Do I know you? or do you know me?*

Knottygnome has me thinking, do I really know you? I feel like I do but the reality is that I probably don't. You probably have a feel for my personality given my discussions of knitting progress (or lack thereof) and various memes. You actually know lots of random things about me that people I see and speak with more often might not know. (Because, really, when would these random things come up?) I know I censor my content because I don't want to get too personal here. Its not bad, but just made me think others probably do the same. So, are we friends...? Maybe but then again maybe not. In this day and age when people talk about the way that technology can isolate people, it also brings them together in new and complex ways.

Now for what you really want, some knitting news. First, the madness that is Mystery Stole 3. I started out strong, printed my first two charts and had almost made it through Clue 1 when realized that I forgot some beads way back at the beginning.



You probably can't see in the picture, but trust me there are 2 missing beads. It is bugging the crap out of me. I have basically left the stole alone because the thought of ripping back is really annoying. (I know, I could probably duplicate stitch them in later or something but it will bug me, plus I don't think it would look good with this yarn/bead combo. It would really piss me off later if I could see where I added the beads after the fact during blocking so its probably best to just go ahead and re-do it since its still just Clue 1.) We are going out of town next week and I'm hoping to have lots of knitting time (plane rides and a few long car rides) so I'll hopefully be caught up by the end of the month.

Sockapalooza socks appear to have no progress.



Trust me that heel has been knit so many times, its not funny. The yarn is holding up like a champ, though. I think I finally have a heel (courtesy of Widdershins) that works. (Thanks Pam & Twig for your comments!) Unfortunately, given my tight knitting to get gauge, apparently my row gauge is off. I started the heel about 3.5 inches from the finished size I wanted and it was too small. In a fit, I ripped it all out again. The sock was banished to some waste yarn and I started sock #2.

What you don't see a second sock in that picture? Yeah, that would be because I cast on the wrong number of stitches when I started (18 instead of 20). I didn't notice until I had done all the increases for the toe and then realized that the total number of stitches was off by 2. Now, if these had been for me, I would have fudged it. *But* these are not, they are for some knitter out there who is looking forward to receiving my best effort. Is faking it really my best effort? Nope. Off to the frog pond for sock #2.

Since I have family coming into town tomorrow (um, yeah, I found out yesterday they'd be here), and I still have work and we're going out of town on Sat., there won't be any more blogging this week. However, given all the travel (and the impending deadline), I hope to have finished socks by the end of all the travel next week.

*I apparently am already suffering from senior moments because I wrote this on 7/17/2007 but forgot to actually upload it. Duh.

Pics to start off the weekend

I finally went out and took some photos of my swatch for Mystery Stole 3. I started out with US3 needles at the bottom, went on to US4 needles, and then used US5 needles at the top. I still need to block the swatch but the hemp doesn't have much give so I'm thinking the size should not change drastically. (don't laugh, it could happen)



Complete aside, the first clue for MS3 came out this morning and I've already seen at least two pictures of people who have finished the clue (about 100 rows). I wish I had that kind of time. It will probably take me all week to get my clue done. Plus, I need to order more beads since what I originally ordered will probably only get me through the Clue 2.

Now, you would think I would have done a swatch with Canapone before now but, um, I just jumped into using the blue Canapone for the Alpine Lace stole. It has finally seen the light of day again. I'm aiming to do at least one 16-row repeat every couple of days to see if I can get this done before the end of July. (I was going to write "by next month" only to realize that is the day after tomorrow. eek) I have finally reached the half-way mark.



This was supposed to be for a friend of mine who is considerably more petite than I am. I'm thinking that it will wind up swallowing her since I think its wide for me. So, I realized that I had a perfectly good Flower Basket Shawl just waiting for a happy home. It would be perfect for her since its the shoulder shawl size. Unfortunately, its been sitting in the baggie for so long that it needs to be re-blocked. The plan is to get that done probably on the holiday so that I can mail it out next weekend.

Thank you for the heel suggestions. I'll be spending some quality time working that out this weekend as well. Guess I'll just have to give up the housework in order to get all this knitting done. Oh, the horror. (Oh yeah, um, despite how good I've been on my yarn diet there was a huge sale at my local quilt shop. I maybe have the beginnings of a fabric stash. Don't tell.)

Foiled

I was all set to take pictures of actual knitting progress but the camera batteries are dead. So, I'm afraid you will have to settle for my word that I have actually been knitting. (Hopefully, there will be pictures by the end of the week.) I have been working away on the Alpine Lace stole because I'm tired of seeing it around. I think it will be great when its done but it is just taking a long time to get there.

I worked up a swatch for the Mystery Stole 3 -along. I am determined to use something in my stash so I'm turning to the Elann Canapone (100% hemp which does not seem to be available on their site right now) that has been sitting around, unused. Despite my love of lace, I don't seem to have that much laceweight yarn. Of course, I still have one more bin of yarn to catalog in Ravelry so there might be one or two other options lurking in there. Although I know for certain that if there is, it won't be in the recommended white/ivory/gray/black spectrum which Melanie is recommending for the project. As much as I love wearing black, the idea of knitting black yarn does not appeal to me. As for white and ivory, they're not really not my style. In fact, I can't remember why I purchase the neutral beige Canapone now.

For those of you not currently in Ravelry, it lets you inventory all your yarn, patterns/books, and needles. This has made me realize that I really have plenty of yarn options at the ready. Of course, those options may not seem perfect for the pattern that calls to me at any given moment, but it does help to see what could work with the pattern. Plus, you can see what other people have done with a particular pattern. I'm actually hoping that putting all the information on Ravelry will help me maintain my yarn diet. (I'm doing fairly well, I've only bought new yarn to make socks for my Sockapalooza 4 pal since her yarn taste is different than mine.)

Speaking of socks, I have been working on my pal's socks. The pattern I picked, Horcrux socks (the original pattern was in a heavier weight, I believe) from the Six Sox Knitalong, was originally written to be made cuff-down. Since I only got the two skeins and my pal probably needs the large version, I wanted to make these toe-up to be sure I did not run out of yarn. Now remember, I've only done Fuzzy Feet and Twinkle Toes. That is to say that I have been tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to make the heel. In theory, this is not difficult. However, I don't actually understand the theory of how to create a short-row heel so I've been trying to figure out the general rules based on looking at a number of different patterns, or even trying to find a pattern that has the same number of stitches that I have so I can just follow their instructions. Let's just say that many attempts later, the socks have been banished to the corner until I have the patience to try again. (I have checked this site which is great, full of options but seems to link to actual patterns rather than giving an explanation of how each toe or heel works. I think its one of those things where understanding comes with time and experience.)

This working regular hours and increased days of the week when I go to the Orlando office is putting a real dent in my crafting time. How do people have full-time jobs, kids and still manage to churn out FO after FO? Again, listing all my UFOs on Ravelry will hopefully inspire me to finish more of them.