Socks as fast as I can wear them

I have finished things!



Here we have my Smooshy Dreams socks. Dream in Color Smooshy yarn, November Muse colorway, Sweet Dreams pattern (also from Dream in Color). This yarn and pattern have been in my stash for a looong time, and I'm glad I finally got to them. This was my entry in Sock Knitters Anonymous's April Knitalong (which ends at the end of May). One of April's themes was "underappreciated patterns," meaning patterns with less than 15 projects. I cast on for these as the 15th project on April 1st, then put them aside for a while.

The pattern was very easy, and I like the big honking cables paired with lace. My eyes have some trouble, when I look at the sock and pictures of it, making out what the pattern is - I wonder if that's just me.

Finally, November Muse is the wonderfullest brown I've ever seen. Lovely.

Next up are my Peaseblossom KAL Mad Color Weave socks.



These also fit wonderfully, and the pattern is excellent -- the only mod I would suggest is knitting an extra repeat or two of the cuff pattern before starting the heel. I knit one extra one and had enough yarn left over that I probably could have done two. It came close to hitting 90F the last two days, and because we're back down to 60F today, I can at least wear them around the house once before washing them and putting them away for next year.

The Yarn Harlot recently wrote about her favorite point in a project being when it's almost done and about to really come together. I've been thinking about what my favorite point is, and I think maybe what I've come up with is the decision of which to do next. I love planning projects, to the point where thinking about what sock yarn I have and what pattern I'll make with each one might have actually risen to the level of a coping strategy. I love imagining all the possibilities.

Right now I'm at a point where it's time to make a sock blankie square out of the leftover Peaseblossom and pick what sock pattern I'm going to cast on for next. I've got 24 empty dpns within six inches of my hands as I type this, and I can't wait to fill them up again.

Have you heard of the Swallowtail Shawl

I stayed up



so freakin late



last night



to finish this shawl. As of yesterday morning, I had eighteen rows of chart and three rows of bindoff prep and bindoff to do. I made a few little mistakes here and there, but nothing so major I had to frog, and I went to bed with it pinned out to block on the floor. As of this writing, I haven't spotted a mistake, so if you see one, please don't tell me.

I love how it turned out. In the middle of the semester I'd thought about making a gift of it to the person who has been my supervisor this year, but the project fell by the wayside and I kind of by default decided not to. Then our last lab meeting fell through because of a horrible tragedy for my supervisor and we postponed a week, which turned out to be enough time to get it done -- I wrapped it up and gave it to her tonight. The firm and close deadline was a big motivator, and I feel very much like the finished object is in the right place.

Also, it turns out I love nupps. I've got another skein of Malabrigo Lace, in cognac, from a swap, and it may be in line to be another Swallowtail.

Focusing so intensely on a single project and finishing it has actually recharged my knitting batteries a bit. The internet was down today, so I finished the cuffs of two of my April SKA KAL socks. My Socks that Rawk Q2 KAL socks are moving along as well, but those aren't due to be finished until June-ish or something maybe, and the April ones need to be done by May 30. My plain socks otn at the moment (out of Regia surf cotton) have a deadline of "I want to wear them now," so those are moving quickly too.

I frogged Wicked because I was pretty certain that I wouldn't have enough yarn for it. Instead, I'm working it up into a Two-Tone Shrug from Fitted Knits that might end up only being one-tone. We'll see. I might mash that up with Wicked, actually, and do a couple repeats of the cabled rib instead of the big dramatic double ribbing cuffs. It's meant to be something to pull on when the air conditioning gets ridiculous during the summer, but really, I don't think it will match a single other article of clothing that I have, much less look good over it, so I don't really know how that's going to work. Hmm. This seems ill-fated in at least three different ways. Oh well!

Our new semester starts tomorrow. The last one ended Thursday, and also totally sucked from end to end. So I'm going to try to get enough sleep for once, if I can tear myself away from this heel flap.