Despite evidence to the contrary, I have been knitting. I finished a pair of knee socks (hoping to take pictures soon), and have started another Christmas present. I got the first shipment of the Wollmeise sock club, and wasn’t sure what to do with the skeins – they’re too pretty to be socks, I thought. I’m using the green skein (box elder), to make a lace ribbon scarf for a coworker, with stunning results. Since this weekend has been a gaming weekend, I’ve gotten a lot done on it. Next, I have to work on socks for my niece and a friend.

It’s been an active sort of weekend. I ordered a karinui from Japan (an unfinished kimono) early last week, which arrived on Saturday. It’s everything I hoped it would be, and is going to take a moderate amount of work to complete. I suspect I’ll be posting pictures next weekend when I begin work on it. I’m very excited!

In knitting news, I’ve been working on all my WIPs. I finished Christy (pics forthcoming), and have made progress on the very, very tall socks. Also, just this afternoon, I received an email from Claudia (of Wollmeise fame) saying that I’ve gotten into her sock club! Now I just have to find the money…

One of the good things about baby things is that they are small (or so I hear). Fortunately, I like to make things difficult. One of my coworkers is having a baby early next year, and I thought she (and her baby) would be worthy recipients of a baby blanket. I’ve never made one before, so I went for something that would go quickly, with the nicest baby-safe yarn I could afford.

Pattern: Ribbons Baby Blanket, by Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton, in various colors

I did some research, and even though the ball band says “lay flat to dry,” lots of people have machine dryed it, with minimal shrinking. I’m hoping to compensate by making it as large as I can stand. Baby blankets are supposed to be smallish, right?

It’s been awhile.

I have been knitting, but I just haven’t gotten around to blogging about it.  It seems like it’s a motivation thing: I’ve had other things to focus on, things that stressed (read: depressed) me to the point where I could think of nothing else.  Now that I’m doing better, stress-wise, I can refocus myself on my knitting.  The upside of being bipolar is that depression is usually followed by mild mania, which I’m capitalizing on.  I’m churning through Christy at a fantastic rate.  I have the back and both sleeves done, and the left front 75% done.  I even blocked and seamed the pieces that I finished.  I’m really enjoying the Rowan 4-ply soft I’m using for this sweater, and it’s led to a bit of a new-found obsession with Rowan yarn.  I scored some Rowan Wool Cotton from a destash, and have been hunting for a pattern to use with it (I only got ~500 yards worth).  I may try to find a few more skeins of it, so I have enough for a sweater.

I had a great time at GenCon, and have basically no pictures to prove it.    Trust me when I say, it was awesome fun!  I also attended a new LARP last weekend, Threads, which was also fun.  One key benefit of joining a new LARP campaign is that I get to shop for more costuming.  I play a Japanese character, and have been stalking verious unfinished (cheaper) kimono for a formal costume for next game.  I figure that I still know how to sew well enough to finish a kimono, right?

Despite my blog neglect, I have been knitting. I was steadily working on socks (as per my Summer of Socks goal), when I began to become…disenchanted with sock knitting. I cast-on for more and more socks, until there were 3 pairs of socks-in-progress on the needles. (see below)

So, I picked up an old project, Christy, and I’ve decided to take it with me to GenCon. I’m leaving on Wednesday, and I have a vague hope of finishing lots of it by the end. It is a cardigan knit with size 2 and 3 needles, so there are miles of stockinette to knit.

It really is. I’m alone this weekend (husband at a game), and I’m finding it hard to leave the couch. Fortunately, I have an iPhone, the ultimate lazy person’s tool. I do have to work this weekend, so I’ll be forced to leave at some point. Until then, knitting.

I haven’t gotten much knitting done this week, because I was dealing with iPhone irritations that sapped my will to live.  Fortunately, I now have said iPhone.  I completely lost track of the days, and I’ve only managed to finish one pair of socks for this second two-week period of Summer of Socks.  One of my original goals was to finish at least two pairs.  I’ve also taken in more sock yarn, but it isn’t my fault:  Lorna’s Laces just has the perfect shade of blue for tall, tall socks!  I got 3 skeins (via a destash), and I’m hoping to use as much of the yarn as I can, so I can make really tall socks.  Also, it’s been really hot, and that just makes me crazy.  Anyhow, I hope to get the current socks I’m working on done this weekend, and then I can start working on my niece’s socks.  She wants stripy socks, which I love making, so it’s a win-win.

In other news, I may need to withdraw from the Olympic Yarn Smackdown.  I didn’t realize that it coinsided so heavily with my planned vacation (GenCon), and I’m worried about how mailing things to people/having people mail things to a hotel will work.  It seems like it’s just not something that would go smoothly.  I’m annoyed, because I really wanted to take part in this, and I’m only in one event.  I’m just not sure.  If I do withdraw, I’ll probably join the Ravelympics or something, which doesn’t require any mailimg, just an impressive project.  I could try out Bayerishe, or some other equally crazy-hard sock pattern.

…and not really blogging.  I’m not really sure why that is.  To make up for my silence, look: socks!

(top to bottom: plain stockinette magic loop (Duet skinny), Merino lace socks (Koigu KPM), Embossed Leaves (Sundara)

These are the three pairs I’ve completed so far for Summer of Socks.  I’m impressing myself with how quickly I can really complete them when I put my mind to it.  I’m even more impressed with some of my fellow participants: there’s one woman who has completed something like 8 pairs already.  Now that’s leet skillz!  I’m glad I took a sock break before I started, because I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed making socks, how portable they are, and how quick.  I have another pair on the needles right now that I’m really enjoying, and I just got some cashmere DK weight yarn that I might make into slippers…  I’ve got lots of plans.  Anything to distract me from my torturous wait until my new iPhone 3G arrives in the store. 

Summer of Socks motivation + 2 days = 1.5 socks.

I was quite impressed with myself and my work ethic.  Generally it takes me slightly longer than 2 days to finish one sock (my average is 4 days), and the second sock takes about 8 days.  My buzz was somewhat crushed, however, when I discovered that 4 or 5 people had already finished an entire pair of socks on Monday (when last I checked).  I know it isn’t a competition, but it does make me feel a little like a loser.  Still, I have high hopes, and I’m planning on trying out the 2 socks on one circular needle for my next pair.  And, man do I love Koigu!  It is awesome, and has awesome colors, and awesome stitch definition.  Maybe if I succeed in knitting up my entire sock yarn stash (which is very possible), I’ll reward myself with some Koigu.

I’m very lazy, it’s true.  This is me sitting in bed, demanding things be brought to me because I’m too lazy to get them myself.

In other news, I’m also very whiny, because I hate having to wait to cast on for new projects. I worked on my Seeded Cables cardigan (I’m done with the decreases now!) and read Good Omens, but I just could not sustain my interest. I wound some yarn for my first SoS socks, and then the brand new cashmere/silk yarn I just got, courtesy of Skein Queen. That’s for some gloves, which I can’t make until SoS is over anyway, but still. It is the softest and deepest blue yarn every. I love it, but I cannot cast on with it, because I must not start any new projects!

ETA: I actually wrote this post on Friday, but didn’t post it until Sunday, so…