*sigh*

I hate knitting for an obligation.  It never ends up being a project I care about. More often than not, there are other things I need to be knitting instead (like the two socks that need to be finished in the next two weeks) and I usually end up having to knit with yarn I really dislike because whatever project it is rarely is knit with a decent wool or wool blend yarn.  I get to knit a chemo cap that's supposed to be delivered in <2 weeks.  Nevermind that I'm travelling for about half that time.  Nevermind that I don't have much knitting time at all right now with the burgeoning novel H1N1 flu outbreak. Oh and after I announced what yarn I was going to use (complete with picture), someone else when out and bought yarn in the same color then expected me to change things.  Since there are apparently several people making hats, I'm tempted to just bail on it except then I would a) feel guilty and b) probably be bashed by the other persons involved, which shouldn't bother me but it does.

Knitting is supposed to be fun. This isn't it. :-(

Gauge Issues

My sleeve for the blueberry sweater was nicely on gauge with the recommended size of needles. Actually, the sleeve was the gauge swatch. After getting the sleeve to nearly the appropriate pre-underarm length, I decided to start the body of the sweater. Apparently I am knitting more tightly now as I have added 1/2-1 stitch per inch. Now I have to figure out if I want to find a larger needle (I'm already knitting with size 11 needles) or if I want to re-figure the math or if I want to concentrate on knitting more loosely. I'd rather not re-figure the math for the gauge I'm actually getting. EZ actually cautions about knitting this sweater at a different gauge because the shoulder shaping doesn't work right. At the moment, I'm not terribly excited about the idea of going shopping for a size 13 needle. On the other hand, I don't know that I could consistently knit more loosely.

Gauge lately has become a problem for me. My sister's two striped socks are actually at slightly different gauges. I have no idea why. I used the exact same yarn and needles for both socks, but the second sock is tighter than the first. I don't recall being more stressed for sock #2 or knitting particularly tightly, but apparently I did. The difference in gauge means one sock fits more snugly than the other. It will be interesting to see how the third sock fits and whether it's of the tighter or looser gauge. Here's hoping my gauge issues sort themselves out soon and I become more consistent between knitting sessions. It would be nice to have a sweater whose body and sleeves don't have wavy sides due to inconsistent gauge.

Incremental Progress....

The third sock is now about 3 inches tall. The first sleeve is about 3/4 of the way to the armpit. And I'm already trying to figure out what I want to work on next--shawl, sock or sweater. It might be a shawl, but I would feel obligated to finish Errold's Grove first. (For some reason it feels "wrong" to have more than one shawl going at a time. Maybe I think I'll get confused between the two projects, though it's perfectly normal to have three or more socks on the needles.)

If the next project is a sock, I think I'll skip the Monkey Socks I cast on for myself and use the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the blue/gray colorway that I don't much like. I might make another pair of Zombie socks or Anita Williams' Firenze the Centaur socks. I definitely want to make With a Twist from the Knitters Brewing Company, but with a different colorway than the blue/gray Lorna's Laces. I might use one of the new yarns I bought at Fine Line in July.

If the next project is a sweater, I haven't decided whether to find the Freedom Sweater or whether to start something new, like a Veste Everest or the Must Have Cardigan. Or I could do something completely crazy like finish sweater projects I've already started--like the purple vest or the orange tank or the green polo (that just needs seaming up). Perhaps when I start weeding through the boxes of junk in the spare bedroom, I'll weed through a box of yarn/knitting stuff and put all the works in project into a single labelled tote.

I'm becoming accustomed to knitting in the evenings at least a few nights a week. I've been too tired to do much yardwork lately and there's less of it to do anyway. It's been quite relaxing to knit for an hour or two while watching Hulu or a DVD. I've not quite gotten into listening to a book on tape while knitting, but I'm sure that would be fun too if I had the right book. Perhaps that will be my next task--find a good series of fiction audiobooks with which to knit.

Sis' Striped Socks Now With Picture!

Here are the first two socks.
The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug knit on size 2 needles. I cast on 64 stitches and worked in K2,P2 rib for the leg and top of the foot. Basic flap heel. This is essentially my generic sock pattern. (I prefer ribbed socks to stockinette stitch socks as I think they stay up better, being both a bit more grippy and stiff.)

