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Sunday, August 5, 2012

I took it as a sign and ordered new yarn.

So....the Ravellenic games are afoot and yesterday I attempted to work on the 3rd of my three planned Ravellenic Game projects.

Yep, attempted. I seem to mostly "attempt" to work on this project - The Tardis Socks.

This pattern offers me the opportunity to try a little stranded color work and make spiffy socks for the "Whovian" Little Brother.

As previously noted, I started these socks in December 2012. I was at the base of the cuff when I found a knot in the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Yarn. (Not the norm for BMF, in my experience.) 
I just needed a few more yards/rows to get to the color work section so rather than cut out the knot and join yarn in the 1st inch & a half of the sock, I started the cuff over.
(Plot note - this knot is now viewed as Sign #1.)

The sock languished through the months the Little Brother and I were spending at the hospital/pursuing healing because I felt I needed to "sit down" to setup/start my first stranded color work when I had some uninterruptible/focused time. 
(Some of you are making "been there/procrastinated that" noises 'bout now, huh? 
Others of you are snorting "You have cats! There is no such thing as uninterruptible/focused time with cats in the house..." 

And then I chose this WIP for the Ravellenic Games and the rules had a requirement that WIP (Work in Progress) entered in the Games not be worked on after May 15th. 
(Really?!? May 15th until July 27th?!? {sigh} OK.). So I waited. And waited some more - even after the Little Brother moved back to his own apartment and I began to find some uninterruptible/focused* time. But there are always other projects to knit upon...

So, yesterday, I was happily loitering at Kiwi Knitting and I had brought the Tardis Socks to work on during the Sock Club knit-time. 
I pulled out the pattern, figured out what my next step was, pulled out the black yarn to border the "Police Box" letters and....  
(Plot note - this moment is now viewed as Sign #2.)
(Plot confession - I have to take responsibility for not considering this when I bought the black yarn....)
And - I thought "Gee, the black Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn is much thinner than the Blue BMF Arts Yarn." Uh-oh. 

Yeah, I tried knitting with it and the color contrast was great but the Heritage was thinner and I thought the socks might have issues with several inches of color work in a thinner yarn bracketed  by the heavier Socks that Rock yarn. {sigh}

Blessing for the day: I was in a Yarn Store. I had options. 

And I found a couple more options but not both black and white in a wool super wash. 
The Cascade Heritage 150 that was a very good match to the weight of the BMF Yarn I had and, Lynn, the owner of Kiwi Knitting offered to order me the Black and White Cascade Heritage 150 I needed - and she did so. 

(Plot note - the following moment is now viewed as Sign #3.)
'Bout then, I noticed this: 
Did the number of needles in the picture above strike you as odd? 
Yeah, me too. The look on my face must have been interesting. The project had been put/pulled in and out of the project bag for the last hour or so....and that's where I found the needle. 
These were new Knitter's Pride Cubics I purchased last December to try out the "square" needles for the first time and only used to knit the few inches of cuff you see pictured here. 
They didn't travel far as evidenced by my attempts at knitting these socks. 
Moments later, I added up the signs and thought this project is NOT getting done for the Ravellenic games. 
And my eyes went back to the skein of Tardis-worthy blue Cascade Heritage 150 in the sock yarn section of the store. It has more yardage for the Little Brother's bigger feet and there is absolutely no doubt that it will match the Black/White Cascade Lynn is ordering for me. 
And I bought the Blue Cascade Heritage 150, deciding the Blue BMF Arts Yarn would belong to a different project. 

Epilogue/Silver Lining/Another sign?
Epilogue 
The rest of the new Tardis Sock yarn is on order. I've e-mailed the Knitter's Pride folks to see if there are any options to my buying another circular needle to replace the broken one. 

I'm going to pull in this neglected WIP as my 3rd Ravellenic Game project: The "Spacious Show & Tell Moebius Bag" I started in the Cat Bordhi Mobius Class I took last November. I put it aside for Christmas-knitting deadlines and it's been waiting patiently for me to return. 
Silver Lining
When I walked into Kiwi yesterday, literally the first thing I saw was this lovely skein of Manos del Uruguay. I was instantly smitten and it came home with me yesterday (a Cat Bordhi-esque fulled item is plotted for this yarn). 
I'm also thinking the residual Black & White Cascade Heritage 150 yarn might become a pair of Cat Bordhi Zebra Socks. Hmmmmm. 

Another sign?
I must confess...I am still being challenged by the Baby Surprise Jacket. No, with the goodies and clues I found on the Raverly BSJ Wiki page, I've got a pretty good grip on the pattern. But last night I had to rip back pretty much all the knitting I'd done on the jacket earlier in the day. I came up with too many stitches when I was putting the stitch markers back in after knitting the center section for 10 ridges. Near as I can tell - I over-increased. {sigh}
The colors are laying out well, though. 
It could be another sign. A pretty basic message, I think. 
Counting stitches whilst subjected to massive yarn fumes in LYS and surrounded by fascinating  knitterly chat is a lost cause


(Please note: Bonus spacing in this blog is a gift from Blogger and 
is not intended for dramatic effect.)

2 comments:

  1. Dear Cat Lady, we want to see the "Bird's Nest"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    Replies
    1. Yep, The Birds Nest Shawl is technically complete (and the "Shawl-finished" Blog Post started). But the shawl is pending blocking. As we hear tell of lace projects, right now it looks rather like something the cat dragged in.
      The ladies at Kiwi have offered to help me block it at the store since I have yarn eating, T-pin stealing felines that are much quicker than I am.
      We'll see how it comes out, but yes, I do need to finish the blocking and the post on the Birds Nest Shawl. Stay tuned!

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