One Crazy Fiber Lady

Ambivalence

As Judy has requested a photo of the new cut, I figured I should oblige.  Not one of the greatest pictures of me, but I think it shows the nicely ceramic iron straightened hair pretty well.  I'm going to quit trying to take photos in the bathroom mirror, boy was that a scary experience.  Thank goodness digital photos are cheap as I wasted a lot of them!  I went with the natural wave this morning and oh boy can I tell you that the two textures are so different.  The iron really seals in the shine and makes it very silky.  It doesn't take much longer to do right than fighting with the big round hairbrush and the hair dryer.  I was just running that late this morning.

On the knitting front, I've finally finished the Opal Rainforest Fish socks.  As a testament to how fast I can knit them, once I get going, the second was not touched since I cast it on during the commute on 9/1.  This weekend, my folks and I took the twins out to visit my sister and see her brand new house.  OH MY G-D, it is absolutely gorgeous!  More on that later though.  As my folks have a car that seats 7, they did the driving, while I sat in the back and knitted.  I took that sock from the cuff to halfway through the heel on the way and to the toe decrease coming back.  I finished it this morning on the bus.  Yup, running late and took the bus.  I happily got the stripes to match almost exactly and am very pleased with myself there.  I'll cast on for a pair for Alex tonight.  The beaded amulet has been tossed aside.  Since my attention span for these projects is shorter than the twins for toys, I'm going to give up hopes of anything larger as a Rhinebeck project and stick with the family socks.  Make it a yearly tradition, at least until they have any say about it.

The new Knitty is up and I've put together my wishlist.  Samus, Falling Leaves and Bubby are all very high on the list of likes from this issue.  I'm a heartbeat away from casting aside Eris and working on Samus instead.  While Eris is a lovely sweater and the pattern exceedingly well done, I like the line of Samus better.  While I'll have to swatch (shudder at the thought), I'm pretty sure I can get gauge with some of the KnitPicks yarn that I've laid in over the last year, or if not that, the Araucania that I bought for Rogue.  I have a Power Squadron dinner tonight so I doubt I'll be able to swatch much before tomorrow.

Back to my sister's house.  Oh my goodness, it is absolutely lovely.  She moved from a small 2 bedroom ranch in northern NJ out to Lancaster County and a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 3000 sq-foot dream house.  Her kitchen/family room/breakfast nook is larger than my whole apartment and gorgeously decked out with cherry floors and fabulous cabinets and moldings.  It really is a beautiful house, if only it were a bit closer.  Not too terribly far, but a good deal of the route is not highway driving and as a result can be unpredictable to time.  It takes anywhere between 2 and 3 hours to do the drive, one way.  Saturday morning was one of those 2 hour 40 minute rides, though the countryside is pretty, and hey, I got some sock knitting done while watching Finding Nemo on the dvd player.  Oh boy did the short people have a good time running around in those huge open spaces.

Speaking of the short people, we hit another milestone.  They can no longer be contained in a Pack 'n Play (unless I can get a cage lid for it).  We put them down late yesterday morning for a nap.  Naturally, while tired, they weren't keen on the idea.  After the crying stopped and all got quiet, I was lulled into a fall sense of security by the quiet and relaxed in the family room with my family.  The twins were in a closed room in the Pack 'n Plays.  Not so fast you say?  You're right.  It wasn't long after that I heard giggling as two little people were coming downstairs.  They'd escaped the playards and Alex had already proven his dexterity in getting the door open.  Twingenuity.  Have to love it.  Only a matter of time now before they are escaping their crib and my good times have ended. :)

Dating

Bleh.  I'm tired of it already.  I now remember that I never really liked it the last time I tried it.  Hell, I can explain my less than successful marriage on settling to get off the dating ride.  Thank you everyone for all your comments on the whacko who wouldn't take no.  Nice to see that my instincts are trustworthy.  You'll be relieved to know that I haven't heard from him since I told him to get lost last Tuesday.  I've spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with (B).  So much so that I sent him an email on Friday, pleading that he not call me that night.  We've talked every night for several hours and I'm already sleep deficient.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the conversations with him, but he calls me every night, at least once during the day and now add in several emails a day.  I haven't even met him face to face yet.  It just seems like too much too soon.  I'm not used to that much attention and I'm not entirely sure about how to rectify this.  Because of all the contact with this one guy, I haven't been able to communicate with a couple of others that had contacted me. Hell, I'm not even sure I want to date anymore.  Dating just sucks. 

