Picture Perfect-ish

This one's called "Green Sock On Concrete". My inspiration for this? Well, I wanted to address tempus fugit, the inherent pain of creation (note those needles: both the instrument of making and of maiming) and something about urban life versus nature which the concrete/foot constellation symbolises. Oh, and our living room carpet would have clashed with the green sock and Official Photographer was out, so I posed on our stairwell. I'm about to graft the toe and I am delighted with this little thing, but something about socks still bugs me. Maybe it is my irrational dislike of feet. Seriously, I think feet are disgusting. So whenever I try on my sock, I have to get over the "omg, this thing I'm knitting has been on my foot and I have to touch it!" I wish I could wash that sock every time I pull it off my foot, but it's just not feasible for a work-in-progress.

I tried watching the Olympics today whilst knitting, but for some reason BBC thinks curling is more watchable than the men's short programme in figure-skating (something about Britain actually maybe possibly being able to win a medal at curling could have something to do with it, but still.)

Ravelympics: Third Day Adjustment

Goodbye Clandestine sock pattern. Hello Spring Fern pattern. So much better. I'm now playing catch up. Watching the Olympics here brings home that I no longer live in Scandinavia. The Finland - Russia ice hockey game was just mentioned in passing, the cross-skiing events barely gets a look in (Denmark has always been crap but we'd always show some support for Norway) and we do not get wall-to-wall coverage of the figure-skating events. I remember growing up and getting to watch all the figure-skating qualifying rounds; now I get edited highlights of the top three athletes. But, I do get to see events like speed skating and the luge which I have rarely seen before. In fact I stayed up very, very late last night just to see who won the luge. Ooh, the excitement (and subsequent day of tiredness).

I'll leave you with a little link I have been saving for rainy day like today: Hipster Puppies. Unsurprisingly I'm finding this photo absolutely hilarious and I may have said something like this when I was twenty-one and unbearably pretentious.

Ravelympics: Second Day Qualms

As someone I know would say: "That's a whole lotta sock you got going on there, girl". Truthfully I am not happy with my first/last socks. The pattern, Clandestine, is really fun to knit from a knitterly point of view: twisted stitches, increases, decreases and wrapped stitches. I look forward to every new row and have that "just one more row" thing going on. But, really, the resulting fabric is busy. No, it is more than just busy, it is fussy. The dictionary definition of "fussy" actually sums up this sock perfectly: "filling with ornament what should be empty space".

I was just about to turn the heel last night after an evening of intense knitting and then I glanced at the heel flap, looked at the leg pattern and then looked at the heel flap again. The heel flap was everything that the leg wasn't: elegant, tidy and, well, pretty.

What is a girl to do? I did what any knitter these days would do (probably): I went to Ravelry and posted about my predicament in several groups. The Ravelympics Sock Hockey group suggested that I should frog my halfway-done sock and seek out another pattern. "It is not defeat; it is regrouping your troops and rethinking your strategy," one knitter said. On twitter, friends doubted it could be that bad. I decided to sleep on it and here I am.

That heel flap sure is pretty, isn't it? I wish the entire sock could be that like. At the end of the day, I would like a pair of socks that I am proud of - not from a knitterly point of view, because I do not need knitting validation, but from a "look how pretty my socks are!" perspective. I have suddenly turned into a project knitter, it seems.

So, I am regrouping and rethinking my strategy. We are off to a life drawing class today, so I will not have time to knit anything until tonight. This should leave me plenty of time to decide whether to frog or to continue. Funnily enough I think I have almost already made my decision.

Waiting For the Ravelympics 2010

Funnily enough I finally feel like my knitting year is starting. I have been planning my Ravelympics project for a long time and I have been holding back on various projects because I knew that mid-February would be busy in knitting terms. I have chosen to knit my first pair of socks and right up until a few hours ago I was unsure about which pattern to choose. I had almost decided upon Bev Elicerio's Hourglass socks, but then I could not find my 2.5mm dpns and the pattern was known to have some flaws, so I decided against it. Komet became a contender as did Crystals 'Combs & Cables, Snickets, and the Dream Twister Socks. Tweets flew back and forth with me seeking advice and inspiration from seasoned sock knitters.

I do not expect to get bitten by the sock bug, to be honest, so with that in mind I decided to knit something that was clearly a ca-pi-tal let-tah Sock designed by someone who herself is a ca-pi-tal let-tah Sock Designer. For my first and only pair of socks I might as well go all out and so I am going to knit Clandestine by Cookie A in Araucania Ranco.

I cannot wait to cast on.

My birthday turned out to be lovely. I am yet to receive all my presents as my grandmother may have tried to ship inflammable substances to the UK and gotten herself into a bit of bother with the Danish authorities over that.. but I am sure it will all be just fine. My mother gave me beautiful buttons (among other things) which is almost as close to crafty gifts as I got this year. I am trying hard to destash, you see, but as my destashing attempts somehow end up with me getting bags full of Kidsilk Spray and Kidsilk Aura, I asked for no birthday yarn. Gasp, horror.

Next project (after the socks): my Summer Tweed top.  After that one I shall have to cast on for Clothilde which a certain blogger gave me as a surprise birthday present. Yes, the knitting year has finally begun.