WIP Party: My Pirouette Socks

WIP Party Project #4: My Pirouette Socks

Frogged. Totally and completely ripped out.

Before

After

The more I thought about this project, the less I wanted to work on it. The yarn kept splitting and the pattern required more attention to shift the stitches around the foot and ankle than I wanted to give to a frustrating yarn. I might try this pattern again with  a different  yarn, but I am not sure if I will ever use this yarn. On top of it being splitty to begin with, it did not frog very tidily. It is pretty kinked and looks like it will be even more challenging to work with than it was originally.

There are just too many other things I am excited about knitting and too many other yarns that will be pleasant to work with to continue this pair of socks.

WIP Party: My Ernie Socks

WIP Party Project #3: My Ernie Socks

These are from the 2013 Cookie A Sock Club! Every other month, sock designer Cookie A mails you two sock patterns, a skein of lovely sock yarn to make one of the patterns, and two cookie recipes. I received this pattern in the first shipment around February. I knit up the first pair of socks in the skein I received and got a significant amount done on this pair in the second pattern, but then the next Cookie A package arrived in the mail... Originally, I wanted to knit at least one pair of socks per shipment before the next package arrived so I put these down and started the next pair. And never picked them back up. (And the other pair of socks is still on my needles...)

But I've picked them up again and now they're done!

This was a fun, quick pattern. I think the stitches got a little lost in the dark, variegated yarn, so if I make these again, I'll probably do them in a solid or semi-solid yarn that is a brighter color.

WIP Party: The Bird Mittens for My Grandma

WIP Party Project #2: The Bird Mittens for My Grandma

Just like the vest for Jack, these gloves were given to my grandmother Christmas 2012. I got really close to finishing them, but after missing that deadline, felt frustrated and discouraged.

I am pleased to announce that they are now completely finished and delivered! The knitting is done, they've been blocked, and the ends are woven in.

 

WIP Party: The Sweater Vest for Grandpa Jack

WIP Party Project #1: The Sweater Vest for Grandpa Jack

My friend Elizabeth recently informed me that I had been working on this project since before we'd met. Since I technically gave this vest to my grandpa last Christmas (with every intention of finishing it in January 2013) and this is my oldest WIP, I figured this was a good place to start.

I think part of the reason why I didn't get this all the way done is I was so frustrated that I'd missed Christmas. I didn't make the deadline so it was like it had been extended indefinitely. The other part was picking up the stitches for the v-neck.

A nearly completed vest... without the v-neck.

I'm not very confident when it comes to picking up a lot of stitches around the edge. I get very wrapped up in prepping for even distribution and it makes the project much more daunting than it really is. That added to decreasing the point of the v-neck caused for a big ol' WIP-delay. I've never made a collar or a knit mitered corner before and was reluctant to get started.

http://newstitchaday.com/how-to-knit-the-eyelet-mitered-corner-stitch/

 

This WIP Party was just the kick in the pants I needed to just finish it. Without further ado, I present to you, The Sweater Vest for Grandpa Jack, starring: Jack!

WIP Party!

Maybe you're the perfect knitter who finishes everything they starts and even weaves in the ends as soon as you're done knitting.

Maybe you don't have any works-in-progress (WIP) that have been "in progress" (read: sitting in your knitting basket for at least three months without being touched) for ages with little to no actual progress being made.

If you are, then bully for you.

I am NOT one of those knitters. I try to be. It's cost-effective -- if you've ever bought new needles for a new project because the size you needed was holding a WIP, then you know what I'm talking about, space-efficient, and you actually get stuff done. I just get too excited about new projects or something comes up. Is anyone else panicking about Christmas knitting?

So I've decided. Enough is enough. I am going to complete or frog* every WIP currently on my needles before starting something new. At the start of this WIP Party, I had 7 projects on my needles. From oldest to newest:

The Sweater Vest for Grandpa Jack:

Cast on July, 2010. Frogged November 18, 2011.

Cast on August, 2012.

The Blanket for Curtis/Living Room:

Cast on March 23, 2011.

The Bird Mittens for My Grandma:

Cast on November 11, 2012

My Haleakala Socks:

Cast on January, 2013.

These have actually been lost (found just today!) since about April, 2013.

My Ernie Socks:

Cast on March 12, 2013.

Cast on March 12, 2013.

My Pirouette Socks:

Cast on April 14, 2013. I think these are heading for the frogger...

My Pretty Sweater in Purple:

Cast on September, 2013.

Cast on September, 2013.

So, here I go! Anyone care to join me in my WIP Party? Feel free to post links to your WIPs (and their completion!) in the comments below.

*What's frogging? Frogging is when you take a project off your needles, unravel it, and either start over or use the yarn for something else. You rip all that hard work out (and sometimes your heart goes right along with it). It's called "frogging" because you "rip it, rip it, rip it" and that sounds like "ribbit, ribbit, ribbit". And because "frogging" is cuter than "tearing out your soul one row at a time".

