WIP Wednesday: Enough with the bad photos of socks edition!

The weather has been unseasonably warm of late. Ironically, it has been quite a bit warmer in the two weeks leading up to winter than it was in the two weeks before summer. Tragically, the political party in charge of my formerly great country don't believe in climate change. I cry; I weep; I despair.

I also knit! My year-long attempt to wrestle my sock WIPs to a reasonable number is finally drawing to a close. Thank God, because I am getting seriously sick of these stupid socks. I want to start new ones. Lots and lots of new ones (but one after the other. Not at the same time this time!)

At the beginning of today, there were three socks still left. These photos SUCK because they were taken very late in the day when the light was fading. I sometimes still surprise myself without how bad at this blogging malarky I actually am. I am a really terrible blogger. But I do do it with love...

First up, the boring burgundy socks.

Look at them, being all boring and burgundy. But, the good news is I am at the heel of the second sock so they are at least 50% done. Boring boring boring.

This sock is not boring - in fact, it's the complete opposite. The pattern is Austrian Socks from my all-time favourite sock book Favorite Socks and the wool is the lovely Patonyle.  As you can (blurrily) see, the pattern is really gorgeous.

However, I am just not going to get these socks done. There is cabling on every row which means I can't knit while watching television which means that I am never going to work on this project ever. I did these 24 rows over 12 months ago and I have not touched them since. I want these socks finished because I would love them but I am not going to be the one to do it.

Finally, another pattern from Favorite Socks: Go With The Flow. I'm up to the heel(s), so I just need a some time watching a movie so I can turn them both.

ONLY TWO SOCKS REMAIN! It's taken me six months but I'm finally where I like to be - working on one pair of lace socks and one pair of plain socks. Now, just to tackle the four blankets I have on the go...

WIP Wednesday: I just can't help myself

Frequently, I say to myself, "This year, I'll cut down on my WIPs." Just like a person for whom this bag of chips is their last bag of chips or someone who really really intends to go to their next exercise class tomorrow, I promise myself that I'll institute a one-off-the-needles, one-on-the-needles policy, or even finish projects and just not cast on anything at all, resulting in an reduction of total number of WIPs. I make a proclamation on my blog or to Sam that this time, it'll be different - I really will frog, fix or finish my way down to five WIPs or fewer. Really!

But then I get what I can only describe as a compulsion and start rifling through my stash, pairing up patterns with needles and yarn and starting the whole thing all over again.

This is a simple scarf in linen stitch in some Mirabol Hachu from the deep deep stash. It looks fantastic but it, like brioche stitch, is really slow going - the distance between the markers is what I knit yesterday with this as the only project I worked in all day (in fact, linen stitch basically is brioche stitch, instead that rather than wrap the yarn around the needle you move it to the front or back). I cast on provisionally because I like both ends of the scarf to match perfectly. At this rate, it'll be over a month before I finish it but it looks really gorgeous so far, so I think it'll make a gorgeous scarf.

And once I'm done, I really will wrestle those WIPs down!!

Hot days need warm hats: 2013 FO #2

There are not many things in life nicer than the first morning of a long weekend where the weather will be delightful, nothing is planned except fun things and there's lots of time for knitting and watching movies. Seriously, it's totally the best.

I finished this project a few weeks ago but I wasn't happy with the photos and wanted to take more photos that made me look like less of a grump! But honestly, since I am such a lazy blogger if I waited for that to happen I wouldn't be sharing the hat with you until next Finish it February, so I present you with my latest seasonally appropriate FO - my smooshy alpaca hat (nothing says warm woollens more than a record-breaking heat wave! Please note this hat was modelled while I was wearing a bikini).

As I said last post, I've had a pile-on of deadlines recently. Generally when that happens I get this unstoppable urge to START ALL THE THINGS!! It's like when my deadlines feel unmanageable, knitting provides tangible proof if you just keep working at something, progress is made. Plus, searching through boxes of yarn and browsing Ravelry for the perfect pattern are really, really good methods of procrastination.

So, a few weeks ago when the START SOMETHING NOW bug hit, I pulled out all of the boxes under the bed that contain my yarn. I grabbed some books off my shelf and started matching project to wool then I had an amazing lightbulb moment - I had a hat that I started during Cast On Mania but never moved beyond the ribbing. Why not finish that off instead of starting something new?

And so I did. It took me two days of not very fast knitting to get it done. Why do I  not make hats more often - they're so fast! 

Because I am lazy, I knitted the ribbing section in the same size needle as the rest of the hat (Elizabeth Zimmermann did it like that, and if it's good enough for her it's good enough for me). I added an extra repeat of the cable section to get a longer hat - it's more of a cap as written. I omitted the icord feature because (have I mentioned it?) I'm lazy and it's a decorative rather than functional feature that I didn't think my gorgeous fawn hat needed. 

