Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

I’ve been thinking about blogging instead of actually blogging this week. I’ve got plenty to talk about though. Mostly knitting related. It’s not that I’m not sympathetic or saddened by the horrific events of this week in the news, but if knitting is a coping method, then talking about knitting is too.

For some reason I’m becoming enamored with complex patterns right now. It’s always at the most inconvenient times though. Even if the weather isn’t cooperating, it is in fact approaching spring and summer, and for me, that means that coaster season is ramping up. I’ve got my first amusement park road trip planned for this coming weekend and a longer trip planned next month. Many weekends will be spent traveling and while I can play with more complex knitting on flights or maybe even as a passenger in the car, it’s probably best for me to stick with fairly simple projects while I’m on the road. So I should be dreaming of more simple patterns or at least those with easy to remember repeats that just look complicated. Instead, I’m eyeing things like the Austrian-patterned knee high socks in the Socks.Socks.Socks book or Eunny’s Bayerische socks or Nancy Bush’s Chalet Socks. I have this odd all-consuming itch to make teeny tiny cables on little bitty sock needles and I think that itch needs to be scratched soon.

Of course, I also want another pair of jaywalkers and a pair of monkey socks for myself, and I want to make Cookie’s Twisted Flower socks, and keep some needles free for the rest of the sock madness patterns, and make mom another pair or two, and… too many to list really.

Not that I don’t already have plenty in progress. It’s definitely time to tackle a roundup of the WIPs. And I need to show a little bit of discipline and wrap up a couple projects before I start adding more to the list. Really.

Pomotomous - these are my more complex linger and savor slow moving sock project right now. I’m still on sock #1, slowly making my way onto the foot. I’m not sure why I’m being pokey with this pattern, the repeats aren’t that difficult to remember despite being a reasonable-sized chart. It may be all the twisted stitches. I am enjoying the yarn however, so it is kinda nice to savor it and use it up slowly. They’ll get done when they get done and not a second before.

Baudelaire - These are moving along a little faster, I’m ready to do the heel on sock #2. Once I get the heel turned, the cuff can and should finish up fairly quickly. I just need to sit down and do it. I love how the first sock came out and I can’t wait to wear the finished pair. These should be wrapping up soon.

JKnits stockinette socks - The first sock that I was working on when the Harlot was here is done and I’ve started sock #2. These are going to be my trial at in-park knitting this weekend. I’ve got the go-knit pouch all ready to go and depending on how much in-park knitting I actually do, I may have this pair done this weekend. I’ll probably try to keep some stockinette socks on the needles all summer to serve as in-park knits if these work out well this weekend.

Amusement Park Chevron Scarf - This is getting longer and longer when I pick it up. I’m almost to the halfway point and I still absolutely love it. It’s quick and simple and easy to pick up and knit a couple rows here and there. If it weren’t getting so long, it would be a good candidate for in-park knitting. Instead, this will be my car/hotel knitting this weekend between parks and on the long road down to and back from Kentucky. Its another project that I think may wrap up sooner rather than later.

I also added two new projects to my needles this last weekend.

Mad Weave Socks - I’m out of the competetive side of sock madness, but I’m still knitting the patterns and this was the one released for round 4. I had originally started it in some Wildfoote that was dark purples with turquoise and pink, but that yarn will get a new life as my next stockinette pair as it was a little too dark to show off the patterning. So I frogged it and cast on with this bright and fun merino from KimiK. My last sock madness socks were sunset socks, these are going to be my sunrise socks and so far the colors are showing off the pattern remarkably well. They’ve been my bedside knitting for the last couple nights.

Also new, despite several failed and naieve attempts with other yarns, I’ve made my first forray into real lace knitting with real laceweight yarn. I got the knitpicks needle set over the weekend and grabbed the single ball of red lacy lamb I had purchased last summer and cast on this scarf from Victorian Knitting Today. I’ve done enough with sock-weight yarn now, that the laceweight isn’t seeming nearly as intimidating. I’ve made it though the first repeat of the center pannel pattern (I don’t claim to be fast) and I’m enjoying it as well. It’s an 8-row repeat done 48 times, and I suspect it will grow slowly and be a much longer term project until I clear the needles some more and increase my comfort level with both the laceweight yarn and the knitpicks needles. If this goes well, I’ve got some other laceweight yarns in the stash to play with eventually too and I’ve built up a bit more of a lace library to play from.

As for the legwarmers that I gave up on in February, they finally got frogged tonight for being too tight. I’ll give that pattern another chance later on. For now I’m far more intrigued with cables and lace than I am with colorwork. I think that’s all thats on the needles for now. All these itches and a bout of start-itis, another STR Sock Club Kit package (I really should get around to making the first kit soon too) and some more loophole purchases lately may add some more things to the mix however.

Gromit says, “Mom, get out of the window, I’m trying to stalk the birds.”