FO: Cypress

Welp, I finished Cypress. The part I didn't understand when reading the instructions became clear while I was actually knitting. I winged it, and it worked! After that part, there was just picking up stitches and knitting the button band. It went fairly quickly, especially since working with larger needles.

I hadn't picked up any buttons when I bought the yarn, so this afternoon I went button hunting. I wanted nicer buttons than the big box stores craft sections offer so I went to Boutique Rix Rax. (note: there was a little yarn store up there called La Maison Tricot, or something like that...didn't get a chance to go inside, but I'll try to make it up there one day when I'm on my own and check it out.) I was looking for wood, or a nice mother of pearl type, but was open to something a little funkier, like an animal face or leaf motif. I did squee a little over some awesome pewter skulls, but didn't think it quite fit. I ended up with some pretty wooden ones, so I was pleased. I think they suit the sweater very well.

I'm happy that I'm finished the sweater, and I like it well enough...but I'm also a little disappointed in it. Maybe it's just because I'm tired or that I tend to be over-critical of myself; it's a little bulky in some places, and my seaming isn't great. It looks home-made, which of course I think is charming when it belongs to someone else, but not for me. Maybe I'll feel better after I wash it and do some light blocking.
I am proud of the front though! First button band! And the back lace panel looks pretty damn good!

My mom came back from her trip to Ireland and Scotland, and she brought me home some wool! Yay! She bought me some Aran weight wool, and some Donegal Tweed on the cone. I will share pictures soon. It's very pretty stuff.
Now, do I knit it, or keep it as souvenir wool?

Future Projects

This is less an actual post, but more a way for me to keep track of future projects and note that I actually have yarn in the stash that I can use as opposed to going out and buying more yarn.This is all because I purchased a couple of patterns off of Ravelry.

Project 1: One Skein Wonder by Stefanie Japel  (one-skein-wonder)
I love little shrugs and boleros, as I wear a lot of dresses, and it looks like a quick and easy knit. It calls for a heavy worsted or Aran weight yarn, only 175yards of it. I have a skein of Tosh Vintage (200 yrds!) in Georgia O'Keefe. Like any Madtosh yarn, the colour is absolutely gorgeous; dark greens. But I'm knitting Cypress in a dark green. Is that too much green? I also have a skein of SweetGeorgia superwash worsted in Coastal- a somewhat muted medium blue. I should use the Tosh, because Vintage feels more like a heavy worsted to me. Though really, if it's a quick and easy knit, I can always knit another one :)

Project 2: Dew Point by Laura Chau (dew-point)
Another shrug/bolero. No question about what yarn to use, I have several balls of Knitpicks Galileo in Luster, a lovely, olive-grey. It's a sport weight yarn that's made from merino and bamboo. I can't remember what I bought the Galileo for, but I have a lot of it. This shrug calls for about 650yards. I will definitely have enough.

Project 3: Another Stefanie Japel knit, Easy V-neck (easy-raglan-v-neck)
I've been thinking about making myself a v-neck for a while, though I don't generally wear pullovers. I have some Knitpicks Wool of the Andes( brown heather)-definitely sweater quantities, I also have some Swish Worsted in black (also enough for a full sweater).


I'm meeting T again tonight, for our knit night. Yay! I'm going to bring my Cypress cardy, so I can weave in as many of the ends as possible and set in the second sleeve -I've done the first sleeve and most of the seaming already. I can almost see the finish line with Cypress. But ugh, so many WIPs, and all I can think about is starting these boleros...

In which other things are knitted...

    So I met up with the lovely T to look over the pattern (which is really cute flower-or-tree-scarf; I'll likely knit it myself when I forget how much I dislike knitting scarves), and see if I could help her out. She was coming up with less stitches, so we frogged it, cast on again and I knit the first row...and came up with less stitches. ARGH. Apparently talking + knitting lace for me is a huge no no. Of course, once I got home and wrote out the chart, I was able to knit the first 4 rows and end up with just the right amount of stitches. Yeah, way to be helpful *rolls eyes at self*  We 're going to meet again on Wednesday, have a little knit night. Yay!

Last night I started knitting a dishcloth for P-her birthday is coming up and she won't be in town for it so I'm going to put a little birthday package for her; the dishcloth-it's got a letter P on it (courtesy of Alphabet table)  and it's knit with Knitpicks Dishie in teal. I made the mistake of watching World War Z while I knit-which, btw, was a shitty movie. My 13yr old had told me it was bad. I should have listened. I don't even know why I watched the whole thing. I am not a fan of Brad Pitt, and while I do like Mirielle Enos, she was barely in the movie.
I'm also going to give P the Garter Waves socks, she was admiring them when she was here. They will probably fit her feet better than mine. I was planning on giving her a Lush solid perfume as well-she smelled my Breath Of God and really liked it. Plus the usual money and/or gift cards.

The P is hard to see, but trust me, it is there.

I had not finished the dishcloth last night, I had 3 rows left plus the bind off so I finished that off this morning and then decided that I should at least gather up all my Cypress paraphernalia for when I feel ready to knit it. I have the book "Knit to Flatter" (which has a couple of other patterns I would really like to knit at some point), I photocopied the pages I'd need, so I could drag the project around with me and make notes, circle the size and counts etc. Found the bag with the rest of the yarn for the project; Stockbridge by Valley Yarns-in Dark Green. It's a lovely blend of Alpaca and Wool. It's not very splitty, and the hanks that I've used so far have been excellent-not one knot. I'm a little concerned that I might find it itchy to wear, but I'll suck it up if it turns out nice!

