Half Done

I've been working away on my projects and I feel like I'm just not getting anywhere. 

I've got one finished purse sock.

One finished marl sock.

And a bobbin full of singles.

I was looking over these projects and thinking about all the work I've put in and it occurred to me. They're all half done. The reason it feels like I haven't made any progress is because I'm only  halfway through 3 different projects. 

All the work I've put in has been split, meaning nothing has that fun feeling of a finished object yet. I've cast on the second Marled sock.

Cast on the second purse sock.

And I'll be starting the plying on my singles soon. So I'm definitely making good progress but since I've been dividing my focus, it feels like I'm not getting anywhere. You know the expression "Well begun is half done"? That's what seems to be going on here. 

So, I guess I just need to keep going until I finish something and it will break that feeling of lack-of-progress. 

I should probably not mention the other project I cast on. That won't help with the half done feeling.

Blame the Sock

Monday night was Knit Night. It was also Labor Day so I was off work. I couldn't seem to get it together enough to get ready earlier in the day but I was getting ready to go and I knew I wanted to bring my Skew socks to work on since they were at a fairly easy part (done with the heel and decreases and ready to begin the short rows for the leg). That also means that I might be able to finish them at Knit Night so I wanted to bring something else, My purse sock just didn't seem to be enough. But I also wanted to get going and I didn't want to take the time to wind yarn so I just tossed some that was wound in my knitting bag and off I went.

Interesting story though. Our Knit Nights are a fixed date but not day. So, the 4th of each month we meet at our Caribou, regardless of the day of the week. The 19th we meet at our local Panera, regardless of the day of the week. That way, even if you have something every week on a certain day, sometimes you can make it to knit night. They two don't fall on the same day of the week in a month either. It seems to work well for us. 

Anyway, we meet at Caribou at 6:30. Only this time we were early. Probably 7 of us were there by 6 and were knitting and chatting (as we do) in the conference room that we reserve for a fee. At 7:05 they come in and tell us they're closed. Normally Caribou is open until 10 and 11 on weekends so it had to be due to the holiday right? But there were no signs or indications that they closed at 7 and there were lots of people in the main area too. So why did they close so early? And it pretty much isn't right for them to charge us the room rental fee for an hour when we wanted it for several hours. Shady! A few of us decided we didn't want to quit knitting though so we went down the road to Starbucks and kept on knitting. 

At least that way I made some progress.

I did finish the Skew socks, aren't they pretty? There's just something about this pattern. It's addictive. I can (and have) knit it over and over. As a matter of fact, this is the first time in months I haven't had a pair on the needles and I am feeling the pull to cast on some more. 

In the meantime, look how pretty they are! I love the heels when they're on my feet but they don't look like much laid flat do they? These are knit from Knitterly Things Vesper in Bride of Socktober Spooktacular. This is the merino Nylon base that's a little thicker so it's easier for me to knit this pattern on larger needles than I knit her other bases. On her 100% Superwash Merino yarn that's really fine, I knit on 0s. I haven't actually knit with the Merino Nylon that's thinner yet but it's similar to the 100% Superwash Merino in thickness so I will knit it on 0s too probably. (I haven't knit it yet but I have several skeins in the stash already.) I knit this pattern on 2s since the slanted knitting fits more snug than straight knitting because of the bias. So what yarn did I throw into my knitting bag before I left?

A couple of skeins that are kind of the polar opposite of the Vesper yarn. Rustic, more sheepish and toned-down colors. There's something pretty compelling about their tweedy nature though.

I finished the gusset decreases on the first sock today. It's flying by! That may also be why my house is a wreck, I spent way more time knitting than tidying this week. 

I didn't actually start them at knit night though. By the time I finished the Skew socks it was late enough that I didn't want to start anything new. So I just knit my purse socks for a bit.

