I’m still knitting.  I’ve been working on the same first socks for what feels like forever with a few dalliances with other patterns that have ended in frustration.  I am finally 95% done with the first sock and have started on the second.  I have lots of stuff in my ravelry queue and will hopefully finally get a chance to work on some of it.  I’ve also signed up for the Olympic Yarn Smackdown, so I will get some lace knitting in during August.

I signed up for Sock Wars III.  The advisiability of doing so is negotiable since I’ve only knit 80% of one sock thus far, but I’m learning a lot and I think the pattern looks pretty easy thus far. 

I don’t expect to last very long since the pattern has been up for an hour and I’m only half way through my cast on row until I get home this afternoon.   At least I’m learning new skills and I’ll end up with a pair of socks out of the deal.

The clap is finally completed!  I stayed up on Friday night to finish it.  I spent a good amount of time dropping stitches.  I’m very happy with the final product and have worn it a couple of times.  I need to wash it at some point soon because it got a little grubby being carried around all the time.  Pictures are forthcoming….

My next project is the Mason Dixon perfect sweater.  I need to locate 1) a pair of size 5 needles and 2) my crochet hooks for the crochet cast on for the hemmed edge.  I was going to do the seed stitch edge, but I wasn’t overly thrilled with how it looked, so I’m starting over. My crafty stuff is disorganized right now, so delving to find the materials I need for the sweater is just not happening until the weekend. In the mean time, I’ve cast on for Autumn Vines using the mmmalabrigo lace that I was going to use for the scarf for my mom.  It’s an easy lace pattern and it’s going fairly quickly.  I started at stitch & bitch last night and have gotten through the first couple of repeats. 

I’m generally trying to be project monogamous, but I was sincerely uncomfortable not having a project in progress.  Addicted to knitting?  I think so!

I finally finished unknitting those few rows and knit a few more increase repeats and have started the decrease rows.  It looks like it’s going to be a good weekend to knit weather-wise and I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere, so I think I’m on track for the deadline for the KAL.

I do want to work on the sweater first, but I have to say that my interest in socks is growing since pretty much everyone at stitch and bitch is working on them. Such pretty yarn. Such tiny needles. Not to mention portable and light. *sighs* What’s a girl to do….

Well, my clapotis has been coming along nicely. I finally finished Section 3 and have now started on Section 4. The deadline for the Fashionably Late knitalong has been mercifully extended, so I have another 2 weeks to finish. I think I have a pretty good shot at being done by then. I’ll bring it to stitch and bitch tonight and will hopefully have some time this weekend.

I just bought some Cascade 220 for my first sweater. It was scary having so many colors to choose from. I ended up with lichen which looked neutral enough, but still with a little color. I figure if I can manage to get through this, then I’ll invest in some Malabrigo for my next one.

 

So, I cast on for Clapotis using that Kauni yarn while I was home sick on Tuesday. At least I did something more productive than just sit on the couch watching a DVR marathon of Daily Show and Colbert episodes that I’ve been collecting. I’m knitting on it reasonably quickly (for me) which makes me happy. I only wish I had more time during the day so I could do more than a row or two. Speaking of time, I can definitely tell how the house is suffering because of this extra time being devoted to knitting. The dust bunnies are organizing an army under the dining room table. I need to clean.

So, I knit. I’ve been knitting off and on for years, but never really seriously. Just the occasional dishcloth or scarf. Sometimes I’d try something more challenging, but most of the time I just stick with what’s easy until I got bored, then I’d put down the needles for a while, then pick it up again when I saw a pattern on a messageboard I liked or when the weather got cold. I joined Ravelry back in Nov. in one of these jags, and I’ve been knitting more and more ever since. It’s a good feeling. I even went to a stitch ‘n bitch which I’ve never really felt like doing before and plan on going back.

Since I’ve been knitting again, I’ve been jonesing to buy yarn, but my budget simply doesn’t allow for it. So I’ve been trying to get all my yarn into one place just to see exactly what I have so I can figure out what projects I can do until I do have some cash. You see, I’m messy and my crafty stuff has ended up all over the house. I had it all organized upstairs, but everytime I did a project, I’d drag whatever I needed downstairs so I could work in the living room and then I would never bring it back up. So I thought I’d make my currently unoccupied downstairs bedroom my craft room and put everything into one place.

I skipped a class last night because of a headache, so I figured it was as good a time as any to start moving things around. I dismantled the Crafty Wall of Doom (wire shelving my ex had put up for me), dragged a large portion of it downstairs, reassembled it, and started gathering yarn for all areas of the house. The bookshelf in the living room, the basement, the bag on top of the china cabinet in the dining room, everywhere. It was surprising when I first started putting it away. Hey! There’s that ball of Lorna’s Laces that I bought with the intention to learn how to knit socks. And there’s that now-discontinued Noro I bought to make felted bags for Christmas presents. One major realization: I have way more fun fur than any lesbian really needs. Especially glittery pink and lavender fun fur.

It’s been therapeutic in a can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been kind of way.   And I feel like if I want to make something, I don’t have to wait for a shipment from yarn.com or tangle.  I feel compelled to use up what I’ve got before I get more so I don’t move into SABLE.

I’m bored and I can actually get into this site at work, so here I am.