Apartment Therapy Style Cure: Day 2 (Weekend)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/117157676/peace-queen-annes-lace-looking-glass?ref=col_view

The weekend's assignment is to go out (or online if you're busy) and get some inspiration photos. In all their glory...

http://pinterest.com/kristinemarie54/style-cure-august-2013/ 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/97858571/set-of-three-seed-head-candle-lights?ref=col_view

I'll probably keep adding to this pin board through out the project, but this is what I've got now. You'll notice that there is jewelry and other non-home stuff on this board too. I figured I'd just pin anything that I liked and liked the idea of my apartment having a similar feel.

Let me know what you think :-)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/116079210/sugar-bowl-jar-aqua?ref=col_view

I'm also planning on updating my bedroom. Maybe not so much updating it as finishing it...

Apartment Therapy Style Cure: Day 1

I have been so busy I can't even remember the last time I posted here. (Apparently it was April. And then before that October...) I am still working full-time at Nordstrom and have accepted a second, part-time job as a librarian at a retirement community and I am in my last year of library school. I'm also trying to have some semblance of a social life... This past month has been especially challenging because of the Nordstrom Anniversary sale. Very exciting, but also means increased stress and increased workload for the reporting team. I am really looking forward to a morning where I wake up and the first thing I do *isn't* log onto my computer.

As a treat for myself and to help make my apartment a little more filled in and finished, I've signed up for Apartment Therapy's Style Cure. Apartment Therapy is a neat little website full of great ideas for your home, whether a teeny tiny apartment or three bedroom house. Every once in a while, they do these "Cures" that are essentially month-long intensives that help you focus on one or two problems in your home and fix them. Last January, the Cure was focused on de-cluttering and organizing your home. I was busy moving then and some of the steps were out of my budget so participating didn't really work out. This Cure has to do with finishing up those unfinished areas and working towards a unified style in your home. I'm looking forward to coming home to a more put-together space.

Each day, there is a new post from Apartment Therapy with instructions on what to do that day (or that weekend). Day 1 was pretty easy. I just had to fill out a little "style quiz". While some of the questions seemed a bit silly and I left blank (favorite restaurant?) I get that they were on there to help hone in on what style I really like best. I thought the most useful questions were focused on what rooms I already liked best. Anyway, here's the quiz and my answers:

• List your favorite in each category: (This part was tough! I don't really have favorites...)


• Actor: George Clooney?
• Actress:
• Artist:
• Writer: Connie Willis? Guy Gavriel Kay? Neil Gaiman? Jane Austen?
• Music: Singer-song writer?
• Restaurant: New places! Gastropubs especially.
• Automobile: Classic Bentley (Or, you know, anything from the first half of the twentieth-century that probably comes with a chauffeur...)
• Movie or TV Show: Downton Abbey? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? American Beauty? Bridget Jones' Diary? Pride and Prejudice? Dr. Who?
• Clothing:
• Furniture:
• Choose three words to describe your personal style.
• Clean lines, feminine & occasionally floral, classic
• Think back over all the homes you've lived in. Which rooms would you choose as your favorites and how would you describe them? 
• The basement in Walla Walla: cozy, organized, everything went together, distinct spaces, room to entertain, tidy, no "junk" just hanging out
• Whom do you consider a role model? What three adjectives describe the qualities that you admire in this person?

• Kate Middleton? Put together, Classy, Infinitely presentable
• Every home as areas that are "just right". Which three spots or things in your home do you feel are beautiful and feel proud of, right now, as is?
• Couch, sofa back table, votive candle holder, and mirror
• Porch (but maybe needs lights?)
• A month from now, at the end of the Style Cure, how would you like your friends to describe your home?
• Put-together and classy, but not stuffy and too formal. I still want people to feel like they can sit on the furniture.

I'll work on getting some Before pictures up here as well. Looks like I'll be doing some cleaning...

Allergies

Allergies are terrible awful things to have. Right now, tree pollen is wreaking havoc on my upper respiratory system and I'm coughing what feels like non-stop. My throat is super raw from coughing all last night -- I don't think I fell asleep until sometime after 3am -- and it is apparently such a hostile environment in my sinuses that it feels like my throat and my face are trying to flee by crawling out of my ears.

Ugh.

Cookie A & Elizabeth

I just got home from a lovely evening spent with Elizabeth -- fellow librarian and knitting conspirator -- and I am exhausted! Our Cookie A packages arrived this week so we got together to open them and cast on for our new socks. I'm pretty excited... I'll have another post about the Cookie A sock club and April's shipment coming soon, but for now, good night!

Here I Am

It has been a doozy of a few months. I've gone on a vacation to Disneyland, taken a quarter off from library school, been ill, broke up with Curtis, moved to a new city, started knitting socks, got back together with Curtis, got promoted, started working out (Jillian Michaels), joined a co-ed soccer team, had my debit card information stolen by some butthead in the UK, and have seriously started considering a career change from corporate information management and analytics type jobs to public librarianship. My life has been topsy turvy and not always in the fun, colorful way that makes you think of chaotic circus routines involving sequins and somersaults (though maybe it does...)

So here I am, on Capitol Hill, in my bed on a rainy Sunday, thinking about getting some tea and how exactly I want to start revamping my Library Out Loud blog and how long I think it would take me to finish knitting my socks (four hours?).

My first pair of socks ever!