Slow and Steady

Slow and steady wins the race, or so I've been told. My socks made from a full 100 grams are almost done. Approximately 8 grams per sock remain to be knit. These wonderful socks (will be wonderful when they are done) are knit toe up from a 12 stitch cast on and increased to 64 stitches through the foot. After turning the heels, I knit roughly 3.5-4" before adding calf shaping. I marked the center of the back half of the sock (calf side) and have increased 1 stitch to either side of the marker. Then I increased every 4 rows. I stopped increasing when the stitch count reached 88 stitches. Based on that number (88) I feel like my calves are HUGE, so let's just call them curvy. This weekend I made the decision to do not work on DH's sweater but to finish my socks.

That decision may have been a little ambitious. Monday morning, the socks are still progressing but the sweater has been a kitty resting place. When I did work on the Flax between last week and this weekend, a certain Kitty decided to be social. The world's most anti-social kitty has been feeling the need for company. If I had common sense, I would be terrified! Anyways, I had to work hard to pull the yarn out from the skein hidden under Kitty.  Then because it moved, it must be attacked! So gross, I hate knitting with kitty slobbered yarn. Now that it's dried, you can't tell where the slobber was. I guess I should be happy he didn't break the yarn, like a friend's cat did years ago.

Next up I'm going to be joining the Ravellenic games with Team Geeky Girls Knit. I'll be entering into the WIPS's Dancing event and should hopefully finish DH's Sweater. I could attempt to sandbag and work on a toddler sweater because I'm sure I could start and finish one of those in the Olympic time frame. There are a few days to consider further. Wonder what DH will say if I bump up a toddler sweater ahead of his.  

Found Knitting Time

Wahoo!  I forgot that today I had safety training in Birmingham!  Know what training means?  UNEXPECTED KNITTING TIME!!!  That’s not to say I did not listen or participate.  In fact, I listened carefully and am taking the messages to heart.  Execution I may not be so hot on until I practice my to-do list.

The picture above was what the socks looked like this morning when I made it to work.  There was not any knitting on these socks from lunch the day before and morning.  Progress is slow if you only work on it during lunch.  However, from noon to four there was the safety meeting.  It is like found hours in which to knit!  I sat and knit through the meeting under the table surrounded by co-workers.  Below is the picture of the socks as I made it home after picking the Things up from daycare.

 

The greater chunk of my knitting time has been taken over by DH’s sweater.  My goal is to hopefully finish the yoke portion and separate for the sleeves by bedtime.  Of course, I will need a lot of child wrangling from DH in order to accomplish this feat!  So far, he is doing well tonight; after all, I am typing this post right after dinner.  Last night as I was knitting I discovered I had a small problem.  My small problem wasn’t so small because I kept nodding off over the knitting.  Somehow, no stitches were dropped or lost.  This is amazing because it has been a rather stressful week at home.

The stress this week was mostly home related.  Did you know that you should take time to think sometimes?  For example, if you go grocery shopping Saturday afternoon and by Sunday night, the meat you tossed in the freezer doesn’t freeze, you may have a problem.  If on Monday evening, things are still not frozen and the ice appears to be shinny, the freezer may not be working.  If Tuesday’s frozen pizza was not frozen, there is a LARGE Problem.  The good news is that we rent so all it took was a phone call.  The downside was I called too late to save any foodstuff and oh by the way, the new refrigerator arrived Friday.  Goodbye lots of food that was not ready to be tossed and brand new food.  Hello large expense in replacing the stockpile of food.  Such is life; at least this fridge is much larger than the last!

Must not knit all the THINGS

Knit all the THINGS is in full force. The toe-up socks are progressing nicely. The shawl has no progress from this weekend and DH's sweater has been cast on. As I said, must knit all the things! I had to stop myself from casting on a cowl, a toddler sweater, mittens, and a hat. I don't even know what patterns I would use for most of these items. The cowl would have been fingering weight and colorwork.  The mittens would also be colorwork while the toddler sweater would have been the same pattern as DH's pattern. The hat, I have no idea what techniques it would use. Oh WAIT, I need a scarf too.

OK, I need to come back from the edge a little bit. 3 projects, 2 of which are larger projects are quite enough. Pull it back a little for sanity's sake. Oh, I could use a blanket too.  Beep Beep Beep, backing the truck up 3 projects are enough, more than enough. Focus on the socks, sweater, and the shawl.

