A Tribute to My Dogs

Once upon a time in a land not-so far away. There lived a young girl with her mother and brother. It was a very exciting time for them because the mother was buying a house and for the first time, they would own their own home.
About two weeks before they moved the aunt brough a small fuzzy bundle to the brother.

She was sweet and kind and beautiful and a little ball of mostly black fuzz. She had just a wee bit of mischief in her and a soft, kind heart. So much so that on her little nest of our unmatched socks she scared herself with her first bark.

The following weekend another small black fuzzy bundle arrived. A brother to the first he was protective and caring and loving.

Our family was complete and we named them Hero and Bandit and they soon grew into their names. Hero was our protector and would have protected us from all wrongs if it was at all possible. Bandit was our sweet little girl with the "magic" white paw and she stole a chocolate chip cookie from the kitchen table where they were set to cool.

They made the teenage years not as awful as they could have been and while our family suffered some pretty nasty turmoil it was them alone who kept us all together. Our love for them that wouldn't let us all break apart. In the winter of 2004 Bandit got sick. Her kidneys had some kind of problem and she slowly withered away. The vet told us she was living on our loving care alone. On the morning of Valentine's Day 2005, she went outside to the freshly fallen snow that she loved so much and laid down and didn't get up again.

Our beloved girl was gone and our poor Hero lived on. It was difficult but we got past it. Then in the spring of 2008 we found a lump on our Hero's leg. We took him to the vet but she said the surgery would be hard on him with his heart murmur and his age. Without the surgery we couldn't know for sure what the tumor was and how bad it would be but we knew that it would spread and that his time was limited. We made the difficult decision to let him live his last days peacefully at home.

For awhile he was fine but soon it became apparent that he was fading. Then on September 9, he lay down to nap and passed away. And what do you think was on the Knitter's needles? Rainbow socks. To go with the Rainbow Bridge. And so as she finished the toe of the first, she fashioned an H into the stitches of the toe.

As soon as that toe was kitchenered she knew what she would have to do. She knit the second and put a little B onto the toe.

And so, here they are, the finished rainbow bridge socks for her Hero and Bandit.

I'm just going to go cry quietly now. Thanks for listening to me ramble on.

Nothing much to say

So, I have no new and interesting pictures to show you today. I'm trying to post more often so, let's see.
Well, I'm knitting frantically on my Hero's socks because I'd like to have them finished for a family thing on Saturday. Other than that I'm not doing too much knitting.
I've been doing other house stuff (like making hubby take out the garbage and recycling.) and washing the dishes but that's about all on that front.
Tonight I am going to a knitting meet-up with some Ravelry people. It should be fun. I'm actually not totally freaking out about it so that's a good sign. I have to go look at my map and figure out where it is though so I'd better get that done before dinner.
I'm teaching a crochet class on Monday so tomorrow night I'm going to practice by trying to teach hubby to crochet. That should be quite an adventure. I may have to take pictures of that.

Socks are flying off my needles

Lately I've had this sort of project angst. I get bored with everything. Maybe partially because I feel guilty when I'm knitting that I'm not unpacking. It doesn't make me unpack any more but it does make me feel bad that I'm not unpacking. What's the solution? Start a bunch of new pairs of socks of course.

Let's start with these:

The yarn is Plymouth Yarns Happy Feet and I love, love, love it. The pattern is Emily's Socks from 2-at-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I tried to do socks two on one circular but it didn't work for me. Maybe if I can try another needle a different time, it will work but for now, no. The pattern is written for children but I sized it up to fit my clodhoppers. I wasn't sure about the color of the yarn but it looks beautiful in this pattern and now, means something to me.

While knitting these socks, my beloved Hero died.

He was fifteen years old and sick so it's good that he's in a better place but it still hurts and it still sucks. I miss him every day. But, he died while I was knitting these socks with the rainbow yarn.

Check out this to understand http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm so now they are my Hero socks.

