Second Sock Syndrome…

I would guess that if you are a knitter of socks, you are quite familiar with Second Sock Syndrome. Even if you don’t knit socks and just knit anything, you can probably guess what SSS is…in most scenarios, Second Sock Syndrome occurs when one finishes one sock and delays/dreads/doesn’t start the second sock. It can happen when knitters are in fear of diving into a second sock of boredom or mistakes…I usually am afflicted with boredom.

I’m someone who does not usually enjoy knitting the same pattern more than once. There are exceptions like basic socks (oh irony), hats, and the perfect, quick baby blanket. Otherwise, I’m a one and done kind of knitter.

Thus I’m generally bored of the sock and delay starting the second one in fear of being bored.

However, I may have discovered a new form of SSS. I’m dying to start this second sock!!!!

They are my Bootstrap socks. I have been wearing the 3 pairs of wool socks I’ve made non-stop and I would love to have these finished too so I can add them into the rotation.

Except, I’m being stopped. By this:

Yes, it’s still the Skinty Striped Scarf. I’m trying to remain faithful but it’s hard. I want my sock. I want my finished pair of socks.

I made about this much progress last week, and I’m going to stick this out, at least through the end of the week. Then I’ll re-evaluate 🙂

Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm Craft On…don’t know if I’m particularly calm, but we shall give it a go 🙂

It did help airing out a little frustration here. Perhaps tomorrow I can stare at all the other stuff I want to finish/start…

❤
Jenna

Weekly WIP #4

Yep, I’ve been missing you guys!! I journeyed to Louisiana for a quick Thanksgiving weekend. Jordan and I had the most wonderful time. I was able to spend time with my adorable niece Payton and of course her parents, my Brother & Rachel, and my Mom.

She’s the cutest!! Still has those gorgeous blue eyes…one of the blessings my brother inherited 🙂

So I’ve been clicking away on an oldie-but-goodie that has been languishing on my needles for far too long, The Skinty Stripe Scarf.

I was supposed to finish this a while ago…I talked about it when I first started my blog even! There was UFO Wars that was supposed to motivate me. However, nothing has inspired me as much as finishing all other projects for people other than myself EXCEPT for this one thing!

That’s why this week I’m exclusively focusing on this scarf. Giving it a good effort, undivided attention, resisting the urge to cast on a second sock to the Bootstrap Socks or to cast on a hat for Payton using this Squirrel Chart or even just putting any sort of row on any of my WIPs…

Linking with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm & Craft On.

❤
Jenna

Freshly Finished Friday #32

Welcome to a link-up party for your Friday Finished Object posts! In an effort to connect everyone who creates and blogs about it here on the web, I thought providing a place to link up and share your freshly finished creations would be a great way to see what everyone is working on. Please feel free to share ANY of your finished crafty pursuits from knitting and crocheting to sewing and scrapbooking.

I see you made it for the Finished Friday…I know I’ve missed a few weeks and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it again. I did note that friends were still visiting each week, waiting for a Friday post…something I’m supposed to be doing, something people are looking forward to…

I guess I’ve been just giving it a “halfway” try. Not everything, but not nothing (oooh double negative). I guess this week’s “finish” is perfectly appropriate then…

It’s a half finished pair of socks!

This is 1 of my Bootstrap socks. The heel was interesting….it’s a Balbriggan heel from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture. I’m curious as to how it will wear. I’m not worried about the yarn wearing well…the Mountain Colors Crazyfoot has some serious twist!

I guess on the half finished note is also this tasty half finished beer I’m enjoying as I write this 🙂 (no worries, it is Thursday evening).

MMMMmmmm perfect fall beer, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale.

To join in the fun, click the link up below to see all the others participating in a Freshly Finished Friday! It will take you away from this page, but don’t worry, you will always be able to find your way back. It’s especially helpful if the linked up blog has a link back here. Please add your specific blog post link and remember to link back here in your blog so we can all be connected 🙂

❤
Jenna

First Day of Wool Season

I mean fall. It’s the first day of fall today. Let’s be honest, this translates to the first day you feel the strong desire to touch all the wool, wear all the wool, knit with all the wool…

At least I do! Actually, my office is so cold at work, I’ve been wearing wool socks almost every day. And I feel like I need more wool…so I’ve started a lot of things. Let me show you…

Those are my knobby ankles poking out of my first pair of toe up socks! They are the Strie Socks from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture.

