Trying Not to Get My Hopes Up

For a week or two there, I was under the impression that I would get everything done in time for Hanukkah. Then I was under the impression that I would never get close to getting my sister's socks done, so I started putting more effort into that and less into my mom's sweater.  Now I'm left a bit of a conundrum.

To start, Hanukkah technically starts on the 16th, but I'm not going to see my family until later, so I have a little more time than that (so, lets say I have about 10 days, max).  However, I also have a lot to do.  It is better place than I was expecting to be, but still not done, or close to it.  Believe it or not, this is the first time I've run the risk of missing a present deadline*.  I did get my brother's socks done at least:

Patten I used was Mr. Pitt's Socks, using a Zauberball.  I really could have dropped a needle size for it to be better, but my brother just trashes things anyway and they fit.

However, my sister's socks were a bit more of a hassle than what I was expecting.  To give a bit of background, one of my sisters loves crazy and colorful socks.  You'd think she'd be the perfect person to knit socks for.  Nope.  She told me years ago when I started knitting that she doesn't want knit socks; she hates hand-made socks.  At the time I left that statement as is.

This year, at Rhinebeck (yes, I went.  No, I doubt I'll be doing a debrief this year), my sister finally explained why.  She associates hand-knit socks with the only pair of hand-made socks she's ever gotten -- a wonky pair of worsted-weight acrylic crochet socks my mom made when we were younger (and promptly had a crisis in confidence about, so she went back to making blankets).  After a discussion where I assured her that knitted socks were usually nothing like that and I could even use lighter yarn than normal 'sock weight', and yes I'd make sure they were the same size...she picked out a skein of lace weight sparkly yarn for me to make socks out of:

This is Star Dust Lace by Bittersweet Woolery in colorway Cirrus

A couple of things turned out to be true about this yarn:

• It is nice and soft.
• The tinsel that makes it sparkly does like to stick out of the sock a bit when you knit with it.
• It is really thin and fluffy
• It has magical gauge properties that make everything wear bigger than the measurements suggest.
• It requires a size US000 (that is not a typo) needle to work in a close enough gauge for socks.

It's the magical gauge properties that got me the most.  There are very few patterns for lace-weight socks (gee, I wonder why). Which is normally fine, since as long as there's no crazy patterning in the sock, I can adjust  it to my gauge.  But when you pair that with magic gauge properties and patterns that have a large repeat...you end up ripping stuff out a lot.

You see, I first chose this pattern.  I thought it would work; even though it's a 16 stitch repeat, the math seemed to work out on it using the gauge I was getting in my swatch (which I even knit in the round!).  So I started.  I even tried a picot edge instead of the ribbing, thinking that would look cuter (my sister does cute). In the gauge I was using, the picot hem edging took forever and then I started on the pattern and...way too big.  It was too big for me, let alone my sister. Knowing I had to get this right and give socks that fit, I ripped out and dropped a repeat of the pattern.  I also did a k3, p2 ribbing instead.  That seemed nice, and a went for awhile with that, but the voice in my head kept nagging me about how it still felt too big.  It was ok for me, but would it stretch out too much because of the lace?  Would it grow when being worn? It was already on the edge of too big for my sister and...I gave up and ripped it out.  Due to the large repeat in the pattern, I really couldn't make it smaller comfortably. However, the pattern looked amazing in the yarn, I have to say, so I was sad it didn't work.

Since time was of the essence, I quickly went to my backup pattern, which is this one.  It seems to work, but I wasn't sure if I felt that way because the colors were similar and I could picture it in the yarn I had, or it would really work.  At least this kept the cute lace only on top, where fit wouldn't be as big of an issue. The ribbing would keep the rest snug.  So I went with the same stitch count I did for the smaller sock (which -1 ease, supposedly, though it doesn't look like it) and started.

Now I have a sock:

Yes, it looks small, but it stretches...if it wasn't shorter than my foot, I could wear it.

A couple of things about this pattern, though:

• The lace is nice, but very fiddly, at least in this gauge.  
• The yarn doesn't work as well for the lace as I would have hoped (the color changes obscure the pattern a bit), but it's good enough.
• Once you get past the lace, it is smooth sailing. It took me two days to do the small lace top, and 8 days to do the rest of the sock, and part of that is simply life getting in the way.
• Even though I changed the ribbing to be k6, p2 (mainly because p1's always look like crap when I do them; I can't seem to tighten them up enough), the damn sock still feels big to me.  The ribbing helps a bit, but not as much as I would have hoped.  I think it's just the yarn and it's light soft fluffy quality.  Nothing's going to feel tight using this stuff.

