The Finishin' O' The Socks!

Yes, they're done! Here are the finished Clessidra socks/stockings:





They are soft, comfortable, and very, very awesome. And I'm not saying that because I knit them. The pattern is brilliant. It's everything you could want in a sweater, but on a sock scale. I thought it would be difficult to keep track of, but there's quite a good rhythm to it once you get going. The leg takes a while with that back cable to do, but the foot zips right along.

Despite two mis-crossed cables that I decided not to worry about, I'm proud of them.

(The yarn is KnitPicks Gloss in Woodland Sage, if I haven't mentioned it before.)

I'm moving right along to...you guess it, more socks! Now that Clessidra's done, it's Pomatomus time!



The start of a Pomatomus in its natural habitat, pattern and all. The only thing I changed was to cast on one less pattern repeat, due to the original size being too large for my already big feet. The yarn is the Koigu I bought at Kaleidoscope Yarns.

I started the socks last night and am already loving the pattern. It looks intimidating, and I've seen a blog or two where they were referenced as being difficult, but so far I've found them to be fairly intuitive. The yarn overs have a habit of disappearing, but that's easily fixed.

The best part? The chart is easy to read and makes sense as the pattern emerges in the knitting. Like Clessidra, it has a rhythm. These are going to be fun socks.

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled weekend.

Time is Not On My Side

The second Clessidra sock is coming along--slowly.

Why is that, you ask? Well, unlike Harry Potter, which can be read without too much emotional investment and generally doesn't elicit huge amounts of squeeing at the turn of every page (for me, anyway), Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series is quite another matter.

After a brief, post-HP rendezvous with one of my favorite Terry Pratchett novels, The Fifth Elephant, I immersed myself in an impatiently-purchased copy of Meyer's latest, Eclipse. And that, ladies and gents, was that for the evening knitting time. The draw of Edward Cullen, alas, surpasses the draw of merino/silk yarn turning from skeins to cables. It is a testament to Meyer's writing and storytelling abilities that a fictional character is able to achieve that.

Now, though, I'm done with the book (*sniffle*), and am taking a short break from the literary world to give the story time to settle in my brain, so my companion while I do my usual evening computer geekery and RPing is once again a Clessidra sock.

But I have a small problem. The startitis is starting to set in again.

My projects this summer have been, mainly, the Clessidra socks and the Red Sweater of Doom. Both have cables, which I like (or, in the case of the Sweater of Doom, can force myself to tolerate), but that means that both are fairly complex and require more of my attention than a plain vanilla sock pattern or easy sweater pattern would. My knitting energy has been greatly reduced by the amount of time needed for both of the projects, and I'm yearning for something new and exciting.

So I've been thinking that I'll treat myself to some Koigu next week when my mom and I venture to VT. It's already been established that we'll be visiting Kaleidoscope Yarns. (You may remember them from this Knitting Pirates post.) It's an incredible shop, and they stock a heck of a lot of Koigu and Cherry Tree Hill, both wonderfully wonderful sock yarns that I don't normally buy because of the price. However, vacation is vacation, and it's only so often that a knitter on a small budget gets to visit such a groovy out-of-town shop.

Once I decided on getting the Koigu, I started thinking about what to knit with it. It had to be a good pair of socks, one worthy of the amount of money out of my meager monthly salary that I'm going to be doling out for the yarn. This couldn't be your run-of-the-mill sock pattern that I make every time I get a ball of self-striping superwash.

No, it couldn't be plain. It had to be...the Pomatomus socks.

After how much time and energy I've already put into Clessidra, I must, must be insane to attempt these. I have a feeling that there will be much growling and ripping out of rows. I hope there won't be, but...

It has a chart.

I am insane.

Mood: tiredish
Music: They Might Be Giants - Withered Hope

Why the Week Wasn't Wasted

So, like many others, I spent rather a lot of my time recently reading that book about a certain boy wizard. As usual, or at least as usual since the fourth one came out, I was massively disappointed by it.

However, the time wasn't entirely a waste. Why, you ask?



Sock #1 of the set is done! Just grafted the toe tonight, and I'm planning on taking a little break from the complexity to work on the second sleeve of the Sweater of Doom. Then I'm right back at it for sock #2!

