Drowning in WIPs

I finished the shawl and naturally assumed  I would immediately jump into working on my Uncropped sweater, yunno, the one I was obsessing about knitting.  I didn't. I made another key cozy. Using leftover SweetGeorgia Toughlove Sock in Stormchaser.

Then I picked up the Smash shawl/scarf/thingy and thought about knitting on it. I knit 4 or 5 stitches and then in a frenzy, pulled out the needles and started frogging it. M walked in as I was frogging it and his eyes got all big "Is everything ok?" I may have looked a bit mad (as in lunatic mad, not angry) and assured him that this needed to happen, that I hated this project. He very slowly backed out of the room nodding.
So there I was with an already caked up skein of Tosh Sock in Opaline and what am I going to knit? I've vowed to never make fingering/sock weight scarves/shawls again, so that leaves me with...what? socks? You might remind me that I have posted, several times,  that I hate* knitting socks. Well, I guess I really don't hate socks, because I cast on socks using the Biltmore Pattern from Socks A La Carte 2.

As you can see from the picture, I'm using a different yarn for the heel (and later for the toe) Tosh sock is 100% merino. Yeh, no nylon. I didn't realize this was a bad thing when I first bought the yarn, being a newb and all that. I learned that sock yarn needs nylon (especially if you are hard on your feet, like the peeps in my family) when the socks that I had made for P for her birthday, using 100% merino Dream In Color Smooshy, got a hole in them, vry, vry quickly. I am not risking losing these beauties, which is why the heels and toes will be knit with Shelridge Yarns 80/20 Fingering in Iris. I had originally bought this at La Maison Tricotee to use as the heels and toes for a sock I was making with some self striping yarn. Obviously I had a lot left. It's very squooshy and lovely and I adore the colour, and it works well with the Opaline.


And then a couple of days later, I cast on another pair of socks using the 58 Chevy pattern from the same book.  I'm using the Mattawa sock yarn from Trailhead yarns that I bought at Twist! last year. The colourway is called  Blood Curdling Scream.  I had previously tried to knit it up as a scarf (*hisss*) and HATED it. It was still caked up, so why not do socks? I'm actually really enjoying how it's knitting up. I think the pattern is really doing the yarn justice.

I'm apparently just doing socks right now. I have super limited knitting time, and I'm using most of that super limited time casting on more freaking socks.

The biggest problem with casting on all these socks, is that I'm down to using the nickle plated circs from knitpicks and I don't like them very much. My other fave needles for socks are already IN other socks. I don't want to knit a whole pair of socks on dpns, it's slower, and more fiddly. I may need to hit up one of the local yarn stores to solve this dilemma. I need to get some more Hiya Hiya circs, mine are all bent out of shape, but I really like knitting with them, the tip is fairly pointy, which I like and they so easy on my hands. If I can't find any Hiya Hiya circs locally, I may go for some Addi Natura circs. Will keep the blog updated about the purchase, of course.

Then, I picked up my Be Simple scarf/shawl/thingy and tried to decide if I want to frog that and make socks as well. But I can't. I just can't do it, the colour is too bloody gorgeous for feets. (and now I want cheesecake. Dammit)

I'm going to work on the Be Simple more when I'm finished the body of the sweater.
If I ever finish the body of the sweater *dramatic hand to forehead moment*

Somewhere in there, I finished the first of my Scrumptious Purl Baby Beluga socks. Yay FO! Then, the very next morning I cast on the second sock, those are my bring-everywhere socks, so I needed to do that quickly. I would not want to be caught needing to take the metro somewhere without some knitting. Ick.                      Just about to start toe decreases on the ferry from the Old Port.

                                          Finished sock!

                                          Quick! Cast on second sock!

*Ok, ok, I don't hate knitting socks, I just find the knitting gets boring soooo fast. It is worth it though, because I loooove wearing hand knit socks. They are comfy, and warm, and super cute! Also, I really do appreciate that socks are the most portable project. They are the easiest thing to work on when on public transportation, or out with B, or just waiting in line somewhere.

I finally picked up and started knitting on my uncropped sweater again.

