Too Many Projects

I'm sure this has never happened to any other knitters before - too many projects at one time that need to be worked on. It doesn't help that I consider myself to be somewhat ADD so keeping my focus on one project long enough to see it through is tough sometimes. Let's see what I've got right now that needs my attention. 1. A baby blanket that I was supposed to have completed for one of my best friends whose wife had a baby girl 10 weeks ago. So much for thinking that I had "plenty of time" to get it done. I started in April, I believe. And now here it is November and I still haven't finished the blanket. In my defense though, it's not necessarily an easy blanket to get done. It requires quite a bit of concentration; especially with the portion that I'm working on right now. Here's my progress on that blanket. I'm almost halfway done with it. Maybe by her first birthday, I'll have it completed. Actually, I'm hoping to have it done way before then. But then again, I was hoping to have it done before she was born. Damn my attention span and sense or urgency can be a pain! My progress thus far. I give you Baby Blanket Latvian Garden. It's a pattern I found on Ravelry. It's my first attempt doing something of this scale and difficulty level. Not bad huh?

The next project that I have is a pair of socks that I started about a week ago. I have yet to knit something for myself, so that's what the socks are. Finally something for me. No, they're not as important as the other things that I have started, but they're the easiest to knit. Just simple, plain old socks. Here they are right now. I'm doing them two-at-a-time. I'm about to start turning the heel of the first sock. That's going to be the slowest part of this whole process. I hate having to do purls across an entire row. I'm not nearly as fast doing that as I am when I'm just simply knitting.

Next on the list if a scarf that I promised a very good friend of mine, Heather. She's one of my best female friends (aside from my wife) that I have. I met her in college and we have been there for each other through quite a bit. I promised her that I would make her a purple scarf. I started it, and the pattern is pretty simple, but I set it down for a little bit and moved on. Yes that makes me a bad friend. And yes, I need to just bust it out and get it taken care of. Of all the projects I have for other people, it's probably the easiest. Winter here in Texas doesn't last long so I need to get it finished and sent to her before winter is over with. Quit being selfish and work on that first! Talking to myself helps motivate me sometimes. Here's my progress on the scarf.

Mitt Alongs

My group on Ravelry, The Colorwork Challenge, is getting started with its first knit-along.  After changing my mind a couple of times, first on the project to do, then on the colors to use, I have finally settled with doing the Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang.  Everyone says it's a great starter project, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  The wife isn't too crazy about the colors, but I think they're great. So if she doesn't like the final product, then I'll give them to a good friend of ours who lives in Connecticut.  Surely she could use them up there.

I have to admit, that even though I have this pattern grouped in the "Advanced" section for projects for our members to choose from for this first KAL, it really isn't that difficult.  I've made it through the Italian tubular cast-on (twice, since I had to start over after deciding on a different yarn/color choice), the cuff, and one pattern repeat so far.  I haven't had any problems at all.  In fact, row by row, it's getting easier and easier to deal with the tension issues.

These seem like they're going to knit up pretty quick.  Which is good because I'm a very impatient person.  I need to see results, NOW!

I will post more progress as I make more.

My first attempt with stranded colorwork

As I mentioned earlier, I started a group on Ravelry called The Colorwork Challenge.  What this group is going to be is a place for newcomers to colorwork, whether it's Fair Isle, simple stranded colorwork, intarsia, entrelac, etc.  People seem to be pretty intimidated by doing colorwork, and therefore don't ever give it a try.  But what I have found by starting this group, which has 190 members now, is that once people see others in the same boat, they're all of the sudden not so intimidated any more.  And they're more willing to give it a shot.  So we're going to build this group as a place for people to launch into the world of colorwork.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I've got a lot of work to do to get organized with it though.  Thankfully, a bunch of people have stepped up to the plate to help out and to be part of the growing process of the group.

I wasn't going to attempt anything related to colorwork until after we decided on the first project to do as a group.  But, I just couldn't resist.  Well, that, and I'm one impatient dude!  I found a pretty simple patten on Ravelry that looks more complicated than it is.  Here is a picture of my progress so far.

