Slow and steady progress

This week I made some serious progress on the sock. I navigated past the heel and successfully decreased the stitches back to the original 70. Now it's just a few more inches for the foot and then the toe decrease. I might just finish it this week!

Apparently I am finally past my tendency to knit and crochet way too tightly. This thing fits!

I also did some more weaving over the weekend. One repeat of this pattern takes about an hour, so that's all I can manage at any one time. Still not convinced that this project will be a success, but on the other hand I haven't broken any threads yet, which I was worried about last week.

There's a bit of fabric building up.

Still having a hard time seeing the pattern, sadly.

And finally, about five or six years ago I started a crochet pattern with super bulky baby alpaca yarn, which was about the most wonderful yarn I'd ever run across. It was made on a very large size N hook, I think. I got a few rows in and got confused by the directions. I put it down, not realizing that I hadn't marked where I left off. Fast forward to six years later, and the damn thing is still haunting me. So I dug it out of its bag yesterday, took some photos, and then frogged it. I am going to start over and this time I will finish it!

This photo doesn't begin to convey the beautiful color or soft feel of this yarn. Trust me, it's yummy.

That is one gigantic hook right there.

A shocking development

I got quite a bit accomplished this week (well, mostly this weekend ... well ... mostly Sunday).

I successfully finished the heel flap on my sock.

I successfully turned the heel on my sock.

Look at that thing. It's gorgeous!

This morning I even managed to pick up the stitches from the sides and get everything back onto three needles.

It's possible that it's relatively smooth sailing from here on. *knock on wood*

What else did I do? Glad you asked. I think I figured out how to do Tunisian crochet on a double-pointed hook. My first swatch attempt was an unmitigated disaster, but this time around things worked better. I need to do another swatch on a smaller hook though. The gauge is off.

When I frogged this it became clear that the blue and the white are two entirely independent layers. Really odd to rip out the white and be left with a husk of blue.

And here's the shocking development: I DID SOME WEAVING THIS WEEKEND.

I know! What's the world coming to?

Still not sure whether using alpaca for a pattern that calls for chenille will work.

Can you see the pattern? I can only see it from certain angles. I think my yarn colors don't contrast enough.

But at least I feel like I look like a weaver now, what with my new outrageous Old Lady Readers.

Last but not least, this weekend I sampled some interesting chocolates straight from Dublin, Ireland, courtesy of my friend Jennifer.

I much preferred the Irish whiskey one over the Guinness one. Another shocking development!

This sock is taking over my life

I'm really not used to moving so slowly and paying attention to every stitch, but so far it's paying off. I think I've only dropped one stitch, and then I successfully saved it, and last night I got the cuff done and am ready to tackle the heel. Woo!

Look at that pretty pattern!

I also finally got my husband to pose in his socks with me. Those things are so warm and comfy.

Progress! Relatively speaking

This weekend I started the pattern section of my new sock. It's possible that I messed up along the way and it's possible that I had to go to my LYS for an emergency intervention because I have no idea how to un-knit. With crochet, if you screw up you just rip it back to where the mistake was made. With knitting, however, you have to carefully un-knit each stitch. I've more or less figured out how to do that with a simple knit or purl stitch, but this pattern calls for fun things like "slip one stitch knitwise, knit 2 together, pass stitch over," which is knit-speak for "decrease two." I have no idea how to undo that.

While the lovely ladies at Looped were figuring out where I went wrong (I totally skipped two knit stitches ... duh), I also got some advice on buttons for the thread sweater that I finished some time ago. I had found some super cute daisy buttons, at Wal-Mart of all places, but they wouldn't fit through the damn button holes. So I went for some pretty blue glass buttons, and they worked like a charm!

The sweater is currently being blocked for about the 80th time. It WILL eventually be the right shape.

Once the Looped ladies figured out what when wrong with the pattern (and it's really a very simple pattern, 10 stitches over 4 rows) I moved right along. It almost looks like I know what I'm doing.

I managed five repeats of the pattern this weekend before my hands cramped up and my elbow got stiff.

Slightly blurry, but a better shot of the pattern. Yarnovers create holes, which can be scary, but also pretty.

I also had planned to wind a warp for my poor neglected Baby Wolf, but I couldn't find the pattern I had in mind anywhere in my house. Any weavers who recognize this pattern, from 2005 or earlier, please let me know. I thought I had gotten it from Handwoven, but I couldn't find it in any of my back issues. I made a thousand of these things, but for some reason the pattern is in hiding.  http://tundragirl.blogspot.com/2005/09/off-loom.html