SockTart

Mmmkay. So. Picked up my stitches at least 2 or 3 inches back. Immediately began my increases. I’m back at the 7-inch mark. I’m about 1/3 of the way to where I need to be. It appears that even with “fingering weight” yarn and my trusty size 1 Addis…my gauge is shot. Shot to (pardonnez-moi mon francais) shit. This sock will need to be done on my size 0 needles. And as I’m not about to restart it right now, I guess that I’ll have to find another project to play with.

If I didn’t say it before, let me say it again: Kerfuckedy.

This yarn is cursed, I tell you. Cursed.

I think I mentioned that this is the 4th or 5th time I’ve cast on using this yarn, right?  The picture over there?  Is after 4 gusset increases.  I stopped in the right place, started my increases in the right place…and the sock is too damned long.

What’s a girl to do?  Pick up stitches farther back and begin the rip.  Pisses me off…this means losing at least 4 inches of work.  Per sock.  Kerfuckedy!

Stoopid Regia Sock :(  Better be worth it when they’re done, damnit!

(as an aside, I had myself some slow-cooked porridge for breakfast.  OMG…that stuff sticks right with you!  It’s been about 2 or 3 hours, and I’m holding in really well.  This GI thing might actually work!)

Somehow I picked up a little bug.  Sore throat, bit of a cough, etc.  Hit me last night at T’s Whiskey Night.   Robin has gone to the Sev to get me a Slurpee and some ice-cream for my throat, so hopefully I’ll be back up to snuff soonish.  It’s either that or OD on the Bennelyn (sp?) and/or Buckleys (shudder).

Potential Kara raid today!  Hopefully we’ll have more in the way of what we need in regards to character classes so that we can do more than just one boss.  Squee!

Knitting with the Dreaded Regia Cotton again.  This is something like the fourth time I’ve tried to use this particular ball of yarn.  Here’s hoping that it’s the last time, hey?  2 Jaywalkers at once, magic looped, toe-up with heel flap.  I’m almost convinced that this yarn is cursed.  At least it’s something to do while Robin plays around with Mass Effect.  The boys at work were right…game is addictive.  I’m enjoying watching the story unfold as I knit away.

‘kay. So the Jaywalkers were cast off around noon this afternoon. While watching the last episode of Dexter, Season 1.

We got addicted to the show a few days ago. Watched a couple of episodes on OnDemand, then found out that they only had the first four episodes of season one, and the first couple of episodes of season two. Sooo…we went on a quest to find Dexter, Season One on DVD.

After a full morning of searching, we finally found it at our local Blockbuster…usually the place we’d check first, but we’d thought maybe Wally World would have it. Riiiight. Not. But it is now ours, and we’re now happily finished watching it. And the socks are finished with the toes grafted & everything.

Makes me a really happy camper. This means that my Fawkes socks may be finished soon. Because I need to cart around the pattern with me, it doesn’t make for a really good travelling sock, so it will be my “knit in the evening at home” sock. I have a pair of charades on the needles that will serve the purpose just fine.

So yes…progress! Pictures of the much-maligned Brimstone Jaywalkers will be forthcoming

Robin was very happy to find out last night that I was turning the heel on Sock #2 of the Brimstone Jaywalkers.  This one’s going a LOT faster…mainly because I’m working hard to try and crank it out so I can get on with other projects.

So…as it stands right now, the heel is turned and I’m working my way around the gusset.  This means I can take the sock to work to knit away at it over lunch.  Because I needed to get the heel turned yesterday (done during 3 Episodes of Dexter on our OnDemand system), this wasn’t possible.

Hopefully Robin will have a brand-new pair of socks soon…that will give us both 3 pair.  Yay!

So…if a sock for me, and a sock for the Robinator were to make a pair, I’d say that I’ve knit a pair of socks.  However, that is not the case.

Two different sock yarns.   Two different patterns.  Two different foot sizes.  Similar colourways, however.

First up, Mama-E’s C*eye*ber Fiber (sp?).  I met this yarn at The Evil Place of Yarn Goodness, and fell in love with it.  The sheen on this yarn is amazing.  It looks like someone coloured fibre-optic cable & skeined it for my enjoyment.  I was not the only one to fall for it…Robin insisted that he loved it too, and would “really really like a pair of socks made out of it” (hint hint).  Thus…The Brimstone Jaywalkers.