I can't talk about that anymore so let's move on. To Christmas presents. Yes, I'm planning ahead. Last year I finished the last project on Christmas Eve morning and while I could totally see myself doing it again, I'd rather not. So, Here are the Waffley Goodness socks

These are knit of Alpaca Sock Yarn and they are for my Mother-in-Law for Christmas. I think they are really beautiful and soft and I hope she will like them a lot.

I went to a movie with some friends last weekend. Babylon A.D. with Vin Diesel. It was only okay but I did manage to get some knitting done in the theater on these:

They are just a basic ribbed sock knit in Regia. they are intended for my dad and I know he will like them. I knit him socks last year for Christmas and he wears them every Sunday for Church.

I have one other pair of socks lying around but I'm not really sure what to do with them.

The last time I stopped into my LYS I picked up some Maizy sock yarn to try it out. It's nice and I like the yarn but I'm not thrilled with how it's knitting up in these basic toe-up socks so I think a good frogging is in order and a new pattern needs to be chosen.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I'd better go and get some unpacking done today.

Grey Skies will finally clear up

So, finally we had a smidge of sun today and I was able to get some pictures of the current projects.

First though, the long, long, long awaited MS3.

Preblocked

During Blocking

Cue heavenly-sounding chorus

Tah-Dah!

This is knit out of Indie II yarn 55% silk, 45% cashmere from Little Knits It's so soft and floaty, I just adore it. Plus the pattern is beautiful and I can't wait until I can wear it somewhere. Never mind that I know of nowhere that I could wear it. (I'm not exactly glamorous.)

Hmm, looking at this, I know none of my other boring little socks will be able to compete so let's save those pics for another day, shall we?

Blocking...Please wait.

It feels like so much has been going on but in actuality it's been the same old, same old.
I have been unpacking the last of our boxes. Yay! Finally. But our tiny apartment is still full of them so I still have a ways to go and I have been doing some knitting. I say some but really I have had a wicked case of startitis and it has made my attention span even less than usual.
I cast on 4 new pairs of socks. That doesn't mean that I finished any though. I just cast on more.
I'm starting to think about Christmas gifts though so most of what I have cast on is for that.
I have finished the knitting of my Mystery Stole 3 and it is blocking right now. It's very exciting. It's the first major lace project that I've done and it's so exciting I can hardly believe it.
I picked out the yarn for Mystery Stole 4 and I printed off the clues but I haven't actually wound the yarn or started yet. I'm excited to but I know that it requires some attention span. I'm not sure that I have enough attention span right now.
You can't tell but I'm typing really fast, I think it may be time to stop drinking coffee today. Hmm, maybe not, I have to do the laundry now.
I'll post pictures of new socks and such soon but it's really grey and icky today so I don't think anything will turn out.

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.

Rain, Rain, go away.

I started thinking about why I don't have anyone (that I can see) reading my blog and I think it's maybe because I don't post often enough so my new goal is to post much more often. Therefore, yesterday, I saved some of my juicy tidbits for today.

You see, I've been on a dreaded "D" word lately. A yarn, d-d-d-diet. Ugh, it's even hard to type that. It wasn't an "official" thing, I just knew the expense of moving would be coming up and I also shouldn't have way more extra yarn to move so I have been strictly curbing my yarn-buying obsession. The result? I have been completely blah about my stash. Usually the only yarn I like to buy is my sock yarn unless I'm planning a big project so the only thing I really curbed was the sock-yarn purchases. It has been months and months since I allowed myself to freely buy sock yarn. (Okay, maybe it was only a few months. It just felt longer)


Well, I started thinking about it.
What do I knit the most of? Socks
What do I want to buy the most? Sock Yarn


So, last week, after our moving expenses were (mostly) sorted out, I lifted the sock yarn embargo. Today, I wanted to show you my new sock yarn. Then what happened? The weather didn't cooperate. It is grey and drizzly and icky today so there's no way to get a decent photo.


