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!

Two Toe Tuesday: One of These Socks is Not Like the Others

I've not been talking about socks very much lately, and for good reason--I've barely been working on socks at all. Or much of anything else, really. I'm knitting a little bit here and there, but I've also been working on Christmas cards and shopping and (believe it or not) running 3 or 4 days a week. I've still got a lot to finish knit-wise before the holidays are officially here, but I'm trying not to get too stressed out, which means I'm just getting further and further behind.

So what about these socks? Two are a little alike, because they are they are both knit from Shelridge Farm's soft touch heather, and both are knit from ribbed Nancy Bush patterns. However, the Yarrow rib, in green, is gi-normous, being knit for a man. And the Spey Valley socks, in purple, are a few sizes smaller than my feet, being knit for a woman with smaller feet than mine. I love both of these socks, and need to get cracking on sock #2 of Spey Valley. Sock #2 of the Yarrow rib is just about ready for a heel, so I should power through that as well.

The third sock has not made an official blog appearance yet, although I started it in July. It's still on the needles, because I wanted to make sure that I end up with socks that are the same height and use as much yarn as possible. The yarn is Yarntini self-striping sport, in Blue Hawaiian. It's great yarn (I've used the semi-solid before, and love it), with great colors, but I don't like this sock. The heel is a standard short-row heel, and I hate it. I think that it has to do with the weight of yarn more than anything else--even though I picked up the wraps, the turns look messy and I don't like the way the heel interrupts the stripes. This is why it took so long to get to the heel--I was thinking about using a heel flap pattern, but I have less experience with those. And I really needed to get past the heel, so I would have a nice plain sock to knit at the movied. Bad reason to rush through, and I'll probably just rip it out. The stripes would make a really cute hat, wouldn't they?

Hope that everyone's holiday preparations (such as they are) are coming along well. I'm hoping to get my knitting / blogging mojo back in the coming weeks, and I keep seeing projects that I'd love to take a crack at once I've finished up some other things (but keep me in mind if you have any recommendations).