Victory is Mine!

I am triumphantly posting because,

these are my May socks. I actually finished them on Thursday. It's so exciting to have them done with plenty of time when I was feeling so much like they were hanging over my head like an axe waiting to drop.
Wow, it really says something about how unhappy you are with a project when you compare it to an axe huh? But it doesn't matter because they are done, done, done. The pattern is Spring Forward and the yarn is Sock Ease and I like the pattern a lot. I would definitely knit it again. I've used the yarn before and I think it's a decent hard-wearing yarn but I did not like the two together and I did not appreciate the ripping incident. I'm glad to see the back of these socks.

And, it gave me time this month to finally decide to finish these:

These are my lovely handspun socks and I sort of made up the pattern. I made them toe-up and knit from both ends of the ball of yarn to maximize yarn usage. I actually didn't use all the yarn though. I have lots left. I decided not to play the crazy game where you start knitting up the leg, trying to use all the yarn and end up with socks halfway up your calf that won't stay up to matter what you do so you never wear them.

These socks are my new love. I made the May socks larger than my feet so they can be a gift so I've been wearing these lovely handspun babies almost exclusively for the last couple of days. Who can help it? They are squishy and springy and lovely.

Tomorrow marks the start of the June socks but in the meantime, I'm going back to bed, I'm not feeling well and so, I'm staying in today. No Knit & Crochet night tonight and I'm not happy about it, it would be nice to get out but I'm opting for sanity and rest. Think healthy thoughts.

An Interesting Query

You get a blog post two days in a row?! Don't die of shock!

Today I'm winding some yarn to take with me to Knit & Crochet Night. I'm casting on the Felicity hat in this lovely Melena Yarn that was a gift from a friend.

(You can check it out in my stash if you'd like.)

The query I have come up with is as follows, what motivates you to knit something that you've had in your queue (Ravelry or otherwise) for awhile?

I was gifted this lovely yarn last winter, it's been sitting around since then. About a month after I received it, I decided the lovely drapey quality would work really well in this hat pattern but I haven't knit it. It's just a hat, it will be quick and easy so what's stopped me?

Why have I started it now? Well, someone who comes to Knit & Crochet Night (that I moderate and help with) wants to knit a slouchy hat and this pattern is perfect. I'm getting something knit that's in my queue and simultaneously helping someone else to work through the pattern.

So, why do you knit something that's been in the queue for awhile?

Socks and more socks

Lately I've been going a little crazy with all the socks I have on the needles.

The good news? The April socks are done and have fallen into the LOVE category.

I really like the pattern Peaks 'n' Valleys and I've knit it before. The last time it was a cotton yarn and this time it was Panda Silk. Both times for some reason I chose a yarn without stretch but I love this pattern so much (simple to memorize and unique) that I really should knit it again with a lovely cushy wool. I even love that I can wear the socks like above or:

Fold down the cuff to make lovely little ankle socks, much more appropriate with sandals and capri pants (which I live in during the summer).
I didn't love working with the yarn though and I didn't love having a time crunch to knit socks on size 1 needles. I do love the soft drapeiness (is that a word?) of the finished product. I love the soft smooth feel as I slip them on too. All in all, I love the socks.

Why, you may ask, am I focusing on socks that I have finished? Well, because this:

Is all that's done of May's socks. Yup, we're looking at single digits of days left this month and yet, the socks aren't even close. Why? Frogging incident. I was knitting them on 1s as well. The yarn is fine, what can I say, I thought I had forgiven the 1s for April's "Incident". But when I had turned the heel and finished the gussets, I tried it on, as I often do and it was a no-go. It didn't fit. I could get it on, but not very well and it was snug. In a not very nice way.

I'm not thrilled with this yarn in this pattern anyway (Spring Forward which is a lovely pattern but I don't think works as well as I thought it would in Lion Brand Sock-Ease) They are just not calling to me. I'm thinking these may end up being a gift and I can't give socks that don't fit. That would just involve me knitting them again really. And um, OUCH.

What would I rather be working on?

These of course. Some lovely handspun yarn from Funky Carolina. I received this lovely superwash Merino roving at our spinning party last year and spun it into a lovely 2-ply. It was so unusual and I liked it so much that I immediately spun it into a ball and didn't even measure yardage. I'm knitting socks from both ends so I can make them the same length even though they are quite fraternal I love them. They are smooshy and soft and they have a simple and neat looking little cable up the leg. What's that? You can't see the cable?

Here you go:

Don't you just want to grab it and start working on it? But I'm trying to be a good little knitter and finish things, the WIPs in this house are threatening revolt and they greatly outnumber me.

Speaking of finishing things, I never got a chance to blog about the Royal doll I knitted for the local paper. Let's ease into it though and I'll show you just this for today:

It looks like a sort of scary dolly massacre doesn't it? Yup, this was just before I started sewing him up.

More about him later. In the meantime, back to socks.

Whoops, what was that? Hmm, I'm not sure how that got in there, I'm a good little knitter who's going to finish her socks. I'm not going do crazy things like start something else. I'm not sure who you think I am but I'll just be over here waiting for it to be time for me to go teach and knitting my yellow May socks. Yup, May socks all the way. Shhh.

Knitting and Spinning Finished Things

I've been pretty bad about actually blogging but I have been knitting. I offer proof.

This is my new shawlette. It's knit from one skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino. I absolutely love it. The pattern is called Gail a.k.a. Nightwings. The pattern took a little bit of knitter's intuition because I didn't feel the directions were really clear but it is an easily memorized pattern that looks amazing. I loved the yarn, I loved the pattern and I would definitely knit this again. I do wish it came out a bit bigger but I love it anyway. (That just means I have to knit it again right?)

I've also been spinning. There's been quite a bit of that to avoid knitting on my May socks, I think, because they are irritating me. Let's not talk about them today then. Instead let's talk about just one of the spinning projects.

This is BFL/Silk purchased from Cloudlover at Shepherd's Harvest Festival. (Oh yeah, we haven't talked about that either. We'll have to do that later.) I spun it into singles.

Specifically splitting up the colors so they would blend when it got plied into:

This lovely two-ply yarn. It's about 352 yards and I love it. I think it turned out beautiful. Of course, I have no idea what I will knit with it yet so it can go and marinate in the stash for awhile until i decide. The handspun stash is getting larger though so at some point I'm going to have to start choosing some projects for the handspun.

Popping in for a quick hello.

Since it's a new month already and I haven't posted in awhile. Again! Sorry. I'm so out of practice with posting now that I seem to be way too easily able to forget.

I have cast on the May socks and I'm knitting away on them. What does that mean? The April socks are probably done right?

Well, it's true, they are. Finished on the 29th even! That's pretty amazing actually because I spent a bunch of time finishing this up:

It's my March 2011 colorway from the Gritty Knits Merino of the Month club. It was so bright and pretty that as soon as it arrived I pretty much tossed everything else aside and started spinning it immediately.

I have about 518 yards of beautiful light fingering weight in a 2-ply. I can't wait to start knitting with it but really I have a bunch of other socks on the needles, including my May socks so I need to work on some other things first. *sigh* That's always the way isn't it?

Well, I'm off to teach tonight so I'd better head out to finish getting ready. More to come, including Finished April socks very soon!