Saturday, June 11, 2011

Slow Slow Quick Quick Slow

002For anyone who suddenly has an earworm to the title of the blogpost, the full song is here. And why yes, the reason I know that is because of the 80s movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun. 

Anyway, I have finished socks to show you!! Monday I finished one pair of socks and tonight I finished two more pair. They are going into a Soak bath in just a minute.

First up was the Indulgent Green Socks, which are being set aside for AudioGirl's Birthday. She knows about them, of course, I've been making her try on all of the socks I've been knitting her. She's pretty excited about having a more fully stocked sock drawer for next winter. I'm happy to have another person who I'm close enough to that I'm actually willing to knit socks for who will wear and take good care of them.

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There are out of Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga. This yarn is always always always a pleasure to work with. The colors are rich and gem like, the base is wonderfully squishy.















Second we have the Maize yarn. It's my first time working with corn yarn. It's okay but very splitty. Also it feels very much like cotton but doesn't seem to chew up my hands as badly. These are also going in the gift bin for AudioGirl.
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008Finally, finally, off the needles are the Languishing Socks. These socks were cast on over a year ago at my last La Crosse Public Library Knitting in Public Event. I was working on a variety of things but nothing super portable and so I'd just grabbed some yarn and needles there and started a vanilla sock. These would languish and languish. They've been work socks that didn't get worked on at work, all sorts of things. But finally they are done. This is Knit Picks Essentials, the old 100gm put up. Now I can only find it in the 50gm put up. I knit them on size 2 (2.75mm) needles which is probably a little too loose for this yarn, I think I'd get a better fabric on size 1 (2.25mm) needles. But there is no way I am going to rip them out. I'll wear through them and move on.



I am now officially in the KnitGirllls Stash Dash 2011. We're already on the third week but this puts me at 907 meters in and brings my total for the year so far to 3485 meters. I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to make 20K this year but I feel like I'm making more progress.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Long Time Coming

Remember I had a little Loopy Ewe fall down a couple of weeks ago? I had a similar fall down at Blue Moon Fiber Arts about the same time. Only, I realized after I'd left for my conference in Minneapolis, the yarn had never appeared.

I checked the tracking number and was told that yes, indeed it had been delivered. Hmmm.....

Now, usually mail shows up without too many problems, but this is the second package that I've had stolen.  I'm curious, who steals sock yarn? The USPS has been absolutely no help at all on the track-the-missing-package process, I've got a typed letter ready to go to the Post Master on Tuesday to describe in full detail the poor customer service I received. An entire section of it outlines the five minute rant of excuses I received from the one clerk that I spoke to before she even asked what exactly my problem was, which included nothing ever being her fault, a lack of having my mailbox labeled (it's labeled), and that she was just walking past a ringing phone and answered it--so she couldn't possibly help me.

Fortunately, the fantastic ladies BMFA are exemplary at customer service. Phenomenal, even. I received understanding and a reshipment to the Philosopher's address without question (THANK YOU PAULA). It's sad that future wool shipments will have to go to someone else's place or to the UPS store around the corner, where I incur an extra $5 fee for the guys to receive a package for me because the USPS is regularly unreliable.

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Anywho, I got some new STR Medium Weight. It's squishy and I love it and I realized after it was shipped that one of the colorways was one I'd already purchased. All the colors that I love from Blue Moon and I now have two My Blue Heavens. Oops. I suppose there are worse things than two skeins of yarn in blues that I think are beautiful, right?

It gets better.

I went to add the new stash to Ravelry. And not only do I already have a skein of My Blue Heaven, I also have a skein of Puck's Mischief--which would be that colorway in the middle.

*headdesk* I am nothing, it seems, if not consistent. For all future BMFA orders, I apparently will have to make myself check Ravelry BEFORE I hit the buy button. 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

No Really, There Has Been Knitting

I keep feeling like I'm not actually getting any knitting done. I am --it's just charts and lace and 200+ stitch rows and those take a little longer than your average sock round.

The Summer Mystery Shawl by WendyKnits has seen all the majority of the knitting time and love of late. I've made it through the first two charts and the first twelve rows of the first repeat of chart 3--or the third clue depending how you're following along.

The pattern is wonderfully clear and easy to follow. Wendy's charts are a breeze to read.  I'm using a minimal 4 stitch markers and haven't had to tink back too many times and then only a few stitches from passing distraction.

I can definitely feel the 20% nylon that's in the Fiber Optics Yarn.  It's not bad, just different.  I've been working with a lot more blends of late or 100% cotton and I find it very interesting how noticeable the difference in hand is as I am working. The yarn is wonderfully vibrant and should look beautiful when finished.

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As you can see, I'm making a decent dent in the skein of yarn. Fortunately, each row is getting shorter. This should use up most of the skein though.

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And I did take the Languishing Socks back to work and I might have a meeting where I can squeeze a row or two in on Wednesday. I'm through the heel of Sock 2 I think? Maybe?  I'll check and let you know.

A Redo

 I started this pair of socks on New Years Eve just before 2020. I finished them in May 2020 , amidst a lot of optimism about what I'd a...