Wearing Wool on the Beach?

How many knits can you spot? It was about 45 degrees with steady winds. I was glad to have my sweater.

Derailed

I got back from vacation last night. My wife and I spent a week in northern Michigan, 3 days in the Upper Peninsula and 3 days on Mackinac Island. It was relaxing and very enjoyable. In preparation for our trip, I cast on a new pair of socks. (I finished the fancy blue ones and even took pictures, I know I owe a blog post on that.) I was making really good progress before we even left and was really into knitting the socks; loved the pattern and the yarn.



I got enough knitting time on the ride up and the first few days of relaxation that I even finished the first sock! Luckily I brought my needle along and was able to sew the cast off.



Unfortunately, I didn't inspect my yarn carefully enough before packing. I thought double checking the dyelots would be enough, but I guess not. The numbers match, but something definitely went wrong on that second skein. The black dye didn't take!



This really took the wind out of my sails. I was thoroughly enjoying these socks and thought I might even be able to finish the pair by the end of the trip. Frustration aside, I knew if I didn't cast on something else right away, I'd lose my mojo and be left without any knitting for the rest of the trip. So, I cast on with my backup yarn and started a new sock.



Too bad I'm just not feeling it. I'm plugging away, but the love isn't there. I'm not making progress as quickly since the pattern is more complex, and the yarn is pooling in a way that I'm not thrilled with. I don't hate it, which is why I'm still knitting it at this point, but it's not nearly as enjoyable. I would start the other striped sock since I'm home now and have more of that same yarn, but I'd have to take the brown sock off the needles. I know if I do that, I may never pick it back up again.

P.S. I just checked my stash, and of the four other skeins of Felici I have, none of them were messed up. I just happened to grab the ONE SKEIN that was to bring on vacation. Grrrrr.

Ravelympics 2010

As you surely know by now, the 2010 Winter Olympics in lovely Vancouver, BC are fast approaching; they begin February 12th, one month from today. That also means the Ravelympics are almost upon us. I competed for the first time two summers ago during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and knit my Dr. G's Memory Vest in 17 days.

This time around, I won't have as much time to knit because we leave for a 7-day cruise on February 13th that returns February 21st. If I don't knit a stitch on vacation, that would leave me with only 7 whole days. Let's break this down.

1. From the official Ravelry page: "The One Rule To Rule Them All: Challenge yourself by starting and finishing projects during the 2010 Winter Olympics." (The emphasis is mine.) At first I thought I would knit a hat or two, or maybe a large gauge pair of house socks and call it good. But are the Olympics just about participation? In all honesty, for some countries/athletes, yes participation is enough, but that's not the true spirit of the Olympics. Every athlete has challenged him or her self to be the best and aspires to win the gold medal. We're definitely looking at a sweater or vest here.
   
   
2. I will be on vacation for 9 days during the games and let's face it, I'm just not knitting for hours a day on a cruise. I will, however, have the opportunity to knit on the drive to and from Chicago at either end of the trip, and on the flights to and from San Juan, PR. And surely I can squeeze in a few rows before bed or during a day at sea. What exactly constitutes a challenge with those parameters is still to be determined. Another thing to consider here is all the 'venue' changes. Managing DPNs or cable needles only complicates things. I'm all for challenges, but complications I can do without.
   
   
3. Is it better to have tried and failed than not to try at all? While I don't want to disappoint Team Michigan with an incomplete project at the end of the games, a half knit sweater is 50% closer to a finished sweater than one that isn't started at all. I think an Olympic athlete would answer this question in a heartbeat with a strong affirmative.
   
   
4. Pattern selection. This again comes back to the challenge concept. Last time I knit a cabled vest with all the time I chose to devote (minus work) to the task. Are a raglan or seamless hybrid sweater equivalent with my time constraints? A sweater has sleeves where the vest doesn't but I'd probably knit it in stockinette since that's what I want anyway.
   
   
5. Some miscellaneous issues to consider: How much yarn will I need to bring? I probably need to plan to be at least a third done by the end of the trip. Will I have enough room to pack it all? Have to leave room for souvenirs booze. Will it totally suck to knit with wool in the Caribbean? Will there be enough room on the plane? Will security let me through with needles and cables?

All good questions and points to ponder in the next 31 days.

A quick vacation

In the spirit of timeliness, I'm forgoing a few FO posts to blog about more recent events.

In a rather spur-of-the-moment decision, we spent Labor Day weekend up north at the grandparents' cottage near Kalkaska, MI. We brought our friends Phil and Maureen along and had a great time. The weather was awesome all weekend. On Saturday we drove up to Tahquamenon Falls and got some great photos.

