Friday Failday and 2012 FO#

Fail #1: Breakfast

At the start of December I sat down and mapped out a plan that would mean I could go to all of the Christmas events I was invited to, drink and eat what I wanted on those occasions yet not get fat and out of shape. This plan involved large amounts of regular exercise and eating very protein and fibre-dense meals when I wasn't eating out.

However...this was today's breakfast:

Pancakes for one (1/3 cup of flour, 1/3 cup of milk, 1 egg) topped with the blueberry maple syrup from Nigella Express.

An egg has lots of protein. Blueberries have got fibre, right? Right?!? Oh well. 

Fail #2: Birthday socks

Today I finally blocked and photographed the socks that I was meant to give to my mother for her birthday 16 days ago. Yes, I suck.

However, these socks do not - they are delightful! The yarn (Mountain Colors Barefoot) is soft and smooth - I could sit and pat it for hours, cat-style.

Like the Rainy Day Socks, I don't think these socks will wear well but they make divine house socks/slippers. I want to give neither of these pairs away but keep both of them for myself!

Contradictorily, the thing I like most about the socks is also the thing I like least. The pattern I used for these socks is Priscilla's Dream Socks from my dream sock book, Favorite Socks (the amount of 'u's I am leaving out in this post is making my internal editor crazy. Crazier, really, because the amount of time editors spend thinking and really really caring about apostrophes already implies a degree of madness). What makes these socks 'dreamy' is the method of turning the heel, which results in a very comfortable, good-looking heel. However, the way this yarn is dyed meant short rows disrupted the stripe pattern, resulting in a discordant colour striping.

I think Lucy has the right idea - stop sweating the small stuff, find a patch of shade and have a nap. You don't get better advice than that, so instead of focussing on my fails, I'm celebrating the wins of a gorgeous breakfast and a lovely pair of socks.

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.

Saturday, glorious Saturday!

This afternoon I should have been working, writing, studying or exercising. Instead, I played hooky for an hour and sat outside in the glorious sunshine knitting and listening to the new Regina Spektor album. I started the Merino Lace Socks from Favorite Socks in the Mountain Color Barefoot I bought a few weeks ago. It's my second Christmas gift project and I'm hoping starting early this year will avoid a log jam closer to the Big Day.

 Using this yarn is like knitting with butter! It's soft and delightful and I want to replace all of my clothes with clothes made from this yarn and make blankets and socks and hats and be covered in it from head to foot! It's that delightful, really. 

During the week I finished the fun stranded part of Sam's Anniversary Socks:

 I am really pleased with how it turned out. It clearly needs to be blocked and the A is totally wonky but I think it looks awesome and I can't want to give them to him! The best thing is I realised they don't have to be stealth socks - I can cover the grey part with the cuff and the message disappears.

As much as I want the finished project, I'm not very excited about actually knitting the rest of the sock. Socks for a size 12 men's foot knit in black on 2.25mm needles...not fun. It'll be a slog but I'm certain it'll be worth it in the end.

Lucy kept me company (she loves Regina too). After an hour I started feeling guilty about all of the stuff I wasn't getting done, so I packed up my knitting, strapped on my walking shoes and set off into the street for my daily constitutional. I am really glad I did because everywhere I looked I was greeted by sunshine and gorgeous flowers.

 So beautiful!

I even made a new friend.

Although I didn't tell Lucy about that. She doesn't like to share.

All in all, a lovely Saturday that will only get better when I pop open the bottle of bubbles I have in the fridge. I heart sunshine and weekends :)