More Chevron Scarf! And a question....

Okay, so my simple project has been a little more of a pain in the butt than expected. Which is not so surprising, I guess. I am a bit of a fiddler, I think. I mean, I can't just leave these things alone and so I had to rip up my scarf and restart it so that it would be a tighter weave. I don't know if you can see the difference, but check this out:













I am now knitting it with Susan Bates size 5 circular needles. Who cares? I don't know, but now you know what I'm knitting with. Very exciting.

So, I'm not exactly that far with my quick project. As you can see:













I think that I'm liking it now. I have a bad habit of not liking things that I make and then giving them away (to people who want them -- no I'm not that evil!). The fiddling is worth the while some times. I'd rather not end up with something that I don't like, especially given how much I LOVE the yarns that I'm using for this scarf. I just hope that it flattens out more.

NB: Oh, and another note on this scarf: knit it for a couple of inches before you decide anything on it. One of the reasons I went to a bigger needle to begin with (which I have downsized from now) is that it looked like it was puckering in strange places. I assumed that this was because of the tightness of the gauge. Not so. It was simply the shaping that occurs from the increasing and decreasing in this scarf, which I would have known sooner if I had just knit further in the pattern to see how it would lay. I mean, I think I knew that was what it was from before, but I could see after a few more inches that it didn't look as strange as I thought it did. I'm liking the tighter knit much better.

Now, my question, which has nothing to do with this scarf: I am going to some places in Europe in a couple of weeks and I'm wondering if any of you know of cool yarn happenings or stores in any of the places that I'm going to. I'm going to be in Dublin (one of you gave a suggestion on this, which is awesome and which got me thinking about this question in the first place), Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Paris. Ideas? I'd love to hear them.

Caved: Chevron Scarf

Well, I finally caved in. I got so tired of starting, knitting, and ripping things that I decided that I would just go ahead and work on something easier. So, I've been working on the chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts using the Socks that Rock medium weight yarn. I LOVE the colors. I have Lemongrass and Fire on the Mountain in this scarf.

I picked Fire on the Mountain (the one on the left) because it's awesome and I wanted something that would highlight the colors in that, so I picked something that contrasts strongly with it (the Lemongrass) for my other color. They do definitely stand in strong contrast to one another.


Of course I probably don't even need to say this, but my "simple" project started with me ripping it about 4 times at the beginning and restarting. It is simple. But, it still took some getting used to -- including deciding on needle size. I'm using size 6 Boye interchangeable needles.

The problem? I love the colors in this thing, but I don't know if I'm loving the scarf. I liked it in pictures. It may just be the way that I'm doing it -- too big needles, perhaps? I don't know. The last thing I want to do right now is rip it, though. Ugh. One of the problems I'm having with it may be the result of the fact that I'm knitting so loosely on the increase stitches. They are very loose looking, but I found that when I knit them too tightly there was too much pucker in the knitting and I wasn't liking that. It's already weird how much the chevron pattern pulls the scarf into such a not-flat shape. I'm mostly okay with it, I think, but I don't want to add to the problems by having puckering that isn't supposed to be there. Maybe I'll play with knitting a little less loosely on the increases and see if that helps, without creating more pucker. Of course, that requires me to rip it again if I like it better with the different tension.... Ahhh!!!!

Here it is:










Important note, I think, regarding color: the scarf instructions talk about color A and color B, and when you start the scarf, you start with color A. No big surprise. But, because you start with it, I thought it would be the predominant color. Wrong. Color B seems to be the predominant color. This was one of the rips I did w/ the scarf. I wanted the Fire on the Mountain yarn to be the predominant color in the scarf, so I started with it and quickly realized that because of the effect of the increases and decreases on the knitting, color B is actually the dominant one. So, to sort of help you understand what I'm talking about, here is another view of what it looks like with Fire on the Mountain for color B:










Lastly, a funny picture of a brazen squirrel. We have lots of cats and two dogs living here with us and this squirrel hangs out regularly on our porch. Here it is (looking a little demonic), but it is actually kind of cute:

Testing my Perserverence

Well, I have been busy lately, as I stated in a previous post. There were two surprises that I was working on that I alluded to but which I could not show you at that time. However, both surprises have become un-surprises since then so I can show you now!

First, I was working on organizing a trip as a surprise for my husband's birthday. His birthday is June 5, but I felt this was something I needed to tell him about sooner rather than later because it is kind of an undertaking.... This is the form the gift took:












We will be flying into Dublin on the 13th of June and flying out of Paris on the 3rd of July. So, you can probably now understand why it would take some preparation!! I am very excited about this and I am pretty sure he is too.

I will admit that this trip is as much for me as it is for him. Truth be told I am much more likely to want to fly off to who-knows-where than he is, but, he enjoys travel too and since my birthday is two weeks to the day after his is, I think it's fair. Plus, we haven't exactly had our honeymoon yet and we were married in October. It's about time, gosh darn it!!