While I find the attention flattering, something is just rubbing me the wrong way.  I called (J) this morning (well returned his call) to cancel our lunch date for today as I had a deadline to meet and wouldn't be able to get out of the office.  I'm too ambivalent on the whole dating thing and feeling pretty crappy as my allergies seem to have kicked in again, that I didn't want to wreck that relationship before it had a chance to get off the ground and well, got to work a bit late.  I told him I'd call him back as the week progressed to see when we could reschedule.  Sounds good, right?  I'm screening calls at the office and only answering the ones I have to.  Heck, 99% of all calls to my phone here are personal in nature so my boss wouldn't mind my not answering it.  I've ignored probably a dozen calls so far that the caller-id displays as Tie-Line.  One was subsequently followed by a call from the reception desk.  I answered that one.  It was (J) calling back to see if he could call me at home tonight.  What's with that?  I don't make a call to ask if I can call you?  Is it me or these guys acting a bit desperate?  I don't return a message for a couple of hours and they try again and again and again.  If I don't answer my cell phone, they call my office line and if I don't answer they, they send an email.  Enough already.  Should I be thankful instead of annoyed that I've "met" attentive men?  Am I crazy? 

Oh, one observation so far in this one week old dating game.  Dating as a late thirty something is far different than when I was younger.  Oh boy are the conversations far more frank and open.  I've had conversations with three different men on the phone and all of them have questioned me on sex.  What?  Call me a prude, but you don't talk about that before you even meet face to face.  Holy shit.  I want to take everything slowly and get it right this time and they are asking me about sexual preferences and the like.  Ugh.  I want to crawl back into my yarn and fleece lined hole and hide there thanks.

Bonus points to those who made it this far!

Craft on.

eleven-aught

One of those days.  I was just finishing one list bit in a rather lengthy, brilliantly written, emotionally deep and otherwise fabulous post when I got a little confused closing a browser window that I had open for a link.  You know where this is going right?  I'm using the maxthon IE with its beloved tabs and well, closed down the whole works 98% complete posting and all.  Since I'm only brilliant once a day and that time has passed, we're going to do this Cate style with bullets and overall randomness.

• I'm still waiting to hear word from my uncle Richard in New Orleans.  Last my cousins (or other family members) heard from him was Tuesday morning when he reported that the water had risen to the middle of his driveway and then had started to receed.  Cousins and aunt are pretty sure he's okay and just unable to communicate.  They also advise that the house is in the 20% of NOLA that isn't flooded.  Naturally, I'm still concerned.  My cousin Paige, who's due in some 5 weeks, was directed to her sister's OB in Atlanta where she'll more than likely have my little nephew.  Doesn't look like anyone is going home to NOLA anytime soon.

• I spent last night watching the news coverage of the continuing tragedy, keeping my hands busy, much in the same way I used my spinning wheel thru 9/11.  I made myself a bracelet last night from a pattern I found on the Interweave Beadwork site in their subscriber area (the last issue I picked up on the stand had the subscriber-only password on it!).  You can see the whole bracelet here.  It is made from 4mm hematite beads with gunmetal delicas and a pewter toggle clasp.  My first bead order arrived and my second is scheduled to arrive today. I also finally got a picture of the necklace up in the album as well.  Note to self:  set up a light tent for proper pictures of beaded and yarny goodness.

• The knitting and beading collision is not far away on the horizon.  I have this pattern ready and waiting.  When?  When the orders from Elaine's favorite crack bead seller and The Mannings arrive with the needed supplies.  What can I say, I'm weak.

• I finally did manage to cast on that second fish sock.  Took me until this morning on the train in to do it.  Boy am I a slacker.  It does look like I've managed to get the color repeats almost exactly the same as on the first sock.  That was a good mental note I made.  I held this sock to the first and the stitches are dead on.  Yay me.  Sorry for the crappy picture, I took it this morning on the train.  That's my pink mohair "Kerry Blue" shawl in the background.  That's been my train shawl for the last couple of weeks.  I made it during my last last phase some years back.

