I Still Got Nothin'

Today the Caked Crusader stormed (really, she stormed) into my office and said, "When are you going to update your blog? Every time I open it, it's the green socks. I'm over the green socks. I liked the green socks but I don't want to look at them again."

So, here I am.

Unfortunately, I'm still stealth knitting so no knitting progress pictures. I'm making a few things for people who might dip into this blog and don't want to spoil the surprise (or indeed increase their anxiety level over what the heck I'm going to make them wear now).

For various reasons (mostly timing of delivery of books, patterns, yarn, needles and buttons) I'm working concurrently on about 6 projects at the moment meaning I've become a multiple Work in Progress-er (WIPer).


And I have one question.

How do you multi-WIP-ers ever finish anything? I swear, I'm knitting, but nothing's getting finished. I work on one project a bit and then another and then another, and each moves forward....but .... sigh.

I'm just not cut out for this knitting around. I'm a one project kind of gal.

(I should confess that the lack of progress could also be related to the fact that I had completed half a stealth project when I realised the gauge was off. Way off. And sadly, it's a project where gauge matters. Back to the drawing board.)

Errrr - that's all I got.

(The pictures are of a couple of recent purchases. The bag is a lovely Offhand Design knitting bag that I bought from Purlescence. I love it. It gets loads of compliments, and I use it as a handbag even when I don't want to take any knitting along. The Noro is sock yarn. It feels a bit rough, but I've read that it softens up after the first washing. I sure hope so, or someone's feet are going to be very very unhappy.)

It's Like Christmas in May....

.... Mostly because I'm working on some stealth projects and it has reminded me of the blog material void I faced last December when I was finishing up my Christmas knitting. All of that to say I've got a couple of interesting projects on the go - but I can't tell you about them.

Aren't you glad you stopped by?

Instead of the interesting projects, I'll post some pictures of recently completed socks. Hurrah!

These are the Embossed Leaves socks that I started when I went to Qatar earlier this month. I ripped them back and they are no longer too big for human feet and I'm very fond of the finished product. The pattern is from Favourite Socks and is definitely on my favourite sock pattern list. The leaf pattern is pretty easy to memorise, but interesting enough to keep you zipping around.

This is my first pair of Socks that Rock socks, and I am ready to take out a mortgage to stock up on more. The yarn really is lovely and squishy and the colour is great.

After successfully completing a pair of identical socks from self striping yarn, I've gone back to my lax ways and whipped up these fraternal socks using Kaffe Fasset regia sock yarn.

(Miraculously, I actually know that this is 'Landscape Storm' colourway. Go me!)

And because I had 5 pairs of socks finished but not yet distributed I decided to take a socks on parade photo because I could and I'm sad that way.



On a less productive note, I have decided that the Faux Russian Stole I started last month is never going to be. You may recall that I started it using some lovely (but crazy crocking) Claudia's silk. And I can't really say why - but the project never really took off. I did about 60 rows, but each with little or no enthusiasm, and since then I can't seem to convince myself to pick it up again.

So today I pulled it off the needles and ripped it all out.


I still like the pattern, and I love the silk - so I expect both will reappear (separately) at some point.

(And for those of you whose hearts have stopped at the photo of the unravelled yarn in a heap. Fear not. All was lovingly rewound. No laceweight was hurt in the making of this blog.)

And the winners are....

Well, actually the big winner was me! I was overwhelmed by the number of entries and all of the fantastic advice. When I decided to do a contest I figured 40 entries was a good target. When the number of comments reached 50 I was astounded....and the advice kept coming and coming.

By this morning at 8am (the closing time) I'd received 131 comments or 129 entries (1 of the comments was an update, the other a duplicate). 129 entries!! Gadzooks! I had so many entries that I decided to introduce a 4th mini contest for regular commenters to even out everyone's chances.

I printed out the comments, cut them up, folded them so I couldn't see the names and then roped in the firm's head of audit (who also happens to be The Caked Crusader) to oversee the draw process.

The winners were randomly selected from this pile of entries.

First I drew the Squishy Yarn for All winner who was Catiebell. Catiebell is a first time commenter and her advice to remember to separate your reds from the rest of your laundry is one we've all probably needed (but not used) at least once.

The second draw was the Come Out of the Closet draw and Helenlam was the winner this time. Her advice to read the whole pattern before casting on is definitely solid -- I can't tell you how many times I've stopped reading a pattern before the critical words 'at the same time'. Much frogging and words a lady shouldn't say while knitting ensue.

I do have to big up the first time commenters here -- your comments were so kind and I'm amazed to find so many of you out there. I hope maybe now that you've broken the ice you might be tempted to comment from time to time -- but even if you don't thanks so much for dropping by!

Clarabelle was the winner of the impromptu draw (aka the I Need to Give Something Nice to One of my Regular Commenters so I'm Adding Another Contest draw). (Not the snappiest name but it'll do.) Clarabelle offered up a few pieces of advice (she's an over achiever), including a few words of wisdom from Mick Jagger about getting what I need even if I don't get what I want.

The final draw was Friends and Family and it embarasses me somewhat to include this photo of the HUGE number of Friends and Family entrants.

Ahem.

Anyway - from that select group I drew Shirl's entry. She had found a short BAFTA nominated film for me called Knitting a Love Song. It's a sweet little film about high school and the power of knitting and if you have 14 minutes I recommend a viewing. (You can view it via the above link or on Youtube.)

But wait there's more

....and if all of that wasn't enough I decided long ago that my 1000th commenter would get a prize. I hadn't actually expected to reach it this soon, but the crazy response to the contest took us racing towards that magic number and over the weekend Batty posted the 1000th comment. To celebrate I'll be sending her a little something as well.

If you lucky winners could send me an email: thingssoolikes at googlemail dot com with your postal address I'll get the squishy loot off to you as soon as possible.