I'm back

Not that I actually went anywhere, but man, that was a pretty long blog post drought, eh? No particular reason for it that I can give - no major stresses, lots of knitting was getting done - I just wasn't posting. As always, my apologies for the delay. But on the plus side, I now have a lot to talk about!

First up, yarn acquisitions. I haven't actually bought any yarn lately, but my birthday is coming up soon, so my fantastic MIL gave me my present this past weekend when we were there for Thanksgiving. We have...

A skein of Alpaca Sox from Classic Elite. I have been instructed that its destiny is to become socks for my elder daughter. This yarn was very specifically picked out for that purpose by the intended sock recipient when she was at my MIL's two weekends ago for a sleepover. They went to the LYS there, and my MIL told DD1 to pick out sock yarn that she liked. The child made an immediate beeline for this. More about how it's knitting up further on in this post.

A nice booklet of Sirdar patterns revolving around their "Escape" yarn.

Ten balls of Sirdar Escape yarn. My MIL was very specific that the yarn has to be used to make something for ME. That is the rule. :) She bought the book pictured above because she liked one of the patterns in it and wanted me to use this yarn for it, but unfortunately she can't remember anymore which pattern it was. So she said to just pick anything from the book that I like, or any other pattern I've been hankering after. I've been giving the matter rather a bit of thought, and I think I'm probably going to go with Elsebeth Lavold's "Fjalar" sweater.

Needless to say, there was much squee-ing when I unwrapped all of this.

For my birthday, I am treating myself to the entire week off work, starting this Monday. This means, since I will be seeing my children on Wednesday morning, that I am planning to hit the Lettuce Knit SnB that evening! I'm very excited and I hope to see lots of my friends there.

In other awesome news, I've been doing some targeted "group" advertising on Ravelry this month for my fundraising pattern, the KWB/TSF Hat, and it's definitely working! So far I'm netting over twelve times what I'm paying in advertising, which is a very good deal I must say. I'm thrilled. I can't wait to be able to gather up all the profits at the end of the year and send them out to MSF.

Alpaca socks for DD1

The presents were given to me at lunch. Immediately after lunch, I put DD2 down for a nap and DD1 went out with her dad and other assorted relatives to a nearby park to enjoy the glorious weather. I wasted no time at all, and balled up my new skein of sock yarn, much to the amusement of one of my BILs. By the time we packed up to go, I'd pretty much finished about two-thirds of sock #1. At this point I've got one sock done and am over halfway up the leg of the second sock. It's really, really lovely stuff to work with and is giving a really neat diagonal striping effect. Unfortunately, I can't show you any pictures because I'm (as usual) using my new sock pattern, which hasn't been published yet.

There are 100g in the skein, so it's probably enough to make two pairs of socks for DD1. However, she has selflessly announced that I can make the second pair in a smaller size for her younger sister. I tell ya, I don't deserve this child. She's so awesome.

Toddler socks for DD2

The sock jag continues...I decided to use up the extra yarn from this sock project by making some socks for my younger daughter. I got them all knitted up in very short order, but I still have to weave in the ends on sock #2. Again, I must disappoint in the photos department because I'm using my own pattern. I'm sorry - I do promise a deluge of sock shots once the thing is published!

Turquoise socks for DD1

It seemed to take forever, but I finally finished the super-long leg of sock #1. I am now trying to find the intestinal fortitude to cast on for sock #2.

Log Cabin blanket

More insignificant progress here and there.

Wee baby socks

I got back into these about a week ago, and finished them off. And oh, they are so darn cute. Small things always are, aren't they? I hate to tell you once again that you're going to have to wait for photos...but you're going to have to wait for photos.

Endpaper Mitts

A few weeks ago, the people who are in charge of such things in my office building decided that the increasingly cold weather was the PERFECT time to start blasting the air conditioning. Seriously. And did I mention that one of the vents is right above my chair? Yeah. It's been fun.

This of course motivated me to finish my Endpaper Mitts so I could prevent my fingers (which are rather vital to my job, what with the constant typing on the computer and all) from freezing. Unfortunately, the Knitting Fates decided that this was the right time to hit me with a big case of Knitting Stupidity. I started making every damn mistake possible. At first, it was actually going very well - I just kept going on the 1x1 rib that I'd already started with mitt #2, easy peasy. Then I switched to the main pattern, following Chart B, immediately increasing for the thumb. I was about halfway up the thumb increases when I realised that I was supposed to start with Chart A, and not start any kind of shaping for about four or five inches. FINE. I ripped back.

