Tag: Camp Loopy 2011

Posted in Completed Projects

Eadon

Posted on by mslindz

It’s Friday and I have an FO to share! 🙂

I finished Eadon yesterday and on time! After seaming it, I felt the sleeves were just too long. They covered a good portion of my hands! I was worried about this when I was knitting the sleeves, but I couldn’t figure out a good way to shorten them or figure out if they even needed to be shortened since the construction of it was throwing me off. Turns out I have short arms and they did need to be shortened after all. Since I had some time yesterday, I too my scissors to the sleeves, cut where I wanted the new end to be, and did the bind off at that point. They are just a bit short when I stretch my arms up, but they fall right to my wrists when worn with my hands at my sides. Overall I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Eadon - Front
Eadon

Pattern: Eadon by Susanna IC (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: August 15, 2011
Completed: September 15, 2011
Yarn: MadelineTosh Vintage, colorway Mrs Taylor, 8 skeins
Needle: US 8 ChiaoGoo circular
Notes: Took off 5 inches in the length of the body and ended up shortening the sleeves. RAN OUT OF YARN. If you make this and want it to be the length of the pattern buy extra yarn. Despite getting gauge and taking off 5 inches in length, I ran out of yarn. The extra skein I ordered ended up being darker and more solid then the rest of the skeins, but I don’t think it’s too noticeable on the sweater. It did end up a little bigger then I expected, but I think that’s because of the ribbing adding so much stretch to it. I think this is a great sweater to wear around the house or office when it’s chilly or to throw on over layers when fall comes. I can see wearing it quite a bit!

Eadon - Sides
Eadon – Sides

You can see more pictures of the sweater on my project page.

Now that Eadon is completely finished, I feel almost at a loss for what to knit. I have things on the needles and I’ve even started new things, but it seems my knitting mojo is down at the moment. Perhaps I got a little used to all the deadline knitting with Camp Loopy this summer and now I have no deadlines for anything I’m currently working on (well, sort of, if I count the hat and gloves for Rhinebeck). What do you do when your knitting mojo seems to have gone on vacation?

Posted in Current Projects, Life

Sweaters, Weight Loss, and Rhinebeck

Posted on by mslindz

There’s good news, bad news, and an annoying thing that happened with Eadon.

The good news is that the yarn arrived on Thursday to finish Eadon, I’m now done with all the knitting of it, and it’s been blocking since Saturday morning. The bad news is that the skein of yarn that arrived for me to finish it was a tiny bit darker and much more of a solid then the rest of the yarn. I’m hoping once it’s all sewn up it won’t look horrible. The annoying thing that happened when I started working on the shoulder seam part of the second sleeve was that I realized I didn’t bind off enough stitches on the first sleeve and I had to rip it back Friday night to fix it. At least I realized it, wasn’t too bad to fix, and didn’t take long! I started seaming Eadon Monday night, but it’s taking me a while to do. The way the prices go together is different from every other sweater I’ve seamed up until now. I’ve started seaming parts of it only to not like the way it’s going and starting over again. I’ll get it done tonight, though. Only one more sleeve to sew in!

Eadon Blocking
Eadon – blocking!

Since I finished knitting Eadon Saturday morning just before we went out of town for the weekend, I decided to try and work on the socks I have on the needles. Sadly, that hasn’t really worked out very well (I’m glad I brought a non-small-needle project with me, more on that below). Small needles still really bother my wrists and I can only knit a few rows before having to put it aside. No real progress on socks to show right now. Knitting Eadon didn’t bother my hands or wrists at all which makes me think it’s the needle size that’s doing it. I want to get at least one of the pairs off the needles, but after that I think I’ll take a break from knitting anything on small needles for a while. At least there’s always plenty of other things I can knit!

