So, this is theoretically a knitting blog with some other stuff. Only lately it’s been more other stuff and not a whole lot of knitting.

Why?

Well, let’s see how much knitting I’ve managed in the past few months…

Impressive, right? If by impressive, one means not at all. So. The downside of being busy is that I have hardly had time to knit. Most of what I have gotten done has been during language classes; mindless knitting helps me learn.  I keep meaning to knit more, especially as autumn starts to make itself known.

And yet…I find myself doing other things.  Dancing. Socializing with new friends, ones who I’m not quite at the bring-my-knitting stage with yet. The tarot project. Work for aforementioned lessons.  Work.

I’m trying to carve out more time, but in the meantime…enjoy the snails-pace project on my partial sock. The yarn has aloe vera in it (don’t ask me how, I have no idea what they did to it) and is very soft and I’m loving the stripes. Yay, socks!

In a fit of productivity, I’ve cast on for yet another project. This one has been in my queue for a very, very long time. I first fell in love with Spring Fling when I lived in DC, but then I didn’t get around to knitting it.

Then I moved to the San Francisco area,  where summer became a distant memory and the usefulness of a tiny, short-sleeved sweater appeared to be in question.

Then I started dancing.

While dancing, or immediately after, is pretty much the only time when I find myself going, isn’t it HOT? So I thought this would be a cute sweater to throw on over a tank top or sleeveless dress. Since it’s August, I figure this is more of a summer fling than a spring one, but that’s okay. After all, who doesn’t love a good summer fling?

It’s also shaping up to be (knock on wood) a super quick knit. I just got started on Saturday and I’m already speeding along through the back. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to keep the momentum up — I might even get this finished by October and catch the three or so (non-consecutive) days of summer that we actually get.

This shawl has been an incredibly fast knit so far, but I’ve now reached the point where I feel like each row is taking ages to knit. Probably because it kind of done. I’m making it larger by doing more garter stitch ridges — no real plan, just going until I think I’m getting near to the end of the yarn.

The problem with lace is that it doesn’t make for very exciting updates. Right up until the end, it basically looks like a colorful blob. But it’s a BIGGER colorful blob at least?

It may be totally cheesy, but I’m loving this sock club thing because it feels like a surprise gift in the mail. Yes, I know that I signed up for the clubs and yes, I generally recall when the yarn is shipped but the details typically slip my mind.

So when I come home and find a package full of scrumptious new yarn awaiting me, it’s a happy surprise.  Yes, it’s the little things that keep my life full of joy.

At any rate — that means, new yarn!

The yarn for Cookie’s club is Verb for Keeping Warm Metamorphosis in Sugar Jets. I love Verb, and the yarn is gorgeous. It’s sport weight, which isn’t my usual choice for socks, but I trust in Cookie’s genius, so I’ll have to give one of the patterns a go.

The Art and Sole sock club yarn is Socktopus yarn in Slice of Orange. It’s very…orange. Not usually one of my colors, but I do like this a lot. Another great thing about sock clubs  — they make me branch out! I would never have bought this yarn on my own, but the color has already grown on me.

Now I just have to remember that I need to finish other things before I can start new socks…

Now that I’ve finished the looming sweater of doom, I finally feel free to cast on for new projects! It’s a very liberating feeling.

One of the things I have coming up is a church auction. I don’t have anything to donate handy, so I decided to knit a small shawl. The pattern is Simple Things, from Rainy Day Goods. I’ve been knitting quite a bit –even at events!

I’ve named this project Simple Joy because of the colorway — this particular combination of pink, yellow, and orange never fails to cheer me up. It makes me think of stargazer lilies, sunsets, and a sort of fierce happiness.

I’m making good progress so far. My gauge is a bit off, so I’m planing on adding more of the garter stitch ridges. This yard has pretty generous yardage, so I think I should still be fine.

So, as I’ve noted on this blog before, I’ve been trying to do some major organizing around here. And while that’s slipped a tad due to the sudden crazy social life I’ve gone and got myself, I’m still chipping away at it.

Which means I sometimes uncover some interesting things.

Things like this:

If you’re thinking to yourself, Steph, that’s not interesting, that’s a half-finished sweater, then you my friend are…almost correct.

The pattern is Grecian Plait from Knitty, and as I picked it up, I decided I should look up the size needles I had used. (Which is also a sign I’m nearly finished with Princess Buttercup, because I am starting to eye other projects with renewed zeal. What do you MEAN, finish the sleeves first?)

