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“So, should we just whip it out, or …” — “Heathers” (1989)

Here are some amazing WIPs: Go check out Dani’s WIPs, and of course some great SP gifts; Zonda has some great socks and a sweater; Cathy has a few things in the works as well as some gorgeous hand dyed yarn! She also puts my 3 boys to shame — she has 5 boys! Melinda has some socks and some really detailed, gorgeous sweaters!; Shannon doesn’t disappoint – she is working on one WIP right now. She says she only does one at once, but someday I’ll catch her, since I’ve seen a couple of things in progress on her in progress list at the same time …; Agnes has a pretty workable group, and a plan to finish them all. I’m impressed!; Erica has only three — if only I could be that disciplined!; Chacha, in one of my favorite towns (I got two of my tattoos there!), has three great projects to finish.; Pieknits has some great green knitting. Green is really attractive to me too these days.; Lu has quite an array — I especially like her Elfine socks and her Cherry Tree Hill design submission. That yarn is much more gorgeous in person than even it looks on the computer!; Jenn has a couple of really nice sweaters – I wish I were that far along with mine!; Stephaneer put hers up — some gorgeous socks and sweaters I wish I were brave enough to try.; Jennifer has a couple — some great socks, Clapotis, a baby blanket and one more I’m blanking on. You all are my inspiration to pare down my “collection”.; Ariel has some great WIPs, including some socks, Tubey (which I really want to make!), and a great felted bag!; Kristi (go check out her sock patterns too — I love them!) has a nice collection too, including her Siren Socks that I’m following avidly; KnitNana has some gorgeous shawls to work on.; Liz has some great WIPs, some older than my kids!; Ooops, don’t want to forget Blackcrow, who got caught in the act ; Jenny has a bigger list than me, I think, but I have to officially count mine now …; Amy’s got hers up — there is quite a list but they’re all gorgeous!

Here are mine. I only have one more I want to add — the one I’m going to frog just for you guys and send it to the lucky winner:

This is the project that is due first — my Sockapaloooza socks. My Sockpal has size 11 feet (I have size 8 feet) so it’s a bit daunting, but at least I have a sock model, my friend Christine who also has size 11 feet. I’ve been distracted by my Fixation socks this week, so I haven’t gotten anything done on it for awhile.

Here’s the project that I hope to get done by Mother’s Day, Sitcom Chic for my MIL. Of course I just realized she’ll be in Italy on Mother’s Day so I guess that gives me a couple of extra weeks:

My Blackberry should take no time at all, but I never get to it. Here is sleeve #1, I already finished the front and back:

This is my 7 x 7 is sweater – the body is done, I just need to seam it up and pick up and knit the neckline and bottom ribbing:

I also started this new MicroSpun sweater, and then the Olympics came and I got busy, so I only finished the sleeve:

My Raglan Tansy Tee from Cast On has been relegated to the back forever. And it is just straight stockinette at this point:

My Peaks N Valleys socks from Knit Socks! haven’t gone anywhere, except to give up their size 0 dpns and end up with size 0 circs:

The same with my Broadripples:

And here are the losers:

Look how far I got on Annie Modesitt’s Silk Corset before I realized it was too small:

I can’t bear to frog it, but I know it will probably never fit me (my youngest is 18 mos. and I’m still nowhere near losing the pregnancy weight).

When I realized it didn’t fit, I started a new corset in Schachenmayer Micro, then I lost the needle and stitchmarkers. This is the first to go:

to this:

This is the project that was supposed to take a couple of hours, Bubby from Knitty.com, only it cost me some dpns and it’s now in the trash:

Here’s my second project today that I’m finally frogging, my minisweater #2 (I never finished #1 either) in Rowan DK Marl. I didn’t have enough yarn or interest in the project.

This is the second project I can’t bear to frog, my A Good Bias from IK. Maybe when I need the KnitPicks Shine I’ll be able to do it:

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Hollis is such an enabler — when I was knitting at her store on Monday I asked about this gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill Twister yarn and whether it would be around when I finally got to the discount she gives — after you spend $200 at Full Thread Ahead you get a coupon for $10 off your next purchase. She did tell me I’m not at the discount (phew …), but that I’d better grab the Cherry Tree Hill now because they are their biggest distributor on the West Coast, and the creator is dyeing yarn just for their store now, so it might not be there when I got around to buying it (long story short …)

This reminded me of another story. When I used to take banjo lessons at Fifth String, I was eyeing a black electric banjo. I told Phyl, my teacher, that I was interested in it, but I would just buy the next one they got. Of course she told me that “someone else was interested” and they wouldn’t get another one in, and I was hooked. So about 10 years ago I became the proud owner of a black electric banjo. I’ve never played it, because I don’t have an amp!