• I had yesterday off so I took advantage of the hairdresser appointment that my mom was going to cancel and finally get my hair trimmed.  I missed/cancelled the last three so I vaguely remember my last cut being somewhere around February. Nothing special, just a trim with some fringey bangs cut in for excitement.  The fun was how she styled it.  Kassie used one of them nifty wet-to-dry ceramic flat irons.  I love the results!  It got my wavy hair pin straight.  She did give it a smidge of a curl under and I'm just digging it.  I did some googling when the twins went down for a nap.  Now I ordered this (same model she used), but also see this one and this one.  All the same model number, all on Amazon and three different prices.  You betcha I ordered the cheaper one.  The one I ordered appears with a Ships in 3 to 5 weeks delivery note on the product page.  I can wait, right?  Lived this long with wavy hairs, what's another couple of weeks.  I just got the shipping notice.  It went out today, actually a day ahead of the estimated ship date that I got in the confirmation email of tomorrow.  Go figure.

• After I blew away my witty post, I had to get away from the evil that is a computer.  I headed uptown to  ever crowded midtown and hit a bead store.  Yup, weak I am.  I had seen another pattern I wanted to try and I had to get more beads for it.  Hope the kids nap well this long weekend, wouldja?  I'm into beads in a big way.  I see a side business starting up before long.  Must support the habits somehow ;)

Prayers and thoughts are with those affected by Katrina.

Craft on.

Single track mind

Yeah I knit.  See:

The first Opal Rainforest sock in Fish is now complete.  I grafted the toe on the train this morning.   I also got the skein ready for the second sock.  For a change, I made a readable/findable mental note as to where in the color repeats I started this sock in so I could come darn close to duplicating it for the second.  I'm ready to cast on for its mate tonight.  Having made these cuffs shorter than normal, I think I'll have enough yarn to eek out two pairs of monkey socks.  I think this colorway is okay for Alexander as well.  Hmm.. maybe we have our family Rhinebeck socks.  We all wore matching socks last year, though they weren't wearing shoes and I spent most of my time retreiving socks from the sidewalks, under the stroller, etc.  Still wish I had a nickle for every kind soul who stopped me to let me know that Alex had lost one of his socks.  I finally gave up and tucked those socks in my pocket.  This year:  shoes (aka Sock Protectors).

Did I knit last night?  Nope.  Spin perhaps?  Nyet.  Any guesses?  DIng ding.  Yup I played with the beads some more.  An addict is born.  I was giddy when I saw my order placed yesterday shipped yesterday.  Woo.  I do hope it will be here before the weekend.  I found I had enough seed beads to work a cuff bracelet that I found in a Winter 2005 magazine I had in stash.  I managed to get halfway done with it last night and should easily finish it tonight.  More beads!  More beads!  More beads!!!!!! 

It really is only a matter of time before the beads and knitting collide into one project.  Elaine showed me some beautiful beaded knitting she's doing with pearl cotton and seed beads.  I'm visualizing pearls on socks, at the intersections of a diamond pattern.  I might opt for the crochet hook and string bead on as necessary approach rather than days of threading seed beads.  That, naturally, is subject to change if the right pattern comes along.  I do have a load of that crochet cotton thread in a variety of colors thanks to previous flirtations with both thread crochet and tatting.  See, if it involves thread/yarn/cord, I did/do it.  Stash good. 

Wanna bead!  Must work :(

Craft on!

Relief

I sat in horror watching the television reports that terrible February day.  I'm sure it comes as no surprise that this acknowledged and outted Trekker was very happy to see the shuttle program resume.  Space is a dangerous workplace but the exploration is a calling.  I cheered as Discovery escaped the planet once again.  I wanted to wait for the full celebration until her safe return.  I tell you there was a victory pump, a lump in my throat, and tears in my eyes as she touched down.  Safely.  Welcome home Discovery.

