Knitting, of course....

Ah....I needed that. I took a lovely break from frustrating patterns and made a insanely fast beret. Seriously fast! As in a long afternoon it could be completed. Took me 3 days of early morning knitting with time left over on the third day. With the leftover time, I quickly grafted the toe of Evil Pink. That went so smoothly and pain-free that I kept looking at it thinking, I must have done it wrong. I didn't though and it looks lovely.

 

Beret is blocking for the second time. First time I used a pie tin as suggested in the pattern. While the shape was ideal, the size was not. It's blocking on a dinner plate (also suggested) this time.

 

I awoke the following day ready to tackle the second Time-Out Sock! I'm almost to the gusset so it is moving right along. I'm playing it smart this time and adding a lifeline every 8 rows. That only takes a minute and will save a ton of frustration if something happens.

 

To go along with the sock knitting, I decided to start a lace shawl. I know I said no more shawls but when I was looking for hat yarn in the stash, I took a hard look at the stash. I have 5 skeins of lace yarn yet I haven't knit lace in over 2 years! Then I have more sport and worsted weight than I would like. It's time to put some of that yarn on the needles. I'm going to try keeping a non-sock project on the needles, for a while, along with my usual sock or two.

Procrastination

Second Evil Pinky is done except for kitchner-ing the toe. Super easy pattern stitch. Shocking but I actually followed the pattern. I am not sure I have ever done that before. Thuja pattern is free on Knitty.com. Psst...if you are trying to read the pattern under the sock that is for a different sock.
Lessons learned:

1. I still don't like knitting top down socks. I am going to make myself do another couple pairs as I need to practice the heel flap so the pickup stitches will be a bit neater. Honestly though, if I never made another top down sock I would be content.
2. Doing kitchner more often does not make me like it. In fact, I am beginning to loathe it.
3. I have 18grams of yarn remaining. If I wasn't being stubborn about becoming more proficient with top down, I could have used all of the yarn!
4. US5 (3.75mm) are still the size of baseball bats.

Anyhow I have another pair of socks to add to the precious sock drawer.

Now to procrastination.....I don't want to cast on the second Time-Out sock, so much, that I actually pulled out the hated hat. This poor hate has been in the to-go bag for at least 2 years now. I added an inch or two to it this morning. Plus I spent time on Ravelry looking at hat patterns. Apparently I am willing to do most anything to avoid that second sock. I'll start it by this weekend but right now we need a little distance!

Time-Out

Meet Time-Out Sock. Time-Out is now finished but oh dear...it needs a mate still. I am hoping that with a bit of a break from each other Second Time-Out and I will get along a bit better. The stitch design is easy enough if you aren't me and pay attention to all 35 stitches rather than just the first 5-6 of each row!

Yarn is Cascade Heritage Paints. Pattern is Froot Loops from Knitty.com.

Silly, Silly Sock

This silly time-out sock is doing it's best to teach me a lesson. Not sure what that lesson might be though. I finally made it successfully through turning the heel. I have a lifeline set and will start the leg tomorrow. I'm almost scared!

New books on the way! I was browsing Amazon while doing some computer work. Couldn't believe my eyes. A book Knitted Socks East and West had been reduced from $15.xx to $5.08. Last week, I had just marked some of the patterns in that book as future wants. Since I have free shipping there, I hit that buy button just as fast as I could. I'm delighted as I really didn't expect to ever get the book.

I placed a restriction on myself a year or so back, no pattern books. I enjoy having them but have a tendency to not use them much. My bookcases are terribly full so I try to keep my new purchases to a minimum. I'm the type person that once I have a book, it never leaves me! Reference books are easy to justify but patterns are so easy to come by online that I put a restriction on those in an effort to keep the bookcases from collapsing.

Second book is a Yarn Harlot book.....for $2.77 and free shipping. Who could turn that down? It will be small enough to pop in my on-the-go bag. Perfect as I haven't had a book in there for a while now.

Poor sock

I worked on time-out sock. Poor thing. Yanked all the new knitting back out....twice! I just don't get it. I did 6" with no problems then everything has gone wrong. If I count all the inches I have ripped out this sock could be long done! I've got it back on the needles and am now into the gusset. I am putting a lifeline in every 4 rows! Newest problem is I knit past the start of the gusset so had to fudge a bit to get it back on track. I've done that before so I know it will still fit fine.

Just pink

Bad sock is still in timeout but I cast on a second evil pink sock. This is more like it. Still don't like top-down but I had the ribbing done in no time. I changed the cast on and connecting just a touch and it went much smoother. That was the whole point....become proficient in other styles, even if I don't like them after the fact. So these socks will be called a success.

Boo-hoo

cry cry cry....I unraveled a weeks worth of knitting on one of my socks. This pattern was a poor choice....it read ok but reality is, it requires too much counting and concentration, at 4am. I've been amazed I made it as far as I have with no unfixable errors or counting errors. Dummy forgot to keep putting in lifelines every inch. I knew better with such a stressful pattern but got cocky. Then I messed up my row count by marking at least one row done when I still had the sole stitches to go. There were big gaping holes due to loops not getting closed on the missing rows. I tried to fudge but it was just ugly.

 

Since there aren't any plain rows, to save my life(or the sock), I couldn't pick up the stitches to just below the problem area, though I tried. I had to rip back several inches to the last lifeline.

 

Sock was bad so it is in timeout now and I am giving it the silent treatment. BAD BAD SOCK!

 

I'm seriously thinking about cheating on it and casting on another sock because I'm not happy with the other pair I am working on either (who knew pink yarn could be evil????). The evil pink ones aren't hard(I've already finished one) but it was to learn new techniques, the yarn has a mind of it's own and I am knitting with baseball bats(3.75mm). I've already decided I don't like those new techniques. It was easier than expected, looks fine, but oh so awkward...I would have never knit socks if I had done this first...oh wait I did! then didn't try to knit socks again for 18 months. lol I have much more experience now so decided it was time to become proficient in other methods(I have a list!). I disliked it so much though I don't want to make the second one.