Last week sometime I got this idea in my head that I needed to knit a Rhinebeck sweater. Yes, I’ve got a sweater I’m nearly done with, but it wasn’t knit with Rhinebeck specifically in mind, so my brain reasoned that I should start something new with about a month to go until Rhinebeck. I was looking at DK and sport weight patterns initially. Even decided on two to pick from. One out of the yarn I bought at Rhinebeck last year and one out of the yarn I bought at the Spring Fling last year. Then I realized this was all rather crazy talk. I’d be stressing myself out trying to do this on a deadline when I’ve spent the summer working on deadline projects for Camp Loopy and haven’t really enjoyed it. So, I took a step back to think about it.

I looked at my stash. No worsted or bulky weight of yarn in a sweater quantity. I looked at sweaters I’ve knit that no longer fit me since I’ve lost over 60 lbs since I knit some of them. Even after I lost about half of the weight, I think I was still knitting to those heavier measurements and some things ended up not fitting that well. The difference in measurements wasn’t that big. I think I was just sizing up the way I did before and ending up with oversized sweaters rather than ones that were fitted. Anyhow, I now have a pile of sweaters that look like I’m swimming in them when I put them on and it makes me sad. While looking at my stash and my finished sweaters, I saw Seneca. I knit this earlier this year. When I finished it, it did end up a little too big. I loved the yarn and the pattern, though, and when I started losing more weight, I decided I would re-knit it later.

I’m still about 20 lbs from my goal, but it’s later enough and I decided I’m close enough to goal that I can reasonably start re-knitting Seneca with Rhinebeck in mind. Last week after deciding this, I frogged the Seneca I finished in February. After finishing Eadon on Saturday, I started Seneca. I’m knitting a smaller size, still adjusting for the gauge like I did the first time around. This time it should end up about 40″ across the chest, which is a bit less then my current chest measurement. It gives me some room to “shrink” into it! Even if I don’t end up losing any inches in my bust, I think it will still fit well with a bit of negative ease. I’ve managed to make my way through the cable on the bottom of the body and I’m currently working on the waist decreases.

Seneca Take 2
Seneca Take 2

The last two years I’ve gone I’ve had a new sweater to wear, one that was finished with the intention of wearing it to Rhinebeck. Earlier this year I had planned to not knit a sweater for Rhinebeck because I had taken a break from sweaters since I was losing weight (and still have a way to go, so I still am). I may or may not have Seneca done and if I don’t, I’ll probably wear Eadon along with the hat and mittens I plan on making. I think it’s kind of fun to have something new to wear that was made/bought just to wear at Rhinebeck, though I know a lot of people don’t bother with new things and wear things they’ve knit/crocheted without Rhinebeck specifically in mind.

Planning on going to Rhinebeck this year? Knitting or crocheting anything specifically for it?

Posted in Current Projects

Eadon Progress and an Issue

Posted on by mslindz

I haven’t blogged in almost two weeks! How did that happen? I think the main reason is that Eadon isn’t really that exciting to blog about. It’s a bit of a boring knit and I haven’t really had any issues with it after I got to cables sorted out on the right front. Well, that’s not entirely true, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

The last time I took photos of my progress with the intent to blog last Thursday (oops), I was half way through the left front. The right front was finished and is sitting under the left front progress along with the back piece.

Eadon - Left Front
Eadon – Left Front Progress

You can see the interesting shaping Eadon has on the front pieces pretty good in this shot. The long skinny part there to the right of your screen is the part that wraps around the back of your neck.

Eadon - Right Front
Eadon – Right Front

Last Friday I finished the left front and moved on to the left sleeve. By Monday morning I was finishing the left sleeve when I ran out of yarn and needed to use some of the yarn from my very last skein. Having knit the left sleeve to that point, I became rather concerned that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to finish the right sleeve, but I tried not to panic yet. I finished the left sleeve then weighed it. Then I weighed the last of my yarn. Uh oh… the yarn I have left weighs less then the finished sleeve by quite a bit. I knew immediately that there was no way I could finish the sleeve and definitely wouldn’t have yarn to seam the whole thing together even if I did manage to knit the whole right sleeve with what I had left.

