How do I love Ravelry... let me count the ways...

I must admit, though, there is one... downside... with Ravelry. It's true, it's true... not everything can be perfect. And what is the downside, you ask?

There are so many freaking awesome patterns on Ravelry that my knitting queue is way out of control..

I remember a day when my knitting queue was somewhat realistic... now I will need to live another 80 years to finish everything. Darn enablers.

I have finished my Creamsicle socks! I loved making them toe up with the short row and heel... but I am unsure about whether I liked them as much as I've liked cuff down socks. They seemed to work up much slower, although the fact that they were boring stockinette might have contributed to that. I love the way that the color pools in unexpected places- it's too warm to wear them now, but I am looking forward to breaking them out big time in the fall.





The specs:
Fortissima Socka handdyed with orange and yellow Koolaid. Size 1 dpns. Plain ol' stockinette with a short row toe and short row heel.

After finishing the socks I started a pinwheel baby blanket (darn you Ravelrista enablers!) with some light blue and regular blue Caron Simply Soft I had in my stash (it's not grey like the picture appears). I'm hoping to have it finished before I visit Oklahoma at the end of June since this one is going to my friend Stef's new baby boy, Ezra. I also still have one to make for my friend Micah's new baby girl, River-Kate. It would figure, though, that I would run out of yarn and haven't yet made it to the store to pick up more.



A couple of weeks back the fabulous Adelle gifted me with my first hank of Socks that Rock lightweight sock yarn.



I am in love with this yarn... it is knitting up so fantastic and it's soft and I just want to roll around in it. Seriously, it is bad. I've already purchased another hank (it's on its way in the mail... thanks Adelle!) and have plans to purchase a couple more so I can make a Chevron scarf. This hank is the Mustang Sally colorway... it is just delicious...

And it is perfect in Cookie's Monkey sock pattern. I think I might love the Monkey sock pattern almost as much as I love the STR yarn. This pattern is super fast and looks fabulous... and I have plans to do another pair with some yummy Amy Boogie sock yarn I got at SPA.





It's only a couple of weeks left until the Fiber Frolic... is everyone as excited as I am?

Ravelry, FOs, and "the more you know..."

Last summer I went to a knitting get-together that the faboo Kate had, met some super awesome knitters, and stupidly neglected to notice that I was turning into a human lobster due to sunburn. It was so bad that I couldn't even stay the night and I missed out on all of the spinning!

Fast forward to last weekend. I thought I had learned my lesson after Kate's, so when the girls had their first softball game Saturday afternoon, I made sure that I wore a long sleeved shirt, my big sunglasses and sat so that I wasn't facing the sun. An hour later the game was over and we went home... I took a nap... my brother and his friend Julie stopped over.

As I was grabbing a beer from the fridge, Julie commented how red my neck was.

While I had sat watching the game, I had sunburned the back of my neck so badly that I have been called "redneck" for the past two days at work. I neglected to think about the fact that since the wind was blowing on Saturday, I had put my hair up in a clip to keep it out of my face... exposing it right to the sun for a solid hour.

"The More You Know..." indeed.

Mother's Day was Sunday... and you know what I finally finished in time? Branching Out. Yes, the same Branching Out that has been languishing on my needles for more than a year.





The specs:
Knitpicks Gossamer in the Caribbean colorway; Size 7 needles. The pattern is incredibly easy as long as you are paying attention... but once I pinned it out I realized that although I love this colorway, I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped for Branching Out. My Mom loved it... so I guess that is all that matters, but I think I would like to try the pattern again with a solid color yarn.

And because I couldn't finish a project and not start another, I have started Kiri.




I'm using Lorna's Laces Heaven Multi, and let me just say that although this yarn is beautiful, it is a bitch to tink back. And I've done a LOT of tinking. Public Service Announcement time: Kiri is not meant to be knit at the same time husband is playing Legend of Zelda on the Wii. Seriously. I knit a stitch, get absorbed into what he is doing on the game and lose my place, the row I'm on, etc. It hasn't been pretty, and it is because of this that I expect this shawl to take a while.

And finally... your Ravelry update. *Gets on Soapbox*

Ok dear readers, there is evidently some dissention amongst the ranks regarding Ravelry invites and having to be on the waiting list and blah blah blah. What a lot of people don't seem to take into account is that
A) Jess and Casey were running this BY THEMSELVES. They now have a few moderators, but still, Casey is doing the coding and Jess is doing most of the record keeping. This was going above and beyond normal life things like jobs.
B) At one point in time there were more than 3000 people on the invitation list. To be honest, I am sure that there are more at this point. Three Thousand. That is a lot of invites to send out.
C) They are adding people slowly because they want to work out bugs in the system. And trust me, Jess and Casey have been given enough suggestions for future upgrades that will last them for the next 60 years.
D) See letter A. By themselves. Creating, coding, adding people.

Now yes, Ravelry is absolutely AMAZING and I am thinking of starting the first Ravelry Addiction Support group, but please, please be patient if you are waiting for an invite. It will come... I promise. But Jess and Casey need to sleep once in a while, too!! *gets off soapbox*

Not a huge shock to anyone that read my last post, but I haven't done much knitting... I've been sucked into Ravelry and just don't want to leave! In reality, being able to surf through other knitters'/ crocheters' patterns has made me more eager to finish some of the ones languishing here, but at the same time, I am addicted to seeing other peoples' projects!

I did manage to finish Orangina, though... and I admit that I am quite proud of myself since this is the first full piece of clothing that I have ever finished (shrugs and capelets don't count). On the downside, I probably could have made a size Small and had it fit fine... I made it in a Medium and it is loose fitting in places. That's probably the first time in a long time that a size Medium was slightly too big.

So here are some finished pictures:





The specs:
Rowan 4-ply cotton in light blue and size 3 Clover bamboo circs. The lace pattern was super easy to memorize, although the ribbing at the bottom seemed to go on forever. Although I knit a Medium, I knit the lace for 16 full inches and the ribbing for a full 7" in order to make it long enough for my 5'10" frame. The pattern calls for the shoulders to be seamed 2" (which is what I did), but it appears that they could be seamed more if I wanted it to be less off the shoulder. I am considering making another one in the future now that I know not to start with metal circs (which I quickly learned I hate with a passion).

I'm working right now on finishing Branching Out and my Creamsicle socks... partially because I just want to get them done and off the WIP list, but partially because I have another gazillion projects to start and am bound and determined that my house will not become completely full of WIPs!

Where my stitches at??

So here comes the truth... the real reason that I haven't gotten much knitting done and up on the blog lately.

I have a new addiction.



The faboo Jess and her husband Casey have designed a fabulous community for knitters and crocheters called Ravelry to document projects, list stashed yarns, look through patterns, etc. Everything is linked so that you can look at a pattern on the site and be linked to the people that have knitted/ crocheted it, the yarn they used, and the comments they have on the project. You can browse other peoples' projects, leave comments, even place the pattern into your own queue. It is still under beta testing just because Jess and Casey want to make sure that the bugs are out before it becomes completely public... things like making sure it works on a variety of browsers, etc, but they are adding names to the invitation list for new beta testers.

You should totally check it out... it is awesome!