Still Here

Well, I am still here and still kicking. I have just been very busy. I went garage saling on Saturday and had a blast and got a bit of sun. Considering my very, very fair skin, I didn't do too badly. I'm only slightly pink.
I did get some knitting done, but I don't have any pictures yet.
Let's just say that it involves that purple fleece artist yarn.
You'll just have to sit on the edge of your seat until tomorrow.

Progress

Well, I am making some progress. Even though our nieces are here.

This is how far I am on the camo socks.

The colors are not lining up at all, but I think it's turning out okay anyway. I am past the heel turning and have just finished the gussets. I'm getting pretty far, despite my "helper". This is our niece Emma. A future knitter.

She "helped" me by pulling out a needle in the few seconds she had this in order for me to take the picture. Don't worry, I managed to get it put back in.

Well, I'm off to play now.

Distractions

So, today I was going to post a list of things to keep you occupied and keep you from thinking about knitting since I have been pretty boring lately. I have been mostly feeling better since this afternoon, but I am still really tired. I have a tooth that is hurting now. I can't believe it. I guess I will have to try to find a dentist. Meanwhile I felt a bit lost since I didn't have a current pair of socks started so I did this.
It's a pair of socks for my brother-in-law. It's made out of just boring old Red Heart yarn but it's in camouflage colored yarn because they are going to be for hunting. (I am also using acrylICK because they have two children and I doubt they would be super careful with not drying something in the dryer.)
I think this picture turned out much better than I have taken before. I may be getting the hang of this.
Notice that I am using 5 needles. I have tried the 4 style, but I always get ladders, no matter how careful I am, so I just use a 5 needle set. I kinda like that anyway because I can try them on and make sure they fit in progress. That doesn't really work if it's a triange.
We have our nieces over the weekend so I don't know if I will have time to post at all, so have a great weekend!

Weenie Wednesday

Well, since I have been sick and don't have any new interesting knitting (I am knitting dishclothes since that seems to be the only thing my puny phlegm addled brain can handle right now) I thought it might be HIGH time to show off the sweater I knit for my husband. He did get it before Christmas and it's not my best work, but he does like it. This is an extremely bad picture of him wearing the sweater.

Again, I apologize for the crappiness of the pictures I am currently taking. My next purchase will be a digital camera. It might even come before yarn at this point. Just so you can see the color close-up, here is another picture.

This one at least shows you the colors although it's still pretty crappy.

I am calling this post Weenie Wednesday because I am wussing out by showing you an old, finished project.

I frogged the self-patterning yarn socks again. I just can't get them to come out right. In the meantime, you will just have to hear about my boring cotton dishclothes :)

What day is it again?

Well, I'm still sick and I stayed at home again today. My phlegm has developed into a hacking gross cough that may be turning bronchial. I can't tell yet. Enough of the gory life details though.

If I can just get one uninterrupted night of sleep, I might be all right. (I'm sure I'll be all right. I'm just being a wuss right now.)

As promised here is the picture of the sweater I am knitting for my niece's birthday. It's not a very good picture. I will completely admit that. It's made of baby teri and it's got a white rolled hem and a pink body and then the sleeves will be pink and white striped. It's not exactly the way the pattern calls for. I am making it pink and white instead of mint and pink. It's a pattern especially for the Baby Teri that it is knit from and it's very cute. It will be even cuter on the young lady who will hopefully not outgrow it before I can finish it. :)

I should have realized that I am still sick when I tried to cast on for a new pair of socks and started over four times because I didn't like the result. I think they are okay now, but I am not sure. It's self-patterning yarn and I have seen the way that it should look and even though I'm getting gauge, I don't think it's coming out right.

Oh well, another day, another try.