*Cue Panic*

I immediately went over to The Loopy Ewe to see if they had the yarn I’m using (MadelineTosh Vintage in Mrs. Taylor). Thankfully they did, so I ordered another skein of yarn. It should arrive Thursday. I’m hoping that it’s not a lot lighter or darker then my current skeins. If you’re familiar with MadTosh, you’ll know that they don’t have dye lots and colors can vary in intensity quite a bit between the batches they dye (and there’s no way to know since there’s no dye lot!). Crossing my fingers it all works out and that I can still get this finished by the deadline for Camp Loopy Project III which is September 15th.

Here’s my current progress on the right sleeve. Underneath the right sleeve is the finished left sleeve.

Eadon Sleeves
Eadon – Completed Left Sleeve, Right Sleeve Progress

Aside from this project, I haven’t been working on anything else. Well, I did have a brief affair with knitting Desi Myna, but I’ve put that aside to finish this sweater. I think it will need to be frogged anyhow since the foot is a bit on the large-and-won’t-fit-me side. 😦

What have you been working on? Anything new catching your eye lately that you’re itching to cast on? I think I know what I’ll start once this sweater is done and what I’ll get back to. That never stops me from looking at new patterns and planning what stash I want to use next, though! 🙂

Posted in Current Projects

No Interesting Knitting and a Winner

Posted on by mslindz

I’m still working on Eadon, but the progress isn’t all that exciting to share. I’ve had to rip back the right front twice now. Once because I was doing the cabling wrong and only realized it after getting halfway through a second cabled section. Second time was last night when I realized that I missed the last cable of the first section as I was about to start the second cabled section. I think I’m all sorted out now, though! I’ve been working on nothing else in the last week and a half because I want to make sure I get this project done in time.

Haven’t been feeling great this week. The allergy index has been 10+ every day since Saturday, which is when I started feeling pretty terrible. It seems to be making me not all that interested in knitting anything. I keep looking at other projects I have on the needles and just going “Meh. Not interested.” Not really all that interested in knitting Eadon, either, but since it’s on a deadline, I work on it whenever I can. I have two ChaioGoo Red Lace circular needles in sock sizes coming in the mail today. Maybe starting a new sock will help my knitting mojo. Thinking a plain sock with some stripey yarn in fun colors may be just the thing.

Alright, alright! I know why you’re really here today. The giveaway, right? So… it’s Thursday and that means it’s time to pick a winner for the Selbuvotter book giveaway! There were a total of 22 comments (it says 23, but one is a pingback from me) and out of the comments, the random number generator picked….

randomwinner
Number 11, you’re the winner!

Comment number 11! That comment was from Sheila OKeefe. Congratulations Sheila! I’ll be emailing you for the details on where I should be sending the book. 🙂

Posted in Completed Projects, Current Projects

Bandwidth FO and Eadon Progress

Posted on by mslindz

Finally! I can share a finished object with you! This FO has been done for a while, but I didn’t manage to get pictures of it until this past weekend. Most days, especially during the summer, I put my hair up half way through the day. By the time I get home to take pictures, my hair just doesn’t look right if I put it down after it being up most of the day, so I end up not getting finished photos right away. Anyway, this was a pretty quick knit and total knitting time was less then a week had I not put it down to work on those German Stockings.

I absolutely love the brim of this hat and I’m playing around with the idea of making a non-slouchy, more fitted hat using this same style of brim.

Bandwidth (Front)
Bandwidth

Pattern: Bandwidth by Stephen West (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: July 26, 2011
Completed: August 13, 2011
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in Solis, not quite 1 skein
Needle: US 8 bamboo circular and DPNs
Notes: Only thing I did differently was use one color instead of two. I wanted to use up yarn I already had and I didn’t have something similar to the Rios that went well with it.

Bandwidth (Left Side)
Badwidth – Left side w/cable

Last Monday I started my final Camp Loopy project, Eadon. I think it would go a lot faster if I wasn’t alternating skeins every two rows. That sometimes causes tangles or me to stop to fiddle with the side that I’m switching skeins on. Yesterday I finished the back and started on the right front. This picture isn’t a good representation of the color of the yarn, but it does show the progress I’ve made so far. Hoping I can get through both fronts this week!

