Non-Knitting Related

Is anyone else addicted to I can has cheezburger? Does anyone else think fondly of time spent playing Oregon Trail?



Too funny. (Click to see the caption more clearly.)

Striped Socks

I have to confess... I love knitting socks. I love sock yarn. I love all the patterns that I'm not brave enough to try yet. I have made exactly two pairs of socks, with another sock on the needles, and I'm contemplating casting on one more, since last night I finished this:



My second pair. Here's a side view:



I'm aware that the heel flaps don't match up. I feel no need to explain this. Both socks fit comfortably, and that's what matters.

I'm also aware that the stripes don't match up perfectly, either. My socks are fraternal, rather than identical. I love them equally.

Today I plan to buy the yarn for David's kilt hose. I'm still trying to figure out something wonderful and special I can make for Abby for a wedding present. (Yes, they're getting separate presents. Shut up. Just because they're getting married doesn't mean they can't get separate presents. They'll still be two people, after all!) I'm aiming for "not a creepy gift to give your sister-in-law," so no negligees, thongs, or garters. Any suggestions? Abby, feel free to make a request!

Yesterday's Progress

I had a very satisfying evening yesterday. On the way home from work I picked up some dinner, which I ate while mentally composing my Important Letter. My Important Letter came much more easily than I had expected, which was nice. I sent that off and added the pictures to my last entry, then got out the Scrubbing Bubbles and scrub brush and set to work cleaning out my bathtub, which was covered with grime from its recent adventure with clogs and Roto-Rooter. Man, I wish I had taken a picture before cleaning--it was nasty. Now, however, it is sparkly and clean. Hooray!

And after that, I got out my knitting.


I made a fish. A brown one.



I worked on my brazen attempt to turn an illusion chart into an intarsia chart. I'm not sure I like it, but dammit, I will finish it. Eventually.

I worked some more on my friend's shawl.

I didn't take a picture. Imagine the one from yesterday is longer.



And I made another fish--a speckled one--thus doubling the size of my school. Now I have 4!

All in all, I feel pretty good about my night's work.

Bad Blogger *Now with pictures!

It has been pointed out to me that I haven't posted in over a week. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long--but I guess it has!

I can only plead busy-ness, and try to do better from here on out.


I finished the mid-month KAL, and in the end, my laziness won out. I didn't rip out the row with the mystery YOs. I did add the pattern to the pile I like to call "knit this again, but without screwing up," though! It looks pretty nice, and I have a picture... on my digital camera... at home.

My camera seems to be morally opposed to photographing dishcloths well. You can hardly see the bamboo pattern in this picture--and you can't see it at all in the other one I took. Bah.

I've gotten through one entire skein of purple bouclé on my friend's shawl, and am into the second. I have a picture of that, too. At home.

That's a ballpoint pen on it (on the left), for scale. It will be long and rectangular when I'm done--more like a wrap than a shawl, I guess, if that's a valid distinction. Or even if it isn't.

Uh, I'm not blogging at work...

Not anymore, I'm not.

I've also been working on the first of a pair of Dublin Bay Socks, designed by Ryan Morrissey. This is the sock that I started, messed up, and frogged--attempt #2 has been going much better than the first attempt went! I haven't photographed this sock yet, but perhaps I will this evening.

The beginning of a cuff of a Dublin Bay sock. You can kind of see the lace pattern towards the left-hand side... Does everyone else have this much trouble taking nice pictures of their knitting?

And I knitted one more fish for the fish-along.

I don't really have a caption for this one. Umm... One fish, two fish, not red or blue fish!

I really feel like I've been slacking in the knitting department, because things have been getting in the way. I missed both Stitch 'n' Bitches this week (Sunday and Tuesday) because for one I had a Harry Potter hangover (i.e., I was too sleepy and dazed from having stayed up late Saturday night finishing the book to go out in public), and for the other, I was out of town. I hope to do some catching up--and probably some adding of photos to the blog--tonight, after I finish writing what will almost certainly be a very difficult letter. (One of those where every word could conceivably be really important--so I write, delete, re-write, re-delete, and re-re-write. Like knitting and tinking, only less satisfying.)


And I will try to be a better blogger from now on.

Whinge

I'm taking a little break from the huge project I'm working on, because it's giving me a migraine. I would knit, but my knitting is in my office--and I am holed up in the office of someone who is on vacation, because her office has a door (whereas mine barely has walls). So instead, I blog.

