sock thoughts

I hate turning heels. It is absolutely my least favorite part of knitting socks. I dread it, most of the time. I hate picking up stitches. I started doing short-row heels for a bit, but with my fat feets, I need a gusset. Thankfully, I’ve found a way to do toe-up socks with a gusset and flap that doesn’t require picking up as many stitches as a normal one would, and works the way I always thought a heel should. (It’s from this tutorial, which I highly recommend.) Anyway, I’m only complaining about this because I’m currently in the process of knitting a flap and then will be turning the heel. Frankly, the only reason I’m typing this is because I don’t want to work on the sock. I tell myself all the time that I’m never going to knit another top-down sock, but I end up falling in love with patterns and doing just that. This pair is Clessidra:

I love them, and can’t wait to wear them. I’ve got one completely done, and yet I’m stalling. I just don’t want to knit this heel. I also need to frog the toe of the first one and add about half an inch to the foot because in my haste to finish them, I made it too short.

Now I’m contemplating churning out some socks for the boyfriend for Christmas. They’ll be toe-up at least, I know that much! And certainly not knee-high.

And if you’re wondering, I haven’t made much progress on my girly Cobblestone.

yarny destiny

There are often times I wonder about yarn and whether it really wants to "become" what I have planned for it. Yeah, I know. I'm weird. But when it takes me five tries to get past the cast-on and bottom edge of a sweater, I think of things like that.

Meet some gorgeous, girly versions of Cobblestone:



I liked the pattern from the moment I saw it, but theboy declared it "too much" for himself. I can see what he means. Then I saw one of these, and fell in love. I knew it would be a perfect sweater for me, and might be perfect for some yarn I had laying around: a sweater's worth of the new LB Cotton Ease in Stone.



I swatched for it months ago, and (of-fucking-course), forgot what size needles it was on. Side note: I remember knitting the swatch and thinking about the trick where you make YOs in the same number as the size of needle being used, and decided not to do it. Bad decision! Based on the swatch, I guessed that I used a US #8. WRONG! I ended up with a sweater with ten inches of positive ease. Which is twelve inches too many. I realize I did the swatch on #6s. Frog. Cast on again, and knit a few inches. Realize it's still too big. Frog. Re-think it, and decide to add waist shaping, but use the same numbers. Do my waist decrease math incorrectly. (I forgot that you decrease in four places in the round, not just two like you would flat!) Realize that, and frog. Re-do math, and divide incorrectly. (19/4 does not equal 3.75!) Cast on again, with wrong number of stitches. Knit for about four inches. Realize it's now going to be way too small. Frog again.

Then I thought the whole thing through again. Almost re-designed it from the top-down since I think bottom-up sweaters are silly. Give up, because I don't want to do another shit-ton of math and just do simpler math to make it still bottom-up. I've cast on for the FIFTH time, and this will be the last. If this doesn't work, I will chalk it up to the fact that this yarn does not want to be Cobblestone. (Did I mention I already knit another top with this yarn and decided I didn't like it and frogged? Yeah.)




Cross your fingers for me. I'm just about to start the stockinette portion of the body.

[365.2.11]

[365.2.11] surveying
Originally uploaded by dead redhead

we all spend a lot of time just looking out at the lake and watching boats and animals (there was a family of otters out last night! so not usual) and whatever is out here. it's pretty relaxing. it's really neat that at night you can see the headlights of the cars coming into town across the lake. last night we could see a fire burning on a hill out of the frame to the left. we could also see the red lights on the fire trucks going to it. we've also watched an osprey fishing (he got one!) and an egret/heron catching minnows. no one has caught a fish yet, excepting the neighbor guy who lives here.

i went on my first jet-ski ride today. it was fun. what i really want is a water-proof camera for times like that.

2008 finished knit and croched projects

2008 knits and crochets
Originally uploaded by dead redhead

they were mostly small things, and there were many that were not even photographed. (i have a huge to-photo list.) but overall, i LOVE all of them.

and hi! i can't believe you still read this blog. i've been gone for so long. i really need to start making an effort to post here.