Excitement Afoot

I’ve been making some progress on my mawata mittens! These are taking longer than I thought they would, but I suppose it makes sense when I need to stop and prepare the silk every few rows . Between that and the fact that silk is not very elastic, my fingers get tired quickly so I can’t knit on these for very long stretches of time. But they sure are pretty, aren’t they?

BMFA Mawata/Silk Hankies, colorway Aurora Borealis

You can see in the cuff where the stitches look all wonky that it took me some time to figure out how much to tug on the silk fibers to get them to a thickness I liked before knitting with their supremely fluffy selves. Closer to the needles the stitches are smaller and more even because I became accustomed to what I need to do. I  decided to add a thumb gusset to these (on the other side) due to the aforementioned inelasticity of silk. I’m kind of winging it, though, so I hope it works out ok! I've knit thumb gussets in other patterns, but I'm not following any of those at the moment out of laziness and am just going with my gut. Living on the edge!

The other exciting thing afoot (sidebar: wouldn't "Excitement Afoot" make a great sock pattern title? I call dibs!) is represented by these:

Weeeeeeee!

I'm going to start learning to spin! I was inspired by some recent blog posts I'd read (this was one of them, be warned that it is a sad but beautiful post, and this was another) and some threads on Ravelry discussing spinning-- I couldn't resist the idea of playing with different fibers and turning them into yarn,  I had caught the bug. My darling Fiasco agreed that a drop spindle would make a good birthday gift so I'll have one shortly! I've already read through the "Start Spinning" book he gave me early and half of the "Respect the Spindle" book. I have to wait until Tuesday before I can actually start spinning, though. I can hardly contain my excitement!!!

Sigh. I don't think the idea of spinning one's own yarn from various types of fiber does this to normal people...

Grey, Green, Purple

I appear to be on a grey, green, and purple kick lately. I love those colors and lately it really shows! My Cotty socks from yesterday fall under that heading, I think. Check out what happened with the pooling when I changed stitch count:

Proof!

The cuff was knit on 60 stitches and the leg on 55 (supposed to be 56 but I randomly decreased again for apparently no reason). Just switching a few stitches made it go from big crazy spirals to neat little stripes. I love the way it looks and I'm glad I changed stitch count.

Here's some more grey, green, and purple for your viewing pleasure:

STR Mediumweight, colorway Tlingit

In my Final Order of 2011 I received a different color that I really didn't like as much as I had anticipated, so I destashed and bought this skein with that money instead. It's kind of a little bit like cheating on my resolution of not buying new yarn in 2012, but I rationalized it since I was supposed to have a new skein of STR MW and I didn't spend any new money on yarn that hadn't already been earmarked for it, so it was all good. And besides, my birthday's coming up, so whatevs. New yarn!!!

Because it's my birthday month, I received an awesome $20-off-any-purchase coupon from Vera Bradley (apparently I buy a lot of bags from there). Since I didn't need a new purse and didn't want to shell out a whole lot of money at the moment, I ordered a medium sized cosmetic bag. Guess what it's perfect for?

Yup. :)

A new project bag! I have a purse in this same fabric, and it tickles my matchy-matchy bone that my knitting bag will coordinate with it. It's a good size for a small project and it's even lined with plastic so no super-sharp needles can poke through. I'd say it's a win, and it fits in with the color scheme of my life lately. Not half bad.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Scottish Cotty Socks

I finally started my Cotty socks!

STR Mediumweight, colorway Scottish Highlands

I've been meaning to knit this pattern for a long time. It involves so many things I love: it is simple with a memorizable lace repeat, it has sweet details (that picot cuff), and it plays nice with variegated yarns. I love the colorway I'm using, but I'm getting some crazy spiraling going on. I frogged back to the cuff because I apparently couldn't read last night and did the leg all wrong, I basically skipped half of what I was supposed to do and just knitted plain instead. Silly mistakes! Worked out well, though, because now I've decreased down to the 56 sts I usually like knitting my STR MW socks with, and I think it will help turn those crazy spirals into tidier stripes. We will have to wait and see! This is one of my favorite things about knitting with Socks that Rock yarn: you never know how the color will turn out, and small changes can make a huge difference! It might also explain why I have so many socks-in progress: I love starting new socks for the excitement of finding out how the yarn and pattern will mesh, and then I forget to finish. Woops! Funtimes.

