Spinning?

I'm starting to think that spinning is the natural "spin-off" of knitting. You use yarn, why not just make it too.

Well, I've been interested in spinning since I first heard about it which was long before I even had a blog or read other people's blogs but I didn't know any spinners. Then, I got into the blog community and Ravelry came along and pretty soon I was making friends in my new city. Friends who knit and even some who spun.

Long had I heard of the experienced spinners who gifted new spinners with fibers to try and maybe even supplies. Yesterday, I experienced it for myself. I went over to Kasha's and she gave me a drop spindle, one she didn't use anymore and some fiber along with a wonderful book about spinning and a lesson.

I may be addicted. Last night, I got home and spun some more while watching TV. I didn't even finish the roving I had in this color but I wanted to try plying so I made a little skein of yarn.

I told you it was little. It's not without it's issues. Some because I think I overspun it in some places and some because getting the hang of Navajo-plying isn't easy but I'm pretty sure that I'm completely and totally addicted.

Is it wrong to wish for a spinning wheel after only one day?

Can't talk more, spinning.

Nupps are a nightmare

I'm still knitting away on my Aeolian Shawl. I still love it so much.
Except.
(cue scary music) Nupps!
I've only knit one row of them but another is looming in the not-so-distant future.

I don't know what it is, but I'm just not thrilled with how they look. Too much like bobbles which also aren't my favorite thing. I'm knitting them in for the experience and maybe once I block the shawl, I'll absolutely love them.

The one thing I've learned so far? When they say loose, they mean LOOSE!!!!!

Well, I'm going to head back to my shawl. Maybe someday I'll have a finished picture or something. Don't hold your breath though okay?

Butterflies

I've been mainly working on Aeolian lately but I don't feel like I'm anywhere that warrants another picture so I needed to find something to distract you from the lack of knitting content.
Enter a forgotten project.
Since we moved to our apartment in July, I've tidied up the crafting corner but I haven't really gotten over there to do a whole lot of work. (The box of mending sitting under the desk that hasn't been touched is testament to that.) I grab my yarn and needles and wander away and they end up all over the place, pretty much.
Well, last Friday hubby was home for the day and was bogarting the computer so I decided to start a bit of a list of things waiting to get done over there and at least get one or two done. One thing that was waiting? To mat and frame a finished cross stitch project.

Now, you may have heard me talk about cross stitch before. It's definitely not my favorite past time and I have to be in just the right mood as well as have just the right amount of patience. Well, long about May or something like that, I had finished this cross stitch that had been lounging around for (I kid you not!) 10 years or so. I honestly don't know what took me so long. It's even brightly colored which really helps me to not get bored. Well, immediately after, I washed it and mounted it on a sticky board, just like you're supposed to. Then I went out and bought a large mat board (they only had one size. HUGE) and a frame. Then it sat there, just waiting, collecting dust. Well, on Friday, I finally dug it out and got a mat cut. It's been a very, very long time since I've cut a mat and it doesn't look perfect. Neither is the cross stitch itself mounted perfectly straight like it should be, but it's on there, and framed and I'll live with it.

I even hung it on the wall already. No use beating about the bush. So, for you viewing pleasure, I give you: Butterflies:

It's not a perfect picture. I didn't use flash and it still glared a little bit. But, I'll show you my favorite butterfly in it.


The Monarch there on the left. It was not fun at all to stitch but it looks absolutely beautiful now. I'm pretty happy with it and I think at least that it brightens up the dining room in this nasty grey March, so there you have it. One item checked off the To Do list.

Sleep is for Weenies

So, after the last two nights, I'm starting to think that maybe I should just give up and not sleep at all.

Sunday night, I couldn't sleep so I stayed up until 4:30 am. I finished a book, which was good but I still couldn't sleep when I got to bed. So frustrating. I ended up sleeping about 5 hours.

Then, last night I had to teach a Crochet class. I decided not to take a nap, even though I knew I might feel tired later because I wanted to be able to sleep last night.

Um, yeah, that didn't work either. I went to bed at midnight (even though I really was tired enough earlier) and woke up at 5:30 from a nightmare. Often when I have nightmares, which are sometimes extremely vivid, I need to take a few minutes and reorient myself and realize that I am awake or I end up going back to sleep and either re-entering the nightmare or having a completely different nightmare because I'm still freaked out. I got up and spent just a few minutes on the computer and tried to go back to bed. No luck, my brain kept chattering at me, like 6:00 is the time to get up and do productive things. Plus, the birds chattering outside did not help. I ended up just getting up again.

Tonight is Crochet Night so I'll be out at Crafts Direct doing my Hook Thing but I don't have any plans for tomorrow so I will be sleeping in! That's final Brain, do you hear me!

Okay, I'm going to go spend a few minutes knitting something simple. My addled brain can't take much else.

Fever Knitting

Normally I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to my knitting but lately it has been all Aeolian, all the time.

The biggest trouble is that my wrist still hurts off and on so I am only knitting for a little while here and there. This is good for the wrist, not so good for the blog fodder.
I also seem to be running a slight fever which makes me feel just...off. I know I am not quite right but it isn't enough to make me feel like I really, really have to be resting.

Today, I am going to fight the urge to just soldier on and rest so that I don't get worse though. That means I may not knit on Aeolian since that requires attention.

Maybe by tomorrow, I will have something much more interesting to say. Don't hold your breath okay.

Still stuck on Aeolian

Sorry that I haven't been around much lately. The stupid wrist still hurts off and on and I'm battling a bit of a cold now too. I've been running a slight fever so I frequently find myself sitting and staring at my hands instead of knitting.
I've been wanting to finish the Yucca chart on the Aeolian shawl for several days now and I'm slowly getting there.

I had to go on a hunt to find more beads on Sunday. It did not go well but I managed to find something that was close enough. You really can't tell the difference but the new ones are just a teeny tiny bit darker.

What was that? You wanted a close up? Okay.

