I didn't know how lost I was

As I'm sure you know, that last was a bit of a gap between blog posts. This time, with good reason; I've been thwarted in my knitting. It just keeps going wrong. There was a point last week when every time I picked up a project, it needed fixing, tinking or ripping back (or at least it felt like that). I was going to tell you all about it, started composing a post, and then decided that nobody wanted to read my whinging. And more to the point, I didn't want to write it.

Of course, time has passed and things have improved, and I although could happily soliloquize as to whether this is luck, hard work or merely reversion to mean, I won't; I don't want to make you suffer, and I have good news. This week, I have finished two socks, hoorah! Although not a pair.

As I've said before, these are a slow-burning project. To get to this point, I have survived a lot of cabling and mostly enjoyed it; it has one of those pattern repeats that is short enough to be memorable and long enough to mean you've made significant progress after each one, that I find highly addictive. These socks are top down, but the heel construction is new and interesting to me, and gives a really lovely fit without having to pick up stitches.

Pattern: Mince Pie Mayhem from Socktopus
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Adonis Blue, bought at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show

As I had a slow-burning project, I needed something quicker and easier for the long train ride north (and for some finishing stuff vibes, which I was in dire need of last week!). So I cast a little something on....

Though apologies for the slightly odd lighting in that photo, there is no colour grading ankle to toe - though the yarn is beautifully semisolid, in a way that seems impossible to capture on camera! The pattern is also an ideal-length pattern repeat, but with much less cabling so I can knit them for hours and hours with few ill effects.

Pattern: Shur'tugal, also from Socktopus
Yarn: Sparkleduck Socka in Double Trouble, also from Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show

These projects so seem to share a lot - yarn bought on the same day, patterns from the same book. Though to me, their major common feature is that they've seen me through the wilderness and back on the right track with my knitting.

Who knows? Maybe I will even tackle one of the jumpers on haitus before this week is out ;)

Hangover from 2012

With this knit the queue thing, I have had a little assess of the projects that are still hanging about from last year, and two of them are jumpers.

First off, Lauriel needs a little work - the button band bulges a little about my ribcage (I know, weird place to be unusually fat, such is my lot) so I intend to reinforce it with grosgrain ribbon as in the Knitmore Girls podcast - they made a video about how to do it, by popular demand. I've been planning to do this for about a year now, just I am the master of procrastination when it comes to this cardigan; it has just kicked me one too many times and I cannot face it when there are so many other things to knit that are just as pretty and not so angry. It Just Needs Doing.

The other project I have on the go from Little Red in the City is Skelf, which I was going great guns at before Christmas, but now I've spotted a mistake and procrastinated fixing it enough to lose my place, so I didn't finish it before the new year as I'd hoped, but now it languishes in my knitting bag, also lurking. 

And a third project that has been on the back burner - this is probably a record for me, all be it a depressing one - are the lovely if slightly mad socks I mentioned in my Socktopus post, the magenta ones. I had to ad-lib a bit when it came to sorting out the heel, and there was a big pause while I (freaked out about) carefully considered what to do, as I'm not normally one for deviating from the pattern, especially if it's a pattern I've paid money for. Still, we now have one sock (though sadly no photos as it's for someone who might be reading this), and hoping to cast on the second one for the weekend's train rides.

All this did make be take a bit of a look at the queue. Somehow we are back down at 18 projects, having been at the dizzying heights of 25. Now, I know I finished two last week, I've cast on another two, but we still have two unaccounted for. Clearly, whatever they were, I wasn't that enamored with them as I've totally forgotten what they were! It does seem more manageable now though - and I really want to crack on with them all.

Trying to Kick the Funk

So, I have been in a bit of a knitting funk of late. Starting things and partway through, deciding they're not the right yarn/pattern combo, so ripping back. Making mistakes and ripping back. Having things not work and ripping back. Realising something is not the right size and ripping back. Running out of yarn and ripping back. It's not been a good month.

So far, I've only had knitting blips for days or maybe a week, but as you can tell it has been going on for a while. Maybe I've been working hard. Maybe I've been having too much non-knitting fun. But this week I have had to face the music: I am in a knitting funk.

I have tried several things to get out of it, and none of them have worked.... yet!

1. Soldier on

The first is a hat where the ribbed band was way too loose. I have knit the Grace Lace Beret before but in acrylic so wasn't expecting the ribbing to be tight (featured as part of Blog Week), but this yarn had enough wool content that it should have worked. It got this far and was frogged.

The next is the lovely angora mittens. I have knitted these until I have run out of yarn, and have just decided they are too big. Frogged, to be reborn when I can face the maths.

2. Buy yarn for the next project, as an incentive.

This is destined to be a Snowbaby Hat by eskimimi (rav link). It involves colourwork and I have never done that before. So, as everything seemed to be going wrong so far, I have not cast it on -- I was just hoping that a little temptation of future work might make me work harder and so things would go right again.

3. Buy stunning artisan yarn with no project in mind.

Both from The Yarn Yard in Making Mischief (above) and Hare (below). Probably both going to become lacework shawls for myself, unless I am feeling very generous. Though they are both stunning, I still haven't quite pinned down a project for either of them, yet. Though there are a lot of 4ply shawls on my waiting list.

4. Buy a random ball of yarn and then fail to knit anything with it.

Though not for want of trying. This has often inspired me in the past, but all I wanted to make some vanilla socks for some quick gratification. It turns out bamboo yarn was not the answer - the ribbing had no grip. Then I tried to make a lovely lace shawl - the yarn was too busy and obscured the pattern (I did have three attempts at the shawl before giving up). Then some mittlets - they just didn't work at all. They were supposed to be doing some scrunching up on the wrist but, whether it was the yarn, the pattern, or the knitter, it just plain didn't happen. Frogged and this ball of yarn is condemned to the Box Of Yarn That Doesn't Exist.

5. Go to a knitting event with knitting friends

Though I think that is a tale for another day...

Second Opinion Required

I just need to know - do you think these socks look stupid?

They're the lovely fan and feather toe-up socks (rav link) but I'm worried that the yarn is too busy for them, and maybe I should rip back to my trusty lifeline and do them plain. however, my knitting mojo is in such tatters lately that I am having an indecisive moment. And I really need this sock knitting this week, with all the travelling I'm planning on doing.

So please give your honest opinion. I can handle it.