Next Project

Seeing as how I got into Princeton!, my next project appears to be the Uniscarfity scarf, from Magknits November 2006. In Black and Orange. Teehee.

Celebrations?

I finished the pair of Falling Leaves socks. Right now my knitting binder has nothing in the WIP section; I feel so empty. :(
Anyway, if I could get nice sock yarn I think I'll do the baudelaires, but I might also do the Cable Net socks (also from Knitty.com) in the leftover Magic Stripes yarn from the Jaywalkers.

Youpi, as the people in the French workbook would say. I feel proud.

1 pair down, who knows how many to go.

(And the best part about these falling leaves socks, besides the fact that they're ready in time for fall, is that they're Sockotta, so they have a 45% cotton count. LOVE the fact that my feet aren't all itchy and rashy.)

Falling Leaves

I'm done with the heel, just about one or two pattern repeats left and then the ribbing and then I'm done. I want to decrease 8 sts somewhere in the pattern, because the first sock is a bit loose around the ankle, but I also don't want to change it too much. Perhaps I'll just go down a couple needle sizes. (I think at this point, I'm using US0s. I'll go down to US000s for the ribbing, and 00s for the pattern.)

Hmm. This is the third pair of socks I've ever knit. At least, third finished pair of adult-sized socks.

After I'm done with these, I believe I'm going to make a pair of Baudelaires, but I have no wine-colored sock yarn and I fully believe that it calls for a deep bordeaux color.

Socktoberfest!

It begins! (Actually, it began yesterday.)
I'm planning on finishing up my Falling Leaves socks (from Knitty Fall 2005) and perhaps starting a pair of Baudelaires (again from Knitty). Maybe I won't have enough time to do that, because off applications and all. I really really want to get into A Certain University. hehe.

I spun up who-knows-how-much white yarn; that's all the white roving left from the original batch. Now I can get to work on the stuff I got at GSS&W.

I'm all shaky because there was just a flame + frying pan incident. That equals (=) scared moi.

Fiber!

So I hit up Garden State Sheep and Wool and I was probably the only teenaged spinner there. How funny. I felt like a lot of the vendors saw me as a total inept beginner, just because I didn't know the variations and names and all. Just because I'm new at spinning doesn't mean I suck at all fibery crafts, however. Hmf. Anyway, I haven't been able to spin any of it up because I'm currently going through all the white roving I have, and it's beautiful! I might try to dye (some of) it, but I'm not really sure.

School's been quite hectic, this being my senior year and all the nasty stuff such as applications must be done now. I feel a bit like I'm crisping around the edges, and if I let this go on, I think I might burn out. But I guess I have to be like wool and not actually sustain a flame.....oh dear. The similes hurt my brain.

Anyway, I still love yarn and wool and knitting and spinning, but I might have to take a bit of a hiatus on the fibery things. Maybe I'll need knitting to stay calm and together, who knows.

Progress?

So since the Knitting Olympics ended, I've been lazing about (haha), doing homework, and waiting for summer. Since summer started, I've been lazing about, doing astrophysics, and waiting for school while hoping that summer homework would go die.

I went on a crazy finishing rampage during the first week of july or so. Finished the lurid green glovelets, the KO jaywalkers, and helped my mom plan and finish two scarves. I cast on, knit, and finished a purple-and-white Clapotis with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, on size 8 clover 13 (14?) inches. This took a day more than a week, although it was only about 17 inches wide, but 5 feet long, perhaps. I cast on during the trip to Maine, and finished on the way back home; actually, in Cambridge MA, at around midnight.
Amethyst and Creme, I believe. I have one skein of each left over, because I downsized the pattern quite a bit.

Hmm. I cast on for a pair of Falling Leaves socks, with some 45 cotton 45 wool 10 nylon (?????) mystery (since I don't have the ball band with me....I'm in Istanbul) sock yarn. I bought it in Cambridge, cost me 8 dollars for one skein and I think I will have enough left over for one single sock when I'm done with the pair. I made them anklet socks, not quite full-length, and they're pretty. I must admit, the wool content bothers me, even in such a low percentage, so I don't know if I will be able to wear them, but it would be nice. I gifted the Jaywalkers to my mother.

Um. Other than that the knitting has been slow, and I've only got one sock of the pair finished. I started the other one with a figure-eight cast on, as a provisional cast-on for a toe-up sock, since I didn't have scrap yarn (*gasp*). It seems to be working and I think I like this method. (You do a figure-eight cast-on and leave the unworked stitches on a holder as you do the decreases etc.)
I don't have SSS but I do have second-sock-not-wanting-to-do-the-boring-toe syndrome.

And I doubt I'll be knitting on the plane, since security is up by quite a bit. 10 hours lost, how sad. Maybe I'll knit on the way back home.