As usual, lace looks like yuck until blocked but it is coming along and when I stretch it out it looks pretty good. Well, I'm going to go lie down and knit now. I think my fever is up again.

Aeolian calls out to me.

So, yesterday morning I got up and had in my mind a post all written about what I was crocheting. Then, something happened. I got distracted by this. I love almost all the patterns so I decided to just queue things on Ravelry and then print later when I cast something on.
About fifteen minutes later, I had broken my own rule. What happened? I scrolled down in this pattern: Aeolian. I saw the larger version in the cream and I saw the purple. I absolutely fell in love. Fourteen printed pages later, I was stash diving and I had cast on.
Whoops.

Well, it turns out that I'm not the only one. A friend on Plurk (hi KarenB!) was also going to knit it so we talked about doing a plurk knitalong. Then, a few minutes later, I had created a group on Ravelry. We have 37 members already. Here's my version:

I have a 32" Addi Turbo in Size 1 (I'm okay with the fact that it is slightly smaller than called for. 90" is pretty large so if mine ends up slightly smaller, so be it.) I'm using Knit Picks Shadow in Lost Lake. I am doing the beads too. I have a whole bunch of the green and then when I run out I have some that are blue and green mixed together and since the yarn is kind of blue and green heather, I think that might be interesting.

Well, I hate to disappoint the crocheters so I will move along to the Crochet project.
Awhile back, I found a skein of Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread. What's so interesting about that? It was bamboo. I was surprised and I picked it up and put it in the cart (this was at Wal-Mart of all places.) It has a lovely sheen to it and it is silky and soft so I bought it. It was about the same price as the cotton crochet thread also.

The ball has a scant 300 yards (as opposed to 350 on most cotton crochet thread) so I searched through my crochet books to find a pattern that I liked but that called for less than 300 yards. I found a beautiful pattern in Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies its called Peacock Pride. I started up right away. I'm still taking lots of rest for my wrist so I've been only working on this slowly but I have to say:

I'm LOVING it.

The thoughts I had about it were that the shiny factor would make it slippery and difficult to work with and that I would have issues with splitting since I could easily see the plys in the thread. I found neither of these to be the case. I haven't had any issues with it splitting and the shiny and smooth factor makes it a dream to work with. While I was purchasing it, I saw only the one color but I see that it comes in many colors on the website I linked to. I would love to see it in many other, brighter colors since I have heard bamboo takes dye very well. I will definitely be using this again.

Sorry for the awful pictures. It's hard to get a decent picture of this project. I'll keep trying.

But for now, I'm going to go knit Aeolian.

Resurfacing and a movie review.

I didn't mean to disappear off the face of the earth, honest. I just got sort of distracted there for a few days.

Last weekend, hubby went down to see some friends and I opted out and stayed home so I thought I would work on some knitting and have a little fun. I did. The issue, however, was that I knit with cotton for about 2 hours. Yeah. Ow! I hurt my right wrist with a little overuse so I couldn't knit at all for several days. This left me feeling listless and odd. I did get some housecleaning done though. At least I was productive. Then, just as the wrist was slowly starting to not feel like I wanted to rip my own right arm off, I had to make a little trip down to the parents'. We were supposed to go see my grandma and also go down to the Metrodome to see a baseball game. The baseball game included our favorite former babysat player who is now in college. The game changed and the circumstances changed so we didn't get to the game. Then, we were having so much fun playing Canasta and snuggling little fuzzy kitties who have to get fixed next week, that we sort of forgot to go see Grandma. Whooops.

I got home on Saturday, with no knitting whatsoever done, although I did get some cross stitching done on the cross stitch I started to commemorate our wedding. Please ignore the fact that our 4th anniversary is coming up in a couple of months ok.

I was home just in time to change out the dirty clothes for clean ones in my overnight bag and get into the car to head down to see our friends for gaming and an overnight stay. We usually come home on Saturday nights but we were asked if we would stay so we could all go and see a movie on Sunday. Watchmen. I will talk about that travesty later.

I wasn't in that particular game so we played Cribbage instead. It was fun, I haven't played in a REALLY long time so I couldn't remember how and we lost all 3 games. It was still fun. Then we bowled on the Wii.

Sunday morning dawned an hour later thanks to the icky Daylight Savings Time. (Man, do I hate that) and I got ready in time to gather up the friends and get to see the movie at the noon showing. We all wondered where the bad weather was we were supposed to have gotten. It was nowhere to be found. So we went and sat in a dark theater for about 3 hours while we watched the single worst movie I have ever seen.

Let's talk about that, shall we? Okay, I knew the story line would be dark, I was prepared for that. I was also prepared that it would not be a typical superhero movie. Since I am married to a comic-geeky sort of guy, I have seen more than my share of superhero movies, I wasn't expecting the typical. Let me just say, despite my low expectations, I was appalled. I did not want to really see it in the first place and when I noticed the R rating while we were buying my tickets, I should have caught on and picked something else to watch alone while the friends watched this. There was some wonderful cinematography in the movie but most of the time, I was completely lost. The timeline jumped forward and backward so often I got whiplash and mostly had no idea whatsoever what was going on. When I wasn't confused about what time it was, I was appalled at the nudity, graphic sex and overkill violence. I expected the swearing but even that was overdone in my opinion. I was shocked when I saw a family with children under the age of 10 at this movie. I was embarrased to be sitting there watching it and I can't imagine children seeing it. Overall, I wish I could un-see this movie. For me, there was nothing redeeming about it. Hubby enjoyed the special effects which, while I did think they were well-done, did not make it any better or enjoyable in any way for me.

I'm sorry to people to enjoyed it if you are offended but I felt I had to say my piece and this is my place to say it so thank you for your patience.

Today we are getting a snow storm so I will be doing laundry and staying in. (No crochet night tonight due to the weather, but you might be able to see some crochet here tomorrow.)

Would You Like some Coffee with those eggs?