Finished and loved project

Well, it's Monday and I think I may have survived the weekend. I'm not really sure yet as I haven't left the house in three days. Normally, this would have me feeling like a cooped up wild animal of some sort, but since this cold has knocked me utterly on my tuckus, I am mostly trying to just survive the day. The hacking cough and phlegm preventing me from breathing through my nose is lovely, let me tell you. I won't go into further details as it's rather disgusting. Suffice to say (In best whiny voice) "I don't FEEL well."

To keep you all updated and not bored. I will share a picture of the newest pair of socks. They are knit with Trekking XXL yarn on size US 2 needles.

I call them my harlotty trekking socks because I specifically went to the yarn store to find yarn that I thought looked "harlotty" to knit while going to the Yarn Harlot event. I tried to make them match and quite obviously (despite the poor color of the picture) they don't match. I decided I sort of like them that way. They are "quirky" Anyway, I love them with a kind of passion I reserve only for socks that don't match but that I have created for myself. They are beautiful and I will wear them with pride. Although maybe with pants so they don't show. Hee hee. (My workplace is an office and I feel these may be a bit too "unique" for the people that I work with.)

Stay tuned for a boring picture of the sweater I'm knitting for my niece's birthday in September.

Maybe if I just keep starting projects, I will have a reason to survive this phlegm and continue on with life.

Alive and Knitting

I am still alive and I'm here, still knitting. I have just been knocked flatter than a pancake by a nasty cold. I spent all day yesterday lying in bed knitting my little fingers to the bone. I thought I had better come back and give the photo I promised. Of the Fleece Artist yarn from the Yarnery (www.yarnery.com) It's so gorgeous and the picture doesn't even begin to do justice to the amazing colors of this fabulous yarn. I also bought a skein of lace yarn but I can't find the picture of that right now.

This yarn is so amazingly gorgeous I may just eat it instead of knit with it.

I almost started a pair of socks with the lovely purply plum one but I almost don't feel worthy of knitting with it.

I will eventually, never fear but I almost just want to hoard this and made it my little pet yarn. (hee hee I just typed yarn as yearn. Was that a Freudian slip or what). I'll keep you posted on the progress of these skeins as I decide what pattern to use for them. Meanwhile, wait on the edge of your seat for tomorrow when I show you the Harlotty trekking socks that I finished yesterday. (I call them this because I knit them at the Yarn Harlot event)

Firk, ding blast

Well, we went down to the twin cities in the nasty snowstorm in order to go to a funeral of a friend's father. The funeral was yesterday and my wonderfully talented hubby (I'm not biased or anything, I swear) sang. It was very sad and everyone, including him, cried when he sang Wonderful World. (Like the one by Louis Armstrong). I brought my Harlotty goodness socks along to knit in the car and they are coming along nicely (photos will come soon, I promise) but here's why the title of this post is Firk, Ding Blast! I think I may have lost my Baudelaire sock. The one that's finished. I had it in my overnight bag in a ziploc with the partially completed one and now the done one is missing. I'm hoping that I just left it here in the house somewhere but I'm very upset. It had better not be gone entirely!

In order to distract you from the very irritating fact that I lost my sock, I shall instead regale you with a picture of a quilted table topper that I made for my mother.

Her favorite color is fuscia and her kitchen is sage green. The colors aren't quite right in the picture but it's kinda neat and she loves it. It sits on her island in the middle of her kitchen.

Anyway, I'd better go. I'm off to a friend's house for some weeknight gaming.

It's FREAKING April Mother Nature

Apparently, it's April Fool's on all of us here in Minnesota as this is the current view out of my dining room window.

It's snowing like freaking no tomorrow and we are actually in a snow advisory!

It's craziness huh? Apparently I made some kind of mistake with the photo of the yarn because I never got it and so now I have to wait for the light to be better so I can post it.

I guess I'll just keep you on pins and needles til then.

