The good, the bad, and the ugly

Let's get the ugly out of the way.
This is my shirt after wearing my Ophelia vest, which I knitted from Hobby Lobby's new cotton yarn. "I Love This Cotton" knits up very nicely and is wonderfully soft, but...yeah. This is what it leaves in its wake.

Now, some good. First of all, my first felting project:
I crocheted a circle from the leftover wool from my Cable-Down Raglan (and my cabled headband). A little vigorous swooshing in hot soapy water, and here's what came out.I made this little circle-type object to put my teapot on when I take it up to my room.

And new yarn always counts as a good thing, right?

This is some Louet Gems Fingering that I got through a Ravelry destashing. It's a soft yellow - bright, but not fluorescent.
This is from the same destashing - Actual Size Creations hand-dyed sock yarn. The colorway is named Rorschach (as in Rorschach blot, I guess), but to me, it's fall leaves.
And here's some Ultra Alpaca Light, 433 yards of fingering-weight wool/alpaca/nylon. The color is so much richer in real life - dark, vivid blues and greens. Lace shawl, anyone?
And last (and least!), the bad.

This may not look terribly bad. Sure, it's pooling like crazy, but it's a sock, right?See the problem yet? Into the frog pond it goes.

Past the finish line!

Cast on first sock 8-8-08 10:45 AM
Cast off second sock 8-11-08 8:40 PM

I've got 87 yards of yarn left! I probably could have made these knee socks, but I didn't want to risk running out of yarn. As it stands, they're 8" from cuff to beginning of heel flap. These will be my winter snow boot socks.

6:00 PM Ravelympics update

Let the games begin!

Or, I Am A Rather Lousy Ravelympian.

Wednesday:
3:30 PM: Buy yarn for Ravelympics socks.

Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in a potluck colorway ("Water" - whatever. I haven't seen much pink, purple, or red water.)

Thursday:
10:30 PM: Realize that I haven't actually signed up for the Ravelympics.

10:31 PM: Sign up for Ravelympics.

10:45 PM: Search through 15630548304819357314 favorited sock patterns in search of The Perfect Ravelympics Sock.

10:50 PM: Decide to try the Flutter-By socks. Commence swatching. (yes, I know, I swatched for a sock.)

11:30 PM: Realize that the sock is a) WAY too big and b) pooling like crazy.

11:45 PM: Realize again that the sock is a) WAY too big and b) pooling like crazy.

11:50 PM: Rip out sock swatch.

Friday:
Sometime between 6 and 7 AM: turn off both my alarms.)
8:30 AM: Lie in bed, basking in the joy that is Saturday morning.

8:32 AM: Remember that as joyous as Saturday mornings are, this is in fact FRIDAY, and I have to be at work in 28 minutes.

9:30 AM: Get on internet to find The Perfect Ravelympics Sock.

9:31 AM: Read headline story on CNN.com. Have heart attack as it hits me that one of my best friends and her fiancee are in the Republic of Georgia, which is currently being bombed by Russia.

10:01 AM: After several frantic text and Facebook messages, remember the name of the missions agency.

10:02 AM: Call missions agency. They're on the other side of the country and safe, thank God.

10:15 AM: Realize that I still haven't found The Perfect Ravelympics Sock (TPRS from here on out). Open 350483937951793473070 web browser pages of sock patterns.

10:45 AM: Decide and cast on for Charade.

5:05 PM:

Third time's the charm?

At the March 2007 Knit-In, I cast on for a pair of socks. They were my first "pattern" socks. The yarn was Plymouth Sockotta, and the pattern was Conwy, from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I finished that sock fairly quickly.

I cast on for the second sock yesterday. Yes, this is/was a 17-month case of Second Sock Syndrome. I've knit EIGHT pairs of socks between sock 1 and sock 2.

Here's one of the eight pairs. I finished the Spring Forward socks, and I do love them! They're possibly the best-fitting socks I've knit. I can see this pattern becoming the new Monkeys.

But certain members of the household just want the shoes...Clarks are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn, but I don't think I like them quite this much. They aren't quite as dirty as they appear.

Incidentally, I was thinking about getting a new camera, since the "down" button on mine is broken. This is the button used to zoom and select new settings. (Slight problem.) I wanted a camera with a macro setting so I could take up-close pictures of my knitting. Well, last night, I *gasp!* picked up the instruction manual for my camera, and it had a section about using the macro setting. So THAT'S what the little tulip button is for!