Blueberry Sweater, Incarnation #2....
Some time ago I started knitting a seed stitch pullover in Cleckheaton's Drop Dead Gorgeous (DDG) yarn. It's a bulky thick/thin silk/acrylic blend yarn in blues and purples. I had started using the seed stitch pullover pattern in Simply Beautiful Sweaters but had to fudge the gauge. I wasn't really happy with the body of the sweater and I was really unhappy with the sleeves, so I ended up frogging it last winter. Now I've decided to make one of EZ's Wishbone Sweaters.

I started the sleeve three times last night. The first time I didn't cast on the right number of stitches. The second time I cast on the right number of stitches and started the sleeve in stockinette stitch only to discover that I really don't like this yarn knit into stockinette stitch. The third time I cast on the right number of stitches and have been knitting along in seed stitch. I still get 2.5 sts per inch (was getting closer to 3 sts per inch in stockinette) so I'll still be on target to follow EZ's instructions. It took me a couple of increase rounds to get the paired increases done in pattern correctly. At first I had three stitches in between the two increases, but eventually decided that a single stitch in between was the way to go. And I am absolutely not going to bother with a faux seam and drop the column of stitches down to be crocheted up after. I'd never find the stitches again with this yarn and if I did, you'd never see the "seam" anyway.

After a couple hours of television (and fussing at my increases), I have one sleeve that is about 5 inches tall. If I knit on it pretty regularly during my TV/Hulu watching, I ought to make pretty decent speedy progress.

New Beginnings!

I still haven't taken a good photo of the finished striped socks. I have, however, cast on sock #3. It'll be a helix-striped sock with one-row stripes.

I've also decided that I need to start a sweater for myself. I've cast on the sleeve (three times now) for one of the Wishbone Sweaters in Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann. At first I couldn't count right and then after knitting two inches in stockinette stitch, I have decided that I really like this yarn much better in seed stitch. The yarn is Cleckheaton's Drop Dead Gorgeous in the colorway Blueberries. I'm using size 11 needles which gives me a gauge of 2 1/2 stitches per inch, so this ought to go fairly quickly. If things go as planned, I ought to have a sweater to wear in a month or two.

My first idea for a new project today was to start in on the Must Have Cardigan, except I could only find the yarn in my stash and not the pattern book. Then I thought I could start on a Veste Everest, but I couldn't track down the yarn. After that, I thought I would work on my Freedom Sweater pullover but I don't know which bin the the sweater is in, although I do know where the pattern is. (There seems to be a trend here....) What I could find is the DDG yarn, so I might as well get the Blueberry Pullover going again and get a long-term WIP off my list of things to get done.

Sis' Striped Socks Finished!

I just wanted to make the quick announcement. I still have the ends to run in, of course, but as far as I'm concerned, the pair is finished. I'll post a picture tomorrow. And cast on sock #3 of the set. Might get a good chunk of it knit up too, depending upon my energy level and the weather. There's a lot of yardwork that I could get done too.

First First Sock Progress....

Since I was home sick over teh weekend, I got a lot of knitting done. The first sock of Sis' striped socks was ripped back to the end of the first stripe and I started to re-knit. I'm now working on the heel flap. Assuming my head doesn't asplode on me tonight, I might get past the heel turn and another inch down the food. If I feel like death warmed over in the morning, I may decide to call in sick. Oddly enough, I said that about this morning too, but I felt pretty decent until just before the end of the day.

Still trying to figure out the next project. I'm kind of thinking a nice cardi for work would be nice. Let's not talk about the unfinished adult-sized sweaters languishing in the WIP bins....

Second First Sock Complete!

Here is the newly made second first sock and what's left of the unraveled first first sock. Had I been thinking clearly last night, I'd have taken a photo of the two first socks before I unraveled the one that is too short in the leg. The sock in progress will have a red heel and an orange toe, so will essentially be the "opposite" sock of this one.

I believe I will have sufficient yarn left to make a third sock to go with the first two. The third sock of the pair will be a helix-striped sock with one-row stripes for an even less identical pair of socks on my sister's feet. (She already buys the mismatched socks that come in sets of threes, so this will make sense to her and won't bug her a bit.)