I love the way the decreases on the crown kind of swoosh the whole pattern to a close. This is a lovely hat and one I can see myself making again - but next time, with better photos taken of it.

Happy weekend!

Gail (Nightsong): close and slightly smelling like feet

Finish it February powers on with yet the discovery of yet another project that is embarrassingly close to being finished.

On 1 January 2011 (over two years ago!) I unravelled the yarn from this bag that I never ever used and cast on for a shawl I'd been wanting to knit forever, Gail (Nightsong). I knit and knit until I ran out of yarn but I didn't want to buy any more because it seemed to counteract the frugality inherent in using repurposed yarn in the first place, so I grabbed the yarn leftover from these socks, figuring that I could overdye the project when I finished. Then I ran out of that yarn and, rather than make a decision as to what I would do to conclude the whole thrifty mess, I bundled up the whole project into a bag and hid it at the back of a drawer.

Fast-forward for today when I was looking for yarn to start a hat (ummm...not technically finishing but I'm on a deadline which always makes me want to start all the things) and I found the shawl again. The socks I made with Wendy Happy are seriously the most useless pair of socks I have ever made in my life. The yarn is very silky and smooth which feels nice in the skein but is awful to knit with PLUS it results in a sock that was all floppy (that's the technical knitter's term, I believe) so the socks continually fall down, meaning they never got worn. They suck. So, in order to get the yarn required to finish the sock, I hacked them up. It felt so. very. good. Plus, I now have lots of yarn (that admittedly does smell a little bit like feet...) with which to finish the shawl.

The one solitary row I now realise I have left to complete.

Hopeless, Belinda, hopeless.  Argh!! (although on the plus side, I avoided casting on for a hat. Yay for Finish it February!)

WIP Wednesday: Race Against Time Edition

Today's WIP Wednesday is brought to you by the sound "AARRGGGHHH!!!" I mentioned last week that I needed to get two projects finished by this week. BUT I spent too much time watching the cricket and playing on Ravelry and now I have four hours to finish the toe of my anniversary socks (happy anniversary, Sam!), meet my 1,000-word deadline and send out invoices for the jobs I finished last week.

WHAT AM I DOING BLOGGING I NEED TO FINISH ALL OF THESE THINGS STRAIGHTAWAY!

Wish me luck :)

Argo and a delightful pair of socks (2012 FO #15)

Argo

Last night I went to see Argo, Ben Affleck's third directorial effort. It's a good film - enjoyable, good costumes and sense of place, decent script. But the end of the film just didn't ring true to me so today, while procrastinating working hard on my thesis, I thought I'd look up its accuracy. According to Wikipedia, the last half hour of the film is completely made up! The role of other countries in the escape is minimised or represented falsely (a decision that apparently weighed very heavily on Affleck, whatever) and the escape scenes are based in fantasy rather than a true story.

Now I don't expect Hollywood to represent the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Cole Porter biopic Night and Day (1946) starring Cary Grant is a complete fabrication. But all of the film style in this film works to create a realistic effect - uncannily accurate casting (to the detriment of the acting quality, but that's another issue), documentary/first-hand style photography in the opening scenes and the 'this is where they are now' captions at the end of the film. It's unabashed audience manipulation and, knowing how hard the film works to create misrepresentation and recirculate false ideas definitely causes me to reassess my previous good opinion of the film.

In happier news

I have finished my Rainy Day socks!

Check out the polar bear pyjama pants - am I rocking the daytime work sexy or what?

These were possibly the easiest and quickest socks I have every made in my life. I cast on and then left them by the computer, Whenever I or the computer needed a moment to think, I picked up the socks and did a few rows. 

Before you know it, without even trying and definitely without feeling like I put in any time or effort, the socks were done!

I made quite a few modifications to the original pattern. To get the most out of my yarn, I worked them toe up by casting on 20 stitches. using Judy's Magic Cast-on. I increased four stitches every row until I had 32 stitches then increased four stitches every second row until I had 52 stitches. I then knit one row increasing two stitches only leaving me with 54 stitches (one extra repeat)

I knit six rows plain so the toe would cover all of the actual toes of the recipient then proceeded as per normal for any toe-up sock.

I used a short-row heel and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast-off to end up with a fabulously comfortable and luxurious pair of socks.



While half of me doesn't want to give them away, the other half is saying IT'S NOVEMBER AND 25% OF YOUR CHRISTMAS KNITTING IS DONE! REJOICE!

So I'm going with rejoicing :)  Woowoo - total number of WIPS down to 15 (still a lot, but better than it was. As the Beatles say, it's getting better all the time.)

Day 31: A Ghostly WIP Wednesday

The sky today is overcast and the light is glarey, giving all of the photos I took from WIP Wednesday an odd ghostly cast. This seems strangely appropriate for Halloween! 

