FO ~ Son's birthday socks

Yeah, his birthday was over a week ago. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the sock til now.

Yarn is a DK weight that I handpainted. Socks were knit with U.S. 5 DPNs. I'm quite please with how well it turned out. Though the photo doesn't quite do it justice.

In other news, I'm *this* close to being done with the first vanilla sock of the pair I'm working on in the background. I'm decreasing the toe. I'm feeling so OMGOSHWHYISN'TTHISDONEYET about the sock. But it's my only current project. I'm itching to start something else though.

I've got a swatch pattern

Today I put the final touches on a chart to make a guage swatch for my SSP. I'm excited and nervous. I absolutely love the idea of being able to see how the majority of the elements will look together.

In the back of my mind I'm a little nervous that it's not going to turn out quite like I have in my mind -- or worse, it's gonna look so terrible that no one will make it. On the flip side of that though, I will have a knit item that I will have the only one of. That's pretty cool. :-)

Olympics knitting project

So the BBs decided to have a Olympic KAL/CAL. I'm majorly excited about it. I stopped the the LYS today and got yarn to make the Ice Queen from knitty.com. I have beads, though I'm not sure if they will go with the pattern. I may be making another trip to the LYS.

I think this is the yarn. It's from Skacel knitting.com.

We have so much fun in the bunker. It's a great group of ladies and gentleman. Stuff going on all the time. This is the first time I will be able to participate in a KAL there. I was going to do the Febuary Lady sweater KAL, but I didn't have the right yarn.

January, the month of selfish knitting

I heard about January being the month of selfish knitting a couple weeks ago. First time I had heard of it since I started knitting.

Well, I sure wish I had known that sooner. The only selfish knitting I did this month was the blowsey scarf.

I finished my son's birthday socks this past Sunday. He put them on his feet right away so I haven't had the chance to take a photo of them yet.

The design is firming up

In my mind the design has fallen together in a way that was not originally conceived. I'm not surprised by that. My first idea was pretty grand and I knew it probably wasn't realistic. I have constantly reminded myself that it doesn't have to be complicated to work out. I want just enough interest so that the person knitting it isn't bored. Miles and miles of stockinette or garter stitch it is not. But I don't want someone to decide it's boring midway through. Midway through is kind of the most significant thing about it.

I haven't received any books from the library. Now I'm a bit nervous about that. What if I don't see anything in there. What if I see something that completely changes my thinking?

There is at least a couple more swatches to go before I can start charting and working the design, I think.

I could barely sleep last night

I'm not sure if it was because I drank coffee so late or because my head was brimming with ideas.

Yesterday when I was walking to work I had an idea for a knit stole pattern. It has completely captured me for the last 24 hours.

People that I have mentioned it to said it sounds like a good idea. It's still boggles my mind that I came up with an original idea.

Previously, my game plan was that my first design would small, maybe a set of mittens along the lines of the fiddlehead mittens. Meaning I wanted to do colorwork on a small scale and a small design.

This will certainly be a labor of love. I guess from this time forward it will be my super secret project (SSP) that only a few people know of. One thing I am immensely grateful for is that I know some designers so I can ask them for guidance.

Tea attacked my yarn today

At lunch today I poured some tea and heard a ping. I thought "What?" Lifted up my mug and the bottom dropped out and tea went everywhere, including the pair of socks I'm working on for my son's bday on Monday. Ugh! So I got the stuff in cold water right away and cleaned up the mess. I have my stuff sitting in some water with soak-type stuff right now. The socks have to be done by Monday for DS's birthday. Oh I'm not even sure where I can sit them to dry and he won't see them.

I had just picked up the stitches around the gusset. It kind of hurt to pull those needles out so I can soak the sock. :-( I'm also wondering if my bamboo DPNs are ruined.


I find it kind of funny now that when it happened my first thought was "Oh no! It's on my knitting." Never mind that tea is all over my desk, dripping onto my floor and everything, it soaked my knitting!

I'm pretty sure I know have a stain on my carpet. Good thing the carpet is brown. And I was wearing all black.