This weekend should yield quite a bit of knitting time. I feel myself coming down with either a cold or an influenza-like illness today. If I develop a fever in the next day or two, I'll end up stuck at home for 7 days or until my symptoms resolve. That makes for lots of knitting time, assuming I'm not too miserable feelign to knit. (I'd really rather just go to work, but given that I'm the person who sends out the public health guidance about isolating sick people at home for a week, it would be rather inappropriate for me to blow off the recommendations and work while ill.)

Now for the Important Question....
What do I knit next? Start another pair of socks for me? Finish Errold's Grove? Start a new shawl? Start a completely different project? Finish spinning up the merino/tencel roving from months ago? Decision, decisions....

Travel Knitting Redux....

I headed north this past week for my sister's graduation from nursing school. I had her try on the first of the striped socks and, as I feared, the leg was too short. I did, however, get most of the second first sock knit with a longer leg, though I just realized (now that I'm three hours away and on my way home) that I failed to have her try on the new first sock to verify the leg length is good. Sis is thinking that to lengthen the first sock that all I will need to do is add on to the top of the leg. That would be true if this was a toe-up sock, but it's not and I wouldn't be happy with the sock if I just tacked on an extra couple of stripes. I'm perfectly fine ripping out the entire sock and re-doing it right. But then, you knew I was crazy.

Nearly all the progress made on the second first sock came while driving my Grandmother back to Iowa. Or rather, while sis drove and I knitted in the front seat. Grandma sat in the middle row, while the niece and nephew sat in the back row and watched DVDs. Niece is enthralled with my knitting (which she sometimes calls "sewing") and likes to hold the ball of yarn while she watches me. Perhaps I'll get her some needles and yarn for Christmas. She's just about to turn 6 years old. She could manage a garter stitch potholder/project, I think.

Travel Yarn Buying....
You may or may not remember that when Sis visited Nashville a few months back that she became enamored of the February Lady Sweater. We made a foray over to the Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles. I figured we might at least settle on a yarn color, if not actually find the yarn itself. We very nearly actually got the yarn, except they were a couple balls short. Sis has chosen Brown Sheep Naturespun in Plumberry.

While we were at it, Sis bought a pair of earrings that a student in a lampwork class made and I picked up three skeins of handpainted sock yarn, plus a skein of lace yarn with a label entirely printed in Chinese. I was only going to buy two skeins of sockyarn but when I asked Sis to help me decide between two particular colors, she said she'd buy one of them for me and then I wouldn't have to choose at all. Gotta love a sister who not only wears, but also requests hand knit items *AND* enables fiber purchases. I'll post pictures in the next few days.

Travel Knitting Report...

I knit exactly one round on the travel sock. While killing time before my poster presentation. That's it. That is all the knitting I got done.

Now that I'm back home, I'm looking at a long weekend with very little work that I have to do. I have decided that I'm going to throw in some DVDs and knit myself silly. I have some socks to finish by Thursday and I'm only to the heel on the first one!!

Travel Knitting!

I've decided that the Eastery/Spring-y colored yarn will become Monkey Socks. I was tempted by the Spring Forward pattern too, but Boy thought the texture of the Spring Forward pattern would get lost in the variegated color of the yarn.

Coincidentally, I have decided that when I make Sis and I the Crabby McHappypants socks that they will also be Monkey Socks.

As the backup knitting project (in case I get to a stuck spot or something bad happens), I'm taking the striped socks for my sister too. They'll go in my suitcase.

Tomorrow morning I head to the airport. I should get a couple of hours of knitting in between the airport and the plane. The meeting starts tomorrow evening with the keynote speech and a wine/cheese reception that is, oddly enough, sponsored by Kraft. I wonder if it will actually be Kraft cheese that is served or if it will be just paid for by Kraft. The technical sessions start bright and early at 8am Monday. The meeting ends Wednesday at 5pm and I fly back that night. That will be a looooong day. Of course, that's also the day of my presentation. On the other hand, with travel on Sunday and a couple of long days, I will have put in a full work week by the time I get back to my house on Wednesday. After a conference call on Thursday morning and turning in my timesheet, I'll have to flex off the rest of the week according to company policy. (We're not allowed to accrue overtime or comp time.)