Sunday we drove into the tiny little town of Alden, MI just to show Phil and Mo Torch Lake, one of our favorite vacation destinations. Torch is one of the best lakes in the country. I forgot if it's 2nd, 3rd, 4th or whatever, but it is really, really beautiful. There are tons of $1,000,000+ homes on the lake and it's always jammed with people.

After visiting the lake we puttered around in the kitsch shops and I found some local yarn! Stonehedge Fiber Mill is located in East Jordan, MI, which was actually not very far from where we were staying. Unfortunately I didn't find that out until we got home, otherwise I would've visited. The yarn is surprisingly soft, but I wasn't too impressed with the color selection. Lots of bright solid colors, not many heathers. Although, after checking out their website, it looks like that was an issue with stock and not supply.

I also started two new socks on the drive up. My wife and I have a deal, she drives to where we're staying and I drive around once we get there. So, I got about 5 hours of knitting time. We left at 6:30 on Sunday, so it got dark halfway through our trip home.

These are simply 2x2 ribbing and they will be for my wife. She's been bugging me for another pair of socks and I thought this yarn would be perfect. It's Knitterly Things Vesper and it's only about 387 yards, perfect for little socks. I went with a 2x2 rib since the last pair of socks I knit in stockinette for her didn't both fit the same. She says one is tighter than the other.

I also started a pair of Shur-tugal (no idea how to pronounce that) socks for myself. These are knit with Socks That Rock - Mediumweight, which I wanted to use to know whether I like it or not. I have some birthday money to spend and if I like it, I may get some more. I chose this pattern because I thought the heavier yarn and larger needles would counteract the pull of the cables, but now that I'm into it, I'm worried they'll be too big. I shall try them on tonight and find out. I like the cable pattern and I really like the special "double-tail" cast on. Check it out for yourself.

Socks Aplenty

I've pretty much given up on my Red Wings sweater for now. Construction difficulties combined with warmer weather have forced it to the hibernation pile. What I've really been working on lately is socks.

I finally finished by Beyond the Sea Socks (FO post forthcoming) and picked my Typhoon Socks off the WIP pile. I'm knitting them toe up from opposite ends of a large skein, and you can see how they're pooling differently. 


Typhoon Socks

I made lots of progress on these this weekend when I sat through a two hour graduation ceremony. I wanted to work on these since they are simple stockinette. I didn't take note before I started, but I probably did about two-thirds of what you see on the left sock. 

It was the first time I've knit in such a public place. I was nervous to start, but once I did I was glad; it made the time go by much more quickly. The only 'casualty' was dropping my bag of yarn behind the seat in front of me. There's not much room in between rows and I'm a big guy, so I had to wait until the end to retrieve it. It didn't keep me from knitting though!

I've been trying not to buy much yarn after the huge lot I purchased back in February, but WEBS' May sale made me fall down. I ended up with three skeins of Noro Kureyon Sock.


Noro Socks

I started these Thursday night and made most of this progress during the 2 1/2 hour drive to and from Mt. Pleasant. It's hard to tell in the photo, but I'm doing Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Earl Grey pattern. I wanted some interesting knitting without requiring too much attention. I switched it to a toe-up pattern, so I can use every last inch of this beautiful yarn.

Finally, we have the socks I will be spending the most time with next week.


Vacation Socks

I started these only as far as the cuff because they will be my vacation socks. I didn't want to fiddle with starting socks on the plane, but I figured working the actual pattern before vacation would be cheating. The pattern is the Mad Color Weave socks, available here. They're pooling really crazily right now, I'm hoping it either continues like that or gets broken up by the pattern. I want to see how much knitting I get done, and also document the trip like the Yarn Harlot does. 

We're heading to St. Petersburg, FL for the week and I could not be more excited. It's been a while since we've been on a real vacation. We already have plans to see a Rays game, visit the Salvador Dali museum (great find!) and take a day trip to Orlando to see Univeral Studios. The rest of the time we will be relaxing on the beach, but if anyone has any can't miss places to visit, let me know.

I'm Back!

Did you even know I was gone? In the second of my "officially granted two weeks of vacation that I had to spend before mid-July", the wife and I headed to "up north" Michigan to spend a week relaxing. Trust me, I've got the t-shirt to prove it. I won't go into details, but the enjoyment factor ended up along the lines of a bell curve. Enough said.

So, what's up? Lots of back-logged knitting. I think the best way to deal with it is to just get it all out without thinking about it, so that's what I'm going to attempt to do. No worrying about perfect photos and creative stories. And that will all start...not today. :-)

What I have for you today is a progress photo of Shifting Sands.



