CIC sock challenge

As part of my January goal, I recently (as in: late last night) completed the third pair of socks for Children In Common. The goal was originally 4 pairs, but it didn't happen.

Here they are:


They're the first time that I didn't follow a pattern. Just cast on a number divisible by 4 (because? I don't know. I guess to have my K2, P2 ribbing come out evenly.) Ribbed and knit the top til it looked good, used half the stitches for the heel. Did the same number of rows from my heel pickup down to the toe as the number of cast on stitches. (Thanks to Marguerite for those suggestions.)

After washing, and drying over the registers over night, they're in the mail today!

If you check out my sidebar, I decided to join Team Chocolate. It will be part of my training and participation to eat chocolate (horrors--I almost typed "one piece of chocolate"--not what I had in mind at all!) for each day of the Olympics. Even if I don't complete the sweater, I will have at least trained fully!

It's a big decision

Which team should I join for the Knitter's Olympics?

Team caffeine? A necessity of life.


Or Team Chocolate? More of a luxury. My head doesn't split in half if I miss a day of chocolate.


Or Both? It's a big decision.

Out of control

Yesterday I went a bit out of control.

I started the day well. Went to breakfast with RB. (That's her new name. "She-who-gets-locked-out-of-her-house-in-pajamas" just takes too long to type.) Then we mosied over the yarn store to buy new needles.

Here they are, accompanied by one lonely (but gorgeous) skein of sale yarn. (Check out the cool pink bag.)

Chatted for awhile with the lady who helped us. Discussed school borders, kids now-a-days, Christmas gifts....and my Clapotis. She recognized the pattern just by my having it thrown over my shoulder. HA! I can knit a recognizable pattern!

So far, so good.

Next, we went next door to the thrift store, where I found this:

This is 100% Virgin wool! The bigger skeins have to be 8 oz. each. Plus I scored a bag of tapestry yarn! (I figure this is actually tapestry yarn also. Not the softest possible, but definitely good enough for a sweater. Or two. Tone-on-tone. Little squares. Imagine the possibilities.)

Now, RB and I had not perfected our bargaining signals before going inside. I asked "How much for it all?" and was told $15. I hemmed and hawed and asked RB, "what do you think?"

She, coming straight from the LYS where they had plenty of single skeins that cost more than that, said, "That's a good deal".

Wrong. Bad. That's not bargaining. But again, we hadn't practiced. A slight eyebrow lift could've meant: Be skeptical. Sound poor. Keep talking about how we needed enough bus fare to get home. (That might've given us away since I don't know if our one county bus even stops there.)

But she took me literally. (And it was a good deal.)

But since the owner just threw a number out at me, I hemmed and hawed some more, and said "would you take $12?" to which she said "sure".

Deal done. Next time, we'll practice.

So...still doing okay....until I got home..... where a "we're having a sale" email was waiting for me. So....ummm....I might've ordered a couple of skeins of sock yarn. It was a sale, after all, and I was on a roll.

Speed knitting?

I totally don't do it. Speed knitting, that is. Been questioned about it, however. In the interest of science (and the avoidance of bathroom cleaning), I decided to find out how fast I actually knit.

First, a couple of disclaimers. I have no idea how this is actually done, so I made up my own rules. I actually turned the TV off, the dog was asleep, and the kids at school, so there were no distractions.

I fortified myself with a cup of hot chocolate, then off I went.

Since this is still orange month, I used a leftover yarn on sz 8 16" needles--what felt comfortable to me. I would've preferred my bamboo 6's, but they're grabbing at the joins. You can see the rejected needles at the top:


Pulled out the yarn into a pile so there would no fooling with it later, then I knit a few rows to get comfortable. Marked the beginning,



set the timer for 1 minute and here's the results:
#1: 35 sts (I was nervous)
#2: 36 sts (warming up)
#3: 39 sts (that's the way!)
#4: 36 sts (out of the groove already)
(The fact that I did this 4 times shows my competitive side. Wait--I can be faster. Next time will be faster! Just one more time and then I'll stop. Don't make me clean the bathrooms yet!)

Then just for grins, I tested without looking (actually with my eyes closed since I couldn't keep from peeking). Lo and behold, I got 36 sts! While this is a skill that I'm still practicing, I had no idea that I could do it that fast!



How fast can you knit?

Progress part 2

Here's my attempt to keep my buffet table clean:

I figure that if I put decorative plants on it, I'll be less inclined to pile it high with papers, books, and downright junk. So far it's been 3 days and still working. (However, no massive amounts of homework yet.)

Here's the Rogue with the finished hood. Grafted the cable following these great directions.

I'm figuring that blocking will flatten out any wayward stitches. (I've been figuring that a lot lately.....hope it's true!)

Here's the first sleeve:

Yep, I've lost my motivation. Not only do I have the dreaded second sleeve syndrome, but I seem to have acquired the first sleeve syndrome.

Which brings me to the socks. They are for CIC, so they're on my January Goals list. The second orange sock was mostly finished during DD's basketball game.


There was time to come home between games, so I finished orange socks, and cast on for green and blue striped socks.

Got as far as the heel during DS's game. Turns out that we got there in time for the PREVIOUS game, (uggh), so had plenty of time for knitting.

Hoping to get back to the Rogue sleeves tonight.

USA Sweater Team

I'm joining the USA Sweater Team. I suppose I could've joined the cable team, but there's so few cables in my sweater that it didn't seem fair.