Monday Woes

Okay, so I lied. I still haven't shown you the gorgeous colors of my new yarn. I took the pictures but they haven't come through my email yet. Stupid camera phone and it's junkiness. A digital camera is next on my list of absolute necessities.
I had a very busy weekend and I'm exhausted so I won't say much.
I finished the sock I was working on at the Yarn Harlot event and it's really exciting to think that I will always think of that when I wear the socks.
I gave my niece who is ten and my mom both knitting lessons this weekend so I'm surprised I was able to get any of my own knitting done.
This week will hopefully be a bit quieter. I could use a bit of rest. In the meantime, keep knitting!

Chock full of harlotty goodness

Well, I made it down to St. Paul for the Yarn Harlot's talk and book signing. http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ It was absolutely amazing. Living like I do out here in the boonies of Minnesota, I feel like I am all alone but being in a room with 400 knitters made me feel like I was really a part of a community. It was so awesome. I had the most fun knitting ever. I got done with work at 2:00 and raced in the wintry, windy weather down to pick up my mother. I should note at this point that I thought I was dragging a crocheter into a large group of knitters (possibly to be mauled) simply because I wanted to have a navigatory in urban traffic. We streaked down to the spot and found a parking space. We walked the two blocks over to the yarn store that was sponsoring the event (The Yarnery, very cool store. If you're ever in St. Paul, definately stop in.) and I talked myself out of spending an obscene amount of money on yarns that I can't find in my very teeny local yarn store. We walked out of the yarn store in plenty of time so that we could walk back over to the auditorium where we would be seeing the Harlot. It was extremely cold and we stopped off at Starbucks for a cup of coffee on the way. We arrived at about 6:00 and the talk was scheduled for 7:00. Thank goodness that we were there early because we hadn't realized that we were supposed to have R.S.V.P.'d we got on standby. I got number 7 and my mom got number 8. We sat quietly in the hallway and waited to see if we could get in. I thought that even if we couldn't, we would at least still get to hear her from out in the hall and I could still get my book signed. I was feeling like, I hope I haven't driven all this way for nothing, but then we heard about two lovely ladies who had driven in from Boston. That's right, freaking BOSTON for the event. I didn't feel bad about maybe not getting in then.

We did get in and sat in the back. It was so much fun. She's a funny and realistic person. My mom even had a blast laughing and joking with all of us. After her talk and the questions, we stood in line to have my book signed and waited super patiently for that. I started to get really excited when we could see her at the front of the line.

She had her amazing bohus sweater with her and we got to see it. When she talks about fine yarn on tiny needles, she's not freaking kidding. I think I would have gone blind trying to knit that. Holy Cow!

I got my book signed and my picture taken with Stephanie. She is a super cool person and she seems like the kind of person that we would totally be friends with. (She's down-to-earth and loves coffee and chocolate, what's not to love?!) It's a bit weird to finally meet her in person because it feels like you already know her if you read her blog.

Tomorrow, I'll show you the yarn I got from the Yarnery. In the meantime. Here is the picture of me and the Yarn Harlot.

It was a total blast and made me feel like a part of something bigger. What an amazing feeling.

Time keeps on stitching, stitching, into the future

Well, it's already Tuesday and we're into April. Although, if you lived here in Minnesota, you would swear that it was January and not April. We got snow and sleet and nasty biting cold winds today. I swear someone tricked Mother Nature into believing that it is still winter. I am very excited because tomorrow I am leaving work early in order to drive down to St. Paul to see the Yarn Harlot (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/) I have been reading her blog and books for awhile so I am super duper excited about this. I have even talked my mom into going with me even though she's not a knitter (only a crocheter).

I have been working on many projects including several pairs of socks like the Baudelaire Sock from Knitty.com. I love it. I am doing it in a stretchy pinky purple sort of yarn that I love and one sock is finished. I love it and can't wait to finish the other. As you can see though, I haven't gotten very far on the second one yet. I must be having "start-itis" right now because I just keep starting new things instead of finishing what I have started. It's just too much fun when you get new ideas.

Oh well, such is life. Until later.