Monday, February 15, 2010

To Conquer, To Reclaim and A Demise

The President's Day holiday was a perfect time for me to regroup and organize the projects. Over the weekend I finally finished a sweater that's been languishing for a very long time. Yay! I just need to get some buttons on this thing before the great reveal. Not that I haven't been wearing it non-stop since I finished and blocked it! I can't wait to show you all, because after sitting on the sidelines forever, I picked it up back in December and though I had a few battles before I wrestled it to the ground, I eventually got the upper hand and showed it who's boss around these parts!

With that sweater off the needles and moved into the finished column over on Ravelry (what a great, liberating thing!), I pulled out my giant black hole of a plastic bag, that enormous container to several unfinished projects, a bag full of swatches, items to frog and stray skeins of yarn. What a treasure trove that bag is!

With CathyZ keeping me company this afternoon, I frogged down a sweater,

Turbulence U Neck Pullover

one really awful feedbag of a hat,

This looks like a horse's feed bag when turned upside down

an unfinished fail of a mitten,

Mitt Fail!

and set upon some socks.

Simple Man Socks

But stopped dead in my tracks when I found this:

Sad Demise

Sad Demise

Moths! In the socks! Last I saw these socks was oh, maybe about 18 months ago? The PhotoMan wore them but complained they rode down and balled up down under his foot. Not comfortable! I set them aside thinking I'd rip them down and re-knit using a smaller needle and maybe add ribbing.. you know, for greater pleasure. Heh!

Surprise! These socks were unwashed (doh, did I really think he would wash them before handing them back??) Moths love dirty wool. I guess they also like alpaca! This yarn was mostly alpaca with some nylon. Anyway, these are now history - too many holes to deal with and really, I have plenty of yarn (oh you don't say?!?!), so off to the trash these go. Now, I have another pair of socks in need of repair and I'll gladly put time into darning them, but not these.

Besides, there are new conquests in my sights right now to worry about holey socks. The latest obsession is to overcome my chronic crochet-itis condition once and for all. If nothing else happens to me in 2010, Crochet and I are going to become bff's for life.

Crochet World Domination Plan

And I finally launched my Chevron Love Mittens. I rocked the Latvian Braid, after much hemming and hawing...

A Good Latvian Braid

Conicidentally, these got started on Valentine's Day! I predict good things but first, I need to pick up two circular needles because it quickly became evident wrestling with 8 balls of yarn AND double pointed needles would be an unnecessary disaster in the making!

You can see it's been a busy few days around here, what are you working on?



11 comments:

barefootrooster said...

whoa! you have been busy. doesn't frogging feel sort of good? and my, those mittens are going to be LOVELY. happy monday!

Oiyi said...

Oh man, you did a lot! Very productive.

I love the Chevron Mittens. One day I will make it with the kit I got. Right now, I am working on my Ravelympic project (crochet socks) and crocheting potholders because I am procrastinating about the socks.

Gale Bulkley said...

Too bad about the socks and congratulations on that Latvian braid. I am hoping your ambition will rub off and inspire a clean up over here.

At Home Mommy Knits said...

That's awful about the socks, but it sounds like you got a lot of knitting housekeeping taken care of :)

heather said...

hooray for frogging...boo moths! The Chevron Mittens are fun - enjoy them.

knottygnome said...

yay, crochet! i just got that book recently too. it's very inspiring.

too sad about the socks. that's one of my worst nightmares.

Mary said...

I also have been recently making goo-goo eyes at crochet and plan to get at least one decent crochet project done this year.

Sara said...

damn moths! I also found out that carpet beetles also have an appetite for wool, and they don't leave much evidence except for destruction. I rent one of those carpet steam-cleaners once a year and I tend to think they can't survive the beating that gives them.

Lauren said...

eeek! moths!

the beginning of that mitten is gorgeous!

t does wool said...

busy...you have been...and moths!
put some dried lavender in with your stash!

Katie M. said...

Wow! Look at you go! Congrats on finishing a sweater and getting some needles cleared. I can't wait to see the mittens!