So...can I get it done?  Well, this is where I am now with the second one:

Almost done with the lace part.  So the possible answer is yes.  However, it will most likely be at a price:

I still haven't finished my mom's sweater.  I've been working on that collar for more than a week, and by working I mean mostly ignoring it and working on the sock.  So the socks may get done, and the sweater may get done, but I don't know if both will get done in time...

Better start working on it then, I guess.

*[Wait, I take that back.  I did almost miss a deadline for presents before.  The first time I made my mom socks, I was quickly finishing them and blocking them before I left her house so she could have them during Hanukkah...and the only reason I succeeded was because the yarn I had used for the provisional cast on matched the sock yarn, so I wove in the ends and left it there instead of making the sock longer. The socks were wet when I left, but they were done!]

So I Went to Rhinebeck and Brought Back More Photos of Cats Than Yarn (Rhinebeck Debrief 2013)

I said I was going to post about Rhinebeck and...I don't know what to talk about.  I re-read my post from last year and realized that my experience was pretty damn similar.  I went upstate, stayed with family, went to the fair, had a fun time, and went back home.  It was great but it was pretty much a repeat of last year, minus the class I took then.  I didn't take a class this year, so I can't even talk about that.

So, I guess I'll just picture dump then (not that I have many good ones.  I seriously have just as many pictures of cats this year, and none of the yarn):

The view from the porch of the building my sister's apartment was in (slightly north of Duchess County).  Pretty leaves. Still loooove the fall upstate, though it was freezing cold both mornings (it was better during the day).  Dunno what was going on at that church over there though.

Crappy picture; got taken through my windshield

The billboard on the way to the fair!  They seem to use the same design every year, though this is the first time I got a picture.  I shouldn't have been on 9G anyway (the billboard is at the intersection of the road from the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge (it's also a highway, but I forgot the name) and Rt. 9G.  It's meant for people coming from the bridge, which is why it's at a weird angle here)  Turns out you can drive straight down Route 9 through Red Hook to the Fairgrounds.  Duh.  I turned in Red Hook, got on 9G, and got stuck in all the traffic coming off the bridge to the fair.  Took me 30 minutes to get through it.  On the other hand, when I went Sunday, there was no traffic and I got there early because I was expecting to crawl for at least 10 minutes.

I got to the fair with plenty of time though, and got to see everything this time, more than once (several times in some cases...hey, you miss stuff the first two times). Saturday was crowded (figures with all that traffic), so I did more looking than shopping that day, though my mother and I are a bad influence on each other and so we both ended up with unplanned things that Saturday (favorite quote from her this year: 'I'm buying so  many things for myself this year and not for other people!'  I told her that was a good thing, that she should make stuff for herself).  Sunday I ran around with my sisters, and bought most of the yarn I wanted.  I also convinced my poor college student of a sister that she had to buy some yarn there, he he he.

For some reason, I have no pictures of the actual fair, but a few of sheep:

...and a llama (llama llama duck.  You're welcome for the earworm):

Wait, I took this bad picture of a shawl I really liked and want to knit:

I did buy yarn to do it at the fair, and by buy yarn I mean I bought a skein of heavy laceweight dark blue yarn to go with some royal blue fingering weight yarn I bought two years ago and still haven't used...for a sport weight shawl.  Oops. All sorts of fail there.  For some reason I thought that vendor only sold fingering weight yarn.

Of course I then went a bought what ended up being three skeins of sport weight yarn for a fingering weight shawl I've wanted to do since Phil Plait,of all people, linked to the Ravelry page for it, because of course Socks that Rock Mediumweight isn't actually standard sock weight yarn.  At least that just gets you a bigger 'shawl' (it will most likely go on my wall, not get worn.  It's just awesome).

And before you ask, no, I can't use the yarn I bought for the second shawl for the first and vice versa (well, I could do that first one, but I don't want to).  I need a dark black-blue yarn for the second one and two different colors for the first one.

