Confession...

I have a small confession to make. Tonight I FINALLY got around to learning how to do the magic loop. I was always intimidated by 2-circs and magic loop. It just seemed so complicated and fiddly with all those loops and cables (and yet somehow I never flinched at DPNs). Honestly, magic loop isn't bad at all! I don't mind it and may start doing it more frequently. I don't get the DPN stabbing me in the palm pain or ladders. That sounds like a win-win to me.

Also, I did finally finish those mittens. There may or may not be pictures to come. I'm not entirely sure if the intended recipient of them reads this blog or not.

I've started a new pair of mittens (the new magic loop project). They're the Bella's Mittens (ravelry link). Not that I have any interested in Twilight but I like the look of them and they're for a niece and most teenage girls are into that sort of thing so hopefully they'll be appreciated. I'm working on these since I had to order yarn for my other present ideas and it'll be a few more days before that gets in. Maybe I'll actually work on these at a reasonable rate and get 'em finished for Christmas.

Neglect

I'm sorry. I'm a lousy blogger and a lousy knitter. I'm a total slack ass about updating and keeping up with my knitting. And I haven't even paid any attention to you guys either! My apologies!

Basically all I've accomplished in the past month is one thrummed mitten. ONE. Maybe at this rate I'll finish the pair before Christmas. I'm just lacking the excitement that I had last winter and I can't quite figure out why. It's not even like the wedding planning has completely over taken my brain. I'm stalled on that too as I am unable to make decisions about anything.

So basically there's a whole lotta nothin' going on in my neck of the woods.

Ugly toes!

I realized I promised pictures of my ugly toes like...oh 5 days ago but I'm lazy so here they are now. I haven't fully decided exactly what I'm going to do about this sock yet. Knit sock two and figure out how to do it right then come back? Go ahead and rip this one up and redo it? Frogging still terrifies me a bit so I'm hesitant do jump right into it but one way or another it will need to be done. The toe on this thing is AWFUL. And the heel is holey. And not the good kind of holey either.







I haven't been completely unproductive. I did start a pair of thrummed mittens as my first Christmas project. I'm about halfway through the first mitten and it's coming along swimmingly. It is kind of hard to knit a mitten when it's still 80 degrees here in VA. Dude, seriously, the weather has no idea what it's doing anymore.

Back into the swing of things...

Alright, so my brain has finally slowed down on Wedding Mode. We have a venue selected and I'm putting the deposit down on the photographer today. Those were the two things that mattered most to me so now that they're taken care of I can not obsess quite so much over wedding stuff. (though I do enjoy looking at pretty dresses!)

I picked up my Nutkin last night and finished off the toe but I have to say, I'm not very happy with it. I'll take pictures of it today when I get home and the lighting is better. It's a square looking toe and it's kind of gappy where I did the short row toe. And the 3 needle bind off just looks weird. I'll watch a few videos to see what may have went wrong but I think I'll knit the second sock and use the usual heel/toe method that I'm used to and then go back and fix the first sock. Overall I do like the sock, the body is nice and the pattern was easy to remember. I'm just not satisfied with the heel and toe.

Also, I'm considering knitting myself a cute little shrug for my wedding. It's in September but at the top of the mountain so I anticipate it getting chilly in the evening once the sun goes down. Right now the top contender is the Dream in Color shrug (ravelry link). If anyone else has any nice suggestions I'm all ears!

Distractions...

Sorry I got quiet again guys. I was on quite the knitting kick, tearing through my first Nutkin and back on ravelry browsing for more knitting patterns and ideas for Christmas knitting. But something happened that got me right back off track and my mind is preoccupied...My boyfriend and I went on vacation and...



He proposed!

Iiiieeeeeee!! *squee*

So now I am currently obsessed with wedding thoughts and ideas. My poor sock is still missing a toe. But I'm hung up on the short row toe anyway. My heel came out holey and my toe is having the same problem and I'm not a big fan of it. Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong? I may find the will power to tear myself away from etsy and the knot long enough to finish the toe if anybody has any suggestions.

I'm getting married guys! September 17th, 2011!:)

Short row heel?

So the Nutkins have something new that I haven't encountered yet. The short row heel. I'm following the pattern but I think I keep screwing up the yos on the purl rows. It kind of looks like a hot mess right now but I'll keep going with it and hope that it starts to make sense soon.

See, don't these stitches look so...wack?





I'm not sure how this technique is better than the usual way heels are done but I'll stick with it until the end just in case I wind up liking it more. I think the toe is going to be short row too so no grafting at the end! I was just finally getting the hang of that too.

I may actually get this sock done in the next week or so, which is like some sort of record for me and sock knitting. Nice.

Nutkin Pt 1

So the Nutkins are coming along swimmingly! I'm really loving this pattern. I love that it's simple and easy to memorize. I don't have any problems putting it down and then picking it back up again. I can always tell where I am in the pattern. I love it when stitches are easy to read like that. I love the red color of this yarn. It makes me think of candy apples and cherries and suckers. I love the fact that I've knit this much of the first so and I've been working on it for less than a week. It took me like 3 months to do this much of the Hedera's. I think I'm discovering more of my pattern preferences when it comes to knitting. I really don't dig complicated patterns that require concentration. I don't like yoing after purling. I like simple patterns with minor interesting details in them to keep them from being a total stockinette snoozefest. But just a few details so I can still watch Psych and Project Runway without messing things up.

The only thing I wasn't a big fan of was the folding over of the cuff and knitting it together. I'm not exactly sure what the point of that was.

Anyway, yay! I'm knitting again!