Frogging the work

I have been working on a few things here or there for the past month or so...Christa's second baby blanket for her twins, a pair of socks made from CashMerino I picked up in Newport, RI and the pair of socks made from the sock yarn I picked up in Tennessee.

I frogged all three of these projects pretty far into them - for those non-knitters, I unraveled them.

Christa's baby blanket - I tore it out while I was at the airport in Montreal. I noticed that I cast on way TOO many stitches as I got into the project 3 balls of yarn later and realized the baby blanket was way TOO wide! Since she's having twins, I wanted it to be the same size as the first one I knit and this one was very miscalculated. So I tore back all three balls of yarn. I got on the flight from Montreal to Newark (my connection to Providence) and realized I had nothing to do, so I figured I cast back on and try again. I got through the border on the blanket and just tore that back out tonight as I didn't like the pattern I picked out. I have finally settled on a pattern, the correct number of stitches to cast on, so hopefully, this is the last time time around. I don't know that the yarn can take too much more. Although I'm not a fan of acrylic yarn, this is some nice acrylic that I picked up at Ewe'll Love it in Nashua, NH.

Socks made from CashMerino - I bought this yarn back in the summer and decided with winter here, I wanted to make some nice cozy socks for myself. I have pulled it out several times and started on patterns and initially didn't like any of them so after tearing it out several times, I put it back. I finally picked a pattern from Sensational Socks and motivated myself to go at it. About 1/2 way through the leg, I realized that it was much too tight. (I have been to lazy to gauge my projects and I think this is the valuable lesson I'm learning!) So - I tore it out!

Socks made from yarn in Tenenssee - I got to the heel turn on my flight back from Ireland and totally screwed it up. I thought I'd wait to get home and unravel a few rows to fix it and ended up completely messing the pattern up and can't pick it back up - I can barely pick work back up on circulars, much less 4 Double Pointed Needles! So I frogged it too...

I can't seem to get out of the habit of ripping my work back out. My husband has said to me several times, if you would just keep working through it and not tear it out - you would have so many finished objects...(Okay - I through in the finished objects phrase...but fellow knitters understand!)

I am a bit of a perfectionist as you can probably tell. Any advice would be extremely helpful to get over this painful affliction that I have found in my knitting world!!

Made in the USA, Ireland, England and everywhere in between

I have been absolutely horrible with keeping up with this blog...and this is only because I haven't been knitting. I know...I'm horrible. I think I just needed to get re-motivated after Christmas. It took me a good while to get re-motivated...especially after I had a loss in my knitting family...my sock.

In my previous post, I finished my first sock...singular...sock. It was a dorm sock made for Brad using the cozy Mission Falls superwash. I took it with me on my business trip to Oriskany Falls to knit on the other during the 5 hour drive up. I got quite a bit done on the other sock. Well - on the way back I dropped my credit card IN the door (long story) and had to take the rental car to a dealership so they could remove the door. Before I went in, I stashed the sock in the glove compartment so no one would laugh at my one big purple sock...well...hours later when I dropped the car off, you know the story...I forgot to take the sock out and now Enterprise has my sock captive. I haven't bothered calling and chalked it up to a sacrafice to the knitting gods...and I can use the other two balls of yarn for something else...maybe even a scarf for me!!

So I started working on one of the two blankets for my cousin Stephanie that is expecting twin boys in February. I picked up some yarn in Nashua and some Ann Norling basic blanket patterns. I have been knitting on this blanket on and off for a while, but got a majority of it done on my current trip to Ireland. It has travelled all over Ireland with me this week and will be in England on Tuesday, where I hope to finish it! So, I'm thinking of sewing a small tag on it that says, "Made in the USA, Ireland, England and everywhere in between."

I also finally picked a sock pattern for my beautiful sock yarn I picked up in Tennessee over Christmas. I chose a simple baby cable ribbed pattern and have only started it. I hope to have at least one done by the time I make it back to MA on Friday afternoon. I will make sure I keep eveyone posted on the progress of these two projects over the next week.



I believe it's the Yarn Harlot that takes her knitted socks in progress with her on her travels and takes pictures of her socks next to a landmark to show the progression of her sock...that is a great idea, but I think I might be too lazy to actually do that!!

I will be traveling a lot more in the next few months and hope to get much more knitting done and many more posts up! I haven't been keeping current with mine or others for that matter!!!

If you would like to read my blog about my travels in general to Ireland and England, check out http://blog.myspace.com/jwpark123 This is my first trip to Ireland and there are many new "discoveries" since I've been on the road!

Addition to a Knitter's Chrismtas:

As I was reading my previous few blogs, I completely forgot to post one of my favorite gifts that I received over Christmas. Carrie actually made me needle holders for my DPN and I absolutely adored it! I'll have to wait to get home to take a picture of it, but I absoltuely loved it!

A knitter's Christmas

I was totally stoked when Brad's parents came through with the Knit Picks Options Needle set! I was suprised to see that the needles were so sharp, but happy that now I have a set! I just need to get a set of Double Pointed Needles (DPN) now to complete my knitting supplies until I can find something else that I absolutely must have!!

I have already started using the Options needles on the project below for my mom. I really like them and they are comparable to the Addie's however I have found them to be a little more "slipperier" if that's a word! I mentioned the sharp, right?! I have already found myself wincing a time or two when I go to push my needle through with my finger!!

My best friend got me the gift that keeps on giving...a subscription to Vogue Knitting Knitsimple and an issue of Better Homes Knit It. She tried getting the subscription to Knit It, however, they are not in subscriptions yet.
She has already requested a few items from the Knit It magazine and the article about them was quite interesting. The article was called Mobius Magic and it's about a knitting innovator Cat Bordhi who basically came up with Mobius designs - a mobius strip is defined as only having one side, as the article describes it, takeing a narrow strip of paper and giving it a half twist and taping the ends together. If you draw on one side, you end up with a continuous line. So, my girlfriend found two handbags: A felted tapestry bag with beautiful vine embroidery and a mobius bag that is undescribable. But - this is great as it will give me incentive to learn new techniques especially felting!

And, of course, I had to check out the Local Yarn Stores in Knoxville and only found one, Loopville. It isn't very big, but the owner was "wicked" nice (a New England term) and very helpful! I spent about 30 minutes in there, when I finally made it up to the counter...I had originally stopped in to buy a new mitten pattern since the one I had was giving me "holey gussets" (see previous post), but since the ladies at the yarn store helped me resolve the "holeyness" I decided I could at least buy some yarn for my stash...so I'm at the counter and she rings up 4 skeins of the chenille and 2 skeins of this beautiful hand painted merino wool! It's Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Black Walnut and it's just gorgeous!! I decided these would be for a pair of socks that would be MINE...ALL MINE!!!! It's just waiting on the PERFECT sock pattern that I'll need to scope out in Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch! So - 30 minutes, 6 skeins of yarn and $80 later, but husband rushes the yarn store just as she's telling me the price. I immediately apologize for spending the money and he says, "I don't care how much you spent, just hurry." What a great man!! Christmas time and he's not upset I blew money on some yarn!! We're not what you would call "free with our money," but then again who is?!

So now I'm on a mission to find some Jamieson's Shetland Heather and DK wool to start the felted tapestry bag, but now that I have this needle set and a few dpn that have nothing on them, I have to fight the urge to start multiple projects! I realize that there's nothing wrong with having multiple projects, but I tend to get overwhelmed...geez - I also have two baby blankets to knit for a set of twins my cousin is having...they're not due until February...so I have some time!