FO Friday 5/31

Four pirates:
Three Vikings:
Two Dogs:
A pair of mystery socks:
And a Hitchhiker:

See what some other folks finished at Tami's Amis.

Yarn Yarns is Six

Happy Blogoversary to me. It's traditional for me to forget about this date. This year I found out why. The little counter button doesn't seem to like it when it is 0 days until one's blogoversary. Instead of a reminder, I get an error.

Here's what's in the works and what's coming up in my fibery world:

• Kelso hoodie: upper back and hood left to do. I'm less than delighted with how it is coming out but still want to finish it eventually. There are several miles of stockinette to do to finish the back. It's BORING. I'm also not happy with the estimated yardage. The pattern says it should need every bit of the six skeins I bought. It looks like it'll only need four. Grrrrrrr.
• I started a Hitchhiker in an attempt to avoid the Kelso. It was a fairly silly idea, since it is virtually all knitknitknit. I'm using some Lisa Souza yarn that's two shades of pink with occasional bits of green called What a Melon. The scarf's inspired by the late, great Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. One edge of the shawl has these little points and there are 42 of them. It's amusing to those of us familiar with the books.
• Tour-de-Sock starts on June 1. It's a speed knitting competition with six rounds. I've got all of the yarn and beads selected and ready to go. This is what will be the first round's socks:
• Another Doctor Who swap starts June 1 in the Odd Ducks swaps on Ravelry. Must play in this one since the last one was one of the best ever.
• Tour de Fleece starts on June 29. I'll be spinning for Team Tardis. I somehow became one of several co-captains for the team. I have no idea what to do, but will help out in any way I can. It looks like this will overlap with Tour-de-Sock, which should be interesting. My goal is to spin an hour or so every day. On the special challenge day, I'll again attempt to use my wheel.
• Doctor Who anniversary project: 2 done, 1 frogged, 9 to go. This is on hold for the moment.

Yarnish Temptations

I was feeling so virtuous by signing up for Tour-de-Sock. I made a donation to Doctors Without Borders. I had the opportunity to use up six stashed yarns. I had the opportunity to use up stashed beads, too. Then I took a look at the sponsors and their yarns. I was able to talk myself out of most of them. The exception this time was a self-striping that's part solid pink, part multicolored speckled. One of the bases was MCN, which I love. TdS sponsors all have coupons, so you know I had to order it.

I was looking at ads on Ravelry and had to find out what Yarnbox was about. It turns out it is a yarn club type thing, only you get to express a lot of preferences up front. There are also a lot of different choices in how many shipments you get. I got really interested in finding out more and hit a dead end. They are subscribed up for the moment. I wasn't able to give in to temptation yet, but expect to hear back from them at some point.

Update

WIPs

• Kelso Hoodie: no new progress
• Mocks (mystery socks): nearly done. I didn't post them on WIP Wednesday because I'd just frogged a foot (foot portion, not 12 inches). I was too discouraged to even face them at that point.
• Doctor Who project: frogged a sock.

Maybe all that time in the frog pond made me lose a little more of my mind. I'd forgotten that there was Doctor Who? club yarn on the way from Mad Color: I wasn't at all sure about the color when I first saw it. Then I saw the tag and it clicked. The inspiration was the episode Vincent and The Doctor and Van Gogh's painting The Church at Auvers. I've nearly got enough inspired-by-Van-Gogh yarns to give them their own category. Yay!

DW Project, 2 of 11

Bowtie Mittens are Cool:

Not exactly my best work, but they're done and I can move on to something else.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary project

Project 1 of 11, the Insulate! Hat:

It's a nice pattern because it isn't terribly obvious that the pattern's Dalek-related. It did come out a lot smaller than I expected. If someone reading this thinks they'd like to make it, I advise taking the time to swatch.

I decided to switch from 7 to 11 patterns because a) it makes more sense to me and b) I know I'll happen upon more patterns that I just have to do. One of my favorite designers, SpillyJane, has come up with two Whovian mitten designs. Bow Tie Mittens Are Cool was released today. I'm thinking of using the new Tardis control room as color inspiration.

WIP Wednesday May 15

The Kelso hoodie is a little bit above where the sleeve starts. Misty decided to sit on that part.