So I started in on Chart A. It was going okay - I was screwing up the pattern here and there and having to tink back more frequently than I would have preferred, but definite progress was being made nonetheless. I got to the correct starting point for Chart B and started increasing for the thumb again. And once again, it wasn't until I was about halfway up the thumb when I realised something was wrong. Like, really wrong. Like, hey-this-mitt-seems-really-small wrong. Like, I-have-no-freakin'-idea-how-I'll-get-it-onto-my-hand small. I checked the instructions...yeah. I was supposed to switch to a larger needle size after the ribbing.

There are no words.

I ripped back to the end of the ribbing and started again.

A few rows in, I realised I'd forgotten to switch needle sizes AGAIN.

At this point, I think the only thing stopping me from throwing in the towel (or, more accurately, throwing the glove into my fireplace and turning it on) was that it was still freezing in my office.

I finally managed to get the main pattern going PROPERLY. I still kept making a lot of pattern errors (including a few that required surgery about six rows beneath where I was, that sucked pretty hard), but at least I was now making a glove that would actually fit me.

Finally, FINALLY, I got it all done, and...



I really like them.

(Thanks to my husband for taking that shot. I tried really hard to take it myself, using various stick-like objects around the house in my mouth to press the 'take a photo' button, but without success.)

I especially really like that I did all of the colourwork parts holding both strands in my left hand. That is a new and tricky skill that I still need to work on to get fast at, but I think it does improve my colourwork speed, and I'm really glad I learned how to do it.

The socks ate me

Carrie K pointed out (not directly, of course, but I know what she meant ;) that there aren't a whole lot of photos being splashed around here these days. It's quite true, and I'm very sorry about that, especially since there absolutely zero photos in today's post to make it up to you with. But I've been doing a lot of designing (or finalizing designs) lately, and it's all stuff that I want to be published commercially, so I have to maintain a hush-hush factor. It's pretty exciting for me whenever I have patterns I hope to share with a wider audience, but yeah, it makes for more boring visuals for you guys. I hope you'll bear with me anyway.

Mind you, I suppose that if you're still reading this blog after all my long stretches of absence, you're probably going to bear with me even without pictures. Thank you for continuing to 'tune in'. I keep telling myself that I must get better at blogging frequently, but I also want to be so thorough when I describe what I'm doing with my projects (both for my own recordkeeping and any edification that readers may get out of such details...oh, and plus, I don't know when to shut up). With everything else I have to do in my life, the non-essentials often fall by the wayside and the result is that you get weeks without a peep from me.

(I am hanging my head right now.)

I will just have to try to be more brief, that's all. Maybe not be completely detailed most of the time, and every now and then do a really big post that contains all the gories? I dunno. But I shall try.

At any rate, as you would expect with an over-three-week span of bloglessness, there's been a LOT going on with me, knitting-wise.

Firstly, if you're on Ravelry, you'll probably have heard of "Ravelympics 2008". This was kind of like the winter Olympics thing that the Yarn Harlot did, but it was Ravelry-based, and there were teams and events and other different stuff. Aaaand...someone pledged to do my Around the Block pattern as their Ravelympics project! This of course was very exciting for me (although the blanket is so huge that I did question her sanity just a little bit). But even more exciting is what she wrote on Ravelry in the comments section of my pattern:

"This is a great pattern. The charts are comprehensive and detailed, the instructions are straighforward and the photographs describing the grafting are very easy to follow and a massive help.
The blanket itself it lovely and is so much more interesting to construct that a straightforward back-and-forth square.
Completely recommend this."

Isn't that fantastic? I got all giggly and squee-y when I read that, I don't mind admitting. Hands may even have been clapped girlishly. She didn't actually finish it in time, but is still working on the project and is still keen about it. Of course, what I'm really terrified of is that my yarn usage is way more efficient than other people's, and therefore she'll run out of yarn before she finishes the blanket and will curse me into oblivion and I will feel like scum. But I guess we'll fall off that bridge when we come to it.

She's "Lolli" on Ravelry, where she's posted pictures of the blanket in progress. You can also check out her blog.