Eadon Back and Right Front
Eadon Progress

Don’t forget to leave a comment on my post from last Thursday if you want to be entered in the drawing to win a copy of Selbuvotter! You have until midnight (eastern time) Wednesday to qualify. I’ll be picking someone Thursday. 🙂

Side note – if you see that your comment isn’t there by now, please let me know (via email, Ravelry PM, or some other method). I’ve been checking my spam and approving any pending comments, but I just want to make sure I don’t miss anyone.

Posted in Completed Projects, Cooking

German Stockings FO and Project Three

Posted on by mslindz

Finally have these German Stockings done and just in time. I finished these Saturday morning and really couldn’t be happier to get them off my needles after all the trouble (aka frogging) I had with them. In the end, they were worth the trouble. They turned out gorgeous and I love them. Now I just need to figure out when I can wear them and what I’ll wear them with.

I didn’t get a chance to blog about the issues I had with this sock last week. To sum it up, I ended up ripping back over 5 inches because I was doing the increase portion of the traveling row in the wrong place. I didn’t realize it until I was about to start the heel. I considered continuing on as I was, doing the increase in the wrong place, or leaving what I had done already and doing the increase in the correct place on the foot. After debating about it, I decided there was no choice but to frog it. If I’d done either, it would have looked quite a bit different from the first sock and I knew I didn’t want to just finish it to get it done on time because I know I wouldn’t want to go back and rip it out later on. I sucked it up, risked not finishing on time and fixed my mistake. Thankfully I ended up getting it done with a few days to spare!

German Stockings (Left Side)
German Stocking

Pattern: German Stockings by Cookie A. (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: July 15, 2011
Completed: August 13, 2011
Yarn: Socktopus Sokksu Original in Fontainebleau, 1.5 skeins, roughly 650 yards
Hook: US 1 (2.25mm) Knit Picks nickel circular
Notes: Didn’t change anything about the pattern. I wouldn’t say they were a difficult knit, I just seemed to have a difficult time following the pattern properly and reading the notes section (which I actually did do, but apparently missed the info I needed there). They turned out great despite the issues I had that caused lots of frogging. Had I not made so many mistakes, I think I could have had these done in about 2 weeks time. I’m just happy I got them done in time for Camp Loopy!

German Stockings (Motif)
German Stocking – Motif Detail

German Stockings (Back)
German Stocking – Back

You can see more pictures on my Ravelry project page.

Now that Camp Loopy Project Two is off the needles and a photo has been uploaded to The Loopy Ewe, it’s time to move on to other things… like Camp Loopy Project Three! Today is the starting day (and finishing day for Project Two). I’ve got my yarn and needles ready to cast on for Eadon. I think as long as I don’t have any major issues, I can get it done in less then 4 weeks, but depends on how busy I am between now and then. I knit my swatch on Saturday, measured it on Sunday and was happy to find that I got the right gauge the first time. Getting gauge on the first try seems to not happen often for me. I usually have to swatch 2 or 3 times!

I’m trying out some new needles on this project: ChaioGoo Red Stainless Steel cirulars. I’ve heard a number of knitters rave about these needles and particularly love the cable. I knit a swatch with them and so far I like them quite a bit. The cable is different then anything else on the market and the tips (regular ones, though they do make a lace circular) are somewhere between regular Addi’s and lace Addi’s. They’re pretty inexpensive, too. I paid $8.50 for the ones I bought through Grandma’s Hand Knitting Etsy shop. Shipping was pretty cheap and they arrived in a few days. Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for something new to try that’s not too pricey. I’ll definitely be ordering more and really want to try the sock sizes.

