Yarn Along

How was your knitting week? I hope you got a little more time with your needles than I did this week. I kept up with a few rows each morning on the socks and made it to the toe decreases by Saturday. I went ahead and finished them on Sunday since they were so close- 2 at a time on separate DPN sets is my new favorite sock method. In fact, I'm ready to go ahead and cast on another pair but holding off til I finish my cardigan.

I wish I could say that the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan is finished, but with this being my first week back to work for the school year, knitting time is being caught in little bits. I was getting time in with the socks in the morning over coffee, but after finishing those on Sunday I switched to knitting on the cardigan sleeve for a few minutes each morning. It hasn't added up to much yet, but maybe Saturday I can sit with the sleeve for the afternoon while the baby naps? We'll see. I might need to nap too at that point.


I started reading Gone Girl after several recommendations, but I'm having a hard time meshing with the writing style even though the story is interesting so far. I'm going to give it another couple of chapters, but if we're still not getting along at that point I'll go back to Ender's Game.

FO: Grey and Coral Socks

Project: Grey and Coral Socks 

Pattern: Vanilla socks, so a generic pattern customized to my somewhat oddly shaped foot. My favorite vanilla pattern is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's, so that's the one I reference if I need anything, but otherwise I have this pattern memorized for my particular sizing issues.

Yarn: Regia Galaxy, colorway 1550

Needles: US size 1 DPNs

For: Myself. I will admit that I only knit socks with selfish ambition. I'll knit sweaters and cardigans and all sorts of things for other people, but socks are only knit if they will be going on my own two feet.



Cast On to Cast Off: May 28- September 8, 2013- Not too bad for socks knit by me. I haven't dubbed my past socks "annual" socks for nothing.

Notes: 64 stitches around and started with only a 1/2 inch of 2x2 ribbing at the top this time. Otherwise I knit them in my usual way.


Things I Learned:  Past socks have taken me upwards of 9-12 months to finish- partly because sock knitting tends to be my "in my purse in case I can get a round in here and there" knitting and not a main project at any one time and secondly because of Second Sock Syndrome (SSS). Now, I have never let a pair of socks completely sit without EVER finishing the 2nd sock, but I have totally been the knitter who finishes sock #1 and then doesn't cast on sock #2 until six months later (and by then has forgotten some of the details and the second sock turned out slightly different from sock #1). 

So I tried a little experiment this time around. I bought a second set of US1 DPNs and cast on both socks and then did each section of each sock in a row. So, ribbing on sock #1, then ribbing on sock #2, leg on sock #1 then leg on sock #2, etc. I wondered if that would help me mentally conquer SSS and skip that "I'm done but really only half way" deflated feeling after sock #1 is finished.

It totally worked for me, you guys. As I hit the toe decreases it made both toes go super fast because I knew that grafting the 32 total stitches on both sock really meant the ACTUAL end of the project, not just one sock.


Overall: Totally going with two at a time (on separate sets of DPNs) as my sock method from now on. Maybe I'll actually knit a third pair this year! (first pair of 2013 here.)

Math Saves the Day

{Yarning along with Ginny}

Is there a better way to spend the first minutes of the morning? Kids all asleep, some dark roast coffee and a little easy stockinette on the current sock...


I've been trying to get back into my own school year schedule for the last 2 weeks and it has been hard to get up at 6 a.m. again, but the sock is helping I think.


I shared pictures of my Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan progress on Monday, and while I'm a little farther on sleeve #2 than those photos show, it's really only a few rows farther. With school year life trying to get going again this week, I haven't had time since Sunday to knit much on it. But I do want to make something clear- for all my complaining about the sleeves, the sleeve issue is mine and mine alone- this cardi is a *wonderful* pattern. It is well written, I'm loving the shaping, and I can tell this is going to be a sweater I wear frequently. Every time I try it on to check sizing I'm reminded of how this sweater is exactly what my wardrobe needs right now.


