Friday, January 21, 2011

What to Pack for India

In two weeks I am going to be flying to India. It's a very long flight. I hope I can sleep some, but I am also bringing parts of my novel to work on and knitting.

So, I have to decide which projects to pack.

Knowing me, I think I'm going to want variety, rather than one major project.

1) I still have two things I am supposed to finish for February in the WIP finishing. I will take the back of Argyle and the sleeves of the twin set (and not pack all the parts). I will copy the instructions instead of bringing the whole book for the twin set.

2) Socks. I think I will be able to finish the January KAL sock before I go, so I can bring the February sock instructions and yarn

3) Other possibilities:

-I've been working on a smocked turtleneck and it is very boring knitting, many inches of 2X2 rib. There might be opportunities for no-thinking knitting, like on a car trip where I'll want to look at the sights too.

-Something new and fun, like adrift cardigan in soft butter malibrigo or my first clapotis

-A huge project I've started is the Issara jacket, that would be bulky, take up a lot of space, and so I don't think I'll bring it.

I don't want to bring too much, but I don't want to run out either, and I am capable of being an extremely fast knitter if I'm motivated.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A History of My Socks

Riveting topic, right? Socks? Yay. Well, in the knitting world it is!

Socks took the knitting underground by storm several years ago and the excitement continues. Knitting skyrocketed in popularity shortly before I got back into it and there are now ONE MILLION members of ravelry.com That's not all the knitters, that's just all the ones online! Socks are big news with this crowd.

As it turns out, hand knit socks are really cool and fun. They are short projects, you can try out all kinds of neat stitch patterns, they look amazing to knitters and non-knitters alike, and nothing is more comfortable than a hand-knit sock.

I like to try out every knitting challenge out there, so about three years ago I participated in a sock knitting challenge. It was a Summer of Socks, hosted by blogs in Australia, so it happened over my winter. The idea was to see who could knit the most socks in three months. I didn't mean to compete quite so hard, but I couldn't help myself, I thrive on challenge. I knit 20 pairs of socks in three months.

Well, the time has come for another sock challenge because all those socks have no gotten lost or got holes int hem. I'm down to three socks, none of them matching and it is currently winter!

For the Summer of Socks, I discovered an easy formula for toe-up socks and I just stuck with it and did 18 of my 20 pairs plain with that formula.

This new challenge is different. I have to knit the patterns from the book. I will end up with very beautiful socks, so I'm excited to give it a try.

Here is the beginning of the first one:
001

Monday, January 17, 2011

Memorial: Ilana Jonsson


April 14th, 1981 - January 17th, 2010

I am lost without your spirit and your energy, your opinions, your chatter, your zest. You were always like a mirror of me. We were friends for nine years and it should have been more. It should have been much more.

At this time, I should be staying with you in your condo and helping out with your new baby. I should be gossiping with you and trading recipes and new tricks for housekeeping.

I miss you so much, I can't stand it. My heart is broken. The world does not make sense anymore, the pieces don't add up.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Guess What I Did?

Yes, you are right, I joined yet another contest. :)

Today my friend and I went to a knitting circle at a yarn store that we've been to a couple of times before. A bunch of the ladies there were part of a sock KAL (knit a long) based on a new book of Cookie A. sock patterns.

I've completely run out of hand knit socks (which like all other socks somehow go missing and also develop holes). I've been saying I need some new socks.

But do I need to dedicate 19 months to 19 new sock patterns? Well, I don't need to, but seeing everyone else doing it made me want to join in anyway.

Socks are a small project, at least, so I can do them at the same time as my other contest stuff.

Of course, I haven't been working on the last two projects for the WIPs finish contest. I have a trip to India coming up and I hope to finish them on the flight, and maybe some other projects too. I am always getting myself in over my head!

I haven't even been feeling the knitting bug lately. I've been busy working on my writing career. But I know the knitting always comes back and sometimes contests are what it needs to get sparked.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Yet another contest

Ravelry has plenty of contests to keep me motivated!

My friend from CA sent me a message about this one, it is a competition with teams based on Science-fiction. My friend is on the Babylon 5 team and I requested the same one.

It is three months of challenges starting in February, so it slightly overlaps with the one I'm already doing.

Now that my social life is pretty quiet, I should have plenty of time to knit. Not to mention I started watching Lost, so I have tons of TV time to utilize!