What I Learned This Week.

Short-row heel! I'm not sure how I feel about it--actually, this whole sock might be a touch too small--but I sure as hell can do it. It certainly looks cute. I feel this heel would be quite nice on baby socks.

Also, am using this pattern for my Trekking, and it looks pretty nice. It still might be better as an actual Just Plain Sock, but what the hell, right? I may have enough left to do a pair of short plain ol' socks. I'd wear two pair of jewel-colored stripey socks. Or I could figure out which of my friends have smaller feet than I do and send them the first pair. 'Course, I don't know how my friends would feel about brightly colored stripey socks. They might just think I'm weird. Well, I mean, they already KNOW I'm weird, but you know what I mean.

um.

For continuity's sake, I will mention that yes, that hot pink yarn is bloody well going to stay in the sweater form it is now. It's not the world's greatest sweater, but I'm pretty sure I'll wear it, so ha! Check that off. Pictures to come when I don't have a migraine.

Now my dilemma involves the Trekking I bought on my birthday yarn store venture. I can't find a pattern that I think is worthy of such pretty colors. I'm tempted to just knit it up as a plain ol' sock, but that's just a tad boring . . . it deserves better than Plain Sock. But not something so fancy it'll turn into Mess.

Ah well. I will keep searching.

In other news, I ADORE my zombie socks with all my black heart, and the Yummy whatever yarn that was that I made the Jaywalkers out of softened up a bit after washing, and is much more pleasant.

Bedtime now.

a question of hemming.

Right. Some of you may remember that I own some extremely bright pink yarn, that I've been trying to knit up into something wearable for over a year now. I'm too poor to buy yarn and then not make it into something someone on this earth can use! Anyway, I've headed back into the world of the top-down raglan, because I can make those fit me, (I've got scrawny shoulders and largish boobs, remember? Pain in the ass.) and I think--I say I think--I've come up with a winner.

I'm nearly to the bottom, so am now trying to decide what the heck to do with the hem. I don't want a rolled hem. There's lace involved, so folding is right out. Ribbing would look funny, as it's sort of a babydoll top. I'm hoping that kind where you purl a row or two and then the cast-off end rolls up over that will work and not be too thick.

Hopefully there will not be too much swearing involved.

(I also wish I'd decided there would be lace involved before I started, because now the collar is the only part of the sweater with ribbing. I would have made it lacy, too, but now it's far, far too late to go back. And the sleeves might end up with ribbed cuffs, though I'm going to try with lace first.)

Oh, the adventure of it all.

mmm, camera.

Stuff I've made lately:

First we have my Zombie Socks. I kind of dote on these. All the knitting through the back loop was a pain in the ass, but hey, the socks are cute and thanks to them, I know all about the dropped stitch as design element. Yay learning something!



And these are my Gansey Gloves (someday there will be links: I'm SO LAZY!) without fingers. This is some Shibui sock yarn whose colorway I of course don't know, the ballband having been lost somewhere between here and Texas. Not because of evacuation, (though my poor Galveston did get its butt kicked, didn't it?) just because of moving.



I freakin' love how this yarn knit up. Each of the colors is lovely in itself, and then they all blend together so beautifully, not into a mega-mess like so many variegated yarns do. I actually like how the colors in the Sockotta turned out, as well. Yay me picking yarn I like!

As for what I'm working on now, let's just say that I think you've seen the yarn before, and hopefully it will fit in this incarnation. I am about to do some serious making-up-as-I-go. We shall see. And you may even see, because I do post pictures, even if I'm slow about it.

happy birthday to me . . .

And when I say 'happy birthday to me,' I mean I just went yarn shopping. :) Unfortunately, the only yarn store a girl without a car can easily get to in this town is really not the best yarn store in this town, but they'd just got in some sock yarn, so I am now the happy owner of two skeins of Trekking that I really don't need, but which are lovely. One is definitely for me, and one could possibly end up as a Christmas present for someone.

The store just doesn't have enough yarns in large quantities, so there wasn't anything Aran-sweater-suitable. I'm gonna have to call in some favors and find someone who wants to drive to one of the other stores. There are at least two good ones, dammit.

On the rest of the knitting front: am still having horrible problems with fit. Everything I knit for myself is too big. I don't understand. I think it's some kind of mental block, or some kind of subconscious "If I knit something and it's too small, then I'll feel fat," and so then I make everything too big and am just pissy. Especially because really, if you saw me, you'd know that fat and I really have not much of an acquaintance. So that sort of mental block is just weird.

I finished the first of my Zombie Socks and have started on the second. They're the first socks I've made whose fit I haven't really liked. I'm thinking this could be because I used Fortissima Sockotta, so they're not quite as reboundy as completely wool socks would be, or it could just be because my feet are narrow. What the hell, I'll wear them anyway. Everyone should have zombie-themed clothing.

ha ha!

I finally understand the on-purpose dropped stitch.

I feel so clever.

once again, not paying attention.

It's a little disturbing when you pick up the sock you were knitting on four needles and notice that it's now on three. And you really don't remember when you combined those two needles' worth of stitches.

And people don't believe me when I tell them that sometimes I don't pay attention.

(I have a feeling there may be lots of pictures taken tomorrow. Which may mean some fun photos for ye olde blog. Or I could be lying and I'll be a lazy ass tomorrow. Oooh, the suspense.)