I’ve finished 3 projects in the last 10 days. How? By picking them carefully. The first was actually a pair of socks that I’d been working on for a month. The fastest I’ve ever made a pair of socks is 6 days, and while I liked the way they came out, I would have gone nuts if I had to try to replicate that pace approximately 8 times in a month and a half. So my idea from my last post, that I’d do socks for everybody for Christmas, has gone far, far away. Instead, I hit upon something fun and easy: hats! I love hats, and the other two projects that I recently finished were both hats. The great thing about hats is that there is a ton of variety and changing fabrics and colors can really renew your interest in the category of hats as a whole. Plus, I’ve received 3 (two credible) requests for hats recently, so I know that they’re useful and appreciated.
Because hats are faster and easier to make, I’ve expanded my list, and now have about 12 people for whom I’d like to make hats. That means I need to make tracks, because Christmas is just over a month away. I’ll have to up the pace I’ve been keeping to make this happen. Whee!
Vogue Knitting Magazine is having a sale on all of their patterns, which is kind of awesome. There are lots of pretty things that I’d love to knit if I had unlimited time and an endless yarn budget. Here are some patterns that I like:
Then there are things that I would have to be already dead to be seen in.
Basically, aside from the knitting Meetups that I conduct once or twice a month, I haven’t knit at all since May. I can’t even contemplate working with yarn when it’s over 90 degrees, and it has only dropped under that for maybe a week since late spring. I want to finish my awesomely pretty sweater, though, so I may suck it up and get going again soon. We shall see.
Here’s a great short film about how to be on your own. I love my own company, and I can’t always stand to be around other people. A lot of people I know can’t do anything on their own, which I think is sad, but the next time somebody asks me why I like to go off on my own, I’m going to show him or her this video.
I am working on two baby blankets right now, for friends who are going to be welcoming their first children in 2010. For reasons I can no longer remember, I decided to go with Madeline Tosh Worsted yarn. I bought it from Webs. I used the colorways Fjord and Clematis. The Fjord came right away and the colors of the 4 skeins I received were pretty similar. The Clematis skeins were backordered, and arrived after three and a half weeks. When I did get them, they weren’t at all consistent, and two of the skeins look nearly navy or black, while the other two are nicely variegated. This is an annoying but not impossible set of circumstances to fix. Still, I am shaking my fist at the losers at Webs who gave me four non-matching skeins of yarn. I understand that they’re hand-dyed, but I’m pretty sure that they’re matched by humans, and whoever put this order together probably could have done a better job at making sure my four skeins matched.
I have not fallen off the face of the planet. I knit a bit in November when I traveled to South Carolina for a funeral, but mostly read in my spare time, hence the lack of posts here.
Pattern: River Rapids by Sockbug
I finished these babies in less than one week! Yeah, that’s right. I’m feeling pretty proud of myself right now. They’re super cute and the pattern was a breeze. I didn’t have to pay too much attention, and even decided to spice things up with a 4×4 ribbed heel (which came out SO nicely)!
The recipient seemed to really like them, so I hope she wasn’t just trying to spare my feelings. I love the way these came out, and am fairly sure that I will be making myself a pair!
Also, I am now a rockstar at kitchener stitch. I can do it in less than 10 minutes with no mistakes and without missing anything in Batman.
My Angeeeee! socks are all finished, and I love them. They’re super cute and they’re warm; what else could I ask for in a pair of socks? I got the next Rockin Sock Club pattern, Knetting (although on my sheet it says Knetted) on Saturday, just in time for it to be my new project. I’m getting started on that now. Yay for progress!