I had a bit of a snafu at the daycare center this morning.  The teacher who was supposed to open at 7:30 completely forgot about it.  I arrived at 7:55 to find a crowd of parents outside with their kids.  Lots of phone calls and folks driving about, I was able to head for work at 8:20, only 15 minutes late.  Late enough to miss the train though.  I opted for the 8:32 bus rather than waiting around for the 9:08 train as I wouldn't get to work quite as late.  Besides, while the bus isn't my first choice, in a pinch it does offer up bonus knitting time, especially if traffic was bad. I cast on the second sock for Kat this morning.  Unlike my pair, I actually tried to start the yarn in about the same place.  Instead of 4 rows off for mine, I'm off by stitches, if that.  Take a good gander in the photo.  Cruddy colors.  Mea culpa.  I'll explain that a bit later.  By the time I got the office, I was two rounds short of the heel flap.  I turned the heel on the train tonight.

My office has/will install web monitoring software.  They've also set a computer usage policy.  Sigh.  What that boils down to is less fun internet time at the office.  I doubt that I'm going to be posting every night, unless of course, I can figure out the posting by email thing.  I could always add photos later.  Not like I always post a photo either.  Email response is going to be even spottier than it already is. (My apologies to anyone expecting an email from me now.  I had a deadline today to make and I spent last night rearranging kitchen cabinets as the new melmac has been arriving.)  Seriously, the last thing I want to do after spending a day in front of the computer is to come home and do it again at night.  I also won't get to read as many blogs as I currently do.  Surfing is not exactly productive.  I'm sure there will be some understanding that a break is needed every now and again.  If not, I'll take up smoking again and take advantage of the breaks that offered!  Yeah, not likely.  I've made it 4.5 years, I'm not starting again... though I could in a heartbeat.  Now might be the time to train myself to do away with the sleeping thing.  Yeah.  Think of how much more I could accomplish if I gained back those 7 hours! All good things.. right?

Craft on.

[Edited to add....]

How could I forget about this?  Elaine and I are co-hosting an Eris KAL.  Elaine did a fabulous job setting up a forum much the same as the Rogue KAL.  It is here.  Read her equally fabulous posting about the KAL on her blog today, here.  Go read it.  Now, go join the forum and the KAL :)

Deja Vu

What's this?  Have I lost my mind and because of a lack of stuff to photograph, I'm posting an old photo again? 

I started socks for the little monkey girl last night on the train home.  I started reducing for the toe on the PATH train ride in this morning.  Whoa.  Talk about instant gratification in the knitting world!  I love socks for their quickness.  I totally adore toddler socks!  I'm not using any particular pattern beyond my basic one with some math done to scale down for the short blocky monkey feet.  Since I'm pretty much winging it, I have been making notes so I can duplicate it for the second sock. 

While Wednesday night I was on the insomnia side of the weird walking coin, last night I couldn't stay awake.  I tried.  Hard.  I found myself dozing off on the couch and didn't have any energy for the SSSBG.  I plan on finishing that this weekend.  I want to get it wrapped and in its recipients hands next week.  This super secret stuff is killing me! 

Other than finishing the thing, I really have no plans this weekend.  Though while I'm finishing things, I should really just finish Trellis once and for all.  The poor thing has bee languishing seemingly forever!  Hopefully the weather man has it right and this stiffly HHH nastiness that has been lingering will move on by tonight.  I'll probably fill up the twins pool on the front lawn and let them go to it.  My parents took Alexander for a haircut yesterday.  What a huge difference a few minutes with scissors makes.  He looks like such a big boy after a haircut.  We won't get into how shaggy he'd been looking before the cut.  Hell its been some 4 months, or maybe more, since my last trim.  I've had to cancel the last two appointments due to some injury the day before.  I'm scared to make another one! 