Those who know me know that I drink coffee pretty much every morning. They also know that I am NOT a morning person.

Well, this morning, I got up and staggered bleary-eyed to the kitchen to start the coffee. Now, I should mention that, since my kitchen is really tiny, I use a little canister to keep the coffee grounds in, then when it gets low or empty, I refill it from the canister in the pantry. That way, it is easily accessible every day and I also don't have to try to find a place to make the larger canister easily accessible.

Today, I took the last scoop of coffee from the little canister to make this morning's pot. That means I have to refill it. (I will spare you the drama of the fact that what was left in the larger canister was not even a full small canister and move on. That means I'm almost OUT of coffee though. That could be a very dire situation.)

For scale (and also for the people who could care less about this story and would like a little fiber content) the canister is pictured here with the Nanners sock that I am working on.

Yes, I am past the heel turn and I am doing the gussets. Thank you for asking.

So, I start the coffee maker and wander to the rest room to brush teeth and wash face. If I don't brush teeth before coffee, it tastes funny. Then I head back to the kitchen and decide to fill the canister while waiting for the coffee to brew.

What I probably haven't mentioned is that I am not the greatest housekeeper. (Takes away from knitting time) I believe in washing dishes only every other day or so and my kitchen is very, very small. (We have talked about that before.) This means that there is a crock pot sitting on my stove waiting to get put away from the other day when I made the soup and that I still had the frying pan sitting on the stove from yesterday's breakfast. The frying pan is not altogether unusual, I often use them several times before I wash them. They are pretty clean and they get heated up so there shouldn't be a danger of food contamination (depending on what you cook in them of course.)

I refill the canister. (Only halfway, but I'm not bitter) and manage to only spill a tiny bit of coffee grounds on the floor. Like 1/8 teaspoon so I am pretty proud of myself. I put the canister away. I get my coffee and go sit down. Once I have drunk about half of the cup of coffee, I am awake enough to begin contemplating breakfast.

Well, I'm trying very hard to be a better person, a person who actually eats breakfast and doesn't just drink coffee until lunch time so yesterday morning I took a small handful of hash browns and made them in one side of the pan while I made a couple of eggs in the other side. It worked really well and was a really filling breakfast. It worked so well and was so good I decided to do the same thing today. Lucky for me, the frying pan was still sitting there.

I sprayed a little no-stick cooking spray in it and put a tiny bit of butter on one side so the hashbrowns would brown nicely and put them in. Then I got out the eggs and waited until I flipped the hash browns (I like them nice and crispy) to add the eggs to the other side of the pan. Pretty soon, it was time to flip the eggs over so I went to do that. Only, there on the back side of the eggs were a few little brown flecks. For a moment I thought, why is this pan cooking things strangely, then I realized, it was coffee grounds.

I'm pretty frugal and I was getting hungry so I didn't want to waste the eggs. There were also quite a few speckles of coffee grounds on it, enough that I didn't want to pick them off. I decided to eat them anyway.

Let's just say I don't think anyone will be inventing coffee-eggs any time soon. It didn't taste quite right.

Maybe tomorrow's breakfast will go better.

Spring walks in growing gardens.

So, last night I pushed a little and managed to finish the first Kew sock.

It looks pretty good huh? Please excuse the poor pictures, its snowing here today and its kinda hard to get decent light with the white stuff falling from a grey sky.

Remember how I talked about the striping and how I wasn't sure about it? Yeah, the bottom of the foot striped exactly like I thought it would.

Want to know what I did to get that? Instead of 16 stitches per needle like the top (I knit on 5 dpns) I went to 14 per needle for the bottom of the foot. Overall though, I think the whole sock looks pretty nice and I am very happy with it. It reminds me of spring and that is exactly the push I need this time of year to buck up and get through this last stretch of winter.
(Yeah, today it is snowing and we are supposed to get 6". Winter is definitely not over yet, at least not here.)

I'm looking forward to making the second one and having that elusive "pair" but I am so busy enjoying the yellow of my Nanners socks that I think I will set this one away for a couple of days and knit the sunshiney yarn.

It feels pretty good to actually have one finished though. Lately I have been knitting on so many different projects, some of them larger ones that I just work on here and there, that I haven't been able to finish anything and I needed a little finishing mojo. I'm feeling better now. I will run off and continue to knit on 25 different projects one row at a time now.

Story Time

Once upon a time there was a sort of obsessed Crafter who came home from Crochet Night exhausted. She stepped into her tiny urban apartment and gratefully smelled the soup that had been simmering away in the crock pot for hours and hours. Since it was 9 pm, she was so glad she had thought ahead and put this soup in the crock pot because she was hungry and had no desire whatsoever to cook. She stepped into her tiny urban apartment's tiny kitchen and ladled some delicious-smelling soup into a bowl, took a piece of cheese and a slice of ciabatta bread and picked up the bowl with the idea that she would sit down and eat. She then spilled extremely hot soup broth all over her hand. At first the Crafter used some unladylike language that will not be repeated here and then she ran cold water over her hand. She managed to get out the ice pack and move to the table to eat but the hand still hurt so she may have been slightly distracted when she finally finished eating her now-cold soup and returned to the kitchen to make some tea for her sore throat. She put the kettle on the burner and turned to find her favorite tea cup. (Please note that the cup this Crafter uses for tea is not the same one she uses for Coffee, although she has no real reason for doing it this way.) At first the Crafter looked in the cupboard but the cup wasn't there, so she looked in the dish rack with the clean dishes, in doing so, she sort of jostled the pile of clean dishes and a frying pan fell down. Not wanting it to fall onto the favorite tea cup (and break it) which she realized had been drying in the sink because the dish rack was full, she grabbed the frying pan. With the sore hand. As she yelped out in pain, the cupboard door, which must not have been shut all the way swung slowly open and as she leaned forward to put the frying pan back on the dish rack (not wanting to deal with clean dishes after the day she was having) she banged her forehead on the corner of the cabinet door. That was when the Crafter picked up her tea cup and filled it with hot water and a tea bag and went to bed. She just plain old gave up on the day. Good thing too.

