The Best Laid Plans...

So do you know what happens when you go hiking and the clouds open up and unleash a torrent of rain and you are chilled to the bone and you totally get the flu and wind up miserable and fighting to get through each day for two whole weeks? You don't quite make your goals, that's what.

Stormwind Map last time:

Stormwind Map now:

Page four was supposed to be completed in September. I guess now October is half of page four and all of page five? I mean, October's got one whole extra day in it so obviously that should work.

I've got a couple roadtrips planned for October. I have tickets to the ballet. I've signed up for a Tai Chi class with my sister. I'm also doing graphic design for a friend's jewelry business and helping her with parties. Add in the requisite time for emotional distress flailing because of prolonged separation and I've totally got this in the bag! Awesome.

So yeah. Probably this isn't going to happen...

It still doesn't worry me about my end-of-year goals. I don't know if I'm being hopelessly naive or just confident. I guess we'll see.

Stormwind Week 17

Stormwind Map last time:

Stormwind Map now:

I think it's safe to say that I have passed the halfway mark across the top row! Annnd I'm over 16% done with the whole project! Which... isn't exactly a milestone percentage but I'm pretending. Because two things to celebrate is even better than one.

My Excel formula is predicting April 30th 2017 for the first row finish. Such little faith it has! I'd been shooting to hit that by Christmas or my birthday (New Year's Day). I'm choosing to believe that it is still going to happen because despite my formula it's really not unreasonable. It would only require sticking to my one page a month goal. And the last page is only a partial.

Socktacular

Stormwind Map last time:

Stormwind Map at the end of August:

Wah wah wah. Fail.

I was not at all impressed with my progress, but at the same time I can't beat myself  up about it either. August was just very much an incredibly busy month and sometimes you've got to roll with it. I made some memories that I wouldn't trade for anything.

But I got a fair bit of progress done over Labor Day Weekend.

Stormwind Map now:

I swear it looks like Stormwind has a baseball diamond...

I'm happy to be on the fourth page even if it there's still some left to do on page three. Page four has the start of the banner that says Stormwind and for some reason getting that stitched feels like a big deal to me.  In addition to that, the first column in page four marks the halfway point across the row.

Wanderer's Cove last time:

Wanderer's Cove now:

This is the last update Wanderer's Cove is going to get for awhile, I think. I am, once again, disenchanted with the whole thing. It's the same ol' same ol' with me. While I adore working on it, I'm annoyed by the fact that the design doesn't match the original art for intensity and vibrancy. Baaah. Why do I do this to myself?

Moving on to happier things...

Finding knitting time in the last month was a lot easier than cross stitching time. Nature of the beast, I guess; there's less to organize.

Beloved's Cable Throw is coming along nicely! I'm so very pleased with it.

I started it originally just as the pattern was written but after doing the ribbing I decided to frog it and start over with an extra repeat. I'm glad I did! I think the size will be much cozier now, though honestly I sort of wish I'd added two.

The color has been hard to capture. I haven't quite managed a picture that truly shows it yet. I'll work on that.

I also have a new start. I never ever never thought I'd be able to knit socks. The whole concept of the toe and turning the heel sounded like it would forever be beyond me because what is this special sock language that I do not speak (!?), but then I stumbled across the Turkish cast-on on youtube and the FLK heel on Ravelry and suddenly SOCKS!!!

Basic socks hardly seem worth the effort though. I'm all about the knee and thigh highs myself and always have been. But what makes it even better is that I know my beloved is particularly fond of thigh highs and, well, that's fun, right?

This first pair is going to be plain, no lace or cables or anything, because I want to learn the techniques before I go too crazy. So lesson plans are 1. toe  2. fit  3. heel  4. leg shaping. I knitted and reknitted the toe of this pair at least seven times and the foot a couple as well, but it was totally worth it as now I know exactly how to create a lovely toe custom fitted for my feetsies.

It is a thing of beauty.

I'm using Universal Yarns Bamboo Pop in the Bright Spot colorway on size 1.5 needles.

Sock yarns made without out wool are stupidly hard to find, but I have some HiKoo by CoBaSi and and Loops & Threads Woolike and I've ordered some Unikatwolle 4-fadig by 100Farbspiele. Oh, and I want to get some Knit One, Crochet Two Pediwick as well. So it's all very exciting and also... unfortunately moderately expensive.