Whoo, it just lightning-ed. If I could only catch it just right, I could get a good picture. hee hee.


So today you will have to suffice to hear about this:

Hmm, pretty yarn, nice stitches but what is it? you ask. It's the Ogee Lace Skirt
from Interweave Knits Summer 2007.



I'm knitting it with Classic Elite Yarns Waterlily. Color: 1995 (purple). A beautiful extra fine merine with some subtle color variations. The issue that I have is that I have 4 skeins of 100 yards. So 4x100=400 yards.
The pattern calls for: 6, 82yard skeins. 6x82=492 yards. Anyone else see a problem?
I might just shorten it so I don't do another repeat but I really love the length so I might just add in another yarn. I haven't decided yet. Anyone have any thoughts?

Socks for every occasion

I'm pretty tired today and may be just a tiny bit crabby the dh woke me this morning at 6:30ish as he was getting ready for work and as I am SO not a morning person and so I'm barely hanging on. My downstairs neighbor who is apparently moving out also seems to see fit to keep slamming their apartment door, making an afternoon nap impossible today. I may just make a second pot of coffee.

As a two-hour drive last Saturday and a concert with our friend's band and a trip to see the St. Cloud Riverbats play in the great American pasttime resulted in lots of knitting time I have finished these:

They are knit of 2 skeins of Kroy Socks Jacquard and they are sized to fit my hubby's absurdly big feet.(US size 13)* I wasn't particularly fond of this yarn but I think a big part of that is because I had just finished knitting with Plymouth Yarn's Happy Feet which is really, really soft and supple and this felt itchy and unyielding compared to that but I think it actually turned into nice looking socks that will be nice and warm this winter. They didn't take that long to knit up either. I was also knitting them toe-up to make sure that I would have enough yarn and I knit them plenty long for my taste and still had plenty of yarn left so I would definitely recommend it for having enough for men's sizes.

Since I haven't really caught up with what else I'm working on, I might as well bring up my other UFOs. (may I just say here that I am a fan of X-Files from way back and that the fact that Unfinished Object sounds so much like Unidentified Flying Object tickles me to no end.)

This is one of what will hopefully end up to be a pair of socks in Kroy Socks Stripes in the Kool Stripes colorway. Originally I bought this yarn to make a pair of socks for myself but I think the socks, once knit, are a little bit too much for me so I am planning them to be a Christmas Gift to my 11-year old niece. I know I'm taking a chance but I'm thinking my little Hannah Montana lover is going to love the rock-star-eque colors.

Well, I've shown you one pair of finished socks and one sock that's knit without a mate yet. What else is there? Of course I have a pair of "computer socks" which just means a pair of socks simple enough to knit while reading blogs or waiting for our "flower of 1998 technology" computer to load. That would be these:

Your basic ribbed sock knit in Trekking XXL colorway: 71. Some of you may remember that I knit a pair of socks for someone last year for Christmas out of this same colorway. Actually, now that I think about it, I think it was for my uncle for his birthday. I forgot how much I love knitting with Trekking yarn. It doesn't always make for identical twin socks but I am just funky enough to be okay with that. They are soft and have great stitch definition. I love, love, love it. Let's have a close-up so you can see those beautiful stitches.** The color isn't quite right though. It's much darker than this pictures. Almost like a black-ish denim.

I would also like to note that these are knit on my new Brittany Birch needles. I have only gone the bamboo route with wooden needles before and I love wooden needles. I still think my bamboo is my favorite because they get smooth and slippery much, much faster and they have a little more flexibility IMHO but I do like these.

That's pretty much it in the mindless sock knitting department but I do have to have something that holds a little more interest. That's where these come in:

Please welcome: Tofutsies #733. Being knit into The Fancy Silk Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks.

I really like the pattern. I'm not sure about this yarn with it though.

