(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Ten on Tuesday: Things I Want to Do in 2012

1. Knit with cashmere. I have cashmere blend yarn for several sweater-sized projects in the studio. This is my year to use it. I will earn a bit of luxury knitting every time I complete a fitness goal. First up is Sabine in Superior.
2. Run a 5K race in March or April. D and I have started running again. If we survive our cold winter morning runs, stay healthy, and stick to the plan, we will be ready for a 5K by St. Patrick's Day.
3. Run a 10K race in September. If we keep training through the spring and summer, we will be ready to tackle a longer distance by the end of summer.
4. Finish 12 sweaters. This is much less of a stretch than you might think. There are at least 10 nearly finished sweaters hiding on my shelves that stalled for some reason. It is time stop procrastinating, solve the problems, and finish them.
5. Finish 12 pairs of hand knit socks and give most of them away. My sock shelf is overflowing, but socks are still my go to project for travel knitting. Since there is a lot of business travel in my future, there will be a lot of socks.
6. Spin every day. Even 10 minutes a day with a spindle adds up to quite a bit of yarn after a few weeks. Daily efforts at the wheel lead to more consistent finished yarn. My spinning focus this year is spinning for a purpose rather than just spinning. I have made myself a personal fiber club of 6 bumps of fiber that I will spin for a specific project.
7. Knit with handspun. If I am spinning with the end project in mind, I need to knit the project when the yarn is finished so I can evaluate my progress and figure out what to do better next time. I also need to make some space in my handspun bin for the other yarns I plan to spin this year.
8. Learn how to weave. The more I talk to weavers and handle hand woven cloth, the more I want to weave. I am going to start looking for a used loom in May and take a weaving class or two later in the year.
9. Go back to Hawaii with D. We have not been there since 2009. It is time for a visit.
10. Post to this here blog at least once a week. I will start with Carole's Ten on Tuesday this month, and see where that leads me.

Some socks

Chevrons!

In June, I prevailed over a skein of Trekking XXL that had thwarted all my attempts to turn it into a pair of socks. Many years ago, I bought a skein of yarn. I planned to knit chevroned socks from it. That early in my sock knitting career, I had not figured out exactly how to fit socks to my feet. I did not know that chevrons take away the elasticity of knitting or that my instep requires a lot of extra stretch. I started 3 or 4 different socks from this yarn, and none of them streched over my heel. But I stubbornly insisted that this yarn would be chevrons. This spring, I found a chevron pattern with some stretch, and knit it up in about 2 weeks. I finally have the pair of green and blue chevron socks I dreamed about for years.

Pattern: Stripes Alive
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Notions: 2.5 mm Darn Pretty DPNs
Time: June 3 to 19, 2011

Nine interesting socks

Wednesday's interesting socks

I'm still recovering from SOAR. One of the amazing things about SOAR and all other knitting or spinning events is seeing hand knits and hand woven pieces everywhere. These nine socks were all knit by participants in my three day color workshop. On any given day more than half of us wore interesting socks, shawls, or sweaters. The creativity and talent of everyone at SOAR—the mentors and the attendees—is stunning. As much as I learned last week, I think the real reason that I (and so many others) go to SOAR every year is to spend a week with over 200 like-minded creators. Experiencing that energy is the true power of the event. So many of us craft alone or in small groups all year and never really grasp the wonder of our community. Ravelry, blogs, and other on line communities help, but do not replace the tremendous power of gathering and sharing.

Is this something you have experienced? Are there ways we, as creators, can create more times and places to share, gather, and create together?

I have a lot more I want to say about this, but it's late, and I have to leave early tomorrow morning. More soon, I promise.

Some socks

Despite a recent lack of evidence, I do still knit. Until we moved two weeks ago, I knit quite a lot this year, and have a big pile of finished projects to prove it. Since we moved, I have picked up my needles a few times, but I'm not really motivated by any of my current projects. Here is a quick run-down of the odd socks I have turned into pairs so far this year. I'll post the new pairs later this month.

Mini-Slip Jigs for Miss M

Pattern: Slip Jig by IrishGirlieKnits, March 2010 Rockin Sock Club
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Wild Irish Girlie
Needles: US 2 / 2.75 mm DPNs
Time: December 13, 2010 to January 13, 2011 (biggish yarn, small socks)
Comments: I sent the first sock as part of her Christmas gift, and learned that it was too small. I quickly knit up a bigger pair that fit her perfectly.

Pink Posy Socks for me

Pattern: Sheri's Posies from Socks from the Toe Up
Yarn: STR Lightweight mill end in an impossible to photograph bright pink.
Notions: 2.5 mm DPNs
Time: I started these at Wendy's book signing party in April 2009. I finished them in March 24, 2011.
Comments: I used my standard toe-up gusset modification (two additional pairs of increases for a longer heel flap) to get a pair of bright.pink.socks that I love.

