Bad Juju

Last night was one of those "Bad Knitting Juju" evenings that befalls us all from time to time. You know, when absolutely nothing goes according to plan and you feel like you couldn't knit a garter stitch square to save your life???

It started when I sat down to write a blog post. I had edited and loaded my pictures, but the, you know... writing part of writing the post just wasn't happening. I would write something, decide it was stupid/boring/irrelevant and delete it, only to re-write the exact same thing 5 minutes later. What made it all the more frustrating was that I felt that I was "wasting valuable knitting time!!!" (pretty sure that didn't help get the creative juices flowing...).

After being, shall we say, less than amiable (hah!) on the phone with my father, I decided the sensible, grownup thing would be to retire, regroup, and take a whack at the post tomorrow. I made a cup of tea, put on a Buffy episode (Season 6, Seeing Red, in case anyone cares), and sat down with my current WIP, Galileo , the Solid Socks Mystery KAL for February/March. I'm knitting both socks concurrently, one clue at a time, and I was pretty sure I could wrap up the first sock before going to bed.

So there I sat, with my tea and my Buffy, knitting away contentedly. I noticed that there seemed to be more yarn in the cake than I remembered, but didn't pay it much mind. After a few rows, I also noticed that I seemed to be consistently off in my stitch count for the sole. For some reason, I couldn't seem to count properly, because I knew for a fact there were only 35 stitches on the sole, and yet I was always getting more than that. Like... way more.

Did I stop knitting and just count the f*$*ing sole stitches??? Of course not! I kept soldiering on, thinking I must "just not be counting right", because how else could I consistently be arriving at a stitch count of 49 stitches when THERE WERE ONLY 35 STITCHES ON THE SOLE???

By knitting on the second "standby" sock, the one that hadn't completed it's gusset decreases, that's how.

My frustration level, which apparently had just been lying in wait, shot WAY up at that point, because that was even MORE valuable knitting time WASTED!!!

I grabbed the correct sock and yanked yarn out of the flaccid, almost empty cake. This seems to have offended the cake considerably, because it responded by barfing up a tangled mess of yarn vomit that it took me the better part of an hour to sort through.

*Sigh*

Those Knitting Fates, man. Sometimes they just like to pull the wool out from under you and kick you in the crotch for good measure, am I right?

All's well that ends well, though. Pig-headed obstinate Determined as I was to salvage the evening, I stuck to my guns and finished the sock.

No word on whether it fits, however. I didn't want to risk it.

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

It went well

When I first started blogging, I promised myself that I would be a "good" blogger. My posts would be funny/witty/quirky/charming/thought-provoking, feature beautiful photography, and - this totally goes without saying - be published on a regular basis. Chalk it up to the crazy idealism of a newbie, but I didn't want to be one of those bloggers who's posts could be summarized by: I knit a sock. It went well.

That being said... it's been almost 3 weeks since my last post, and as merino is my witness, I can't seem to come up with something witty, charming, quirky, funny or thought provoking to save my LIFE. So... um... yeah.


I knit a sock.

Two of them, in fact. As one does, you know. With socks.

It went fairly well.

{Head Desk}

pattern: It's Tea Time, by Stephanie van der Linden
Source: Around the World in Knitted Socks: 26 Inspired Designs
Yarn: Sincere Sheep Keen, in the Milpa colourway
Needles: 2.25 mm
Modifications: none

According to my Ravelry projects, this is the 35th pair I've knit. Fascinating, non?

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Cuba

I just convinced myself that, rather than spend the next hour knitting furiously in a futile attempt to finish a sock by 11 PM EST in order to qualify for the February Solid Sock drawing, I ought to take a moment to tell y'all about our trip to Cuba. Personal growth, people. You read about it here first.


So! Cuba. If you'd told me we would be taking a family trip to Cuba 6 weeks ago, I would have thought you were completely off your rocker. I just started a new job, finances are tight, and well... Phil always had a *thing* against going to Cuba. He considered it to be... tacky.


Be that as it may, turns out all it took to change his mind was his daughter saying Pretty Please whilst batting her extra long eyelashes, and the tickets were as good as booked. And once my Super-Duper New Boss Extraordinaire ^TM gave me the time off, well... we were on our way.


It had been a while since I'd escaped the winter like that, and Oh My... was it ever lovely. A beautiful beach, warm sand between your toes, cool water on your skin. *Heaven*


Really though, there isn't much to tell. We didn't really do much, you know? Our toughest decisions were about whether we should go to the pool or the beach first. We built sand castles, collected sea shells, read books...


Oh, and I managed to fit in some knitting too :)


Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Apologies for the radio silence but...