The yarn might be too busy to show of this lovely pattern. I like the suppleness of the yarn but I'm not totally sure of it. I love the fact that it will be somewhat antibacterial but I find that it had a kind of weird smell (to me) so I'm not sure if these are meant to be or not yet.

My husband says that it's not crazy to have up to 9 pairs of socks on the needles at once so I am well under the limit of crazy around here so there may be more socks to come soon.

*These pictures were taken on my coffee table. Yes, I do think a silver bowl full of Knit Picks Shadow is an objet d'art. Wanna make something of it?

**Showing off my "new" camera. Yay! Much better than crappy old one.

I am back in business baby!

Well, I'm definitely behind with my blogging but I am also back. We are (mostly) moved to our new apartment and while I spend all day unpacking, I can spend my evenings knitting and we've got our computer set up with the 'net hooked up so I can get back to my blog. Let's start with these:

They are Feather & Fan Socks from Socks,Socks, Socks. They are Trekking XXL Sock Yarn and while I love the yarn, I'm not entirely sure that I love that pattern with that color of yarn. I can't remember the number and of course since we have a ton of boxes, I can't find the ball band now. These have actually been finished for awhile and worn several times. That's how behind I am.

Then there's these:

Now, I'm using some of this yarn for my Arrr-gyles so I wanted to knit them fairly short. They are Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet and I am absolutely in love with this yarn! It's soft and just the right colors and absolutely gorgeous. It turned my sock needles just a little tiny bit pink so I am gonna wash these in some cold water with a dash of vinegar before they go into my usual rotation since I don't really want red feet. But I know these will soon be my favorite socks. I just finished them the other night and started up with my new travelling socks.

These are some Toe-Up socks that I'm knitting for my husband. Pictured last night on their first outing. To see a friend's band play. They are knit of Kroy Socks Jacquard. I think the yarn will be extremely durable but it's not the softest and nicest to knit with. Of course my bias might come from the fact that my husband has US size 13 feet and so I am dreading ever finishing these socks.

Not much else is going on on the knitting front. As I said, I'm mostly just busy unpacking box after box.

I would just like to add one more note before I sign off. It has been difficult for me to come back and face this page because every time I did, I saw my last post. My Pheebsie who passed on. It still hurts that he is really gone but I know life goes on and so my needles will continue to click away even though he's not there to try to chew my yarn. Thanks for your patience.

Sadness

pheebsiechess
Originally uploaded by kalkette

Yesterday my beloved furbaby, my sweet kitty Pheebsie, also called Mr. Pheebington died. I am really sad and can't even say any more right now. He was a member of my family and will be truly missed. Goodbye my Mr. Pheebington.

Still Spotty

I'm still here and still knitting. I'm almost finished with my Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave Knits but until we get moved and get the 'net hooked up (we are having some trouble finding a place) reports will remain spotty and pictures will probably be nonexistent.

Screw it, I'm making coffee.

You know that when this is your mantra for the day, it's been bad. (I usually stop drinking coffee by about 11:00 am but today I said this at 2:30 and am drinking coffee right now.)
It all started last night really. I watched Ghost Hunters on the Sci-Fi channel last night right before I was wanting to go to sleep. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I couldn't sleep. It wasn't just that. I also was totally stir-crazy and wound up all day yesterday. I can't even blame it on an overdose of caffeine since I didn't even finish my second cup of coffee yesterday.
I ended up starting another pair of socks.

I swear I took a picture but Blogger doesn't want to post it.

They are the Feather and Fan Pattern in Socks, Socks, Socks. I have been working on them most of today too so they are already past the heel turn on the first sock. Wow, they are going pretty fast.

