The last couple of weeks have been nightmarishly busy. I've taken on a new "25% of my time" assignment at work (but of course haven't shed any other assignments), have become a new girl scout leader (with all the meetings and training that entails), and my spouse was out of town this week (and since I haven't mastered the art of teleportation, my 3 kids and I were 10 minutes late for absolutely everything.)
When I have spent personal time with a computer, it has been to log my stash into Ravelry. My husband doesn't understand this at all. "Why do you want to put pictures of your yarn on a web site when you can just go in the closet and look?" Well, yeah, but...it's SO COOL.
One of the coolest features is downloading your stash list to an excel spreadsheet. Just how much yarn have I logged so far...hmmm, let's see...wow, 4 miles...wait, that's in yards...so, what?12 miles? And that's just sock, lace, and wool yarn. I've got a bit more wool to go, then I start on the cotton, which I buy by the sweater's worth rather than by the ball. I'm worried. I'm debating whether to list the acrylic or not. I have not yet done the backwards calculation -- how many miles of yarn have I knit so far this year -- but 12 miles seems like an enormous amount of yarn.
So, anyway, no time or energy for blogging, but I've had some time for knitting. I made good progress on my Dunes socks. So much progress, that all I had was one toe to decrease and to weave in ends tonight. I am very pleased with these, despite the trouble they gave me initially. I love the delicate lacy look, I love the way the stitches flow, I love the way this yarn looks with this pattern, I love the way they fit. And it got cold enough this week to wear pure wool socks! I hope we have another "cold snap" next week, or maybe just another rainy day so the air conditioner works extra-well.
Specifics:
Pattern: Dunes of Tinfou by Dipsy
Yarn: Unknown, charcoal wool sock yarn I bought several years ago to finish the toes on a pair of men's self-patterning socks. I had at the time such an amazingly powerful memory that I didn't feel any need to keep the ball band.
Needles: US size 1 Brittany Birch DPN's initially, then switched to Crystal Palace Bamboo circulars. Love the tips, hate the joins, but didn't want to change to metal circs.
Modifications: Besides working mostly with 2 circs instead of DPN's, no modifications. The YO's for the lace fell just before purl stitches, so I do wonder whether the pattern intended the YO's to be the half-wrap you get when you purl with the yarn in back or a wrap-and-a-half. I did the latter, because I liked the more pronounced holes in the lace. The sock might have been too small with the half-wrap.
Learned for next time: I knit tighter with circs than with DPN's, even when the needle material is very similar.
Like some others who have knit this pattern, I wasn't wild about the 2 extra stitches on each round. It was only an issue on the leg (and it was much easier to manage with 2 circs), because on the instep you expect to make some adjustments anyway. So when I finished the leg, I just adjusted the stitches so that the extra stitches were down the back of the leg. I'll never have to think about them again.
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