Oh, the humanity, I mean, the boxes

I know I've been absent. I keep saying that I will post more often and it ends up being less. The honest truth is that I haven't had much time to knit lately. I am having a little party on Sunday and I desperately need to get our tiny apartment box-free before then. I'm also working on getting a home-based business going so my time has been pretty full lately. As a matter of fact, I have a conference call today.

The main thing I have been knitting in the few spare moments that I can find, is my Mystery Stole 3. I somehow got myself signed up for Mystery Stole 4. I don't know how that happened really. Okay, I do. I did it. But now I feel guilty that I haven't finished 3 yet. As it happens I opened up a box the other day that it was in. Right there with the pattern and everything. I decided it was a sign that it needed to get finished so my little fingers are flying through it. The pattern is absolutely beautiful and I am actually working on the wing now so I think I'm getting close to done. At this point the rows are getting longer though. I haven't been entirely sure that I want a wing. I don't know if I want it to be asymmetrical or not but to be honest, I couldn't face knitting any more cat's paw lace. It's beautiful but I love that the pattern changes and that's what I crave.


I did manage to pick up the second trekking sock the other day but I only managed to knit two needles full of stitches before I had to go make dinner so that's pretty slow going too. Hopefully after this party I can find some more time to buckle down and get going on the Christmas gifts I have planned. Otherwise I have no hope of getting gifts done in time.


Plus, I have a wicked case of selfish startitis where all I want to do is start new projects for myself.

I did finish one thing. My Ogee Lace Skirt. Wanna see it? Okay.

hmm, see the problem here? I do. What happened was that I basically finished the whole thing one day, including the i-cord. Then, before I cast off, I tried it on. Oh My Word! It looked Horrible! I am not particularly small-tushied. It looked awful. I ripped the whole thing before I could think about it too much. I love the yarn and will definitely use it for something else. I just think this yarn with this project, not feeling the love.

On the plus side, I downloaded pretty much all of the Lime & Violet podcasts and now have been getting caught up on them while making dinner, doing dishes and or unpacking boxes. At least they make the time go by fast.

Well, I'm off to make dinner again. Maybe by next week, I'll find some more time to blog and knit. Later.

I promise I haven't disappeared.

Sorry for the radio silence folks. I've been trying to focus on "real" life. I know, I know, why focus on real life, that has nothing to do with knitting and other crafts.
This included a trip north to visit my cousin and her absolutely adorable kids (whose pictures I don't have permission to post, unfortunately) and attend a bridal shower for another cousin who is getting married.
It was a fun week and I got a bunch done around the house but it still isn't as organized as I'd like so I still have a lot to do. I'm off to work on it, just thought I'd mention to you what's going on.
Later.

Avoiding Reality.

So, my apartment is still chock full of boxes. Boxes everywhere. They are mostly full of books or yarn. They are everywhere. So, of course, instead of unpacking them, I'm knitting frantically on my Ogee Lace Skirt. I think I'm just funky enough to pull it off and I have a bridal shower this weekend that I may be able to wear it to. Unfortunately, its not done yet. I have also managed to find my Mystery Stole 3 and since I have somehow signed up for Mystery Stole 4, it is a priority to me to get it done. I have a hard time just sitting and focusing on it. What I really need is a day-long marathon of some show that I'd like to watch so that I can just sit down and just plow through it.

Since I've done nothing but unpack lately and I have no finished projects to show you. Instead, I present, with no ado whatsoever,

The Yarnington's Adventures in the City.

The caption reads: Hmm,... I wonder how long it will take me to find that handpainted skein of red merino.

I'm sorry for the poor quality. We don't have a scanner so I had to make do with a picture of the comic. I actually had this idea and drew it up. Then I had a bunch more ideas so I'm working on them. You might be forced to see more of these guys. (I should note that the name: The Yarningtons is something that my husband came up with. I asked him to help me with a name and he immediately said that. I thought it was so cute that it stuck. My mom says that's scary because he's crossed over to my side.)

Well, I'm headed back to the sofa to knit on my Ogee. Later.

So, I'm kinda shy. Haven't I mentioned that?

I don't think I have mentioned before my social ineptitude. I try, I really do but in groups of people I don't know I freeze up and I completely freak out beforehand. This makes it extremely difficult for me to make new friends as an adult. I never used to have this problem, I don't know how it snuck up on me but I do struggle with social freakout.

But, we are going to completely ignore the fact that a large part of the reason why I was up all night was because I was anxious about the upcoming knitting meetup. Yup, we're gonna ignore that completely and talk about what I got after staying up all night. Let's start with this:

This is a view of the sunrise from our living room window. Technically our window faces south but it was pretty anyway. I got hubby up and fed and off to work on time. Then I made myself a really great breakfast.

This is coffee (of course) and some whole wheat toast with some leftover garlic butter potatoes fried up nice and crispy and an omelette with tomato, avocado, sprouts and cheese inside. Yum!

Then I went to sleep. I slept most of the day but got up in enough time to get ready and get nervous about the knitting meetup. I went anyway and had some fun. Then I came home and spent a little quiet time with hubby. We watched a little TV and I made myself go to sleep.

Then we got up yesterday and I started the lengthy process of organizing my crafting area. It was actually a good thing that I didn't blog yesterday because it was not a good day. Not at all. I had an extremely frustrating day. It should have been fun, putting together my craft area but things kept falling, usually on me and I kept having to pick up the same thing again and again. It wasn't good. At all. We were busy last night anyway. We made a friend during the play whose husband we also get along with so we now have a couple with which to do things. Last night we went out to their house for dinner and games. We also played with their kids for awhile. It was really fun and great to see them.

