A Long Term WIP

I meant to post this on Wednesday but work has been busy lately. I was asked to be the admin support for an operational planning team at work. It's been very time consuming but I've been learning a lot. Given the fact that I'm actually supposed to be the coordinator for Major Gifts Operations, it's good that I'm finally figuring out what operations is :)

But enough about work, you're here to see some knitting. A couple of years ago I knit a Log Cabin Blanket for my mom.  It was so much fun to work on that I immediately started thinking about making one for us. As often happens, I got distracted by other interesting projects and forgot about this plan. In January it was so cold that I decided to revisit the idea of knitting a log cabin blanket to have on the couch. The biggest stumbling block was that I just couldn't commit to one colour of Kureyon. They are all so gorgeous and I didn't want to pick one to match our couch since we will probably be getting a new one in the not too distant future. I really liked how Lizard Ridge uses many different colours of Kureyon but I didn't know if it was as fun to knit as the log cabin. Using some purloined Kureyon (mental note: give yarn to Heather) I cast on for Lizard Ridge but lost interest as soon as I hit the first short-row. I was starting to feel discouraged until I discovered the Paintbox Log Cabin (I'll wait while you go check out it's beauty). This is the perfect solution for me, a log cabin that uses many different colours of Kureyon! I was so excited that I immediately bought two skeins (they were on sale) and cast on right away.

Two days later the first two squares were done!

Square #1
Square #2

This is going to be a long term work-in-progress since Kureyon is pretty pricey so I'm going to try to buy it on sale. It also means that I can pick up a skein here and there without investing in the whole blanket all at once. I think it's going to be a lot of fun but there have been days when I've been shivering under the acrylic blanket on the couch and I've wished that it was done. Hopefully by next winter.

Mostly Pictures

I have a spectacular headache today so this post will be mostly pictures.

I've been promising photographic proof of my finished Clapotis for a while and here it is:

Pattern: Kate Gilbert's brilliant Clapotis 

Yarn: 4 skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Amoroso (thanks to Bertha for giving me the first two skeins)

Needles: 5.5mm 

Mods: I think I followed the pattern pretty closely. I used my adorable scale to make sure that I started the decreases at the right time. Somehow I ended up with about a quarter of a skein left but too much Mal is never a bad thing.

Sock in Progress

I raced home from work yesterday to get a picture of my sock in daylight before the sun set. And I made it too, except that the light was terrible because it was raining (something that I maybe should have clued in to when I was walking home).

Regardless, I was able to get one decent of the sock in progress. It's grown a little since this picture was taken. I did the gusset increases and will be turning the heel tonight (doing a sock backwards is fun!).

I've really been enjoying this pattern. I like the division between the fake cable part of the pattern and the beaded section. It keeps it interesting. 

In other news, I got my first knitting-related injury on the weekend. I'd been standing up to allow my yarn to untwist (the beads mess up the yarn) and I went to sit back down on the couch next to Pete. I guess I must have put down my sock first before I sat down because all of a sudden my foot really hurt. I just thought I had jabbed it with the needle and didn't think much of it until a few hours later when I realized that it still hurt. At that point I actually looked at the injury (my lovely Koigu socks were no protection from Addi's) and discovered that I'd broken though the skin and was bleeding.  I put on a band-aid and hobbled around for the rest of the night but by the next morning it felt much better.

My mom once cut her hand while eating a crab in Mexico. She said it was the best crab she'd ever eaten and she was sad when her cut healed because she had enjoyed the reminder. Maybe this wound will remind me of my lovely beaded socks ... and to always be aware of the location of my knitting needles.

Lucky Me

That was an unexpected hiatus. First there was no light for pictures and once I had pictures my work-life exploded and I've been struggling to get it under control. I have pictures of my finish Clapotis to show off (I'm wearing it right now and it's delicious!) but I decided to blog about something even more exciting (more exciting than a Malabrigo Clapotis? How is that possible?!?).

Way back in December I got a very exciting email. It was from the Yarn Harlot letting me know that I'd won one of the karmic balancing gifts from her blog for supporting Knitters Without Borders (she's still got lots of gifts to give away so go donate if you haven't already!). I would have been thrilled to have won anything but this was more than I ever could have imagined. I won a year's membership in the Rockin' Sock Club, the Socks that Rock club! I could not believe my good fortune and actually didn't believe it until last week when my first package arrived.


Here it is, lying all innocently on my kitchen table (full disclosure: I actually opened it on the streetcar with Heather but we weren't able to get pictures so I recreated the experience when I got home)

(Wow, this picture is dark. That's what I get for taking pictures in my kitchen. I promise there are better shots of the yarn coming up.) The package contained a beaded sock pattern (Queen of Beads) by Sivia Harding, a gorgeous skein of STR Lightweight, matching beads, an adorable mini-skein, a key chain and a button.

Here are some better pics of the yarn. I discovered that the light in my bathroom is more conducive to pictures of yarn. (Click to embiggen)


I got a little artistic while trying to capture the subtle beauty of the beads. Definitely click to see the larger version of this one.
I wanted to do this sock club thing right so I decided to knit the Queen of Beads pattern, beads and all. However, I always have to be different so I did it toe-up. I started this weekend and am about halfway to the heel as of right now. Pictures to follow on WIP Wednesday!