These are going to be so awesome to wear come fall.

The Lack of Caffeine

After staying up until sometime after 5am, I have determine that, while watching House DVDs into the wee hours of the morning can be fun, it's not conducive to actually accomplishing anything the next day.

However, before I retired to bed with laptop in hand to watch yet another hour of Hugh Laurie doing his sarcastic comedy thing, I did work on these:



One sock, two different views. These are the lovely and mind-boggling Clessidra socks from Knitty. At first glance, I thought they were going to be ridiculously hard and take a lot of concentration, but now that I've been through the cable pattern several times, I've gotten into the rhythm of it. These are going to be a lot of fun. I even ordered a pair of black Crocs in which to show them off when they're done.

Oh, and the yarn is KnitPicks' Gloss in Woodland Sage. 70% merino wool, 30% silk...it's the softest sock yarn I've knit with yet. I'm going to be so spoiled after this, it might be hard to go back to regular old self-striping!

In other news, check it out! The Red Sweater of Doom has a back!



I'm going to need to block the heck out of it to get the top and bottom to match, widthwise. I have a feeling that I should have done some decreases after the cabling, but since the pattern didn't call for them, I can only hope that it's meant to look a little whonky at first. Then again, with the way this sweater and I have been getting along, you never know...

Speaking of cabling, here's the leaf cable up close:



It is a very nice cable pattern, just about worth the time it takes to knit...but only just. I'm hoping that the front will take less time now that I have the entire chart written out.

Backtracking to sock knitting for a moment, Stephanie of Wool 'n Word fame is starting a sock club! The initial post about it is here; keep an eye on her blog for more details. I'm betting her sock club will be just as great as her shop.

That's all for now. Onward and upward to more sock knitting! (Oh yeah, and check out Ravelry.)

Black holes

No, not the kind you learn about in science class.

The knitting kind.



I have been working on this on and off all day. It measured about 20" when I started.

I knit while on the computer. I knit while taking a break from working. I knit at open mike.

It still measures 20".

And to think I was trying to make peace with this thing. *headdesk*

Sweaters and Startitis

I'm going to start this post with a picture of my dad's Father's Day present:



It's the Spartan Pullover from the Fall '06 issue of Interweave Knits. I know what you're thinking...a fairly hefty, black sweater in June?? I initially meant for it to be a Christmas present, but with one thing and another, I wasn't able to get the yarn for it until recently.

The only modification I made to the pattern was to pick up stitches at the armhole and knit the sleeves in the round. It saved on a lot of time and seaming (say it with me: YAY!), which is probably part of the reason why I was able to finish it on time. I used Caron Simply Soft Quick because 1) my mom's allergic to wool so I couldn't have my dad going around in a wool sweater, and 2) I know how tightly I knit, and worsted never would've gotten me anything close to gauge.

About 3/4 of the way through the sweater, I was hit by a bout of startitis and cast on these:



I've been knitting them at every opportune moment since then. I didn't keep the ball band, so I can't say what yarn it is, but I really love the color. It makes me think of earth, sky, and water. These are for me, to add to the collection of socks that I have yet to find a way to show off. (I've been thinking of getting some Crocs, but I hesitate to pay what they ask for a pair of rubber shoes...)

I haven't decided on what my next major project is going to be. The rust-red cardigan is on hold until I can locate more yarn for it. I have some ribbon yarn from Stephanie's last yarn sale that I've been planning to make a tank top out of, and since it's been so hot, I think that might be what I cast on next. Then again, maybe I should concentrate on the Red Sweater of Doom until it's finished.

*pause*

Hahahaha, seriously though, I'll come up with something over the next couple of days!

Mood: a bit tired
Music: Sims background

Heirloom Aran!

This is going to be a really quick post, but it's big news.

What big news, you ask?

Well...



It's done! The Heirloom Aran is now well and truly finished, blocked, and all that jazz. The blocking evened it out a lot, and the yarn, as seems to be the case with superwash, softened up a lot. The seams are less stiff, the cables I had to correct are less ragged-looking...all in all, I'm happy with it.

Two months of very dedicated knitting. Needless to say, I'm working on something a lot easier now. Pictures of that soon.