Does the fact that I've stalled on Rogue, with only 2 sleeves (minus 20 rows) to go foretell doom on Purple Passion? Most likely.

Must pick up the pace on training. One, two, one two. Or rather knit, purl, knit purl.

Go team!

Knitter's Olympics

Thanks for not commenting on the "Am I Crazy?" post. I appreciate it.

I AM crazy, but at least I haven't heard a resounding "YES!!!!".

Of course, you don't really know what I'm talking about, so here it is....

This is the Knitter's Olympics that Ms. Harlot is conducting.

Basically, casting on during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, knitting like mad on a project that is personally challenging, then finishing by the closing ceremonies 16 days later.

I chose my Purple Passion Sweater in Quick Knits to Wear. It was supposed to be my February project (read: 28 days), but now I'm attempting to knit it in 16 days.

Now you can call me crazy.

Am I crazy?

Am I crazy?

Progress report

No interesting stories, but here's what I've been working on....

Rogue is halfway through the hood.

It's harder and harder to make myself knit it, though, so I have to move back and forth between different projects. If I finish the hood this weekend, then do one sleeve each week, I'll still make my goal.

I almost finished a soaker using beautiful, handspun wool. Still needs a drawstring...and a heart.

There's enough yarn left that I might be making socks to match.

I will, however, need the needles that are here:

This is a first sock of 8 (HA!) that I want to make for the CIC sock challenge.

This sock is the project that I took with me today for DS#2's basketball game.
ME: "Wait, I have to get my knitting and then we can go."
HIM: "But mom, you're supposed to be watching ME!"
ME: "That's why I'm taking something easy to do so that I can watch you at the same time."

That was my theory, and it was true that I didn't pay much attention. So much so, that I started the toe decreases without moving some stitches around, and now the toe is all wonky. Gotta be frogged and done over. (All was not lost--DS's team won the game.)

Umm......I might've added another project to my Jan. to-do list. Not starting it, though, just finishing it.

I'm helping put together a Warm Up America afghan. The squares are all done, I'm just adding the black border and then sewing together. This, too, must be done by the end of January.

Am I feeling the pressure? Just a bit.

2006 FOs

Ugg booties and hat


Tan helmet liner


Potato Chip Scarf








CIC Items

Dec/Jan sock challenge

Whiny baby

That's me, I'm just a whiny baby. And I whined through the knitting of at least half of this scarf. This is Potato Chip, although it looked exactly like the pattern featured in this Sunday's Washington Post.

It starts with 90 sts (although I think I did about 110), then doubles every other row. Here it is at 880 sts, right before the massive bind off.

I became a whiny baby at 440 sts. Arrgh---these sts are really tight. They're too tight already. They're hurting my hand. Uggh.

Here's a close up. (No, I did not squish them together for maximum effect. This is the way they were the whole way around.)

I suppose I could've used more than one circular needle. Maybe 4 or 5, then I could've gotten over 1600 sts before binding off. Ha!


Here's the finished scarf, modelled by our pogo stick.

I wore it to work yesterday where several people recognized the pattern. Now if only it would match something in my closet.... It must be time to go shopping.

Guest

I will be having a guest blogger commenting about these pictures (but since it's past her bedtime, she's off to bed.)

It's still bedtime, but the guest blogger--DD#2-- is now blogging.....

(No caption to go with this, but it's a puzzle that she finished.)



It took me forever to finish my purse but I finished! At first I was thinking colors for High School but I think from all of the people petting it I will lose the fuzziness and then it won't be cute! So now I have second thoughts about taking it to High School how about it be a bright red purse that everyone pets it.



Remember when my MoM put up how she had made my a poncho? Well she had extra yarn so I'm making a scarf to go with it. (I'm hoping that I can finish it befor the winter is over!) I started it on Thursday and on Saturday this is what I have. I had told my MoM that my goal was to finish it in a week, and well it is Tuesday and I still have this much. I think that I need to speed up A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!



Some people might go what is this dohikky? Some might go I remember that well. I don't know the name but I do know how you do it. Where might I of gotten this well it come from a show called Carol Duvall.


Blogger is now off to bed again... I'll try to have a periodic update on her progress.

New look

Working on a new look for 2006. Changed the template and the colors (I'm really not a pink person, so why I picked pink is a mystery.) I used this link to pick the colors, which is quite easy to change using this template.
Finished another helmet liner:

and remembered to take a picture before it went off in the mail.

It's basketball game day, and did some knitting during the games, accompanied by DD#2's friend who brought her knitting along also.

2005 FOs

My scene poncho


Felted oven mitt



Purple felted clogs


Sublime shawl



Nautilus hat


NYC street cap




Bohemian Chemo cap


Firefighter's socks



Aran bear sweater


Magic stripes socks



Buttonhole bag


Blue cotton tank



Chevron Rib tank


Birthday clogs



Toe socklets


Clapotis



Amble Socks


Mosaic Soaker



Saxon Braid Scarf


Ruby Poncho



Fancy Fur Scarf


Moorehouse Merino Baby Jacket



Felted Oven Mitt


Helmet Liner



Diamond Handwarmers



___________________

CIC items



CIC vests


CIC Feather and Fan comfort shawl



Puppy and Fish


Multi orphans sweater



Rose orphans sweater


Purple basketweave socks



Denim basketweave socks


Orange basketweave socks



Slippers

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/169/2924/320/CICchutes1.jpg

Chutes and Ladders socks



Var. Chutes and Ladders socks


LaZdiamond Vest


Heart Vest