The Nanny and the knitting

Why did I never realize that these two things can go hand in hand? I'm watching the last few hours I have on Netflix watching season 4 of The Nanny. I forgot how funny this show is! I'm still making progress on my Tiberius sock and hopefully, by the time my Netflix is up, I'll have at the very least finished the leg.

Not really feeling it

I feel like I'm in pain and it's really cramping my knitting style. I'm trying to work further on the leg but the nagging pain makes me not want to continue. I so wanted the sock to be practically finished by update time on Sunday. I'm half tempted to stay home tomorrow and work on the sock but I think that's taking it kind of far.

The Leaves are changing on me

The weather in Toronto feels like it's already fall.  I have already seen the evidence of the very soon approaching change of season when I saw that some leaves have already changed.

I am already trembling in fear and pulling out every single sweatshirt I own.

I came home and finished up the toe of the Tiberius socks.  It went by so quickly!  I casted on for the second foot within an hour (I had to take the time to put the sock on and admire how pretty it looked on foot).

I will of course be continuing this after I post this update while listening to old episodes of the Sticks and Strings podcast.

While perusing through Ravelry at some point today, I went looking through the June Fall Offs thread on the Cookie Sock Club board and saw a fall off of Ankle Spocks by litfoh on Ravelry.  It is wickedly cool!  I've already discussed it with my aunt and this changes her sock request for August.  She now wants an anklet version of the Istanbul in the same Tosh-along dyed yarn I promised called Grapefruit Sunrise.  I guess I can make do with the Artemis socks, as a two at a time.  I am not looking forward to doing a good chunk of the foot.  Based on picture, it looks like a lot of stockinette in the round and thin ribbing.  Not necessarily my idea of a good knitting time.  I still don't know what yarn to use however now that I'm thinking about it, I do have a lovely varigated skein from Three Ewes that I purchased off a destash in the colourway Cleopatra.  This may make me rethink my idea of of knitting these two at a time.  I think I'd like to see how the colours will pool.

Can we say "Much progress has been made"?

I am still amazed at how much progress I have made in these Tiberius socks. It's only been 4 days and I'm already a few rounds into the toe. By tomorrow the first sock should be done for sure and then it's off to the second sock. I am really not worried about Second Sock Syndrome for this pair.

I went to the Tuesday knitting circle at Albion Library. There was this girl (I really wish I had asked her name but...) who just joined the knitting circle. I saw her for the first time last week but since I hadn't been there for over a month, I can't actually say how long she's been coming. Anywho, she just learned how to knit very recently and today, out of her knitting bag (she learned quickly to have one), she pulled out what she had been working on this week:

Excuse me as my jaw drops open. She had 2 finished bags, a finished scarf and another scarf on the needles; all in one week. She put me to shame and she's excited about learning more. I think we have a new avid knitter on our hands :D

On top of that, one of the crocheters brought her daughter and grand-daughters with her today. Despite the fact that her daughter doesn't know how to knit or crochet, she wants to learn to knit socks, especially since she saw my Spock socks I brought to show off.  I think it would be nice to do what T did for me, to another knitter. So...Plain Vanilla or Monkey socks?

On a roll

I am surprised with how much progress I've made on the Tiberius socks. I went from this:

To this:

In the span of (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today) 4 days. I'm still excited about it and I can't wait to finish the gusset (which is where I am now).

I had a bigger plan as to what today's update was going to be about. I was going to wax poetically about the trip I went on yesterday to Chatham-Kent. The most I managed to do was filter the pictures through Instagram.  I will put up this picture though.

I seriously found a set of sock blockers at one of the museums.

Year of Projects: Week 7

I finally have a finished project! A sock project!  So that means I can finally use this:

And show off my socks!

The Spock Socks are done. They just need to be laundered but that'll have to wait until later. I'm still basking in the "I have a new pair of socks" feeling.

And with a newly finished pair of socks, I have more yarn to add to the Blankie. As much as I'd like to immediately add the Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label to the Blankie, I know myself; once I put on one, I won't stop. Then I'll bemoan the fact that I'm not finishing my other projects. I just need to learn some self control and patience.

I could have also picked up on the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan but decided against it. I'm still at the ribbing and I have about 5 more rounds to go however it is such a good project to work on when people want I have a conversation with you at a knitting circle. This is what generally occurs at the knitting circle so in saving my more mindless knitting for then.

I went looking for the Tiberius Socks that I had started not long after Spock socks. For the life of me, I could not find it. I saw the bag I had housed it in a few days before but it was like it sprouted legs and in the middle of the night, it decided to take a leisurely stroll off of my bed and never came back.

Not much worried other than the fact I had the perfect colour for "Command Gold" inside of there. I went to a box I had with 50g balls of sock yarn from Knit Picks and pulled out Dandelion in Stroll. At the very least, it was not as bright as my Sunshine Tanis yarn that by name alone sounds too bright to be used for socks named after Capt. James T. Kirk.

See how bright this colourway is? The Sunshine skein is even brighter.  The Tiberius socks are coming out nicely. In actually really liking the pattern and I was shocked with the progress I had made in less than a day. By the time I had gone to bed on the first night, I had almost finished the 24 rows of the setup and now, I'm half way through the leg chart already.  I think these may end up being a quick knit pair.  I am enjoying the process way too much.

Last Monday I received the patterns for August and September. I don't know how much I am really feeling them. I may just spend some of the time finishing up WIPs and maybe attempt anklet versions instead. Who knows? Maybe my opinion will change once I start knitting them.

I actually started looking through my stash, trying to decide what yarn I was going to use for the Tree of Life socks by Janel Laidman only to realize the next day that I have the Firebrand socks on my list, which requires a lot more yarn...I may be making my first change on the list.  The Tree of Life socks were the socks that attracted me to the book in the first place so I don't think I'll be feeling guilty about changing the pattern.  Perhaps I can get some suggestions as to what to use (for socks that probably won't be attempted until next year).

The 2 right squares have the same skeins of yarn but it's different ends of it.  The dark colour is Kohl in Muscadine by Springtree Road.  The contrast skein in the top left is Foliage in Stroll by Knit Picks; bottom right is Goldstone in Muscadine by Springtree Road and the right side is a skein that I dyed myself from Acme Fibres.

Year of Projects Update

Up late

Went to church today, as per every Saturday, came home and slept.  I didn't wake up until almost 10 tonight and that was only because I had an update to take care of for tomorrow and because I (meaning mostly my mother) had to get food together for tomorrow.

The Seniors of my church (the 60+ age group) arranged a trip to go to Chatham-Keswick, Ontario to visit a museum about the Underground Railway.  Somehow, they managed to advertise it to the entire church and I'm pretty sure that majority of the people going are not seniors.

I am excited to go.  Not just because of the historical learning potential but also because of the 4 hour bus drive to get there, and 4 hours to get back.  That is prime knitting time!  I hope to have a lot of progress on my Tiberius Socks because of this...if I don't fall asleep first.  And hopefully, the battery power on my iPhone won't die too quickly.  As a backup, I'm charging my mom's iPod, which she never uses and hoping to have some podcasts on there to listen to as well.