Brown and the Antidote

Simply Socks had a sale, and Andrew picked out some yarn. I was in the mood for some mindless knitting, so I made him socks.

 Ribbed socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Crystal Palace Yarns Sausalito, Chipotle colorway

I did plain old k2, p2 socks over 68 stitches.

I cannot express how boring they were. I know better than to knit with brown in the winter. Only stubbornness kept me going. Once I was done, there was only one thing to do to restore equilibrium in my brain.

Ribbed Fluormanias (mine ravelled here),

knit in Schachenmayr Regia Fluormania Color, colorway 7187

Better. Much, much better.

WIP Ornaments

I like to make Christmas ornaments. It started with a cabled ball, then went completely insane, got ahold of myself, then I found a pattern for some awesome knitting-in-an-ornament ornaments, then I made the dove that was stuffed way later than it should have been, and then there were the knitting baskets, then I made some felt ornaments for a change of pace. Last year I made a trillion little socks and a Packers hat. (Packer's? Is it possessive? It's a sign of how little I care about football that I can't be bothered to look it up.) There are even more ornaments than the ones I listed* on my Ravelry page. Suffice it to say, I've made quite a few ornaments, mostly knit, but also painted and decaled and glittered.... 

This year, I thought I might not make any ornaments. A girl has to pace herself. There cannot be an infinite number of ornaments on a finite amount of Christmas tree limbs.

But, you know, maybe I'd take a quick search of Ravelry just to see if there was anything that really spoke to me. But there wouldn't be. 'Cause I wasn't making ornaments this year.

WIP ornaments (mine ravelled here),

knit in teeny-tiny bits of scrap

These are so fast**--just a tiny bit of knitting on size 0 needles, glue wooden beads on the ends of toothpicks (I had those from the knitting-in-an-ornament ornaments already), transfer knitting to toothpicks, wind a bit of the yarn into a ball, and judiciously apply some superglue, hence my last post, and wind some fishing line through the ball to make a loop for hanging.

I know that every speck of the Internet that is in any way associated with making things is telling you that you have time to make something before Christmas. My friends. that may be a dirty, dirty lie. You do not need to make a damn thing. Sit on the couch and read a book if you want. Eat a Christmas cookie. Stare at the lights on the tree and lose track of time. Listen to the Space Cowboy/Lady Gaga song "Christmas Tree." Do whatever you want that makes you happy. I mean it. Take care of yourself. The holidays can be rough.

However, if you want to make something, I recommend these.

Happy Christmas, everyone.

*in this very long, linky paragraph that no one really wanted to read

**I'm using a knitter's sense of time. These aren't as fast as placing an amazon order. These took me way, way less than an evening. Way less. Seriously way less. 

Simplest is Best

Trying to figure out what to say when I arrived at work:

"Sorry I'm a few minutes late. I was trying to sand the superglue off my fingers."

Too weird.

"Sometimes when I make things, I get too impatient."

This is not your fault. Superglue is superglue. 

No one has used it without getting it on one's fingers. 

It is a physical impossibility.

"One way I show people I care about them is to make them things."

No. What if everyone at work thinks I don't like them 

because I don't make them things?

"I had a little mishap that needed to be handled."

Terrible idea. My coworkers love drama. 

"Mishap" will become something like, "She burned down her house in a fit of rage."

"Sorry I was late."

Perfect.

Love in Every Stitch

The owner of Absalom the Destroyer is still having a rough time physically. My reaction to that is to knit her things and worry a lot. You can guess which one is more productive.

It is a testament of my love for her that one of those knit things is a pair of kneesocks in her favorite colorway. Miles and miles of ribbed kneesocks.

Drops Long Socks (mine ravelled here),

knit in Felici Fingering in the (discontinued) Groovy colorway 

I'm still searching for the perfect kneesock pattern. I'm excited for her to try these on because I think I may have nailed it. It has an extra-long heel flap and gusset to better fit her foot. It has 80 stitches at the top in a k3, p2 pattern. After a million miles, it decreases down to 64 stitches in k2, p2. I did the decrease over two rounds about an inch apart. Decreasing 16 stitches at once seemed a recipe for weirdness. I honestly didn't follow the pattern except for the stitch count. I just did my normal heel flap, gusset, and toe. If it's not broken...

Once those were done, I was still avoiding the blue sweater and decided to reknit the Fightin' Words fingerless gloves. They were too small to be really comfortable for my friend, and she had requested another pair.

I made the cuff longer than the pattern states and added four more patterned rounds to the top. I count it a victory that I remembered to switch needle sizes every time I was supposed to do so. (It's a lot.) I love these and still may make a pair of mittens for me at some point.

Fightin' Words (mine ravelled here),

knit in leftovers--a mystery black 

and Knitpicks Chroma fingering in (discontinued) Roller Skate colorway

I may not be able to fix what ails her, but I'll do my best to keep her warm.