Ishbel

Once upon a time, I started knitting a shawl.  It was so long ago that I can't remember exactly when, but there's no doubt it was well over a year ago.  The shawl pattern was Ishbel.  It's hard to go anywhere around the virtual knitting world without running into this shawl.  If you've knit at least a couple of shawls, good chance that one of them was Ishbel.  I'm a couple years late to the Ishbel party, but it's finally finished.

Like most new projects, I started out like gangbusters and quickly finished the stockinette middle section. I have no idea what happened next, but it did not involve knitting on this shawl for a long long time.  Ishbel was buried in a drawer.  I occasionally even forgot about it.  When I finally made it back to Ishbel to start the lace section, I could only manage two rows before stuffing it right back in the drawer where it was neglected again for weeks, sometimes months, at a time.  Obviously at that pace, progress was slow.  I usually like knitting lace, but my mind has been so foggy this year that even simple lace patterns have seemed extremely tedious.  Thus, Ishbel sat.  And sat. 

When my determination to clear out WIPs kicked in earlier this month, I finally gritted my teeth and dealt with Ishbel forcing myself to knit at least a few rows every night.  I really enjoy knitting the first half to two-thirds of shawls, but once the rows become so long that it takes fifteen minutes to get through each one, I start to drag.  One night I managed six rows with the help of two hours of Battle: Los Angeles (gotta love a good brainless action movie, especially when there are aliens).  A few episodes of Vampire Diaries and the Walking Dead (yup, vampires and zombies also totally fun to watch) got me through the last chart and epically-long bind off. 

 

So Ishbel is finished.  Finally.  Ishbel puts me at eight projects finished with stash yarn this year (the goal of twelve might still be within reach!) and a little more progress on the sock yarn stashdown.

October update: 
Current score: -3
Skeins acquired: 0
Skeins used/destashed: 2 (1 for Ishbel; 1 skein sold)

New sock yarn stashdown score: -5.  Best score yet!

Finally

I finished something. It's been so long, I almost can't believe it.

 

I started these socks April 1st.  I finished the first sock at the end of May.  I thought sock number two would go a little more quickly than two months.  Nope.  Just shy of three actually.  Most days I only knit a round or two while I waited for my computer to boot up at work.  Occasionally I got in four or five rounds waiting at a doctor's office or in between runs at agility class.  Clearly I was not enamored enough of the socks to keep knitting when I got home.  No wonder they took forever.

The pattern is Knotty or Knice by Chrissy Gardiner from the Fall 2008 issue of Interweave Knits, and although I like the way they came out, they were not fun to knit.  Those little cabled knots were seriously tedious.  The pattern was easy to memorize, but there were anywhere from three to twenty-four cabled stitches in a round.  Seriously, twenty-four.  I counted.  Twice.

At least they look good after all that work.  I'm still really happy the experience is over. 

This is my first finished pair of socks for 2011.  Sheesh, my knitting productivity this year has been pitiful.  I blame the spinning wheel.  I wonder what my excuse should be for the four months prior to owning a wheel? 

Probably due to the lack of finished objects, I haven't been keeping up with posting my sock yarn stashdown progress.  However, finishing a pair of socks has motivated me to see where I stand.

Score at the end of May: +3
New skeins acquired: 2 (club skeins)
Skeins de-stashed: 4 sold
Skeins used up: 5 (Knotty socks=1; Oranje sweater=4)

New Score: -4.  Back in the negative!

I have three more socks in progress.  I've challenged myself to finish all three pairs before casting on any new socks.  I think I can do it.  It just might mean no new socks until 2012.

And on a completely unrelated note, yes I experienced the earthquake yesterday.  I was at home, and I realized it was an earthquake right away since I was awake for the mini-quake that hit last summer.  It totally freaked me out, and I could happily live the rest of my life without experiencing another.  Now I'm eagerly watching the Hurricane Irene forecasts.  It's looking like it will stay a little east of the Maryland coast but currently it's predicted to reach this area Sunday morning--right around the time I'm supposed be running 10 miles in Annapolis.  Could make for an interesting race.

Sock Yarn Stashdown: May Update

In April I mentioned my goal of ending 2011 with less sock-weight yarn in my possession than I had at the beginning of the year. Since it's the end of the month, I figured I'd better take stock of the situation.  The results were not encouraging.

Score at the end of April: -1
New skeins acquired in May: 4
Skeins used up: 0
Skeins destashed: 0

Score at the end of May: +3

Uh, that score is going in the wrong direction.
 
The good news is that last night I finished a sock.

Pattern is Knotty or Knice by Chrissy Gardiner

And I cast on the second one immediately.  It's not much, but it's progress.

Catch up

Last month my knitting took a little trip.

That would be the view from the apartment I stayed in for a week in mid-March in Cullera, Spain (a small beach town outside Valencia).  I felt like I knit very little on the trip, but knitting-wise, it was a major success.  My needles made it through both security checks in Paris, and I finished Flamboyan.

I said the finished shawl was either going to be awesome or really ugly.  I don't think it ended up as either.  I was rather underwhelmed by the finished product at first.  Even though the yarns are nice individually, together I thought they looked sort of drab.  I was a little bummed that after having made a couple great choices pairing yarns, I was back to my old tricks of bad combinations.  What the shawl has going for it is its nice size, and it feels amazing after blocking. Both yarns are a bamboo/merino blend (Sanguine Gryphon Kypria and Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs Gothling Ricin) with beautiful drape and sheen.  Over the past few days, the shawl has really grown on me. 

It's not take-your-breath-away beautiful, but that's okay. It's finished, it's wearable, and I feel a little better about taking on more intarsia projects.  Since I have yarn waiting in the wings for Chadwick, a little more intarsia confidence is a very good thing.

At the end of 2010, I joined a group challenging knitters to knit 12 projects completely from stash yarn in 2011.  Flamboyan puts me at three.  More importantly, however, it used two skeins of sock yarn.  My own personal challenge to myself this year is to knit down my stash of sock yarn.  I don't have a specific goal in mind; I just want there to be less by the end of the year.  I'm in a sock club that sends one skein every month, so at the very least I have to knit up or destash one skein per month just to break even.  Here's where I stand as of today:

New skeins acquired since Jan 1:  7
Skeins used up:  3
Skeins destashed: 5 (2 sold, 3 gifted)
Current score:  -1

I figure this little challenge is like golf--the lower the score, the better I'm doing.  Not too bad so far, but definitely room for improvement, and with my new spinning obsession taking significant time away from knitting, it could be an uphill battle.