Languidly Knitting

The top that would be finished, had I not ripped out approximately 73 times.

The top otherwise known as the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank. This project is the perfect storm of loving the pattern on sight in the book, seeing a few fabulous projects, and having just barely enough yarn in the stash to pull it off.

I’m a little worried, though.  I have 6 skeins of a long discontinued color.  Just under 2 of those made 7.5″ of knitting.  The total length of the garment is 23″.  Will I have enough?  I’ll be biting my nails until the end, that’s for sure.

Eleven names go into a hat.

Three come out.

Peggy gets to use the Cherry Tree Hill for Socks for Soldiers, Thao gets the Zen String, and Beth is receiving the Habu. Winners have been e-mailed, packages have been sent, and that’s that. Hooray!

In case you’re wondering, I do still knit.

Click here or on the photo to see the heel detail.

January Girl Socks by Angelina Fagan
Source: Zenstring.com
Yarn: One 4oz. skein of Zen String Harmony DK in “January Girl,” an exclusive sock club color for Jan. 2008
Needles: KnitPicks 32″ circulars in US1 (2.25mm) and US1.5 (2.5mm)
Notes/Thoughts: I made these smaller than the pattern by subtracting one stitch from the center of each pattern repeat. I added a pattern repeat in the leg. And I knit a few stockinette rows before starting the toe decreases, for aesthetic reasons.

For some reason I have always disliked DK-weight socks, though I had never actually tried knitting any. I know now that my instinct was correct. Yes, they knit up rather quickly, but they just feel too thick on my foot.

The yarn was just okay. The tencel is pretty and shiny, but it made the yarn less springy, so the decreases were hard to manipulate.

And last, the socks aren’t seasonally appropriate, but for the past week, while I finished the second sock, the sky looked like this:

So at least the color is right.

This is my very last purchase of yarn until December. At that time, I hope I will have completed a semester of course work at college, so I can reward myself with the Patternworks year-end sale.

(It’s Fleece Artist Somoko in Ruby. Click on the picture to see the lovely variation of red.)

I’ve been getting rid of yarn, too. Some going to charity, some destashed on Ravelry, some even knitted up. I’ve got so much yarn and so much just plain stuff that I feel overwhelmed. My desk is always cluttered, my room always disorganized, my closet always a mess.

I feel rather as if I were drowning when I’m in my house. My impulse to buy and buy more is making me miserable instead of helping me feel better. Retail therapy does not work for me (though your results may vary).

So. Maybe I’ll try the opposite. I’ll give stuff away.

Up for grabs: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Thin, Zen String Harmony Fingering, and 4 balls of Habu Silk Wool A-113

Leave a comment and I’ll draw three names from those (possibly the whole of my readership). Comments will be closed Saturday, April 19. Comments have been closed.

*The amount of yarn currently in my stash. Guh.

No more need be said.

Thank you, everyone, for the comments!  I feel much, much better at the moment.  And yes, I think my hedgehog is super cute, too.

Now, a story about why I haven’t made any knitting progress, in pictures.

A Christmas present sock in my purse. (It’s a Maruca bag, in case you were wondering.)

And here’s the sock, pulled out of the bag.

But wait. Isn’t something missing?

Yeah. This is what was missing.

P.S. It’s the Charade sock in Shibui Knits Sock “Earth”.