 I'm not in a rush to finish it, but I do want to at least get the body done in the next week or so. I kind of feel overwhelmed by projects at the moment, yet I'm having a hard time not casting on more things. I have a shawl that I want to knit (Nereid Shawl by Ambah O'Brien) in some yummy Noro*. I want to knit another Harvest, this time in  Malabrigo Rios Pocion (goooorgeous) I want to knit another V-neck sweater (it's like, my perfect sweater, love the unfinished neckline, love how it's easily customized, love the simplicity), using Malabrigo Arroyo so that it's drapey and airy and not so heavy.
Speaking of sweaters, so I heard about this "try it on" tubing, checked out the website and figured that I could probably just buy some pliable tubing locally. Asked my sweetie for some recommendations, he suggested I buy aquarium tubing as the gauge would probably be better than the stuff I could find at a hardware store. He was right. I brought home my tubing, decided to not risk my karbonz interchangeables with the tubing (in case they got stuff) and grabbed some of my knitpicks Sunstruck needles (not that I don't like them, but they are easily replaced-locally, unlike the karbonz) Anywhoo, long story short, the tubing worked-ish. The needles did get stuck, and I ended up having to cut the tubing close to the needles, and use my teeth to pry what was left of the tubing, off the needles. I think next time I will use a smaller gauge needle, like maybe US 5's. The important thing was that I was able to actually try on my sweater WITHOUT putting it on waste yarn!

*I borrowed a Noro book from the library 2 weeks ago (ack, need to return those books soon) and it's made me want to knit all the Noro things, even though that much colour and patterns and randomness are wayyyy too wild for my monochromatic self (i'm getting better though!)



So yes, drowning in wips, alternating projects so I can get a little bit done on all of them, but not actually seeing/feeling any progression. I know the cure for this is to pick one bloody project and stick with it. Here are my current projects: One sweater, four socks, one scarf, one tank top, one scarf/shawl/thingy.

                                          Nikki looking for the smooshiest spot to nap.

I'm sure that for some people, this is a laughable amount of wips. It's a lot for me. Especially the socks, with the zillion stitches...


If you've seen me (in pictures, or IRL), it is obvious that I have my nose pierced, septum specifically. I've had my nose ring for about 15yrs, give or take a few years when it was removed for surgery and I didn't put it back in right away because having a newborn and dealing with scary health problems were more important. Anywhoo, I eventually got re-pierced and all was good. Until this past weekend, while showing B how to hold his nose to dunk his head underwater, I knocked the bead out of my ring (it's a captive bead ring). I grabbed for the bead, but it slipped right through my fingers and out of my life forever. I'm guessing it was a combination of the water, slippery sunscreen (which I apply liberally and often) and, most obviously, grabbing at my nostrils. I went to a couple of jewelry stores to see if I could find a replacement bead, but no luck-was going to have to go back to the place I originally got the piercing. Went, explained, all was good. Because my ring is so old, and the indents on the new balls are smaller than they used to be, the dude tightened my ring and that bead is not moving. This is good-because now I shouldn't lose the ball again.  This is bad-because now I can't fidget my ball! That was my go to fidget when there was no knitting, I play with my ball (haha) I spin it, I tug on it. Now it doesn't move at all and my fingers are sad when they wander up to fiddle my ring.
My favourite thing about that particular shop, is that they give you candy when you're done. I was given a double lolly "for my pain and suffering" Hahaha.

                                                          I do love double lollies.


In super sad happenings: One of our rats, Gabriel died Wednesday night. He had had a big escape a couple of days before, and had been agitated and trying to get out of the cage (we ended up padlocking it) since then. He had been eating/drinking just fine, being his normal grumpy self. He was only around 2yrs old :(  Rats have such big personalitties for being such little creatures, and they just don't live long enough.  I don't think I can own rats again after the rest of the mischief pass. It's  too hard when they die.  Bye Gabe, you were kind of a dick sometimes, bruxing when the other rats fought, going after Cas and Sam mercilessly,  but you were always nice to me. RIP.

Heat wave!

Hooo boy, here in Montreal, we are currently experiencing a heat warning and I am extremely thankful that we have air conditioning (and thankful for the snuggie that I'm wearing because the den is so vry cold because of that a/c). We're also experiencing a "severe storm risk", with a high probability of thunderstorms, which would be awesome, because knitting during thunderstorms is one of my favourite things!

