Sock Madness 2--Made it to Round 2!

The first round of Sock Madness 2 had a lovely sock called Zombies. It's a ribbed pattern, which means it goes slower than a stockinette (which was what the first pattern was last year), but I managed to finish faster in absolute terms (Sunday night this year vs. Monday lunch last year, both with a Thursday release), though I think I spent more actual knitting time on these. (I cheated, somewhat, by taking Friday off.) There were lots of hints at the last minute about it being a "scary" sock, but I went ahead with the yarn I had originally picked for this sock anyway. I like the result better than I was afraid I would, but not as much as I wanted to. Though I will admit that when I was finally done, had taken the picture, uploaded it, sent the required, qualifying email, I looked down at my feet and said, "Huh, those are quite nice, all in all." So, I would say that's a good thing. And despite being in the fastest division, I made it in to the next round, so yeah me! My goal this year is to make it further than I did last year; since I got knocked out in round 2 last year, I submit that this is a modest enough goal. Stay tuned to see if I can acheive it!

On to other projects!

Rainbow legwarmers: I tried taking the color out of this "red" yarn that ended up mauve, using all the suggestions I got from folks: baking soda, Oxyclean, and bleach--nothing worked. Will try overdying it later, but I think I have to admit that I blew it, and buy some more yarn to get the red I need. In the meantime, I started on the leg warmers, but since I can't finish them until I reorder the yarn, etc., other things have edged it lower down in the queue.

One of those "other things" are these socks from Knitty.com. I'm using Knit Picks Gloss in Concord Grape to make them, and have only just started them, but they will give me something to keep me limber between SM2 rounds.

What has really become number-1-with-a-bullet is the ski suit for Barbie: sweater, ski pants, and hat. My daughter informed me the other day that I promised to make these for Babs, and Oh, by the way, Bab's birthday is on Easter. You know, less than 5 days away? I cast on this morning, but forgot to bring them with me to work tonight, so we'll have to see how much gets done before Sunday. Along with work. And sleep. And driving to Grandma's house on Friday (with me driving, so no knitting time, dang it!). Gauuggh! I told her I would try.

On to some older stuff: (Drum-roll, please) I have FINISHED THE TEA COZIES! I have! The last two are done! Both of these definitely fall into the feral category. The green one is my second try at that pattern; I finished a full version in a much heavier weight yarn, which meant many fewer rows of ruffles which looked STUPID! Gave that one away to someone who actually liked it (Goddess bless Ravelry!) and started again with fingering weight, after first spending too much money buying laceweight that I later realized wouldn't do. The final result is quite nice, and were I to do it again, it would go much faster and easier this time, but I doubt I will make the effort. Not the pattern's fault, just a little too much PTSD around the whole project. But it's done, done, done!

The pink one is even more so: I have tried no fewer than three yarns and at least 4 different needle sizes. I also tinkered a little with the pattern, but really like the final result; only I realized after I had given this to it's recipient that she had said "any color pink EXCEPT dusty". Ooops. May make her another in some other pink, now that I know how.....

My daughter also recently requested an evening gown for Thumbelina, a 3" doll that she got several years ago at Micky D's. Not sure that a gold metallic evening gown with a split up the side is appropriate for a little girl doll, but then, I wore some pretty inappropriate things when I was a kid, too. And it went pretty fast, and my daughter liked it. I call it a win.

And, finally, we have the lace scarf that I knit for my mom's birthday. Also from a knitty pattern, I again made an inappropriate yarn substitution, but ended up with a reasonable product. Not sure why lace patterns seem so much harder for me to remember than color or cable or other texture patterns; I memorized very quickly the pattern for the fisherman knit sweater that was the first sweater I made, lo, these many years ago, but even at the end of this lace scarf I was still checking the chart for every row. Weird. Is it because I can read textured stitches so much more easily than lace? Maybe. Maybe I just haven't done enough lace? We shall see.

That's enough for tonight.