Needles & hooks

Back to Knitting

I’m finished with travelling for a while and I’m back to knitting. I finally got my sister to measure her barefoot. But she was so surly about it, I don’t know that she deserves these socks. I’ve got a couple of more inches on them and then I can start toe shaping. I’ve got a few inches into the second sleeve for my other sister, but I had to put it aside because I kept making stupid mistakes on it.

Hopefully I’ll get to the yarn shop sometime this week to pick up the yarn they’re holding for me. And it will be so, so, so very hard not to start that project before finishing a couple of these others laying around.

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Missing in Action

I’ve gotten plenty of knitting done, but I’ve been so busy with work and travel, I haven’t had time to write about it.

First, I finished the Corn Bunting and mailed it off to my SIL. The shower was this past weekend and it was the hit of the party. I don’t have much time to write the project notes right now, but here’s a photo to tide you over:

In the meantime, I’ve picked up my sister’s shawl collar jacket again and I’m booking on the sleeves. I had a long road trip over the weekend where I finished one sleeve. I’ll get back to the other when I get home.

And while I was away, I received my first Sock of the Month. It’s in purple Opal Mosaic, and I ordered two more balls to try my hand at gloves using the magic loop technique. I’m very excited about that idea, but first I have to get the current socks for my sister off my sock needles. Problem is, I’m not sure how long her feet are. I asked her and she told me 9.5 inches. So later, I measured my feet, which are larger than hers, and mine are 9 inches. Then I called and found out she measured her feet with her shoes on! So I’m still waiting for a barefoot remeasure.

Also, the rest of my yarn for my Adrienne Vittadini tank came in, so I have to pick that up and get started. I’ll probably grab a few balls of Merino Gems to start working on Master Level 1 while I’m at it. But I’m knitting-free for the next few days because I’m back in L.A. for work and I didn’t have time to pack any. It’s just as well, I was exhausted on the plane.

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It’s Art

So I’ve been trying to talk to my mom since Mother’s Day to see how she liked her Booga Bag and we finally spoke last night. I knew that she loves it because my sisters told me (and also told me how much they want their own bags). But it turns out that she loves it so much that she isn’t using it! She doesn’t want to ruin it. She says it’s more like a piece of art than something she should be carting around. (sigh)

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Mastery?

So I sprung for the TKGA Master Knitting course (level 1) and the packet arrived this week. And I’m torn about whether I should complete it. Maybe I’ll muddle through it. And who knows, despite my reservations about the process, maybe all my squares will come back to me needing work.

I didn’t make much progress in actual knitting this week. I don’t like to knit when I’m in center seats on a plane, and then my husband took me away for a little trip for my birthday this weekend. And while I brought an actual project-in-progress, I forgot the pattern and my bag of support tools, so I couldn’t work on it anyway. But he did get me a knitting book as well as a subscription to Interweave Knits.

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Wow, that’s fast!

I started my new socks the other night and worked about 5 rows so that they were firmly on the needles and under way. And then I took them with me yesterday on a day trip. A number of hours in the car, a few sitting around chatting with friends, and both socks have heels and are closing in on the toes. These will definitely be done soon. I’m travelling again tomorrow and I don’t know what the plane project will be, but I could finish these, no problem.

Here’s what they look like:

I’m almost finished with the corn bunting, just have to finish one front seam, sew on the hood, and crochet some trim. By bedtime tonight for sure.

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Socks!

So I started a pair of socks tonight. It’s one ball of Opal Magic. I had grand ideas of getting the pair to match exactly, so I pulled out half to make a separate ball (I’m working both simultaneously). But then I realized I didn’t know how I’d get them even and I’d hate to have one run out near the toe. So they’ll be different this time. I need to get a postal scale for the future.

And I spent some time looking at sock yarns online because I want to make gloves with some this year. I think I’ve settled on Opal Mosaic because the pattern repeat is rather short, which should translate well to fingers.

But while I was looking at that, I found an Opal Sock of the Month Club. So tempting…..

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A little bit of everything

I finished redoing the back of the Corn Bunting. All the counts work out right, it’s just assembly now. Of course, I’m annoyed with it. I don’t mind finishing, I do mind when patterns with obvious repeats are forced not to line up when joining pieces. I’m supposed to join at the shoulders and leave a certain number of stitches open at the back. To do that, I’d have to stretch the front of the arms to wider than the backs, which puts the corn husk pattern off kilter. That’s just silly. Fortunately, it only stretches by 4 stitches on each arm, and I decided that the neckline can just be a little larger. I’m gonna face this same problem when joining the hood to the body, too. Grrr.

But, all this sewing requires a lot of concentration, and there was a new Queer Eye on last night, so I had to do some other things that took less focus. So I stitched up a charity square, added a couple of rows to Marcel’s Sweater, and frogged the first bad attempt at a sleeve I did for the Shawl Collar Jacket.

I’ll have the Corn Bunting finished this weekend and I have a long car ride too, so I think I’ll start a pair of socks to take in the car.

I also ordered the TGKA Level 1 Master Knitting Program. Not sure if I’m crazy or not. We’ll see.

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