(Don't worry, the Crafter didn't burn her hand so badly as to impede knitting today.)

I had hoped to have a finished sock to share today but I don't. Instead I will share a picture of what it looks like when you accidentally stand on your ball of yarn while getting up to get another cup of coffee because you are tired because you inexplicably got up when your husband left for work.

*sigh* I might just go back to bed.

Why aren't you Knitting Nanners or Hey, you're up, why aren't you dyeing some yarn?

The original post was written on January 31. I edited and added pictures after I was finished with the yarn on Feb. 24)
This post could also be called: "When you start drinking coffee at 5:00 am, you will need a second pot by nine." But I digress.

For reason I cannot comprehend (but that make me REALLY angry) I woke up at 4:00 am this morning. I thought I would get up for a bit and go back to sleep. At five I gave up and made a pot of coffee. This meant that I could make breakfast for hubby before I sent him off to work his little half-day. Which I did. I had planned to get up at 9 am, so I had a little list of things I wanted to do before we went to visit friends this afternoon, like planning what knitting projects to bring along, etc. Since I was up so early, I played on the computer for a bit. I balanced the checkbook, I basically did everything on my list before 9 am.

As a result, not wanting to get too tired out before leaving town, I decided to find something to do. Well, here this yarn was staring at me from my dining room table where I had wound it up into a nice hank. Hmm, I thought to myself (yes, I frequently have conversations with myself when I am home alone, why do you ask?) wasn't I going to do something with this? Oh yes, I remember. I was going to dye it up yellow with some Easter Egg dye I bought last year and use it to knit up some Nanner socks. (Since I now plurk I have been granted access to the fabled Nanner sock pattern) Tomorrow begins the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2009 and even though my plan is to knit 8 pairs of socks in the next 6 months and I have plans for at least that many pairs, I had this white yarn lying around that I bought expressly so I could try dyeing using Easter Egg Dye. I even prepared last year by buying 8 boxes of dye on clearance.

Technically, I have already tried the technique I planned to use and liked it but we'll talk about that another day. So, what did I do? First I put the two hanks of yarn into a bowl with some cold water and regular old White Distilled Vinegar. I let them soak for a good hour. Since I'm impatient and unlikely to wait, I set a timer and made myself walk away.

Next I prepared the dye in a large glass measuring cup. I just put in a splash of vinegar again and 4 yellow dye pellets. (I had already dyed some yarn and so I knew that making about 4 cups of dye water would be enough for the 100g of yarn I'm dyeing.)
Please note that I am using 100% food-safe ingredients or I would be using a bowl, spoon and measuring cup that I would NEVER use for food again. This is very important.

I carefully drained the yarn and then carefully (so I didn't splash) I poured the dye water over it.

See how pretty and yellow it is?

I next put the bowl in the microwave and made sure it was in the center. (My microwave has a turntable and if you don't center the bowl just right, it makes an awful racket as it turns, thump, thump, thump, because it's off-balance.)

I didn't want the water to boil at all so I microwaved it for 5 minutes then checked it. Since I didn't care if it was somewhat mottled when it was finished (as a matter of fact, I kind of wanted that to happen) I didn't stir it AT ALL but I had a non-reactive (read: plastic) spoon nearby and ready just in case.

After the five minutes I open the door to the microwave and let it cool slightly (so it won't boil) but you want it to stay hot. Then I put it in for another two minutes. I continue this until the dye "exhausts" (Please note here that none of this is from any research I have done on my own or from my own knowledge. It's a kind of glommed together whack of knowledge I've gotten from reading blogs. But it's been a fun experiment.)

The water will basically look clear at this point?

Now carefully take the bowl out of the microwave. Being careful not to spill it and dump the yarn into the sink. The dye water will drain away. Leave the yarn to cool for at least 15 minutes. Again, I set a timer because I am VERY impatient.

Then rinse well in cold water.
(Please ignore the brown sink. It came with the apartment but if I could I would change it to Stainless Steel. I have always had a stainless steel sink and now miss it.)
Now, you will want to get as much moisture out as you can. It helps if you wrap it in a towel (preferrably one that's darker than the dyed yarn or one you don't care about, just in case the dye bleeds although the vinegar should prevent that) and squeeze it out. Some people like to step on it to squeeze out water.

Now hang it up to dry.

Mmmm, nanners.

Now, do you think I have time for one more cup of coffee before hubby gets home?

After the original post was written, I decided the yarn had too much of a color change. Very bright yellow and too much white. I wanted some mottling but it was too much. I therefore waited to post until I had finally redyed and was ready to start knitting. (I simply made a softer yellow dye and repeated the process to get rid of some of the garish white.) That would be yesterday. Looks much better doesn't it? And here we have the Nanners. Started up.

These would have been bigger except I made a couple mistakes and had to rip back. All the way to the cuff. I also sort of modified the pattern. (It's a sickness) I am doing them top-down instead of toe-up and I made a picot edge instead of normal ribbing. I think they are quite bright and still GORGEOUS. I love them.

Can't Talk Nanners are calling me.

I had this whole blog post planned today.
But now I can't talk, the Nanners are calling me.

I'll be knitting them tonight.

Monkey Love

Well, yesterday I sat down for about 45 minutes and managed to finish the first of the Monkey socks.

Whew, it feels good to be showing off something actually finished.

Yes, yes, I know it isn't a pair. I will get to it. I am loving them right now. They are very silky and soft but I will give a better review of the yarn when they are both finished.

Outside the snow is falling down and I am absolutely freezing so I think I might be retiring to the bedroom for some reading and knitting and tea-drinking. There may be some television too but I can't be sure.

I tried, I really did.

