Time to check in

and see how I'm doing on my goals for 2007:

*try non-Knitpicks yarn - check! So far, I've tried Schaefer, Trekking, Lorna's Laces, Yarn Pirate, Great Adirondack, Bearfoot, Fleece Artist, Cider Moon, Regia, Koigu... I'm really happy with how that resolution has gone.

*cables - still haven't tried those... I bought cable needles though!

*more socks - check! Non-short-row toes - check, technically. I've tried one or two new kinds but I'd like to really experiment more. Non-short-row heels - half check. I did a heel flap, then frogged it. And I sort of get it but not totally. So that one needs some more attention!

*dyeing my own yarn - check! I've overdyed some manufactured stuff. I did intend to actually dye yarn blanks...haven't gotten there yet.

*do some KALs - check. With mixed results. I've learned that kals are not always what they're cracked up to be - some can be really fun, but I wasn't necessarily missing out on much by not participating, because some are really blah.

*Magic Loop on 2 circs - um, if it's 2 circs it isn't Magic Loop, is it? Oh well, check!

*Moccasin socks - still on the list.

*That last idea I wouldn't say - check, and it didn't go so well!

Cute! And useful!

This thing is so freaking adorable! My newest knitting toy:

A digital scale for weighing my yarn. Now I can finish Sweetie's Blue socks!

Exactly 56 grams of a skein that was 112.

And 11 grams left to finish up the first sock. Fun! Scientific!

I think I was premature regarding the Tangled up in Blue pattern too - 2x2 ribbing made the yarn pool in spirals, which I'd thought Fleece Artist did rarely. I frogged back and continued in stockinette and seem to have a good balance with minimal striping,

and I'm afraid that if I start a pattern or mess with the stitch count I'll end up with inconsistent pooling (if I have to have it, at the very least it ought to pattern consistently throughout the sock) so I think I'll just do another stockinette sock - like the Geranium socks, which I keep abandoning to work on other things!

They're moving along slowly but surely, though. So I'll have two pairs of stockinette socks right after those stripey Regia Silk stockinette socks... and I'm feeling compelled to finish both of them off with a picot edge. But there's nothing wrong with having a bunch of identically patterned socks if I love the pattern, right? I keep telling myself that. I think it's just boring to blog, is all. Speaking of, I've got to start doing things first and then blogging about them, since the only thing that seems to always be true lately is that my plans won't work out. A little chaos builds character...

Perhaps I was premature

in announcing the advent of Vinnland - it's been frogged. Thank you for the comments on it though! I knew I had messed up the chart somehow, but when I picked them up and paid close attention to the next row so as to get it right, I realized that I now had the wrong number of stitches - somewhere along the line I messed up the M1s and ssks, but I didn't know where or how best to fix it, and right now I need mindless knitting (more on that in a bit) so I frogged immediately and mercilessly. The yarn was Knitpicks Gloss; when I come back to Vinnland I'll use the same yarn, I was liking it a lot.

So why do I need mindless knitting? Well, I'm going through some job stress at the moment. Namely, I think I quit. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I am something like 95%. I'm feeling a lot of relief at the prospect and some twinges of regret, but mostly I'm going over everything again and again in my head and trying to work out whether I'm doing the right thing. So knitting patterns won't be getting anything like the attention a more complex one would deserve.

I'm also treating myself in the meantime - I'm eating cold halal Chinese leftovers for breakfast right now - and last night in that spirit I cast on some Fleece Artist Sea Wool last night:

When I cast on I had plans for a plain sock - maybe not stockinette, maybe ribbed - but when I woke up this morning I felt like using an actual pattern, one that wouldn't mess with the colors too much. I was thinking maybe Cable Twist, maybe Snicket. But on further examination, I decided those patterns are too complicated for my life right now - I'd have to change Cable Twist to toe-up and really mess with the gauge and stitch count, it's written for worsted weight, and Snicket is just more complex than I thought it would be. There's also something I just found on Ravelry, Tangled up in Blue, that's just gorgeous in semi-solid yarn, but I'm not sure how solidish my Fleece Artist is. It seems to be mostly blue with shots of color, but I'm not very good at seeing the end product when I'm looking at a yarn cake. Tangled up in Blue starts out with ribbing, so I think I'll do the same and see how it knits up before I decide whether to do the patterned leg. Perfect knitting for pondering my further career path...

I'm sick and in hibernation... but I'm moving along well on the Geranium socks (finished turning the second heel - I'm doing them 2 at a time) and have cast on for Vinnland (with some mods). I've already messed up a row or two of the chart, but I think if I keep going correctly it won't be such a big deal... I hope.

The blue socks are stalled at the moment because my new scale for weighing yarn (with school out for the summer, I need a replacement for the science teacher's triple beam balance) is enroute, and I need to weigh the yarn that's left before I continue so I don't use too much.

