... but I love grasshoppers

Unfortunately, they don't love me. :-(

I followed the pattern. I had enough of that great yarn leftover so that I could make some matching fingerless mitts or something! I had PLANS!

Then came the bind-off. The pattern calls for a sewn bind off. I've never done this before so I'll trust the pattern. "Cut yarn leaving a 16" tail." Check. Oh, I'm doing both socks so I better cut both. Get out the handy tape measure (thanks Yarn Grove folks!) and measure 16". Add one extra for good measure. *snip* *snip*

La de dum da ... sewing away ... first half of first sock done ... (hrm, this looks a little close, hope it's ok) ... doo de doo ... first half of second sock (little gyrating with extra loops) ... hey - this looks *close* ... this looks *REALLY* close!

CRAP!

Oh. No. No. I have just a *THREAD* left and the end of the first sock and it's bound so tightly that I can't get it over my calf! The sock is saggy and ridiculous.

*SOB*!

The other yarn end is also already cut which means I am screwed on BOTH of these!

grrrrrrrrrrr

Fine. They're getting frogged and the yarn will be something else. Don't know what, but it will be something else. Here's my pathetic little sock:



The new kit is coming in a few weeks. I'll focus on my Clapotis and my June Undercover Squares. Maybe it's time for a "sock break".

Hoppin through the pattern!

I'm back to the grasshoppers and boy am I making progress! I cast them on on Wednesday night and am not ready to start the gussets. I'm also doing the 2 on 2 version so that when one is done they're both done.

The down side is that, as expected, I'm not getting the pooling I got the first time around. I have to admit that while the socks are now fitting "right", I really miss the interplay of the colors that I got when they were too big. Actually - here's what I mean:

If you notice, there's a pool of browns, greens and fuscias that go together nicely. And the two socks are opposites of each other. Where one has that nice tan pool, the other has one in dark brown/fuscia.

Here's a picture of the front of the socks. Again, you can see that the same pooling effect carries over to the lace part of the pattern as well.


Yeah, I'm bummed. Now it's back to stripes for me. The light/tan color you see in the pools is the dominant color of the stripes on both socks with interesting gradations of green, fuscia, dark brown in between. I'll take some pictures after I turn the heel because I'm pretty confident that I'm "satisfied" with them this time.

Regardless - it's nice to see that progress bar move. The April UCC pattern should hit 100% tomorrow since it's currently on the blocking table. Gosh. Aren't I productive?

Decision Made

I'm gonna rip 'em out. It breaks my heart to do it, but I'm gonna do it. And it's gonna happen this weekend.

I've been reading over at the Rockin' Sock Club that the socks are very stretchy and that they even get a bit "saggy" when worn for a while. I've had the same problem with my Six Sox Horcrux socks and I'd really hate to do that to that WONDERFUL yarn.

I'm gonna take some pictures of what I have since I suspect that all that amazing "pooling" is gonna be out the window when I downsize. I'm going to also use the figure-eight cast on rather than the wierd backwards loop thingy that was so fiddly the first time around.

Sigh.

The only up side is that the progress bar is gonna show a solid 30% for at least a few more days. :-)

What to do, what to do ...

During my week of enforced non-knitting, I've been thinking a lot about my latest Rockin' Sock Club socks.

Currently, I've gotten far enough along on the pair that I'm ready to start working the heel part of the pattern. However - here's the bad news: they're "loose" on my foot. Yes, I know that lace patterns can be very stretchy and I thought I took that in to account by going for the "medium" size on the pattern, but I'm just not sure what I want to do. The pattern takes quite a bit of work to get just right and is rather "finicky" in the early stages. I'm totally in a groove with working it and I'm not sure my heart can take frogging it all away.

This is, absolutely, a complete "do over" if I decide to go that direction. Now, is that what I want?

Definitely something for me to think about as I'm running all over Northern California this weekend. It's time for the annual Relay from Calistoga to Santa Cruz with 11 of my closest friends. We always have a great time - nothing like being, sore, stiff and sleep-deprived.

Check back early next week to hear what I decide to do ...

April STR Yarn Is Here!

Hooray hooray hooray! The most luscious, silky and gorgeous yarn has arrived! Here it is laid out on my coffee table for winding in to two center-pull balls:



The lighting isn't the greatest here so it doesn't show off the colors as well as I'd like. The colors go from a warm light brown, through a STUNNING fuscia in to green and blue. Amazing. The silk in the yarn doesn't take the dye like the wool so it has this really cool "tweed" effect. I just love it. After winding, I put the balls in to some natural light and they look like this:


Mmmmmmm. Gorgeous.

The pattern is another toe-up sock (hey - I like this kind of knitting) but the first few rounds of lace are hard! I'm doing 2on2 circulars and was wondering if it was just me that was struggling - nope! Rumor has it that I simply need to PERSIST and the lace will get easier. That'll give me something to do today before it's soccer time.

Anyway - thanks again STR ladies! This stuff is wonderful! (now, if only I can get my wool/bamboo cone so that I can try my own dying ...)