Yesterday after I blogged I had this plan that I was going to at least finish one of the socks in a pair so that I would have something I could post today.

I wasn't feeling well last night though. Kinda stuffy like I might be getting sick and I kept sneezing so I went to lie down. I took the knitting, I swear I did but I didn't get much done because I didn't seem to have enough energy to pick up the needles. Yeah, to pick them up. Maybe I am getting sick.

Then today I conned hubby into doing the dishes by offering to warm up some lunch for him. He is washing right now! (insert evil laugh here) Actually, he does try to help (sometimes) so it was nice of him to do that.

I am on the toe decreases for the first Monkey sock so I *should* have that to show off tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Slacking

I feel like I'm totally slacking in the blog content lately. (Probably because I have been.)

I have actually been knitting, I promise. Check it out!

This is just some hideously colored acrylic I had lying around that is a plain old garter stitch square. It will eventually go to the animal shelter as a donation. At least its cheerful.

Then there's this:

This is some gorgeous Lamb's Pride Worsted weight that was on sale recently and I got it to knit a one-row handspun scarf. I've knit the pattern before and I like it and it's easy. I thought it might be for me but I may change my mind later.

I've been knitting along on my socks too but as I have so many on the go right now, I haven't really gotten to a noticeable place on any of them and I thought you might all track me down and beat me with my own camera cord if day after day I post pictures of socks that look EXACTLY the same as the day before.

It probably doesn't help that I have been working on getting into art journalling too. I so miss having art be a part of my life and I think that would be a wonderful creative/emotional outlet for me. I feel so unworthy of all the beautiful art journal pages I see online though. Someday, I may share something truly personal but for now, the best I can do is this:

Last month while we were at my parents I was flipping through one of their Bird & Blooms magazines and found this beautiful close-up of a rose and it just spoke to me so I sat down with my pencils (that I currently make myself take EVERYWHERE so when inspiration strikes I can feed it.) and I totally zoned out for about and hour and drew this sketch. I love that total zone-out while drawing or thinking or whatever.

Well, I'm gonna go knit some more. Maybe I'll have something interesting to show tomorrow.

Birthday Celebration with Grandpa

Things have been crazy busy around here lately.

I helped my parents with the fish fry at their church then came home to a message that our apartment would be having the City Inspector coming in to check it out and while it probably was just to make sure we weren't living in squalor/meth heads or somesuch, I got totally freaked about it and yesterday we cleaned pretty much ALL day! Um, yeah, at least it's clean.

I have been doing a little knitting but it has mostly been here and there, nothing huge to show for it yet. I'm mostly knitting socks but the weather has been pretty decent here and ya know, it was Valentine's day this past weekend.

Valentine's Day is my grandpa's birthday so we went down to see him on Sunday and went to church with him and then had lunch with him. Including a DQ Ice Cream Cake. YUM! It was nice.

Here is Grandpa Valentine (a.k.a. Val) with his little dog Cricket.

With him being 84 now, and with some pretty big health issues, you never know if that will be the last pic I get to take of him.

Love to grandpas and grandmas everywhere.
I'm gonna go crochet because it's Tuesday.

Wishing For Spring

Long about this time of year, I start to get really sick of winter. As in, I start thinking of moving somewhere like Hawaii where it doesn't get cold in the winter.

I don't mind it at first. I love the first snowfall and I love to have snow at Christmas but right now is just a waiting game. Waiting for the earth to start waking up again and turning green.

Right now we are having some lovely grey weather too. That certainly doesn't help and we still have the whole month of March to go. I need something that's cheery and that makes me think of spring and gardens and the sun shining to get me through.

Since I finished my Sheri's Lace Socks the other day, I can start something new right?

Enter some Cascade Fixation yarn that I've had lounging around in the stash for awhile and you get this:

The start of a Kew sock. I am already at the heel flap after just 3 evenings of knitting while watching TV. The pattern is interesting but I don't find that I've memorized it or anything and it's a lovely green.

So I can think of spring. I wasn't sure about how the colors are stacking up. The medium green alone for a few rows and then the darkest and lightest in rows for a bit but I think it looks okay.

So, come on Spring. I'm ready.

P.S. I'm almost done with those Green Lantern Socks that have been hanging around forever.

Sheri's Lace

I have officially finished the first pair of socks for the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2009.
This yarn is some alpaca that a friend got from a co-worker. When I got it, it looked like this:


Now, it looks like this:

The Specs:
The Pattern: Sheri's Lace Socks from Sockbug
The Yarn: Alpaca Fingering Weight. Dyed pink and overdyed sort of raspberry by me, using food coloring and Easter Egg dye.
The Needles: US Size 2 (2.75mm) Bamboo dpns.
The Size: Knit to Ladies size Largish Medium.
The Recipient: Jamie.
Notes: I've had this pattern in the queue for quite a while and I'm glad I got to knit it. I made them toe-up as opposed to top-down as the pattern states to utilize the yarn to its full advantage. The deal with Jamie was that I would knit her socks from one skein and I would get to keep the other skein. Hah! One is mine, all mine. I have no plans for it currently. I knit a short row heel and two pattern repeats after the heel followed by about 1 inch of 2x2 ribbing. They will make a lovely addition to Jamie's sock wardrobe.

One more gratuitous sock picture? Okay, a close-up that got a tiny bit fuzzy.

Good thing they are too big for me or I would be wearing them right now!

Ahh, the thrill of victory. Off to knit now.

Off and Running

I arrived home from my parents' house last night with a bit of knitting finished. Not nearly everything I brought along but then again, I always overpack.



The first of Jamie's socks is past the heel turn and now I'm thinking about starting the other and getting it to a similar place.



The Plain ONline sock is somewhat bigger although not even to the heel flap yet. It did have some misadventures though. I popped it into my purse yesterday when mom and I went out to lunch with a family friend and I ended up getting it caught in the purse zipper. Not once but like 3 times. Once it was so badly tangled up that I ended up with broken yarn in two places. I guess I will remember the zippy bag the next time. Oops.



