Knitting, now complete with pictures!

Here’s a photo of the Trekking XXL socks I’ve been knitting:

I am making up the pattern as I go along. I created a chart for the cable and I finally realized something: designing isn’t easy! Okay, I don’t know that I ever thought it was easy, but there were times that I would think “OMG how does someone charge SO MUCH for a pattern I could easily come up with on my own if I had a stitch dictionary?” (And, note to self, I really need one of those – a good one. I’m open to recommendations.) I realized that the truth is, designing is tough. Writing up a pattern, especially if there’s charts, and having it test knit and proofed is no easy thing. I’m not sure that I really realized these things until I put more thought into it than I did before. Now, those patterns that I once thought were a little too much, really aren’t too much and are worth what the designer asks for them. Also, I’m cheap (and broke), so I think that contributed to my thoughts of “OMG that’s so much money for a pattern!”

I’m not entirely sure that I’m going to keep knitting this sock.  I may end up frogging it and knitting something else with this yarn.  Right now it’s on hold since I started some other socks because…

Summer of Socks 2008 started last Saturday! I cast-on the pattern Wendy wrote for SoS ’08 on Saturday and I’m up to the heel flap now.

The pattern had some errors and while I figured out the pattern repeat
one rather quickly, I had a hell of a time figuring out the heel flap
situation. I’ve never knitted socks toe-up with a gusset. I read the
pattern over and over, but just couldn’t make it make sense for me. I
finally figured it out today after some finding out it was indeed an
error in the pattern and what I needed to do to make it work. I felt
rather silly after I found it was so simple, but it happens to the best
of us! (Trust me, this hasn’t been the best brain week for me. I’ve
been a bit foggy-headed lately!)

I don’t know that I have “goals” for SoS ’08. I kind of doubt I’ll be
the one with the most socks knit or anything like that, but I would
like to try socks toe-up using the magic loop method. I already have
yarn and a pattern in mind for that:

This is my Socks That Rock yarn that used to be these socks.
I decided I didn’t really like how they turned out (a tad small) and
figured that I should just frogg them and knit them into something I
liked better. I’m planning on doing toe-up Monkey socks.

Last Friday, I caved to the nanners and ordered some nanner yarn from Lime & Violet. I have never purchased Lime & Violet yarn before, but have been wanting to since they opened up shop. I’ve been on a “yarn diet” (read: budget) for a while now, so this is a rare treat for me.

Now, not only can I knit Wendy’s nanner pattern, but I can knit it with nanner yarn!

Since I’m on the topic of nanners, I’ll share my lunch from yesterday:

Nanners: “100% Perfection”

Anyhow, enough nanner obsession.

My right shoulder has been giving me some problems this week. It seems that knitting a lot + using the mouse a lot at work = ooowwwww for the right shoulder. (I have a touch-pad mouse at home, which doesn’t seem to aggravate my shoulder.) Matt has been a sweetheart and has massaged it a few times this week, which helped a ton. The next day using the mouse at work made it hurt by the end of the day, so I’m not sure what to do.Massaging helps, but I don’t have anyone to massage me while I’m at work and it’s hurting the most! The only thing that makes it feel better is doing less with it. I can’t do less work and I don’t want to start knitting less. The beginning of the year until now, I kind of lost interest for a bit. Nothing was really calling me to knit it, but now I feel like I’m “back in the saddle” and ready to knit! Until I can go to the doctor again, I’m not sure what to do to help it. sigh

Have you seen the Twist Collective? I’m sure if you’re a knitter and you aren’t living under a rock somewhere, you’ve probably heard about it. (Don’t feel bad if you haven’t, I’m usually living under a rock and the last person to hear about things. Most of the time, anyhow. Anyway….) I received their email newsletter the other day talking a little more about it. It sounds like it’s going to be really good and I like their set-up for the most part. There’s been some issues with how Interweave Knits is now paying the designers for their patterns and keeping the rights to them. I know a lot of people are upset about the whole thing. Personally, it doesn’t really seem all that fair, and could explain why I’ve been less impressed with their magazine lately. I didn’t even buy the last issue because there wasn’t a single pattern I wanted to knit (seriously, this never happens, there’s always at least two). Anyway, back to Twist Collective. Their magazine is going to be web based and all the articles are going to be free. There’s going to be patterns, but they are charging for each pattern individually. The upside is that most of the money goes back to the designer for each sale. The downside is they haven’t mentioned how much they will charge for each pattern and could end up being a bad thing if you love EVERY pattern in an issue or even a number of patterns because that could end up being rather expensive. It will be interesting to see how that works out, but overall I’m looking forward to the first issue due out at the end of July.

Not much else has been going on this week and no real plans for the weekend other than cleaning. Hope you have a good weekend :o)