I've got the blues...

Will I make it? Will I need to buy another skein of Colinette Jitterbug in Jay? Hopefully the moment of truth will happen this weekend. And hopefully, in a good way.

eta: Hoping these are good signs -
While waiting at the dentist's as she cleaned monkey1's teeth, I of course, pulled out my Pomatomus to work on it. She was duly impressed as she's been knitting for years, but has stayed at the scarf-knitter stage.

Then, while we were waiting at the rental car company for them to drive us back to the auto body shop, I of course, pulled out the Pomatomus again. Another renter (a male) glanced over and exclaimed how impressed he was that I was knitting a SOCK! Apparently he thought knitters only knit scarves. (What's up w/that?!?) But in any case, I was really excited that I met 2 people (1 muggle + 1 knitter) that loved the sock. Too bad BMFA's bank wasn't as impressed w/the STR sock club. Apparently some muggles think sock knitting=scam. Doofuses. At least the awesome ladies at BMFA's have solved that issue, at least for all the sock club members.

I've been admiring the Project Spectrum KAL from last year and joined this year. Feb/Mar's color theme will be blue/white/gray so I'll be knitting something from that part of my stash hopefully. Not sure what I'll be making though. The Regia cotton on the right will obviously be socks as will the Polar Sea (I think) Fleece Artist on top, both from Yarn in Alameda's closing sale. The little 1/2 skein balls of KP Palette are from a sampler order I split w/a knitty board member. (Oops, I put black in there instead of gray. My bad!) Of course, I have no idea what I'll be making with these. Maybe a log cabin square and add in the other monthly colors to make a little, thin blanket? Will need to pull out the rest of the colors and see.

I also forgot to pull out my KP Shine Worsted in Bachelor Button. That stash was initially slated for a matching Debbie Bliss Molly shrug to monkey1's Snapdragon color version, but I didn't care for the pattern after I did it once. Then I started a Haiku sweater, but my garter stitch gauge wouldn't stay consistent and that drove me up the wall so I frogged that. What I'll probably end up doing is split the skeins up into a bunch of little hats and boy baby stuff since a few friends and family members are having boys now.

And one of these days, I'll find the spool of white ribbon monkey1 ran off with so I can put it on monkey2's lace up cardigan which I'll have her wear when it's not quite so frosty.

The SKB is still on hold as I have to estimate out my dart shaping which I think I'll need with a little help from the Fall 2006 issue of INKnitters magazine that tapmouse so graciously loaned me. (It's got a cute preview pattern for the next Barefoot Knits book that I think monkey1 will like.) I'll probably also stick w/the wrap & turn method as I understand it much more easily and seems less fiddly w/o having to use the safety pin/stitch holder.

One fish,...

One Pomatomus sock done, one to go. The Colinette Jitterbug yarn in Jay is awesome in this pattern. My only concern now is that the label on this 100 g yarn says it's 267 m or 294 yards. Although the second half of the skein feels like it's enough, I didn't get to weigh it. (Well, I didn't get the darn USPS scale to work is more like it. :P) I've omitted last repeat of chart A, so I hope that helps along w/not matching the color progression for the start of the second sock, so I don't waste any yarn in case I really do need it.

SKB - I did one more repeat of increases before splitting off the sleeves and it fits now. But since my row gauge is short (7 rows/in vs 6 rows/in), I like many other knitters, need to lengthen the bodice portion before I get to the empire waist lace section. I think I will follow one of the knitter's on the Craftster kal and continue the bodice increasing for the front 'til I hit the right point, but I'm debating if I'll also need to do some short row shaping, which I'll probably need to do. And even though I did some Japanese short rows on my Lotus Blossom Tank, it was simply by following the directions line by line. This time I will actually have to learn it and apply it.

I'm just a lemming

Pattern: Calorimetry from knitty.com
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #233 butchered remnants from my Clapotis
Needle size: US #8
Mods: Thanks to all the knitty board posters recommendations, I cast on 108 sts & did 8 instead of the 15 additional repeats of row 5 stated in the pattern.

Since I forgot to bring any knitting books or magazine w/me when I knit this over the New Year's holiday weekend, I didn't wrap & turn the short rows. I didn't feel like trying to do it from memory. The Silk Garden isn't consistantly spun, so I figured the holes caused by not wrapping wouldn't be very obvious. As much as I love this colorway in my Clapotis, it's pretty darn obnoxious as a headband. I wonder if anyone I know is a Dead Head.

And my Pomatomus socks in Colinette Jitterbug Jay is progressing well enough, though my picked up stitches on one side of the gusset looks like crap. No amount of Grumperina's picking up stitches the pretty way was going to help since the slipped stitches to be "picked up" were horribly uneven. The scaley lace pattern is actually rather rhythmic & simple, so I was thrown when the heel flap was giving me grief. It's not like I don't know how to purl through the back loop (ptbl) since I learned that knitting my Clapotis, so I don't know what was up w/my knitting karma. My only concern now that I've gotten through the heel flap & gusset stitches is that the yarn's pooling now w/the darker blues showing up on the top and the lighter shades under the foot. I hope the colors shift over as I move down the foot.

In between wrestling w/my Pomatomus heel flap & gusset, I played w/my STR Christmas Balls Retro Rib socks. It's turning out to be a really fun looking sock. I hope my second sock turns out so well.

As for my SKB, I'm at a momentary impasse. Since a lot of knitters discovered the SKB was a tad too wide for their size, I went down a size per all their recommendations. Unfortunately, I forgot to account for my broad shoulders and the bugger is a bit small. I'm going to knit one more round of repeats and see what happens then. If it still doesn't fit, I may need to start over going back up a size and maybe reduce the stitches down when I get to the lace portion.

P.S. Can you tell I've switched over to the new Blogger? Still playing around w/my templates.