Solitaire Sock July 31, 2008

I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I keep messing up the sister sock.  Last night I cast on for the left cable sock.  Things are going along smoothly and I completed the ribbing.  Today my son sees my needles entwined with yarn and decides to yank out one of the needles.  Grr.  But not a problem, I caught him time to salvage my loose stitches.  After he’s been put down for a nap I pick it up to resume my work.  I managed to start working on the sock inside out and instead of ripping it all out again decide to just toss it out.  Try #3 results in some big holes on two sides of the sock.  I am just not having any luck today and think I may wait ’til later to resume knitting sock #2.  Oh yes, to add insult to injury, I discovered why I ended up with only one cable on the side of my sock.

I mentioned this before about how I thought it was kind of weird to have only one cable on the side of the sock.  Especially since now that the one is finished I was wondering how I would get the cable on the correct facing out side on sock #2.  Upon reading through the instructions again today, while it says you do the cable pattern repeat once, there’s actually room to do it twice.  If you do this, you would end up with one cable on each side of the sock.  The more I think about this, the more I want to scrap the whole project and begin all over from scratch.  *sigh*  I think tonight I’m just going to work on my blanket and shawl.

Not Impressed July 28, 2008

We took Jax’s lobster and crazy haired doll out camping.  Well, Jax had a tiny tick on him on Sunday, so yesterday when we came home I decided to wash his toys along with everything else.  Unfortunately neither my husband nor I knew that the hair on his doll was wool.  So it felted right up 😦  I’ve been combing through what I can with my fingers, but I think it’s a lost cause.  😦  Instead of having Rastafarian hair, she has felted Bride of Frankenstein hair.  It’s a sad day.

I admit to not knitting July 27, 2008

This weekend we went camping.  Now, this is kind of funny because whenever my parents moved around (due to being in the military) we would camp our way to the next spot of residence.  And we tented it.  But now it seems that I have become more….luxurious in the way I camp I guess you can say.  There’s not a chance in hell you would catch me tenting it.  In fact, my little family was indulged by being able to rent a cabin for the 3 days we were there.

At first I thought it would be a great chance to bring along the knitting I haven’t been able to devote a whole lot of time to.  But as I thought about the amount of time I’d be spending on the beach sunbathing and maybe skiing and tubing…..the possibility of knitting became slimmer and slimmer until it became an aburd reality.  There is absolutely no way I was going to be caught knitting while it was 90 degrees outside.  Oh no.  Not even in the car on the way there or back did I knit.  It sat serenly at home with my cats while I was attacked by leeches and water.

In the end I’m glad I didn’t take my  knitting along because 1) I would have ignored it and made it feel quite lonely and 2) the bugs would have nested into it like my laundry and I would have smushed bug guts into my fabulous yarn.  As it is my knitting will just have to wait because tubing and skiing just drained the life out my limbs and even looking at my knitting makes my muscles groan in pain.  But if you want to hear a funny story, this is how I got the leeches.

After the second round of super tubing, of which I finally fell off at least 3 times, we were rounding up the water skiis to put back into the boat.  I remember slipping into some nasty super mud and going “Ugh, shouldn’t have stepped there!”  Upon coming onto shore and toweling off, I try to scrub off a leaf.  Then I go “Is that a leech?”  And EVERY body freaks out.  If I were them, I would have freaked out too.  Instead I was like “OH MY GOD THER ARE LEECHES ON MY LEG AND FOOT!”  Someone pulled the big leech off of my ankle and then we went up the hill to scrub off the hordes of baby leeches off my foot.  I honestly can’t say it hurt, but having your husband scratching the hell out of your foot to flick off baby leeches who have nestled in between all of your toes and on the sides of your feet, is NOT pleasant.  I’m just glad this happened after all of my fun had been had because otherwise there’s not a chance in hell you could have convinced me to go back out into the water.

But the Chinese delivery is calling out my name, plus more wine (which really I don’t need, but kind of do).  So be on the lookout this week for a finished set of socks plus maybe updates on my blankets!

I think I found a new use for my acrylic yarn July 24, 2008

My cousin’s 2nd birthday is next month.  I’m sending a small care package for both of my little cousins with knitted fun stuffs.  First the pink socks for my cousin Fiona and now I’m putting together green cable socks for my cousin Carter.  I originally thought that the acrylic yarn might not be soft enough for socks.  But after knitting the first sock, it doesn’t seem so bad.  Plus a little washing will (hopefully) soften it up a bit.

I’m using this pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.  The only thing I would change about it the next time I knit them, is to put cables on both sides of the sock.  Having knit the first sock, I don’t know how much I like it being alone.  Then again, if you think about it, you’ll probably only see the side with the cable on it.  Hmm.  On the plus side, my toe looks a lot better.  With the pink socks, the toes ended up really super pointy.  These green socks turned out flatter.