In my last post, I had written about casting on Reyna for P's birthday, and I was hoping that I would have it finished by the 1st of August.
I finished it.
On the 11th! Which is exactly one week from start to finish! I even took a 2 day break from knitting the shawl because of  mild R.S.I (repetitive stress injury) in my right wrist, most likely from the furious pace of my knitting. I cannot believe how quickly I knit this shawl! The only times I got to knit on the shawl were at night after B went to bed, and at his weekly appointment. Oh, and on Sunday when I met up with mah knitta, of course. So i'm pretty impressed with myself, especially as I am not a particularly fast knitter and am prone to distraction. I soaked it and blocked it, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

It's not as lush as the Reyna I made with woobu, but it is very drapey, and very open and very "spider-webby" (which is how P described it when she was asking me about my shawl). I had found the Galileo kind of coarse as I was knitting with it, and very drying as well, but it has softened up considerably. P's lucky I adore her, I want to keep this Reyna for myself! I won't keep it...but I really want to. I did notice a wonky line near the bottom of the shawl, where the eyelets don't line up as nicely on one side. I'm not sure what happened there-was it how I blocked it? Or maybe I missed a yarn over? Not sure, but I don't think P will notice, and I don't think anyone else will notice when it's being worn either.

I would have taken a picture of me wearing it, but it is waaaaay too hot outside for that nonsense.
Still need to weave in some ends...

I have no problems admitting I'm a selfish knitter. I've had people ask me if I make a lot of things for my kids and I'm never embarrassed to say no. The girls have each received a pair of socks, (A has two pair of socks-because I hated one pair I knit) P has gotten slippers, B has had the most knitted items, because he's the smallest and his stuff takes no time at all; a sweater and slippers and hats and mitts. I've knit my mother a hat (that she never wears) and a shawl (that she'll probably never wear, now that I think about it-would it be rude to ask for it back?) P's boyfriend even got a knitted hat from me.  The only people in the house who haven't had anything knitted for them is my darling M-who rashes at the touch of even the softest merino and C, who's feet are wayyyy bigger than mine and therefore will never know the joy of knitted socks from his mum. I could knit him a hat or something, but he's 16, and somewhat careless, so I'd have to be okay with him losing whatever it is I knit him.

 I also managed to finish the second Blood Orange sock! Yay! A pair!
                                          (three needle bind off, waiting for the metro)

When my wrist was bothering me, and I couldn't knit on the shawl, I  decided to work on the sock, which didn't seem to aggravate the R.S.I at all.  I quite like the 3x1 ribbing, it fits very nicely, and looks really cute. In fact, I like it so much, I cast on another travel sock, in that exact same pattern. I decided to go with a self striping yarn by Scrumptious Purl in the Baby Beluga colourway. Isn't it pretty? (Though I think this colourway could be improved by adding a medium, pearly gray stripe in there)

I've already managed to knit to the heel flap (though, to be fair, I only knit the leg of the sock to  4.75" long). I was considering doing a short row heel, because it's self striping, but heel flaps just fit my heel better. I'll live with the weird striping.

I also banged out three key cozies, which happened to be on the front page of Ravelry a few days back. They are ridiculously quick, ridiculously adorable, and ridiculously addictive.  Seriously, I wish I had more keys.                 (Madhatter <3)

                                          (babette?)

                               

I used two sample skeins I got when I ordered from Miss Babs-one was the Cosmic sock yarn, which only had "babette" on the label, and the other was Keira, a fingering weight merino in the colourway Madhatter, which is absolutely gorgeous, and if I wasn't on a yarn diet, I'd be buying up a fluffy ton of it. For the third key, I used some leftover Dream In Colour Smooshy, in the colourway Sundown Orchid.
I'm going to knit up one more, I have a key, that I'm pretty sure belonged to my old flat-so, hasn't been used in like, 8 years, but I keep it just in case I'm wrong, and it's actually an important key...that key is going to get a cozy. And then I will be out of keys to knit cozies for and the frenzy will be over.

OOOOH! I can get back to knitting my sweater now!

Toonie for scale

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful Canada day! We were planning on taking B to his very first fireworks this year (and what better time than Canada day?), but it ended up pouring rain in the evening and we figured they would be cancelled. Luckily for us, we live in a city that has a fireworks competition going on during the month of July and when M is on vacation, we'll take him.

