Winter Woodland Games Finish Line

On Thursday night I completed my goal of finishing all cable repeats for the foot of the sock. Not only did I meet that goal, I met it relatively early in the evening. And then, drunk on success and stubbornness, I stayed up until much later than I ought to have stayed up to finish the toe and weave in the ends. The result? My socks for the Tiny Owl Knits Winter Woodland Games 2014 were finished Thursday evening! (Or… one might say… early Friday morning… ¬_¬)

This wrapped up my project for this event well in advance of the Monday deadline~! ★ So exciting! ◠▽◠ I was faaaaaaaar too overconfident at first, before the event began, but as we inched closer and closer to the deadline I knew I’d never manage to make two pairs of socks…and finishing the single pair I started seemed like it was in jeopardy!

WIP Wednesday: Woodland Games

Wednesday was a few days ago, but I didn’t have time to write it up until today–there’s always going to be a delay for me. I do my knitting in the evenings after work, after all, and I really don’t stay up very late.

Overall, this has been a very productive week for my knitting–much better than last week, at least! Last week was busy for many reasons, and I honestly didn’t get very much knitting done. There were a few evenings where I didn’t knit even a little bit–like last Wednesday, hence no update for that day. Sometimes things just get in the way, after all. Normally this wouldn’t bother me at all; I love to knit, but I don’t want to feel controlled by any of my hobbies. I have enough sources of stress in my life–hobbies are supposed to be fun! ♫

The Winter Woodland Games Begin

The Tiny Owl Knits Winter Woodland Games 2014 officially began on Friday, February 7th~ I managed to finish up all my works in progress prior to the event’s beginning–exactly what I had hoped to accomplish~ In fact, I was ready about a day in advance, making Thursday evening slooooooow and boring as I tried to figure out how to keep myself occupied without starting a new project. In the end, I wound the sock yarn for this project. I do not own either a ball winder or a swift, so it is a long and tedious process… but it did keep me busy! (And it was something I needed to do as prep work before the games officially began.)

WIP Wednesday: Ssssssnakes

My work-in-progress Wednesday recaps are likely to be up on Thursdays instead, because I don’t have knitting time until the evening–and the last thing I want to do before falling asleep is try to write and format, haha~

I figured out what to do with the roughly 3/4s of a skein of Manos del Uruguay Maxima that remained from an earlier project! Last year in early October I purchased the pattern The Parseltongue Hat from Tiny Owl Knits and knit this hat with some inherited vaguely self-striping tweed yarn. When sorting through patterns on Ravelry, I realized that pattern used just about as much yarn as I seemed to have left over. It was an added bonus that I didn’t need to purchase anything. (I’m involved in a “Buy Nothing New” challenge for February~ Still trying to recover from Christmas spending…)

I started the hat on Monday night, and finished it up yesterday~ It was my focus for WIP Wednesday, and it’s always thrilling to not only make some progress, but to finish what I was working on!

Brightest Scarf Ever

I spent my weekend working on the Safety Scarf by Stephen West (WestKnits)~ Somehow, amazingly, it’s already done! I stayed up crazy-late to cast it off last night. When I get to a point in the project where I can so clearly see the end of the project, sometimes I can’t let go! I know that I should go to bed…but I can’t. Just one more row. Honest. Just one. Oh, maybe just another row. I’ll be done so soon. A few more minutes; that’s all it will take me. Next thing I know, it’s after midnight and I still have so many stitches left. (It wasn’t quite as dire last night as it could have been, at least! And I am really happy that it’s done!)

The pattern was generally enjoyable to knit; I’m mostly glad that it’s done because I intended it for a Christmas gift. I didn’t want to keep putting it off long enough for it to qualify for this year’s holiday giving. XD

Charcoal Tweed Sweater

In 2012 I attended Vogue Knitting Live! Chicago and purchased some tweed yarn from Studio Donegal. I really liked how soft and beautiful it was, and I bought several skeins hoping to knit myself a sweater. I didn’t have a sweater pattern in mind, and it took me a while to find one that I really wanted to wear and enjoy. Eventually I stumbled into a knit along thread featuring Ease by Alicia Plummer, and I knew that was the sweater pattern.

I didn’t start it until this December, however. By early December I had knit my way through most of the yarn that I had purchased or inherited. Additionally, things at work had been very stressful–and I wanted to knit something that would be fun and satisfying. (Most of my knitting prior to November had felt more like obligation than fun…)