Hello? Remember Me?

I suspect I have lost all five of my readers.  It's not surprising.  I have been so absent since (gasp) December that you are all quite reasonable in thinking that I have died.  I haven't, but my knitting and crafting and general spare time certainly has.

I'll give you the alert now.  If you're expecting a voluptuous post (or even series of posts) full of long-lost fibery and yarny goodness, you're going to be disappointed.  I'm only slightly more reliable on Instagram.

This year has been a continuation of the disastrous overly busy work year which was 2016.  In fact, we're referring to this as Q5 2016.

My total knitting for the year has been 4 socks.

That's right.  4.  Socks.

No, you didn't misread.  Not pairs.  4 pairs in a year like this would be respectable-ish.

4 socks.  1 pair and two singles. 

I have almost forgotten how to knit. I kid you not. I am making a TON of rookie mistakes.  I am chalking it up to lack of experience.

I will blog about the yarny stuff first and then the miscellaneous stuff. So those of you who are interested will get your fiber fill within about 8 seconds. Because trust me, there's precious little here.

I now have both a work phone and a personal phone, so it means two cameras.  So the order of photos is a little wacky.

In terms of what has been happening in my life besides work, Bad Baz died, we had a mother of a snowpocalypse (three big dumps over the course of a week), and I went to Florida for a work conference. Oh yes, and that suspected gallstone attack? I am the proud owner of a 1.9 cm gallstone.  It has been confirmed by ultrasound. 

GODDAMN  Where are my knitting photos?  Excuse me while I go into manic panic mode here. It appears that only my work phone photos have been updating since I got it in January.  

Okay.  I have now done some fiddly magic.

On with the yarn stuff.  To be followed by some snow and some cloud porn and some Florida building porn.

Christine and I decided we were going to do a personal sock club in 2017. We were going to commit to 6 pairs of socks (or one sock a month) and we were going to alternate selecting yarn or pattern or whatever.  This was before I knew that 2017 was going to be as much of a clusterfuck as 2016.

So I picked Hunter Hammersen as the designer and chose the Lycaen Virguaureae sock from one of the Knitters Cabinets of Curiosity.  I decided to do a deep stash dive to use some old Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in the Summer Dusk colourway.  

It's one of those socks where you do the fiddly drawn out thing with some loopy things going in different directions.  I started off enthusiastically but then 2017 happened.

This is as far as I got.  And, truth be told, I think this is probably as far as I will get on this particular sock.  

I just don't love it enough to want to finish it. 

Nothing like starting the year off with an epic fail.

When Princess and G-Man were here in December/January [see the very distant previous post for the knitting details], Princess somewhat shamefacedly admitted that she had managed to felt the hat I made for her out of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted. She's normally knitworthy, so this must have been a blip.

So she asked if I would make her another.  I agreed, and decided to do the other version of the Penchant hat.  The previous one was stockinette, so I did the ribbed version for number two.

According to my knitting journal thing, I started it on December 30, 2016 and used 104 stitches and 4.5 mm needles.  I finished it January 1, 2017, making it the first FO of the year.

The kicker? She forgot it here.  So it's sitting patiently on the kitchen table waiting for me to mail it.  That will likely be in July.  But she'll have it for next year.

Insert eyeroll here.

Good grief. I haven't even updated Ravelry in three months. I am a total fail. Epic, in fact.

I had ordered two skeins of Hedgehog Fibres sock from Simply Socks Yarn Co.  I ordered a greyish skein for work socks and a skein in Monet because it was blue and beautiful.

They must have arrived some time after January 1.

And yes, I am on a bit of a blue kick still.  You will of course realize what an anomaly this is, because, well, baby blue.  You know how I hate, loathe and detest that colour.  

I applaud Typepad for this new ability to insert multiple photos at one time, but they show up in random order.  And to be honest, I can't be arsed to fix it.  You see them all.  

If you're interested in a great online shopping experience for sock yarn, I can highly recommend Simply Socks Yarn Co. I have never had a bad experience there, and they are quick and efficient. I love their selection.  I actually go there now before I go to the Loopy Ewe.

Okay, what else do we have on the yarn front?

I did receive the final three skeins from Yarn Enabler for the Pencil Crayon of the Month Club.  They're great.  October's offering was Lady Grey, and November was a turqouisy blue and December was a green.  

My plan is to knit these all into socks at some point. I was originally planning for 2017 since I have (gasp) not joined ANY sock or yarn clubs.  Then I realized that this is a total crap year and I will be lucky to get out with 5 pairs.  So I figure if I get these knitted before my death, it's a win.

At some point between January 1 and now, I decided to knit an Alice Yu sock.  I think Christine and I tentatively decided this was the alternate for January. 

I started Vorticity using my Hedgehog Fibres in the Monet colourway. The problem with that is that the yarn is thin and there are only 70 stitches on the sock and I was using 2.25 mm needles.

Yes, that is a lovely colourway, even if it is light blue.

So, no surprises here, I decided that was going to be too small.  So off to the frog pond it went.

So I decided that I loved the pattern and wanted to do it in a thicker yarn with perhaps larger needles.  I went stash diving and came up with my skein of String Theory Caper in the Isis colourway.

I completed the first sock and am on the second sock. But I seem to have buggered something up, so there needs to be some tinking and some swearing.

Photos? Surely you jest. I will keep you in suspense.  Expect to see it in probably ... July.

Anyway, the first one is one of the four socks I've knitted this year.

So I know you're desperate  to know what else I've knitted.

I started and finished the second Boomerang Nebula sock in the String  Theory Colorworks Wave from the 2016 sock club.  I haven't taken photos of the finished pair.  I will do that soon ish.  (Again, expect to see it in July).

