Begone, accursed yarn.

I screwed up the stupid sock again. This is the same yarn that I had been trying to use for the Istanbul sock, and I am now convinced that it is cursed, jinxed or some other very bad thing. And on top of that, it's black and splitty and it is going straight into the garbage. Some socks do not deserve to live.

I have started a shawl using LB Moonlight Mohair and a feather and fan pattern. It is turning out rather well. I intend to donate it to a silent auction to benefit the daughters' gymnastics team. There's no telling whether it will even earn back the cost of the yarn, but I am hoping that the glitz/fuzz factor will be high enough to attract some bids. But perhaps I should stay far away from it today as I seem to be in Screwing Up Everything I Touch mode at the moment.

Not that I'm frustrated or anything.

Socks.

Well, folks, if there is a way to complete a heel and gusset on one needle it is beyond my comprehension. I managed the heel flap and turn without giving myself a mental hernia, but picking up gusset stitches eluded me and I had to haul out the dpns. I'm leaving it on the dpns till the decreases are finished and then I'm going to put it back on the circ for the rest of the foot. At least, that's the plan as of this moment. As always, my plans are subject to change without notice.

In stash news, I ordered some Trekking XXL from Judy at Double Diamond Knits. She is selling five different coloured balls for $60 US/$65-something CDN, and they look awfully pretty. Months ago I bought Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Simple Socks Plain and Fancy and shelved it in mild disgust when I realized her technique was toe-up. Ew. But I've decided to dedicate one of the balls of Trekking to mastering the PGR sock. Another one is going to be done on two circs. I am feeling intrepid.

What I am not feeling is productive. My charity group has its monthly meeting this Sunday and I have accomplished exactly nothing since the September meeting. I am maybe 2/3 of the way through the body of the baby blanket (edging yet to come), and I have made two afghan squares. I'm wondering if I could crank out a hat or two over the next couple of days just so I can say I've finished something. Too bad they don't accept socks.

Old dog, new trick

Or Death of a UFO.

Many moons ago I started my very first Sock Of The Every Other Month from Red Bird Knits. It was a beautiful stranded pattern called Istanbul, but this pattern and I simply did not get along. Yesterday I made a last-ditch effort to rescue our relationship but somewhere in the gusset I had to admit it was over. I abandoned the lovely Istanbul and decided to reclaim the yarn for another project.

This morning I opened my Socknitters digests to find a spirited discussion about Magic Loop. It so happens that I have a 2 mm 40-inch circular (how's that for mixed measurements?) that I bought for the Magickal Earth shawl. I won't need the circ until I've finished the edging (now on 4th rep of 48) so I decided to give Magic Loop a whirl with the reclaimed yarn. And here she is.



It really didn't call for a whole lot of learning. I had a quick glance at these instructions, which make it all look ridiculously simple, and also took a quick look at the beginning of the video on this page (scroll down to small diameter circular knitting), and cast on.

I am a stubborn old dog and have vowed many times never to give up my dpns, but I have to admit that there's a lot to recommend this technique. I kinda enjoy the novelty of not impaling myself on the needles as I move the yarn back and forth for ribbing. I like being able to knit half the stitches on one needle rather than a quarter of them. Feels like I'm zipping along faster, though I promise you I will never, ever bother to time myself. The drawback is having to pull the stitches back to the other needle tip twice per round.

I haven't got my head around how the heel and toe will work yet, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. One of these days, assuming the honeymoon continues, I'll try doing both socks on the same needle.

Shawl details

Ruth asked whether the shawl about which I have been blathering is from A Gathering of Lace, reminding me that I have been negligent of late in giving vital information. So here we go.

Yes, Magickal Earth is from A Gathering of Lace and it was designed by Sandy Terp. The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr and I am using 2 mm (US size 0) needles. I'm using two sock needles to do the edging. When it's time to pick up stitches for the inside (that will be in the year 2017) I will be switching to my brand-new Addi Turbos. I know a lot of people don't like Addis for lace, but I used them for Creatures of the Reef last year and didn't have much trouble. In the smaller sizes I think the points are good enough.

Am now into the third rep of the chart. Only 45 1/2 to go.

Good news and bad news.

The good news: I am delighted with the work I've done on the Magickal Earth shawl.



The bad news: I've completed two (2) out of forty-eight (48) repeats of the edging chart.

There are two lace patterns going on here, one a 12-row repeat and the other a 16-row repeat, charted over 48 rows to be repeated 48 times. It will be intriguing to see how long it takes my feeble grey matter to process the patterns. It wasn't until I reached the foot of the second ribbed lace sock that I had that "Eureka!" moment when you realize you know what's going to come next and things start to move along a little faster. Predictably, after two repeats on the shawl edging the pattern is still a great foggy mystery to me. I should hope it will make sense by the time I get to, say, the 37th repeat.

