Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Change of Goals and a Relocation

Yesterday I posted my sock-knitting time to my time tracker and realized that for THREE WEEKS I had no sock-knitting time at ALL. This has caused me to rethink my 10,000 hour goal.
Since with very few exceptions I knit a little every day, maybe I should track 10,000 hours of knitting in general, not only socks. Don't get me wrong; I love knitting socks, but socks are by no means the only thing I knit.

So, as of today, I will track all my knitting time, not only my sock knitting time. Also, I've moved my time tracker to my "Cricket Knits a Bit" blog, and will not be posting to this blog any longer. I'll leave it here, but won't be updating it after today.

Good luck, all you 10kH-ers, and come visit me at Cricket Knits a Bit!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Bit 'o Sock Knitting

I've been so busy trying to get my Christmas knitting finished that I've been neglecting my sock knitting terribly!

Yesterday I had to attend a meeting out-of-town and was lucky enough to be a passenger instead of a driver. It was a little over an hour away, so I managed to get in a couple of hours of sock knitting time. *YAY!*

I already had two pairs of socks on needles, but was nearly to the heel on both of them. I didn't want to have to carry a pattern on the trip, so Monday evening I cast on yet another pair of "plain vanilla" socks using the yummy yarn I won in Pretty Knitty's contest back in August. They're striping up beautifully, and though I didn't get a LOT of knitting done on them, I'm happy that I had a comfortable little project to help pass the traveling time.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Take Three

About a year ago I purchased some lovely yarn from KnitPicks. It was from their Stroll line of sock yarns, a lovely Ash Tweed. And so I cast on one of Wendy Johnson's lovely patterns, Diagonal Lace Socks, and all was going well.

....until I lost focus on the heel. Now I've knit a lot of socks in the past year, and the heel isn't intimidating to me any more. But a year ago, it was still pretty new territory for me. And I goofed. My goof resulted in a small flap of fabric on the inside of each heel. Initially I told myself, "It's INSIDE the heel. No one will ever know but me." So I continued to knit. BIG mistake. Even though no one knew about the goof other than me, I found myself avoiding working on the socks. Even when I did pick them up to work on them, that little odd flap of fabric inside the heels just made me NUTS.

So, in March I caved in, raveled the yarn, and rewound it back into two neat little yarn cakes. (This was before I learned the wisdom of putting in a lifeline before beginning the heel.) About a month ago I needed a "take along" project for a day trip and decided that a pair of plain vanilla socks would be just the thing. Waiting patiently in my stash basket were the two neat little cakes of Ash Tweed Stroll. Into my knitting project bag they went with the appropriate circular needles.

I worked happily on the socks while I was on my day trip and used them to fill odd times in waiting rooms and such. I wasn't making big progress on them, but they were certainly filling my need for an occasional "don't need to read a pattern" project.

Yesterday afternoon I had a doctor's appointment, so on my way out the door I grabbed my plain vanilla socks to work on in the waiting room. When I pulled them out of the canvas bag, I found that during my last rushed session working on them, I'd failed to pull the needle far enough through to prevent stitches from popping off one of the needles.

I sat in the waiting room, trying to make a decision. Okay, I could probably recreate the stitches that had popped off without too much grief. Then I looked at the plain little socks in my hand and thought, "You know, this yarn needs something more than plain 3-1 ribbing to show it off." So, while waiting, I frogged the socks. What's next? I'm leaning toward the Michigan Lake Shore Socks pattern I knitted back in April. Last time I knitted them from Sockotta so I'd have pretty summery cotton socks. But I really think this pattern will look good in this ash gray, too.

And so, take three on the same yarn. Keep your fingers crossed! :-)

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Slow Time for Sock Knitting

Once again my sock knitting time has been eaten away by other projects! I'm currently trying to knit a decent Baby Surprise Jacket; my second attempt seems to be going very well. :-)

In the meantime, my "plain vanilla" socks sit on their needles, waiting for me patiently.

So much to knit, so little time!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

More Baby Socks!

This morning I finished another pair of baby socks....aren't they cute? I made them with leftover Sockotta yarn (colorway "Snow Queen") from my second pair of Dragonfly Socks, and I'm very pleased.

I think it would be a wonderful idea for beginning sock knitters to knit a pair of baby socks as their first sock. You use all the techniques for "grown up" socks, but it doesn't take so long to knit because they're so itty bitty.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Dragonfly 2 Completed!


While I was on a camping trip last weekend I finished up my second pair of Dragonfly Socks. *happy dance* I really like using that pattern because it's quickly memorized and I can work without having to keep checking the pattern.

It was soooooooooo relaxing, lying in a lounge chair out in the fresh air under big ol' trees, sipping tea and knitting away. Now THAT's a restful weekend!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Return to Dragonfly

I finally finished all those dishcloths I promised for the family reunion, and am now back this morning to my Dragonfly socks. I have a terrible headache, but have managed to turn the heel and am now beginning to decrease the gussets.

I'm going to have to lay them aside for a bit, though, and take something for my head and lie down for awhile.

Stupid headache.