Knetted for me

Pattern: Knetted by Cat Bordhi. This was the September 2009 Rockin Sock Club kit.
Yarn: STR mediumweight
Notions: US 2 / 2.75 mm DPNs
Time: December 16, 2009 to April 16, 2011
Comments: I knit the first sock and was unhappy with the fit so the pair stayed unfinished for a long time. The short cuff and funky architecture did not work for my feet. I borrowed a copy of Cat's book from a friend, since mine went on walkabout, to figure out some modifications. The second sock has a longer cuff and more increases so it fits in the gusset. I ripped back the first sock to the start of the increases and re-knit a longer leg and the modified gusset and heel. I'm not sure if I'll knit another pair of socks with this method, but I'm happy with this pair.

I just realized that all three of these pairs were knit from Socks That Rock. It is a favorite yarn, I should knit more socks from my extensive stash. I absolutely should not buy any more while I'm at Sock Summit in a couple of weeks.

Ten on Tuesday: Intentions for 2011

Carole's 10 on Tuesday topic this week is 10 Intentions for 2011. For the past few years, I have avoided New Year's Resolutions because I try to live intentionally year round. Most of these intentions are not new for 2011; instead, they are continuations of intentions formed during the past year or so.

1. Buy a house. After 5 years in Virginia, D and I have concluded that we are here to stay, the real estate market has stabilized, and we are ready to be home owners again. I look forward to having my own space again, but I dread the process of getting there.
2. Pick up after myself. As my Christmas gift to D, I cleared my stuff off of all the flat surfaces in the living room and dining room. I was surprised by how little time it took. My newest habit is making sure those surfaces are clear at the end of every day as an ongoing gift to my husband who always picks up after himself.
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables. The bi-weekly produce boxes help with this, but I still do not think to grab a piece of fruit for afternoon snacks or toss together a salad at dinner time as often as I should.
4. Move more. Now that my back is better (that 3 month disappearance from the blog was mostly caused by a bulging disk and the time devoted to healing), I would like to get back to a serious yoga practice and running. I also need to continue working to strengthen my core so all those disks stay put.
5. Process photos after I take them. I just cleared 2 months of photos off of my camera which include several shots of finished knitting projects and all my pictures from SOAR. Most of our Paris shots are still untagged. I must keep this backlog from getting worse (and do something about the backlog). Why is taking pictures so much more fun than organizing them?
6. Join Spindlicity Stashdown 2011. This will also be my Productive Spinners Stashalong project for 2011. Between now and January 6, I will put together 12 projects to spin this year and finish the project I'm currently spinning on the Schacht-Reeves. Starting on January 6, I will work through a variety preps and blends and use my beautiful living room wheel most days.
7. Finish 12 pairs of socks. This is my third year attempting this. In 2010, I completed 10 pairs and 5 odd socks. This is enough knitting for 12 pairs but did not put 12 new pairs in use.
8. Finish or frog 12 WIPs. I started several new projects in 2010 and only finished 2 projects I started before 2010—and those do not really count as pre-2010 since I started them late in 2009 so they never languished as UFOs. I just counted, and I have 36 projects listed as WIP or hibernating on Ravelry right now. Between now and January 1, I will choose 12 and they will be finished or frogged by the end of 2011.
9. Continue to declutter. This will make moving a whole lot easier.
10. Blog more. This is a place to share what I'm up to and what I'm thinking about in a form longer than the few words of a Facebook update. I need to continue flexing my writing and photographing muscles, and this is the best place to share those efforts.

Happy New Year!

And she does it again

Tonight, the mystery sock looks like it did yesterday, complete with 3 sides of a sock on one coiled needle. I'd take another picture, but it's dark outside. Imagine another 20 rows of lace added to yesterday's progress. I think it might be time to move this project to serial knitting or to stop working on it when I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open.

Football and knitting don't always mix

Aargh, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Right around the time Aaron Rodgers threw his first quarter interception this afternoon, I grabbed the wrong tip and ended up with the mess above. Remember that I said that getting through the two socks on two circular needles would be a challenge for me? As you can see, I wasn't kidding.

Back on the road

Back on the road, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Yes, that is another sock in progress. Lizzy makes for excellent travel knitting once the little lace cuff is finished. I'll be trekking across Texas this week (Houston to Austin to Dallas) with hours in the passenger seat of a car.

Sweater for a foot?

Sweater for a foot?, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Worsted weight socks—even heavily cabled ones at 6.5 stitches per inch—are quick to knit. I started this sock on Thursday, knit some other stuff, and am already halfway through the foot of sock one. I expect to finish this sock tonight while D and I play another game of British Rails.

The pattern is Aran Sandal Socks (Ravelry Link) from Socks, Socks, Socks.

Challenging myself

If you know me, you know that I am a sock knitting traditionalist—one sock at a time on short DPNs. I will very rarely knit a sock on 2 circular needles, but I do not enjoy the process very much. I just cast on a mystery sock pattern; the designer publishes 4 clues during a month, and I try to keep up. In the past, I have knit mystery socks in tandem on DPNs with limited success (I think I've finished 2 pairs of mystery socks in the past two years of attempts). Since most of my size 1 DPNs are already in socks, and the circs were free, I decided to challenge myself and knit this mystery 2 at a time on 2 circs. Check back next week to see if I have strangled myself with a size 1 Addi Turbo.