** WARNING - long post! Go grab your coffee/beer... **
"The Point of No Return" is one of my favorite songs in Phantom of The Opera. This song is sung in Act Two when Phantom has brought Christine (the other Christine) to his lair and told her this was it - the point of no return once she marries him, right before Raoul comes to rescue her and she had to make a choice: stay with the Phantom and let Raoul live, or refuse the Phantom and watch Raoul die. I won't tell you what happened... if you have the chance, you should watch this. I've seen this play 3 times and I would watch it over and over again. I listen to the original London cast recording when I'm driving for more than 30 minutes in the car alone. This is the only "opera" music I listen to.
So - what does that have to do with my knitting?
Well, I've past the point of no return. I've acquired much yarn in the past week that I don't think I'll ever return to the negative numbers. It's been a week since I last posted and even though I had the week off, I have been knitting, but not as much as I would have liked to.
I completed 6 pairs of socks in August - well, really, only 5. The 6th pair was completed on September 1. Susan from Michigan finished 8 pairs so I owe her a skein of yarn! She wants me to surprise her when I see her later this month when she's coming to visit her sister in MN. Her sister lives less than 30 minutes from me. We plan to visit some yarn stores. Anyway, here is sock #6 - a pair of Monkey socks that I started in 2008. This will look much better after I block it. At this time, this is either going to be Emily's or someone else. I've been thinking of this person as I knit it so it's very possible that this will be a gift for someone this December.

When I started this, Fauty Dyer was a brand new color. As you can tell, these are not my usual colors, but I was attracted to them simply for that reason - completely different from my normal palette. Also, I brought the lace pattern down the heel and when there are 2 years between socks, you can tell that I made a boo-boo and had an extra stitch before and after the gusset decrease on the sock on the left! Maybe I should make this my "signature" for the socks I knit - where both socks are "slightly" different"...

I finished one of the Slip Jig socks. I had to... I needed the needles... yes, you can assume correctly that I'm not working on sock 2 at the moment. But I should not leave it alone for 2 years or I'd forget what I did wonky about the toe:

Another cool heel:

So, the needles went to cast on the SKA Mystery Sock by Adrienne Fong. I've only knitted one of Adrienne's socks - the very first pattern from the Rockin' Sock Club when I joined in 2008 - Serendipity.

OK - I'm only going to knit one sock because I realized that I'm not going to knit the mate for the January Mystery Socks using beads... While the pattern is completely different (in fact, I think the Sept Sock is so much more attractive), the same yarn and beads should mean the socks are "related". If I truly fall in love with the Sept Mystery and want a matching mate, I can always frog this ...

Before I move on to yarns, there is one more cast on this week... I present you Apollo & Artemis... This is Apollo. I'm using String Theory Caper yarn to join in the KAL over at Solid Socks, but the lightbulb just lit that I need to use Solid/Semi-solid yarn from String Theory to qualify for prizes! I purposely wanted to use some variegation on this pattern. So, this sock now qualifies for just the Sock Knittes Annoynomous KAL prizes. (yes, I knit for a "chance" to win a prize!). An interesting thing about this pattern... I wasn't able to get the stitches to go the right way, according to pattern photos by following the pattern. Instead of * (YO, SSK) * repeat, I had to * (SSK, YO) *. I asked the designer about this and she said both should yield the same result. Huh? Why do I need to rip the 5 rows out TWICE if they produce the same results? No one, and I mean NO ONE, mentioned this modification on their project page! Well, now, there is one person who did - me! Sure enough, after I posted this cast-on photo, I received a pm from someone who asked me how to get her sock to look like the photo because she wasn't able to and she frogged the sock!

I did cast on ONE more thing - a shawl! I want to knit it further along before showing you the progress. I want to make sure that it's going to work out... this is a gift for Susan in Buffalo, who is on her Mediterranean cruise now and she's past the 1/2 way point for the shawl she's knitting me!
OK - we're getting to the point of no return.... First, the zero point items. These are from the Three Irish Girls Sock Club. I joined for 3 months so this is month 1. I picked both colors. For September, I was good. I only picked 1 out of 4! They came with 2 chapsticks and a pattern! I didn't even know there was a pattern included - until Auntie Jennifer asked me about the pattern. Apparently, a bunch of folks didn't get theirs as well so I had to contact them and they sent me a link. Thank goodness for Ravelry (and Auntie Jennifer)!


Another zero point... August Sock Club shipment from Woolgirl. Yarn is from Zen Yarn Garden. While the yarn fiber is lovely (Serenity 20), the shipment has not been too popular. Another Serenity yarn was included in the shipment in May 2009. Both are from the same color family and yet, they're different. If I had to choose between the two, I would pick the August one, but I have used up the one from last May to make my Sunshine socks by Cookie A. And I hardly wear yellow - ok - never! So I think this is going to be traded or destashed. So here's the August one:

and the May:

Here's the Sock Club Package. Not photographed are the patterns:

Next, are my MINUSes. I destashed 3 skeins this week... Bugga in Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly, Skinny Bugga in Sea Star, and Plucky Knitter Silk Merino 50/50 in Loco Dempsey.



OK, now come the PLUSes. The order arrived from Hazel Knits:

They are all gorgeous.. Nickel is a little boring, but I do need gray socks. The biggest surprise was In the Clover. This was recommended by Dawn. I'm glad I got it. In fact, I'm knitting Meliae (sock club shawl pattern) in it. This is the shawl for Susan. But, I can always change my mind - keep it for myself or frog it. Here's a close up:

Oh, I kept it from you (and I've been feeling guilty all week) that I bought these from the local yarn store. These are the Frog Tree Pediboo sock yarn. One hank has 255 yards, cost $7.45. I like the feel of the yarn. 510 yards for less than $15? Good deal! It's 80% Merino, 20% bamboo. I don't really care for bamboo - mostly because of the sheen. But these guys are not shiny. I bought basic colors... Natural and blue.


So, here we go...
Previous = -3, PLUS = 8, MINUS = 4, NET = +1.
YEP - that's what I thought. I've past the point of no return.