Suffered

Since I've blogged a week and a half ago, not much has happened. And by not much, I mean my knitting is suffering (silently of course since I've never encountered yarn or needles that could talk). Last post, I talked about DM's Mother's Day socks, and teaching NB to knit. Since then, DM has received her socks, which she happily squealed over, and I've neglected to take modeled photos of them. Be assured, they look great, if a little short. I did finish that circle scarf for NS's mom, and gifted it to her on Mother's Day. It was 3 strands worsted weight (2 aqua and one a light blue like the one in this) and straight double crochet in the round with a size Q hook. It turned out great, but since it was such a quick project, I neglected to take pictures.

I haven't touched my Tardis socks at all, mostly because the deadline for DS's birthday is looming (May 25th) and her present is an unmitigated disaster. I first cast on a hat with one 50 g skein of Mochi Plus, which looked to be not enough from a very early point. Then when I finished the pattern with half left and tried the hat on, I knew there was something wrong. I decided never to use a pattern that doesn't include gauge information again. The next attempt found me running out of yarn so I headed to the nearer LYS (which is actually a pretty crappy shop for being so expensive, and they never have what I want) and SURPRISE, they didn't have any Mochi Plus. They had some chunky weight in their bargain bin, but nothing even remotely close to what I was working with. So I finally settled on a 100g ball of something else, which I reasoned was twice as much as what I had before, and would definitely suffice, though it meant I had a skein of Mochi and nothing to do with it. I quickly churned out this adorable crochet hat:

I've worn it twice and I love it to death. I did have to redo the last few rows to tighten up the crochet "ribbing" but that didn't take too long at all. I don't enjoy the join line that's so clearly visible, but I wasn't sure if I could do it in spirals instead. After some experimenting with other yarn, I know I can, so one day soon when there aren't so many birthdays coming up, I'll take it apart and redo it.

I'm just at the decreases for the crown on DS's new hat, but they aren't working out in the perfect spiral effect I wanted and I messed up a little so I've had to tink back like 3 rounds. This is what it looks like so far:

The colors are weird, but definitely her. She will love it, but the pattern is a modified version of the hat she got for Christmas, so I really don't think she'll appreciate the time and effort that went into it.
I addition to DS's birthday, two very close family friends have birthdays in July, and I have to make socks for them, and DM's birthday is at the end of June. We discussed what she wants because the only handknits she's ever actually liked were the 2 pairs of socks I've made her, and the 2 afghans: here and here that I've made her over the years. I told her that there was no way I could crank out an afghan in that time (which isn't true: Hello Kitty only took me a month, but that was working on it every second I could so I didn't want to set myself up for another project like that), but she could have socks if she wanted. She said that she didn't really care as long as I acknowledge her birthday, which sounds like a yes to me, so I guess I have to cast on 3 pairs of socks this month.

I had planned to make a pair of Owlie socks for one of those family friends for her birthday, but I cast on and had to double up the yarn (Cascade 220 fingering weight) in order to get gauge, and then the charting proved to be a little too complicated for me, and the pattern itself was obnoxiously over-complicated. I mean seriously, who puts cables in the cuff of a sock? Ribbing isn't good enough any more? So I have 100g of a wooly yellow yarn that I'm gonna use to make a pair of plain stockinette socks. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping I have enough yarn since it needs to be doubled up, so I really only have half of that.

I think the other girl's socks will be made of the same yarn I used for my Owl Sweater because her favorite color is green, and I have some leftover yarn I can use. I have yet to decide what yarn I should use for DM 's: I still have some pink variegated yarn leftover from the sock yarn binge my DS encouraged, and some more yarn in the same color as her Mother's Day socks, but I don't think I want to use that because she'd confuse the two pairs. I might get some Patons Kroy for her, but what I really want to do is get a vegan sock blank and dye it rainbow for her. I'm having a hard time finding yarn that meets my requirements though.

Quote of the Day:
Me: Floyd head-butted me in my womb
And along the same lines

Kid: Babies come from hoohas.