Giving Socks Another Go

After much, much, much searching for a toe-up pattern I could do with two circs, I finally gave up and went with good old fashioned cuff-down on DPNs. (Though I did manage to learn the Turkish cast-on technique, which totally ROCKS my socks.) The above is the "Pretty Petals" pattern from the yahoo Townsend Socks Knitalong (this KAL list has GREAT patterns). I just finished the first repeat of the lace pattern ... I'll keep it up tonight as long as my fingers will allow. :D

I also got several. more. inches. of mock rib done on the circle shrug today. Those craftsters weren't kidding when they said it takes FOREVER.

And here's a cute and random picture of my DS sleeping on my DH:

Back to the Frog Pond (*&%^$!!!!)

Here's the awesome progress I've been making working on this one sock exclusively for the last FOUR DAYS.


Here's the sock I've been working on exclusively for four days after I frogged the heel three times, and finally succeeded in turning the heel! Yay!


And here's the sock I worked on exclusively for four days, after I tried it on and realized it didn't fit *me* - let alone DH.

*sigh*

Well, I have two more balls of sock yarn which are un-touched and almost identical to the colorway above (I don't want to re-knit a gift for DH with yarn that's been frogged, I'll keep it for my own socks which will get knit....eventually).

Gettin' Whipped by the WIPs

Shhhh...it's a pair of socks I cast-on today for DH for Father's Day. After three failed attempts at a toe-up pattern, I gave-up and went to the cuff-down. I'll try the toe-up next time (four skeins of sock yarn waiting in the wings). And here is yet another WIP ... my halfway-there circle shrug! This was supposed to be a simple stash-buster, but so far it's eaten through 3.25 balls of WOTA! I may have to order more just to finish it.
Oh yeah, and a pair of knitted wool shorties I'm working on for DS.

And last but not least, the goddamed never-ending ripple shawl for my mother-in-law. Well, it should be done by the time it's cold in Turkey again. :D

Dyed Yarn

I've been wanting to do a sunset colorway for a while. So, I picked up some Fisherman's Wool...watched an episode of Soprano's whilst wrapping all 440 yards of it around a chair in 3 different parts. I dyed it with Wilton's cake dye, and baked each skein in the oven at 350 degrees. I'm marginally happy with how it turned-out. The orange skein is for accent yarn. I had some dye pooling issues because Fisherman's is SO resistant to water and it took so much dye to get it to take to the wool.

Then I watched the dyeing episode of Knitty Gritty and realized I should have soaked the wool in vinegar prior to dyeing to prevent color pooling. I have a skein of Paton's Classic Merino which I'm planning to dye with this in mind. :)

Cheatin' on Knittin'

Here's my fancy new curtains!

Check out the fabric:

Circle Shrug

I'm currently working on the circle shrug. The ribbing is taking forever. I really didn't realize how long extensive ribbing took (I've only done 2 inches or so at a time previously). Also, for the cast-on, in accordance with the formula used in the pattern, I cast-on 238 stitches! So, as you can imagine the rows are taking a long time. At the end of this ribbing the number of stitches is halved, so the middle section will go a lot faster. I'm about 4.5in into the ribbing, which stops at 5in.

Take THAT, yarn!

[Stupid blogger photo thing isn't working. Insert pic of yarn ball being tortured here.]

I have frogged the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet three. goddamned. times. It's not a hard pattern. The yarn isn't thin, the needles aren't small, it's not on DPNs.

So, what's my problem?

My yarn is cursed. Ever have that? This has happened before, and I've been known to snip 10-20 yards off after frogging several times. And...voila! No more curse. An FO usually appears within a couple days.

I'm not snipping this yarn. I'm going to stick it in a box or a closet or something and make sure it thinks about what it's done. You're grounded.

So, while the cursed yarn is in time-out, I'm going to cast-on either the circular shrug @ la craftster (which is down for maintenance for the 854,326th time today) or this lovely wrap with sleeves in lilac. Mmmmmm...

[Later that day...]

I cast-on this GD wrap in suri dream by knitpicks, and now I'm questioning my sanity. Perhaps it is not the yarn that is cursed after all. It's ME! The gosh darn fisherman's rib is just killin me. I think I'll find another project for this yarn.