Which brings to me the Knitting Dilemma. On my lunch hour I was working on the mid-month dishcloth KAL, and found that in my previous row I managed to put in two yarnovers--there aren't any in the pattern for that row. Also, a few rows back, I had put in one yarnover (somehow) where there should have been none. That first time I just knit it together with the next stitch, going with the philosophy that it's only a dishcloth, and it's only for me. To be honest, I can't even find that part when I look at it. So I'm thinking about just doing that same thing again in the next row to hide those two mystery YOs... but I want to do it right, and I'm trying to stop leaving mistakes in my knitting because things are "only" for me. I deserve pretty, error-free knitting as much as anyone!

So then I think I should rip out the row with the extra YOs and do it again... but does that mean I have to go back and find the first one? And do I care that much, when the first one is invisible?

It's so hard to be a perfectionist when you kinda suck at something!

Lots o' Knitting

For your viewing pleasure, I present a photo essay called "The Shawl: A Progression."






The End.

All right, not the end of the shawl--the end of the photo series. But the huge (size 20) needles are definitely the way to go when you're making a big, rectangular shawl. That last picture shows one evening's progress--not bad!

I also made this:










Skully (front and back), destined to be felted into a keychain. My first stranded colorwork! (Okay, so I started that thing for Grandma... Skully is my first finished stranded colorwork.)

And now it's late, and I need to go to bed.

I'll try to put more words in my next post!

More Birthday Goodness

I had such a good birthday! The cookout was great, the company was wonderful... and I was right about there being more yarn in my future.

(I have pictures of all my presents, but I'm in all of them and have odd facial expressions, so I've decided to spare myself the embarrassment. I might post them if I muster up the energy to crop myself out.)

Natalie gave me an adorable cat pendant, a little red purse-thingy with an oriental carpet design, and two balls of Patons Cha Cha in bebop--it's a red, lavender, and pink eyelash. I'm trying to decide if I can use it to make the cat bed in Stitch 'n Bitch (which calls for Fun Fur), or if my cat will just eat the eyelash stuff and get sick. It's a distinct possibility. I might have to stick to Wool Ease. (I want to knit her a bed so she stops laying on my knitted knitting bag and getting mad when I need to get something out of it!)

From Amanda, I got a gift certificate to ReBelle (link in the sidebar). I plan to use it to buy myself something that is extravagant and luxurious--something I wouldn't buy for myself ordinarily. (Of course, I probably won't be able to buy enough of it to make anything with... but a girl can never have too many skeins of yarn to just carry around and pet, right?)

Samara and Aaron went all-out. Not only are they taking me to The Beach, a waterpark near Cincinnati, on Monday, they hosted the cookout, and bought me presents! From them, I got a skein of Malabrigo in Sealing Wax (a pretty orange-y red), an issue of BUST magazine, and two things to help fill the box--round Simpsons playing cards, and a soda fountain-style drinking straw holder. My friends are strange and fun.

Speaking of strange and fun, I should go get ready for today's excursion--Fort Boonesborough. I've heard that they have working smiths and coopers--I'm hoping for a spinner, too!

Hooray!

It's my birthday! I started the day off right, too, by opening the presents I got in the mail on Tuesday. Let me tell you... This was worth it.





On the left is the food processor I got from my parents. I swear, my mom is a psychic--I don't think I had ever told her that I wanted a food processor, but on Monday or Tuesday I was looking through one of my cookbooks (the Settlement Home one--thanks, David!) and saw a recipe that I really wanted to make, but couldn't, due to my lack of food processor. I can't wait to use it!

On the right is the Ancestral KitchenAid mixer that I got from Brother David and his fiancée, Abby. I absolutely adore it, and I see lots of baking in my future. I was amazed when I opened the box and saw what made it so heavy. I think this makes me an official adult now--I have a stand mixer! Feels pretty good.

I got a lovely surprise when my boss got to work, too. She asked me to come into her office, and produced a box wrapped in bright yellow paper. Inside was this:


Yarn! Hooray, yarn! At the top is Sockatta, and at the bottom is Wildfoote, in all its handpainted glory. (I might see if I can exchange the Sockatta for a different colorway. This one is nice, but it's very similar to what I got from Elann.) It cracks me up that my boss got me yarn. She was so excited about it, too! I think we might have a yarn lover in the making here...

After work, I'm going to a cookout that my friends are throwing me, and I am confident that I will get at least a little more yarn. I try not to be materialistic, but I do so enjoy opening boxes and seeing what's inside! Not to mention the fact that tonight I have been promised brats on the grill (heaven!) and ice cream cake.