I bought 100 grams of this pretty pink-and-green yarn, wool, made in Turkey, from Feza Iplik. It's literally right down the hill, at least for the summers.

I would very much like to find a proper Turkish spindle, but despite the fact that I'm in turkey, I don't know where to start.

Happy knitting!

The Bode Award

For the many who have described a comparison between Bode Miller and themselves, I present to you....



The Bode Miller award.

And a more knitterly version, but more of an avatar.







Enjoy.

The sock's going. When trying on the other sock, I realized I just might be allergic to wool. Annoying for a knitter, eh? Maybe I should knit silk socks.....hahaha.

I had an idea, that for the Paralympics, I could not buy any yarn/knitterly stuff, and donate the money I saved to disability research. Or knit something.
I don't really know.

Knitting World Cup?

I might decide to do a little knitting for the world cup this year. Like the KO, but all about soccer. Maybe I'll knit me a soccer-themed scarf or hat or something. :P
Soccer socks would be weird, right?

I got some gorgeous roving and a drop spindle; now all I need is a weekend to put that stuff to use. *hyper*

DNF

I am basically the Bode Miller of the knitting world.

Without the beer belly.

I'm finished with the gusset decreases on the second sock. That's all. SSS hit me bad, and it was hard to recover. It's like Bode on the giant slalom (or super-g) where he hit a gate and had to ski on one ski, and missed the other gate and left the course.
Right. I'm going to sneak out, defiantly and all that.

Before I do, though, I'd like to quote someone on the Team USA KAL yahoo group, who I admire.
"Congratulations to those of you who finished your projects and especially to all of you who dared to dream and cast on in the first place. You may not be winners, but you will always be Knitting Olympians and no one can ever take that away from you."

Going for the Silver

Haha. I'm buying some time by going by the NBC coverage of the Olympics. Closing ceremonies start at 7 pm.

Otherwise, I totally missed the 2 pm finish time. So no gold for me.

I will survive

despite the fact that I've still got the entire foot, and the heel, and about 2 more inches of leg to go.

Argh.

In the Spirit of Things

The Olympic Spirit is all about going beyond. Beyond your limits, beyond nationality, beyond fear and panic and doubt.
I feel as if the Knitting Olympics honestly allow so many people to accomplish that. One person posted on the Team USA KAL Yahoo group that she had been knitting sweaters for 15 years and had never knit a sock. Now, the KO (Knitting Olympics) allowed her to go beyond that mental block (or whatever it was) and knit a pair of socks. Now she plans to knit more socks.

I think that's amazing, and I think many people are going through that same smashing of barriers now. It is bringing people together, giving us all a sense of unity, teaching us that no matter how limited we think we are, we can rise to the occasion. We are rising to the occasion.

And I'm rising to smash the panic button. I count four days left. (hush.)
However, I am knitting pretty fast, with much support and love from the people in school and at home.

I feel proud, of myself and of all the Olympic Knitters in the world. We are amazing. We continue to prove our amazingness.
It's just a happy, fuzzy feeling that has nothing to do with finding an amazing pattern or some amazing yarn. It's deeper, and, dare I say it, better.

This is sad.

I'm stuck in a rut. Haven't knit a stitch today, but I might really honestly give up on homework and knit during the Olympics.

I learned to knit from my mom at age 6, and then from memory and friends at around 11. I basically knit left-handed backward, so my knit stitches look like English purls if you're facing me, and my purls look like English knits. It's not even combined; if anything, I think it's Eastern. That would make sense, considering my mom learned in Turkey when she was in uni. (She knit herself a cardigan like the scandinavian ones--in the round, with pretty colors. I'm amazed.)
Sometimes I feel like every pattern I see is written for someone else, and it's so much easier to just knit "properly" and conform to everyone else.
So as it happens, I can knit about 4 different ways, and purl about 4 different ways. It's 8 each if you count the fact that I can knit "backwards" or left-handed.

Not bad, eh?

And all that knowledge doesn't help me one damn bit, because I have no motivation. >_<

We Shall Overcome

Second Sock Syndrome is being beat into the ground by a combination of external motivation, procrastination, and button-making. I've got like 3 rounds of the second sock done. *le huge sigh*

Anyway, here's a Team Turkey button I made (really late, too...), because I don't think there's a team turkey and i'm sure I can't be the only Turkish knitter out there. Cheering for the figure skater who is like the whole team. (Kind of reminds me of our school track team... >_<)

Argh. Just lost a sentence. Oh noes.
You know you knit too much when someone blogs about computer issues and says "I need to buy a cable" and you think "Wait, they come seperately?"