So...wait, did I mention I have tons of photos of cats? I won't derail completely so I'll just post a few that go with a story about yarn.  Saturday night I spent lazing around my sister's apartment. Of course I had bought some of the yarn I bought that day (not the stuff above.  Other yarn.  You'll see). One of her cats (she has two) first decided it liked the yarn I was knitting with:

And then decided it wanted to get the new yarn in my bag:

And then decided that on top of my yarn and bag was a good place to sleep:

Yes, the socks in the bottom corner are my Crazy Purple Socks.  Had to wear something I made to Rhinebeck...

I eventually moved the yarn to the suitcase so it didn't become cat toys overnight.

On Sunday we did dinner and then I drove back to my parent's place.  Since I was lazing about on Monday as well and never made it to the bus to go back to the city (took off Friday and Monday.  Yay four-day weekend), I took pictures of what I bought:

Lots of gray and black this year

...and then decided to go check out the new yarn store that opened up the next town over this year.  Because Rhinebeck wasn't enough yarn.  Anyway, it ended up being a pretty nice store, and I had a nice chat with the owner since I was the only one there mid-day Monday.  Turns out she had organized a bus trip to Rhinebeck on Sunday, and she also had bought more yarn than she needed (her actual statement was closer to: 'I bought some yarn and then asked myself why I was buying yarn; I own a yarn store').  I also bought a skein of yarn, and signed my mother up for the mailing list because she keeps saying she's going to go check out the store and never does (I also told the owner about her so now she has no excuse). 

After the yarn store, I went to a local park and took more pictures:

I also sat in the island in the middle of the lake and knitted a bit.  Because why the hell not;  I had an hour left on the meter for my car.

And that was my weekend at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.  And with the cats.

Next year I'll take photos of the fair instead, I promise.

Unrealistic Expectations

I have a problem I think most people have, but anyway it's a problem.  I seem to think there are more than 24 hours in a day.  And that within those 24 hours, I can be superwoman and accomplish all this stuff, despite the fact that I can't even get my ass moving too fast (like now).

In other words, it's October, and I of course have way too many projects going on.

It's a bit worse this year, though.  The first issue is that I decided to make almost everything for my Halloween costume this year, so not only am I knitting a couple of items (one done, the other in progress:

), I'm sewing a dress.  Sewing takes up a lot more time since you can't just do 'a couple of rows' like in knitting, and is not portable.  At least I have a machine now:

The fact that it lives on my dining table is another problem

The good thing about the sewing machine is that it does save time.  The bad thing about the sewing machine is then I think I can whip out a full dress in a couple of days.  No.  No, I can't.  Especially since I'm a novice, crappy seamstress.  I then think I can do more than I can within the three or so hours after work I have.  Except when I don't because I went out to dinner.

So that's taking away from my knitting time.  Other things taking away from my knitting time are the NYC Yarn Crawl (for which I bought more yarn I didn't need) and NYS Sheep and Wool (this weekend!  Buy more yarn I don't really need!), and concerts (I've got three shows this month I went/am going to), and my boyfriend (which is related to the concert and dinner thing, at least).  And I can't even be pissed about it; I enjoy it all. But when did I gain a life?  Actually...never mind that, when did I become an adult with all these adult responsibilities on top of it all (you know, because I also really need to cook two weeks worth of lunches, do laundry, and clean the bathroom today)?

The second (third?) issue is that not only am I working on things for Halloween, I had to start everything for Hanukkah this month as well, since the first night is the evening before Thanksgiving (American, so that would be late November).  Usually I get last-minute present plans around Rhinebeck, get the yarn there, and start early November.  It works if Hanukkah is at least mid-December (though I still run into scheduling issues).  It doesn't work this year.  The good thing is that I did plan ahead on some things, and I have one present done, and I got a jump start on my Mom's socks.  The bad thing is that I currently have two more projects (including the socks) going for that because why not start another knitted present while I'm working on one already:

Ignore the gray skein...that isn't a project, just some random yarn I thought I might use and didn't

Well...started being relative.  I did swatch and do some calculations for one of them so far.  The reddish one is the Jane Bennet socks from the Summer 2012 issue of Jane Austen Knits.  I didn't pick the pattern; I had my Mom search Ravelry for a sock pattern she liked, and made the yarn I'm using the surprise (last year, it was the other way: she knew what yarn I was using, but didn't really know the sock pattern until I had to try them on her....ok, so we don't really do the surprise thing here.  It's just that she hasn't seen the work in progress yet). 

Oh, and I'm knitting another sock for a KAL:

Yeah, that's not getting done anytime soon. 

And don't even ask me about the tank pattern; I haven't started writing it yet.