Trying Something New

I'm sad to report that after the triumphant finish of my Tardis socks I fell victim to a case of knitting ennui.

I couldn't find anything I want to knit.  I am baby sweatered out.  I don't have the heart for a big person size sweater.  Hats, scarves, fingerless gloves, cowls, shawls.  Nothing inspired me.

Well, that's not entirely true.

I did find one sock pattern that I burned to knit with the fire of a thousand suns.

I wanted to knit a pair of Pet Octopus Socks.

But I didn't have a single skein of suitable yarn.

I knit tons of color work when I knit for Knit Picks.  I knit almost exclusively color work items when I knit for Knit Picks.  But I never, ever, ever, ever knit stranded knitting items for myself.  Even the Tardis socks, with their teeny tiny bit of color work are meant for someone else.

I never knit color work for myself.

So while I have many skeins of sock yarn, I don't own two skein that co-ordinate enough to make into a pair of color works socks with fish and mermaids and octopi.

I fell down the rabbit hole that is the ravelry pattern database searching for a different sock pattern that might inspire me.  The deeper I looked the more depressed I became.  Nothing excited me, nothing screamed "you must make me".  I did not want to knit a single pattern.

So I decide to take matters into my own hands.

I was going to create a pattern I want to knit.

I know how to knit a sock.  Cuff, leg, heel, foot, toe.  I got this.

I turned to my Stitchionaries and started putting post its on pages that interested me.

It turns out I have a lot of ideas.

A little bit of math and I was suddenly on fire to knit.

A marathon of season 7 of Grey's Anatomy... and I had knit an entire sock.

And it is awesome.

So awesome I can't reveal it.  For the moment I can only show teasers.

Look how fantastically the ribbing transforms into the pattern stitch for the leg!

This sock is awesome!

So awesome I don't know what to do with it.

Do I write a pattern?  Do I submit it to Knitty?  Or Interweave?  Or self-publish on Ravelry?  Do I just wear it as an awesome one of a kind production?

What do I do with my gorgeous sock?

Is this the start of something new and exciting?  Or a one off fluke?

What to do...what to do...

Anyone want to test knit?

Voila!

Ta-Da!

I have two mostly finished Tardis Socks!

They even both say "Police Box"!

I am super excited.

They are mostly finished because I want to try them on my Dad to double check the fit before I cut the yarn and weave in all the ends.

I know you're confused.

You're thinking to yourself "Wait, doesn't your Dad live 2,000 miles away?"

Why yes.

Yes he does.

But in 9 short days the Eagle will be landing.

We are all super excited.

In the mean time, I have the best friends ever!  They go on vacation and I get the super cool souvenir.

They know me so well.

And in true Tardis fashion it is bigger on the inside.

It doesn't look it, but it can easily hold two almost finished socks.

And to tide over the Grandpa until he can cuddle a Queen...

She is looking forward to spending lots and lots of time in the pool with you.

Right Back On That Horse

So maybe sweaters aren't my "thing" anymore.

Who am I kidding.  They totally are my thing.

I big fat puffy heart sweaters.  It's like wearing a hug.  I love extra long sleeves, and smooshy fabric.  I love cables and lace and bobbles and cardigans that I can never find buttons for.  

Sweaters are my favorite.

But I need to take a teensy weensy break from sweaters. 

It's not them.  

It's me.

There's been too much heart break and ruined yarn.

I took Katie's brilliant advice and cast on for some socks.  Some simple relaxing easy peasy socks.

I also decided I had waited long enough.  It was time to break into the stash of new yarn.

and of course I picked the yarn planned for color work socks.  Not the beautiful black/green/silver yarn or the yummy pink yarn.  No I picked up the colorwork.  The very opposite of relaxing.

What could possibly go wrong?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllll....

I've already knit a sock that said "POLICE BCX"

I should have taken a second to take a picture of that before I ripped it to pieces.  

What else could go wrong?

I'm sure I'll find new and inventive ways to ruin a Tardis.

This Is What Failure Feels Like

So last week I came down with a stomach bug.

Gastroenteritis.

And I lovingly shared it with The Greatest.

Cause I'm a giver.

It involved lots of intense stabbing stomach pain.  And lots of sitting very still on the couch and not moving.  Because moving caused more stabby pain.

It was big fun.

And by big fun I mean I prayed for the sweet release of death.

And I knit.

I knit the entire back of my Jamestown.

Does that look off to anyone else but me?

The armscye is super deep.

Like as long the the body of the sweater deep.

I don't know about you but I don't need an armscye that is a foot deep.

My gauge was all kinds of crazy.