Today was a day filled with nothing fun. Cleaning house and doing the laundry so instead I will mention these.

This is my cutie patootie hubby in his new socks. I mentioned previously that the yarn wasn't very soft and wasn't a lot of fun to knit with.

I take it all back.

I washed these today and Oh My Goodness. They are soft and subtle and smooth and beautiful now and now, I want some socks of my own with this yarn. That will probably have to wait until after Christmas though.

Owly

I have always been something of a night owl. As a matter of fact, my mother loves to tell a story in which my brother is a wee babe and I a troublesome toddler and we kept her awake at nearly all hours as I would be up late and he up very early.
I must say though, this is getting ridiculous! It is nearly 3:30 am in my little swath of central time zone and yet, here I sit at the computer. It's not even as if I am staying up for some good reason like finishing something or having fun visiting. No, I just can't sleep.
Let me explain; no, there is too much, let me sum up. (Okay, now I'm not just owly, I'm squirrely) Many, many people (me included) in my family have strange if not outright annoying sleep habits. Some (such as my mother) arise at the butt-crack-of-dawn every single solitary day and by that I mean that if I text message her right now at 3:30 am, there's a probably 25% chance that she's awake. Some (like my aunt) can't get to sleep. Some have strange dreams, some have other weird quirks.
Then there's me. (You know this is gonna be good when I start a new paragraph, bear with me.) My sleep patterns run the gamut. It seems to run in some sort of unascertainable cycle. What happens is that I have all of those things at one time or another, although the early-riser curse is pretty rare in my day-sleeper body. For awhile (this can range anywhere from a couple of nights to more than a month for any of the following cycles) I will have strange dreams constantly every night and wake up feeling like I had run a marathon instead of actually sleeping, then it will switch, it might be to waking up many times during the night or not being able to fall asleep or sleeping late even though I managed to get to bed at a semi-decent time. These little cycles seem to have no rhyme or reason. They don't follow any pattern whatsoever that I can figure out and most of the time I can live with them (usually with the help of some caffeine.) I have worked my share of get up early and be at the office jobs (okay, I'm only 28 but I have done it for a couple of years so I feel like that's a share) and retail which is evenings and weekends mostly. For about the last year though I have been gainfully unemployed. It's really a personal choice between myself and my husband but the point is that I have been a little better able to deal with the weird sleep patterns because I can rest during the day (in between other things) when I need to. Right now we are still (sort of) in the process of moving and so my days are filled with my normal household chores and errands (laundry, dishes, cooking, grocery shopping, etc.) and then a lot of unpacking and organizing as well. Plus we are in a new place so it takes a little while to get used to the noises and the atmosphere of the place.
For the most part the extra work has made me tired enough to sleep but tonight apparently not so much. I sit here at the computer doing nothing whatsoever useful (I'm reading old blog posts for heaven's sake. Like they won't be there tomorrow.) and counting down the hours until hubby's alarm goes off so I can make breakfast for him before he goes to work. I even made coffee at 1:30 in the morning!
*sigh* I need a vacation. Or a nap, a nap would prolly work too.

Hmm, do you think it would be a bad idea to wake hubby at the "old" time to see if he's glad he doesn't have to get up yet? (we moved closer to where he works so he doesn't have to drive an hour and twenty minutes greatly reducing his need to arise early, lousy sleeper.)

Finished Socks

Not a stitch was knit yesterday and very little else was done. I unpacked some more boxes and I made a nice dinner and that was about it. Hubby works the evening shift on Mondays and Tuesdays and I swear, it throws my whole schedule off for the whole day.


Today I managed to get up by 10:00am (I told you my schedule was off) and by the time I got hubby out the door for work and finished my to-do list for the day (and that's creating the list, not actually doing it.) I was hopped up on coffee and it was 1:00 in the afternoon.


I did finally take some finished project pictures so let's take a look at those:


These are the finished Feather & Fan Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks. They are knit up in Trekking XXL Sock yarn. I love Trekking yarn but this pattern of yarn was very different than those I've used before. If I had been doing a plain stockinette sock, I don't think I would have liked them at all. The pattern is beautiful and with a 2-row pattern repeat, easy to learn so you don't have to constantly look at the chart. I find that the socks themselves ended up a little tight so that they kinda stretch to get over my heel. Once on though, they look wonderful and wear beautifully and comfortably. I will definitely knit this pattern again. (The tightness of them may be due to the fact that I knit quite tightly.)


What else? Oh yeah, my Vanilla Swirl Socks:

These are knit with some Sockotta Sock yarn that I've had lying around for a couple of years. They're knit up in a basic Stockinette Sock but I added a band of ribbing around the foot to prevent them from bunching and falling down. They look ridiculous just sitting there but they fit very well. I honestly haven't had a lot of problem with hand-knit socks falling down or bunching but they are a preventative measure. The colors look kinda goofy together but I still love the socks.

Tomorrow, the photo shoot of hubby's new socks.

How sad am I?

So, I haven't posted since last Thursday and I have absolutely nothing new to report.
It's still grey and drizzly so I won't be doing sock yarn pictures today so there isn't anything there.
Hmm, reading maybe? What am I reading. Oh yeah, I'm reading a book called Sea Dragon Heir by Storm Constantine. We somehow acquired the trilogy through the Science Fiction Book Club and some parts of the story are great. Some are creepy and I don't like (let's just say descriptive incest) but the history landscape descriptions are seriously infecting me with the bug to get to writing and to running an adventure for our gaming group. Maybe that will be the next big "project."
I'm gonna go make dinner now. Sorry my life is so boring.