Yay socks!

My Jaywalkers are done. I'm not in love with the pattern and probably won't knit it again but i loved the yarn and the colorway.

Visual Aids

I come bearing visual aids! Hehe, I received my camera on Friday and I'm still playing around with the different settings so these aren't going to be very consistent pictures but its technicolor nonetheless. First up, a picture of my stash (well, most of it anyway):


Can you see why i need to join the 100 skeins challenge. hehehe.

Next up are my Jaywalkers knitted up in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkie Socks that Rock in Mochaberry:

As you can see, i'm at the home stretch now and since i'm 2 at a time, when i'm done - I'm completely done! WOOT! I love this yarn and the colorway but i have to admit, i'm not in love with the pattern, i know its a popular one but it just isnt' for me.

Next is my Alpaca Clapotis...sorry about the not so great picture, i'll try again later:

That's all i've got for now. More pics later...

Froggage required

I knit a few more rows on the Jaywalkers last night at the SnB and realized that the ankle really is too tight. i'll frog back to to the heel part and redo it with 2.5mm needles. I learned about another SnB in the area from one of the new knitters who came yesterday. This SnB meets on Monday nights - i see some knitter stalking in the near future. LOL.

i've also started bagging up my sock yarns into paper bags for the personal sock club. i'm still not sure how i am going to coordinate this with the BMFA and the Sunshine Yarns sock clubs but i want the personal one to take priority. Maybe i can do the non-personal sock clubs after i finish the personal one or skip the personal one on months when i get the other sock clubs. hmmm...

as for the Sunshine Yarns sock yarn...so far i've only tried the Soft and the Twist yarn bases and i have to admit i'm not impressed with either. Maybe the Classic yarn base will be better - though i'm not sure how the sock club works in regards to which yarn base is used. The colorways are gorgeous including the first club yarn i received in October but i hope that a different yarn base is used for the next club yarn. That said, Dani has some GORGEOUS superwash merino rovings and is willing to do a special order for me for a sold out color. WOOT!

Lack of photos and a random generator

Have you noticed a sudden lack of photos on my blog? And if you are on Ravelry, i'm sure you've noticed the same on there too. the reason is that my mom has the one good camera and the other camera i have is just...CRAP. no worries though, i'm getting an early Christmas present in the form of an awesome camera - even better than the one my mom has "spirited" away. it should be here by the end of the week so expect an explosion of photography on this here blogging space. i am especially looking forward piling up all my yarns and rovings on the bed to take a pic for the Stash Knit Down 100 skeins challenge. I fully intend to jump on them and roll around after the photo op. LOL.

I have 4 really pretty drawstring WIP bags at home that i purchased from various sellers on Etsy and they are seriously awesome in keeping my organized as well as helping me avoid unnecessary puncture wounds from scattered needles. i like using them so much that i've decided that i'm going to use these bags to help me control the number of WIPs i have. I have 4 drawstring bags so i am limited to 4 projects (large projects like blankets and sweaters are obviously an exception). I currently have more than 4 WIPs so those don't count until they get transferred to a drawstring bag. All this may seem odd but it works for me - it is like a pnemonic for controlling number of WIPs instead of for memory...if that analogy makes sense.

I'm bringing this up because i'm pretty far along on my jaywalker socks; i've discovered the secret to finishing projects quickly - TOTAL FIXATION! LOL. The socks are absolutely all i've been knitting for the past few days and i'm done with the foot and the heel and am at the leg part now. the let part is going to go up until i've run out of yarn. I forgot to change to larger needles when i got to the heel part as Sherri had suggested and now that i've gotten about 1/2 inch into the foot - i can feel how tight the sock is. I may just rip back to the top of the heel (because the sock felt pretty comfortable when i tried them on after i finished the heel) do the leg again in larger needles. another thing i could do is what Karen does - make the leg part larger than the foot part so i could go up to 76 stitches for the leg part. i think i'll knit about 1 more inch on the leg before i decide.

wait that was another tangent. The reason i brought up the drawstring bags controlling the WIPs was to actually talk about what happens when i finish a project (such as the jaywalkers that i'm FIXATED on). I checked the number of items i have in my queue (171!), went to some online random integer generator and generated an number between 1 and 171 - as soon as i landed on a number/project that i have the yarn for, i moved it up to the top of my queue and as soon as i have an empty WIP bag, that is getting cast on next. In this case, it is a pretty crochetted lace shawl pattern that came up. Now i have to decide what to do with my WIPs that aren't already in the bags - do i finish them first?