I got spot on gauge with my gauge swatch.  And the slender cables on the sides were good with gauge, but the middle section, the hashtag cables, they were off. And while it was contained on both sides by the slender cables it was manageable.  But as I decreased the side stitches the middle section and it's off gauge staged a hostile take over, until my armscye was threatening to eat the other half of the sweater.

If I had been knitting with wool I *might* have been able to block that out.

But I was knitting with acrylic.

And my stomach hurt too much to deal with this.

So I am once again the proud owner of three balls of yarn, and a set of empty size 7 needles.

Maybe sweaters just aren't my thing.

I'm reconsidering taking up chainsaw juggling.

If you need me I'll be in the backyard with this little moppet.

Like her siblings before her, she's a little fish.

A Case Of The Mondays On A Tuesday Afternoon

So lately I've been thinking maybe knitting isn't my thing.

Knitting isn't for everyone.

And maybe it's not for me.

Let us remember the mediocre Folded, and the too short to be allowed Tweedy, and the lest we forget the completely disastrous in every ways Grown Up Girl.

I turned to Jamestown.

And things were going along swimmingly

And then I realized that the big slouchy sweater was not going to be big and slouchy enough.

I need to go up a size.  Possibly two to get the amount of ease I want.

I am now the proud owner of ball of yarn and a pair of empty needles.

I need to find a new hobby.

I hear chain saw juggling is surprisingly relaxing.

Day 3

Three days in and I surrender.

I tried to be an adult.

I tried to persevere.

I can do hard things.

And knitting this sweater is HARD.

I'm not enjoying it.

But I'm pushing through the pain with thoughts of how awesome I'm going to look in my finished sweater.  Every single stitch will be worth it when I am sporting my flattering belted silhouette this winter.

But then I took a progress picture.

I wanted to whine about the obvious line of demarcation between where I started this sweater with the last two skein of virgin yarn, and where I switched to the crinkly frogged abused yarn.

Cause that line is there.

And obvious line is obvious.

I was just hoping that it would all block out in the end.

What else was I supposed to do.

And then I saw it.

You see it too don't you.

About two inches down from the needles.

FREAKING RUST!

Five stitches of rust stained yarn.  Two inches from the needles.  Two inches of work that needed to be frogged so I could remove the offending little "v"s.

My heart can't take anymore.  My purple yarn has been returned to ball form (minus the offending section).  And this?

This is my gauge swatch for Jamestown.

Day 2

It is Day 2

My Grown Up Girl grows.

I been knitting with my favorite knitting buddy

She has decided to knit a sweater this summer, and I have to say knitting with Pork Chop is the BEST.THING.EVER!

She makes me hot chocolate in my favorite mug.

(yes, my nails are naked.  Again.)

And we marathon Pretty Little Liars.  She mocks their unfortunate costume choices and I get to drop little gems of wisdom on her like "Your skirt should be longer than your shirt" and Never wear more than one animal print at a time."  (Aria, I'm looking at you.)

I'm enjoying the bonding time and all, but the knitting?  I'm over it.

I'm just over it.

I made modifications the last time I knit this sweater.  And I didn't take good any notes.  And the fit turned out so perfect, so I HAVE to remember what mods I made so I can have the perfect fitting sweater.  But I can't remember.  Not a clue.

I'm over trying to remember.

I'm over the pressure to mod it for a perfect fit.

I'm over knitting with crinkly frogged yarn.

I'm over knitting this pattern that I've knit fifteen billion times before.

Does anyone know where I can just buy a Grown Up Girl sweater?

In the mean time did y'all see the new issue of Knitty is up?

Way back in the dark ages of the internet infancy Knitty was the only game in town for online knitting pattern.  There weren't any local sources for knitting patterns.  I'd already knit everything from the lone knitting book my library offered.  I used to pour over each new Knitty issue, desperate for a pattern I would like to knit.  Some issues were better than others.  But as the online market for patterns widened Knitty made some interesting creative choices and after fifteen or so issues without a single pattern that sparked my interest Knitty and I parted ways.  Honestly I didn't even realize it was still around.  But it is.

And I'm obsessed with the idea of

Jamestown

I am so ready to rip the needles from Grown Up Girl to use them to cast on for Jamestown.  I've recently queued a ton of sweaters with this big slouchy silouette on Ravelry.  So this slobby cabled sweater is right up my alley.  And I have some grey yarn that I *think* is enough to knit this sweater in my stash (yarn chicken anyone?).

I'm tempted.

Really tempted.

Or maybe I need to knit a Baker Street Scarf.

Two days in, and I'm ready to bail.

Day 1

Well...

Hope springs eternal?

I have once again lept into the great black time suck that is knitting a Grown Up Girl Sweater.

Fifteenth time is the charm right?

