An FO, plus My Precious Sock

Pictures, finally. Not good ones. The dreary Minnesota weather didn't cooperate for outdoor photos, so I had to put up with crummy lighting and unattractive backgrounds. If the sun comes out tomorrow, I'll do a retake.


The Maude Vest has been finished, blocked, and worn. I came, I knit, I conquered. When I told my coworker J., she replied, “have you cast on for the next one yet?” Dang, she knows me too well.


It’s a good thing I finished the vest yesterday, since today the knitting voodoo is upon me. Picked up the gusset stitches on my sock before I turned the heel; rookie mistake. Went to turn the heel, and ended up with a non-centered heel twice before remembering, (i.e., looking at the pattern) how to do it. While undoing my mistakes, dropped several stitches. After finally getting everything picked up again, put one of the gusset decreases in the wrong place.It’s great that I have a job where I can knit during my downtime.It wasn’t too busy today at work, but I believe I completed only two rounds on my sock. 


I feel like there’s some little fiend dogging me, someone who looks like Rumplestiltskin or Dobby, or worse, Gollum.Excuse me. I have to go buy a garlic wreath, some asafoetida (you can look it up) and a few wooden stakes for good measure.

One down, only ??? to go

I cast off the Maude vest this morning, and put it in the "spa bath" (cool water and Soak wool wash) this morning. If I'm not too lazy this afternoon I should be able to block it. I was hoping to wear it to work tomorrow, since Katie warned me I had to have it done -- under what authority, I'm not sure -- but I'll have to see if it's dry in time. I may be wearing it with un-woven-in ends.

And I WILL post a picture when it is finished. See? I'm turning over a new leaf. Let's hope there aren't maggots under it. (The leaf, that is.)

Next up is a sweater I had hoped to finish by last Christmas. Well, Easter and Christmas are both about Christ, right? So if I get it done by Easter, I'll call it a success. It's a kimono by Plymouth, knit in Encore, and it was dead easy to knit, although I kept knitting the pieces longer than necessary and having to rip because the Idiot Knitting lulled me into a trance. I hope it will be a cold, cold summer so the friend I'm making it for can enjoy it. Maybe I'll have to take her camping in the Arctic.

All I have left on the kimono is picking up about one-hunderd-and-eighty-four-billion stitches up the front, around the neck, and down the other front, and knitting a wide garter stitch shawl collar. Then the dreaded sleeve and side seams. I might have to fortify myself with a few beverages for the seaming. It's not that I can't do it, it's just ... well, you know. Seaming. Feh.

After the kimono, I will finish the socks I promised to another friend years ago in exchange for a favor. I think I might have to make two pair, the second pair being overdue interest.

My resolution -- OK, yes, I'm making a damn resolution -- is to accompany each of these tiny triumphs with photos of the FOs (hey, I like the sound of that, 'photos of the FOs'). And then my blog can be all pretty.

[Off topic]: I wish I'd had my camera yesterday morning, when I went out to walk the dog in the SNOW and there was a lone goose standing out in the white field, looking as if it was having the same bewildered and murderous thought I was about the weather.

Stay tuned.

F-ing Os

I’m thinking hard about F-ing some Os. No, that’s not code for naughty-speak.

If you’re a knitter, you probably know about UFOs (Un-Finished Objects). And if you’re me, you have several -- well, several dozen ... ish -- UFOs lurking in Rubbermaid bins and boxes and project bags and baskets and in any other sort of container large enough to hold projects-in-progress.

So, I’m thinking of F-ing some of those Os.

I’m dangerously close to finishing my current project, the Maude Vest from the Simply Shetland 2 book. I have an inch or so left to knit, then I may finish the armholes with crochet or I-cord edging, and then I need to block it. 

Usually when I reach this stage in a project, it feels done to me, and I can’t help casting on for something new and exciting. I’m sort of like Donald Trump in this way, only I go after newer, fresher projects instead of newer, younger wives.

And I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions, so I don’t ever resolve to F more Os for that reason. And I don’t believe in either Hell or the Knitting Police, so I can’t be guilted into finishing anything I don’t F-ing want to. (OK, that WAS naughty-speak).

So why this sudden burst of potential industriousness?

For one thing, I think my coworker E. is a bad (good?) influence on me. She is one of those dismaying people who casts on a project on Tuesday night -- at work, I might add -- and by Friday morning she comes in with a completed acre of fully blocked Orenburg Lace or a Dubbelmossa Fair Isle hat or some such thing. And not only that, she keeps up with her blog and puts plenty of photos on it as well. I admit to feeling a little competitive.

For another, I’ve had occasion to go into my stash recently and in the process I unearthed a few things that would take about 1 hour each to complete. For example, the Sonoma Wrap from Simply Shetland 2, which involved 72 inches of various lovely stripes in Woven Stitch. I completed the knitting in record time, but so far the edging has taken me about three years. Well, applied I-cord can’t be rushed.

And then there are the socks I promised a friend several years ago. All I have left is the foot of the second sock. Two evenings of work, max, and I could get that sock monkey off my back.

And ... and ...

But maybe I could just look at that beautiful new silk and wool handpainted yarn I bought on Saturday? You won’t tell, right? I swear I won’t cast on ...