting her designs?

And the design is lovely. It looks a bit sloppy on my sock blockers, but on my feet they are great! :) A nice pattern for socks to just wear on those stay-at-home days. And I'm all geeked out about the fact that I knit the pattern in a colourway called Slytherin. So perfect.

(3) 2 more squares for the Log Cabin Blanket
Got 1 done and started another, which gets me to...

5 / 35 squares. 14% done!

(4) finish Felted Tote
finished knitting it and it's in the waching machine as I'm writing. I'm anxious if it works. *bites nails*
Here's the finished bag, with a DVD box for scale.


ETA: Just got it out of the machine and it looks like a success! But it's incredible how much it has shrunk. I can't imagine what the original tote was like which is knit with only 1/3 of the yarn I used.

Another pic while blocking with the DVD box for size comparison. The largest side is just a bit bigger than the DVD box.

(5) start Child's French Sock
Done! In fact, I got the whole first sock done. The yarn is Wollmeise sock yarn in Wilder Mohn (poppy), which is just an incredible yarn. It's so soft and squishy and it comes in 150g skeins, so I don't have to worry about running out of yarn even though this is the first sock I've knit top down in probably a year and a half?


(6) start Candle Flame Shawl
Done, but didn't get very far. I started it in some lace weight from Elann, but it was too thin for my taste. I think this'd be much nicer in some fingering weight or a slightly heavier lace weight, like Malabrigo Lace. For now I returned it to my queue and I'm focussing on other things.

Goals for March:
(1) finish Child's French Sock
(2) finish Ella
(3) 4 parts of the centre square of the Log Cabin Blanket (equivalent to 3 squares)
(4) knit So-Called Scarf in Malabrigo
(5) finish RPM socks (yes, I started another pair :), more in the next days)
(6) finish Felted Tote
(7) knit first Estonian Sock
(8) rip back top of Column of Leaves Hat and make longer

Karma

I'm not a big believer in karma. For me not doing something bad, because you fear some other bad will happen to you, just doesn't sit right. Then there are days like today, where I'm starting to think I might need to revise that opinion.

I have exams in a week and since I'm really good at procrastination, but equally good at having a bad conscience, I didn't knit a lot during the last week, because I thought I could better spend that time studying (although in the end I didn't do that either and didn't get a lot done besides bumming around on the internet). So, basically because I'm too lazy I don't study, but because I have a bad conscience I also don't knit, because that'd mean doing something fun instead of studying. Yes, I'm aware that doesn't make a lot of sense, but since when did rationalization have to make sense? ;)

Anyway. So I've been knitting very little. And then only when I could keep my bad conscience in check for a couple minutes here and there. So of course, I didn't get a lot done. And I got nothing done at all on my February projects, because they are too complicated to do when you're wrestling with you conscience at the same time.

But I did finish something today:


I felt good about it, I like the way the pattern stripes, not too drastic, but still a clear stripe, beautiful pink colourway and I even liked the twisted rib at the top, even though I usually don't like ribbing, but thought this time it'd fit quite well.

Well, the ribbing fits, unfortunately the sock doesn't fit me.

I've done this simple stockinette pattern a couple of times, always with yarn with the same yardage (this one is Opal, I usually have Regia, but that's 465m compared to 460m), the same needles, the same number of stitches. Never had a problem with the fit.

When I had done a couple of rounds of the foot, I was thinking that maybe the material was a bit denser than usual, but thought it was just because I had been working lace and a yo-pattern before, which obviously would be loser and therefore changed my perception.

Apparently not. The sock is not way too tight, but it's just a tiny bit uncomfortable to wear. May 2 or 4 more stitches would do the trick. And this is were I think I might have to change my idea about karma. Because this isn't the first time this has happened. Whenever I have favoured knitting instead of studying, I have absolutely nothing to show for at the end, because something always goes wrong with the knitting and I have to rip back. And in the end I haven't studied *and* haven't managed to knit anything.

I really should learn from that.

And go back to studying now instead of typing up blog posts. Or restarting the sock.

I did, however, promise myself that, if I finished my studying for the day, I'd let myself cast on for a new project. We'll see if that'll be the same kind of disaster.