Mood: happy

Pictureless progress

The Heirloom Aran is coming along well. I finished the front a while ago and the first sleeve tonight. This is the first time I've done saddle shoulders, and I think they'll prove interesting when it comes time to sew the thing together. Sleeve #2 is on the needles, but my enthusiasm for it is beginning to wane.

Sleeve #2 for the Red Sweater of Doom is also on the needles. I put in a call to the pattern's publisher last week for assistance with the leaf cable chart and never heard back, so I'll have to call them again at some point.

Yarn for the sweater that was supposed to be Dad's Christmas present (and is now scheduled to be a Father's Day present) is here. Yey for acrylic that's actually soft! I'd make it out of wool if not for my mom's allergies, and cotton that size would have been rather more expensive than my bank account would like to contemplate.

Have The Prestige out of the library again, and am also in possession of the new Yarn Harlot book. Hopefully the Aran will leave me some time to read both of them!

Music: Three Dog Night - Shambala
Mood: hopeful

Progress and Regression

Progress on the Heirloom Aran! This is the back, finished a couple of days ago after many, many hours of M*A*S*H, Perry Mason, Stitch & Bitch, and Red Dwarf. (I watch far too much television while knitting.) I'm proud of it and happy with the way it came out, with the exception of one tiny little mis-crossed cable that I'm not obsessive-compulsive enough to bother to try and fix. I doubt anybody is going to be standing in line behind me at the grocery store, looking for mistakes in my sweater.

Remember my nemesis, the Red Sweater of Doom? I finished the increases on the sleeve I've been working on. I started knitting the straight part. I got to 17.5" of the 18" I'm supposed to have before binding off. Then tonight I measured it again and I somehow have 17.25". Not only is this sweater a major pain in the butt, it also apparently has some kind of shrinking powers designed specially to drive me crazy!

More soon. Now, time for Lost, and the continuing battle with my nemesis...

Yarn Sales Do Wonders For Your Wallet (or not)

Before I go into detail about the stash I should not have acquired today, some project updates:



The Harvey Kimono for Girls from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. I saw a picture of it in a recent KnitPicks catalog and just had to make it. So I dug into the stash for some wool and knit it up during some online chatting and way, way too much Jeeves & Wooster.



Some actual progress on my nemesis, the Red Cotton Sweater of DOOM. (Remember when I bought the yarn for this?) As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been knitting this when I need mindless knitting, such as during Lost or particularly confusing episodes of Perry Mason. It's also good for when I'm tired and want something easy to work on. Thus far, I haven't made any large amount of progress, but it's coming along. I won't discuss the messed up moss stitch row that required me to rip back several inches. Just another battle in the war I'm waging with this thing.



I had a battle with this, too (read: mis-crossed cables) that led to a couple of places looking a bit off, but I'm planning on fixing those when I block. This is the start of the back to the Heirloom Aran Pullover from KnitPicks. It has the largest amount of cabling of anything I've knit so far, and I'm really enjoying it. It's great to watch the pattern emerge, and I've been able to become familiar with it over the course of the first couple of full pattern repeats, so it's becoming much easier to work on it while doing other things and still have it come out right. I'm looking forward to wearing this when it's done, though it'll probably be finished and blocking sometime during the summer, so it may be a while before I have that pleasure.

As for stash acquisition...



The wonderful Stephanie once again brought out the knitters of West Sand Lake/Averill Park/Sand Lake by having a $2/ball yarn sale on a good third to half of her inventory. Needless to say, I went a little more crazy than I had originally been intending to and bought 20 balls of amazing yarn that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford.

Pictured above: Jo Sharp in both a mohair blend (in the middle) and a wool/silk/cashmere blend (on the left). On the right, a tape/ribbon yarn, the brand name of which escapes me, but which was pretty enough to attract my attention despite my usual wariness of novelty yarn. I have vague plans for all of them. Never mind that I have a huge queue of projects yet to knit! Yarn is yarn, right?

Note to Harlot fans and fellow knitters in general: Be sure to check out the Yarn Harlot's Represent tour. She's going to a lot of neat places, and I think it would be awesome for every knitter possible to show up at each of her stops.

All for now. Knit on!

Mood: tired but knitterly (again!)
Music: Michael Nesmith - Two Different Roads