I don’t think I mentioned it, but this past Friday, Knit Picks had a warehouse sale at their warehouse in Columbus, OH. I went with a few friends and scored some good deals. That experience deserves a whole post to itself, though, so I’ll share that next time. I may even have a little giveaway for one of the items I picked up! 🙂

Posted in Current Projects, Knit Ramblings

Project 2 and Bags

Posted on by mslindz

I’m still struggling along with Project 2. Sunday night I discovered that I’d been doing the traveling row increase of the German Stocking in the wrong place, just as I was about to start the heel. I debated either switching to the correct side, or continuing on the wrong side as I worked the foot, but after looking at the first sock, I decided it would look different visually and it would bother me, so I ripped back about 5 inches to do the increases in the proper place. I’ve worked 5 pattern repeats and have 2 more to go before I’m back to where I ripped out at. Not the best picture of the sock (cell phone camera), but it does show where I’m currently at.

German Stocking Sock 2
German Stocking, 2nd Sock

This is the only thing I’ve been working on for the last week and a half. I thought I’d be done by now and I probably would have been if it weren’t for having to rip back! Ah well. Getting close now. I think I’ll be able to finish it with a little time to spare, so long as I knit like the wind! My hands look forward to a break after these are done. The tiny needles have been a little rough on me with this project and I’m looking forward to knitting that worsted weight cardigan starting next week. 🙂

I have to take a minute and talk about the bag you see pictured with my German Stocking above. It was a gift to me from my friend Karen. She makes great bags of all sorts as well as e-reader cases and pretty much any kind of sewn accessory you’d want. I have a purse and a few other bags from her and all of them have held up very well. She loves custom orders and will work with you on anything you might want! She will even do custom embroidery of just about anything you want. She has some pictures of bags she’s made here and you can email her by clicking this link here. Here’s a better look at my Hello Kitty bag.

HK Bag
HK Bag – Outside

HK bag
HK Bag – Inside

Time to grab some lunch and squeeze in a little knitting time. 🙂

Posted in Knit Ramblings

Camp Loopy Project Three

Posted on by mslindz

Project 3 for Camp Loopy was announced last Monday. The theme for the last project is “Field Day” – something to put everyone on an even playing field.

“Project Three: you can knit anything you’d like to knit. The only requirement is that you use 800 or more yards of yarn for the project. (731.5 meters) All 800 yds. must be used in one project. (So it doesn’t count if you make a hat plus mittens to equal 800 yds.)”

My initial reaction was “What?!? EIGHT HUNDRED YARDS?!” I had really been hoping that it would be something small, especially considering I took on quite a challenge for Project Two. Had I known what Project Three would bring, I wouldn’t have committed to knee socks for Project Two. As it is my wrists have been rather cranky with all the knitting on tiny needles I’ve been doing and at this point I’ve just been hoping I could hold out until Project Three and do something smaller on larger needles.

I admit I really considered dropping out completely at this point because Project Two has sucked a lot of fun out of the knitting for me and I didn’t want to commit to another project that would continue to to do that. I thought about it for a while after reading the post because I wasn’t at home to look at yarn choices or patterns. Ultimately I decided that I’ve come this far and I should really just see it through.

After deciding that, I needed to pick a project and yarn. I knew right away I wanted something that wasn’t a sock or knit on tiny needles (something above a US 5 at least). I went to The Loopy Groupies forum on Ravelry and looked at what others were going to knit.

There was a suggestion early on that one could double strand their yarn effectively knitting a 400 yard project out of 800 yards. I would have definitely been upset if people did that, since I think it was clear that was not the intention of the project, so I’m happy that Sheri amended her post to clarify that the project must be 800 yards, single stranded, and doubling your yarn wouldn’t count (unless of course you’re double stranding 1600 or more yards).

With the 800 yard requirement in mind, I started looking at my queue. I wanted a project that I didn’t already have yarn for and wasn’t a difficult knit. Not that I don’t want to be challenged, but I know myself well enough to know that if it’s a complected or intensely charted design, I won’t be able to finish it in a month’s time and would just be setting myself up to fail. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that a) I need to clean up my queue because there’s a lot of things I’m no longer interested in making, especially in the sweater department and b) I should knit a sweater. I decided that I would knit Eadon. It’s a new pattern, so I don’t already have yarn for it. It’s also a sweater that could be knit and still fit me once I get to my goal weight.