That’s when I realized just how old this project actually is.

This pre-dates my Ravelry notes. It pre-dates at least three old versions of this blog. (Which, by the way, I really need to clean up my internet presence at some point.)

As best I can tell, I cast on for this sweater sometime in 2004.

That’s a record for an unfinished object, even for me.  I dimly recall that I think I used 9s and 13s on the sweater; once I’ve finished Buttercup, I’ll break out the needles and start trying to work it out. I do like the pattern and it should still fit me, so no worries there. I really like the look of the plait pattern on the body, especially.

But, um, seriously. I need to be better about not abandoning projects when I get to the sleeves.

So, this week I managed to have planning fail and NOT wind up seeing Harry Potter after all, which left me with some more knitting time on my hands. I finally picked up the dreaded sweater of doom. Again.

By all rights, I shouldn’t hate this project so much. I like the pattern. I like the yarn.

I just don’t like the fact that I think I’ve knit it one and a half times already and it’s still not done.

This is sleeve number two of Princess Buttercup. Now, by all calculating, this is about the fourth time I’ve knit the sleeve for this. However, I still only have one complete sleeve, and this one on it’s way. Which means I’m really quite tired of it, but still not finished.

If nothing else, I’ve learned from this that, really, I do need to listen to that nagging voice of reason in my brain. Because while I may not want to think about things like making sure to alternate rows when using kettle dyed yarn, it’s actually advised for a reason. And when it looks like I am not going to have enough yarn to finish — there is no magical yarn-extending fairy going to change that, I really do need to get more yarn.

Yes, it has occurred to me to just rip the sweater out and be done with it, but like I said. I really like the yarn, I really like the pattern. It actually is something I want to wear, even if it’s driving me up a wall at this stage.

I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of metaphor for life in all of this somewhere too.

At any rate, I’m making progress on the sleeve, and hopefully will see the end of this sweater soon. And I will gloat in triumph.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m slightly insane and working on a couple of epic sock yarn blankets. One of which is king bed sized.

Now, having enough self-awareness to realize if I tried to just start this blanket and keep going, I’d probably get partway through and decide, well, maybe I don’t really need a blanket that big, maybe a little smaller is just fine. So I measured my squares, looked up the correct blanket dimensions, and calculated how many squares I’d need.

The plan, of course, being to knit the entire first row of squares, then begin to join them.

I will be the first to admit here, I’m not one for math. So I checked my work. Several times.

Then, I began joining my squares.

About halfway through, I noticed that the blanket was looking awful, well, large.  Bed-sized even. Which was, of course the goal just not quite yet.

Eventually, after insisting to myself that I was imagining it and grimly knitting on, I located a tape measure and laid the thing out to measure.

It was pretty much full size.

With half the squares.

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve no idea what happened here. I  checked the math again, I measured the squares again, everything works out correctly on paper.

As far as I can tell, it’s one of the following:

1. I actually have no idea how to do math at all and am so wrong I don’t know how wrong I am. (This is a distinct possibility.)

2. I failed to account for the 2nd row, although since the first row lines up corner to corner, I don’t know why that would matter. Unless the tiny bit of extra space performed some weird trick and multiplied exponentially.

3. I’m not actually wrong, but the blanket is stretching out because I don’t have enough rows to give it stability and once I get the third row in it’s going to shrink. (Yes, I do plan on measuring before I finish off row three, in case I suddenly need to extend the first two.)

4. The universe is just screwing with me.

Not for nothing, but at this point, I’m fairly sure it’s the last one.

At least when it comes to knitting.

I’d set aside the Charleston socks for a while; I liked the yarn and the pattern, but the fabric and sizing weren’t quite right. But I didn’t think I had any smaller needles free, so I just ignored the project.

Yes, I’m very mature like that.

IF I IGNORE THE PROBLEM IT WILL GO AWAY.

But when I got my latest sock club shipment in the mail, I was conflicted — the new patterns and yarns from both clubs are delicious and I wanted to dive right in.

But I already had the Charleston socks on the needles.

So I poked around in my supplies and found some needles, a bit smaller than the ones I had been using, and decided to give the Charleston socks another go.  If nothing else, perhaps the other projects waiting in the wings will motivate me to finish…