In knitting news, I’ve been working on all my WIPs. I finished Christy (pics forthcoming), and have made progress on the very, very tall socks. Also, just this afternoon, I received an email from Claudia (of Wollmeise fame) saying that I’ve gotten into her sock club! Now I just have to find the money…

Pattern: Ribbons Baby Blanket, by Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton, in various colors

I did some research, and even though the ball band says “lay flat to dry,” lots of people have machine dryed it, with minimal shrinking. I’m hoping to compensate by making it as large as I can stand. Baby blankets are supposed to be smallish, right?

I have been knitting, but I just haven’t gotten around to blogging about it.  It seems like it’s a motivation thing: I’ve had other things to focus on, things that stressed (read: depressed) me to the point where I could think of nothing else.  Now that I’m doing better, stress-wise, I can refocus myself on my knitting.  The upside of being bipolar is that depression is usually followed by mild mania, which I’m capitalizing on.  I’m churning through Christy at a fantastic rate.  I have the back and both sleeves done, and the left front 75% done.  I even blocked and seamed the pieces that I finished.  I’m really enjoying the Rowan 4-ply soft I’m using for this sweater, and it’s led to a bit of a new-found obsession with Rowan yarn.  I scored some Rowan Wool Cotton from a destash, and have been hunting for a pattern to use with it (I only got ~500 yards worth).  I may try to find a few more skeins of it, so I have enough for a sweater.

I had a great time at GenCon, and have basically no pictures to prove it.    Trust me when I say, it was awesome fun!  I also attended a new LARP last weekend, Threads, which was also fun.  One key benefit of joining a new LARP campaign is that I get to shop for more costuming.  I play a Japanese character, and have been stalking verious unfinished (cheaper) kimono for a formal costume for next game.  I figure that I still know how to sew well enough to finish a kimono, right?

So, I picked up an old project, Christy, and I’ve decided to take it with me to GenCon. I’m leaving on Wednesday, and I have a vague hope of finishing lots of it by the end. It is a cardigan knit with size 2 and 3 needles, so there are miles of stockinette to knit.

In other news, I may need to withdraw from the Olympic Yarn Smackdown.  I didn’t realize that it coinsided so heavily with my planned vacation (GenCon), and I’m worried about how mailing things to people/having people mail things to a hotel will work.  It seems like it’s just not something that would go smoothly.  I’m annoyed, because I really wanted to take part in this, and I’m only in one event.  I’m just not sure.  If I do withdraw, I’ll probably join the Ravelympics or something, which doesn’t require any mailimg, just an impressive project.  I could try out Bayerishe, or some other equally crazy-hard sock pattern.

(top to bottom: plain stockinette magic loop (Duet skinny), Merino lace socks (Koigu KPM), Embossed Leaves (Sundara)

These are the three pairs I’ve completed so far for Summer of Socks.  I’m impressing myself with how quickly I can really complete them when I put my mind to it.  I’m even more impressed with some of my fellow participants: there’s one woman who has completed something like 8 pairs already.  Now that’s leet skillz!  I’m glad I took a sock break before I started, because I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed making socks, how portable they are, and how quick.  I have another pair on the needles right now that I’m really enjoying, and I just got some cashmere DK weight yarn that I might make into slippers…  I’ve got lots of plans.  Anything to distract me from my torturous wait until my new iPhone 3G arrives in the store. 

I was quite impressed with myself and my work ethic.  Generally it takes me slightly longer than 2 days to finish one sock (my average is 4 days), and the second sock takes about 8 days.  My buzz was somewhat crushed, however, when I discovered that 4 or 5 people had already finished an entire pair of socks on Monday (when last I checked).  I know it isn’t a competition, but it does make me feel a little like a loser.  Still, I have high hopes, and I’m planning on trying out the 2 socks on one circular needle for my next pair.  And, man do I love Koigu!  It is awesome, and has awesome colors, and awesome stitch definition.  Maybe if I succeed in knitting up my entire sock yarn stash (which is very possible), I’ll reward myself with some Koigu.

I’m very lazy, it’s true.  This is me sitting in bed, demanding things be brought to me because I’m too lazy to get them myself.

In other news, I’m also very whiny, because I hate having to wait to cast on for new projects. I worked on my Seeded Cables cardigan (I’m done with the decreases now!) and read Good Omens, but I just could not sustain my interest. I wound some yarn for my first SoS socks, and then the brand new cashmere/silk yarn I just got, courtesy of Skein Queen. That’s for some gloves, which I can’t make until SoS is over anyway, but still. It is the softest and deepest blue yarn every. I love it, but I cannot cast on with it, because I must not start any new projects!

ETA: I actually wrote this post on Friday, but didn’t post it until Sunday, so…