I haven't really touched the Monkey socks at all in the last few days and I haven't even dug out the Pomatomus pattern. I'll get there. Maybe I'll have some free time on Monday while hubby is at work. (hope)



Well, I'm off to get some things done. We're gaming tonight so I should at least try to get ready so I don't look like a fruit loop in my pajamas at a restaurant tonight.



If you see me, I'm probably the one yelling at my yarn because it's stuck in the purse zipper again. Approach with caution.

Trifecta

Okay, so I clicked on something on blogger yesterday and now I am looking at it as though it's really far away. I have no idea what I did or how to undo it. It makes editing quite a challenge. Why does that crap keep happening to me and why does drinking more coffee never help?

Last night I cast on another pair of socks. I had to stop myself from casting on another pair of pink, toe-up, lace socks. How sad. I managed to cast on something else. Another tried and true Monkey. Here are the three pairs currently on the radar.

At the top is the pink Sheri's Lace Alpaca socks. They are coming along. I just get bored with the solid color thing. Then to the right is the newest sock. It's a Monkey of course. In Panda Soy. A very different yarn. I'm liking them and they are to make a gift for someone. They will be pleasantly surprised I think.
Then, on the left is a plain old vanilla sock knit of the Online yarn I got for babysitting. That's my computer sock. I can just knit round and round while reading blogs or whatever.
So, there are my current 3 socks. Pomatomus is on the radar too but hasn't been cast on. I just find I really have to pay attention to that one and I don't know that I have the brain power for that today.
Well, I'm off to wash dishes and do the laundry. Bleech. The good news is that if I get that stuff all done today, then I get a fun day off tomorrow.
(I'll explain later.)

Tuesday's Crochet Fodder

As the Crochet Instructor over at Crafts Direct, I try to spend my Tuesdays (the day where we have Open Crochet Night in the evening.) doing something crochet-related. This doesn't always work out and often, I don't get to crochet until I head over there for the crochet night but today, I thought I'd mention what I'm working on.
A lovely lady that works at Crafts Direct brought to my attention a magazine about a month or so ago. Crochet World. I've linked to their website but what they have pictured is not what I had in mind. I have this issue:

February 2009.

You will note the interesting blanket on the cover. It's called the Sweetheart Ripple and I like the pattern a lot. Here's why. It's like a regular ripple stitch afghan only on one row it has an unusual stitch. That's what makes the "heart" shapes, as well as a sort of dot shape too. I'm not thrilled with the cutesy color so I chose something different for mine.

Here's the back:

See how it's a normal ripple?

Now, here's the front:

(I have no idea why it is sideways and I can't figure out how to fix it. Sorry.)

Want to see it closer? Okay:

See the hearts and the dots? Well, I do. I think it's really interesting and very nice.
I'm using Lion Brand Jiffy Yarn which is a little bit thicker than called for so I went up to a size K (6.5mm) crochet hook.
I had originally planned to give this to a cousin who is having a baby but I changed my mind and started something else for her. I don't know what I will do with this but I like it.

How did this happen?

I took my Monkey socks with me to our friend's house on Saturday night. It was fun to sit and finish them off (all they needed was part of a toe.) and they were done well before midnight and the start of the Sock Marathon.

I waited until I got home to do their "photo shoot" so here we go:

The Specs:
The Pattern: Monkey by the amazingly talented Cookie A.
The Needles: US Size 2 (2.75mm) bamboo dpns.
The Yarn: SRK On Your Toes 4 Ply Sock Yarn with Aloe Vera in the romantically named color ON223600
The Size: These are about a Ladies Size 8.
The Recipient: These are Mine, All Mine.
Notes: This is the first pair of socks I have finished since Christmas. I love them. I did modify just a tiny bit.
Modifications:
1. 2x2 ribbing on the top for 15 rounds (about 1.5") instead of 1x1 ribbing for 1"
2. 5 Pattern repeats before heel flap instead of 6 (the foot also has 5 so it makes it more even in my opinion.)
3. Short row heel turn done with a few more stitches in the center. As written it just seemed too pointy to me.

I love, love, love them though and even though this is the 3rd time I have knit them in 2 months. I still love the pattern and could totally see myself casting on for some more very, very soon. Like, maybe this afternoon.

What was that? We need a closeup? Here you go.


In other news. I sat knitting my husband's green socks that will eventually be Green Lantern Socks (while rereading old blog entries. Other people's not my own.) and suddenly, I was at the toe. Now I just have to knit the toe, wash and block them and duplicate stitch the Green Lantern Symbol on them. I was shocked. I thought these would go on forever. (Note: Never knit men's size 13 socks on size 1s. Okay?! Good.) Now I am almost done. Very weird.

It had to happen sometime. I was requested to knit a Dr. Who scarf from a friend of mine. I said, um, yeah, if there's no time limit. (He will buy the yarn so I don't have to worry about that.)

And We're Off...

Today begins the Lime & Violet Sock Yarn marathon 2009. We have six months to knit up as much of our sock yarn as we decide we would like. First you own up to you stash. (suck it up, you can do it.) and post a picture. Then, you figure out how many miles of sock yarn you actually have. (I may have added a bit over the weekend so I will have to cop to that tomorrow when I've re-added it all up.)

Here's mine. You actually can't see all of them, but they are all there.

Then you set your own goal. Mine is to knit 2 miles of sock yarn (that comes out to about 8 pairs of socks in 6 months. I should be able to do that, no problem.)

Today, you can cast on.
I have. With this lovely alpaca yarn.
Sheri's Lace Socks


I'm off and...er...knitting. Anyone else?

No New Nanners

So, I had this nice post all written about how I was dyeing some sock yarn to make Nanners socks (the plurk exclusive pattern.) When I rinsed the yarn and, um, yeah, it's crap. It will have to be re-dyed. Probably tomorrow.