I'm still searching for that missing third skein of virgin yarn.  It is starting to drive me crazy and haunt my dreams.  I'm ready to offer my kids a dollar if they can find it.  

The dollar reward usually works.

In other news

My purple hair was looking ridiculously cute today in milk maid braids.  And I didn't meet a single person I knew.

Typical.

I'm sure it will look wavy, crazy, homeless tomorrow and I'll run into the entire Elementary School staff in the grocery store.  

Typical.

In baby news

This is what happens when Pork Chop plays with the Queen.

Yarn Chicken

Sometimes you have a ball of yarn.

Just a ball.  No band.  No information.  No yardage calculations.  Just a ball.

And you think to yourself "that looks like enough yarn to knit a ..."  insert whatever knit item you really want to knit with this yarn.

This is known as yarn chicken.

Can you knit your item before the yarn runs out?

It is a known fact that if you knit fast enough you can finish your item before the yarn runs out.  The trick is to not stop knitting.   If you put your knitting down to do silly things like go to the bathroom, or eat, or sleep, the yarn will win.

And sometimes you pull out every trick in the book and the yarn wins anyways.  Someday I will share the black baby sweater, a classic case of the yarn winning.

And sometimes you decide to knit the bodice of a baby dress.

And you win.

You win so spectacularly that you also knit

matching leg warmers to be worn with the dress.

I so WIN.

Current count:  6 baby sweaters, 1 pair of leg warmers, and 0 pictures of a baby wearing any form of hand knits.

I'm still counting this as a win.

I need to attach fabric to the bodice, but since I knit a 2T and the Queen is wearing 6/9 month clothes (but creeping up on 12 month, she's had a growth spurt) I figure I've got time to find the perfect skirt.

I've been pondering why I've poured so much energy into baby sweaters the Bean will barely wear.  I think my grown up sweaters have been so disappointing lately I just don't have the heart to knit any more for now.

I did sit down with my fabulously rust stained purple sweater this morning.

I turned this...

Into this...

I only cried a little.

I cut out all the rusty sections I could find, but I fear I may have missed a few of the smaller sections.  Some sneaky parts only discolored a single stitch.  But when you're dealing with such a highly saturated solid color a single stained stitch that hid while I was frogging could ruin the next finished object.

In the end I discarded

38 grams of yarn.

My records show I had three unused skeins of yarn, but I could only find two this morning.  I don't know if The Queen has claimed a skein as her own, or if I lack basic math skills and counted to three when there were only two.  But either way I have 100 grams of untouched yarn.  So assuming I have some basic math skill left knocking around my brain, I SHOULD have enough yarn to reknit the sweater if I so desire, and even some extra to eliminate having to resort to using some of the small balls of yarn (decreasing the number of ends I will ultimately have to weave in).

Of course this is assuming I have basic math skills, and assuming I weighed everything correctly. and assuming I don't lose any more balls to the Queen, or the Yarn Gnomes, or who ever it is who keeps stealing my yarn.  And assuming I have the heart to knit the purple yarn again.

I feel like there is a lot of assuming going on.

It all feels like a big game of yarn chicken.

Ramblings of a Bad Blogger

First things first...

After nine very long, very odd weeks, I finally managed to

Paint my nails.

I know you were all very concerned about my lack of polish.  Frankly I was worried too.  It really is a symptom of larger issues.  My nails are not meant to be naked.  But now they are sparkly purply/red, and all is once again right with the world.

On the knitting front, I have finished yet another baby sweater...

That brings the total to five finished baby sweaters and zero pictures of the baby in a baby sweater.

Of course I promptly cast on for, you guessed it, a baby sweater.

Only this one is actually the bodice for a dress, not a full baby sweater, so that's something right?  I'm hoping I might have enough yarn left to knit matching leg warmers.  How cute would that be?!!!!

I know I don't NEED all these baby items. I've only got the one baby.  And we live in a climate where there are a finite number of opportunities for the baby to wear a sweater. But I can't stop knitting them.  I just can't.  They call to me.  I just have all these left over ends of yarn that are just big enough for a smooshy baby sweater.  And when the yarn wants to be a smooshy baby sweater who am I to argue?

I am still rocking the purple hair.

(check out that bathroom mess, and unmade bed.  I'm keeping it real for you guys.)

Just as my nails were meant to sparkle, my hair was meant to be purple.  This is the color it was always supposed to be.  Unfortunately it bleeds like you wouldn't believe.  Swimming season is upon us, and the fact that water makes my hair bleed lavender presents some problems.  I fear that once my hair is all faded I will have to wait until the fall to resume my life as a Fairy Princess.  I know.  First World Problems right?  (Although The Greatest has informed me that I am NOT a Fairy Princess, I'm the freaking Fairy Queen. I can live with that.)