on socks...

yep, that's right--i've been knitting socks. i haven't been talking about it a lot as i have barely had time to breathe, buti HAVE been working on them. a couple of weekends ago, the hippie's friends all came into town to play D&D, as they are wont to do. to escape on saturday--i split the house and headed to the LYS, where my friend works to take advantage of the company, the good light, and the help. seemed like a good day to start making socks. i took everything i thought i would need with me, and still ended up buying a few more fiddly bits. (of course! it's the YARN STORE!) (click on that top picture for an explanation of all my gear--there are many notes on that pic.) for my first socks (again) (let us not dwell on last october's false start.) (poor unfinished alpine lace socks, languishing in the sock bag all this time...), i decided to copy some socks THK made a while ago--a pair of plain old knitted socks made of trekking. i love this yarn, both how it feels and how it automatically creates all these lovely tweedy stripes. i swatched it, aiming for 8 sts per inch, which i got on my first try on some 1's--go me. i learned to do a provisional cast-on, which means i also learned to crochet a chain, and promptly fucked it right up. the choice of dark green yarn to provisionally cast on for dark blue socks? perhaps unwise. so, what this means is that i spent two hours in the yarn store working on socks, only to come home with--exactly what i came in with plus $50 worth of random crap i just HAD to have. (what? that little blue bag matched my sock yarn? what could i do?) i started over the next day, and managed to get going on the cuff. a week of knitting later, i got going on the main part of ths sock. and you know, they look good. they will fit me. i want to wear them. but man--i am not loving knitting them. here's why. if i had more time to knit, i would be all over these socks. but i don't. i have precious little time, period, and my time to knit is even less. i think is this part of why i make so many baby objects--i have a prayer in hell of finishing them in under a year. i keep looking at these socks and thinking about how many stitches i have knitted on them already, and it's more than a whole baby blanket. and i KNOW this is the wrong way to think about it. it's a different beast entirely. but it's just frustratingly slow for me. i need a week to work on them to get one done. and i just don't have it. i am still trying. i am knitting every chance i get. i have touched nothing but socks all month. and you see before you what i've got. a third of a sock. i need to find a way to go faster. tonight i will knit on something else--i just need a break...

too much to do!

this past weekend, i actually started painting my studio. saturday i got it ready, sunday i put a coat of paint on it. i think i like the color, but of course, it needs a second coat to be sure. my plan was to finish it monday night, but instead i got kind of sick and ended up going to bed REALLY early monday. no painting. last night, we had a friend over for dinner. good time, but no painting. tonight, there will be a handful of people in the house for dinner as well, but i am still hoping to paint anyway. this may be a pipe dream, but i'm hoping... then tomorrow night, i can start putting the room back together, so that i can get all the studio crap out of the guest room so that people can actually sleep in the guest room this weekend. did i mention that we are having house guests this weekend? houseguest i LOVE and look forward to, but still... and now, my parents have decided by come miracle to come visit the following weekend as well. there's just too much to do. i need to quit my job to deal with my life. or at least get my environment set up the way i want it. sorry this post is such a bitch-fest. i am just feeling a tad overwhelmed today. thank god i took friday off.

by the way, i am holding crazy aunt purl's book out as a carrot to myself--i am not allowed to read it till the studio is done!