The only actual pair of socks I've knit is a pair for the Lad. I'm going to insert lots of photos because I have so little else to show.

The pattern is my own. If anyone is interested in it, let me know and I'll write it up for you.

Sock #1 was January 17-21 and Sock #2 was January 28-Feb 9.  I did 2.5 mm needles, 72 stitches and used my skein of Poste Yarn US Targhee Sock in the Bluebird colourway.

I am eternally grateful to the Lad's GF because she has turned him on to vegetables and vegetarianism in general and she is a huge fan of handknit socks.  Before her, he kind of pooh-poohed the idea of hand knit socks. But when he went out west and spent a month snowboarding in the minus a gazillion temperature, he realized the value of knitted socks.  So now he is a convert. And I am happy to knit for him.

Fortunately he doesn't have massive feet (unlike G-Man), so they are only slightly longer than mine.

When I find more time, I'll knit him more socks.

But that's the pair which I've accomplished for the year.

Seriously. One new pair.  How pathetic. Even in my first year of knitting I did better than this.

I have made precisely ONE yarn purchase this year.  I used some of my very well-deserved and well-earned bonus money to purchase 4 skeins of Artistic Yarn by Abi.  I usually buy some yarn every year with my bonus. Since I've been knitting almost not at all this year, I haven't been buying any yarn.  What's the point when you can't even get to it? 

But for those of you who don't know, Abi has her own web site as well as her Etsy store.  And she is just killing it at the moment with her various yarns.  Here's the link for Artistic Yarns by Abi. Her original watermelon yarn is still the best self-striping watermelon yarn around.  And she now has so many awesome yarns.  I still have a skein of her ghost yarn which I haven't knit.

I ordered Dragon Fruit, Cantaloupe, Not So Vanilla, and Rainbow Trout.

I also want the Cheeseburger yarn, the Gingerbread Stripe yarn, the Bollywood yarn, the Chinese New Year, the Mardi Gras yarn, the All or Nothing Yarn, the Koi Pond yarn, the Jawbreaker Yarn, and the Chips Ahoy yarn, and the Bacon & Eggs yarn. But let's be realistic here.  That would take me until 2024 if I started knitting now and only knit with those yarns.

But when my precious skeins arrive, I will have some yarnp0rn for you.

So I think that brings us to the end of the fibery goodness.

I mentioned that I frogged the HF Monet Vorticity sock. What I didn't mention is that I have re-started another sock. I did a 2x2 twisted rib and have moved to a 3x1 rib leg.  I'm using 2.25 mm needles and 72 stitches. Stay tuned. I am about 60 rows into the leg and may be approaching the heel flap soon.

One thing I have noticed lately is that much as I love the ease and simplicity of the Fish Lips Kiss heel, it doesn't fit me very well. Or maybe I just didn't knit the feet long enough.  Come to think of it, I seem to have some socks where I've only done 32 rows on the heel flap, and they're also a little short. 

Speaking of which, here's a PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

I decided to wear my Watermelon Slice beaded socks to work the other day. I wore them with flats.  But the beads were like little arrows. What on earth was I thinking? I was limping around the building. It was like walking on hot coals.

DO NOT wear beaded socks if there are beads on the feet.  Beaded legs are fine. Beads on the feet? Not so much. I'm pretty sure I'm still bruised. 

All right. I will leave the non-yarn post for another day.

I have to figure out how to fix my Vorticity mistake.  Or I need to make progress on my HF sock.

I really miss knitting.  It grounds me and keeps me sane. It's also my lifeline to all my internet peeps. 

I'm going to end this here and perhaps do another non-knitting post in the next little while.

I spent the weekend marking and have only one more marking assignment to go.  Woo hoo. But before then, there is a ton more work stuff which has to be done.

Thanks for your indulgence, folks. I'm not dead.  I'm just in cryogenic suspension. 

 

Comments

[Witchknit]

I am so glad you're alive. I was actually beginning to be afraid.

2016 was a "mother" of a year for a lot of people and 2017 does seem to be just more of the same crap only multiplied ten fold. I for one am looking forward to 2020.

I bet there are more than 5 of us who read (stalk) your blog. ; - )

[Roobeedoo]

Hi there - I am still stalking you, don't worry! ;)
4 socks sounds good to me - I have ripped more than I have knit this year.
Keep up the good work - you're doing fine!

[Peggy]

Glad you're back, Jennifer! Your peacock cowl turned out really nice. Thanks for the link to Abi's site, it's sooo colorful! Made me hungry, too.

[The Other Jennifer]

I'm still here too!

[Kristin/HLMauera]

Oh goodness! I was afraid you'd gotten so disgusted with US politics that you'd given up on blogging. Work foo isn't any better though and probably personally worse. I have nothing on my needles at the moment either. I finished the Christmas knitting last month with a monstrous double knit scarf- which is really cool but it did me in for a while. Good luck with work. I'll be around when you have time to post.

[Leslie]

Glad to see a post from you! I was just thinking about how all my favorite bloggers had gone silent.

[Erica]

Yay, I missed your blogging! Glad you found a few minutes to keep us all up to date on what's happening!

Also, what in the world made you think walking around on beads would end well?? I actually laughed out loud as I read that!

[Christine]

I’m catching up with your blogs. I finished my Hunter sock in August. A total of 3 socks in 2017. 8 shawls. I’m still a shawl kick. In the winter, I wear my hand knit socks everyday. Shawls maybe every other day so I really should knit more socks, right? But I’m thinking 2018 May be the year of the sweater.