I am very anti-hype, so when a lot of people do things I am against doing it on principle, but tell me something is “rare” and I jump at it. Case in point the 10 skeins of Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Pineapple that I had no real use for, and am currently hoping to finish up by knitting Sitcom Chic for my MIL.

Anyway, I went down to FTA today and picked up the Cherry Tree Hill. And of course while I was there I had to pick up some Dale of Norway Helio that they had on sale – they somewhat match, even. Isn’t this CTH gorgeous?! Definitely worth sitting in my stash until I can find a use for it — I just hope it doesn’t get filed with my electric banjo …

(Damned Blogger)

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:

I’m so excited I don’t have to face my WIPs alone! I am hoping to get them more organized like my stash is — facing what I am not going to get back to ever and finishing what is practically finished. (I only have one item in that state but it would be a start.) Not to mention that I am constantly losing my needles, so they have got to be here somewhere!

And I’ve decided to add a reward: I am going to do a drawing from the people who have commented and send a lucky winner one of my unfinished WIPs, frogged, and some new yarn to start another project. Hey — do I smell another exchange, the “I’m never going to finish this WIP so I’ll send the yarn to someone who might” exchange? (Sorry, I only have one or two catchy titles a year or so …)

Okay, off to look for more lost WIPs …

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Your mission, should you choose to accept it. This Friday, March 31st, I hereby decree to be “WIP it Out” Day. You will show us your works in progress, thus keeping yourself honest and giving us incentive and encouragement to work on our own. If there is interest, we could do it every 6 months, in March and September.

To wet your whistle, I give to you my current sock WIPs:

There are two of my own design, one Broadripple and one Peaks N Valleys from Knit Socks!

Come join me! Here is a button for your trouble:

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Not much knitting going on here, I’m too busy working on my reviews for Insider Pages and Judy’s Book. My frugal friend introduced me to these and they are so addictive! Right now Judy’s Book is having a promotion where if you write 10 reviews, you get a $10 giftcard to Barnes and Noble online, up to 100 reviews for $100! If you are interested in a link, email me at elspethm AT gmail DOT com and I’ll send it to you. Judy’s Book is the best place because you can write reviews for websites. I’ve spent my whole day reviewing online yarn stores because I’ve, ahem, used many of them. It is so fun!

Insider Pages is also having a promotion, write up to 10 reviews and get up to $10 gift cards to Target. They are a bit more restrictive than Judy’s Book, and you can only write so many restaurant reviews and no chains and have them count, but I shop so much at Target that it is worth it.

You can blog your reviews so I’m thinking about adding one of them a week. Jenifer does her yarn sale posts on Fridays, so Friday is as good of a day as any. So let’s start with the one that is most on my mind, my Yarnia review. I ordered some yarn from them last month and haven’t heard anything. I already did the review so I don’t see how to publish it from them, so here’s a link.

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I’m kind of at a loss since I finished my Olympics project. I may have finished late but it is hard to be monogamous (sort of … I cheated a bit with my Sitcom Chic) to one project. Especially when it seems to be taking forever and you end up with a flawed (but still wearable — I wore them last night and like the yarn much better on than while knitting) project. The whole Knitting Olympics was a really interesting idea. Knitting only one project during a time frame made you focus on that project and its pros and cons more than you would if you either had all the time in the world or other projects to cheat with. It may also have soured me to the project and/or yarn because I was “forced” to finish it.

That being said, I’m really enjoying my current project. I think I have the cuff/instep pattern down on my Sockapaloooza socks, and after frogging back a bit I’m well on my way. Here’s a photo before I started the pattern:

I’m also working steadily on my Sitcom Chic, for those times where you need some straight stockinette knitting. I am hoping to finish it by Mother’s Day for my MIL but we’ll see. I usually do my gift knitting for Mother’s Day but I haven’t had much time this year so I’m not sure if that will happen or not.

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I am the laziest person alive. I just finished sock #2 of my Jaywalkers (I’m done with my Olympics project!!!!!) and put it on and realized, well, should I tell you what I did wrong or just let you think that they are just fine and there were no problems and I’m going to make 50 more of them (semi-inside joke)?

