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.

Okay, well I got those finished fast.  The last post (from today, no less) mentioned I was working on these.  I managed to finish them off in the past half hour.

I like them just fine.  The colourway is Black Purl from Lorna’s Laces.  I overthought what I was going to do with this one, and wound up just casting on a pattern called “Carolina, Last Queen of Naples”.  I thought there would be more of a chevron (zig-zag) effect, but I guess I was wrong.  I suppose it depends on how tightly you knit, and probably your gauge.

Still have quite a bit left over.  One skein finished 1.65 socks.  I may be able to make another small pair of socks with the leftovers.  Whatever….they feel comfy, and that’s the main thing

Robin got a new pair of socks for Yule. Actually, Robin, his Mum and my Mum all got socks for Yule. Robin’s socks were knit sorta on the sly (I didn’t talk much about ‘em and he didn’t ask), and were a pattern I made up myself. I’m kinda hoping to find some way of translating it to a pdf pattern in case I get a wild hair to post it. The pattern name is “Medivh” for the legendary mage of Warcraft Lore. It’s just as twisted as him.

As for X-mas…we had a lazy X-mas eve as Robin was trying to nap for most of the afternoon in hopes of going to bed at the same time as me. Working graves makes it difficult to flip his schedule on special holidays. I think we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD. X-mas day was spent with the two families. Robin’s folks in the morning and mine in the evening. Lots of yarn-related goodness ensued. Robin’s Mum got me about 3 or 4 skeins of sock yarn (whee!!!) and my Mum found a couple of sock knitting books that I was wanting to pick up.

Looks like I may have another pair of socks off the needles fairly soon anyhow. I had been about 60% of the way through a pair of Carolina, Last Queen of Naples from Monkey Toes (looks like the site owner is going through a few end-of-year growing pains). Over the past couple of days, I’ve gotten the leg and heel of sock #2 done. Just working my way down to the toe now. Squee! So many new things to play with. We’ll see what I work on next.

Hope everyone else is having as happy a holiday season as I am!

‘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

Have been eating clean for the past few days.  Weight has fluctuated down 5 pounds.  Happy camper?  Oh yeah.  Hoping that I hit my 10 pounds down for the month fairly soon.  We’ll see if it goes down farther by End of Month.  There’s still half a month to go!

Cast on the Secret of the Stole shawl last night.  Yay for knowing how to knit two things at once on the same set of needles with one skein/ball of yarn!  I rock :)   I will attempt not to pat my own back for far too long, as I know that the last laceweight project I attempted wound up taking flight across the living room.  I hate charts.  I sincerely thank whoever is responsible that they are providing written instructions on this KAL.

Dinner tonight?  Chicken Caesar Salad.

I spent a good part of my morning sniffing toner.  All very innocently, of course.  Had to file away 7 months worth of paperwork.  Feeling a little woozy and headachey.  Time for a bath, methinks.   Otherwise, have been feeling really good lately!  Headachiness is only from toner, and not from migraine triggers hidden in bready/sugary products.  Yay!

Would like to get the Elfines done this weekend.  I have some Koigu and some Lime & Violet  and some C*eye*ber Fiber that are calling my name (I’m a-gonna haveta make some very very hard decisions as to which I want to work with next, lemmetellyou.  Really).

The Pembrokeshire Pathways socks came off the needles last night at 11:31pm, Mountain Daylight Time. The last finished pair of socks for my Summer of Socks KAL.

You can’t really see it in the picture, but there’s a TON of little tiny cables on that sock, as well as lots of lacy bits. I loved working with the yarn, but it became apparent towards the end that I might not have enough to finish. I have no idea how many yards I have left, but it doesn’t look like much. I’m wondering if the other skeins I bought in the black & white colourway will actually make socks for Robin.

Don’t get me wrong…the feel of the yarn is absolutely WONDERFUL. I loved the texture. I’m just unsure of the yardage.

The Pattern itself? A few difficulties were had in the heel section…Reducing by one stitch (k2tog near the beginning) helped on the heel flap. All the tiny cables weren’t necessarily difficult, but they were tedious, and meant that my cable needle going missing was a real concern. The toe was a little odd as well, since it reduces differently than a usual toe. I’m used to reducing by 2 stitches every 2 rows, not reducing by 4 stitches every few rows.

I may knit these again, depending on how the yarn talks to me (I’m starting to sound like my Dad…”I might carve this again, depending on how the stone talks to me”). If I do, I’ll remember to reduce 1 stitch on the heel flap & do the toes however I please.

The socks fit me, but they’re going to be a Yule present for a very special lady in the family who has sat on the sidelines while others got socks.

One thing I’m noticing…it’s EASY to find sock patterns for women. There’s a TON of lace and cable socks! What does everyone out there do for their menfolk? Seriously! Other than Jaywalkers and the minimalist cable sock that The Harlot posted recently? I’ve got menfolk to knit for, and I’m getting bored with rows and rows of stockinette…