All in all, it hasn't been that bad to work on.  It's actually knitting up pretty fast.  The only real problem is trying to find my rhythm and to get comfortable with holding two yarns at one time. I still can't figure out if I want to do one in each hand or both in the left hand.  Normally I'm a continental knitter, so that's the easiest for me.  For now, I think I'm going to continue with one in each hand which is what I've done for most of the hat.  The hat was supposed to be for my 5 month old son, but a good section of the middle of it ended up way loose, so the hat is coming out a lot bigger than it was charted as.  It might end up being my 3 year old son's hat.  Hell, it might even fit me.  Who knows.

It's been a good learning experience though.  As with most new colorwork folks, the tension is what gets you.  I'm sure it just takes practice to learn how to get that just right.  It's kind of a pain in the arse getting used to how tight or loose things need to be.  But not a pain enough to not continue on with it.

My goal for this year is to succeed in knitting a Dale of Norway sweater, either for me or for one or both of my sons.  Once I get the hang of the two yarns at one time deal, then there really shouldn't be anything preventing me from being able to bust out a Dale sweater, right?!

The Colorwork Challenge

While posting in and perusing the Sock Knitters Anonymous group that I've been participating in, one of the members mentioned that she wanted to learn to do colorwork.  I agreed with her and told her that I wanted to learn it as well.  I told her that we should challenge each other, come the beginning of the new year, to learn colorwork.  She accepted my challenge and suggested that we start a group on Ravelry.  I took it upon myself today to get a group set up.  It's called "The Colorwork Challenge".  I set it up, thinking that it would be me, her, and maybe a few other people.  Well, here I am at the end of the day looking at the group and it's got 42 members already! Wow, that was quick!

It looks like this is going to be a bigger experience than I initially anticipated.  But, I'm excited about that.  The more the merrier!  I'm really looking forward to learning a new aspect of knitting.  Some good ideas have already been offered up for projects to start out with.  And, we've been collecting a list of resources (website links, video links, books, etc) for our members to have access to.  I think this is going to be a lot of fun and hopefully a tremendous learning experience.  Not to mention, I'll be meeting people from all over the world.  There's already at least a half a dozen countries from around the world represented with the member of this group.  How awesome is that?!

Of course, as this thing progresses, there will be pictures to post, updates on progress and just random sharing of whatever comes to mind.  Time to get some sleep now.  Let's see what tomorrow brings.

As The Heel Turns

Last night I stayed up until 3AM working on my MIL's socks.  Well, one of them, to be exact.  I stayed up late because I was trying to get the heel flap done.  It knits up pretty fast.  I planned on stopping there, but the turning of the heel tempted me to continue on.  I don't know what it is about turning the heel on socks, but I love it!  It fascinates me how it turns out when you do it correctly.  And it's not difficult to do either, so long as you're paying attention for the gaps on either end so you know when to SSK or K2tog.

I've got the heel turned on the first sock now.  I compared it to the other sock which is still not ripped back yet.  It's still knit in the needle size that the leg of the sock was knit with.  When comparing them side by side, I see that going for the smaller needle size on the foot is definitely the right choice for these socks.  Big difference!

I'm going to set a goal to have that first sock complete, or most of the way complete by the end of this weekend.  Christmas is looming and I need to get it done.  I may not get it complete by this weekend, but hey, it doesn't hurt to have goals!

MIL Sock Update

Well, I got both socks past the turning of the heel and one of them I worked the gusset part out completely.  It was no easy task for this beginner though.  I was having a tough time working both of them on one circular needle.  I decided, for the sake of hopefully finishing before Christmas, to take one of the socks off and work them one at a time.  I'll try my hand at TAAT ML again with a different pair of socks.

