New Projects for People!

Now that I'm back in the swing of things with knitting, it's time to start some new projects again.  I've got a lot of work to do before the holiday season comes and I want to make sure I've got enough knits for everyone for Christmas this year.  I think my kids will likely not be getting anything because they always lose them, and they seem to grow just too quickly for it to matter, but I have other people who have been asking me for knits, so I have something to focus on.  My kids may not get knits, but at least someone will, and that's keeping me motivated.

The first new project I cast on was a pair of socks for my sister.  She picked out this pink and green yarn that was just so lovely.  It certainly wasn't my choice in colors, but it totally suited her.  The whole thing had to be balled by hand, which was quite a pain in the butt.  I have to admit, I can't ball yarn like normal people do.  I somehow always end up turning it into a cake.  I don't know anyone else who hand cakes their yarn, but I do it, because I'm weird like that.  This one took me all of watching Antman to wind up, as well as about an hour after that.  As always, the end turned into a disaster and I swore I would never do it again, but I'm undoubtedly going to do it again for the next skein of yarn that comes out of my bag.  But at least doing it this way gave me a chance to really think about the color of the yarn and how it would knit up.  That way I could consider if I really wanted to knit it up in the pattern I had been considering, or if I was going to do something else with the whole thing.  Thankfully, it looked like it would be a little loud for my tastes, but I think she'd enjoy it.

Getting the whole thing started up, I've got a pretty good idea of what it's going to look like.  The green isn't as loud as I wanted it to be, and it definitely makes me think "flower" and not "watermelon" like it reminds her of, but I think it would work.  I would consider making something out of this for my daughter, who absolutely loves pink.  The name of the colorway, Tulip, makes a lot of sense, though I think of red, yellow, and white when I think of tulips, not pink.  Still, it's a lovely color, and the way it's knit up through the cuff, I think my sister is going to enjoy it.  I can't wait to get a little further on it.  I've decided these are going to be Nemesis socks, because Sherlock Holmes' logic in the show Sherlock is that his brother is his arch-nemesis, so why wouldn't my sister be mine?  It seemed incredibly appropriate, and now it's all set up and ready to go on to the next step.  I'm excited to start it, but it's been pushed to the side for a little while I work on a project for my friend, Sable.  Priorities are sadly a thing I need to have when it comes to knitting, and the socks don't need to be finished until November.  I've got a little more free time to get back to that one.

In the mean time, I'm making another pair of snuggle paws!  Sable picked out this yarn and asked me to make some for her.  She's just learning to knit, so there's no way she would be ready to knit this complicated pattern herself, so I agreed, especially since the pattern is so simple and easy for me now that I can practically do it in my sleep.  I think it's a fair exchange.

This yarn is a yummy handpainted yarn.  I absolutely love it, though I'm not sure it's my kind of yarn.  I wouldn't personally choose it for this pattern myself, but she really loves it, so that's what matters most.  It really is a beautiful yarn, and it's not too bad with the pattern.  It's a bit loud for my tastes, but I think it really suits her personality, and the muted colors work well enough with the pattern and don't seem too out of place.  It gives it a neat appearance, so while it's not something I would particularly choose for me, I think it's a fantastic choice for her.  That's the fun part of knitting for someone else, I can break out of the limiting cycle for what I would knit for myself and can do something that's completely not my style.

The fun thing about this project, aside from the usual seeing it come together, I'm having fun with seeing how it looks in different lighting.  It seems like there's no way to have this project come out "true to color" because the colors seem to change depending on so mnay factors, like what light it's under.  Two pictures of the same project look totally different, just by changing the lighting.  The other picture was taken out in the sunshine.  This second picture was taken under a softer lighting in the evening, backed by my glass of wine.  I love this picture most of all because so many of the colors seem to coordinate.  The wine, the needles, and the yarn all seem complimentary to each other.  I'm going to have a lot of fun photographing these gloves when I'm done with them.  I'll probably take a dozen pictures under different lighting conditions, just to see what happens.  Lighting can make all the difference with things like this.  I just hope I can get one really good one where the yarn actually shows up the way it does to my eye in the real world. We'll see.  Hopefully I can fidget with it enough and it will all work out.

But at least the first one is down, so that's a start.  It took just over 24 hours, with some significant breaks and stuff like sleep to get it knocked out, which is much faster than I'd thought it would be.  I didn't anticipate getting it all knocked out quite so quickly.  It should take me no time at all (provided I can spend some serious, dedicated knitting time) to get the next one knocked out too!  Then I can get back to knitting up my sister's socks and hopefully I can slap together something for myself before the weather turns too badly.  That would be lovely.

With one project down for this summer and another fast on it's heels, I can't help but be pleased with the progress I'm making.  Maybe now I can stay motivated and get things done.  I've got a lot of knitting I want to do as the weather starts to turn, possibly even a sweater, if I get ambitious enough. This year may just be the year!  Just as long as I keep on knitting and don't let myself get lazy after a few short victories in knitting up some small, quick projects.