WIP Wednesday

The problem with having a Monday off from work is that Tuesday then feels like Monday, causing me to completely forget to get a WIP Wednesday post ready. And thus, today I'm posting it much later than usual.

A Girl’s Best Friend shawl is almost completely finished. I’m done with the knitting; all I need to do is weave in the ends and block it. Right now, it kind of looks like a pink blobby tube, but I’m hoping that the blocking will even out some of those curling edges. I love the way the colors blended together, though. The color repeats are so short that there wasn’t really any pooling to worry about.

I’ve put some more work into the Monkey socks. I finished the twisted ribbing and am 3.5 repeats into the leg. These socks are taking me forever to finish, but that’s because I’m working on them between other projects. Doing it little bits at a time seems to be staving off Second Sock Syndrome so far; we’ll see if that continues.

I’ve cast on for two Revontuli shawls this week. Why two? Well…Patons Lace has failed me. I cast on with Patons Lace in the Porcelain colorway. Firstly, I was not thrilled about the fact that, rather than fading from white to blue, it was really splotchy.

This interferes with the crisp zig-zags the Revontuli normally is supposed to create between colors. However, I was willing to overlook this and soldier on…until halfway through the second chart. I was innocently knitting along when….the yarn wouldn’t come off the skein. Thinking I had a tangle, I looked more closely, and (*sob*) saw a big glob of glue on the skein, gluing most of the rest of the dark blue color together. I considered peeling it off, but it’s pretty stuck on there, and the yarn is so fuzzy that I’m afraid pulling at the glue will mess it up.

I posted in the 11 Shawls in 2011 Ravelry group and sent a polite email to Patons, expressing my disappointment. Ravelry suggested I freeze the yarn in hopes that the glue would get more brittle and chip off (which was a great idea, but didn’t work). Patons sent me an auto-response and still hasn’t gotten back to me with a real reply.

I’m going to try to soak the gluey spot in water and see if I can dissolve some of the glue that way, but for now, I needed to take a step away from the Patons Lace. I put the live stitches on some waste yarn, set it aside, and cast on again with Kauni.

I’ve pretty much caught up to where I was on Version 1. The Kauni color changes are nice, but the yarn is kind of scratchy and the weight is really inconsistent. When I cast on, it was more like a lace-weight (causing me to go down a needle size from the recommended 9), but now it’s more of a fingering weight. However, I am determined to finish at least one Revontuli!

WIP Wednesday

I’m still chugging along on Truly Tasha’s Shawl. I’m on ball number 5 for the body (of 6), then I just need to do the border. There still doesn’t seem to be much point in showing you a picture- while slightly bigger, the shawl doesn’t really look much different.

I’m about halfway done with my Girl’s Best Friend Shawl. Right now, it’s kind of curling in on itself and the stitches look a little uneven- I don’t think that this is a shawl that’s going to look like much until it’s blocked. The colors are really pretty though, and I can’t wait until it’s done so I can see what it looks like!

Last but not least, we have my Monkey Socks. As I told you yesterday, I made some progress on them during jury duty. Now, one of the socks is done (except for end-weaving-in), and I have not yet started on the second one:

This post is a part of Tami’s Amis WIP Wednesdays. Head on over to see what everyone else is working on!

Jury Duty and Valentine's Day

I had jury duty yesterday (yep, on Valentine’s Day!). It was a fairly boring process. I had to get there at 8:30, and then around 9:00 they showed us an orientation video. Just some basic stuff telling us how very important we are to the judicial process. I brought my Monkey Socks because the juror information website informed me that I was only allowed to bring knitting with wooden needles. The socks were the only WIP I had that was small and not on metal needles! I got a lot of work done on them, and was half-way through kitchenering the toe of the first sock when my number was called (side note: our names were pretty much irrelevant; they identified us by juror number all day!)

I got sent with a huge group of jurors up to a criminal trial scheduled for four days. The process took forever. They judge asked a million questions of us, such as if we, a family member, or anyone close to us had either been accused of or a victim of a crime. Three-quarters of the prospective jurors stood up and had to answer the question. Finally, they tried picking a jury and the defense attorneys decided they didn’t like me, so I got to go home! I was really glad- the defendants were accused of raping a child, and I honestly didn’t want to sit through that trial and the descriptions. Additionally, I honestly don’t know that I, or anyone, would have been able to go into such a case with an open, unbiased mind. I collected my $15.00 expenses check and headed home to knit.

I got the spend the rest of the day knitting and relaxing, then the Boyfriend came over and we went for a walk. It was gorgeous weather. Later, we watched Watson the Computer on Jeopardy! I was a little frustrated that they only showed half the game (they’re splitting it into pieces and spending the rest of the time explaining how Watson works), but it was still really interesting. He did pretty well on some of the categories, but not so well on the others. By the end of round one (which was as much as they showed), I think he was tied with one of the human contestants.

So Valentine’s Day started out a little bit roughly, but definitely ended well! How did your Valentine's Days go?

WIP Wednesday

My mom’s mitts are coming along nicely- The first one is done (except for the thumb) and the second one is coming along quickly. These are a super-quick knit, and they turn out looking so pretty. They have a cabled look without the cables!

My Truly Tasha’s shawl is also looking good. I’m not going to bother putting a picture of this up, because really, the picture looks pretty much the same from week to week, just a bigger triangle! At this point, I’m almost done with the third ball (which will mark the half-way point of the shawl!) I have been having some issues with this shawl, however. First of all, the tips of my Knitpicks nickel-plated size 5 needles are really sharp! I tend to push the needle through the loop with my left index finger. I was not pleased when I realized I was starting to get a hole in my finger from the needle! Rather than stop knitting, I’ve been using a band-aid while I knit. I’m hoping a callous forms soon so I can knit bare-fingered without pain!

The other potential problem I’m encountering with this shawl is that it’s getting big! This is a good thing because it means I’m making progress, but it also means that it will soon be too big to take places with me. This has been my travelling project because it’s so simple and requires so little attention- once it gets too big, I’ll have to find a new travelling project.

Last but not least, my swift finally arrived* so I was able to wind the yarn and get back to knitting my Pipp’s Openwork Eyelet Scarf. The second skein is a little less purple than the first, and you can tell where one skein ends and the next one begins; however, I don’t think anyone will notice but me. The knitting part is done, but I still consider this a Work-In-Progress because it still needs the ends woven in and a good blocking.

This post is part of Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday. Head on over to see what everyone else is working on!

*By the way, if anyone is interested, I’d be more than happy to post a review of my swift!