back to real life

i’m having a little trouble redirecting my energy since the new year dawned. it’s a little weird to go right back to work the day after a holiday, which we did both weeks. i expected myself to want to dive right into a big, selfish knitting project that would corral all my passion for, for . . . something into one big knitting exhalation.

but so far . . . nada.

what’s going on here? i’m not disinterested—far from it. i’ve been knitting all right. i just expected to want more out of it, what with being a clog-zombie for what seemed like weeks on end . . . but i also sort of gave myself the next couple of weeks to tidy up before going hog-wild on some new knitting odyssey. i would like to get some of the WIPs done, so maybe i’m holding back subconciously from being too excited right now.

hmmph.

well, let me address a few questions that came up in comments.

there WILL be a pattern for the smoke socks—how can i resist when so many people asked for it? i thank you for your enthusiasm—give me a few days to get the first sock finished and write the pattern, and then you shall have it!
the yarn, by the way, is fearless fibers merino sock in the (take a guess . . . .) smoke colorway.

the pattern for the clogs is a fiber trends pattern written by bev galeskas. it is a very interesting knit, being a 3-D project. since it is worked almost entirely in short rows, it can be a bit hard to keep everything straight if you don’t count stitches, use markers, and write things down, but it’s worth the trouble. and trust me, after a few pair, you start to memorize the pattern . . .

now, about the knitting . . . besides working on the smokeSox, i’ve been spending quite a bit of time on the tangled ropes cabled sweater.

what?? you can’t tell? gee, do you think that has anything to do with the fact that after knitting ALL evening on it the other night, we had to rip it back—AGAIN? aaarrrgghh, i’m not kidding, this yarn just wants to sit around in my stash and look pretty; it certainly does not want to be knit into this sweater. well, i have news for it. it better get off it’s duff right now and get a better attitude real quick.

you know what bugs me about all the ripping i’ve done on this sweater? it’s the cable from hades, right? it has no symmetry whatsoever to guide the knitter to an intuitive knitting rhythm. it defies all sensibility. but not once have i screwed up the stitches.

i just keep having other problems. the newest one was that halfway down the sleeve, things started looking really narrow. and by “really narrow” i mean it was a sock with an underarm edge. heh.
now i often make the mistake of thinking the sleeves are too narrow and/or short, and then compensate, only to find out after they are done that they were fine to begin with and now need to be a bit narrower. i must say here that when working with cables, it is hard to guess at just the right amount of extra stitches to add in for the cable’s tightness, and sometimes in a new design, that number needs to be fiddled with. so i ignored myself and my qualms about the sleeve width.

well, soon thought, i should just try the sleeve on, now that it was elbow-length. yikes, it WAS too narrow. r-i-i-i-p. so i restarted the sleeve and switched the decreases around so they proceed at a slower rate under the arm and increase in frequency as i knit toward the cuff. that should fix it.

but i still needed a night off from it, since i will not be trying to knit that piece while teaching class (MWHA-HA-HAHA!—er, sorry . . .). instead, to class last evening i took the last bit of black lace mitt to finish up. i know—you thought i finished those ages ago, right? NOT. i hit the last inches of the second one, and stopped. just like that. all last week when i knitted clogs i did NOT knit black mitts.
i kept hearing all the voices of all the opinions i had sought, and it was not conducive to actually knitting them. and then yesterday i picked them up and finished them. and promptly wondered why on earth i had thought they were no good?

when i write the pattern and knit the second pair, i will make some changes, but these are cozy and luscious, too—there’s no reason to change anything for the gift purpose i have for them . . .
the yarn is taj mahal—if you have the opportunity, buy some; it’s incredible. these mitts used less than one ball.

i also went ahead and tore down the ruffled mitt, becasue i hated and despised that ruffle. i disliked it so much, i didn’t even want to touch it or look at it (yes, it’s ridiculous, i know, to loathe something and then let it sit there you in the face for a week while doing not one thing about it).
i thought i would love the ruffle, too, but it stuck straight out all the time and was in the way constantly—not at all the effect i was going for.
i’m happy with the lace panel and the fit, so those are staying. i am determined to make lacy mitts with this yarn for my niece, dammit!
hahaha! anyway, here is my fresh start

the cuff is now fitted, with a rib-and-eyelet texture that i love. the lace panel will remain the same because i liked that too. now i am happy, and maybe i can get something done with them. what a hard row i make myself hoe . . .

and i’ve even made progress on the brown merino socks. these socks are very fine, and need to be knit on size 0 needles, so they have felt as if they are crawling along. oh yeah, maybe that’s because i didn’t work on them at all for several weeks . . .

and you know, if you knit on your socks (instead of using them merely for background texture in blog photos), they get longer.

david found a BARGAIN today at the local b*gLots store—my very favorite-est clear storage boxes for $2 instead of the $5 i usually pay for them. needles to say, there will be some fiber organizing in the next few days . . .
debbie is gonna be SO jealous. maybe i can distract her by letting her vacuum. maybe even with the dyson . . .