After browsing The Loopy Ewe for a few hours, I decided on MadelineTosh Vintage in Ms Taylor. I thought it wouldn’t take quite so long to get the yarn, but it seems that the elves over at TLE have been quite busy, so it just arrived yesterday.

MadelineTosh Vintage - Ms Taylor
MadTosh Vintage in Ms Taylor

I’ve seen a lot of chatter in the Loopy Groupies board on Ravelry about projects. I’ve seen a lot of folks going after some pretty ambitions projects and quite a few who aren’t sure they’ll get their project done. I’m just hoping I don’t have any problems like I did with the German Stockings! I think I should be okay after reading through the pattern, but you never really know how a project will go until you are working on it.

Are you participating in Camp Loopy? If you are, what are you knitting for Project 3? If you aren’t, what would you knit given this challenge and a month time frame? I think it’s interesting to see what challenges each of us in our craft. 🙂

Posted in Current Projects

WIP Wednesday!

Posted on by mslindz

It’s Wednesday and I still have WIPs I haven’t shared with you all yet, so I’m making it a WIP Wednesday!

After Saturday knit group on July 23rd, I went out with a few of my favorite people Lani, Lisa (who used to live here, but now lives in Indianapolis and was visiting us), and Karen. We went to lunch at Cock & Bull English Pub, then to the newest yarn shop in town, Hank. I had been to Hank once before on their opening day and this was the first chance I’d had to go back since then. They’ve received quite a lot of new things since they first opened! It’s such a gorgeous shop and the staff is incredibly nice and helpful. No yarn was screaming at me to take it home that day, but I didn’t leave empty handed! While I was there, I picked up a copy of Westknits Book Two.

Westknits Book Two
Westknits Book Two

Aside from wanting to knit just about everything in this book, one pattern in particular was calling to me: Bandwidth (Ravelry link). The first time I visited Hank, I bought two skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Solis. Initially I purchased it with the intention of making a crocheted hat, but the pattern turned out to be written poorly and I wasn’t sure how big it was supposed to be coming out since no information was provided in the pattern about how big the brim of the hat should be. So, the yarn had been sitting around, begging me to knit it into something, but I couldn’t find just the right thing for it to become. As soon as I saw this pattern, I knew the yarn needed to be turned into this hat. Instead of using two colors, though, I’m just using the one. It’s coming along quickly after casting on for it almost as soon as I got home that day. Those German Stockings have been the only thing I’ve worked on the last week because of the issues I’ve had, so the hat is only a little over half way done now. Any other time it would have been finished already! Ah well, at least it’s summer and I don’t need it right away. 😉

Bandwidth
Bandwidth

On July 11th, I finished the first sock of the Summer Spirals pair. I started this pattern as part of the KAL for Summer of Socks 2011, but put them aside after the completing the first sock. The pattern seems to go pretty quickly when I’m working on it and I think once I get back to them, they’ll be done in no time. These are a gift out of an unknown yarn and they will be over-dyed before heading to the recipient.

Summer Spirals
Summer Spirals

I’ve managed to finish the first German Stocking! It went so much faster once I finished all the calf decreases and the foot felt like it took no time at all. I’ve already started the second sock, slowly slogging my way through the ribbing.

German Stocking (One)
German Stocking

Finally remembered to take a picture of Matt’s Scarf I’ve been working on, so I’ll share that, too, even though it’s been around two weeks since it’s seen much progress. The black is Malabrigo and the green variegated is Dye Dreams Luster Sock. Both are being held double to get closer to a DK weight yarn.

Matt's Scarf
Matt’s Scarf

I have to confess that I haven’t started the Westknits KAL. After seeing photos of the first clue that some people had finished, I wasn’t completely sold on it. I’ve decided to wait until the next clue comes out on August 8th to see if I want to do it. I suppose that’s the risk with mystery knit-a-longs – you won’t always like what you end up with! Not the first time I’ve watched a mystery knit-a-long develop before casting on and I’m sure it won’t be my last, but I think it’s a good thing I’ve been busy with other projects and wasn’t able to start this one right away since I have other things that need my attention right now anyway.