Lucy socks, sock one. The yarn kind of disguises the pattern that runs down the front. This isn't all bad, because the mistakes don't show. If I could've seen the pattern better, maybe the mistakes would not have been made in the first place. Oh, well.

Mocks (Mystery Socks) front side of the left sock.

Back side of left sock. I just discovered a miscrossed cable on the right sock in this section. Arrrrgh, I almost never do that. Time for a little frogging. Ribbit.

Lots of other folks have WIPs you can see at Tami's Amis.

Crazy or Lazy

There are a number of things that need to be dealt with around the house that I am avoiding. This is what I did instead:

The supplies list for Tour de Sock appeared. Each of the six socks has its own project bag. Each bag has a tag on it with the sock requirements. I selected each yarn via Ravelry stash searches. I dug them out of storage and placed them in the bags. Two of them need beads and I found those. I even swatched to pick a needle size for each project. The picture's the swatch that has been converted into a catnip toy.

Who Anniversary Project

I enjoy planning projects even more than making them. It's a little crazy, but that's just the way I am. After picking up Heatherly Walker's set of Doctor Who-themed sock patterns, I decided to make a project out of them. I'm going to do a pattern each month from now through the Doctor Who anniversary month of November. Why 7 patterns? Because I just though of it and there are 7 months between now and then.

I've only got 6 patterns so far, but expect that at least one more will fall into my lap before November. Which one to do first? I've been wanting to do the Whovian Argyle. I'd like to play with a good color combination for the Bowties are Cool socks. Then there's the Insulate Hat. I wonder if I've got a good Dalek-colored yarn for that?

FO Friday May 10

Anastasia

Tulip

Potpourri

These were all finished at various points over the last three weeks. I didn't get that much done this week.

More Finished Objects at Tami's Amis.

WIP Wednesday May 8

Drip, Drip, Drop is the Mock I'm working on. The second clue was posted this morning for the start of the second sock.

This is the current state of the Kelso hoodie. The new rule is that every time I finish a sock I have to do one pattern repeat. It shouldn't be too long before I reach the underarm and things get interesting.

This is the first of the Michigan Slip Sport Socks. I was playing a game online where a portion of it had a Bollywood theme. Something about this yarn reminded me of the bright Indian colors in the game.

This is the April portion of my Temperature Scarf. Can you see it is getting warmer?

More WIPs at Tami's Amis.

Interstellar Yarn Alliance

My first club shipment from SpaceCadet Creations arrived today.

It's a water bottle with the club logo and an 8 ply superwash merino called Enticement. The dyer's video log about how she came up with the colors was interesting. I know that each skein is unique, but was a little sad that I didn't end up with one of the skeins with the colors she described. Mine is about half green, a quarter orange, and a quarter blue/purple. Maybe some of the colors I like better than orange and brown will appear when the yarn's wound up.

What next?

These are Sake. I finished them about two weeks ago. I've got two other pair that are done but not blocked. Maybe they'll be completed by the next FO Friday.

I'm a bit burned out on the knitknitknit of the Kelso hoodie. Motivation to pick it back up may be on the way. I got Foggy Dew from Sheepy Time Knits. It's for a sweater called The Jumble Sale Kimono for the Widow Mayhew's Daughter (Ravelry link) from What(Else) Would Madame DeFarge Knit?. I am not allowed to so much as wind a single skein for it until the Kelso's done.

I officially gave up on the Pirouette Socks. If the Knitting Police show up at my door, I'll throw the ball of Wollmeise at them that I was using to do the Pirouette. It's the first Cookie A club sock I've not done. I'm not wasting my first skein of Wollmeise on something that makes me unhappy. So there.

Avoiding the Kelso led me to a MOCK called Drip Drip Drop. A MOCK is a mystery sock. Drip Drip Drop has some pretty fancy cables on it, so I have had fun doing it. Unfortunately, the next clue doesn't come out until Wednesday.

What next? It'll probably involve digging through the Use It Or Lose It bin and my Ravelry queue. It won't involve the Kelso.

WIP May Day

Front/back are over halfway to the armhole decreases on the Kelso hoodie:

I've been reading postings by other people who've been having trouble with their Pirouette socks. I think I've figured out where I went wrong and expect to pick them back up soon. That's all I'm working on right now. I added a bunch of yarn to my sell list on Ravelry. The roof has been misbehaving and I may need to replace it. Sigh.