Still on Track!

Classes start again and I am in the middle of a living space reorganization, but I have doing well on my knitting resolutions!

Still making progress in the Wisp, though I have slowed. I'm on the 12th repeat, after being distracted by Clapotis and life for about a week. I'm hoping to finish the Wisp by the end of the week. I maybe actually do it to! Wouldn't that be a miracle? I did hit a snag. I broke yet another pair of circs. I don't know how I do it, it must be a talent. But the point is I am now knitting Wisp with nothing but the two little points. I'm too cheap to buy a new set of needles so I have to make due.

On the Clapotis front I am still making progress. I'm on the 4th repeat of the third section. I must say, those dropped stitches are so much damn fun. I love them! I almost wish there were more, but then there would be no knitting, just dropped stitches and that's not very practical.

Back to the resolution track, I am still doing well! I haven't bought any new yarn, not counting the few balls of sock yarn, since last year. (Shut up, everyone knows sock yarn doesn't count) I even went through mt knitting books, bookmarked patterns on line and stash on Ravelry and earmarked each yarn for a particular pattern or project. It seems less daunting now. Not counting the socks, I have about 4-6 months of knitting ahead of it. But we all know I'll be distracted by socks, so I'm probably set until next fall.

Failed Sock

It's close to 10pm, I have a final in 12 and a half hours and I have yet to read 4 articles or review my notes. Am I studying? Nope, I'm blogging about my failed sock. The sock in question is the lacy mock cable sock that I have been knitting for two weeks, though I've probably only put 6 or 7 hours worth of work in to it. It was a rather quick knit. None of that matters though because the sock was a failure, and not just a single failure. No there are three glaring problems with this sock. To be fair though, two of them are my own fault.

Problem the first:

This is why I should never be allowed to graft. The whole concept of grafting eludes me. Not for lack of trying. I usually try three times, get frustrated and just end up doing a three needle bind off. Crude but effective. This was a sock of triumph though and I was set on properly grafting the toe, as you can see, I failed miserably. I have a feeling I'm going to attempt grafting every sock I make for the next 3 years until one day I just magically clicks and I will spend the rest of my life wonder why the hell I had so much trouble getting it. Kind of like my first attempt at roller blading.

Problem the Second: It's too small. At least a whole inch too small for my foot. The solution to both is to undo the grafting, rip the toe, knit another inch of pattern, then d the toe over again. It sound simple, but I hate picking up live stitches and the pattern prevents a lifeline from being added. So I have to decide it its worth it which brings us to problem the third.

It makes my ankle look fat. See that foot over there, that's my foot and normal its a very cute foot with a very nice ankle. This sock makes me look like I have Cankle. Not a good quality in a sock that I planned on wearing with ballet flats and thus would be visible. Tis quite the dilemma. I need help deciding what to do. Maybe I'll attapt the cable/lace pattern to a hat or scarf.

Socks and Ravelry

Partner recived her package, so I can known tell you about the coolest socks I've made to date. They are heavily modified version of Simply Ginny socks, which I lost the link to. You can't really tell in the picture jus theres a massive 10 stitch cable that goes down the centre of the sock. I knit them with Patons Kroy 4ply in the Paintbox colourway. Thres a big story about why this pattern and why that colour. Lets jsut say the theme was Harry Potter and leave it at that. I also made a sweater shaped ipod cozy, a coffee cup sleeve and a no sew double sided fleece blanket.

For another swap, I made a pair of Fetching (knitty summer 06 I think). I am a huge huge huge fan of this pattern. I will be making many a more fetching in the future. starting with a pair of my very own.The only mod I made was doing a regular bind off because lets face it, I'm a lazy knitter and I can't be bothered to do a picot bind off. Beside, it doesn't really change the look, and the picot flares out and I don't like that. (Ignore my hair looking arm. It's the flash. My arm hair doesn't look nearly that bad in natural light.) I used Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand. It made a nice dense fabric, and its machine wash an dryable, which is important to me for swaps. I want to send my partners somethin easy to care for. I have been known to make exceptions though when the yarn is pretty enough lol.

