The Slouchy Fade Socks Strike Back

I started another pair of Slouchy Fade Socks.  These are also knit in Shirley Brian Yarns Deconstructed Fade Socks, but the colorway is Don't Procrastinate, Delegate to Your Future Self.  (The colorway names on these crack me up.)  I'm knitting them exactly like I did the first slouchy socks, but I've added 10 rounds to the leg in an attempt to use up a little more yarn.  Also, I plan to start the second sock with the dark purple end, so they won't be identical, but fraternal socks.

I was initially thinking about knitting a pair of colorwork socks, but decided to stick with simple for now.  It doesn't get much more simple than a pair of stockinette socks where the yarn does all the heavy lifting.

Have a great weekend!

Progress!

Good news!  I did finally get out of the knitting black hole and was able to finish the body of my Molly, Version B pullover.  I went ahead and finished the neckline, and now I'm working on the first sleeve.  Hopefully, it won't be too much longer now before it's finished.  Then I will need to weave in the ends.  There are so many ends on this thing, it will probably take me a day just to get them all woven in - but at least I'm seeing progress again as I knit.

Also, can I mention that I love that this was one of those years where Thanksgiving was a little earlier in November.  When it's at the very end of November (like it will be next year) it always seems like I don't have a chance to catch my breath between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the next time I look up, it's New Year's Eve.  This week feels like the calm before the storm (in addition to the regular winter holidays, we have a bunch of family birthdays starting in December and running through the first week of January), and I'm loving it.

We are planning on getting the Christmas tree up this week.  It's Obi's first Christmas and he'll probably need to bark at it for a couple of weeks.

Faded Socks

I finished my Slouchy Fade Socks.  These were the perfect, brainless socks where the yarn did all the work.  In fact, I'm debating whether or not to knit another pair or two through the end of the year, or to try something more involved (I've been looking at stranded sock patterns).  I'm basically at the time of year where everything gets crazy until next year, so letting the yarn do all the work is probably a good idea.

The yarn is Shirley Brian Yarns Deconstructed Fade Sock in Here's to Us, Long May They Sneer.  I ended up having more yarn left than I'd hoped for so whenever I knit these (in this particular yarn) again, I'll be adding more rounds to the leg.

I'm still trying to break free of the gravity of the knitting black hole on my pullover, but I'm going to try it on today and see how it's doing anyway.  Maybe hanging on a body, vertically will help it? 

I'm not going to blog next week because Caleb is coming home for Thanksgiving and we're hosting Thanksgiving.  Also, Obi is turning eight months old.  He's gotten leggy again, which means he'll have to grow into those silly stilts, which means he's still getting bigger.  We haven't tried weighing him since he was about five and a half months old and he weighed 64 pounds.  He hasn't had to go to the vet and trying to weigh him at home is kind of a circus now.  His breeder told us to expect somewhere between 80-100 pounds, and he seems to be right on track!

For reference: Bear, our first Golden, a red American style Golden, who was pre-blog, was 80 pounds;  Finn who was 75% Golden/25% Labrador was 60 pounds;  Logan who was an English style Golden was 90 pounds.  Little Obi Dog may end up bigger than them all!

A Knitting Black Hole

It's something that happens in knitting sometimes - The Knitting Black Hole.  The physics defying place that knitting enters where you knit and knit and knit and get no added length.  I've been there with this sweater for almost a week.  I keep checking the length of the body and it's just not getting anywhere.  I mean, this is worsted weight yarn for heaven's sake!  It should definitely be getting longer.  It just really isn't.

I know if I look at the last photo I took of this sweater, it's longer, but that happened with two days of knitting.  It hasn't grown any since then.  I'm at the point now where I measure after every round because at some point I will break free of the black hole and all of a sudden there will be an extra six inches of knitting.  I've never NOT gotten out of a knitting black hole, but I also never know when I'm going to fall into one.  It has been a long time since I've been here though, so maybe it was my turn.  

If anyone needs me, I'll be here.  Knitting, and knitting, and knitting.

Obi Makes A Friend

When Little Obi Dog came to our family, my spinning time sharply decreased.  There were potty training and puppy activities to do, and I didn't want the spinning wheel to become a puppy activity.  He's seen the spinning wheel, but Mickael was holding him so he hasn't gotten to touch it.  Now that he's 7-1/2 months old, he's doing really well with most of his commands (most of the time), so I decided to spin in front of him.

Obi really likes the spinning wheel!  I got it set up and started spinning and then Obi and Mickael came into the room.  Naturally, Obi was very curious and wanted to sniff the whole thing.  He managed to quickly bonk himself with the flyer (I wasn't spinning very quickly, but a gentle bonking can help a dog learn which parts of the spinning wheel to stay away from), and then he got a little close to the drive wheel and learned not to touch that while I was spinning.  Next, he barked at the spinning wheel (a sensible reaction, to let the wheel know he wasn't intimidated).  Finally, he inspected the entire thing, watching how each part was interconnected, and how the spinning wheel worked. (Are there possibly some engineering skills in Little Obi Dog?)  He also gave kisses to as much of it as he could safely reach, including my toes, as I treadled.  

When I stopped spinning to change hooks on the flyer, he really got into the workings of it.  I can honestly say that this wheel has never had so much detailed doggy attention given to it.  Logan checked it out periodically, but since I didn't spin bacon, he quickly lost interest.  I don't know how long it will take Obi to lose interest, but I was surprised by the way he paid attention to every part of it and how it worked.  The one thing he really wanted to check out was the fiber (This is Malabrigo Cloud Fiber in Anniversario), but I didn't think that was a good idea. We'll have to be 100% on Drop It and Leave It first!

Sweater Weather!

It's actually sweater weather here in north Texas, sort of.  The first of this week was definitely sweater weather, today is iffy, and tomorrow into the middle or so of next week we'll probably have the air conditioner back on.  It's Texas!  

Anyway, the cold snap means winter is coming and with winter in Texas there will be shorts, but there will also be sweaters!! 

Since there will be sweaters, eventually, I'm knitting another one.  This is Molly Version B from the Cocoknits Sweater Workshop book in Malabrigo Rios in Whale's Road (I warned you I was going to make a pullover out of this).  This is my first time using the Cocoknits system so while I know it's slowed me down a little as I figure it out, I'm looking forward to seeing how I like the fit of the finished sweater.  I'm using everything she recommends technique wise, so there's a lot of pausing to look up specifics.  If I were to knit more of her sweaters, I think the process would go much more quickly as I would understand how she does things without looking everything up.  I'm through all of the neck and shoulder shaping of the yoke, so I should be able to move along faster in the lower body now.

Have a great weekend!  I'll be knitting on this sweater and wearing shorts!