Oh, and I hear that there might be some yarn in Ireland . . . and Sweden . . . and maybe elsewhere that I should check out. Muahahahaha. Yes, my husband, bless him, is incredibly tolerant of this madness of mine. Thank goodness.

The other surprise is this pair of socks that I was working on for my mom for Mother's Day.












It is the Circle Dance pattern from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, made from one of their Sock Candy kits. If you are interested in doing this, don't make the same mistake I did and assume that kit means that the pattern will be sent with the yarn. IT WILL NOT. You have to get the book, too. I don't understand this approach, nor do I particularly like it, but there you have it. Besides, the women are so nice at Blue Moon that it is hard to get mad at them or stay mad at them for long for things like this.

I am loving the colors, but I keep screwing up the socks! I keep knitting too tight and frogging them. I have decided to knit them very, very loosely one more time (I have completed a pair of socks and then some when you consider how much knitting I've done on these babies) and if that doesn't work, I'm gonna have to find something else to do. I am worried that the looseness will make them slouchy and unwearable, too, so I'm not sure if this will work. I hate slouchy socks. If you have any ideas about how to avert this particular catastrophe, I'm all ears.

Which brings me to the point of the title of this post: I have had to frog so much of my sock knitting lately -- including the April shipment of the Rockin' Sock Club -- that I am thinking of laying down the DPNs for a while and finding something else to knit. I love the STR yarns and colors and I am enjoying making socks, but a woman can only take so much ripping and redoing. Seriously!! I think I might get started on my chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Or, I could use a shawl, so I may do that instead. But I hate to leave so much undone!! Guilt, guilt, guilt. What can I say? It is so dysfunctional and unproductive that I hope to get over it soon.

Oooh, I've been bad about this

I haven't written in a while, it's true. I promised a long time ago that I would show some of my swag from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The colors are sooo delicious. I almost thought about not showing you everything that I got because it's too embarrassing how nuts I went with my coupon from the Rockin' Sock Club, but I have to share because they are so gorgeous that it would be karmically bad for me NOT to share them. Drum roll please . . . here they are:









I feel that I have to point out what you probably already know: these photos don't even begin to do theses yarns justice. For anyone curious enough to ask, those colors are (from left to right): Fairgrounds, Fire on the Mountain, Lemongrass, Puck's Mischief, Rolling Stone, Farmhouse, Love-in-Idleness, and Chapman Springs. The colors don't look much to me in reality like they do online, but, if this is possible, they are EVEN BETTER In person than online. Yes, really. If you're eyeing some Socks that Rock yarn, DO it. That's my two cents worth. Well, okay, let me tell you, it will definitely be more than two cents worth in the end..... It is quite possible to spend maybe a little too much on their website (though not too much in the it's-not-worth-it kind of too much).

As for what I'm going to do with all of this yarn, I have a plan for all of it basically. Most of the plans involve Knitty sock patterns from Cookie A. But, I am going to make the chevron scarf that has made its rounds through so much of knitterdom with the Fire on the Mountain and the Lemongrass. I am hoping that they stand in strong contrast but that it isn't so bright it gets irritating after a while. Here they are:













And, the Fairgrounds colorway is spoken for (by my mother). It looks oddly like it's not nearly as colorful as all the other colorways I got when you see it in a skein:













However, I have taken the image of the Rock and Weave socks as incontrovertible proof that it is full of more colors than one can see at first glance. Of course, it is quite possible that because I'm not using that pattern, it won't be so much. But, I look forward to working with it nonetheless.

I am up to way more than this, but I cannot disclose right this moment what some of those other activities are. They are all good and fun, though....

April Sock Kit!

Oh, I have been so remiss with this blog lately. Primarily it has to do with getting photos of everything so I can post them (in other words, being too lazy to do this). But, I also have found a handful of other random things to do that take up my time. Boring subject, really. All I can say is that I really, really do need to post photos of my gorgeous new skeins from the Socks that Rock folks, because they are to die for.

Instead, I am going to post my April sock kit. I do like the colors in this month's kit pretty well. Like last month's kit, they are not colors I would normally pick out on my own, but I do think the yarn is pretty and let me tell you: it is soooo soft. I has silk in it this time -- the first time they've dyed with it. I am very excited to try it. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to Socks that Rock Silkie in the colorway Walking on the Wild Tide.....












Here is a photo of the kit that I received:










And here is the pattern -- actually two patterns, in that you can make a long or short version:












I am going to make the short version.

That is all for now! I have to do some knitting and hardly want to spend any more time blogging right now. Ha.

Salvation!