I've been doing some thinking about the sweaters that I've lined up on the queue and the yarns that I've purchased for them.  I've come to the decision that Rogue is going back into the "someday" pile.  I'm going to do Eris first in the Araucania Natural Wool.  I've had ChicKnits LoTech Sweat on the queue since I finished Ribby.  I could use either the Patons Classic Merino I bought way back or the Wool of the Andes.  I don't think I'll have that many needs for a hoodie that I really need to make two of them, but you don't know.  Hmm.. I wonder if I could just put Rogue through a pattern shrinker and make it for Kat-Kat instead.  (Kat-Kat is what me and the rest of the crowd, including her brother, call the monkey girl.  It was only a matter of time before I started typing it.)  That might be a challenge I could take up. I like the cable patterns and Kat-Kat needs a new fall sweater so maybe that should ook its way to the top of the queue.  I have that pretty bright fuschia Jaeger Shetland Aran for sweater.  Its the right guage.  By George, I think it could work!  It also fills my burning need right now to knit with wool.  Ahh wool. 

Thanks to its being non-wool, that Soleil in the bamboo yarn is going to be no more.  I'm not enamored with it.  Will it go into dormancy along with the Big Sack Sweater?  Probably.  Until something else demands I use that yarn for it. Maybe back to the FBS that I pegged it for until that butterscotch yarn turned my head. I'm willing to call that Summer Ribby in the CottonEase a forever UFO.  Talk about languishing!  I can't remember the last time I worked on it.  I do know I swiped its needles for other projects:  one for Trellis and the other for SSSBG.  I have to admit, I'm not liking the CottonEase so much.  I don't like its very splitty ways.  If I ever get around to doing a summer ribby in a cotton blend, I'll get a new yarn for it.  I'll inventory my stock of CE and put in in the Looking for a Home album (hopefully this weekend) and will post when its there.

I'm out of the office at 1 today.  I'll have 3 hours to myself before I have to pick the monkeys up at daycare.  Oh what to do with myself?  Shop?  Excellent idea.  'Cept the ankle isn't thrilled with lots of walking.  I know, I can finally do all that post office stuf that I've been meaning to do for ages.  Speaking of which, that Sockotta is winging its way off to Rosemary in a trade for some of her extremely lovely looking Merino-Tencel blend sock yarn.  Yay!  Everyone have a good weekend.  Stay cool in the Northern Hemisphere, stay warm in the Southern ;)

Craft on!

Phoenicopterus ruber

We have a FO!  I might be primarily a process knitter, but oh how I love finishing stuff.  I'm still task oriented by nature and seriously dig being able to check things off on a list.  Well check off these Opal Rainforest Socks.  Stick a fork in them, they are done.

Project details:

Yarn: Opal Rainforest Flamingo
Pattern: My Own Basic over 60 Sts
Needles US2 - Metal DPNs

Started: 7/24/05

First sock finished 7/27
Second finished 8/3

Loved these socks.  Loved finishing them so quickly.  I have considerable yarn left over and will be making little Miss Kat-Kat a pair.  I have one of her shoes in my purse now to measure in case I can't find the standard toddler shoe size/sock chart that I once upon a time had. 

I had a bonus child-free night last night.  Way back when, before I got smart, I would turn down my parents offer to keep the kids for the night.  Now?  I'm smart.  Sometime during dinner last night it was decided that the kids should stay with my folks.  Wednesday nights are perfect nights for them to sleepover as mom watches them on Thursday.  No need to twist my arm.  After finishing assisting in the assembly of the newest backyard toy that my father bought, a dip in the pool (it was brutally hot/humid), I went home.  Alone.  Odd it was too.  So what did I do on my bonus night off?  Knitted?  Close.  I pieced knitting.  Umm, have I mentioned my dislike for hand-sewing knitted pieces?  Oh I have.  Yeah.  Not one of my favorite things.  I did put in another 2 hours on the Super Secret surprise baby gift and have another 4 or so to go.  I look forward to a day when the SSSBG is done.

What else have I been up to? I noticed that the twins weren't oh-so-keen on their toddler friendly plastic plates from Ikea while I ate off the not-so-friendly Corelle.  Last weekend during our meals at home, I opted to use the plastic plates myself so we would be more cohesive.  It was around then that I gave thought to how my folks had handled the issue when I was a kid.  Melmac.  Mom had a serious set of Melmac dishes.  While I can't remember the exact design, I do vaguely remember this plate covered entirely with blue and white flowers.  I googled Melmac after finding that acrylic plate sets really aren't too available and struck gold on eBay.  After winning a couple of auctions, I will now have a serious supply of melmac at my home shortly :)  Who knew that it was trendy?!  I was just being practical.  Anyway, I got a crash course in melmac.  At the same time it was a bit of a walk down memory lane.  All those hideous colors from the 50's to the 70's.  I finally settled on the least offensive of the bunch and came up with the Royalon Corsage pattern.  Royalon was the melamine division of Royal China.  Cool huh?