It’s a real testament to my love for Robin that I’m still knitting these socks.  I only just finished Sock 1 this afternoon.  I’m sorry, Mama-E!  I still love the fibre, but it hurts my hands!  It’s like knitting with…(gulp)…cotton.  And, well, the fact that I’m knitting a very large Jaywalker for Big Men’s Feet doesn’t help.  He will have a pair…eventually.  In the meantime, he’s putting up with Knitting ADD (ie: Maire works on sock for 1/2 an hour then pulls out a scarf, casts on another sock, works on a second scarf, goes back to the Jaywalker, etc).

Next up?  Koigu! Picked it up at Pudding Yarn downtown.  Painter’s Palette Premium with no catchy name - just really really springy, bouncy, happy orangey-grapey juicyness.  Can I express how much I’m loving this yarn?  It’s not really possible.  It feels so soft…and looks like liquid silk during each stitch.  I’ve had to hold myself back from finishing sock #2 in order to get sock #1 of the Brimstone Jaywalkers done.  The Koigu Fawkes sock was done in record time, and quickly set about its task of “Confusing The Husbeast”.  Robin wanted to know why it was taking so long to finish his socks, as there was an orangey sock of a similar colourway sitting there on our couch.

So.  There you have it.  The primary results are that Koigu is da bomb, and the Mama-E stuff bombed.  That’s not to say that either Mama-E or her product are bad.  Maybe I just got a skein that disagrees with me.  Or maybe I should have done a smaller kind of sock, and not let The Mister talk me into knitting a boat cozy Guy Socks. Maybe I’m easily swayed by Hallowe’eny colours at certain times of year.

I’ll keep the jury out until I’ve had another chance at working with both yarns.  Suffice it to say, Robin may get his socks by X-mas, but they will, at least, be done by next October.

And yes.  This is why I had nothing to show for Soctoberfest or the Sock A Month KAL.  I suck

My SP11 Pal contacted me last week to let me know that my parcel was in the mail…wowzers! That didn’t take long…I’m still working on getting stuff together for the person I’m sending things to!

At any rate, all this arrived on Tuesday. I guess that the Mailman woke Robin up, because the package was waiting for me on the landing when I got home.

I descended on this package like a rabid hyena, let me tell you.

I didn’t have this book…and I had been drooling over it at our local Chapters last weekend (I put it aside in favour of one of the Yarn Harlot books that I hadn’t picked up yet). Now I’m glad I did! The yarn that my Pal has sent me (thank you!) is for making one of the projects in the book…the Candy Hearts on page 105. After looking through the book, Robin has told me that there is no way in hell that I am allowed to embroider “WoW” on them. I think he prefers the messages featured in the book (wink wink, nudge nudge).

He also really likes the Bob Dobbs sweater. Something tells me that I may be buying copious amounts of sweater wool sometime in the future. He’s already trying to get me off the sock kick…not that he’s complaining TOO hard. I just finished his Sideshow Husband Jaywalker socks

(This is true…I cast off the Sideshow Husband Jaywalkers. He proudly wore them to work last night. I’m going to have to tackle him this weekend so I can get pictures. In better light than my poor basement affords…)

About two weeks ago I made an order from Lime & Violet. It finally came in the mail this past Friday! Squee!

The colours are absolutely wonderful. The pictures don’t actually do them justice. The dark multicolour is called “Sideshow Husband”, and the one with pinks and yellows is “Strawberry Lemonade”. Fitting, no?

I immediately wound the Sideshow Husband and cast on a pair of Jaywalkers. For the Man In My Life, of course. I’m rather surprised at how quick it knits up….and how thick the striping is. It’s wonderful! I’m almost finished Sock #1 (which is good…I just finished Sock #1 of the Pink Tofutsie Monkey Socks, so this is a nice change before casting on Sock #2).

I think I’ve found a way to combat Second Sock Syndrome. Well…aside from using the two socks on either two circs or Magic Loop method. Which, in retrospect, would likely have been smart of me.

(A couple more pics below the cut! That is, if all works out OK…)

(more…)

‘kay.  So Jaywalker was frogged and reattached to the leftover yarnball (this is why I don’t toss out those remnants, hee!).  While skein #1 is recovering from being a Jaywalker, skein #2 is getting knit up as Hedera.  Because the women in my family have big honkin’ feet, they’re being knit on size 2 circular Addi Turbos with the Hot Magic-Loop Action.

The Regia, which was making Ugly Monkeys, will instead become Jaywalkers.  The chevron pattern will suit the yarn a lot better.

The cuffs of Robin’s socks still need to be finished.  I’ll probably work on that on the 2 extra days off I’m taking next week.

After that…well…we’ll see where we go from there.