Episode 6: Return of the Knitter

I'm back from my fabulous Wyoming adventure! We did a lot of snowy stuff, ate a lot of good food, but I know what you're here for is the knitting, so I'll cut to the chase.
These are my first toe-up socks, and also my official Wyoming socks, since I bought the yarn in Wyoming, bought the needles in Wyoming, and knit almost all of them in Wyoming. The needles are DPNs in US sizes 1 and 0, and the yarn is Trekking XXL, color 100. I am in love, completely and utterly.

Since they were toe-up, I could make them as tall as I wanted without fear of running out of yarn. They're about 7 1/2" tall from the top of the heel, and I had a suprising amount left over(no pic here, go check out my Ravelry)

This is part of my Christmas present to myself, bought at the same adoreable yarn shop as the other color...
...and this is the rest of my present. From left to right: Clover Takumi bamboo needles, sizes 9, 11, and 13; Clover Takumi bamboo DPNs, size 1, set of 5; Lantern Moon Rosewood Sox Stix, size 0, set of 5.

I've never trusted tiny wood and bamboo needles, not believing that they would stand up to much pressure. But knew I was going to have to start a pair of socks in my luscuious new yarn, and I didn't have any of the right sizes with me(in Wyoming, I mean. They were at home). The store didn't carry any of the right sizes in metal, so I sucked it up and got some. Turns out that they're fine, and I'm in love.
This was part of my present from Mom, a very wise move on her part. I think my favorite is Mason-Dixon, but I love them all.
This is a to-be-felted bag that I took with me to knit on the trip. It's 95% done, and will stay that way for a bit because I need another ball of yarn.
This is a pair of socks I started last week, with the sacred bamboo needles and that grey yarn above.
They're inspired by the Yarn Harlot's rotating rib socks, but I've personalized them and now they're the Cyclone Socks.
Another thing my mom got me was a spindle kit from Hello Yarn, and I've been practicing. It's a simple top-whorl spindle and 8 oz. of Romney top wool. I couldn't get a pic of my first yarn up(check my Ravelry, it's there) but this is my second yarn. My first was expectedly uneven, but my main problem was that the twist was buliding up in the thin bits and leaving the thick bits all fluffy and unspun. I found in my second yarn that if I kept a smaller amount of fiber in my hand, I didn't get the big lumps so much.
I'm still majorly overtwisting, but I'm working on that as we speak.
Like my cotton pyramid? Not exactly a masterpiece, and Sugar n Cream doesn't hold up as well as stone, but... oh well. Pretty soon I'm going to start a set of handtowels for my family, in these colors. The photo's pretty accurate, and it goes with our bathrooms perfectly. I'll keep you posted.
One lonely ball of black cotton, intended for some wristbands. The design I had in mind didn't work out so well, but I'll think of something else.
Finished Blueregard socks, finally. They're been done for a while, but you know me and my fickle ways...

Nothing like a change of plans...

Heather's slippers have been sitting on my worktable for a while now, just needing to be felted. I was getting kind of tired of it, so I finished them off about 20 minutes ago.
(I swear these are the same size. It's just the angle of the shot)

The slippers were fun and quick to knit, but in the felting I encountered 2 problems:

1, They're not very snug at the heel. I'm not sure how much of a problem this is, but I'm not going to worry about it. The deed is done.

2, They're small. This in itself is not a problem, they will fit Heather just fine. The problem is that 3 of the 4 people I was also planning to knit slippers for are men with substantially larger feet than Heather. I don't think I can make them both big enough and sturdy enough to fit big feet.

This is where the change of plan comes in: instead of 4 more pairs of slippers, I am going to knit 3 cabled scarves for the guys and some kind of decorative pillow for the woman. I am not mad about this change of plans, on the contrary. I think it's actually going to save me money.

I think next year I'm just going to come up with one project, like mittens or hats, and knit variations for everyone. I could buy one weight of yarn in a bunch of colors, mix and match, and use most of it up. This would be easier to organize and would hopefully remove the need for all this plan-changing.

On the downside, I might get bored knitting the same thing(however different) over and over. This is only a minimal concern, though. I plan to give myself lots and lots of time(starting no later than August) so I can knit other things and not lose my mind. Once the plan is established, there will be no changing.

I'm on a roll...

Wow, 2 posts in a week! Whoopee!
Plain vanilla sock with the awesome Sockotta yarn. This sock and I are having some relationship issues. I thought the yarn was going to stripe. I'm okay with not striping, but it's kind of pooling, and I'm not entirely sure how much this bothers me. I thought I would just keep knitting until I realise that I can't live with it and find some kind of solution(See, I'm not sure it bugs me that much. Odds are I'll be just fine. It's only minor pooling, and the non-pooling part looks great.)
Mom's Christmas shawl is done! It was a lovely quick knit, and now it's a lovely soft wrap(I'm wearing it right now. That's okay, cuz Mom thinks I made it for myself.)
Good shot of the colors.
Eyelet edge.

The only problem was that it kind of sheds. Just a little when it's being worn, but the whole couple days I was knitting it, I was constantly picking little fuzzies off of myself.

I started on Grandma's shawl a few days ago. I couldn't for the life of me get a photo with anywhere near accurate colors, so just imagine a big triangle the colors of the yarn I showed you last week. It's the same as Mom's, but without the eyelet(my Grandma wouldn't be able to see anything that subtle) Fingerless mitts for my cousin, a variation of Dashing from http://knitty.com. I made them shorter, and with only the cables on the tops of the hands. I like them, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I may need to make the thumbs wider.

I learned to knit when I was 8, but never learned anything but the knit stitch and never made anything. Last October, a dear friend of mine showed me how to knit Continental and renewed my interest. From there I shot off like a rocket, learning everything I could and knitting every waking moment. Well, I'm not quite sure when exactly I entered the maniac-knitting stage I'm in now, but I think it was after Christmas, because I didn't even think of knitting any gifts.

With this in mind, it seems a tiny bit odd to me that, after only a year of serious knitting, I feel compelled to knit every single present on my list. Just a teensy bit, though.

I feel absolutely no desire to enter into the raving-mad stage of Christmas knitting known as "IT," and I tried to stay within the realm of possiblity. I chose only(well, mostly) smallish, quick gifts, and started knitting them in August. I really think I'm going to make it. This is all I need to finish:

• aforementioned shawl for Grandma(garter stitch on US 10 needles, and it's already 3/4 done. I am not worried at all.)
• 4 pairs of slippers(don't laugh. I can easily finish a pair of these in a day. I have done it before.)
• a wire bracelet(provided I don't make some idiotic mistake, this should take maybe 1/2 an hour at most)
• some small stuffed toy suitable to entertain an almost-3-year-old boy(this also should be very quick)

I think it's completely reasonable to expect that this will all get done... If you don't think so, and you have a better idea, please let me know. I promise you will not hurt my pride one little bit.