In other news, we got a countertop dishwasher like this one, and it's amazing. I needed one so badly. So life is good...

Progress is beautiful

and so is this blue.

I've turned the heel on Sweetie's New Blue socks. As usual for me with sportweight socks, I started out with fewer stitches than I'd need further up the foot and had to increase on the way. But since I'm not using variegated yarn this time, no change-in-number-of-stitches pooling = no biggie. Although I really want to remember to cast on enough next time, even if it seems huge when I'm down by the toe.

I finished something!

(It's been awhile.) My happy, springy Regia Silk socks are done and blocking. Here they are:

And again on the background of my fantabulous pink stretch velvet skirt (I love you Turkmen fashion!)

Now onwards, towards finishing the Geranium socks and Sweetie's New Blue socks... after I wash some dishes and do some laundry.

I don't have much to show for myself

The combination of the end of school and (finally!) getting my invite to Ravelry means I'm neither knitting much nor blogging about it.

Just a small start on the second Silk sock. The Geranium ones are coming along too, and I've just barely casted on (but not done anything else) on this:

The yarn is Cider Moon (Glacier, the sport weight) in an amazing colorway called "Casablanca." The socks are for Sweetie- reluctantly, I decided to knit something for him. I have a shamefully extensive stash, and bought most of it with the intent to knit for myself, so I decided it was selfish of me to begrudge him this one skein, even though I'm crazily in love with the intensity of the blue.

Random Thought of the week: I took some kids to Astroland, home of the Cyclone! in Coney Island. It was crowded and dirty and didn't have rules about minimal clothing or cussing like 6 Flags did (went on a field trip there a few weeks ago), and some of the people were kind of sketchy - the whole place had a kind of X-Files "something sinister going on just under the surface" vibe - but it was so much more fun! And way, way cheaper. The kids had fun, without $40 tickets and 2 hour lines for rides. I really, truly enjoyed myself (6 Flags was pretty hellish) - although I'm turning into a curmudgeon. Much to the embarassment of my pre-teen students, I turned around in line to ask some kids behind us to stop cursing (they were yelling a particulary unsavory, to my taste, anatomical term). It worked great - their jaws dropped and they immediately shut up, and then behaved much better (they were little - 4th grade or so) and I teased them about having bad luck for being in line behind a teacher because teachers are bossy - but I got a hissed "Ms Rahime! They're not your students!" and "You're embarassing me!" from my own students. Ha. I told them everyone starts doing embarassing things in public without caring when they get old. (I'm 27.) Although they might have a point, because I find myself wanting to lecture youngsters of varying ages about their behavior on a regular basis. Sweetie even had to restrain me from lecturing a smoking 11-year-old in Turkey once...

Voila

Here are my Pomatomi! Knitted by go-fish at Five Gallon Bucket! She posted about them here. I love the color - the yarn is reclaimed from a thrift store sweater, recycling at its most fun! I'm so glad to have my own Pomatomi - I feel very far from being able to knit lace, but I've been coveting the pattern for quite awhile.

Because I have no self-control...

it's 9:17 pm and I have 9 papers (yes... 9) due tomorrow (yes...tomorrow) and here I am posting an (awful) picture of my socks on my blog. (Yes, I got sock blockers! From The Loopy Ewe! And they're great. The sock isn't blocked, btw, it just looked nicer that way.) And now I really do have to go write. My papers are almost done though.

Oh, and I did just cast it on, but as far as I can tell the stripe colors are reversed on the second ball of Regia Silk. I'm wondering if it's worth winding it up on my ballwinder and starting from the other end so they'll match...

Almost half done

I'm binding off! And after much fruitless searching for the tutorial for the bind-off I like, (hey, who knew I remembered the html for that? Not me...) I decided I better post here - who knew I had to google crankygrrrrrl with *5 r's* and not 3 or 4? I'll stick it in the sidebar or something later.

I am alive

despite my total absence from the blog. And I've even been knitting! My Project Spectrum curse continues - I feel nothing for the two sets of red socks I'd been insatiably drawn to when I was supposed to knit pink, green and yellow. (June is red, black and metallics.) Instead I've suddenly begun knitting away on the cheery, springy Regia Silk sock:

I've felt not only knitting-lazy lately, but everything-except-work-lazy. It's been hard! The Regia Silk sock has gone really quickly the past few days though, so that's a good sign. School's almost over, and then things should pick up.

I also now have my own Pomatomi! It's really exciting! My go-to blogging laptop died, though, so now I'm on my Mac which doesn't give me all the easy html options for linking and whatnot, so I'm sadly putting off posting the link to where my swappee blogged them in the hopes that our school's computer teacher will resurrect the laptop... They're gorgeous though! If I feel up to doing the html myself I'll come back and edit.