Rip it, Rip it! WIP#5

Sigh -  this one's gonna have to be a complete do over. I still like the pattern - the front is done and the back is 2/3rds of the way completed. The problem (for the completed knitting, and not for me) is that I am 32lbs lighter and many inches smaller around, than when I started this item two years ago (see what I mean - not a problem for me, per se!) and a quick check of the now much-to-big fit assured me that I am making the right decision.

So I need to frog it, and knit it again at least 2 sizes smaller. But it will be great over a long sleeved-T this winter. So I will be calling the frogging of WIP#5 complete when the yarn is back in to skeins. It will become a new project when I am ready to start again.

Knit on.......

Addendum:  Jody asked me how I lost the weight - I wish I had a secret to pass on, but it was the old fashioned way. Watch what you eat: lots of veggies for lunch and dinner and snacks- I love most veggies with hummus, high protien to keep from getting hungry - but exercise portion control, low carb - but couldn't give up toast and peanut butter for breakfast, no booze Sunday through Thursday (hey - a girl's gotta have some fun!).

Mostly the Sunday to Thursday rule made the difference I think - as long as weekends weren't too strict I could get through the week just fine. And I stopped "treating" myself at Starbucks to the fancy coffees and just had coffee misto's - I found I was just as happy with a great cup of coffee with steamed soy without all the sweet calories. Slow and easy kept it coming off slowly but surely.

And even though I have spent the better part of this summer on my arse, if anything that arse has shrunk from lack of moving (lost some muscle mass which will undoubtably come back), and my eating habits have kept any probable weight gain a bay. Yippee for me!

WIP#4 complete!

Are you tired of socks yet? I hope not there are still two more after this pair to complete! DD1 is beginning to think I have a more serious illness than a broken leg - that there have been some brain damage, as is evidenced with all the sock knitting - I don't understand what she is talking about!

These were started when I arrived home from the hospital, and didn't have anything mindless or small enough to work on,already on the needles.so technically not WIP for long. Since I couldn't get upstairs to my stash (so still full-filling my second mandate to knit form stash) at the time, I road-mapped the G-man to my sock yarn stash cubbie, and I'll be dammed if he not only found it, but selected an excellent ball of sock yarn: Online Supersocke fancy color, colorway 940, 65 g .

I tried to find a link to this yarn but it would seem that the Fancy Color family is no longer available in the Online Supersocke line. None the less, there are lots of new color families at the Diamond Yarn site to choose from, and I can certainly recommend that you do. The yarn is sturdy, has a good hand, and works up easily. I was also able to easily match the color changes in the yarn so the second sock matched the first perfectly (i am a sucker for matchy matchy socks!) without any fiddling around.

Knit on.....

Addendum: Jody asked what pattern I am using. I am using my own generic 2x2 rib sock pattern, stolen from several other generic patterns,but mostly created from a German Sock chart of stitch counts for each foot size that I received with a sock kit for my first sock, with the addition of some techniques that I learned along the way, like wrap and turned heels which fit my narrow heel well. It is tailored to my foot, hence not to many others get socks from me unless, like the DD's, they are similar in siz,e just a bit longer! I cast on 60 to 64 stitches, depending on the yarn guage. I like to knit on 3 needles so the heel flap is simply the count of stitches on the needle with the most stitches- either 20 or 24. I do a wrap and turn heel, and simply decrease every other row for both the gusset and the toes.The result is a sturdy, utlitarian sock that hugs my foot without slouching or bagging, perfect for winter wearing inside my safety boots that I have to wear to work every day. I have yet to wear out a pair since I started knitting my own socks some 4 years ago, So I do indeed have a lovely drawer full! Lucky me!

A little treat!

Yesterday I talked the G-man into taking to Chapters and Starbucks for a coffee and a browse through the latest knititng books. This is not as easy as it sounds since for outings I still rely on my wheelchair, which requires a willing pusher, and I leave the crutches behind, as the standing around is still exhausting.

I hadn't really thought I would find anything to new, and my knitting book collection at home is very reasonable and I have to be careful that I don't already have something reasonably similar. But I stumbled across this lovely book by Wendy Bernard from Knit and Tonic:

Chapters must have just got it in 'cause I hadn't seen in before. It is terrific - there are more than 10 sweaters I really, really like, and several that will be able to be made from stash yarn! The book is very  well laid out, and Wendy does an awesome job of detailing the potential alterations and variations that could be done to each of her patterns to customize the fit or change the look. It's like getting twice or even more, the patterns in one book. As well she has utilized either top down or bottom up in round for most of the patterns making seaming all but obsolete, and patterns faster and more streamlined knits. What's not to like? this time I decided not to wait for a sale or a coupon or whatever and went ahead and paid full price. I think I got a good deal considering what I am learning and all the different patterns I can make up from it. Highly recommended!

Knit on....

ps. This doesn't count as breaking my no yarn purchases and knitting only from stash self-imposed sentance, does it?? After all the intention is to knit a few of these patterns from the actual stash, right?

WIP#3 C'est Fini!

WIP progress continues. WIP#3 is done!

I had completely forgotten that I actually enjoyed knitting this easy lace pattern , lace and I frequently not playing well together - looks a little like dainty cabling without all the work. I'm sorry but I couldn't seem to get a good picture of the lace work being confined to indoor lighting. But it is pretty, and the socks are very, very bright! They will be just the thing to brighten up the dull winter days!

Knit on.....

Two down, lots more to go....

WIP #2 complete!

Off the needles are the grey socks, started during DD1's stem cell transplant earlier this year. Like so many other half finished sock projects lying around, I had only a half foot to complete and the pair was finished. I can't for the life of me imagine why I do that - stop just short of the finish line - but I seem to have a thing everytime I get really close to finishing a project, particularly socks, I wander off to the next one. Case in point: WIP #3 is another pair of socks, also stopped just at the second heel, languishing in its project bag since ( gasp!) the summer of 2008. Ridiculous!

Knit on.....

We interrupt this WIP program....

When you break your leg and have two major surgeries in under a week, the healing process is very slow. Part of that tedious process includes lousy circulation in the afflicted leg, which leads to an annoying ailment called hot foot/cold foot.

In addition, when you leg is in a staightjacket of sorts (a soft cast) it is very hard to put on and take off your own socks as is required due to the hot foot/cold foot syndrome, This requires you to beseech any passerby within earshot to please, please, just one more time, put on, or take off, your sock, again. Which you then realize is actually too hot, or too cold, anyway, and so the cycle begins again.

Yesterday as I sat, all but captive in my rented Lazy-Boy chair, cursing the lack of immediate family in the vicintiy to assist in dealing with yet another round of hot foot/cold foot, surrounded by baskets of stash yarn, WIP's, one pair of 6mm straights, and my laptop, I had a moment of genius. I know, rare, but it does happen: I needed light little ballet slippers I could wriggle in and out of myself.

5 minutes into surfing I happened upon this free pattern - perfect!

And a few hours I had the offending foot taken care of, and by the next morning a matched set.

Just what the doctor ordered!

knit on......

1st FO of self-imposed WIP challenge

One good thing about being somewhat imobile for long periods of time is that some knitting is finally getting completed!

Witness: One charity Crib sized Blanket made entirely from miscellanious stash yarn:

No particular rhyme or reason to the placement of the squares - I just pieced them together as I pulled them from the stack. It has a very "Little House on The Praire" look to it, almost juvenile. And I am A OK with that. I was aiming for rustic, and that is what I got.

Next up, DG Confetti 100 superwash socks in grey.

Knit on.....