After getting the gusset complete on one of the socks, I decided that the actual foot portion of the sock was going to be a little too big and baggy for my mother-in-law.  I also remembered reading in the pattern that the foot part of the sock should be worked with a smaller needle.  I made the tough decision to rip the sock back to just before the heel flap.  I'm now working the heel flap on that sock again.  This makes the third time.  The first time, I started working the heel flap with a sl 1, purl row followed by a sl 1, knit row.  I wasn't paying attention to the fact that the second row is supposed to be *sl 1, knit* repeated across the entire row.  So that's why they had that surrounded by * *.  Ahh so, Danielson! It makes sense now.  Lesson learned.

Let's hope that the third time is the charm with this one.  I've had good practice with working the heel flap, turning the heel and working the gusset, so I shouldn't have any problems this time.  Murphy, your law is not welcome here!  No more issues please. Although, they have been learning experiences so I guess it's not all for not.

We're heading to my mother-in-law's house on the 17th.  That means that I don't have much time to get this show rockin' and rollin'!  There doesn't seem to be much time in the evenings after eating dinner, playing with the 4 month old and 2 1/2 year old, bathing them and getting them to bed.  I just need to be diligent about using that time wisely once they are finally asleep for the evening.  Maybe I need to get up early to work on these as well.  I just hope that it doesn't take me too much longer. I guess worst case scenario, I can work on them at my MIL's house during that week that we're there.  I don't want to have to do that, but it's not an unreasonable last resort.  I'll just have to isolate myself so that she doesn't see what they look like.

Did I mention that I also started a pair for my wife as well?  I had to, to gimme a short break from my MIL's pair.  Plus, my attention span can be short some times, so I always feel the need to do more than one thing at a time.  I was hoping to get those done by Christmas as well, but I know that won't be happening.



Here's the progress on my wife's socks.  I started out with two at a time, but didn't pay attention to the pattern (see a pattern here?...hahaha...pun intended) when it stated that the cabling had to be mirrored from the left sock to the right sock.  Ooops.  Yep, ripped one back and will be starting over on it.  I wanted to get the first one going first to see if I was going to like it.  I do like it.  I need to get the second sock cast on so I can try to work them TAAT.

Sock it to yo mama (in law)

I'm currently working on my second pair of genuine, handknitted, did it all by myself socks. I'm making them for my mother-in-law. Yes, that makes her a guinea pig of sorts, but it's a unique gift and it's going to be for Christmas, so that knocks out two birds with one stone. First bird is the practice and the enjoyment that I'm getting from making a pair of socks. The second is the Christmas gift that I can mark off my list.

The sock that I am making for her has been named Twisted Mockery. It's a sock pattern that was created for a group that I have joined on Ravelry. The group is Sock Knitters Anonymous. They do a knit along each month and every other month, they do a mystery sock. The sock is designed by someone and the pattern is released to the group in pieces. This particular one was spread out over 4 weeks. I'm about to finish up the third part of it.

I have to say, I am pretty pleased and impressed with my results so far. It's got a basic one over one cable that goes all along the front of the sock, pretty much down to the toe. I don't have a picture of it yet, but I have just finished turning the heel. Here's the most recent picture, which was shortly before I started on the heel.

Not bad for a beginner, huh?

So far, the sock has been fun to work on. However, doing that gusset thing....yeah....it's a pain in the arse! At least with one circular needle it is. I'm sure it'll get easier the more times I make a pair of socks. But, for now, it's a pain! I can't wait to get past this part. I was initially doing two socks on one 47" circular needle and didn't have any problems whatsoever with it. The only exception being the occasional twisting of the two working yarns...but I got past that. Not to bad at all, and I like the fact that I was seeing both of them take shape at the same time. With my procrastination traits and my uncanny ability to start something and never complete it, this is the way to go. I at least have the motivation to see the end of the sock. So since I'm working on both of them at the same time, once one is done, the other should be as well. Not at a bad deal!

I need to get this pair finished up so that I can work on a pair for wife. I have some pink yarn (her favorite color) that I want to start turning into socks. Not sure what pattern I'm going to use. I'm tempted to just do something simple so that it'll knit up fast, but then again, I want to add a touch of elegance to it so that it's not just a pair of socks.