Until then, I'm gonna go sulk and knit something else.

New Yarn and a Red hat.

The last couple of days have been really strange. I feel like I've been walking around in a kind of fog.
Yesterday hubby was home from work which means that I get absolutely nothing done and he's always in the way. I mean, I love him but if you could learn to not knock my books on the floor or mess up the bed I just made, that would be great.
To top it off, I wasn't feeling super great yesterday. I think I may have been walking around with a teeny, tiny bit of the stomach flu bug that much of my family has had. I'm hoping that my body will fight it back before it becomes the full-fledged thing. uck.
Anyway, because of the weird days, I haven't gotten a whole heck of a lot of knitting done. I managed to finish my first thrummed mitten and I discovered why I don't knit many pairs of mittens. It's extremely difficult to knit while you are wearing the first mitten.
I won't bore you with pictures since the second one will look the same. At least until they are both done but instead will show off something I got in the mail this morning.

A few days ago over on A Few Stitches Short. She did a yarn sale of some lovely sock yarns. I was one of the happy recipients of this beautiful yarn. (I believe she will do it again for a few weeks so check out the blog on Saturday if you are interested.) It's Spunky Eclectic Tough Sock in "Nightshade" A color that I guess was exclusive to her fiber club in May 2007. I am in LOVE with it. It's soft and squooshy and lovely and it makes me so, so happy. (Okay, after I found that link for Spunky Eclectic I went and checked out her yarn. HELP ME! I want EVERYTHING!!!)

The only thing that is keeping me from winding it up and casting on RIGHT NOW is the knowledge that I have no idea what I will knit with it. (Yeah, the fact that I'm waiting for the Lim & Violet Sock Marathon to start, not even in my mind right now.)
The best thing about it, in my opinion, is that it reminds me of the skein of Fleece Artist that I saw at The Yarnery when my mom and I went down to hear the Yarn Harlot. I didn't get the skein but I've thought about the summery colors ever since and this is even better because alongside the red and green there's a lovely, violety purple (that doesn't photograph very well.)

Last night as my frustration with all my projects grew and grew, I decided to cast on something else and went searching through my yarn for something different. What I pulled up was a skein of yarn I tried to dye with beets a year or so ago. It came out a kind of dusky red, not at all the color I was going for so I haven't used it for anything. I asked hubby if he liked it and would like something from it. Pretty soon I had this:

It's the start of a hat. I knit it on fairly small needles so it would be extra warm. (These are Size 5s, 3.75 mm) I started at the top because I didn't want to swatch and when I move it to a circular as soon as I have some more stitches, I will be able to have him try it on and see if it fits.

Well, I don't have much more to say today. I'm going to head off and knit. Enjoy the sun even though it's only 2 degrees here. (What is up with that? Grrr.)

Strange, I don't usually feel so lost.

Today was a strange day. Hubby went to work an hour early and I tried to get some things done around the house.

I didn't manage to get anything noticeable done at all.

Then I wandered around feeling sort of lost for about 10 minutes.

That was when I realized that I didn't have any knitting in my hands and had barely touched it all day.

Um, yeah, problem solved.

Waiting for a thumb

Last night I spent a couple of hours making a mitten.

It looks pretty good so far, doesn't it?

You can clearly see in this picture the waste yarn where the thumb will go and as I am nearly to the top of the mitten, I am hoping to have one whole mitten done by tonight when I will meet up with my knitting group at the coffee house.

Even hubby was impressed. He couldn't believe how soft it is inside.
I giggle every time I do a thrum round because it looks so funny.

I have crochet class tonight and that comes before knitting group so I have to go get ready.
(And knit a mitten.)

Thrumming Along

(It just kills me that thrumming along sounds so much like humming along. ha!)
Anyway, last night's babysitting went fine. No hitches and the great thing about babysitting for someone from your knitting group?

You might get paid in yarn. I did.
This is two lovely skeins of a yarn I haven't tried called ON line. It's really pretty and although it says it's made in Italy, some of the writing appears to be in German so I'm not really sure. Each skein is 100g and says its 420 meters though so they should make two pairs of socks. I'm excited to cast on but I joined the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2009 on Ravelry so I'm waiting until February 1st to cast on new socks.

It's killing me actually since the only ones I have going (which I'm trying to finish before Feb. 1) are the Monkeys that are ALMOST done (they need part of a toe and that's it) and the Green Lantern socks that are just plain knitting in green and are taking forever.

To take my mind off of that, today I'll be doing something completely different.
I'm following the Yarn Harlot's Thrummed Mitten pattern.

I've assembled the following:

A printout of the pattern,
A very beautiful roving dyed by local knitter. (Blog, Etsy Shop), note that I made one thrum to make sure it would work. I like it.,
A skein of yarn to knit the base of the mittens with. (I debated the color quite a bit but decided the beautiful roving would look best and stand out the most against black.)
My dpns and
A bottle of wine in case things go south (The Lovely Stephanie's pattern calls for Screech but I don't have any and don't know if I can even get it here, so I'm substituting wine.)

Hubby's headed off to work soon so I'll have the place to myself and some quiet. Wish me luck.

Home Alone

Today's thoughts are pretty random so bear with me please.

1. Hubby came home from work and immediately turned around and went out the door again to go to see some friends. I'm staying home because I have a babysitting thing this evening. Somehow it feels different that he is out of town rather than at work. I don't know why.

2. The house is really quiet. It's really strange. It's almost too quiet. I need some music or the TV on or something.

3. Since the house is quiet I can hear every little noise any neighbor makes in the hallway. I don't like this.

4. Yesterday some friends came up to visit and we went to lunch and a couple of stores. They are crafters but I somehow didn't think they would understand travelling sock pictures so I didn't take any. (This usually doesn't bother me.)