I love the textured stitch pattern. It’s so lovely with the variegated Zitron Trekking XXL.

And those are cuffs of the sleeves for my Turia Sweater! I bit the bullet and I’m just going to finish it. I’m going to trust the pattern, trust my measurements and just knit it!

Plus I just keep thinking about how awesome its going to be to wear the thing and I can’t wear it if I don’t knit it! Right?

And if you remember these are the Bootstrap Socks from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture. I started these back in March on my trip back from Utah, did a little ripping, did a little reknitting and even did a little Kitchener stitching already on these babies…

Good thing the Mountain Colors Crazyfoot is up to the challenge…so much twist, so much energy! I think these are going to have a nice long foot life ahead, if I can ever get number one off the needles and get number two on there 🙂

And my lovely “Passe Partout” shawl…coming along. Truthfully, I haven’t hardly touched this in at least a week. Not because I don’t love it, but you’ve seen all the ones before this and you’ll see the ones after…it’s hard to budget my limited knitting time!

The Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend is a dream to work with, and the stitch definition!!! The singles are workin’ hard to look so good.

And this is a new cast-on…it’s the Fish Hat (Dead of Alive). My cute nephew William loves fish and his birthday is approaching, so what better than a hat that looks like a fish!!

I’m using odds and ends from other projects and I’m looking forward to seeing it develop…hopefully in the next couple weeks since his birthday is fast approaching!

The last one…my Daybreak. I love the subtle color changes in the Mini Mochi…and it’s lovely that it’s not too stark a contrast from the gray main color.

I keep thinking this one will be so nice to wear and go with so many things…then I remember I wear so much gray, hopefully it won’t just blend in!!

Anyway, Linking up on this lovely Wednesday with some fantastic folks. Click over to check it out!!
Tammy at Life & Yarn for Stitch Along Wednesday
Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along
Beth at iknead2knit for Whatcha Workin On Wednesday
Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm & Craft On

Please share what you’re working on!!
❤
Jenna

The First Day in September…

Calls for Socks!! Recently, I posted about my Bootstrap socks again and the interesting heel construction…you work the heel flap back and forth and then kitchener up the bottom of the heel, pick up stitches and power down the foot. Lara Neel calls it the Balbriggan heel.

It’s my first time using this construction. I was super intrigued when I was reading the directions. I wasn’t sure how the fit would be so I slipped it on. The heel feels snug, like it will stay put on your foot.

My one hesitation, I had to pick up stitches under the heel & around the gusset to work the foot and I’m not quit sure how those ridges will feel. But a very large part of me just wants to keep going. It’s only the first sock and I love a good experiment.

Plus I’ve got these lovelies on the go as well. Also from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture are the Strie socks. They are my first pair of toe-up socks…I’m working them 2 at a time on 2 circulars. It’s goes pretty quickly and I’m excited to get to the heel on this one. I’ve never done a toe-up heel, so it should be an adventure.

It’s funny how I’m willing to jump into new construction with socks and shawls and hats, but when I approach sweater knitting, I balk. I’ve finished the Whispers Top last fall and started the Turia sweater. I comb blogs and Ravelry ogling sweaters and feeling like I just can’t accomplish them. I’m nervous to take my own measurements, swatch, pick a size…and yet I’ve bought yarn! I even cast on Turia, but I’m contemplating ripping it out. I keep hearing about the benefits of Top Down Sweater Construction and I want to try it, and I don’t want to keep going on this sweater if it’s not going to fit.

Bah.

Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm Craft On.
& Emily at Snapdragon Crafts for the Love Your Library Challenge!
& Tammy at Life & Yarn for Stitch Along Wednesday (just a little early).

❤
Jenna

Fall is in the Air

Oh my goodness does it feel like fall or what!!! The weather has been wonderful and breezy for about 4 days. Maybe 75 degrees Fahrenheit outside, low humidity…so low that we have our windows open and the air conditioning off! And each time I get in the car to drive somewhere I open those windows too!

I always feel like fall arrives in a very quick fashion. I was still thinking that I was in the sweltering depths of summer, but with a few nice days, my hands are itching to knit. And to knit wool. Not the light linen of summer, but squishy, warm wool. And pumpkin. I crave pumpkin! Beer, bread, beer bread, cake, coffee…all sounds good right now 🙂

 

I finally attacked finishing up the heel on this sock.

