Angee

A couple of weeks ago I decided to organize my socks. While they looked very pretty all lined up I realized that I had a problem. A green sock problem. At the time I counted four pair but here's number five! Really?! Five? How many green socks does a girl need? Well, five I guess. I dug through my stash today and I have at least one more skein of green sock yarn but for heaven's sake I'll not make it into socks. Hmm...

Pattern: Angee by Cookie A
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn in Bronzed Forest
Needle: US 1 (2.25 mm) Addi turbo
No mods!

Frogging

Last week I pulled out a long-suffering sock project in order to work on it. It sat. I tried the finished sock on. It sat. I tried it on again. This went on for days and I finally decided yesterday to rip the sucker out!!! I unpicked the bind off threw the yarn on the ballwinder and pulled the sock out in about 2 minutes. I felt a sense of elation at the prospect of not having to knit the second sock and an ease of knitting burden in ripping it out. Yes, the yarn is back in my stash but I'll choose a pattern that I actually enjoy knitting rather than forcing myself to knit something I hate. Yay!

How about you? Do you feel burdened by a long-suffering project? Do you shove it at the bottom of the WIP box to finish at an unidentified later date or frog? How do you decide?

Wayfarer

I finished my Wayfarer scarf a couple of weeks ago and finally washed and blocked the sucker out. Apparently I'm going through an orange phase and I like it. This scarf took me a little longer to knit as it was my going-to-a-bar knitting project and, let's face it, once you hit a certain point in the evening there's not a whole lot of knitting going on. Well, not any knitting that won't get ripped out the next day.

Pattern: Wayfarer by Jared Flood
Yarn: Shelter in Embers
Needle: US #8 Clover
Mods: None. Knit it just as written which left me with a very tiny amount of yarn left over. This yarn is definitely a knitter's yarn. It smells wonderfully of clean sheep and the outdoors and knits into an incredibly lofty and warm fabric. My hands like knitting with it and the color palette is right up my alley. And what's wrong with North American raised and milled wool? Not a damn thing.

Drifting

I finished a lovely lightweight cardigan for Summer (if it ever really gets here) on Sunday. It's yet another great pattern by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.

Pattern: Drifting
Yarn: Dye Dreams Luster Sox in Olive (2 skeins)
Needles: US #5 & US #6 Addi Turbo
Mods: Knit the body half an inch longer. Dye Dreams is no longer in business but one of the ladies has gone on to dye under the name Dirty Water DyeWorks. The Luster Sox yarn base is BFL which lends great drape to my finished cardi. I think the Paula base for DWD is the same as my Luster Sox. In any case I'll be putting DWD on my "must visit" list for Sock Summit to see it in person and possibly purchase.

Rick (Steves)

The last two weeks have been completely nutso around here. We're having a bit of family drama which only serves to elevate my frustration/anger level and which, I think, won't be easily done away with. In fact, this will probably be my only mention of it and now I'm moving on. Whew.

I took my final for Spanish 3 last night and flew through it in about 35 minutes. I'm always anxious that a quickly completed test means that I don't actually know anything and every answer is wrong. But I celebrated my release from 8 hours of homework per week by downing a couple of German beers and eating a veggie burger. YUM!

In knitting news, I've been steadily working away on projects. Most are in sock yarn and while they take a little more time to finish I'm happy with the decreased sock yarn stash. When my mom came to visit in February she asked me for a pair of socks so I dug out all of my sock books and let her choose. She picked out Rick from Cookie A's Sock Innovation and requested green. I dug through my stash for all my green sock yarn and she liked my skein of Hazel Knits in Cascade Canopy. Have I said how much I love this yarn? It's smooth and round and has great stitch definition and blocks beautifully. The socks came out so well that I'm a little sad to see them go.

Pattern: Rick from Sock Innovation by Cookie A
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Cascade Canopy
Needles: US #1 addi turbo
Mods: None