Not that you'd ever see actual shifting sand this color. (Well, maybe in those sand art things.) This will be the scarf my aunt-in-law commissioned. I didn't like the way the scarf that matches the hat (one of those back-logged FOs) was turning out, so I scrapped it in favor of a more tightly knit pattern. She didn't specify that the hat and scarf match, so I'm not holding myself to it. It's only knitting, people.

How'd I do?

1. Have lunch with both of my parents, individually
   Managed lunch with my dad, but not my mom, which apparently caused a stink. Can't win for losing.
   
2. Have lunch with my wife
   
3. Fix the closet doors in our bedroom. We got new carpet almost a year ago (yikes!) and the closet doors need to be trimmed to fit now.
4. Organize my knitting closet
5. Hang out with my friend Joe & play video games all day long
   Check! And I had the sore shoulder/arm/wrist to prove it.
   
6. Get the bathroom tub re-glazed. My wife's been wanting this since we moved in, I thought it would be a nice surprise for her.
7. Make progress on my Vintage Red Wings sweater. This includes both knitting and removing dye from the red yarn. I bought some of these to help.
   Got the yarn flushed (holy crap there was a lot of extra dye), but made no progress on knitting the sweater. Technically you could say I made negative progress since I'm now going to have to re-kint a sleeve because the stupid Shout dye catchers didn't work.
   
8. Finish the pirate bag. Includes sewing a lining and installing a zipper.
   Hand sewed the lining, but balked at the idea of hand sewing the zipper and lining to the actual bag. Should have gone to my mother's to use her sewing machine. Would've helped with #1.
9. Dye some yarn. I have two more skeins of Knit Picks bare merino, I'm thinking something blue and green.
10. Take the dog to the groomer for a haircut
11. Research and possibly book a vacation for the week after the 4th
    If you consider calling on a chalet up north research...
    
12. Make some serious progress on my argyle socks
13. Take a break from argyle sock my knitting a BSJ for my friend's new baby
    Totally got this one nailed. I almost finished it before the week was over.
    
14. Finish up all the random WIPs I have lying around
    
15. Remove the dirt from an old flower bed and fill in the holes around the tree in the back yard
16. Move bricks from said flower bed off the patio
17. Plan 4th of July party
    Lists have been made and initial invites circulated
    
18. Locate and purchase Jeep decorations for 4th of July parade
    They're pretty garish, but we got em.
    
19. Make home cooked meals as many days as possible
20. Sit outside as much as possible and enjoy the nice weather
    Considering I had a nagging cold hiding in the background all week and I did manage some significant yard work, I'm calling this one done.
    
21. Pull weeds in front yard
22. Remove bush next to porch
23. Trim trees so I can walk under them

Eh, so I didn't get everything done. I didn't really think I would. Point is, I enjoyed my time off and got enough done to where I didn't feel completely lazy.

Finally, here's an update on the Accepted Argyles:



and a rear-view:



I absolutely love these socks. Knitting the accent lines as you go is definitely the way to go. Hopefully they fit.

Vacation To Do

I'm on vacation starting today (well technically this past Friday) by myself. It worked out that I had an 'extra' week of vacation, so unfortunately, my wife is at work this week. Since the prospect of a week off was proving to be overwhelming with possibilities, I have constructed a list of things to accomplish during my vacation.

In no certain order:

1. Have lunch with both of my parents, individually
2. Have lunch with my wife
3. Fix the closet doors in our bedroom. We got new carpet almost a year ago (yikes!) and the closet doors need to be trimmed to fit now.
4. Organize my knitting closet
5. Hang out with my friend Joe & play video games all day long (in progress today)
6. Get the bathroom tub re-glazed. My wife's been wanting this since we moved in, I thought it would be a nice surprise for her.
7. Make progress on my Vintage Red Wings sweater. This includes both knitting and removing dye from the red yarn. I bought some of these to help.
8. Finish the pirate bag. Includes sewing a lining and installing a zipper
9. Dye some yarn. I have two more skeins of Knit Picks bare merino, I'm thinking something blue and green.
10. Take the dog to the groomer for a haircut
11. Research and possibly book a vacation for the week after the 4th
12. Make some serious progress on my argyle socks
13. Take a break from argyle sock my knitting a BSJ for my friend's new baby
14. Finish up all the random WIPs I have lying around
    
15. Remove the dirt from an old flower bed and fill in the holes around the tree in the back yard
16. Move bricks from said flower bed off the patio
17. Plan 4th of July party
18. Locate and purchase Jeep decorations for 4th of July parade
19. Make home cooked meals as many days as possible
20. Sit outside as much as possible and enjoy the nice weather

Ah, a nice round 20 item list. I think it's a nice mix of fun stuff and responsible things, don't you?