These pictures are borrowed from other auctions.  I think its kind of kitschy and look forward to their arrival. 

Hell it kept me from buying yarn ;)  I started documenting my stash late last week and was shocked by how much I have purchased in the last 7 months.  22.5 miles of yarn!  That did not include a considerable amount of sock yarn or any yarn purchased at Maryland.  It was only the yarn that I either blogged or had a receipt for in my email.  Ooookay.  Need to use some of that up.  Now I just have to keep from bidding on all the Royalon Violet Corsage pieces that show up on eBay.  Everyone needs a hobby, right?  And the violet?  Has to be better than that 60's avocado green.  Shudder.

Craft on!

 

The Wheels on the bus...

...go round and round.  The CFL record breaking sock knitting continues apace.

Here's where I left off after this morning's commute.  I included the first sock in the picture so you wouldn't think that I did something so underhanded and show the first sock's pictures again ;)  I know.  The stripes don't match.  They're about 4 rows off of each other.  I'm fine with it.  Really.  I am.  You can see my crafty homemade Star Trek mousepad peeking out from under the socks.  A couple or six years ago I was at a computer show (yeah I go to those as well as Trek Conventions as well as fiber fairs ) and saw blank mousepads.  I remembered the nifty inkjet printer with the iron-on transfer printer paper and went to town.  I wasn't selling them so I didn't step all over the mighty Paramount's franchise rights.  Not like they were selling Voyager mousepads anyway!

...anyway for the first time in a while I did NO knitting after getting the twins down.  I actually fell asleep on the couch watching tv last night.  I was so tired.  Tuesday night I had had trouble falling asleep and then tossed and turned well into the night.  The hobbling around during the day leaves me a bit tired as well.  I plunked down on the couch and after catching NASA's update on CSPAN (with a side trip to the internet to find out what STS-300 was), I fell asleep in front of Mythbusters. 

Tonight will have minimal non-bus knitting as the monkeys and I are going home.  Two weeks later.  Staples delivered the digital scale I ordered so I can Click'n'Ship the packages that I planned on doing two weeks ago.  I was actually heading for Staples when I missed that step.  So everyone expecting a package from me, including my Secret Pal victim who doesn't know who the heck I am, will be getting one shortly.  I'll also finally get a chance to unpack my new Hitchhiker wheel with the two drive ratios!  I'll have to pack the old one back up and send it back (the little direct drive wheel had a malfunction).  Woo.  Yay me. 

I also hope to do some more stash documentation.  I spent a while yesterday while waiting on something at the office, using Excel and my email stash documenting my yarn stash.  All the yarns blogged about since March, with the exception of some sock yarn and the stuff purchased at Maryland, I have some 22 miles of yarn.  Scary scary thought.  I'm pretty sure I missed some things, like the supplies for the super secret baby gift, not to mention some odd skeins I never blogged.  I don't have to hide yarn purchases from a SO, but I do from ya'll ;)

Okay batch job is finished.  Gotta go.

Craft on!

One of Two

I think I bested my old record for the fastest sock.  I'd have to check my FO album, but cast on to toe grafting in about 5.5 hours (5 commutes + Sunday's cast on) is what it really boiled down to.  I do have work in the ends, but I finished the first of the Opal socks.

I knit the last stitch on the bus this morning (ugh made me queeeeaaaazzzzzyyyy) and grafted the toe on the subway.  I noticed a woman across from me watching very closely.  Such pressure!  Now I have to futz with the yarn and see if I can match stripes ;)

The ankle is there.  BTW, it is my right ankle which has left me driving impaired.  Mom had me drive from the bus stop to the house last night which went off without too much pain.  Could I manage my normal daily driving of some 6 miles?  Yes.  I don't think any long road trip is in the near future, but local driving is doable so the twins and I will be moving home tomorrow night after work.  This will allow my folks to at least get in a long weekend away on the boat having canceled their original vacation plans for this week.  While the swelling has gone down a bit, bruising is up, and in odd places too.  The middle three toes are just ugly with blotches of blue, purple and hints of green.  Lovely.  Not.