Travel Knitting Time Coming Soon

I'll be travelling part of each of the next two weeks. That means I get to knit on planes! and knit in the car when other people drive! Too bad I can't knit while I drive as I'll have two 7+ hour drives.

For travel knitting, I will be good and take my sister's striped socks. Errold's Grove is too big to travel well. I don't want to risk snagging it on something or dropping any stitches. Part of me really wants to start a new pair of socks. Like either another pair of Fawkes or maybe a pair of Monkey Socks or Pomatamous. I haven't had a new pair of socks for me in ages a month or two. *sighs*

The only down side to my sister's socks is that they're striped, so I have two active balls of yarn, instead of one smallish ball per sock. Maybe I'll have a plane-knitting sock for me and hotel-knitting sock for her. Then I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally yanking a ball of yarn out of my backpack and having it roll to the back or front of the plane, tangling up everybody's feet and leading to a mid-air yarn disaster.

Ok. That's it then. I'm knitting myself some new socks. I think I'll pick a cotton/wool blend and see about some pattern that reminds me of spring/summer weather.

Update: Just snagged a ball of OnLine Supersocke 100 in color 788. This is a self-striping yarn in spring/Easter-y shades of pink, purple, gree, yellow and blue. Now I just need to pick a pattern....I think something with a wee bit of lace perhaps. Any ideas or suggestions?

Checking In

It's been a while since I last posted. I have actually been knitting. Watching Eureka on Hulu and on DVD makes for wonderful knitting time. Henry and Carter have some really good lines. I made good progress on the Errold's Grove shawl getting through seasons 2 and 3. Now I'm ready for Season 4 to start and I'm nearly finished with the Bond Birds border. I'm currently on round 115. The Companion Tracks border starts at round 123.

On the occasional evening when I haven't got the mental capacity for lace knitting, I've been making progress on my sister's striped socks. I'm just starting the heel flap on sock number one. I've decided that these socks will be a graduation present for her. She graduates from nursing school on the 23rd of July. That should be plenty of time to get 1.5 socks finished.

I've decided that Sis and I will have matching Crabby McHappypants socks for Christmas this year. I'll order the yarn either late this week or early next week. That will give me plenty of time to get them knit.

Then, since I started thinking about Christmas knitting, I started to think about last year's incomplete Critter Knits projects for my niece and nephew. And the pullovers I was going to knit them too. The evil bargaining process is trying to begin. You know that process "If I start now *and* I knit three days a week for an hour..." I can usually avoid it, but for some reason I have this urge to knit for Niece and Nephew. *sigh*

World-wide Knit in Public Day!

I'm not actually doing anything to celebrate. The closest official gathering is >2 1/2 hours away. I have too much work to do around the house to go hang out at the local bookstore/coffeeshop and scare people with my knitting.

This evening, however, I will be watching part of Eureka (season 2) and knitting. That'll just have to be close enough to WWKiP for this year.

With regards to my current knitting progress, I am on round 103 and going strong. That puts me at starting the 2nd of three pattern repeats in the Bond Birds border. This is going pretty quickly even though all the rounds are getting longer every other row.

Finally A Picture

Of course, it's still not blocked or even stretched out. I'm at round 95 according to the pattern, though with the extra repeats I've added earlier, that's not really accurate. But it's what I'll go with for the purposes of keeping track of things and noting progress.

I'm working on the Bond Bird section now. This will make lace hearts. If I read the pattern correctly, I'll have three rows of lace hearts. Then there are 30 rows of Companion's Tracks (uncharted), which might give me a bit of trouble since I added extra repeats into the center. I may end up charting this section myself just so I can keep track of things.

Now that I'm closer to the finish than I thought I was, I'm really excited to work on this project. I'm actually as excited now as I was when I first started this project.

Errold's Grove Update

I have finished the Ghost Cats in Border A. I am now starting the Bond Birds section in Border B. That puts me on round 91 out of 154. That's really quite manageable, when I look at it in terms of row count. Of course, I'm at over 400 stitches per round at the moment, if my math is correct. In the grand scheme of things, that's really not that many stitches per round either.