Anyway, I had left off working on the back (more specifically shaping the armholes), and had a bit of difficulty remembering where I was in the pattern, luckily I found the ratty, scribbled on (thanks B) sheet of paper that I had been using to keep track of the lace but before I could start knitting I realized I was nearing the end of the ball. It was so beautiful today that I sat out on the deck, with an upside down drying rack and wound up two hanks. It was so zen,  I almost went and got some more hanks of yarn from the stash to wind into balls. I knit about 4 rows to finish off the armhole shaping. And then I put Cypress down again. I had some things to do and I want to be fresh when I start shaping the neck. There's a part in the pattern that I'm kind of confused about and I'm not sure if I'm being dense or if there's a technique I'm not familiar with. The line I'm confused about: join a second ball of yarn. JOIN TO WHAT?? Does the author know I'm about to finish the current ball and need to join a new one? What the hell sorcery is that? Or am I to be using two strands of yarn. I DON'T KNOW! There's not enough information.   I'm going to have to wing it and hope for the best. And when I wing it, things usually get ugly (figuratively and literally).
Maybe tomorrow...

Second Sock Syndrome

Silky Drops in progress:

So close!

And done!

Having some serious second sock syndrome, maybe because I'm working on two separate sock seconds, plus the first Vanilla Latte sock.  Maybe it's because all I've knit for the last couple of months is socks, but I'm getting bored. Even with all the lovely patterns, and lovelier yarns out there, I am getting tired of knitting socks. I'm not even doing a lot of knitting and I'm still bored.

Now as I'm knitting round after endless round on small needles, I find my mind wandering to larger items, like cardies! Oh, hey! I still have a cardigan that I never finished...what was that?...right, Cypress! I had a whole number of sweaters and cardigans that I had wanted to start when I got sidetracked by my obsession with socks, I have enough yarn in my stash to knit 3-4 sweaters. There were a couple of slouchy hats I had in my Ravelry Queue, a scarf or two.

I have to finish, at the very least, the second Silky Drops sock, before I start anymore projects. I'm going to force myself to set aside the other two socks, finish Silk Drops and then find another small project to work on-maybe a stuffy or even a dishcloth. Then maybe it will be time to pick up Cypress and get serious about finishing it. And maybe after that, I'll get back to dealing with sock wips.

Tonight I'm supposed to meet a friend to help her with a scarf she's having difficulty with. She's not coming up with the right count of stitches and I suspect she's decreasing as per the chart, but maybe missing some YOs (yarn over). That should be a nice change from socks.

I took some pictures of the three WIPs I have going. Kind of pathetic that I haven't made much progress :/
The second Celtic sock-just about to start the heel flap

First Vanilla Latte, have finished the gusset decreases, just need to knit the foot and then toe decreases before starting sock #2 *sobs*

Silky Drops sock #2; Heel flap done, love the heel flap! And even more than the heel flap, I love turning the heel. Usually. This sock has been waiting for me to turn the heel for a while. I'll get to it tonight! I will force myself to find something to watch and turn the heel,  pick up and knit the gusset stitches, and start the gusset decreases.

Next time I post it will NOT be about socks.

3 WIPs

It feels like summer is going by so fast, already. I was hoping we'd get out of the city for a couple of days but I waited until the last minute to look into semi-luxury camping and everything is pretty much booked (or way out of our budget). We'll do some day trips to some of the national parks that are closer and hopefully I can get to do some canoeing. At the very least, we will get to walk some nature trails.

 I've gotten to do some knitting, more than just a row here, a row there and that makes me pretty happy. The insomnia that has enabled the knitting hasn't made me happy. I fall asleep fine, but then I wake up at some ungodly hour (one night it was 2:30am) and can't fall back asleep.  It's not every night but averaging 3 nights a week.  It's awful. On the other hand, I've read some really good books (I've "discovered" Joe Hill-Stephen King's son-I burned through N0S4A2) and I'm almost finished watching season 2 of Pushing Daisies. 

I'm now working on 3 socks-the Celtic sock, made with Cascade Heritage Silk Paints (though honestly, I haven't picked it up in awhile);  Vanilla Latte knit with SweetGeorgia Tough Love sock yarn in Stormchaser and Silky Drops that I'm knitting with Couleur Mouton Kargil in Girolle (this yarn is absolutely lovely to knit with, omg so nice)  

Vanilla Latte

 Three WIP

Working the heel flap!

 Turning the heel of Vanilla Latte (I'm always so pleased after successfully finishing a heel)
 

 Not only must you see that I've turned the heel, I've also successfully picked up stitches!

 

Silky Drops sock...I wasn't crazy about the pattern as I was knitting it, it took a few rows before I liked it. In the picture I saw the yarn used is solid, obviously not hand dyed, so the pattern looks different, crisper. I love love love this yarn, everything about it is perfect-the feel, the colour.

Oooh, another heel done! More stitches picked up! woo!

The leg on this sock is not very long so it's a quicker knit in that respect, I suspect I'll have some decent yardage left over. What do people do with leftover sock yarn? Maybe I'll gather up all my leftover yarn and do some kind of frankensock.
Anywhoo, the gusset decreases have been decreased, and now it's just lots and lots of knitting in the round to cover my humongous feet.