The Koigu Won

So much work to do in my life, so little time to do it all in. Every day as term goes by I'm more and more thankful that I've found my knitting moments to keep me sane.

Now, I may as well make a confession, though I tried to keep it stowed away in the bag I got it in, the Koigu put up too good of a fight and it ended up on spare set of dpn. (It has a mind of its own I tell you). So despite my (mostly) best efforts otherwise I am in the middle of another pair of socks even though my sweater is not done. But the socks are just so exciting, have a looksie:

I'm loving how the colours are turning out. The picture is actually pretty true to life in colour (shockingly enough). I wasn't expecting it to be that dark or to have so much in the way of greens. But I am not disappointed at all. So far there has only been one major mishap, a misplaced yo that I didn't catch until 6 rows too late. That was very tedious unknitting. The pattern itself is the Monkey sock pattern from Knitty Winter 2006. They yarn they call for has slightly more yardage so I cut out two repeats of the lace on the cuff to hopefully not run out of wool. And I'm glad it turned out that way because I think 6 repeats would've been too much anyways.

But, to make up for the sock fascination again, I did spend some time with my sweater. It's an off the shoulder sweater from the Bernat website. I'm finished the back and front piece and am on to the arms. After that, it's the round piece that flips over the shoulder. It's a very shotty pick, but here's the back and a bit of an arm:

I would link the pattern but I seem to be totally unable to find it any more on the Bernat website. Hmmm... I better make sure I don't lose the one that I printed off.

So lately, I've started to knitting in public to get more knitting time in. And I must say that I find it quite enjoyable. While I enjoy the zen solitude of knitting, I also feel strongly that nothing is worth doing if you can't share it. And I like it when people ask what I'm doing or come and share their knitting stories. And I'm finding more and more people I know knit. Some I never suspected suddenly come out of the cracks when they see me knitting. I like the feel of connection that art brings. Meeting people who know why I find it so incredibly addictive.

FO's for all

Tonight was an extravaganza of FOs. I figure that if I could get all the small projects out of the way that I might actually start to focus on getting my off the shoulder sweater finished (though that new Koigu wool is going to make it extra hard to not spend all of my time making more socks). Without further ado, here they are:

These are the leg warmers I promised my aunt for Christmas and promptly had to remake. But now I assure you that they are both 100% the exact same size as, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a difference of several inches in the circumferences of my aunts calves. They're made from Bernat's Satin wool. Just a K1P1 rib at the top, stockinette body and garter stitch at the bottom. Notice the obligatory pointed dancer toes pose in the picture :) I am now officially super jealous and wish I could have them for myself.

The second FO would have to be... my first pair of socks!!!

These were made from Sirdar Snuggly wool in the colour Party Pink on size 3 dpn. I must say that the second one I made looks much nicer than the first and was much easier. I think I may become a sock knitting addict. The kitchener stitch also went much nicer the second time around. I kept messing up and dropping stitches all over the place on the first sock but for the second I couldn't remember what I found so hard. I'm moving up in my knitting I guess.

And before I forget, welcome to the new visitors to my site. I knew something was up when suddenly I found three comments in an entry for the first time. Clearly, it was the working of Jewels from the university who got me started on the blogging. It was extra nice to see comments.

But back to work. Reading week is almost up and I have tons of work left to do. But on an end note, Misty did approve of my studying break to finish the knitting:

Back

So it's been a few weeks since last I posted. Mostly due to a lack of time to knit or sleep really. In the span of a week and a half there I had to mark about 150 assignments/tests, do 4 assignments myself and write 2 tests back to back. Just about died (well... not really, but my head sure felt like it).

Not that there isn't lots to do this week over reading week, but I have more time. I spent the whole weekend knitting. Unfortunately it was mostly do to the fact that I was rather medicated and slighlty out of it on pain medication and didn't have to attention span to do school work. But no complaints from me if it gets me knitting.

I first finished this gold evening purse which is a birthday present for my friend Leslie which she'll get sometime this week. Unfortunately the lining of it took me just as long to do as the actual purse. Hand sewing really isn't my cup of tea. But I tried very hard to make it the best I possibly could for her. Here's the result:

I apologize for the crappy camera which is about 6 years old. The details on the purse didn't come out very well. And I should mention that it was crocheted ofcourse.

Today I took a trip down to my LYS and was in my happy place completely. It's so tempting to buy everything you wanted. I settled on picking on the yarn I need to make my friend the devil eared equivalent of my kitty hat that she asked me for, some Paton's Brilliant in silver that my mom wanted so that she could knit a purse too but I did buy myself one special splurging present:

It's Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino. 100% Merino, 50g/175 yds. But it was popular that I couldn't get two from the same exact dye lot (they're made in lots of only about 20 or less). But, apart from dye lot numbers they also have dye codes for wools with similar colours so I had to settle for two with similar dye codes. But I figure that they're bought to make funky socks so slightly off colours won't hurt anything.

In other news, I expect imminent completion of my first pair of socks and to do the emergency fixing of my aunt's Christmas present before she returns to the city on Friday (I accidently made her leg warmers two different sizes, oops! I blame the stress of exams). Happy knitting all :)