Is It Sexist?

I'm not sure how I feel about people calling me "hun". I know it isn't intended to be demeaning, but something in me balks at it. It doesn't bother me much when the middle-aged woman at the grocery store calls me "hun", I'm still caught off guard a little by the implied familiarity, but I guess I just chalk it up to maternal instincts. However, when men call me "hun"-- it bothers me. This has happened a few times in the last year or so, including a student of mine in a class I was TAing last fall and the dude at Subway just now. The student calling me "hun" was entirely inappropriate, and if it had happened again I would have had to address it (at the time I was too surprised) but he was a good deal older than me, so that perhaps explains his lack of boundaries. But this dude at Subway just now? I'm pretty sure I'm older than he was, so that explanation is out. Who the heck is he to call me "hun"? And it's not like I misheard, he said it a handful of times throughout our 2-minute checkout exchange. It's very strange. I know there are plenty of worse things to be called than "hun", but apparently the feminist inside me hates it! Perhaps because it seems a mere stone's-throw away from "toots" or "sweetcheeks" or some other patronizing, pre-sexual-harassment-era term of endearment. Maybe they think it's sweet, but it bugs me. Is a man calling a woman he doesn't know or barely knows "hun" inappropriate? Is it sexist? Is my being bothered by it coming from men but not women sexist? These are the burning questions that occupy my thoughts when I am procrastinating beginning yet another pointless bout of data analysis.

As far as knitting goes, I'm dreaming of the day when I have time to actually sit and knit complex, beautiful things like laceweight shawls or, oh my, even sweaters! To have the brainpower left over at the end of the day to focus and keep track of all of that would be awesome. I'm feeling the time crunch to finish a pair of mittens (it's dang cold outside!) and neither the fussy Flints nor the mawata mittens are get-up-and-go type projects. I hate feeling restricted to knitting only simple things, either by time or energy level or concentration ability. So this is the knitting I have with me at the moment, and I don't even want to work on it:

Bugga in Fig Eater and Dog Days Cicada

This is a bit of a Taygete shawl by Rosemary (Romi) Hill that I began back in August. The shawl is knit end to end alternating stripes and then you pick up along the bottom edge to knit a lace section and surround the whole thing with a picot edging. It should be lovely when it's done, but I've become disenchanted with it. I'm just past the midpoint of the lengthwise section and although I believe it will be a very pretty shawl when it's finished, it's really kind of boring now. I loved the color combo when I chose it, but now I'm feeling like it's more of a fall combo than a winter/spring combo and I don't think I have many outfits that will match it after all...it's just not revving my engine. I wish it was. I'll still work on it b/c of its mindlessness, but this is how I end up with projects that are on the needles for months and months and months. Disenchantment... the silent FO killer.

Sore Fingers

As promised, here are the photos of the first pair of socks finished in 2012:

STR Lightweight, colorway X-mas Rocks

I love how the pink and yellow colors pooled similarly around the gusset of each sock. My Fiasco calls these my 'clown barf' socks. I can't really argue with him. They are bright. Yet they are also festive, and that was the point.

Doesn't everyone wear thermal pants because it's so dang cold in their house? No? Oh well, just me then.

I started these socks way back in February 2011. I had wanted to knit them in time for Christmas 2010, but alas, it was not to be. I needed a plain sock A.S.A.P. to knit while reading papers and since the X-mas Rocks skein was already wound up, I started them. I winged the pattern, alternating stockinette stitch with *K3,P3* rows, and I liked the ridged effect so I kept going. They hibernated for a while until I tried to finish them in time for Christmas 2011, but that was not to be, either. Nevertheless, they are done now, and make my feet no less cozy despite the fact that we're past the holidays.

I am kind of mad at them, though. I spent all day Saturday knitting them and then a lot of Sunday evening as well, and now my fingers are too sore to knit anything else! I've tried, and I just can't seem to knit comfortably at the moment. I'm not used to having a whole weekend  of knitting time, usually it's just what I can snag here and there, so I guess my fingers are out of shape! Which is a shame, because I'm itching to knit a Here and There hat. I need a warm hat and it's so darn cute. The yarn is even all ready to go:

but no dice. It will just have to wait. Ever knit yourself sore before?