You'll poke your eye out kid

Actually, the duplicate stitch on my Ravelry ID bag is moving along much faster than I expected. This is about 2 hours of work, one hour on each of two nights. Wow, maybe I'm not doing as well as I thought.
Anyway, I just have to get the rest of the way around the ball and then do the lettering. My two concerns are that the ends will work out as it felts, so I'm trying to leave long ends. And that it will look like heck once it's felted. Some of the columns are coming out nice and dense, but others the white is peeking through. I'm not sure what I'm doing differently, since it's one column to the next in the same session, but I'm afraid the white will show after it's felted. I suppose I'll be able to go over it again with more unfelted black. I wonder if I can just color it in with a Sharpie....
Goals are Good
Or so I hear. In honor of that, and since my knitting has felt a little scattered lately, I've decided that I want to have my Ravelry bag done and felted and my Nell sweater done by the time I have to go to a conference in Las Vegas in June. Then I can take them with me. Hopefully that will keep me focused on those two projects and I'll actually get them done.
Of course one landmine is the conference hotel is the Hilton, where the Star Trek Experience is located. I want to do the rides, but I'm not sure I'll have time. At a minimum I'll eat in Quark's Bar and hit the shop. I have a brilliant idea for a present for Hubby.
Of course all those thoughts of Star Trek led me to think it might be cool to have socks with the emblem of the Klingon Empire on them. (The Star Fleet emblem would be too fiddly with all those little stars.) I don't know if I would to a varigated background with a solid logo, or vice versa, or both solid. I emailed Hubby, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.
With that in mind, I checked Ravelry. No other socks. But someone did a cool felted bag. I sent her a message asking if she'd share the chart she made, so I don't have to figure it out. Her version might be too big for socks, but I won't know until I get my hands on it.
Scattered, but focused
I actually haven't been terrible with my knitting.
I finished the Stars and Stripes sweater a few weeks ago. When it had its office premier Boss Man said I looked like a superhero because I had a big star on my chest. Hadn't thought of that. But people thought it was cute. Now it has to be washed because it has two muddy paw prints on the belly. Gee, I wonder how that happened.
And I finished the Cat's Pajamas Socks over the weekend. We were up at the in laws on Catholic Easter weekend and I had time to just sit and knit. They are lovely. Cynthia said she would consider the pattern for the store, so I just have to work up additional sizes. I have to start designing socks that either have more stretch or can be resized by switching needle size. Oh well.
But she also really liked the pattern stitch in general and wanted me to work it up in a scarf version for the store. I threw some figures out before we went UpState and she was going to work on it over that weekend. I'm working at Knitting Central this weekend, so I'll be able to see what she came up with. That should be easy enough to write up.
So I have been finishing projects, just not the projects already in progress.
Oh, and another Raveler asked about my Yankee's Socks. I took another look at the pattern and it is more comprehensible than I thought. I might run those by Cynthia, too. Of course, the Yankee's logo is a trademark and I wouldn't be able to sell it, so it would have to be something funky like people buy the base sock pattern and get the logo as a gift.
Ok, there is duplicate stitching to be done and Hubby is going to start thinking about dinner soon.
The blog is a vicious circle. I don't update often because it takes so long since I write such long posts. But I write long posts because I don't write often. I have to learn to do sudden impact entries!

Hello, what do we know about gauge?

Aside from the fact that it is not our friend?
Well, sometimes it will actually indicate how something might fit.
Other knitters and crocheters will tell you how very important gauge is and especially getting the correct gauge. Under the right circumstances, I might even be one of them. But honestly I hate it and swatches as much as the next gal.
The Cat's pajamas Socks are history. Torn out and risen from the ball once again. I was frogging and trying to figure out how to catch my slip stitch when it occurred to me that I could catch it at the ribbing and go forward, since the goal was to extend the ribbing. Which is what I did, picking up stitched around and then yanking with abandon.
Today I was contemplating it and it occurred to me that although the gauge on the US1 seemed lovely in stockinette stitch, the pattern might be pulling in and adding to my dissatisfaction.
One motif was measuring 1 3/4 inches and two together were measuring 3 1/2" for a circumference of 6, when I'm after 7.
So, after I finished the ribbing on the US1 because I'm lazy, I switched to my fancy 2.5mm metal Pony dpns that Hubby brought me from Poland. At the time I thought bigger needles, bigger gauge, bigger socks. But now I'm not so sure. Probably just second guessing again. I'm only worked one repeat, so between the ribbing and the needles I can't get an accurate measurement.
Oh well, can't hurt to keep going for another repeat or two. It seemed to fit better, at least.
I have no pictures. The camera is tantalizingly close. It's here, in the house. But access was denied. Soon, though. He can't keep it from me forever. And then I will finally take a picture of my finished Stars & Stripes sweater and whatever state the socks are in.
At the same time, I'm starting to think a nice plain pair of stockinette stitch socks might be nice. Something to work on that I don't have to think about. But I will resist.
Oh! Six people have read the blog now. I told my mom about it, finally, when she was up on Monday. She took it rather well. Just before I told her she admitted she doesn't like the hat I made her. She said it is a wee bit small, which makes it look funny when she wears it. Or would it be it makes her look funny when she wears it. Anyway, she's passing it to my niece, who likes it and has a smaller head. Then she asked if I could make her a scarf with the leftover yarn. Have to let her know it will be predominately purple, that hat used a lot of red. We would need more red if she wants it balanced. Of course if I stall long enough the weather will warm up and she might forget about it. Oh, wait, can't say things like that anymore, she's reading the blog now.

I've been measuring socks

I've been dividing my attention between my felted Ravelry ID bag and the Cat's Pajamas Socks I'm designing. I've worked the first sock down to the ankle and can start the heel flap now, but I'm just not sure.
When I originally swatched this pattern using Jitterbug, a nice little scalloped edge developed because I only worked five rows of ribbing. Just enough to give the top edge stability for measuring. Although I usually work 15 rows of ribbing, I went with the five rows for these socks, but the scallop isn't happening. Maybe because this yarn is finer than Jitterbug, maybe because I actually tried these on.
Regardless, I'm thinking the lack of ribbing is making the top just a wee bit snug and the pattern will look better if it starts further down.
The length also has me concerned. As I've made socks for myself I've settled on lengths and widths that I like, and I'm not sure these aren't a bit tall. I like 15 rows of ribbing, and from cast on to heel should be as long as my hand. so there. These are longer than my hand when relaxed but when I put them on they shrink down to 6 1/4 inches. So now I have to gather all my other socks to compare. Guess it's been longer than I realized since I made myself socks if all this second guessing is going on. Of course the patterned fabric behaves differently than plain old stockinette, which is what I usually do for socks. Apparently because I don't want all this design grief.
However, if I want to measure ALL my socks, I'm going to have to do the laundry. boring!
In other news, the camera is once again off with a yearbook student, so I can't take a good picture of my progress on my Ravelry bag. I tossed it on the scanner, so the colors are a little off and you can't see it in all its full sized glory. I did buy another skein each of green and white on Saturday. All that duplicate stitch is going to be a thrill a minute, but I have to finish the flat knitting first.
Ok, I should really accomplish something today, other than breakfast and some knitting.