Arranging and Organizing

I started my new job last week, working a couple days a week part-time at the LYS nearby.  I think it will be a good change of pace.  Whether or not I will get to teach remains to be seen, but right now I can take things one at a time.  I have also been busy doing other non-knitting things that aren’t all that interesting. As for knitting; I finished the Peacock socks and in true Nana fashion started another pair of socks almost immediately as well as my “November” Personal Sock club selection.  I’m still slogging away on the Pi Shawl, I have one more section before the final increase and I believe there are only 4 rounds or so after that.  (I erred in the last post thinking I only had 16 rounds to go as I hadn't read thoroughly or far enough ahead in the pattern to realize there was another 30 round section coming up) It’s still not very photogenic.  The Watershed vest is coming along, but I set it aside this weekend to work on the socks and the shawl. I may have a few other stealth projects started as well.  Since I'm not planning on ruining any secrets, here’s a quick look at what’s happening in Nana-socka-palooza:

Finished:

Peacock Socks by Janel Laidman

Yarn: Mini Mochi in Neptune (color 108)

Magic Loop / size 2.25 mm needles

I liked this pattern.  I’m so-so on the yarn, I love all the colorways, but this is a soft single ply and doesn’t always play nice in the thick/thin department.  Also as all soft yarns are prone to being splitty and easy to break I can get a little frustrated if I have to rip or tink, which who am I kidding, happens more than I care to divulge when I knit. But overall, my only disappointment was in not being able to control the colors to get the really nice effect of peacock feathers that Janel did with her hand-dyed yarn.  Hmmm I do have a set of sock blanks that I got for my birthday.

Started:

(November PSC) Narragansett Bay Socks

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in African Violet

Size 2.25 mm needles

Modified pattern from 64 to 60 stitches

Fall Stripey socks

Pattern: my standard 60 stitch sock / 2 row alternated stripes

Yarn Mini-mochi in color 304 and 108 (leftover from peacock)

Beyond that, I spent the better part of last weekend arranging my pattern binders, computer files/folders and Ravelry queue to get my sock patterns in order because sometime soon I plan to set up my Personal Sock Club bags for next year.  I can tell you I surprised myself with how well I’ve been doing in actually queuing patterns that I have on hand, but I still have a bunch that aren’t queued.  Oh well, the PSC helps weed them out and if I do bonus pairs each month that cuts it down even more.

Later on, I’ll have to do the same with the rest of the patterns, etc which I have collected for other things.  Everything is stashed somewhat neatly in binders, but needs to be matched with my queue at some point.  I did at least set up the other binders so that the tabs match the categories in my Rav queue and made sure that all of the binders are set up in the same order (about 2 hours worth of effort).  It’s nice to take a little time out to get more organized once in a while.

Since I doubt I’ll get a chance to blog tomorrow, I wish you all a Happy and healthy Thanksgiving.  I hope you have enough blessings in your life to feel as fortunate as I do.

Happy Knitting!

Nana

Nothing but sunbeam

Nothing but sunbeam
Originally uploaded by nanaknits21

Gotta make the most of every moment the sun comes out these days...
Zelda, you are doing it right!

Miles and Miles

One nice thing about taking short trips is that when we drive someplace, Hubby prefers to do most of the driving… that means lots of knitting time for me.  You might have figured that out from the previous post.  We’re back home now and I am happy to tell you that although I was practically holding my breath on the last repeat before the start of the toe, the main color yarn held out.  I only had approximately 9 yards left over. Whew!  The socks came out nicely.  The pictures not so much, but you can tell that they turned out pretty nice even if you can’t see a great amount of detail.

Finished!

The remainder

 Pattern: Guitar Man Socks by Rebecca Mercier

Yarn: Creatively Dyed Steele in Kinofuji and Art Yarns Ultramerino in color 124

Size 0 needles magic loop

The socks are unblocked in these photos because these socks are too big for my blockers. I’m not sure how I’ll get them blocked nicely (since they are a gift).  I’ll figure something out.  I really like this pattern and plan to tinker with an adaptation for a smaller foot at some point.  I’ll let you know if/when I figure it out.

In other knitting I am coming along nicely on the Watershed Vest 

 Watershed in the sun

with a little help from my 'assistant'

and the shawl is progressing… 

only 16 more rounds (or 9216 stitches) to go until the next increase row and bind off. 

It kinda feels like I’ve been knitting for miles on that thing.  

And speaking of miles…. a friend recently posted on Facebook that she was trying to knit from stash due to the size of hers.  She went so far as to figure out how much yarn she had in yards, miles etc.  I was intrigued.  So much so, that I (of course) had to go figure out what I have on hand.  I too have been making an effort to knit mainly from stash.  Especially so since we moved and I realized how much yarn I really have.  I now know that I have 85,288.7 yards of yarn including 37,074.1 yards of fingering.  That adds up to about 48 miles (21 miles of sock yarn) give or take a few yards; or roughly 86 pairs of socks and many other projects with the other weights. 

I could knit for miles and miles….

Happy Knitting!

 Nana

Will I make it?

Will I make it?
Originally uploaded by nanaknits21

This is a picture I took with my cell phone. I was knitting while riding in the car. As you can see, the foot is only about halfway done and the yarn remaining is above it....

The question is will the yarn hold out until I get all of the repeats for the foot done?

Only the shadows know for sure (hee, hee)

I'll let you know the outcome in my next regular post.

Suspenseful Knitting!

Winds of Change

October is done, the election is down in the books, the corn has all been picked, and the winds have blown into our little community and swept most of the leaves off the trees.  Here at casa Nana change is happening.  I got a new job!  Shortly after arriving here in IA, the LYS newsletter announced that the shop was looking for a few people to hire (both for teaching and retail). I knew I was qualified but hesitated to put in an application due to hubby’s impending surgery and the unknown path that would take us down.  Since thankfully that ended up with a good outcome, I felt a little better about the possibility of applying for a job.  I checked in with the owner about the status of the hiring search and ended up with an application to fill out.  I did, had an interview and was hired yesterday.  It should be a good change for us here.  Next it will be hubby’s turn to find something to do :)

I think my knitting woes have finally left as well.  I finished one peacock sock and one of the (giant) Guitarman socks and am still straggling along on the shawl. 

In addition to those projects, I saw this KAL and decided to join in.  It looked like an interesting (and so far) quick project and I had the perfect amount of yarn in my stash.  

So far I’ve got the bottom band done…

Oh, and we did get the TV connection fixed.  I still wouldn't recommend this company to anyone with a choice and am planning to switch as soon as we get one.  Initially we were told we would have to wait until Tuesday (the 2nd) for a repair person, but they did get someone out on Friday, just in time to watch games 2-5 of the World Series.  It was tough picking a team to root for this year since both my DD’s had a team in contention.  So, we went with the underdogs…

Now no more sports talk until April breezes bring baseball back (ha, ha… right!)

Happy Knitting!

Nana