Knitamazoo(tm)

Procrastination is definitely my achiles heel. I am a born procrastinator. I have always procrastinated . . . for everything. But not this time. I was not going to wait until the last possible minute to knit up the socks for my SSK pal. I made plans. I made schedules (you know, I will have the cuff knit by this day, the leg by this day, finish the gusset then, etc.). I actually stuck to the schedule. In fact I even blew the schedule out of the water by finishing some parts early. And my reward? A beautiful pair of socks finished . . . wait for it . . . 3 weeks before the due date!! I must admit that they are not totally finished. I need to kitchner the toe on the second sock and weave in the ends, but all of the knitting is finished and I can relax and knit what I want to now.

So, since I acheived my goal, I sat down yesterday afternoon and cast on for my Mystic Waters shawl KAL. It’s a mystery shawl with the “clues” coming out every Wednesday. I am 3 weeks behind, but only because I refused to let myself cast-on for it until the socks were finished. I knit around 55 rows yesterday and I am loving it! I don’t mind being behind most others in the KAL. It just means that I have the benefit of learning from their experiences, getting corrected charts before knitting them and seeing everyone’s beautiful progress pictures. I am using Baruffa Cashwool in a lovely dark blue and knitting it on US 4 Addi Lace needles. It’s a gorgeous pattern and I’m really excited about knitting it!

Now that the socks are done, I will return to knitting on Mr. Greenjeans. I am down to the ribbed cable pattern on the bottom of the sweater. This is a fun, easy pattern that it good for tv knitting. And of course the Malabrigo yarn I’m using is so incredibly soft that knitting this sweater is pure heaven. But last night I decided to knit a few rows on the Jersey Shore Weekender since I haven’t knit on it in awhile. No picture as it hasn’t changed much at all.

I am bound and determined not to procrastinate. (Well at least with my secret sock pal socks. I’m not so sure about the rest of my life.) I have about an hour between when I get home from work and when I need to leave to get to the LYS to teach. I decided last night to sit down and at least cast on the second sock. This done, I knit a few rounds of the cuff and flew off to class. I was blessed by only having two students, both of whom are fairly competent. While they were casting on, a lady showed up at the shop saying she was there for the felted bag class (this is our learn to knit class and I just started a new group on Monday night). I explained to her that the class was meeting on Monday and when we checked the class list, sure enough, she had signed up for the Monday class. As it turns out, she teaches painting on Monday nights. So since I only had two students, I had her pick out her yarn and I got her started on the bag. She had learned to knit many years ago so she just needed a refresher which left me time to work on my sock while walking my other students through the hat pattern. By the time I got home I was almost done with the cuff. I kept knitting on it after I got home and I’ve finished the cuff and started the leg. I am on a mission I tell you! These socks will be done by Monday!

Mr. Greenjeans (a wonderful pattern by Amy Swenson available on Knitty) is coming along nicely. I am using Malabrigo worsted weight in the Vaa colorway. I wanted to knit the size large but my gauge was off. I got gauge using US9 needles but I hated the fabric. So I went back down to the US8’s and got a fabric I liked. I’m getting a 1/2 stitch more per inch than the pattern calls for. So I did some very scary math and figured out if I knit the size 2X with my gauge, the sweater would come out just slightly larger than the size L. (Believe me, I did the math several times before I let myself cast on. Math and I have never gotten along.) When I put the sweater on waste yarn and tried it on, it fit wonderfully! I can’t wait to finish it and wear it. I am loving the cabled rib at the bottom. This is also the first time I have tried cabling without the aid of a cable needle. With a four stitch cable it really isn’t scary at all. In fact, I find it a lot less fussy and I don’t feel like I’m stretching out my stitches as much as when I use the cable needle. I am also in love with using YO’s for the raglan increases. I love the little lacey touch it brings to the sweater. Cables and lace, how can it miss!

It’s been awhile since I last posted. My toe is healing up nicely. I am finally hobbling around without the aid of my crutches. The toe is still buddy taped, but progress has been made. There’s news on the knitting front and stories from work.

Let’s start with work shall we . . . there is a technician who is fairly new to our team (abt. 2 months) and he’s not very well liked by anyone else on the team. Word has already come down that we will have to cut 2 people in the next 6-8 months and he knows he is on the list. So he is looking for another job. He had one job interview and they called him to tell him that he wouldn’t fit in there and that he had issues with his attitude. So now he is looking at another job and he asked me if I would give him a reference. I said I guess I could if he really wanted me to. He replied asking if I would give him a great reference. I said that great wasn’t the word I would use and then he asked me to lie. Now I don’t lie for anyone and I told him that. He then proceded to ask me to fib and I told him that was the same as lying. So he keeps pushing me and finally says to me, “You don’t like me, do you?” I didn’t hesitate . . . I replied, “No, not really.” After that we had a good discussion about things he needs to work on and he says he wants to change. We’ll see how that goes.

Now for the knitting news. I am a procrastinator through and through. I always have been and I don’t know if that will ever change. I joined the SSK (Secret Sock Knitters) Club at my LYS. We are to knit a pair of socks for our secret pal, send them little treats for Halloween and Thanksgiving, and then on December 1 there will be a little party at the LYS where we will reveal ourselves to our secret pals and give them their socks. I bought the yarn for the socks right after I signed up (a couple of weeks ago). I’ve looked through hundreds of patterns. I’ve cast on 3 different times. I picked a stitch pattern and decided to design socks. After knitting an inch or so of the leg, I decided the stitch pattern didn’t go with the yarn. So there they have sat. I know I have a deadline but I just don’t want to knit socks. I want to knit lace . . . I want to knit sweaters (especially since it’s getting cold here in Michigan) . . . I want to knit anything else possible except socks. I am in the Mystic Waters Mystery Shawl KAL and I’m dying to cast on for it, but I keep telling myself that I need to finish my socks before casting on one more project. So this weekend I decided that I would work on nothing else until I had finished at least one sock of the pair. And what do you know . . . it worked! Here is sock number 1 finished except for weaving in the ends. The toe is grafted and everything. I settled on the River Rapids pattern from Sockbug. It goes along quickly which is a big bonus! I even had time this weekend to work on my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I have completed the body down to the cabled part. I have switched over to the smaller needles and have completed row 1 of the cabled rib pattern. I also finished frogging my Salt Peanuts so that I have the yarn to finish Mr. Greenjeans. I’m so glad that I frogged. I was just never going to finish Salt Peanuts. As much as I loved the sweater, the pattern was driving me nuts and I just know that I would never actually sit down and figure it out. I am so much happier using the lovely Malabrigo yarn in Mr. Greenjeans. I can’t wait to finish this sweater. But the socks are my number one priority and I have the same goal next weekend . . . no knitting for me until sock 2 is finished. Can I do it??

In an effort to thwart my grand sock knitting plans, I have managed to schedule myself to teach classes at my LYS for three nights this week and three nights next week. Tonight is the learn to knit class. According to the sign up sheet it is full, but not everyone has paid so we’ll see who shows up. I actually have one more student signed up than I normally would. So if everyone shows it will be a large class. Tomorrow is a felted hat class. This one should be smaller and a lot of fun. Thursday I finish up the mitten class and next Thursday start the next felted clog class. So not much knitting time during the week. I really want to cast on the socks and get the cuff done by the weekend so I can zip right along on the rest of the sock. What was I thinking taking on so much around the holidays? I need my head examined.