I have had a crappy few days. Nothing big, but definitely stressful and a little more overwhelming than they probably should be. Friday was incredibly long. I had to do continuing legal ed stuff for the Illinois Bar (and have to do more on Monday) and I was feeling crabby and tired at the end of the day -- among other things, I'm not even sure why I was there taking the class, since I'm not a practicing lawyer. In addition to this, my cell phone appeared to be broken and my transit card wasn't working. BUT! Lo and behold! What did I have with me during that awful day? My Rockin' Sock Club sock!!

I didn't knit while people were presenting -- they could see me and I was concerned that they would take it the wrong way -- but I did get to knit when a presenter didn't show up that was supposed to and I did get to knit on the el home, which made me a considerably happier camper by the time I got home. Seriously, it made my life just a bit better. I am SO glad to have had this to do.

To make things even better, I got a bunch of yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (the people who make Socks that Rock) on Saturday, which I will definitely have to photograph and post because the yarn is AMAZING. It made me so much happier. Though, I have to say that I was a bit frustrated when I realized (too late) that their sock kits (that they sell on their site -- not their rockin' sock club kits) don't actually come with instructions (for the pattern that you've bought the yarn for). To be fair, they do state this on the website, but I didn't see it. I was too transfixed by the pattern that I thought I was buying in kit form to notice the words. Waaaahhhh. It made me feel very whiny. I shall survive, though. I was going to make this project for mother's day, however, and I don't know if I can get it done in time, now. :(

Lastly, today, I was at a Green Living festival here in Chicago. I walked in and it was PACKED. I am not much for crowds. I was completely overwhelmed by the place. I was in a crowd-stress-induced stupor in about 10 minutes after being there. Yikes. So, at some point, I left my husband behind while he asked important questions (that I wish I had had the patience to wait for) and went outside into the incredibly beautiful day and knitted. Once again this weekend, knitting saved my mortal soul. Yay! I sat in the middle of Lake Shore Drive on a grassy knoll....









I think I may actually finish my Feb. socks before the next kit arrives in the next week or so! Yay! I just wonder whether I'm going to be able to cable on the train. Probably not. So, I'll read instead. Unless I start one of my other fabulous knitting projects now that I have all of this unbelievably gorgeous STR yarn.

One down, one to go....

Well, I finally finished ONE of my Inside Out Socks from the Rockin' Sock Club's February 2007 kit. I did the toes and heels on 1s, the main part of the foot on 0s, and the leg on 3s!!! Here are some pictures of the sock, which is meant to be wearable on either side! (I don't know why I can't get any good colors with my camera. Obviously it has to do with light. Sorry if you can't really tell what the socks look like....)

The sock:












The sock's cable from the outside:









The sock's cable from the inside:












I feel like a big loser for having taken so long to complete this, but what can I say? I really have knitted about 4 of them, if you count all of my froggings, so I tell myself that I'm not just incredibly slow. The result of my latest obsession with finishing them is a very sore wrist, by the way. There has to be a way to do this without injuring myself. I'm gonna have to figure that out -- I don't want sock knitting to be a painful experience every time.

So, why did I have to frog the darn things so many times? The short answer is: because I've never done cables before. The first time I did the leg I did it on 2s. The legs looked good, but I got nearly to the end and decided to try them on. Well ... that was when I learned that my cables were WAY too tight. I ripped them apart and started the legs again.

The second time I did it, I realized that I changed my pattern somewhere and needed to fix it (not paying attention) and had to rip it, rip it, rip it. The third time, I realized that I was just completely wrong about the pattern. Somehow I had managed to make up a pattern that was only loosely based upon the actual pattern. Anyway, ripped that apart. I cannot believe that particular mistake and have a hard time pardoning myself for it.

Needless to say, by the time I figured everything out, I went nuts trying to finally get one finished. And I did. Which, as I noted above, caused me big pain. But I'm still happy to have the darn thing finished. I look forward to finishing the second sock and doing it right the whole time.

If it wasn't for my bazillion froggings of the sock, I would change a few things in my second sock. Since I don't want to re-do the first one to make it match the second one, though, I won't. The changes I would make are:
a) I would change the length of the foot. I think I did it a little too long. Actually, I might change that in the second one anyway because I think that it won't be too noticeable a difference between the two socks.
b) the gauge of the foot. I think I might play with the needle size on the foot. I think in the long run, it might be a smidge too tight on my foot. It's not painfully too tight or anything -- no lost circulation, to be sure. It's just what I think is wrong with it. Lastly,
c) I would try to knit the leg on 2s instead of 3s and just be really loose when doing the cables. However, because it actually fits on my leg on 3s, I'm NOT touching them again!


TOTALLY UNRELATED QUESTION: if you were to receive a baby sweater, would you rather get a cardigan or a pullover? Which one is easier for parents to use? I can imagine arguments for either one. Also, if I do a cardigan, what is the deal with the buttons? What do I have to do to make sure they aren't buttons that will be put into the mouth and choked on?

Thanks!