I've Run Out Of Sock Needles

I've jealously eyed Gale's Art sock blanks for awhile now. Friends coming back from Rhinebeck had them... and at the time it was really difficult to get one on Gale's etsy shop. A year ago, around my birthday, I finally decided I was going to take the plunge, stalk her shop, and finally get myself a single sock blank in The Big O color way. The only problem was that less than a month earlier she retired the color. Oh the agony! And no one on ravelry was giving their's up. I did have a little sliver of hope though. She said that after a year, she might un-retire it. Well.... while sitting in the bathroom with my phone (like you do), I decided to see if the color might have finally been un-retired. And what do you know, she had exactly the one I wanted in her shop. I came bursting forth from the loo and shouted to Connor, who was sitting on the couch, I HAVE TO BUY YARN NOW. IT'S IMPORTANT. And now it is mine. However, I have run into a problem. 

All my sock needles are full. I know that some people would solve that problem by buying another set of needles, but that is not my way. (Also, I haven't been able to make it to the yarn shop...) So instead I am knitting furiously on all my socks to clear the needles. It might make sense to just work on one at a time, but after feeling really inspired to work on the Haleakala socks, I ran into a part that required lots of concentration, so I moved to my plain pair. Of course then I figured out the problem I was having with the test knit I was doing, so I gave my attention to that... until the weather turned cold again and I worked on my sweater instead. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to have more than three projects going at once; it prevents me from knitting my new yarn.

Does anyone else have a tale of yarn woe... and perhaps eventual triumph? Or is there yarn that you knew you should have bought and will never get your hands on?

Catching Up On Crafting

I've been pretty productive with my various projects as of late. After realizing that I was not quite starting or finishing anything, I knew that I needed to make a list of what was causing each project to stagnate. It seems silly, but every project just had one step that needed to be worked on before I could go full steam ahead. 

For the Iceland sweater, I needed to swatch, so swatch I did. The swatch wasn't very helpful though. Since the pattern doesn't have a very good schematic, it was difficult to know how to successfully make the adjustments I wanted to. Eventually I decided that maybe I should just cast on. If it goes badly, I'll just rip it out and try again.

Next up is this test knit on my to do list for a while. It doesn't have a solid deadline, so I've waited until I had some brain power to put to it. I did my swatch, got confused over the stitch pattern directions, got clarification from the designer, and cast on. Of course after I got past the cuff, I realized that I had another question. This project will sit for a little while longer, but I'm glad to have gotten it started.

I recently wove in the ends to two different pairs of socks, but they still weren't being added to my sock rotation. I've mentioned in the past that I like to re-fix the color in all my socks before wearing them. If I have several pairs of socks close to completion, I'll wait until they are all done so I can do them together. I wasn't getting around to re-fixing the color and I realized it was because the Hieroglyphic Socks were a little too long in the toes. I wanted to fix the toes before re-fixing all the color. I don't know about the rest of you, but I wasn't really motivated to unweave in the ends and rip back color work. I finally caved and am pleased to say that both the Hieroglyphic and Rainbow socks are now re-fixed and drying.

My lavender sachet project also had been languishing. I often thought about embroidering, but kept putting it off because I needed to set up the fabric. After having a good think, I worked out the spacing I needed between each sachet. (2.25 inches) And to prevent myself from putting it off again, I'm sewing all the bag boundaries before I keep embroidering. It's going pretty well.

The last project that I'd been putting off was catching up on my comics. After Hawai'i, I was nearly two weeks behind. I've been slowly catching up by doing two comics a day: the previous days' comic and one from when we were in Hawai'i. Eventually I'll be up to date.

How has everyone else dealt with stagnating projects? Do you find a list helps or do you have a different method?

Velomeister Test Knit

Hey everyone! I'll be drawing a winner for the skein of Manos shortly and posting about it tomorrow. So if you'd like to join in on the fun, check out the Manos post.
In other news, it's been a few months since I've released a pattern. I've been super busy on the book work, which is all secret, but I do have a sock pattern that is ready to be tested. So if you are interested in testing my Velomeister pattern, have a peek at the test thread on ravelry. All going well, I hope to release the pattern by March 11th.

Maybe I'm Addicted

I bought more yarn yesterday. Apparently I can't go more than 24 hours without buying a skein. Reasons it's ok that I bought more yarn:
1. It's for a test knit I promised to do. I found out that the test was being released today. I had to get yarn for it. (The test is for someone I have the pleasure of knowing in real life. Her designs are fabulous, so keep an eye out for them.)
2. It wasn't an extra trip. I had to get the one pair of needles I don't seem to own so I could knit button bands on my Oma's cardi.
3. The cardi is almost done. I can start the test knit within the next day or so.

Of course in between buying yarn on Tuesday and going to the shop on Wednesday, the one skein I was eyeing had been sold. It's even a color AND brand that doesn't sell all that quickly. It took me awhile to find an acceptable skein that I thought I could get gauge in. As well all know, my gauge is crazy loose, so I'm knitting the size small. The yarn is Heritage Silk in color 5674.