I am pleased to report that working on a few WIPs at a time is doing wonders and I have not one but two projects blocking at the moment. As you can see the Herbivore is growing slowly but surely and I've pulled out the secret socks from the naughty corner in an effort to get them finished before my anniversary on the 14th. Both of these black projects need to be done by the second week of November so I'm going to focus on just these two for the next week and hope I can at least get one of them knocked off by next week. Yay for focus, GAAK and getting things done!

Today is the final day of Blogtoberfest. I have really dropped the ball over the last few days. This is exactly how I finished Dry July (I had a glass of wine on the 31st) so I think I need to start committing to daily stuff in the *shorter* months.  Regardless of my total lack of endurance, I am pretty chuffed with how I have done. I've written 28 posts, only a few of which were about my cat, discovered some great new jobs and attacked my WIP problem head-on and with great success. Most importantly, I really enjoyed myself. Once I've had 10 months to get over the stress of thinking of things to post every day, I may give it another go next year :)

Maybe...

2011 WIP Down

As I mentioned in my last post, at the stroke of midnight New Years Even 2010 I had 11 projects on the go (works-in-progress).  In the last seven days, I have started another two projects.  It's like I have OCS - obsessive compulsive startitus!

Here is my current list of WIPs:

• Mitered Square Blanket
• Stashbusting Granny Square Baby Blanket
• Central Park Hoodie
• 24-Movie Blanket
• New Start Shawl
• Frankensocks
• Moderne Baby Blanket
• Hey Teach
• Wurm
• Not Quite Another Irish Hiking Scarf
• Scraptastic Needlefood Socks
• New Years Nightsong
• Moccasin Socks

I think we can all agree that this is insane, and out of control.  So, this year I am going to get down to five projects on the go at one time.  To keep me accountable, I have listed my WIPs on the homepage of this blog, and I commit to not starting another project until I have finished at least two of those listed above.  This, I pledge.

Wish me luck!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

1. Camouflage socks, 2. Sam's Christmas Socks, 3. Frozen Widdershins, 4. Graduating Green Socks, 5. Baktus Kerchief, 6. Selbu Modern, 7. Alpaca Endpaper Mitts, 8. Grainy Gray Scarf, 9. Stripy Baby Socks, 10. Booties, 11. Baby Mitts, 12. Baby Chalice Blanket, 13. Ishbel the Second, 14. Railroad Socks, 15. Saintly Semptember Socks, 16. Mum's Christmas Socks, 17. Baby Booties, 18. Tiger Paws19. Not available20. Not available


I know it's traditional to reflect on the year that has past, you know, when the year actually ends, but today is the first day I have had Internet access at home (not counting the iPhone) for almost four weeks, and I am giddy with excitement.  Hello Internet!  Welcome back!  Never leave again!

So, reflections on 2010.  I was a year of great change for me.  I changed jobs from a relatively well-paying but stressful position with long hours to work for myself from home.  I have less money and (unfortunately)  a less secure income, but I am so much happier and more rested.  I have lost weight and regained the energy to actually do stuff like socialise, clean and cook, not just collapse on the couch as soon as I get home.  It was a hard decision but I am certain that I made the right one.

I also had some knitterly goals.

In 2010 I will:
1. Finish at least 20 knitted objects, and blog about every single one!
2. Knit six pairs of socks.
3. Knit 100 balls of wool.
4. Finish at least one of my blankets currently on the go.
5. Finish at least one of my jumpers currently on the go.
6. Knit at least three things for me, and only me.
7. Lose 8.5kg.


I finished 18 knitted objects, which is not bad.  I did blog about them all. I did knit six pairs of socks, but I only knit 20-ish balls of wool.  It doesn't seem much, but it amounted to 2kg worth of wool - I consider that a lot!  I didn't finish any existing blankets, but I did start and finish a ginormous baby blanket. I knitted many things for me, all of which I wore heaps and improved my quality of life by keeping me warm.  I didn't lose 8.5kg, but I lost 1.7kg, which is not great but better than nothing. Those were the good things.  For the bad things - ,\ I bought 2.65kg of yarn, increasing my total stash size by 650g! And, at the moment the new year flicked over I had 11 projects on the go.  I have since cast on for two more.  So, my resolutions for the follow year are as below.

In 2011, I will:
1. Finish at least 20 knitted objects, and blog about every single one.
2. Decrease stash from 62 (eek!) to 40, by either using the yarn or destashing it.
3. Finish at least two of my blankets on the go.
4. Finish at least one of my jumbers on the go.
5. Knit at least four things for me and only me.
6. Lose 7kg.
7. Decrease total WIPs to no more than five in total.

I'm feeling very positive about the year ahead, and I just can't wait to sink my teeth into it :)