Instead of knitting on the projects I've already cast on; Villeneuve, Nimbus infinity scarf, Be Simple, etc, I decided to cast on a sweater. Several weeks ago, I saw a woman wearing a three colour sweater and I really liked the look of it, and had been obsessing about recreating the sweater. I sat with the idea for awhile, drew up a little picture and stuck it to the wall near my knitting stuff. Eventually, I got around to ordering the contrast yarns from Knitpicks. I already had a large enough quantity in my stash for the main body of the sweater, so I didn't need a lot of yarn. I ordered 4 balls of Marble Heather, which is the colour that I'm starting off with. It will be the neckline and shoulders of the sweater. The pattern I'm using is Andi Satterlund's "A Cropped Sweater for Winter" because I've made one already and I like the fit and the shape. I will be following the numbers needed to get the sweater fit the way I want, but I won't be doing the colourwork. I'm making a smaller sweater than my usual size to account for my loose gauge and swish's tendency to grow like a mofo.

I only ordered 4 balls of the swish in Marble Heather

(I always think there is way more yardage to swish than there actually is) and now I'm wondering if I should have went with 2 or even 3 more balls, for good measure? I basically want to get to just under the armpit with the grey and then switch to the light grey that I had in stash. I also need to make sure I have enough leftover  to do the ribbing at the neckline. Hrm. 

I guess I'll knit as much as I can with the grey and then decide if I need to order more. Hopefully, the possible Canada Post strike is over by that time. It's not like I'll be able to wear the sweater any time soon anyway, so there really isn't a rush.

The second colour I ordered is Honey.

In the original sweater, the sleeves were a dark teal, but I loved the Honey so much ( I used it in my black death), and while I don't know if I could wear a whole sweater out of that colour, I can definitely wear it as sleeves.

I know I complain about ordering from Knitpicks because of the shipping costs, and the exchange rate, but they have such a good range of colours and their merino is really quite lovely to work with.

Uncropped Sweater Update: So, with the second ball of Marble Heather, I was able to join the front and back and knit just past the armpit, I also decided to switch to the light grey swish at that point. I will definitely have enough for sleeves and the neck ribbing. Problem solved. I think the two colours work really well together.  I am ridiculously excited about this sweater.

I'm pretty close to finishing my second Blood Orange sock. I've got another inch or so, until I start the decreases. I had divided the yarn into two cakes (to fit in my sock bag better) and I managed to get all of the first and most of the second sock done with one cake, I still had some leftover from the first sock I made with the yarn (yunno, the one that's never going to have a mate) so I will definitely be able to finish this sock.

                                          (leftover from first sock, toonie for scale, eh)

Here is the last picture I took of Villeneuve before it went into hibernation:

Here are some pictures of my All Year Cardy. I'm totes making another one, love love love this little cardy.

When I started adding all my yarns to the stash on Rav, I came across another wip. I remember the yarn is zauberball, it's black and teal and I think I was knitting a shawlette, but can't for the life of me, remember which one. Of course there were no notes in the ziploc bag-just a started project on the needles, maybe 15 rows in? Something garter stitch. I decided to hank it back up, it's obviously been caked up for quite the while. It's pretty, but I don't know what I'll do with it. I'm eventually going to see if I blogged about it, get some more info on it, maybe even add it to my stash page and find a project that interests me!

I think I may also frog Smash, and hank that yarn back up as well. I'm just not feeling it.




So now that we are in the first week of July (Happy 4th of July to those of you who celebrate!), I need to set all other projects aside and work a shawl for an upcoming bday! My lovely daughter P, has requested Reyna, in black and she's definitely a knitworthy recipient. Also, she really loved my Reyna made of woobu and I'm a sucker for high praise.  I'm using some more Knitpicks yarn, this time Galileo and using 4.5mm needles, so it should be a quickish knit if I only focus on the shawl. My goal is to have it off the needles and blocked by the 1st of August (her birthday is the 2nd).
I'm not finding the Galileo as enjoyable to knit with this time around, it feels more coarse, almost straw-like. I'm hoping it's just a weird batch and will soften and bloom as wonderfully as it did the first time I knit with Galileo.

Now off to get some knitting done-because the sooner I finish this shawl, the sooner I can get back to mah sweaters!