Not much else to report so I'll cut it here.

Craft on!

Workforce

I'm going to say for the record that I now dig riding the bus to work.  Yes it stops and starts.  Alot.  The bus is also subject to the whims of traffic.  Yesterday involved a 25 standstill even before the helix for the Lincoln Tunnel.  Today was clear sailing until halfway through the Tunnel.  There was a backup at the Port Atrocity which had the buses stalled again.  The bus can also make me a touch queasy and I don't exactly dig that feeling.  Why then, you might ask, do I now dig riding the bus to work.  I'll show you.

The first Opal Rainforest sock in Flamingo as of the end of this mornings commute.  I had O.N.E. solid hour of knitting this morning on that glorious bus.  I even had the front row passenger side seat for the last three rides.  Makes a huge difference in the queasy feeling at the end of the ride.  Remember I started this sock Sunday night, spent almost no time on it, just established the ribbing on the cuff and stashed it in my bag for the Monday commute.  I had the heel turned and the stitches picked up for the gusset by the end of the ride last night.  With my rather small feet, 6.5" to the beginning of decreases for the toes, I should have this sucker done in no time.  I could get used to this kind of knitting time.

Well the dude I was waiting on finally got back to me with the answer I needed so I can now get to serious work on my project.  Took him long enough, I asked him for input last Wednesday.  I sent a friendly reminder yesterday morning.  Ugh.  Gotta go code.

Craft on!

Grindstone

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes!  I'm slowly slogging through all my email and will reply to all though it will take some time. 

I had a fabulous birthday and spent the afternoon sitting on the patio with Birchington.  I reached the point where I've started to reduce now.  I took the width to approximately half the 299 stitches of Birch.  I do have a 4 stitch border (3 st st + 1 yo) on both sides of the pattern to ease in the next step.  I've been slipping the first stitch of every row, creating a selvage that will be easy to pick up for the borders. 

Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate.  We did indeed go to the Trackside Grille in Fair Lawn where my baby sister and her fiance met us, coming in from her temporary digs in Allentown.  The closing where she sold the house near me was on Tuesday so it is for real.  She's happy, I'm happy.  Plus she's moving to Lancaster county where the fabric hobbies abound and will probably be a good stop point for a MDSW trip.  I had some delicious Cappelini Basilico and a glass of wine.  I shared some very delicious French Onion Soup with Kathryn.  She loves her soups.  My parents ran into a friend at the restaurant, sharing the reason we were there, who then told the owner to be good to me.  He bought me a drink with his compliments.  Took me a minute to figure out what I really wanted with my dessert.  I asked for Frangelico.  Yum.  I had to beat my kids off it.  Don't tell anyone but I did dip Alex's pacifier in it to give him a taste.  He rather enjoyed it.   The one dark spot was that Kat melted down around dessert time.  Mom took her out to the car where she watched Barney on the DVD player.  All in all, it was a great day.

Saturday was a gorgeous day.  The stifling humidity and outrageous heat were gone leaving a day that was oh so beautiful.  I again parked my butt in the rocker on the patio with Birchington.  My other sister came up with her youngest son and her mother in law to spend the day and lend a hand.  Her hubby and oldest were on a boy scout camping trip.  We had a lovely day outside swimming, gabbing, eating and enjoying each others company.  The twins had a blast following their almost 5 year old cousin around.  As Birchington is not a good social knitting project, even though I do grok the pattern (thanks Cate for reminding me of that term!), I did need to catch up on the baby project.  While I want the precious prizes for being first on Birchington, there's a harder deadline for the baby.  I don't like missing deadlines.  I managed to knit 2 day's worth of quota on it before running out of yarn.  Mom picked up more from my apartment yesterday when she went to feed the animals.  Since it is a super secret project I can't post any pictures of it so you're picture-less for Saturday.  Oh well.