One big problem — for some reason the ribbing on the second sock is way too stretchy/stretched out and is actually uncomfortable. But I’ll be damned if I’m ripping the whole sock out and restarting. My first sock looked funny when I was knitting it but it ended up fitting fine so I thought this one would too. And last time I started with size 1 1/2 dpns, then down to 0s then up to 1s and ultimately to size 1 circular needles. (No, I didn’t frog, just kept on knitting.) This time it was always size 1 circular needles and the ribbing is really stretched out. The sock is hard to get on but looks nice enough unless I take a picture which brightens it up and makes it more obvious that I have a big hole in the gusset part. You know, that standard sock knitting hole.

So without further ado … my version of the Jaywalker sock in Socks that Rock Ruby Slippers (way to Easter eggy for me and not Ruby slippery enough, but I digress) …

I wasn’t in the Jaywalker KAL and I didn’t find too much information on what yarn and needle size everyone was using, but I think Lu was and she gave me some great ideas for those next 49 pairs of Jaywalkers: apparently people are doing a picot edge on top rather than ribbing, and instead of the KFB increases they’re doing a k1 yarnover and I think that would be easier and more fun than the pattern as written.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to knit through all my sock yarn and every published pattern I like, then create a few sock patterns of my own, and then when I’ve exhausted all other sock pattern ideas, I’ll make more Jaywalkers. And when I do I will definitely do a yarnover instead of a KFB increase and perhaps tackle the picot edges. Check back with me in about 10 years.

P.S. There are so many sock KALs going on right now and I’m in many of them, so these count for: Knitting Olympics, Sock Team USA, Turtles KAL, Red Hot Sizzling Socks, 200Sox and Sock A Month Knitalong!

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I was so good today! I took DL to a bowling birthday party (and not to the bowling alley we can walk to) in Redwood City and we drove home past my usual LYS. I was very tempted to stop and just check out their oddball basket but I was so good! I saved gas, time, money, and space in my yarn closet by not stopping and buying more yarn.

Then I find out Full Thread Ahead is having a sale. Well, I do need a new size 1 circular needle and she carries the cheapest (Inox, which are inexpensive yet good) …

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I will not go to Knitter’s Review Stash Reductions … I will not go to Ebay … I will not go to Knitter’s Review Stash Reductions … I will not go to Ebay … I will not go to Knitter’s Review Stash Reductions … I will not go to Ebay … I will not go to Knitter’s Review Stash Reductions … I will not go to Ebay … I will not go to Knitter’s Review Stash Reductions … I will not go to Ebay …

Did I mention IM has to start preschool this summer or he won’t get in? Even though he has two older siblings at the school? Apparently there’s some preschool panic in the area, hence the waiting list. So no more yarn buying for me. Except the sock yarn auction on Ebay I’ve already bid on. It’s a binding contract, you know.

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So many socks, so little time. I did a swap with Beverly and she sent me the most gorgeous and unexpected package, along with the book and sock yarn I expected:

There was also hand lotion but I needed that desperately in my car so that’s where it ended up.

I also “helped” Steph do some destashing:

It’s Brown Sheep Handpaints in Sara’s Dress. Isn’t it gorgeous?

There was some discussion on other blogs about whether it is acdeptable to blog about gifts (and was it also yarn you bought?) but I plan on continuing. When I get something great, I want to share it with the world! What’s driving me (as opposed to others or even those “no gift showing” blogs) crazy on blogs this week is the rash of “secret projects”. If it’s so secret, don’t even mention it! Okay, I’m off my high horse. (Speaking of which, I am now officially an “ad free blog”, so I don’t have to feel guilty when I see that owl button.)

Yes, when I haven’t been checking blogs and trading/buying yarn, I have been knitting socks. I’m still on the heel of my Jaywalkers:

but now there are 5 people done on the Turtles KAL! I’d better get moving! The reason for my distraction was not the two other sets of socks I have on the needles, but the two socks I started!

I started my Sockapaloooza socks:

They’re my own design in Knit Picks Sock Garden in Zinnia. My Sock Pal likes bright colors and this yarn is a joy to knit with! I like the variegation and stitch definitiion and it’s really soft and stretchy. The only problem I’m having is that I have size 8 feet and my Sock Pal has size 11 feet (I hope that isn’t giving anything away!) so I’m not sure how to fit them correctly. Luckily a good friend of mine has size 11 feet too and has offered to help fit them. What a nice person!

Okay, off to finish the heel on my Jaywalkers. I can’t wait until this project is done.