Impatient

So, let me preface my post by pointing out I'm aware this is a really lame thing to complain about. Lameness noted.

My birthday was back in November. For my birthday, I asked my mom for a yarn winder and a swift. I picked one out, and she said 'sure, I'll get them for you!'

It is no longer November. It is in fact, December, and almost a month after my birthday. In all fairness, I know it took me a while to pick out a winder, and I know it took my mom a while to get it, and we're getting it from a place that hand makes all the swifts, so I understand that the care that's going into it means it takes longer than two days (or two weeks, in this case) to get to me. That said, I want my swift! =P

I've finished up my La Vie de La Boheme, and I'm currently un-enamored of my Stag Bag, though that's only because now I have to sew stuff and I don't sew. This means that, other than my boring Holiday Presents (which are lots of little flower pins) I don't have all that much knitting going on. I really want to start a new pair of socks since I frogged my Columbine socks, but there's a problem...

I got this very exciting new book yesterday, Knitting Circles Around Socks, that has some not-s0-great patterns, but has an EXCELENT tutorial on how to knit socks on circular needles. Not just how to knit ONE sock on two circulars, no, how to knit TWO socks on two circulars! Only exactly what would solve my forgetfulness problem of not bothering to count rows as I know! The only problem with this is that it requires two balls of yarn. This isn't really a problem, since I have two skeins in each of two colorways in Lorna's Laces, a lovely yarn that comes one skein per sock. One of these skeins is already in something resembling a center pull lump, this is the skein that was once part of a columbine sock. The other skein is in its pristine skein-like glory, not-wound (i was about to say 'unwound' but that means something else entirely =P) and undefiled. I don't really want to spend the hours it would take for me to wind it into a center pull lump if my yarn winder and swift will be arriving soon.

Were they my own purchase, I'd have a way of contacting the company and asking nicely for an estimate. It's not that I'm rushing them, I'd just like to be able to plan my knitting around when it will arrive. Since it's a gift, I can't really do that, and I don't want to look a gift-swift in the spokes (heh heh) and ask my mom to check for me.

Alas alack what a terrible problem.

I think the solution will be either to finish my adaptation of the Interweave Holiday Knits mug cozy I was working on or start the Icecream Pint Cozy I've been admiring in the book Not Your Mama's Knitting. Let me say of this book: the name and color scheme dissapoints me. In many ways, this book is a much much better book than it seems. It doesn't just have the same basic 'how to knit' that lots of knitting books do, it has mini stitch pattern collections! Many of the patterns have variations that can get a whole new look out of the pattern - for example, the icecream cozy can be a beer cozy if you follow steps X, Y, and Z. The book's main problems are its name (which screams 'hip knitting book,' which makes me want to run in fear of fuzzy yarn) and the poor quality of the layout and the photos inside. The photographs, which are all in the center of this otherwise on normal paper book, all have odd color balance and look like they were taken by a beginning photographer. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that it's a KNITTING BOOK. I want to be able to look at the pictures and see this wonderful glorious knit object that I could imagine myself replicating and using. If the pictures aren't great, the object isn't going to look great, so I won't want to knit it. This isn't to say that I'd knit all the patterns in the book - there are a few of them, like the O'Gloves (arm length black gloves with garish silver 'accents) and the V neck sweater (a cute v neck that somehow was brutally mauled so it doesn't cover the model's belly button) I wouldn't wear if someone forced me. That said though, there are a lot of very nice patterns, and, though I haven't knit anything from it, the patterns look like they're well formated.

I don't own this book. It was one of my library books today. If it wasn't for the problems I'd mentioned above, I'd buy it in a heart beat, but right now I'd be a little ashamed to own something so seemingly garish. Silly and superficial of me, I know, but it's true.

Now, to go drool over the patterns in that silly book. =]

Start-itis, a Frogging frenzy, and my young Stag bag

Well, I've done quite a lot since I posted last! I had been hoping to accompany this post with photographs, but I can't for the life of me find the cord to plug my camera into my computer! This is what happens when I clean...
First off, I finished my Time of Your Life socks! Very excited. So far I've washed them and partly blocked them, but I haven't finshed sewing in the ends. I'd been waiting for darning needles I just ordered (which came in yesterday, so I don't have an excuse anymore...) but I do have a nice photoshoot of them! Stuck on my camera of course, but you'll see them soon.

I'd gotten so used to knitting while I watch tv that it was hard to go without something to knit. So I didn't. I knitted a 'garter mug cozy' from the Holiday 2007 issue of Interweave knits. This pattern is why I bought the magazine, and I was very excited to knit it, but I'm rather dissapointed! I tried the resulting cozy on every mug in my house, and there was only one it could fit onto at all, but it was too baggy to be useful. I started a second version of that, probably not in garter stitch (because I really don't see the point) and I'm paying more attention to the increases - I'm going to try knitting up a few rows without doing the last three inc rows to see if that fits my mugs better. I'd been hoping to give these for gifts, so it'd be nice if I could figure out some way to salvage the pattern. One thing I like about doing the pattern in stockinette instead of garter stitch is that I could (with my new found color work skills) have a design like a snowflake or an initial.

After my disappointment with the mug cozy, I cast on some Lornas Laces in Pioneer for a pair of Columbine Socks, from socks soar. For some reason it took me two times of starting the cuff before I was happy with it, but finally the cuff was done and I was in the first lace repeat...when I dropped a stitch. I tried saving my stitches four times, but in the end I had to frog all. So sad! I tried knitting the cuffs up AGAIN but I didn't like how the yarn was pooling - especially after seeing the neat spiraling I'd gotten it todo before - so I ripped it. Again. This is not the week for those socks. Needless to say, next time I finish the cuff, I'm putting in a lifeline!

SO! My birthday fell in the midst of all this, and, since I failed to ask for much specific, I got some money. Which promptly was spent on some Ultra Alpaca Light for my stag bag. I'd decided a while ago to do this in blue and brown - ideally a rich chocolate for the stag and a nice light blue for the background. Well, my trip to my LYS changed my mind. Thanks to the lovely women at Woolstock that day, I decided to use a fawn brown for the stag and a richer blue for the sky. I cast on yesterday as soon as I returned from the store, and I'm over halfway done the chart for the front. I can't decide how I want to do the back. My mom suggested I do another repeat of the chart, probably not realizing how much easier said than done, but I'm warming to the idea. I'll see how I feel when I'm done the entire front, and if I'm up to it, I think it'd be neat to do a mirror image of the front chart, so that, in theory, both stags would be looking toward the same side. (Another way to think about it - if the pattern was stained glass, you'd be 'seeing through to the other side'. )
I'm loving this knit and I'm loving this yarn. When I was at the store I bought the two colors of Ultra Alpaca Light that I'd been crushing on since, oh, September. I have no idea what I'm going to make with the two skeins, but for now, I'm quite content just looking at the yarn and occasionally fondling it.

That's all the knitting news for now. I've been doing a bit of reading lately too, and I've finished these since my last trip to the library:
Death by Chick Lit - Lynn Harris
Needled to Death - Maggie Sefton (I meant to start with Knit One, Kill Too but it was checked out.)
Both books were good easy bedtime reads. For me a bedtime read is something frivolous, so I'm enjoying it, something light so it's okay if I fall asleep while reading and miss a page or two, and something quick, so I can finish it in a week or two.

Now, time for bed! The sooner I get to bed the sooner it's tomorrow and I can knit more!