5. We ate lunch at Olive Garden and our waiter was weirdly excited when we ordered dessert. It was too funny.

6. I managed to score a half a pound (what is that, like 12,000,000 yards?) of laceweight wool for $3.25. It's really fine and black and wonderful. Someday I will find the perfect pattern for it.

7. We cleaned up (pretty much) the whole apartment in case the ladies wanted to come up to the restroom or whatever. No one did. Oh well, at least it's clean now.

8. I will not mention the other things I bought. Spent too much but had a blast.

9. I did clean the crafting area but it still needs some help. It will get there eventually. I may post before and after pictures one day.

Well, I'd better go make something to eat.

Enjoy the weekend.

I Told You So

Apparently the threats on the blog don't work so...

The white cotton is being implemented. (Don't worry, I didn't knit this much in one day. I had this awhile ago and got more of it and picked it up again since a cousin of mine is producing a new baby in a few months and I knit something for her first one.)

As you can see, it's just seed stitch knit in a square right now. I cast on one stitch and increased one each row until I had 125 stitches, then I started decreasing one stitch each row (by working a ssk in the first two stitches of each row. When I'm done, I'll pick up stitches and knit some kind of border on it. I'm thinking something like the Yarn Harlot's Baby Blankets (that link only takes you to the month. Scroll down to the twentieth and think the pink one.) But I haven't completely settled my mind yet. We'll see.

I may have also accidentally knit myself a calorimetry but let's not talk about that until the ends are woven and the button is sewn on.

The green socks are finally getting somewhere. I am knitting the heel flap. I finally got there while watching Marie Antoinette last night SUCKED! I hated it. (sorry.) I would recommend you read The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette instead of watching that movie. Ugh.

Well, I'm off to go clean now. Maybe I will have some pictures of a neat and tidy crafting area for you tomorrow. (Don't hold your breath though.)

Chastising the projects

Dear Current Projects (especially the green socks and the Monkey socks and the kinda teal and yellow thing),

I don't know why you are persisting in being so darned unproductive. I've put every effort into working on you as much as possible but sometimes, you have to make dinner, or wash the dishes or fix your closet.

I understand Teal and yellow thing that there was some frogging last night and restarting ensued. You have been somewhat better behaved but tell me this, if I move up a hook size (or two) shouldn't I be able to get MORE done? hmm?! In the same amount of time with about the same amount of distractions?

The green socks too. Yeah, you, hiding over there next to the printer. I've been working on you every single time I sit down at the computer to read blogs or play Molehill Empire or Plurk (I warn you, those sites are extremely addictive. If you click, don't blame me when whole days of your life are spent planting virtual lettuce.) Why aren't you any bigger? I should have been at the heel flap long before now! What's going on?

I can't take much more of this duplicity. Don't think I'm not above shoving all of you in a basket and finally casting on Vivian or working on that new white cotton. I will.

Show me some love or you get the boot.

Sarah

Just Try Harder

I had thought that if I tried pretty hard that I could have something finished to show off today. How did it go?

This is the second of the Green Lantern socks. Not even to the Heel flap. In all honesty, I didn't really think there was a chance of these being done.

So what did I think I could finish?

My Monkey socks. These are for me and I want so badly to finish them. I'm on the gusset decreases and I'm plugging along although I'm having some pretty serious project ennui right now.

I finished my Versatility and since then, things have been a little weird. I swatched for Vivian and washed the swatch. I pretty much just let it dry then and have been waiting to measure it. I think I'm afraid that I won't be getting gauge and at that point, I will have to do some mondo math and probably knit another swatch. It scares me. I so badly want it to turn out that I can't stand it!

Well, you might be saying (oh, who am I kidding, you aren't being that nice to this slacking crafter.) what about Tuesdays being for Crochet?
This has been a very strange month for Tuesdays are for Crochet. One week the store closed early due to the weather so I missed Crochet night, then I went the following week and started something:

Pretty huh? I've been debating about the gauge I'm getting though. I think I'm going to rip it and go up a hook size or two. It isn't very big at least and no, I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, although I will tell you that it is Jiffy yarn. (I'm too lazy to go look at the label. I think it's from Lion Brand)

Then last week we were stuck at my parents because my poor old vehicle would not start in the ridiculously cold weather. So I missed Crochet night again. (So frustrating.)
Tonight, I'm all set although I thought I had all the crochet hook sizes I could ever want/need. I don't. I have only through size I then I have two P hooks. I need a K. Wouldn't you know it.
Guess what I'll be buying then.

Home from the last Christmas. Until December at least.

I've been racking my brain all morning as to what I should tell you today. Something interesting is certainly in order, something that is yarn and/or craft related is also good.

I have nothing.

We got back last night from my lovely cousin's house. We had a fun time despite the very little sleep we had. I learned that one-year olds with chicken pox don't mind if you tease them by calling them "spotty, spotty, polka-dotty".

We learned that three-year olds can get a little too wound up and smack their older cousin with a golf club. It was a plastic toy golf club but it still was not well received.

We learned that little girls who are 5 don't understand when an adult is called "Princess" (my real name is Sarah which is Hebrew for Princess so my husband calls me Princess sometimes.)

We learned that dice games are a fun way to do a gift exchange. Even though it was pretty chaotic.

We learned through the card game "Would you Rather..." that my future sister-in-law is afraid of bees because we don't know if she's allergic.

We learned that if Santa Hats are on clearance that some cousins will buy them in lieu of gift bags and fill them with funny adult gifts. Like Beano and a denture bath and a pregnancy test. We further learned that no one will want the pregnancy test and it will get passed from person to person by hiding it in their purse when they aren't looking. It ended up going home with my mother who had a hysterectomy many years ago and so has no possibility of needing it. Never fear, she's mailing it back to my cousin. It's fitting really since her three-year old colored on the box for us.

Much fun (and overeating) was had by all.
There was even some knitting in the car done by me. (Just for the sake of safety I will mention that I was not the driver.)

Nothing got finished though so there isn't anything new to show you. Maybe tomorrow.