two knits of ivory

On Tuesday I succumbed to the cold my husband had been fighting for a week. I'll blame it on my weakened immune system that I totally gave up on the tubular cast off technique for his Xmas Spice socks. After three or four stitches into the tubular cast on I said f- it. I had no interest in learning a new technique. I totally felt like a failure of a knitter. A loser with a capital L. But I ignored this and moved on. So I was not a process knitter on that day. Big whoopee. I still have a lovely pair of socks to give my husband for Christmas. That's definitely the more important point here. If you click to see it larger you can see there is snow fallen on the socks. Snow. Again. For the 3rd time in a week. It was supposed to be a dusting Wednesday into Thursday. Instead it snowed for 24 straight hours I think. I don't know for sure b/c I've been busy in my own world trying to feel better. Which I finally do this morning. It's like a miracle. I'm always so deliriou...

The past two weeks have been all about the two pair of Cherry Tree Hill socks I've been working on. I still haven't had the presence of mind to bind off the one sock of Candy I finished over a week ago. I scoured the web and Ravelry for information on tubular casting off and found some conflicting information. I found one source says that it must be in k1p1 rip and scads of bloggers and posters at Ravelry saying they just do it no matter what rib pattern they've knit up. My Candy Socks are k2p1. Oddly enough many Ravellers and bloggers referenced Montse Stanley's The Knitter's Handbook , which so happens to be one of two knitting books I purchased when I began knitting five or so years ago. I rarely ever reference it because I am a visual learner and it's pictures are drawings, rather than photographs. That has always put me off. So here I sit on the tubular cast off bible and I'm still no where near attempting it. In my defense, I have been trying...

At the end of last week I was working on mastering Judy's Magic Cast-On for toe up socks. I still am having some problems with basic math, but the actual knitting part came easily once I remembered it must be done on circular needles. I also kept forgetting that in order to get the final # of stitches I have to cast on an amount that is less than a number that is divisible by four. Even with these two, I wound up fudging the numbers a bit. Aside from some toe fuzzying, I love these two Cherry Tree Hill socks I cast on last week. I haven't knit DK weight socks in a while. They knit up so quickly, they are total morale boosters! That's not to say these haven't been a pain to get right. Saturday morning saw us on the road running errands. Seeing my Candy Socks in the light of day was a bit dispiriting: The blues and ambers were pooling on either side of the sock, and on both the top and the bottom of the sock. I ripped back to the toe and reduced the stitches by ...

I've come to realize this week that I cannot seem to muster the interest in finishing a single project that I love, that is just for me. I don't count the Watermelon Firestarters since I knit these because I loved the pattern, not necessarily as a knit for myself. I have several fantastic projects on needles. First, Blueberry Moon has received nary a glance for almost two months. I just can't commit to the design element. That it's hogging up all my size three circulars hasn't facilitated completion says enough on it's own. Then there is Project Stole . Last this project saw action was as Thanksgiving weekend travel knitting. That was two weeks ago. I could really use this extra warm, ultra luxurious wrap at work. What's in my way here? Then there is my Queen's Forest scarf, which, truth be told, is in hibernation. I only cast on the project to reduce the tension in the yarn cakes. I still feel strongly that all scarf knitting must be chan...