I tried to start my Angee socks yesterday, but I wasn’t loving how twisted the yarn got, so I’m going to frog the first round and start again. Not much of a loss. I’m knitting with Addi Lace needles, which is a new thing for me. I couldn’t find the circs I used to make Come Dancing, which was for the Super Sekret Sock Exchange thing I did earlier in the year, and I didn’t want to mess up my gauge by using small needles. I like them so far, and I do see how the more pointed tip really makes a difference. So I’m about to start my Angee socks again. I’m really going to try to finish the two pairs of socks this month.

Because I never posted a picture of them:

Come Dancing socks

I was having trouble forcing myself to finish A’s no-purl Monkey socks, and for a while there, I thought that I’d never finish them. Then I was working on them last week and realized that I was pretty frustrated with doing them 2-at-a-time. So I thought about switching to double-pointed needles, but I haven’t worked socks on those for so long that I really wasn’t looking forward to it. I didn’t want to do my socks on the same needle, but I did want to use circs, and I did want to work them simultaneously. I looked through my box-o’circs, and saw that I had another size 2 needle in there (I do not know why I have 2 47″ size 2 needles, but now’s not the time to complain)  so I took one sock off of the original needle and left the mate behind.

Now that I’ve changed to doing the magic loop on two circs, I got a ton finished last night. I really just think that the two-at-a-time method was killing my joy and slowing me down. I finished the final two repeats of the leg (after all those months, I’d only done 4; THAT’s shameful) on the socks, one after the other. Now that I’m doing the heel, I expect these socks to go much quicker.

In other news, my Alpaca Silk Bow Scarf is coming along swimmingly. After delaying the start of this project for a day to buy straight needles, I am calling myself an idiot, since 1) I had size 5 circular needles [which I knew but never even considered] and 2) I discovered that I find straight needles stupid and useless. I used them for the baby hat I made last month, and I don’t remember feeling the same frustration, so maybe I just find them unappealing for this project. I’m just about to get to the chart on the scarf, which means that I will need to start paying attention, but so far the intarsia thing is really working out for me. We’ll see how I feel about it a few rows into the chart.

(A few hours later): Okay, figured out the chart, although I could probably do without the constant yarn changes this pattern requires. I had qualms about the bow before, because I’m really not a bow type of person, and then I saw this post at Reckless Glue, which has pretty much decided me on making some changes. So I will continue with the ribbing throughout, and will not make the scarf 9 feet long, which seems excessive on so many levels. I have no intention of tying this thing in a bow, but maybe I’ll do some more intarsia patterns and deviate from the chart.

Today there’s a post on the front page of MetaFilter entitled simply: Amazon wtf. It includes a link Amazon.com, showing items that have been tagged “wtf” by Amazon.com users. To me, that’s funny enough, but the things tagged therein are truly insane. The first was this  poorly-described (and probably equally poorly-written) pamphlet regarding the evils of Christians using birth control and killing their future priesthood (!!!!). The blurb is in ALL CAPS so that you can feel the combined wrath of the Lord and the holy vessel of this who wrote this. All for the bargain price of $135 for the pamphlet. As usual, come for the crazy, stay for the customer reviews.

I thought that the pamphlet would be the most awesome wtf thing I saw on the site, but then I stumbled upon a book that is far more relevant to me: Knitting with Dog Hair, by Kendall Crolius. Upon seeing it, I almost didn’t know what to say, but then I remembered that speechlessness isn’t really my thing and said “WTF??” The marriage of this product and this tag seems almost cosmically designed, it’s so perfect. Honestly, I can think of about six hundred things I’d rather clean and knit with than dog fur. Who would this even occur to? And to take it as far as writing a book? And publishing it? And then seeing it on Amazon and buying it? This seems like some sort of elaborate joke to me.

I cleaned up last week, not really in honor of Independence Day, but more because I couldn’t stand the sight of my dresser anymore. I decided that there are a few things I want to accomplish in July, and that includes finishing things that I’ve been working on for a long time. Number one on that list is my Op Art blanket, which I’ve been working on since October. The baby it’s for is almost 6 months old; I do feel a little bit ashamed, although previously this shame wasn’t enough to spur me into action.

Over the course of May and June, I slowly worked the final rows of the second color, and tonight I finished the last few rounds with it. I’m up to 720+ stitches, and I frankly don’t understand any of those brave souls who consented to make the larger blanket. Right now I’m about to bind off using the main color. Then I’ll have to worry about the weaving in and the blocking, but for now I’m just going to be proud of this accomplishment.

I’ll rest on my laurels for a day or so, and then get back to the socks I’ve been making for Amy Sue since January. I feel slightly better about those, though, because I warned her ahead of time how slow I can be at finishing things. I want a pair of socks for me, though, and I’m not allowed to have those until I’ve finished hers.

Oh! And I also need to finish the baby beanie that I’m making with the knit group I lead at work. This is our inaugural group project, and it would probably look bad if I didn’t finish it, right?

I was going to make my exchange socks out of Nature’s Palette Fingering yarn, but the two skeins broke approximately 100 times while I was trying to wind them. I now have two quart bags of microballs, and one sandwich bag of all the rest of the string that was too short to even wind. Bummer. I’m glad that I’m seeing this now, but I still find the whole thing so disappointing. I have other yarn that I could use, but I had this picture in my head of how I wanted my socks to look and now I think that this probably will not be how they end up.

The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that this yarn is not the yarn that I was excited about last week. I decided that that yarn would be better used in another project, but that this would be perfect. Stoopid me!

aim-less |ˈāmlis|adjective