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!!

WIP Wednesday: Outdoors Edition

Bite news

Thanks everyone for your commiserations on my insect bites. The itching has (mostly) gone away and some of the bites marks have started to bruise, which I think means they're healing nicely. While all of this is good news, I was pretty horrified when I looked at the marks this morning and realised that the marks that are bruising (not the ones that are still red) have two puncture marks rather than one, which my one-minute google search extensive research has told mean means I was bitten by a spider. EWW!!!!

I am more creeped out by that than I can describe, so I've decided to ignore the knowledge and just continue my life as normal. But can I say again EEWWWWWW!!! I will not look at a park bench the same again.

WIP Wednesday

When I started this this series of WIP Wednesdays, my aim was to reduce my number of WIPs from 17 to five. I got quick results and finished a lot of projects fast but then failed to weave in the ends, block them and take photos, resulting in a marked lack of achievement in the number of WIPs. I have a pile of six completed but ends-unwoven-in projects sitting on my desk starting at me right now. I keep starting new projects and according to Ravelry, now have 18 projects on the go! It feels like I am just not getting anywhere.  

This sock is supposed to be one of a pair I am giving my mum for her birthday next week. Based on past experience, I am no chance of getting them done for her on time. Maybe I can suggest we do her birthday celebration on Friday instead of Monday? That's wrong, isn't it?

In happier news

Remember when I planted all of the things?

How do I take such awesome photos all of the time? It's a gift.

This is what they look like now.

It's so gorgeous and verdant and fresh. I love having fresh herbs whenever I feel like them. The chilli plants are going nuts too and based on the number of flowers on this plant, my house will be a chilli cornucopia very very soon. I heart nature!

Except for all of the spiders. 

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...

Day 24: WIP Wednesday

Last week in an effort to wrestle my WIP pile into some sort of order, I decided to pick just two projects and concentrate on them. It worked! One of those pairs of socks is effectively finished (dear weaving in ends, why do you suck so much? love me) and the other one is almost complete.

Since this plan was so successful, I've decided to expand it to four projects and work only on those:

The Barefoot Dream socks are my new handbag stockinette stitch sock. They need to be done by December for my mum's birthday, so no hurry. The mitered square blanket now has nine of the 12 blocks joined. It's being held up because I need to unpick and restitch the first three blocks I joined and, I know it's childish but I just don't want to! The Rainy Day socks are almost done. These are the quickest and easiest socks I have ever made. I keep them next to the computer and pick them up and do a row or two whenever my computer or I am thinking and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, these are almost done. I have to start making more socks on 2.75mm needles!

The final project is the Herbivore that I cast on for during CAST ON MANIA then promptly forgot about. The yarn that I'm using, the completely divine Madelinetosh Pashmina in Thunder, was a gift from my friend Christian. I'm seeing Radiohead with him in three weeks (woot woot!!) and I'd love to have this finished by then. The last Herbivore I made only took me about five days, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I love watching the list of of WIPs get smaller and smaller in number...

24 down, 7 to go.