I love my birthday. This "getting older" stuff rules. You get presents and treats just for being alive.

Oh! And I made this yesterday. Fishie!

I Have Arrived

I got my first blog spam today. I think that makes me official.


I wish I could insert a ruled line.

I don't think I can.

Oh, well.


An old friend of mine is having a rough year, and I got the brilliant idea to make her a nice shawl. When I went away to college my mother crocheted an afghan for me, and wrapping myself in it felt like a hug--and I'd like my friend to have something like that, too. And I thought to myself, "Self, you should crochet this shawl so it's done sooner than it would be if you knit it, and you should use something like bouclé, so it's warm and fuzzy and soft and can be machine washed and dried." So I headed down to my local fabric store, which was having a sale on Lion Colorwaves--"A soft bouclé yarn blended to create a spectrum of colors"-- (discontinued colors) and picked up six skeins for $7.50. I picked out a pattern, started to crochet, got to the end of a row--and remembered that I hate crocheting with bouclé, because I can never find my damn stitches. I tried to crochet a hat with bouclé and wound up with a placemat.

Grrr.

It looks like I'll be knitting a shawl, after all. Maybe I'll just use really big needles to speed the process...

So sleepy...

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but at the tender age of 25, I think I am too damn old to stay up and go to the midnight showing of anything. At least, I should take a freakin' nap before I go!

I didn't take a nap before the midnight showing of Harry Potter because I was at Stitch 'n' Bitch, finishing this:


This was the best picture I took, but it's still hard to see the golden snitch there at the bottom.

And of course, today (when I go to work, after lunch) I will be wearing











Two socks! That actually, really match! That I made!

This is pretty cool.

Of course, the universe has its little ways of evening things out. Even though I ended the day with two finished objects, went to see a fun movie, and got these in the mail (full of birthday presents!), not everything could go my way. In hauling these big, exciting boxes into my apartment, I did this:



Oops. Guess I should have made two trips.

Even though it's a pretty nasty-looking bruise (the the photo doesn't begin to convey the swelling), it doesn't interfere with my knitting too much. Something to be grateful for!

Done!

Sock Three is done!

I have a real pair now!

I will post a picture this evening, because my camera is at home and I... I am not.

Almost There...

I'm thisclose to being done with Sock Three, the match to Sock One, and it's been killing me to have to actually do work this morning instead of knit. I'll have to type fast, so I can get in some quality sock-finishing time during my lunch hour.

Since my sock will be done, I need to find something else to knit at Stitch 'n' Bitch tonight. I thought about taking my new card suits project (in which a total beginner intarsia knitter attempts to modify an illusion knitting chart and use it for her own purposes--photos coming soon!), but I think I would have to concentrate too hard on it. I need something that will still allow me to interact with people!

I realized last night when I started the toe decreases on my sock that when I'm seriously concentrating, I completely close off. I had been listening to an audio book... and suddenly realized that I had no idea what was going on! I had missed about five minutes of the book while counting stitches, rearranging them on the needles, realizing that they were arranged incorrectly, fixing them, and remembering how to do a band toe.

So, until I get to be a little more experienced at this knitting business, I'll have to save the "hard" stuff for those quiet moments at home.

I think I'll work on this: a must-have for any enormous geek! (Like me; currently in frantic IM conversation with friends trying to arrange a last-minute midnight showing ticket-buying excursion, and contemplating exactly what I will say when calling in sick tomorrow if I actually make it to the midnight showing. 'Cause there's no way I can come to work on three hours of sleep.)

And I can't believe I just used that many words to decide what to work on next.

Two FOs!

I was a busy little knitter today! Before I left for a lunch date with a former coworker, I cast on a new sock and knitted about an inch and a half of the cuff, and I finished the Knit Along dishcloth. (The sock has since been frogged--I'm not really sure how I screwed it up, but man, did I screw it up!) The dishcloth looks like this:


I tried something new when taking this picture: I used a paintbrush to dab water on the reverse stockinette parts (in this case, the sun's rays) to make them stand out more. I think it worked pretty well.


I also finished my illusion spade. The good news is that it really looks like a spade.


I'm slightly amazed by how well this technique works. Which is silly, because there wouldn't be patterns like the one I followed if it didn't work.

The bad news is that Grandma's "coaster" is nine inches long.


Long, but pretty and stripey!


