Appetite for Destruction

Man, has it really been almost a month since I posted?

After the February whirlwind, I caught the worst cold I've had since December of 2001. In fact, the cold of 2010 may have been worse than the cold of 2001, and after hitting hard the last week of February, I'm just getting back into my regular routine (and still have a little bit of a cough).

The cold hit during the Olympics, and prevented me from finishing any WIPs or new projects. My initial plans were not overly ambitious--finish the Black Diamond cardigan (I started a few rows into the raglan decreases), start & finish the Komi Hat, and rip out a bunch of projects I haven't worked on in ages.

The Black Diamond is really, really close to being done now, but at the end of the Olympics I still had some work in pattern to do and it was more energy than I had. There's been zero work on the hat. I always think that if I am stuck home sick, I should be able to get a lot of knitting done, but I couldn't even pull something plain out to work on--I was too busy napping in between violent coughing fits. I've put the Komi hat in time-out for now (I don't love it, and now it's spring so no pressing need to finish it), and I'll most likely finish the Black Diamond after returning from my annual trip to Spring Training, which starts on Wednesday. I had hoped to finish it this weekend, but had a LOT of other things to get done since I've been neglecting all but the essentials for the past three weeks.

The Ravelympics weren't a total loss, however--I did summon the strength to rip out SIX works-in-progress that I was unlikely to ever finish. Here's the proof:

Mystery Socks, Started January 2008.



Kiila Greens, started May 2009

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Purple Graffiti Cables, started April 2009



Leyburn, started January 2009



Sockgate Socks, Started July 2009



Blue Hawaiian, started July 2009

All that ripping earned me a medal, which is good, and now there are six fewer projects I have to worry about finishing, which is even better. I think that the main thing I've learned by ripping these out is that I don't love toe-up socks when it comes time to figure out the heel. For the Blue Hawaiian and the Sockgate socks, I didn't like how the heels interrupted the pattern. For the Leyburn socks, I tried to make some heel adjustments and it just didn't work. For wonky fits or stripes, top down is probably the best way for me to go!

Someday, My Luck Will Change

It's been awhile since I posted an update on these socks, and although I've been working on them on and off, I have to admit that they're giving me some trouble. The short row heel is a little sloppy looking to my eyes, and I started it a bit too late--the foot, which otherwise fits beautifully, has a little gappiness on the bottom that is problematic. Also, the pattern calls for extra stitches at the top of the instep / bottom of the leg to compensate for the lack of stretch in the slip-stitched rows, which made the leg far to big for me. I tried decreasing down and then continuing, but the ankle area is a mess of increases and decreases, and I really don't like the way they look.

I'm going to rip back to before the heel, I think, and try a different heel. The Lucy Neatby garter stitch heel that I learned at Madrona, as a matter of fact--I think that will feel cushier on my heel, and look a little nicer. It's going to involve some calculatin', which means that I'll have to keep better track of what I've done so that Sock #2 will end up like Sock #1 . . .

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"Someday, My Luck Will Change" - song of the same name, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Try listening to it here (not sure if link is permanent or not!).

Two Toe Tuesday: Black & Bright Orange Edition

Haida Leyburns and Red Hot Chili Empoisonnée socks

I'm not quite sure what it is about the new year that makes me want to join knitalongs. My success in these ventures is horribly mixed--for every Ravelympics success there is another Sock Knitters Anonymous failure. Sometimes, a KAL starts up right when I'm thinking about knitting something that fits the criteria anyway, or it involves materials that I already have onhand, as with the Red Hot Chili socks. Sometimes, you think that it involves what you already have onhand, and then you go out and buy new yarn anyway, as with the Haida Leyburn socks. Either way, it's a good excuse to start something new and join the global knitting community. An excuse I don't really need, obviously, but an excuse nonetheless.

Last week I finished the first of the Red Hot Chili socks (which is why there's another toe in progress), and I'm very pleased with the result:

The toe-up-sock-with-gussets construction is fairly new to me, but I tried to just follow the instructions and believe that it would all work out. That strategy worked out just fine--I was genuinely surprised that I had the right number of stitches before starting the heel turn. I love the twisted stitch ribbing on the gusset & the expanding cables up the leg. At the same time, I really like that there's a lot of plain knitting to show off the yarn and keep the knitting speedy. I knew that the yarn for the Haida Leyburns was on the way, so I tried to get a good start on the second sock.

I'm glad that I did, because the Leyburn pattern is also a lot of fun to knit and it would have been easy to stop thinking about the orange socks once the black sock was on the needles. I'm knitting the Leyburns using the stitch counts in the pattern so far, but I substituted an Easy Toe (from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks) for the short row toe. It's much easier for me to remember "increase every other row" than "wrap, turn, pick up wraps, double wrap". The toe is fairly wide, in keeping with the designer's preference, and I like it that way--it feels comfortable so far, anyway.

I'm taking both of these to Boston next weekend, and leaving the bigger projects at home this time (though maybe I should sneak in another project, just in case). There should be enough variety in between these two to keep me occupied on the plane. I can knit the red socks if the light is bad (provided I can see the charts), and knit the black socks if it's too bumpy for chart reading.

Should I Be Worried?

(or, How Worried Should I Be?)

I've been sucked into another KAL, this time via the Socks that Rawk group on Ravelry. The pattern is the Leyburn Socks, and the group is trying to knit it in as many different colorways as possible. This pattern was already in my queue, and the deadline for finishing isn't until the end of March, so it's a good fit. About 150-ish people signed up before me, so all of the colors I already have were taken. I ordered a skein of Haida that I've had my eye on. When I wind yarn at home, I always hold the yarn over my finger so that I can feel for knots and get a slightly tighter ball of yarn. Here's how it looked when I finished:

The yarn looks great, but my finger? Normally there's not a black ring there, so really--how worried should I be? All that dye coming out isn't going to leave me with weird brown socks instead of richly blue and black socks, is it? I'll have to remember to give the socks a vinegar bath once they're all knit up. On the plus side, the color is just what I was looking for (assuming that it doesn't fade), and if it really sheds a lot of dye once I start knitting it, I know that Blue Moon will exchange it.