This is also my first project with my new wooden needles.  I feel that the wood needles were more comfortable while knitting with the acrylic yarn.  When I was knitting my doll my hands cramped up quite often when knitting with the metal needles.  I’m not sure if it’s just me, but there were a few times where I was nervous I would snap the needles in half.  Mostly this was noticeable during the first few rows and then whenever I was doing decreases (like the k2tog).  Luckily there have been no mishaps.

So we are going camping this weekend and while I’m not sure how much knitting I’ll be able to do (other than on the drive there and back), I for sure will try to crank out more socks from what I have left of acrylic yarn (the pretty light grass green and a bright blue).  My bigger projects haven’t really been put on hold, but I can pretty much guarantee that I won’t work on them ’til next week when my knitting pal comes back.  They’re really items that need a few hours of intense concentration.  Plus I’ll be submitting these socks into the Summer KAL/CAL!

On a sidenote, I’m really sad that I wasn’t able to peruse more at Prairie Yarn this past weekend.  😦  There were a lot of beautiful yarns that I just wanted to touch and sift through.  But hopefully I’ll be able to order some more yarn from KnitPicks plus a circular needle.  My friend has been using her circular needles and loves them.

My Amazon July 18, 2008

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Originally uploaded by scribblerdahl

This is my completed version of Sally the Eco Doll from Knitty.com. As you can see I didn’t use organic yarn (although you can be sure next time I probably will) and I didn’t knit her knickers or clothes or hair. I thought the original doll was cute, but I am a fan of the crazy wild hair and no face. Putting eyes on her would take away from her in my opinion. Plus, ever since I saw the Alfred Hitchcock movie where a dummy comes to life and tries to kill the woman in the shower, I’ve been against creepy dolls in my house.

I love silver hoop earrings and so I took an old pair of mine and gave them to my Amazon. She looks pretty sassy with them on, right? Another thing I’ve decided is that she’ll remain in the nude for now because to be honest, I’m not feeling creative on the clothing front. As for what to name her, I’m also in the dark. So for right now she’ll be my Little Amazon.

One thing I’ll be sure to do next time is make sure I’m sewing her appendages on straight. I knew her ears were a little off kilter, but last night I discovered that they’re REALLY off balanced. Overall I’m proud of my accomplishment and think she looks pretty kickass.

What’s on the needles? July 16, 2008

Lots!  I am obviously one of those people that don’t stick to one project indefinitely.  The pointelle shawl is still in the works.  My plan is to do one round per day.  On Monday I began my green blanket using the Little Birds stitch from “The Harmony Guides knit & purl” guide.  It’s going along swimmingly although I will need to buy more yarn if I want it to measure more than 6″ long.  I’m 20 rounds away from being finished with my doll’s 2nd leg and then tonight I will either start her arms or work some more on one of my other two projects.

What I’ve discovered I don’t like about knitting this doll is how boring the limbs are to knit!  Seriously, 50 rows of knitting before anything exciting happens?  *sigh*  I was looking over the directions for the arms and it reads “Rounds 1-44, knit”.  Oh goodness.  Perhaps I should have scanned the directions and then scaled back the size!  No, I am proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and definitely want to knit this again!  There’s nothing so satisfying as finishing up an arduous piece of work.

Is it silly that I’m scared of knitting socks? July 10, 2008

The title really says it all.  Every day I wake up and think “This is the day I’m going to knit socks” and every day after perusing some beautiful patterns I think “This is impossible”.  Is it the fact that it’s a wearable item that scares me?  I don’t know.  But I have this huge mental block about knitting socks.  As long as the pattern doesn’t require a circular needle, I can do it.  I know I can.  The problem is that I can’t commit to anything.  *sigh*  One of these days I’m going to do it.  Really, I am.

Knitting Hiatus July 8, 2008

The past few days I’ve been on a knitting hiatus.  I was feeling slightly burned out from the constant knitting I was doing.  So I took a few days to goof off and do other things that have been feeling neglected (*cough*scrapbooking*cough*).  The other problem I was having is that the tweed pattern I’m knitting isn’t exactly exciting.  It looks nice but just isn’t something that I’m flying through.  My pointelle shawl is fun to knit, but on days when all I want to do is something pretty, easy and simple, it doesn’t deliver.  I’m sure that knitting with purple needles and using dental floss thin purple yarn doesn’t make it easier.

Anyhow, I’ve got my next project all drawn out and in the works.  I hope to have it finished by nxt week so Jax can bring it to my parent’s house.  So we’ll see!

Who’s an overachiever? I AM! July 5, 2008

It’s day 5 of the Summer KAL/CAL and I’ve already got one project under my belt.  My husband didn’t want to model it for me, so I’m going to wait and take pictures in better light and then post them!  I have to admit that I’m a little nervous about subjecting myself to other people’s opinions.  But all kinds of people around town have complimented me on my knitted items, so that makes me feel better.

And now that I have at lest one thing finished, I’m going to go back to work on my shawl ’til I can order more yarn!

My official start July 3, 2008

I’ve officially begun working on my first project for the summer KAL/CAL!  All I’m going to say is that it’s bright yellow and a fun pattern!  It looks like it’ll be a quick knit which makes me happy!