I'm now at peace with the sleeves. I think I have figured out what my sleeve issue is on every single cardigan and sweater. FINALLY- right? It pretty much comes down to my state of mind:


In my brain I expect sleeves to just be super easy "round-and-round" knitting. I feel resentful when sleeve decreases require me to pay too close attention to the shaping, because that's not "round-and-round" knitting.


I know. There's something wrong with my brain, because sleeves really are easy and really are mostly simple round-and-round knitting aside from decreases every so often so that you don't end up with a gigantic swinging sleeve. I seem to have problems with either zooming past the decreases or checking the row count constantly to be sure I haven't missed the decreases... and that is my major annoyance.


To solve my mental issue I calculated how many stitches I should end up with, before switching to ribbing for the cuffs and knew that I would need to decrease every seventh row. I ended up clipping a pin to the row where I decreased and then I was able to fairly accurately eyeball when I'd gone about 7 rows. I'd count how many rows I'd gone since the decrease and usually came out to 6 or 7 and then go on my merry way with whatever needed to happen next. I felt much less restricted and the whole thing felt like it moved way faster, when in fact nothing had changed but my perspective on the subject.


I may have also bribed myself by saying again and again: every time you decrease you have 2 less stitches to knit around. Not sure why that was motivating, but it was and it worked.



Part of my new mornings with my coffee and sock knitting has been reading The Joyful Christian by C.S. Lewis, one reading each morning. It's a good start to the day.

Ellie's Place

Ellie made a little place for herself a few weeks ago- the ledge of a window in our dining room. She can see outside, there's a place to set her bowl, and her little baby dolls can come along with her.

She babbles and plays on her own here at all times of day, but particularly when I'm working in the kitchen. She's always a little miffed that I won't let her sit on the open dishwasher door, so she heads to the window sill for an acceptable toddler-sized seat.

Conversation

We spent our lovely Saturday doing a little bit of what everyone wanted to do. We hit the farmer's market in the morning and picked up some wonderful peaches and really yummy blueberry and key lime jam. The boys also spent some of their hard earned cash on marshmallow shooters at one of the booths.


We made and ate all our meals together and got a head start on breakfasts for the week (banana muffins and some peach and blackberry crisp- perfect to add to our yogurt!). We made it to the pool before it rained, we had a family movie night, and I got to knit for all of Ellie's nap and most of the evening after dinner.


You'd think after knitting for a good 4-ish hours for the day that there would be massive sleeve progress, wouldn't you? I mean normal people would see progress, but not me. No- I hit the dreaded "I'm doing all this knitting and it's just not growing like it should!" stage. Seriously I held up the cardigan and stared at it and stretched it and then went and put the silly thing on and really really really that sleeve was only to my elbow.


After all the children were into bed my husband asked what my plans were for the rest of the evening and I sort of just spilled my knitting woes all over him. He knows enough about knitting to
listen to me when I really need to vent, but not so much as to truly commiserate over the situation.


He very kindly told me he would happily let me continue knitting for the evening and get in some gaming time if I needed to keep working on this cardigan. What a generous offer, right?


Fine by me. I really felt like I needed to keep pressing forward because any moment I'd realize I'd actually knit an octopus sleeve and rip back to the proper length and the sleeve would pretty much be done.


I told him I felt like I needed to keep moving forward but if the frustration level with the sweater continued to rise I'd scrap my knitting plans and join him.


Then the conversation that brought everything back into perspective (as spouses are wont to do):


Me: I just feel like if I don't keep working on it tonight that the sweater will win. If I keep going I might have a chance to win this.

My darling husband: Honey, there is no winner in the sweater war. If anything there's a loser and I think we both know who that would be.

Loser of the sweater war.

Not me.

I finished the sleeve decreases on Saturday night and then the 2x2 ribbing on sleeve #1 on Sunday afternoon as well as starting the second sleeve. I realized briefly that I'm going to need my long Addi cable available for knitting the button band on this cardi, and recognized the fact that that particular cable is in the Cerus Scarf I cast on about 2 weeks ago. Looks like a little game of Needle Shuffle is coming my way.