Busy busy

Things have been a bit busy around here lately, but the good news is that I have actually had a chance to do quite a bit of knitting! I started my first Summer of Socks sock on Thursday as planned. However, that took a backseat to the Socktopia Knit Off from Friday afternoon to last night. I was unable to finish an entire pair, but I did get one sock completed and about 1/4 of the leg on the second sock done by the deadline:


I loved knitting the pattern and it was a lot of fun to try to get a pair done in one weekend. Now if only I can light a fire under my rear to finish the rest of these socks:




In the back we have: The Pink Ribbon Sock (started in April), River Valley Sock (June Sockamania Club), Clementine (June Socktopia Knit-Off), Giotto (Yarn4socks.com June club pattern - cast on for SOS). In the front we have the May Day Sock (May Sockamania Club). The Pink Ribbon Sock, River Valley Sock, and Giotto are all first socks; May Day and Clementine are second socks. Basically, I have a lot of work to do.

Over at the Summer of Socks Flickr group as well as on the blog, we have been discussing our various goals. One of mine is to definitely overcome my second sock syndrome as well as my straying from what I have OTN in favor of something new. I am trying really hard not to cast on something else until I finish the above PAIRS of socks. Not just finish one lone sock, but an actual pair. One thing I think will help is that I moved my yarn into Rubbermaid sweater containers under my bed. Now that it is no longer in sight, perhaps it will stay out of mind. I know that sounds a bit neglectful of the stash, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

And for now, this girl's gotta put her head on the pillow and dream of knitting. Good night!

Summer of Socks 2007

T minus 6 hours 43 minutes and counting until the official start of the Summer of Socks KAL/Crochet-along! :-)

No, I still have not finished the socks I have OTN, as I had planned to do before starting, but I have made some progress. The toe-up Sockamania River Valley sock is going extremely well though. I love the lace pattern -- very simple to memorize and knits up very quickly. Have I mentioned that I love toe-up construction?! It is great to try on the socks to see that they fit and how far I have left to knit before turning the heel. In fact, I have reached just that point of the sock, I believe. Then it's time to learn a new technique -- Short Row heels. I did short rows one other time when I was knitting miniature Christmas Stockings last fall (during pre-blog times... not sure I even have pictures). The stockings themselves did not come out very well given that I had no clue how to pick up and knit stitches and just wasn't getting the hang of it. But the short row portion did come out well, as I recall. So I suppose it would not be a completely new technique, but it will be the first time knitting them into a sock to wear. (On a side note, I will have to find that pattern for the stockings and add them to my To Knit List for Christmas Gifts) Anyway, back to the sock -- it is much further along than the picture posted below. Unfortunately I do not have a recent pic, so I suppose you'll have to take my word for it. Tomorrow I will try to post a picture of that sock along with my SOS sock!

Speaking of the SOS sock, I wound the yarn this evening. It is Seacoast Handpainted Panda yarn in Melonballs colorway. The yarn is 60% Merino, 30% Bamboo, and 10% Nylon and feels very soft -- can't wait to start using it tomorrow. The pattern came with the yarn in the yarn4socks.com June Sock Club. It has mock cabling and lace, so should be very interesting to knit. Here's what my yarn looks like -- ready and raring to go!

Not so bad

OK, so things are not as bad as they seemed. After a major frogging session, of course. I had 2 scarves OTN that I do not think I have ever blogged about as well as an afghan that I had *just* started last weekend. One scarf was frogged because it had a way-too-complicated cable pattern to be a pick-up-and-knit project. The second scarf, an Irish Hiking scarf with a much simpler cable pattern, was frogged because I had wanted to use the yarn for another project. Turns out that I do not have enough for the other project, but I have decided that if I have not worked on something in more than 4 or 6 months, then it goes to the frog pond. The afghan had to be frogged because it was coming out too small due to my not reading the directions to get the proper needle size. Oh well.

As for what's left:

Three pairs of socks:

• The May Day Sockamania Club Socks (yes, I know it is no longer May, but May was a busy month for me toward the end)
• My Pink Ribbon Socks that I started back in April. Finally turned the heel and am about to pick up for the gusset. Once I decrease the gusset, it is all stockinette to the toe, so they will be my mindless socks.
  
  
• The June Sockamania Club Socks - River Valley. As I mentioned before, these are my first real attempt at toe up and so far I am enjoying them immensely.
  
  
• Thursday starts the Summer of Socks 2007 KAL. I am planning to cast on the June yarn4socks.com pattern in the Seacoast Handpainted Panda yarn. So that will be pair #4 OTN, but hopefully I can finish one of the other pairs before then.

Last but not least, Carlos's teddy bear. All that is left to do is sew on the ears and embroider the face. This is my second teddy bear and I absolutely love making these small toys. I have a whole list of others that I want to make too, so it won't be long before another one is OTN.

Time sure flies...

...when you're having fun. Or when you're just really busy. I cannot believe that I haven't blogged in TWO weeks! Eeek! Please forgive me. I have been going to my bar review class, studying, and trying to relax and/or knit in the remaining waking minutes of the day. Also, last weekend my mom and I participated in our town's Relay for Life, which was a lot of fun, but it took me a couple days to get back on track from staying up until 5 am. So as I predicted, blogging has been on the back burner.

Tomorrow afternoon/evening, I am planning to gather up my WIP's to photograph them and make a real blog post with pictures and links and everything. In the future, I will also try to be better about regularly posting, but I cannot make any promises.

And I would also like to thank everyone for their well wishes about graduation and the bar exam! The exam is at the end of July; only 5 and 1/2 weeks to go!

Saturday already?!

Well I guess, technically it is Sunday as it is after midnight here on the East Coast of the U.S., but let's just say it's Saturday. Either way, time has flown by since my last post. Although I guess it would be a non-post as I used a meme to tell what I've been up to the past week or so. I have used this word a lot lately, but whirlwind is the only way I can describe it. My boyfrie... I mean, fiance, is off from work this week, and we've been spending a lot of time together before I have to really get serious about the studying I have to do this summer.

Which brings me to the main point of this post -- the likelihood of sparse posting over the next few weeks while I study for the bar. I am hoping to post at least once if not two or three times a week, but I do not want to make any promises. My review class starts on Monday and by the end of this coming week I should have a pretty decent idea of how my study schedule will be from then until the end of July. Ideally I'd like to use whatever free time I have to knit AND blog about it, but I'm thinking that perhaps the blogging will have to take a backseat because if I can't use my free time to knit, I won't have any knitting to blog about.

This week as it was, I barely had time to catch up on my email, let alone post new things to Ravelry, read the many message boards to which I belong, read the blogs to which I subscribe (there are many) and listen to the new podcast episodes (I have 14 of them waiting for me in iTunes.) The podcasts won't be a big deal because I will listen to them on the way to and from my bar review class, which is about 45 mins to an hour away. It's the other online stuff that will have to be put on the back burner for a little while.

Happy knitting everyone!