Sock Yarn Blues

Well... I went to Knit Happens to see Wendy, but I didn't introduce myself or anything because I felt stupid saying, hey, I'm not buying your book now because I have to save my pennies for Sheep and Wool, but love the blog! Well, turns out she'll be at Sheep and Wool, so if I get over feeling stupid, I can say something then.

I wasn't crazy about the sock I'm making. Too girly. And it was the least girly yarn I could find. Of course, then I discovered a hole in the toe - apparently I managed to knit the wraps together without the actual stitch. Now that there's a hole, they're the BESTEST MOST BEAUTIFUL socks I've ever seen in my whole whole life, and I'm saddened beyond all description that this hole exists. I've got the stitches on the second needle now, and I'll sew them up next time I get a chance to work on it. Anyway.

So, socks = too girly. I figured I'd go see what kind of sock yarn Knit Happens has. I'm a Springwater Fiber girl myself, and I keep forgetting that KH exists. I found out what kind of sock yarn they have. Beautiful! Amazing! Drool-worthy, lust-inducing, georgous, perfect sock yarns. That cost more money than I have in a month to spend on yarn. For enough for one sock. Oh. I mean, I love my friend, but I just can't spend that kind of cash on socks for him. Especially since I already bought yarn. Which is looking better and better by the minute.

So I left without buying anything, and apparently I'm really confused by this turn of events. I keep wanting to swatch my new yarn, or get it out and look at it, or at least check and see what kind of pattern might look good with it. But the "new yarn," she does not exist. No skeins have entered my home in the last week. It's a weird, phantom-limby feeling. Actually, last night I dreamed that I was sleeping. It's a lot like that.

Smarter

Darnit, the kid's getting smarter.

"What's an alpaca?"
"It's kind of like a llama."
...
"What's a llama?"
"It's kind of like an alpaca."

For months, this has been an acceptable explanation. The other day, she went, "heeeyyyyyy..." So I'm bringing her to Maryland Sheep and Wool with me. Which may be crazy, but I think she'll have fun. Oh, and in the evening, we have to go to the Scottish Festival, so it's going to be a very busy, very sheepy day.

Other good stuff - MS&W is about a month before my birthday, so I'm taking as much money as I think I'll reasonably be able to cover with birthday checks. Hooray for family who'll support your habits! I'm going to try to concentrate on patterns and books, I think - I Have. Enough. Yarn.

I'm also taking the stroller. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid.

The baby blanket continues. I'm on the edging now. I miscalculated. It should take about 24 hours to do the whole edging. I've done less than 2. GRAH! BE FINISHED ALREADY!!!

On a positive note, I learned to knit backwards. It's so much easier than I thought it'd be, I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. I don't know that it saves that much time, but it's more fun than turning and purling, anyway. (And, I mean, even if it saves only one second per row, that's... um, over 17 minutes saved total!)

I also cast on for the socks. I have 1/4 of 1/2 of the toes done. But, y'know, no hurry on those. I'm doing two-on-two-circs, and man, speaking of things I wish I'd done before... Love it. Want to spend my summer making socks now.

Actually, I'm thinking I'm going to make kilt hose for the stepfather. (See above re: Scottish Festival and needing to go.) He's sensitive to wool, so I could probably do him up something nice in wool-ease or something like that. He can have one for Christmas and one for his birthday. (I mean, considering that each one'll take me probably over 40 hours of work, I don't think this is unreasonable at all. Plus, it'll be funny to get one sock for Christmas. His birthday's only 12 days later.)

And this is why I need to update more often...

I have too many things to put in one post. Let's see if I can be brief:

1) The sweater is limping along. I realized I read a number wrong and the back should be 3" longer than I thought. Luckily, I realized this before binding off, but it's still a kick in the teeth. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that the only place I'm knitting it is in the bathroom. (People without toddlers: "Eeeeewwww!" People with toddlers: "Hey, what a great idea!") It helps with not trying to do too much anyway - my hands start to hurt somewhere between four and five rows, so there you go.

2) The baby blanket is being dragged kicking and screaming to completion. Much like pregnancy, I'm in the last couple of weeks and really wishing it were all over already. I'm a little scared of the border, I think, and that could be why I'm dragging my feet so much. On the upside, I've decided I do really like the lace I substituted for the outermost ring, and I'm glad I chose it. I'm down to the last 15 hours worth, anyway - go finish!