Warning: Rated R language ahead. If you're a little kiddie, cover your eyes but don't scream.
Good night. If you happen to be homework, I'd like to say "Fuck you" and go away before I stab this hairbrush up your arse. :)

Second Sock Syndrome Sucks

Like the alliteration?
I was going so well, and then I bound off horribly, and lost all of my momentum. Here's the second 400, and I really don't want to do it. With motivation and support, however, I will succeed and prevail and all that crap.
I had lost the other ball of yarn for a while, but I just found it and it is ready to go. Tomorrow, perhaps.

Oh, here's a random pattern for a beginner scarf I designed/made a long time ago. It's really simple, and the ribbing makes it look sort of like stockinette on the RS, but it doesn't curl.
26 stitches on straight needles, pick the yarn and the needles that you feel best show off the cables. (Oh yes, there will be cables.)
CO 26 sts
K 1 row (RS)
K 1 row (WS)
*RS: K3, P2, K2, P1, K1, P1, 6 stitch braid cable (*), P1, K1, P1, K2, P2, K3
WS: P3, K2, P2, K1, P1, K1, P6, K1, P1, K1, P2, K2, P3*
Repeat these two rows until the scarf measures as long as you want it to be, end on a RS, K1 row (on ws), K1 row (on rs), bind off all 26 sts.

Of course, you could leave off the garter stitch, and just CO, go in the pattern, BO. Whatever you want, really. And you could replace the middle 6-stitch braid-cable with something else.
(c) 2006 Ayse

6-stitch Braid Cable (definitely not of my own creation, though I'm not sure where I first learnt it. I think my friend explained it to me verbally when we were 12):
Row 1 (RS): put the first 2 sts onto a cable needle, hold the cable needle to the back of your work, k the next 2 sts (they will have been the middle 2 sts), k the 2 sts off the cable needle, and k the last 2 sts. (the first four sts will look as if you did a 4 st twisty cable, while the last 2 will stay in their spot.)
Row 2 (WS): P all 6 sts
Row 3 (RS): K first 2 sts, put next 2 sts onto a cable needle, hold cable needle to front of work, k next 2 sts off regular needle, k 2 sts off cable needle.
Row 4 (WS): P all 6 sts
Repeat Rows 1-4, ending wherever you want.

Almost...There....

I'm so incredibly close to finishing the first sock. I have about half an inch more, and then the toe. Argh. I was going to finish tonight, but then I decided to sleep (haha).

Just a quick progress update. I think Second Sock Syndrome won't strike so badly. *crossing fingers*

Definite Progress

I've turned the heel and I'm on the instep. Woo. This is on the first sock, obviously. I'm not that good. :P Anyway, it's going well. I'm pretty on schedule; I figure 8 days for the first sock and 8 for the second, and it's been what, 4 and a half so far? I should be done with this sock by saturday.

This feels like an 800 (meter run). You get all excited toward the end of the first lap, and then you realize that you've still got a lap to go and you shouldn't waste all your energy now. Obviously, this is more fun than an 800. It would have to be, or else all these people wouldn't be doing it, least of all me. (I get enough masochistic runningstuff from track.)

Anyway. I'm having fun knitting in school, although I only get like 6 or 10 rows done. One at a time, through the day. It's awesome, though, because I get to fill up those wasted minutes at the end and beginning of class. And I get to see progress.

It feels like a major milestone, the turning of the heel. I'm filled with all this creative energy right now: before, when I was bored or lethargic I'd just waste time thinking about knitting, but now, every spare moment can be used for the Sock project. I can channel all this energy as opposed to wanting it to go away.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to sleep a lot. But it's different, because my free time has a purpose.

Progress?

Yes! Run #1 of the finals is half over: I'm at the heel shaping. (Almost typoed that as "hell shaping" :P) It's really long because my ribbing is so big, I have to make it reach my calf. Sad.

Kelly Clark's run was bloody amazing. *shakes head* I felt so bad when she fell, because that was surely a gold-medal run. So sad....

Opening Ceremonies

I have knit an inch of the cuff of sock one. Woo. We have progress and the descent into madness. It's fun, I swear.
US1s, Lion Brand Magic Stripes Regatta Blue. I'm using the tennis-ball container again, to keep the needles and working yarn all nice.

Now, the big debate is whether I should bring my knitting to the movie tomorrow. It might get really screwed up, and it might not. We'll see. I will probably be bringing it to school for the next week, though, despite the fact that we've got way too many tests. Argh. Actually, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday should be fun. And we might get a snow day on Monday: There's like a 2% chance, probably.
Soccer practice tomorrow, so no knitting time. And Sunday will be knit/study day.