Once the body is done, I've got the edging to knit onto the shawl, which is joined to the shawl body every other round. This is a 23 stitch wide edging with a 10 row repeat. I've never done a knitted on edging before, so this could be fun. I may learn how to knit backwards on the return rows, rather than turning the whole project each row. We'll see how it goes.

Still no pictures. Perhaps when I finish the bond birds I'll get the thing spread out on a bit of scrap yarn. I'm not even entirely certain what this thing will look like when I'm finished, given that only one or two people have ever even knit this thing. I'm sure I'll like it though. And I'll have a bunch of yarn left over. I started with 2400 yards of Yarn Place Graceful. I'll have to weigh the finished product (or the remaining yarn) to estimate how much yarn is left. If I'm smart, I'll label the yarn ball with the yardage estimate and weight to simplify future project planning.

First of the Ghost Cats Completed

Of course, I have no picture of this because I haven't wanted to risk dropping stitches just to put the shawl on some waste yarn for a photo. I have been diligently knitting a round or two each evening. With a three-day weekend starting tonight and expected rainy weather (so no yard work), I might get some serious progress made on Errold's Grove. No where near finishing it, but I might get through the Bond Birds section. I'm still excited about finishing this project.

I do have a pair of socks to darn. The heels on my blue socks are wearing thin. I had forgotten all about that until I saw them tucked into my knitting basket this evening.

Sitting here, writing this blog entry, I'm now getting excited about the idea of spending the weekend knitting and relaxing. And maybe doing a wee bit of housekeeping to get things shipshape again. It'll be fun.

Slowly but Surely

After having bragged about starting the Sister Socks, I haven't even looked at them. I have, however, managed to complete at least one round on the Errold's Grove shawl every day this week. At the current rate of knitting, it'll only take me 82 more days to get to the border. I have no way to estimate how long the border will take me. I have only glanced at the border directions. I believe the border is knit onto the shawl, perpendicular to the edge. (There was something in there about joining a border stitch to a live stitch on the shawl.)

I am a teensy bit concerned that the diameter of the shawl won't be quite large enough. I'm a bit less than halfway through the knitting, but the diameter right now is perhaps 2.5-3 feet (estimated). If it ends up being six feet across, that would work. I don't want it to be much less than five feet. My wingspan from fingertip to fingertip is five and a half feet. A five foot shawl would do nicely, I think. This will be my first square shawl, so I'm not entirely sure how wide I want/need it to be. I'm sure I can figure out a way to add pattern repeats before the border if I need to do that too.

Baby Knitting
A colleague of mine is having her first baby in about 7 1/2 months. I have, until now, primarily reserved my baby knitting for charity or for family members. But colleague is a lot of fun and I think she'd get a kick out of a baby sweater made just for her baby. She'd appreciate the work that goes into it too, since she makes jewelry herself, so understands the time, thought and skill that goes into a handmade gift. I'll ponder the idea for a few more weeks.

Sister Socks Started

Well, I guess the "slump" has passed. I finished casting on my sister's socks this weekend while watching Firefly on Hulu. These are great TV/movie knitting since they are simple 2x2 rib. I just keep an eye on the tangling of the two yarns and remember to switch colors every 9-10 rows.

The colors really remind me of a fruit smoothie. I'll start the second sock with the strawberry color, rather than the apricot, so the socks will be fraternal twins. They'll have opposite colors on their heels and toes too.

Well, maybe not nothing after all....

For some odd reason, I felt compelled to pick out a round and a half of knitting on Errold's Grove so I could start knitting it again. That took about 45 minutes, which completely by chance perfectly coincided with the length of an episode of Stargate SG-1 on Hulu. I almost started to knit the first round after the ripping back, but wisely decided that turning right around and screwing it up after I fixed it probably wasn't a good plan. It'll still be there tomorrow. As my reward for cleaning up my house.

I'm on call all weekend and the weather is expected to be horribly rainy. I potentially have guests coming next weekend and, with the current H1N1 flu outbreak, may not have any tidying up time this week, nevermind cleaning the boxes o' stuff out of the living room. So this weekend is major clean out/up time with laceknitting rewards. I figure a round of lace for every hour of cleaning is a nice ratio of work to play.