Socks; OK the socks on the needles. This weekend I finished the foot and turned the heels. For these socks I'm doing a short row heel. Typically, short row heels don't go deep enough for my high arch. This time, I decided to go a little further on the short row than my usual 12-14 un-wrapped stitches. I left a total of 8 un-wrapped stitches to see if the extra stitches give the little bit of additional fabric I need for a good fit. Looking at the heel now, it may be a little pointy and not a lot of depth to it. Time will tell. In the meantime, I'll continue to knit the leg until I run out of yarn.

Next up, I took time Saturday afternoon to run errands without help. Amazing! DH stayed home from work with the man cold/bug. While the boys went down for their afternoon nap DH played computer games and I went to the LYS, Michaels, and the grocery store. Totally AWESOME! I picked up an extra cable for my interchangeable Hiya-Hiya needles and the connector from InThe Making. From there, I went to Michaels for Caron Simply Soft (approximately 2200 yards needed) and finally the grocery store for food stuffs.

DH's Sweater is made out of acrylic yarn because he doesn't want scratchy yarn and I have some doubts as to how much he'll actually wear the sweater. I was cruising sweater patterns the other day for some odd reason and pulled up Flax by TinCanKnits. When I showed DH, his response was that's not a bad sweater. When he says something like that, he does really like it because normally I get an "eh" from him. Plus, I can knit 2 more toddler sized sweaters that will match Daddy's Sweater. That way I might, just maybe, have a shot at the boys wearing a sweater. So after I bought the yarn, I cast on that evening. Then I knit 2 rounds before I discovered that something didn't look right. I twisted the join, first time EVER that I have twisted the join. Dang it. Oh well, casting on twice just prolongs the pleasure right?

The shawl has seen no love because clue 2 just came out Sunday and I don't watch Downton Abbey often. Such is life but sometime Monday the cheat sheet should come out and then I'll be able to work on the shawl. I will also work on not casting on more items than I have needles or yarn for. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it. 

New Year = Cast On

DH's (Bigfoot) sock on my foot and my foot included for scale 

DH's socks are finished! I was able to start my next pair of socks by claiming that I needed bright light to unpick the ripcord for the afterthought heel. Get out of guilt free card! While I have not made much progress on my socks, at least DH's socks were finished and he feels loved once more.  No matter how much I've grumbled and how infrequently he wears his hand knit socks, I know he enjoys the socks. Wish I could say the same about my children. DS1 will wear his hand knit socks that match mine, only if I wear the same pair. DS2 refuses to wear his hand knit socks ever. Oddly enough, DS2 will wear my socks and Daddy's socks. Kids, who understands them?

Since it's a new year, I must have a case of startitus. As previously stated, I cast on a new pair of socks for myself. My pretty purple socks will be a pair of toe up to go as far as the yarn will take me. I only hope that I will not become bored or upset with these socks before I run out of yarn. No promises. I typically flake on grand plans like really tall socks. I've also cast on for the Downton Abbey Mystery Knit-A-Long with Jimmy BeansWool. The Mystery KAL requires DK weight yarn on size 7 needles. The only DK in my stash is earmarked for a future sweater. Instead, I'm going to use some mystery acrylic that is worsted or aran weight. Odds are the mystery acrylic isRed Heart or Caron and I will be using size 8 needles instead. Although the drape will be different (denser than stated) something tells me I'm going to love the length of my new shawl.  At least, that's what I'll be telling myself.

I've also discovered The Lost Geek is hosting a Library-A-Long. The purpose is to knit patterns collected in your library prior to 1/4/14. In my library there are more than a few that I could use for the LAL but I think I'll wait until I finish either the socks or the shawl. Then again, there are a few sweater patterns I could use.  DS1 has outgrown the sweater I knit him. The sweater Mamaw knit him still has growth room. Such is life.

Exciting times at my house lately; by typical standards nothing major is happening or planned. The latest excitement we've had is when DH has a day off during the weekend. Last weekend DH had Saturday off and while I know he most likely wanted to stay home a chill with the Things and me, we needed to go somewhere. We had to do SOMETHING, anything not home. It's not often I have these urges so when I do; nothing short of an army will change my mind. Poor DH ended up driving 2 hours each way with a car load of grumpy people. We left before breakfast but later than he had planned (my fault but he didn't tell me what the plan was for breakfast). One of the places we miss eating at is Shoney's but the nearest one is roughly half-way between home and the Montgomery, AL zoo. Leaving home there was a pair of HUNGRY toddlers in the backseat. After walking the almost dead zoo (very few visitors) for several hours and indulging in hot chocolate we left for home. Mommy was grumpy by that time. When we made it home, we laid the boys down for a nap that they didn't take but I sure took a good nap!  In fact, tonight, an early bedtime sounds good.