It’s my Bootstrap Sock from Lara Neel’s Sock Architecture…so cool!

The Balbriggan heel involves working a heel flap and then kitchener stitching the bottom up…I don’t know what it’s called, but it was fun to practice that special technique that I generally avoid save for the end of the sock process 🙂

Now to pick up the stitches again and get on down the foot!! Then I can start the next one!

I’ve also picked up my Cerise Curl again…I tried to get more yarn, but the shop was out 😦 I really wanted a LARGE shawl. I’m a tall girl, I’m not dainty and I like a lot of wool to keep me warm and/or stylish. I am hoping that once I get it off the needles, it will block out substantially. There isn’t much yarn left, maybe 12 grams? I’m hoping by next Friday, I’ll have it finished.

Here’s linking up with some wonderful people! I’ve missed for a while now and it just feels right to get back into the habit 🙂
Yarn Along with Ginny @ Small Things
Keep Calm Craft On with Nicole @ Frontier Dreams
Whatcha Workin’ On with Beth @ iknead2knit
Stitch Along Wednesday with Tammy @ Life & Yarn

What is gracing your needles this week? Anything make you feel like fall is right around the corner??

❤
Jenna

Picture Perfect

I don’t normally take pictures. Of anything. Ever. Unless I’m planning to showcase it in a blog post and even then, it’s after I’ve written the post. I’ll pull out whatever projects and yarn I need to really complete the post.

It’s funny because when I was in college, I had the nickname “Party Pics.” When I’d be at parties, I’d just snap away without even looking through the viewfinder or the screen…tons of candid shots of people dancing, drinking, talking, smiling. I loved snapping those photos because it gave me a real sense of what the night was about, how it felt, the people who were there, having a great time, not “posing” for photos with their best smiles and best hair flips and best sides and what not. It felt real.

I love coming across those photos now. It reminds me of silly games, bad dance moves, and honest if not slurred conversations. (This is from a friend’s wedding, I love it since weddings seem to have the most pictures that are posed.)

I don’t do that anymore. Perhaps I don’t live that lifestyle any more…it’s probably for the best since I’m sure my liver would object to consuming alcohol that many nights a week for this many years in that amount (use your imagination here). But I do miss the honesty.

All this to say, I don’t take pictures. 🙂 I need to make a better effort.

I was reminded when my 4-year-old niece commandeered my phone and was snapping away without a care in the world. I got it back from her later that evening filled with pictures of her swimsuit, her bunny, her brother, the tv, the floor, the ceiling, me…here are a few of my favorites:

I’m putting these in like I found them on my phone. As a reminder to find the beautiful in the candid. As a reminder to snap away more frequently, without being hesitant, without wondering if I look silly, without worrying if it will make my life look less than “Instagram Perfect.”

I’m hoping to do my best to give you more candid knitting as well…speaking of less than perfect…

Remember those Bootstrap socks that looked like this?

So after I finished up the Technicolor Socks last Friday, I went to turn the heel on the Bootstrap sock so I could have something mindless. I opened up Sock Architecture and started reading about the heel turn. It involves knitting a heel flap and I was trying to figure out where the little garter “straps” would ride in relationship with the heel…I looked at the pattern picture and it looks like they ride on the heel side of the gusset stitches, I read the directions and it was saying to work the heel over the first half of the stitches only my garter straps weren’t both in the first half of the stitches….

so I ripped back. It was actually a much bigger pile, but you get the idea of kinky yarn that’s been knit…what’s better than a little mindless knitting on the leg of a sock on lovely Dreamz US 1 with some squishy (and sturdy) Mountain Colors Crazyfoot sock yarn?

I even got to knit on these while those cuties from earlier bounced around on a few bouncehouses at this huge indoor thing! Wish I would have snapped a picture

When life sends you to the frog pond why not enjoy the journey back?

What about you? Any little setbacks in your knitting recently?

❤
Jenna

Getting There

So we knit and knit and knit, but sometimes the things stay on the needles! I can’t understand why even after all the stitches (I think) I put onto these lovely Technicolor Socks, I still feel like I’m a few rows from actually starting the toe decreases on the right sock!! I think the left sock is ready.

 

Maybe I’ll blame it on my long toes. Or on the US 0 needles.