2b) I miscalculated. I actually need a third more yarn than I thought I did, and while I tried to deny it for as long as possible, I'm on the last ball and still have one repeat and the border to do. I bought 3 more, in a different dyelot, of course. I'm going to try alternating rows to mix it in, but it's hard to gauge when the rows are so very very long. (Let's see... one row is 1/12 a ball... now, thinking of it that way, the math isn't so bad at all. I guess I'll start doing it about 8 rows in? Sure.)

3) A friend of mine ran over his foot with the lawnmower this past weekend. They managed to save the toe, which is really good, and I'd like to knit him a pair of socks in celebration of that, but my husband thinks it'd be tacky to give a man in a foot-cast a pair of socks. (Well, he's not really in a cast and by the time I had the socks the bandages would be off, probably, but still.) I think I'll make the socks anyway. I'm sure they'll be received in the spirit given. (Pretty sure, anyway.) But I want - shock! horror! gasp! - sock yarn that doesn't self-stripe. And I may just put my own darn stripes in. (The overwhelming urge to knit complicated patterns on 0000 needles, we'll talk about another day.)

Vital Information

And by "vital" I mean "completely trivial". Just got back from stalking following around and enjoying some shows from Slim Cessna's Auto Club. May still be a bit loopy (but not quite loopy enough to head up to RI).

Did I mention that I am a complete idiot? I had two balls of the orange laceweight. Dur. Should have rewound them separately before knitting that scarf. Well... I don't know that it would have involved less tangling/work. But it certainly wouldn't have been more. Again: Duh. Now I'm debating making laceweight gloves... hmmmmm...

And today, in the mail, I got a flier for The Knit & Crochet Show. (Why does it relate? Well, I stayed with a friend when I saw SCAC, and noticed while driving around that he lives all of five minutes from the convention center where this thing's gonna be held. So... if I could talk him into putting me up again, that'd save $109 a night - neat!) I'm a little interested in going - even though, like at all conventions, they take all the sessions I'm interested in and put them at the same time. How do they manage that? At any rate, I can't shake the mental image of gangs of knitters roaming around, throwing down with their rival crocheters, flashing gang signs and shivving each other with DPNs. Um. Maybe I need to get out more. (Or less? Something, certainly.)

Two Bad Things

Yes, I did two bad things this weekend.

1) I broke our camera. Our brand-new, super-awsome, beloved slimline camera. Three days before I really, really needed it for a couple of shows I'm going to. Alas, I'll have to rely on my memory. Also, no pics for the blog until we dig out the warranty stuff and have it repaired, and who knows when that will be?

2) I cast on something else. The baby blanket is going well, but I'm heartily sick of working on it. If I push, I can probably finish in two weeks, maybe three. The baby is due in 6. Which will come first? Who knows?

I'm not super-happy about the project I cast on for, either. Well, I'm not sure. It's a ballet-wrap kids' cardigan from... possibly Creative Knitting a few months ago? Ripping magazines apart is great for pattern organization, not so great for knowing where you got them from. It's supposed to use hand-dyed yarn, but I thought that was kind of ugly, and Kira picked out pink when I was taking her to get yarn. (Are you sure? Look, they have green! And blue! Purple? No? Drat.) So, the pros and cons of this project:

Pros:

1. It's moss stitch, which I like the look of. And even though it's the exact same as ribbing, for some reason I don't mind knitting it nearly as much as ribbing.
   
2. I swatched and measured, which means it's actually going to fit the child.
   
3. Total yarn cost: $6.24.
   
4. It's cute.
   

Cons:

1. It's moss stitch, which may be better than ribbing, but is still a big old pain in the rear.
   
2. I swatched and measured, which means it will fit the child until her next growth spurt. Which kinda seems like now - she's eating like she's having one, anyway. And it's rapidly rocketing towards summer here, which means by the time it's cool enough for her to wear it again... who knows?
   
3. It's cotton, which hurts my wrists. I never really realized it before, but yes, it is definitely the yarn, not the needles or pattern or anything else.
   
4. It's pink. Will knitting this vast sea of pinkness drive me blind and mad before I finish?