We've been rather busy :)

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Quickies

While in Myrtle Beach last summer, I briefly found myself in fabric heaven. It was our last day, and we had a few hours to kill, so we did some shopping. My local fabric store isn't much to write home about, so I wasn't expecting much. But DUDES, this place was WAY beyond anything I've experienced at home. Bolts and bolts of fabric EVERYWHERE, all modern and pretty and organized by colour... Oh, it was glorious. I remember wanting to spend HOURS in this place, but with 2 cherubs following me around and whining about being hungry/thirsty/hot/tired/needing to pee... it was, shall we say... challenging.

To buy myself a bit of time (not to mention the good graces of the shop keepers!), I let each of the kids choose a fat quarter of fabric of their very own. Whichever one they wanted, I'd buy it for them. And we'd use it to make something for them "later".

Weeks went by. Months, even. But they didn't forget. Every once in a while, they'd pull out their fabric and ask me when I was going to make something for them. "What about my fabric, maman? When will you make something with my fabric?".

*Sigh*

I finally cracked this weekend, and made each of them a lined drawstring pouch, using Jeni's pattern (from In Color Order).



I made the Snack Size bag, which took me maybe 25 minutes per bag, including cutting time. The kids seem happy with them, even though I was a wee bit disappointed with the finished size myself (probably should have read the actual measurements in the pattern first, huh? I mean, there are 16 size options, fps). Émilie, especially, seems to be making the most of it.


Some bling, a pair of shades... what else does a modern girl on the go need?

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

Ripple Effect

Apologies for the hiatus, friends. It's been a busy few weeks chez Dear, friends (understatement!!!), and I'm so tired I can barely see straight, so it's a real tribute to my love and appreciation of this here blog that I'm even posting at all...

Without further ado, I present the second official FO to finally come off the needles: a pair of Fleece Artist thrum socks, a woefully belated Christmas gift for my stepmum Margot.


Let me just say this: I absolutely *despise* knitting these f***ing things. Hate it. After the first few rounds, the "charm" of the multi-coloured thrums loses what pitiful appeal I had deluded myself into thinking they had, and I want to snip the fledgling sock into a zillion wee bits and set them on fire. Don't ask me why. I just really, really REALLY hate knitting these things. But I knit them anyway. You know... once every 2 or 3 years, when I can finally suppress the gag reflex these f***ers inspire. 'Cause that's just the kind of awesome stepdaughter I am, you know? Heh.

Suffice it to say that, once I was finally done with these never-ending time sucks of doom socks, I had a mean hankering to knit ANY SOCK WHATSOEVER AS LONG AS IT WASN'T THRUMMED. In the next few days, I cast on not one, but TWO pairs. Considering my strict-ish policy about project monogamy, that should tell you something about how far out of my comfort zone those Socks of Evil pushed me.

Sock cast on The First:


Solid Socks Mystery KAL, designed by Laura Jenkins, knit with Sweet Georgia Tough Love in the Tourmaline colourway. Colour is way, WAY off in this picture, but hey, that's life.

Sock cast on The Second:


It's Tea Time socks, from Around the World in Knitted Socks, by Stephanie Van der Linden. Knit with The Sincere Sheep Keen 100% BFL Superwash in the Milpa colourway. Really digging these at the moment.

The recent cast-ons are helping me recover with the trauma of the thrummed socks, but I don't know what I'm completely over it yet. Maybe I should cast on for a cowl...

Happy Knitting, Everyone!

First

Yesterday, January 29th, I finally got around to creating a Finished Objects set for the year in Flickr. That means it took me almost an entire month to have a finished object. Considering how profuse some knitters are, not to mention how I used to be, I've got to say... it bugged me a little bit. I kept thinking "Seriously? Here we are, almost February, and this is all I've got? One pair of socks?".

At least these aren't your run of the mill socks though...

Pattern: Aphrodite, by Jeannie Cartmel
Yarn: Springtree Road Emeline Sock (50% Merino, 50% Silk)
Colour: Chartreux
Needles: 2.5 mm
Technique: knit on 2 circulars
Cast on date: January 12, 2012
Cast off date: January 28, 2012

I knit these beauties as part of the Solid Socks monthly Mystery Sock KAL on Ravelry. I got a wee bit confused and thought I could partake of both the Mystery Sock AND the Color of the Month KAL (which was Black/White/Grey for January), but apparently I can't do that... No matter though. These socks are made of total frickin' awesome, in my humble opinion.


Oh yeah... that's the stuff right there. Just look at those stitches! Ooh baby...

*Ahem*

Next month's colour of the month is "Spring". In February. Since I doubt the group's organizers mean us to knit with dirty white, icy grey or dull brown (such is the colour of February in Montreal), I pulled the following candidate skeins out of the stash:

Anyone have any favourites?

Happy Knitting, Everyone!