Update

I'll be hitting the road in the morning, so there will be no WIP or finished news for a while. Three pair of socks are done, but that darn Cookie A Pirouette pattern has me stumped. I can see what the pattern is supposed to do, but I can't get there from here. It is going to stay in my knitting basket. The big bag of sweater materials will be going with me.

I didn't take something into consideration when I signed up for Tour de Sock. I had this goofy idea that it would be a stash busting activity. The event is sponsored by several yarn companies. They are just the kinds I like to support. They also are offering discounts to Tour participants. This is from Invictus Yarns in their Beyond base (can you say merino/cashmere/nylon?). I couldn't resist Jelly Beans:

FO Friday

I did actually finish something. This pair is called Rescue Me, Chin Boy, and Show Me the Stars (Doctor Who reference).

The color's more green in real life and it has silvery fibers throughout. The pattern designer had a couple of giveaways associated with the pattern. Not only was I able to give a copy away, I won the cost of my copy back. Fun socks with a bonus.

Check out other finished objects at Tami's Amis.

Using up sock yarn with benefits

Someone I follow on Twitter said she'd signed up for Tour de Sock. I had to go look it up and now I'm signed up for it. It's a speed knitting competition where everyone gets a pattern and tries to be the first person to finish it. I'm not that competitive or in need of yet more sock patterns. I am interested in something that results in donations to Doctors Without Borders. You pay a registration fee for the Tour de Sock and most of it goes to DWB/MSF. I think there are prizes, too. It starts June 1.

Tour de Sock has a sister competition, Sock Sniper. This appears to work a lot like Sock Wars did. Is there still a Sock Wars? You're assigned a target. Your goal is to finish a pair of socks for your target person and get them to that person before someone sends you a pair of socks they made for you. Again, the registration fees go to DWB/MSF. I signed up for this too. I'm playing as a non-combatant. I don't know if this means I'm getting the pattern or if I'm getting the pattern and working as a medic. Medics step in and knit socks for someone who never received a pair of socks or received an unwearable pair. I think this starts around September 1.

These games are both based in Ravelry, so that's where you go to sign up. Do a search in Groups for Tour de Sock or Sock Sniper. Registration's open right now for Tour de Sock. You can sign up for Sock Sniper now too, but only if you're also signing up for Tour de Sock. Sock Sniper only signups will happen in August, I think. The signups for both at once was a way for more money to go to DWB/MSF and less to PayPal.

Look, second socks

A little bit of progress has occurred on the sweater. Except for this little lace portion, the rest is all knitknitknitknitknit. I got bored with it and shifted to socks only.

The harder of the two Cookie A patterns this month was harder than usual for me. The yarn is 8 ply sock yarn. It's kind of loosely spun so I tend to split the yarn. Difficult pattern + difficult yarn = not happy Paula. I'm frogging it and switching to a different yarn. More WIPs at Tami's Amis.

FO Friday

With 5 pair of socks and a sweater in progress, it's hard to believe I finished anything. I did, though:

Back view of the East Meets West satchel. It looks better with stuff in it. The heavy interfacing did add a lot of shape, but it tends to fall over when empty.

Two project bags.

And a partridge in a pear tree pair of Staccato Socks.

Let's see what Tami's Amis are up to today.

Cookies in the Wings

WIPs are the Kelso sweater (blue on the circular needle), Rescue Me sock #2 (dark green), and Potpourri sock #2 (light yellow green).

New yarn and patterns from the Cookie A club arrived:

The club stuff is ready to start. I've got a second Cookie sock that hasn't started yet. I'm going to make myself finish some more stuff before starting any of them. We'll see how long that lasts.

Nope, haven't started quilting the quilt yet.

Time to visit Tami's Amis to see what the other kids have been doing.

Startitis unchecked plus a little venting

I went back and looked at the picture that inspired me to buy the yarn I posted about yesterday. The yarn's definitely got sections of green and purple in it. The yarn I got reads like a semi-solid blue. It's pretty, it'll probably suit the pattern, but it wasn't what I thought I ordered. ::sniffle:: It was March's colorway of the month.

I liked April's colorway of the month (Foggy Dew) enough that I bought enough for another sweater. Fingers crossed that it includes both the green and gray colors in it.

Another sweater, Paula? What in the world set that off? It was What (Else) Would Madame Defarge Knit?. I got the ebook yesterday and found three patterns that I wanted to do: Counting Crows mittens(have yarn for them in stash), Fosco socks (have lots of yarn for them in stash), and The Jumble sale Kimono for the Widow Mayhew’s Daughter. That was the one I'm doing in Foggy Dew.