And speaking of people doing my patterns, according to Ravelry, another poor sap intrepid soul has started my Reversible Celtic Patterns Blanket pattern. She is the third person to do so (not including me). However, I should point out that the other two people ended up not merely frogging their projects, but actually deleting them COMPLETELY off of Ravelry (as opposed to merely marking them "frogged"). I must assume they did this in an attempt to wipe out all evidence that they'd ever even heard of the pattern and thus block the pain and suffering from their memory. :) I do honestly feel a little sorry for people who try to take that one on. I really only published it for the purposes of education and inspiration of other knitters, not because I actually expected anyone else would be masochistic enough to do it! :) But y'know, it takes all kinds. I guess there are actually some people out there who are as crazy as I am!

Stranded vest for moi

On Monday evening, I finished it.

And I. LOVE. It.

I am thrilled. Seriously, seriously pleased with how it looks. Mind you, it is a bit wide, it comes right out to the tips of my shoulders, which I think is too much. When I write up the final version of the pattern I will make the armholes deeper. But I still love it, and wore it yesterday, and felt like a million bucks. DH took some photos, and now all I have to do is print them off on some photo paper, do up a swatch, write up the proposal, and shoot it off to a pattern magazine. Whee!

There is just one downer here. The Sockina Colori yarn which I'm using as one of the two colours - the yarn which is key to achieving the awesome visual effect that makes the whole piece - is now discontinued. Words cannot express my frustration. I mean, seriously! This is the second time I've started designing something with a Schoeller & Stahl yarn and had the rug pulled out from under me partway through the process because the yarn got discontinued. I'm pretty POed, I don't mind saying, and I hereby swear that I shall never use another Schoeller & Stahl yarn in any of my design prototypes again. I just can't trust them. I'm going to submit the design anyway, though, because it's too good not to, and anyway, maybe there's an adequate substitute yarn out there...somewhere. Anyone know of a 3-ply sock yarn where one ply is black, another white, and the third variegating in rainbow colours? Anyone? Bueller?

Really Christmas socks for Dad

Also done!

Well, sort of. The first sock is too short in the foot. I'm going to have to lengthen it before I can give the socks to my dad. Curses.

Foot-pampering socks for moi

I've really been on fire, because this is also done! I'm really pleased with how they look, fit and feel, so hooray!

The completion of these socks means something else really good. It means that I now have socks from my pattern done up in large baby, child, woman and man sizes, which means that I can take a family photo of the socks on four different sizes of foot (the specific feet to be photographed of course belonging to me, my husband and my two girls). This will bring me one step closer to being able to send off the final version of the pattern. DH is working tonight, but maybe we can get everyone's socks on them on Thursday when we all get home.

Anouk for baby Mendez

This is coming along very nicely, considering that I only work on it in front of the computer. This is because I started the project when I had a laptop right next to me on the couch, so I was able to knit it without needing to print out a copy. At first, only working from the online instructions was just a well-the-laptop's-right-here-why-not thing, but now it's turned into a bit of a refusal-to-give-in, save-the-trees kind of deal.

But this hasn't hampered my progress so far - both sides and pockets are finished. I decided to duplicate stitch the flower motifs onto the pockets after the fact rather than go through the hassle of knitting intarsia with cotton as I go. (Ick.)

It's turning out really adorably, and is such a cute and fast knit. My only complaint so far has been that the shoulder instructions are completely mixed up and thus rather incomprehensible. Left, right, back and front labels seem to have been assigned randomly, so it took me a good deal of back-and-forthing between the instructions and the garment to figure out which instructions should probably be applied to which shoulder sections.

Itsy-bitsy baby socks

So after I finished the whole socks-for-the-family marathon, I decided to see what other sizes would turn out to look like, so I cast on for the wee baby size using the leftover Trekking XXL from my daughter's leggings. Result: very wee and very cute. I'm only about two-thirds done the first sock, but it's really sweet. And FAST, holy cow! (This shouldn't surprise me, given the size of the feet the socks are being made for, but it does.)

Stretchy socks for Mom

And the sock jag continues. I decided I wanted to use my own pattern for these socks instead of the toe-up thing I had going before, so I ripped it out. However, I've started the cast-on about twice and it's not tight enough, so I'm going to have to do it again with smaller needles and then switch to bigger ones once I have the stitches all set up. (Insert grumbling here.)

Double-faced bib

And finally...this project. Amazingly, it's not socks. :) I got back into it because I really want to finish it up, and also because nothing else in my list of current projects appeals right now. It's coming along very nicely, and I'm just one row away from starting to divide for the neckhole.