New topic! Christmas knitting! I have making a hat for my friend, and a hat/scarf set for one of my sisters, and two presents to myself. An Alpaca scarf in a chocolatey brown to go with my snazzy new red coat, and a pair of socks. I deserve a pair for myself damnit! lol. I keep giving them away. I may actually gice these ones away too though. I think my mom would like them alot. so who knows.

I have afew other projects on the go too, but I'm heistant to share because at least of of them is a swap spoiler. And while my partner is actually the orginizer thus is very busy, she also sent my package yesterday meaning shes finished and unlikely to actually read my blog between now and then. If she is, Hi Cindy! lol

If you're desperate to stalk my knitting, you can cause I am on Ravelry now! I've been having uber fun. I have pictures of a few of my favourite completed projects, some of my stash (I can't find all of it to photograph it) and all my WIPs.

Find me here:

http://www.ravelry.com/people/Michela

Swap spoilers though! So beware! Don't look if you don't want to know!

I'm off now. today we are putting up the tree, doing some cookie baking and I have about 20 journal articles to reader before Friday for a final and I have to learn aobut socio-lingistics for Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Swaps are fun

I have actually been knitting like a fiend since my last post, but I can't tell you cause they've all been for swaps. Hopefully one of my partners will recieve this week so I can post the coolest swap project I've completed to date. The others you'll have to wait for cause the send outs aren't until the end of the month.

I can tell you that I've found a new pattern for the lorna's laces I bought on a whime this summer that I thought wanted to be jaywalkers socks, but they lied. Now they want to be Tropicana socks (I like magknits sock patterns, so sue me lol). I only have about 4 inches of the first ankle so far, but they look and feel lovely! I'll be bringing them in the car for the long trip to Buffalo next week so maybe I'll get to the heel! I jot of joys! The heae!

Stay Tuned!

Yet Another.

I am addicted to socks now. Even more than I was addicted to hats. Don't worry. once winter rolls around again I will be back on the hat wagon by right now its too lovely in Toronto to even think about needing hats again. Back to the point. I started a pair of socks for my sister who had minor surgery last week (Everything is peachy keen with her, don't worry). Sadly I only finished one in time but I have started the second one. I'm using two balls of Paton's Kroy Jacquards in Tutti Frutti. Its a lovely yarn and I now get the wool obsession. Unfortunately I am still a student and thus unable to afford wool if I want to keep knitting.

I can however afford the odd surge on wool blend sock yarn. I bought two skeins of Lorna's Laces in a lovely purple/turquoise/pink colourway last week and at 13 bucks a pop it was the most expensive yarn I have ever picked up. After much deliberation I decided that this yarn wanted to be a pair of jaywalkers. Boy was I ever right! I can't wait to finish the first one so I can post a picture of how beautifully it is knitting up with the zigzag pattern. The way the yarn was dyed gives it a pseudo self striping pattern that looks more like a spiral than striping but none the less it is lovely and looks marvelous.

I did make a minor change to the pattern by only knitting 4 inches from top to heel instead of 6 3/4 because I hate tall socks. They drive me batty. I swear it had nothing to do with wanting left overs to make an ipod sock!

I made a few other purchases this week. I found a yarn shop closer to my home called Mary's Yarns in Unionville. I went in with the intention of just getting size 1 DPNs and I left with a ball of white cotton/wool/some of kind stretchy stuff sock yarn in white that I think wants to be a pair of something cabled for fall ballet flats and 2 balls those a really awesome chunky weight blue tweedy wool/acrylic blend and I had to have despite not having a clue what to make with it. I have 400 m of the stuff. Enough to make a hat and probably a pair of mitts, or possibly a short scarf. Or a Hat and an Ascot and a couple of Hats. I think it definitely wants to be a hat. That much I know. It looks too good close to my face to not be a hat.