I am going to cast on my September sock of the month when it gets here. I need to work on something that might be finished within my lifespan.

Check out all the dog hair.

Funny how one can become oblivious to clutter or dog hair or whatever one wallows in from day to day until one sees it in a photo. You can even see one white hair stuck to the cuff of the sock. The black hair and the white hair are all from the same dog, a German shepherd. Of course she has lots of tan hair too, so she can make her presence felt on any colour.

Oh yeah, and the ribbed lace socks are DONE! They turned out pretty well, although quite, quite fraternal. Which really doesn't bother me. If someone wants to spend their time worrying about matching the stripes in my socks, well, they have bigger problems than I do.

I tried a couple of new tricks in this sock: the eye of partridge heel, which did not show up well in any of the pictures so I gave up on it, and on the second sock -- the one with the yellow toe -- I slipped the outermost stitches over their neighbours before kitchenering. I think it did help to smooth out the corners.

Anyway. I am pleased to announce that this completes my Second Sock Completion Blitz. I am trying not to think about the first sock that sits half-finished in the bin.

Here is my problem. Yes, another one.

I am not a patient person. And it is entirely possible that my attention span is deficient.

I resent every single knitting project I begin because whatever I am working on right now is preventing me working on something else. I have the same problem with books. I eagerly start each new book only to be frustrated halfway through because there are so many other books waiting.

This might explain the proliferation of WIPs and the stack of half-read books beside my bed.

Current object of my impatience and resentment is, naturally, the second ribbed lace sock. I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. It started to glimmer as I finished the heel and became quite visible at the end of the gusset. I am going to finish this sucker this week (Sunday still counts as this week, my calendar notwithstanding). I will post a picture of one pair of completed socks by this time next week. And then I will select another WIP or UFO to be my next Object of Resentment.

In search of A Plan

This always happens to me. I hope it happens to other people too or I will feel even more freakish than usual. My problem is as follows: I have heaps of yarn. I have countless patterns. And none of it goes together.

I do not have patterns to go with my yarn. I do not have yarn to go with my patterns. If the pattern says fingering, I have DK. If it says four balls, I have three. If I have worsted, I only have patterns for sportweight.

I said I was going to cast on a baby set, but cannot match up yarn to pattern. It is making me bats. Am going back to my crocheting until I cool down and come up with A Plan.

Galloping Inferiority

OK, that's it. I give up. I surrender. I am inferior and will never ever measure up.

I went to my charity group meeting today and was absolutely overwhelmed -- again -- by the talent and productivity of these people. One amazing lady who joined the group at the same time I did had contributed a huge sack of the most gorgeous knitting: blankets, baby clothes, all different stitches, different patterns, beautiful colour combinations. And when asked where she gets her patterns, she replied with a heavy accent, "In my head."

Holy freakin' crud. Excuse my language.

I contributed one shopping bag that was mostly full and thought I was doing well. I did one small knit blanket, one crib-sized crocheted blanket, nine preemie hats, one baby outfit and one baby sweater. The aforementioned lady could have done that in an afternoon. Blindfolded, with one needle, standing on her head and in the middle of a 40-day fast.

Well, I had hoped that the meeting would inspire me and it certainly did. Made me feel like a slug, but an inspired slug. Am off to cast on a new baby set.

I am very tired of second socks.

I'm having one of those weeks where my efforts at self-discipline result in my getting absolutely nothing done. I tell myself that I have one more ribbed lace sock to go -- yes, that will make two, but somehow it feels like more -- and then I can move on to other things. I don't want to knit the freakin' ribbed lace sock, though, so I'm avoiding knitting entirely.

This is unproductive in the extreme.

The trouble is that this sock is ribbing from cuff to toe. If I had been sufficiently astute to realize this before I started (don't even ask how I missed it, I guess the constant K1, P1 wasn't blatant enough for me) I probably wouldn't have started this project at all. As I have mentioned before, I Do Not Like Ribbing.

Perhaps I will permit myself to resume work on the barely started shawl. I don't think I've knit a stitch on it since my last report. My charity group meets this Sunday and maybe that will get me going again. On something. Possibly something useful. Who knows.

One second sock done!

They're not exciting but they're finished. Paton's Kroy in Tutti-Frutti and yer basic no-pattern pattern. Photographed in my youngest daughter's room because that room scored the 2006 slot in the vacuuming rotation.



One more second sock to go and then I'm more or less caught up. By that I mean that I will not have any first socks done. I still have countless first socks not done. The upside of that is that I don't have to worry about those second ones yet.

I'm confusing myself.

Currently OTN is the second ribbed lace sock. And of course the Magickal Earth shawl, of which I have knit about 3" of edging. God help me.