The Hard Way

First I would like to thank everyone for their nice comments about my Mom. She is doing well. I spoke to her last night, and she was still pretty shaken. Apparently the car didn't end perpendicular to traffic, she ended facing traffic straight on - in the form of several mack trucks. Pretty scary stuff. I told her to eat chocolate and take a sleeping pill - the perfect remedy for bad memories. =)
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So, I ordered yarn for the silk camisole from LMKG. I know I was pretty sure about doing Bad Penny, but I couldn't go through with it for some reason. I literally had the yarn in my cart at WEBS and just couldn't complete the order. I really want a variegated, not completely cotton, yarn that isn't $20 a skein. At the moment, said goal is unattainable, so I'm going with the camisole, which was really the first choice to begin with. In case you're wondering, I went with the Ocean color. It's already on it's way today from Kaliedescope yarns. I'm very excited that it got shipped so quickly, and relieved that I've pretty much settled on a project. Well mostly.....
You know me, I have to have options and so the option is this tank top from knitty.
I like the shape of this top and will likely make it in the future, regardless of when that future is. I would really like to have a shinier, fancier if you will, yarn to work it in, but I think it would make a nice business casual summer top as well. If that's what I decide, so be it. That will all be worked out in the swatching. As it is, I've ordered enough to make either one, so I'm good to go. Decision prcrastinated!

As you may know the tank top is for Stephanie's Olympic suicidal KAL. Seeing as how there are so many teams to join for the KAL, and since I'm not really doing a sweater, I've decided this is my real team. I have to my two mediums of choice, those being coffee and diet coke. I'll be stocking up on both before the opening cermonies. More team alternatives involving other vices are here. Hopefully the yarn will be here in time to knit gauge swatches and obtain needles that all match in size. What an interesting concept, no? I never know my gauge, so this should be really interesting.

Onto progress, not that it's that visible....
I had very little time to work on this baby last night. I finished the 15 rounds I thought I was supposed to do at lunch yesterday, and it turned out to be 16. Read the instructions, Jes! C'mon, how hard is this? See, I just see numbers and memorize them. I fail to notice the verbs and adjectives surrounding them. As in, knit this row 15 more times. Doh! Better than having done too many, imo. Too many, is my usual MO, though, sadly. So, I did my one more round and started the calf part of the sock. You can sort of see where that is in the pic, it starts right under the second lavendar stripe - it's hard to tell since they are both ribbed. I measured the cuff to make sure that it was the right size before moving on. It was in fact the right size - this made me nervous. You may think to yourself that I'm doing good and not understand my nerves. Really, who ever complained about being spot on? The reason is that I have gone UP a needle sized to compensate for my foot being a bit on the large size. Getting gauge with a larger needle only further proves my knitting-too-tightedness and makes me wonder if this is going to work out. My only saving grace is the fact that some ribbing continues on the foot and that there may yet be a way to save myself, post heel. Even if there isn't, I intend to continue deluding myself. If this sock doesn't work out, I plan to hang it on the wall so that I can just look at it and touch it. I'm totally enamoured with Lorna's laces and this colorway. I do not, however, recommend this for your first sock. The dark parts are hard to see, but I'm marching forward anyway. As per usual, I insist on doing everything the hard way.