Maybe I shouldn’t blame them at all. It’s so nice to have a mindless knitting project to cart around in my purse that’s not huge (here’s looking at you Turia)

or doesn’t need a book to travel with it (Bootstrap Socks that are ready for the heel)

or doesn’t need to be really looked at every stitch (Curl #2 Cerise)

or isn’t turning out like I think I want (Colour Change Scarf)

or isn’t a general pain in the bum (Skinty Stripe Scarf) with a kitty supervisor

or doesn’t need a chart, pencil, row counter and complete silence (Catkin Shawl)…

That’s all the current WIPs and most of them are not travel worthy…maybe I should just finish these socks and turn the heel on the Bootstrap Socks so I can have more things to travel with and some empty needles?

Or the alternative…

I could start something new! Maybe keep it in line with my Love Your Library Challenge and work on a Curl or another pair of socks from Sock Architecture? I could go and check out all the lovelies at Keep Calm & Craft On for inspiration…

What would you do in this situation, keep your nose down and finish or venture into the stash for something fresh and new?

❤
Jenna

Things I “Dislike”

I read this quote last week on a blog post by Karen on Pumpkin Sunrise. (You should definitely check out her site. Karen is someone to relate to and always seems to have the most thoughtful, beautiful posts.)

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.      -Lao Tzu

Talk about perfect timing! This came right after my post last week about happiness. It really made me think about how I do think about happiness. Couple this with all the kind, thoughtful comments from you guys and I was feeling incredibly encouraged. Such a fantastic reminder to “rejoice in the way things are.”

This helped me reflect on another aspect of happiness, “dislike.”

I was in bed last night and thinking about things. My brain was just buzzing and I couldn’t fall asleep until I thought a few things through. I pulled out my journal and jotted down this:

“Things I dislike? –retrain the brain/feelings to try new thinks”

Seems a little silly, but I thought I’d try. I think disliking most things is all about the way we think about them. What if, instead of completing a chore like sweeping and vacuuming with an attitude of dread, I undertook the chore as something good, productive, dare I say-fun? That will be my experiment for the coming month: retraining my brain to think about things I initially dislike and thinking about them in a new way or “new thinks.”

Your waiting for when this comes to knitting.

Well, you remember those socks I started a while ago, like a long while ago, the Technicolor Socks?

They are still kicking around in my WIP pile, but they aren’t that far from being done. Why are they stalling? I don’t like knitting heels and picking up gusset stitches. You are thinking, “why didn’t you just throw in a ripcord and do an afterthought heel?” or “It’s not that bad” or “what in the world are you talking about?”

I don’t love this part of the knitting and I think this would be a great way to try out my new way of thinking 🙂 I will keep you posted on how this goes.

I’ve also got these Bootstrap Socks (at least one) that is dangerously close to the heel here, but it’s going to be a different heel experience thanks to Lara Neel & Sock Architecture (some Love Your Library progress!).

I’ll let you know if this changes the way I feel about heels too.

I love that little blip of pink! So Spring-y 🙂

Linking up with:
Emily for Love Your Library
Nicole for Keep Calm & Craft On

❤
Jenna

A Journey in Socks

Let me start by saying that I knit on more than just this sock over the course of last week while I was visiting my awesome friend, Brenna, in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was inspired by several posts I’ve seen lately where people post their sock progress on a plane or other trip. So here we go!

I started my journey in Salt Lake’s airport.

An hour later, I landed in Las Vegas for a 2 hour layover. I didn’t have the pattern with me and was “winging” it. I didn’t like the way the garter stitch sections were turning out so I ripped back to the ribbing before the next flight.

I took this last photo about 20 minutes before we landed in St. Louis. I knew I wouldn’t be patient or aware enough to take one when we touched down.

I bought this yarn on my first day in Salt Lake at a cute little shop called Kamille’s in Gardner Village. I wish I had a taken a picture of the quaint cabin that housed some beautiful yarns, but if you click the name it will take you to their website.

I’m using some Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in the Springtime colorway on US 1s (2.25mm) and it’s the Bootstrap Sock pattern by Lara Neel from Sock Architecture! My project page.

Even though I have enough knitting to keep my busy for months, I just had to have some small amount brainless knitting 🙂 Who can resist socks in this super springy base??

v’s & bumps,

Jenna