Friday, June 23, 2006

Knitting socks again!


As I thought I wouldn't be me if I hadn't started another knitted projects! ^^
(In fact I've started more than one, but the other one is too small to be called a project. If it works, I'll write up a real project plan for myself and place it in "On the needles" section.)

So, I'm knitting the Socks of Chaos with my mysterious yarn. Why mysterious? Because I bought it on the on-line Polish auction, and the seller only new that it was acrylic (yes, I know, all wool and silk connoisseurs look at me with disapointment and disgust... ^^), and that it was from the USA. No name, no gauge, no paper band with details.
But it was funny cheap and looked like that (interesting, ha? ^^):

So I bought it. Now, could someone tell me what it is?

Anyway, I started the toe-up socks (on nedles 5 mm) and learned a new technique - a short row toe and heel! ^^

Can someone tell me if there is a way to knit this in regular stripes? I think the way it looks now is interesting and totally lives up to the name I've given these socks ^^, but I was wondering about the method of more regular knitting.

I loosesly follow the instructions found here: thank you, Wendy! ^^, but my gauge is different, so I must improvise. Frankly speaking, I'm surprised that it fits quite well, and I'm scared that the second one will be totally different ( call it the Fear of Knitting In Pairs syndrome...). But we'll see about that, because I still have lots to knit of the first sock. I want to make it as high as possible, because I have three skeins and I'm still in the middle of the first skein. I treat this as a dry run before the socks from the book by Nancy Bush, and before I start to knit with my beautiful Opal yarn (I decided to buy special needles for this yarn - Clover 3 mm. They are damn expensive here in Poland, but well... this yarn deserves some treat! ^^ And I deserve a new pair of sock needles, and I always wanted to try Clover bamboo ones, and frankly speaking I also need 4 mm needles, so it might even be a double purchase, who knows?... ^v^).
Progress soon, because it's going very quickly! ^^

Fit and Knit



Last night I had the exam at my belly dancing class - we had to prepare a short 30 second show to a chosen piece of music. I am very proud of myself because I got 97 points out of possible 100! ^v^ The teacher said, that I have a very good hip movements, and that I'm very advanced as for beginners stage. She also praised my step choices for the show. I still have to work on the hand movements (I know that, coordination is the key word!), but overall I'm not bad at all! *^v^*
Funny thing though... There are about 20 girls in my group. They all knew about the exam (all but one). Guess how many people came to the class on Thursday? 5!... There was me, another girl prepared for the exam, two girls totally unprepared but they improvised and of course passed, and the one who didn't know about the exam (that's why she came...) and got scared and refused to take it, and got 70 points in the end for the attendance, because the teacher didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and it wasn't even a "real" exam with grades. It was rather a test for ourselves, because the teacher could see us individually and point out strong and weak points, and direct us to more or less advanced groups for the next year. Next week I'm having the last class this term and then I'm on my own for vacation - I'll be practising at home by myself, until 14th August, when I'm going to have intensive full week workshop with another teacher. And then new term starting in September. Summer comes and some things have to finish, well... ^^


BTW, you may think I totally forgot about Project Spectrum June blue, but there is nothing blue around me, really... I don't wear blue, do not surround myself with blue, I rarely buy blue fabric or yarn so I don't do crafts in blue. Well, maybe next week I'll hunt around my house and try to find blue footprints around! ^^

4 comments:

  1. I was looking at your finished projects. Impressive, indeed! What pattern is the cable neck warmer? It is so pretty.

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  2. Whoa, those socks are crazy! They kind of remind me of peppermint. Or Christmas. No idea how you could change the patterning, except to alternated skeins (and I'm not sure that would work in this case).

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  3. I like the story about your belly dancing class - very funny! All those people mysteriously not turning up for class on the day of the exam.

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  4. Yes, it is a funny story, Kendra! ^^ It's even better when you know that these are all grown up women, in their 20's and 30's, and not shy teenagers!... ^v^

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