I cast these on after I got home. I actually started them toe-up thinking that I could use more yarn since it's 2 skeins. But I didn't like the fabric I was making so I went down a needle size to 1s and I'm liking them much better. I also abandoned the toe-up plan. I just don't like toe-up as well and I don't know why I keep deluding myself into thinking I will use more of the yarn. If I knit the leg too long it will just be an awkward length that will scrunch down anyway (unless they're knee high and I don't have *that* much yarn). So I've knit most of a sock since Tuesday. Yes, I'm totally blaming the messy house on the sock. Definitely its fault.

Casting On

I made it to the new month without casting on a new project so I'm very excited to start something new today! I chose this partial skein leftover from a gift knitting project to knit something for myself.

It's a nice, soft blue. Almost a Tiffany blue but muted with speckles in soft brown. As its a smaller skein since I used part of it already, my plan is to knit some shortie socks for the summer.

I'm thinking this is begging to become Rose City Rollers. I have 80 g of yarn remaining which should mean I have 347 yards remaining. That's IF I did the math right and it's entirely possible I did not. But that should mean I have plenty of yarn to knit some shortie socks. 

Here's to hoping that I will get some knitting mojo back with a fun, quick project like this.

All Done, Except for the Fit

Knitting has been a bit thin on the ground lately as Spring cleaning has begun in earnest on the homestead front. Honestly, right now it's so discouraging as so much of the house has been ripped up and looks worse than ever. To keep my sanity I decided to take a little time and knit each day though. Even if it's just 5 minutes before I collapse into bed, I try to squeeze a little knitting in.

To that end I finished a few things this month. First up some beautiful purple ribby socks out of Gritty Knits nom.

Honestly these had been on the needles for months and were the second pair of ribbed socks I had going at once, I'm not sure what the thought process was there. I didn't enjoy knitting ribbing that much! They're done now and while they're in need of a decent blocking, I wore them anyway today for the first time. They fit so well it almost makes me want to cast on more ribbed socks. Almost.

I also started a little colorwork hat out of some leftovers.

I started just making up the pattern and then grabbed a quickie chart from Ravelry called a Norwegian star. I really love how it turned out and the absolutely gorgeous alpaca silk yarn can't be beat. The trouble though? It doesn't fit. It's too small. I can sort of get it on but it's tight and doesn't look good all stretched out. I'm debating whether a complete rip and reknit is necessary (I already wove in the ends. Ugh!) or if a good blocking will help.

While I decide whether I should go to the trouble of undoing the whole blasted thing I decided to cast on something new. I've been pretty good lately on the finishing front so I felt OK with a cast on.

I've been wanting to place an order with Blue Moon Fiber Arts for some time but the lonely single skein I have from them has been languishing for literally years! It's lovely but has a bit too much of yellow and tan in it for me but I made a deal with myself a couple of years ago that the idea was to try out the yarn before I bought more so I should knit it up before I could place another order with them. Over the years I had tried several times to find the right pattern and they always came out 'weird' to me. It mainly has to do with my aversion to pooling and the dyeing of the yarn tends to create pooling in many patterns. I love the squishy yarn though so I just plunged in and cast on a plain, old sock. 

As you can see it striped decently down the leg but then the heel created big blocks of color. I'm resisting ripping it out. That part will be hidden by my shoe anyway. Besides, the idea here is to get it knit up so you don't feel guilty buying more. So just keep knitting right?

Algae - Who Knew?

As I said in my last post I was working hard, knitting away on some socks that I hoped to finish in October so they could count for my HPKCHC Detention.
I knit away and finally finished these lovely socks.

Aren't they great? They're pretty bright but not quite as neon as they appear in this picture. They're Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn in Algae. I can't believe how much I like them. It's an unusual colorway name to me, not something I would normally like but I just adore these socks. 

I knit them toe-up using the Wendy Johnson Sock Templates. I'm not a big toe-up sock person but when it comes to stripey socks, that seems to work well for me. 

I did manage to get them turned in on Saturday so they should count for my turn-ins. 

Now it's a new month and I get to plan a new project! I'm not quite sure what it will be just yet but I do have some ideas.