I have about a dozen other patterns that I'd like to try... but I'm trying to finish Sock Three before I really jump into anything else. (Says the girl who started and abandoned a whole new sock today.) I do want to see if I can find a pattern/chart for doing card suits in intarsia... and I just found a new dishcloth pattern that I really want to make.

Phooey. At least I'm not the only one with a bunch of projects on the needles!

Nothing to Show

I'm squeezing in a quick post on my lunch hour to confess that I have no fun yarn-y news.

I've been working on my definitely-not-a-chicken dishcloth knit along--today is the last day, and after yesterday's rows, the picture is complete. Not a chicken. Sorry, Mom! I'll post a picture when I'm done.

Although I find myself wanting to find a chicken cloth to make now...

I haven't been doing much on my sock.

And I spent my entire freaking evening yesterday doing computer things that involved three irritating, complicated, multi-page online forms--plus the parts where I printed things to mail, noticed a typo, reprinted, noticed another typo, reprinted again... And then I got the bright idea to print the addresses on the envelopes (so as not to sully them with my handwriting) and couldn't figure out how to do it for a while.

So. No real knitting last night, and my next afghan is still sitting next to the arm chair, staring at me, accusing me with its uncrocheted skein-yness. (I feel slightly guilty about temporarily abandoning it, for no good reason. It's not for anyone--just a way to use up yarn--so why the guilt? Must be that Germanic work ethic.)

I saw a lovely picture today while I was taking a break, a picture that only fanned the flames of my desire to learn stranded colorwork. Here's the picture, lifted from The Yarn Harlot's archives:


Doesn't that just make you want to make exactly that?

Of course, that could just be the sleep deprivation talking. I'm working on an exciting stretch of insomnia, and I have a feeling I'm walking around with that look in my eye--at least, judging from my coworkers' facial expressions when stacking more projects on my ever-growing inbox pile, I think probably I am. (I still can't figure out why, if I'm so freakin' tired [which I am], can I not sleep for more than an hour at a time? It's crazy.)

I need a nap. And an assistant.

Happy Fourth!

I skipped SnB tonight--I wanted to go, but when a friend jokingly threatened to kick my butt if I didn't do something and I got all teary, I decided that I was busy enough (read: swamped) that I shouldn't shirk for 4 hours tonight, even if it did sound like a lot of fun.

Instead, I came home and did dishes, then baked two different desserts for the party I'm going to tomorrow, then did more dishes... then I knitted, secure in the knowledge that all lunches will end happily tomorrow and that no bugs will be drawn to my countertops. (I'm so easy to please!)

I finished the heel gussets on the Third Sock (no photo--feel free to look the red one in earlier posts and pretend it's shorter, and open at the toe), and did today's dishcloth knit along. Here's the cloth so far:

It's difficult to photograph these picture cloths, but you get the general idea. I might be too impatient for this; it bothers me to have to stop after 9 rows and wait for the next day.

For now, though, I'm ready for bed. I have the day off tomorrow in celebration of Independence Day; I hope everyone else does, too! Happy fourth of July!

Weekends are for Knitting

It's time for show and tell!

My Illusion Spade is coming along. I've got a bunch of stripes now.


But sadly, it has definitely surpassed the bounds of coasterdom. And I still have a long way to go!



Look! It's part of a spade!

I also spent part of the weekend working on another sock. (I had to keep telling myself that it was probably not a good idea to knit a sock while doing the AIDS Walk... so I walked without knitting. There was a knitting presence there, though--the fabulous Sarah, co-owner of my LYS, was staffing the ReBelle table and worked on a really cute tank top the whole time.) In the end, I finished the cuff and started on the heel flap. I kept getting distracted, though, by things like shopping and season 1 of Fraggle Rock, which my friend Samara bought. (Actually, she dragged me to Circuit City with her, using the promise of a Michael's visit as bait. Damn her--she knows my weakness!)

Does anyone else find themselves resentful of activities that don't involve playing with yarn? I have dinner plans tonight, which interferes with my desire to sit on my couch and knit while listening to a book on CD that I checked out from the library. I had to get it on CD, you see, because I find it very difficult to read and knit at the same time, and I've been hit by my traditional Summer Urge to Read Good Literature. I'm not sure why summer always makes me want to dive into the canonical heavy hitters; most people think of summer reading as light, fluffy, "trash" reading. I read the trash in the winter and the Lit in the summer. I am backwards. Oh, well.

I won something! I never win anything! I'm so excited. And it fits my new sock obsession perfectly! What a great way to start a Monday!