So, why has today sucked? Well, for starters hubby is off work today and we thought that since we are blessedly alone in the house and have nothing to do until the show tonight(The Barn Theatre) we thought that we would have some quiet time and some nice snuggle time together. We didn't. We have spent the day at each other's throats. I think we are just overtired and also both stressed about the whole moving thing so every little thing seems to bother us more than ever.
Now he's watching TV and I'm playing on the computer. It's better, I swear. We are kinda spending some separate time so we can have fun together again, without getting on each other's nerves.
Well, I'm going back to knitting now and drinking my coffee until it's time to get ready for the show.

It's Baaaack!

So, lately the blog content has been pretty sparse and I have to say the pictures have been worse. Well, today I found some batteries for the camera so I hope to improve the pictures but the content is pretty boring.

I've been awfully discontent with my knitting lately and I think more than anything it's because I'm kinda stressed about the whole finding a new place to live thing. It's not easy, especially when you are technically supposed to be out of the house by May 1. Anyone else notice the date? Yeah, you see the problem.

So, I vary between wanting to do nothing but sit and knit and then getting frustrated because I should be doing multiple other things and I am not. This has led to a wicked case of startitis followed by project frustration and then rapid frogging. Case in point.

The lovely Schaefer Anne Socks. I finally finished and bound off. They were too tight at the bind off so I did it again, increasing the looseness of the bind off. Still too tight. This was like a week and a half ago. I was frustrated so I put them aside and ignored them. Just pretended like they didn't exist. Yesterday, I was in the mood to knit so I thought finishing this pair of socks would help cheer me up. I took them out and did it again. On one sock. I wasn't happy with it and then the other sock started giving me some major poopy attitude so they somehow ended up to be two balls of yarn. eep.

Then I started a scarf with my SWS yarn. I think I showed you that.

I bought three skeins specifically because I wanted to make a scarf out of it. I have started and frogged it about 15 times. I just cannot be content with whatever it is I'm making. This last time I was over halfway through the first skein. Yeah, discontent.

Then there's the LuLu yarn. I don't think I've shown you this.


It's 5 skeins of an all acrylic but very soft and fuzzy yarn that I bought on clearance like 3 years ago or more. I love it, it's super soft and I want to make something that I wear against the skin but I don't know what. I have (over the years) started and ripped this multiple times but twice in one day? Not until yesterday. I thought I could make a cute little throw that I could snuggle under. Yeah, no. I started it, decided it was too big and frogged it. Then I started again, smaller and knitted it for about 3 hours and then frogged it again. I just don't know what to do.

I did manage to finish my Vanilla swirl socks but I don't have a picture. I already wore them (that's my favorite thing to do with new socks, wear them right away) and I haven't washed them yet. I didn't think you needed a picture of dirty socks, right? So I started another quick and easy pair.


They are my Knit Picks Essential Sock yarn in Ash and they are a basic toe-up ribbed sock. I love them already. They are great to knit backstage while waiting for set shifts or your cue. You know, while you're not changing costumes. :)


Well, that leaves a set of size 2 bamboo needles open doesn't it? Yeah, well, we can't have that can we? No. So, they're baaack.

I was gonna make you guess what it was but honestly, this picture is so bad, I don't think you'd be able to. So, they're Pomatomus. AAAAH! At least it gives me something fussy to knit. Keeps my mind away from the moving thing. Maybe it will help.

Tonsils Be Damned!

So, I am sick again. Did I mention that a few weeks ago I had a double ear infection and was put on some kick butt antibiotics? No? Well, I was. For ten days. On the very last day I felt super. Then after I kinda felt icky and the last few days a nasty spring cold has turned its ugly head. I have snot and a sore throat (which makes it absolutely horrific to act and sing right now.) I have decided to blame my tonsils.

When I was younger I had strep throat three times in a year and it left my tonsils scarred and icky. They told me I would probably have to have them out if I got it again. I haven't officially had strep throat again but I seem to catch every little bug that comes along. I swear it's because of the tonsils.

Luckily USA has an NCIS marathon starting soon so I'll be in bed knitting and dozing to NCIS.

Later.