What’s on your needles this week? Start anything new? 🙂

Posted in Current Projects

Camp Loopy Project Two

Posted on by mslindz

The WIP I’m going to share today has turned out to be quite the challenge project for me!

I was looking back at my blog entries to see when I last mentioned Project Two for Camp Loopy and found that I haven’t even mentioned it yet! Oops. Project Two for Camp Loopy, called “Hiking in the Mountains” is to be knit/crocheted between July 15th and August 15th and has to be either socks, mittens, or gloves with cables. I initially thought I’d do mittens since I do need a new pair, but it’s also the Summer of Socks and being the joiner that I am, I figured that I should knit a pair of socks for this one.

First I looked at Cookie A patterns, which are always a great place to start if you want cables. The German Stockings have been on my list to knit since I first saw them. After some thought, I decided against them. Knee socks knit in 4 weeks? That might be a bitt too challenging even for me. Then I found out that Michelle was going to be knitting them for her Camp Loopy Project Two, so I let her talk me into knitting them with her! I picked out a new-to-me yarn from The Loopy Ewe for this project: Socktopus Sokkusu Original in Fontainebleau.

Socktopus, Sokkusu Original - Fontainebleau
Soctopus Sokkusu Original in Fontainebleau

The yarn arrived with plenty of time to get everything ready to cast on on July 15th. Winding it turned out to be a royal pain. I don’t know if it was my ball winder or the fact that this particular yarn seems more slick then any other yarn I’ve wound or knit with. It seemed to be wound loose in some spots of the skein and tighter in others, which definitely wasn’t helping it wind onto the ball winder evenly. Eventually I hand wound it into a ball, then unwound it into a big pile, then I was finally able to get it properly wound on the ball winder. I swear it must have taken nearly 3 hours to do. Not the best start and looking back it may have been a sign this project was going to be trouble.

Nearly two weeks in, I was hoping to be done or nearly done with the first sock. Now, I’m just hoping I’ll be able to get them done in time! At first I had no trouble. I cast on and knit the cuff. Once I finished that 2″ cuff I ran into trouble. The next part didn’t make sense and despite reading the “notes” part more then once, I didn’t see anything that applied to this portion and it still wasn’t making sense, so I just did the best I could and moved on. I started Chart A and was about halfway through it when I realized something wasn’t right. The chart for the left sock was on the inside of the leg. After a lot of looking at the pattern and cursing, I asked for help on Plurk. Julia was kind enough to help me out since she had the pattern on hand. Without her, I may not have figured out where I went wrong! Turns out that part right after the cuff is where I screwed it up. There’s a note about “b” being for the left sock and “c” being for the right sock in the notes section that I somehow managed to totally miss despite reading it multiple times. I needed to move the beginning of the round for things to properly line up. Riiiiiiiip.

After that, I get back to about where I’d frogged to and I realize “Huh. If I keep decreasing the way the pattern says to, I’m going to have to make decreases IN the charted part. Uh oh… something isn’t right.” Didn’t take long for me to realize that I didn’t reposition the beginning of the round after the calf increases. Ugh. I’m sure you know what happened next. Another ripping out session. 😦

I checked, re-checked, and checked once more just to be absolutely sure I had it right this time, I stared the chart and calf decreases for the 3rd time. Seems that the 3rd time is the charm in this case. I haven’t run into any more issues since and I’m now past the first chart and onto the second chart.

German Stocking
German Stocking Progress

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get this first sock done really soon otherwise I’m not sure I’ll be able to get the second one done in time for the deadline. I did consider ripping it altogether and finding a different pattern after the second time I had to rip, but I decided against it. I was determined not to let this pattern get the best of me! It does seem to be going pretty quickly now and if it gets down to the wire with only a little left to go, maybe I’ll take a day or two mental health days off work to get them done. I think these socks will be great once they are done, I just hope it doesn’t knock me out of the running for that Wollmeise kit at the end!