What to do... What to do...

When I finished the socks  I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do next. I found myself at something of a stand-still.  The time I have for quiet concentrated knitting is very limited.  I try to have two projects going one that is easy to put down when Em needs attention and one that challenges my skills. And I was in between on both projects.

I went to my stash picked something and started swatching.  My hands were idle and didn't like it very much.  I finally landed on Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art in a reddish brown color way. Which I think is Sumac  I had two choices for the project.  I was thinking of doing a shawl or another pair of socks.  

One of my New Year's Goals was to get involved site Craftsy.  I purchased a couple of classes when they were on sale a few months ago.  Knit Original Toe Up Socks  given by Donna Druchunas and Mastering Lace Shawls given by Laura Nelkin.  After getting into the specs of the projects for the class there wasn't enough yardage for the shawl.  I decided to go with socks.

I wanted to get going so I decided to do the Dead Simple Lace socks again.  Plain Jane socks were not for this yarn.  This time I decided try new version of  short row toes and heels.

 I started with Donna Drachunas' short row toe.  This toe looks to be very sturdy.  But it is very fiddly.  On the return side of the short rows there are triple decreases.  On the purl side it is a Purl 3 through the back loop.  I started the toe 3 times but kept dropping stitches.  I tried to complete the toe and when I finished there were 3 dropped stitches.  I have no idea how I did it but  this is when I ripped it out and went back to a basic short row toe.  I never had issues with the short row toe.  It's the heel with the giant hole that I have an issue with.

Here's what I have so far with my sock

I've gotten past the heel on the first sock.   And for the heel I used a  short row heel tutorial I'd seen on Knitting Blooms. It's based on the Pricilla Wild short row heel.  I admit that I didn't look past this tutorial and it seemed logical to me.  I don't think I actually did it right as every time I tried to work this heel during my lunchtime knitting session I was interrupted with something. But it is pretty close. And on my test fit the heel seemed to be pretty good with the fit.  I am currently at the second heel and am trying to find a way to have an hour of quiet time to concentrate on figuring out the heel.  I will conquer the short row heel.

I love my daughter but to get any knitting done in the house I need it to be simple and easy to put down.  I also have a huge collection of t-shirts.  Nearly every show I have worked has had some kind of t-shirt to commemorate.  And so I have a lot of shirts that I'm just having issues with getting rid of.  It just seems so wasteful.  It's all about recycling... Right?

After looking at several websites on how to do this I have decided to convert shirts into Tarn.  It's all about converting a circle into a straight line.  It's surprisingly east to do.  The cool thing about the knit cotton is that when stretched it makes a lovely and sturdy yarn.  Below is a pic of a small area rug that I'm making to put in front of the kitchen sink.  As of today there are 6 T's in this project and probably another 2 more are going in.  

I took pics of the shirts whole so that somewhere I still have an image of the shirt I go when I visited the space center in Houston or worked Riverdance when it came to Flint's Whiting Auditorium (ages ago) or that I got to visit Bishop Museum in Honolulu on a job. Which means I got paid to be in Hawaii.

The  idea is that every time I step there I will remember and at it will be good and if I  ever want to see what the shirt looked like whole.  I have a pic of it. 

We are in need of a new rug for in front of the kitchen sink.  I thought this would be a perfect use of the tarn.  I think I will stitch that nubbly, rubbery shelf liner on the bottom so that it doesn't slip.  The dark stripe is a blue and black combo. Probably the Bishop Museum shirt and a U of Mich that I grew out of. The grey and black are the aforementioned Riverdance, as well as a grey Houston Space Center and U of Mich shirt.  I have a lot of t-shirts that I just don't wear anymore and frankly need the room for my burgeoning Wonder Woman shirt collection. :)