Uhh, not much else to say, besides the fact that at the rate I'm going, it will be quite hard to finish by the end. I smell a couple all-nighters. And perhaps cutting back the definition of finish Jaywalkers to finish a Jaywalker. :P Not yet, though. I'm an athelete and a physlete and a knitlete, and I will not lower my expectations. *triumphant smile* ;-}

Cursed Glove

That damn second glove is being annoying. I had resized the pattern down to compensate for my small wrists, but I should have realized that my large knuckles would require the same size fingers. So now I have to go back and increase along the palm, because otherwise I'll only have enough stitches for three fingers. Maybe I'll increase along the palm, set aside sts for the pinky hole, and keep knitting. My pinky starts about half a centimeter before the other fingers. Hmm. *ponders*

The good thing about knitting for a long time and doing different kinds of projects is that everything carries over. You can use knowledge about socks in your glove knitting, you can use knowledge from hats in your sock knitting. It also gives you the experience to know how knitting works, why knitting works, as opposed to just following a pattern. It gives you the courage to step out of the box and make it your own way, which is the essence of the appeal of knitting. Of course, some people are born with these qualities and it has nothing to do with experience, but for the rest of the world, it's what we gain through doing.
There is nothing better than doing.

It's raining prettily today. I jumped 5'0" in high jump yesterday. (go me!) I love Saturdays because they're so peaceful and I have time to myself. On to the second glove.

Details, details.

So I signed up. I'm doing Jaywalkers, I've got the needles, the yarn, the buttons, and the stress. This should be fun. Umm, I guess I'm on the US sock team, or just the US team in general. Hm, whatever. It's not like we're competitive, right?
So anyway. In other knitting news, I started the thumb gore on glovelet #2, or the left one. I love the bright lurid green yarn with the bright lurid magenta needles. :P I resized it even more: 48 sts on US00s.
I like knitting while watching movies. I might do that tonight, because I'm totally slacking off and not doing homework. I feel kind of whatever-ish about it though, and at least I'm motivated to knit, right?
Ok, off to do something. Probably read and knit and watch tv. Good night, and good luck for all you Olympic Knitters. We'll all need it.

what have I done?!

I signed up for the Knitting Olympics. You can see my name on the Yarn Harlot's list. AAAH!
Help!

I'm doing Jaywalkers. It shall be fun and stressful. ^__^ Je suis la reine de stress.

G'night, more info tomorrow. Maybe.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

I don't know if I'm actually going to do it, but it seems like a nice challenge. I'd do Jaywalkers in Lion Brand Magic Stripes Blue Regatta.
I also want to knit Picovoli (again from magknits, and again by Grumperina) in my pretty blue cotton. It's so the kind of thing I'd wear, besides the not-wearing-knitted-stuff thing.
Oh my. I adore Magknits now. The tunic-thing looks amazingly gorgeous. And I'd SO wear that. *drool*

I dislike being impatient, sometimes. I'm glad it doesn't carry over fully into my knitting. (although I do get second sock and second glove syndrome....)

Hooray For Me!

That's the name of the glovelets. Hooray For Me! gloves. They're going well, and I'm storing the WIP inside a tennis ball container.

Someone asked me if I ever make anything that wasn't created by someone else. Actually, my first two scarves were of my own creation, and my first complete pair of socks were mine.

Well, I'm off to knit some more.

There's one good thing to be said about deadlines...

The immutable ones are truly motivating. There is nothing that can produce swifter work than the realization that yes, I still have so much more to start/finish, and yes, it all has to be done for tomorrow. No, no extensions. No, no sleep.

I was up until 4:00 am on sunday (sunday's early morning) making an iPod cozy for my friend's new iPod Video. I winged it, hoped, cursed, watched tv, and all in all had a good time. And it was done.

Today, I have so much more homework to do. And it's 9:48 pm. And I have a math test tomorrow at 7:48 am.
This sucks.

Indecision

Hmm. What to make next. Pasha is done (and given away, to rave reviews), my slytherin scarf is like 11/19ths done, I frogged the cuff of the cursed sock (still haven't added a cast on, deciding whether to make the heel a bit roomier), I've been commissioned to make a Ravenclaw scarf for my other best friend, I want to make socks, I need to make a cow-patterned iPod cover for my friend's birthday, and yet I don't know what to do.
Perhaps I'm bored, perhaps I'm overwhelmed.

I'm also swatching right now with this thin (probably like fingering weight or so) bright green synthetic (I believe) yarn. It's probably about 8 stitches per inch, and I love the bright-green-ness. It might be glovelets, it might be a bookmark, who knows. I'm thinking glovelets, though. Despite the acrylic-ness. I have a huge (radius=3 inches? height=6 inches) cone of this stuff that I bought in London for ONE POUND. One. I adore it.

I'm slowly slogging away at the slytherin scarf. It's kind of cool, and I'll definitely have to block it, despite the fact that half of the stripes are acrylic...