Sunday dawned bright and clear again.  The weather was downright enjoyable and I once again took my perch.  This time with my knitting.  First Birchington and then after Mom returned with some yarn from my place, a camera sock for her brand new Elph identical to mine.  As you can see, I used Sockotta from the stash and have plenty left over.  One problem, I don't particularly like the yarn.  Anyone want a slightly used skein of sockotta?  There should be more than enough for a pair of woman's socks as long as you don't go nuts with the cuff. ( Drop me a comment or email at crazyfiberladyATgmailDOTcom if you're interested, maybe we can wheel and deal ;) 

While the poor pool heater gave up the ghost yesterday, there was swimming.  The 12 year old girl from next door came over to swim with her friend later in the afternoon.  While Kathryn was taking a nap, Alexander played lifeguard.  He stood there watching the girls in the pool for a very long time.  Amazing for a little bloke who doesn't stay very still for much.  Perpetual motion is more his bag.  Generally there's a big grin on his adorable little face.  Goofy boy. 

After dinner, bath and bed, I sat down with some new sock yarn last night to start a good commuting project.  Okay, I have loads of projects on the needles and well, yes, I did need another one.  I have a couple of commuting options open to me and with the ankle unhappy, I wanted the one that forced the least amount of walking.  The Bus.  Even though I've been taking the bus more frequently these days, the motion of it still makes me a bit queasy, especially if I'm knitting something that requires a lot of attention.  That knocked Birchington out of the running.  The Super Secret project?  It was getting a bit big to schlep around as a commuter project and I was trying to minimize the amount of schlepping (at least until healed).  Everything else was at home and not at my temporary residence.  That necessitated a new projects, specifically SOCKS!.  I saw a link last week to Simply Socks Yarn Company and the availability of the Rainforest Opal yarns.  Now with all the sock knitting I've done over the years I've never used Opal, though I've wanted to try it.  I ordered a couple of colors:

I have to admit I had a lot of trouble narrowing down to just these and was sorely tempted by quite a few of the colorways. I placed the order on the 20th and the box was at my house on the 23rd.  Good service in my book!  I started with the Flamingo and while I don't have my favorite sock needles with me, I'm making do with a set of US2 (I'd rather have my 1's).  The yarn is fabulous.  I think I finally have a favorite sock yarn.  Yes it is a self striper and yes I've gone on the record for not being a fan of that type of yarn.  Hey, they sell solids too.  I'm not sure why I went with these, though the Lady Bug does hold a warm place for me as Kathryn's nickname for her first 5 months was "Bug" and was accessorized with ladybugs.  The socks were a good project for this morning.  A bus broke down in the bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel stopping everything dead.  We sat there for some 30 minutes.  Was I upset.  Au contraire, mon frere.  This knitter was ecstatic to have bonus knitting time!  By the time we arrived at the Port Atrocity (okay Port Authority Bus Terminal) I had started the heel flap.  Zippy socks.

A quick update on the ankle, it still hurts.  Yup.  Tender, swollen, funkily bruised and definitely there.  Also definitely better than it was a few days ago.   My boss is out on vacation this week though I have a project that I need to have completed before his return.  Now if only the feller I'm relying on for some feedback would actually give me the feedback I could work on it.  I don't like being dependent on others.  Ugh!

Craft on!

Winner

We have a winner in the name the yarn contest:  Laurie.  I am indeed using Bamboo, the nice while bamboo yarn from Habu Textiles that I bought at Purl in April.  The stitch markers will be winging their way off to her.  Thanks for playing everyone.

Anyone who doubted the fate of the PGR Dream Sock after yesterday's first post doesn't know me too well.  It is now a nicely wound center pull ball all ready to be cast on.  Hopefully the third fourth time's the charm.  Pathetic.  I don't have hopes for this yarn and its ever meeting its destiny in becoming a finished sock.  I did a little pattern surfing yesterday and found the Aran Braid Socks.  I'll give them a shot.  I found them through a wonderful directory of free sock patterns on the net (if you back up a level there, they have other patterns as well! I tend to dislike dealing with About.com and its library as I hate that floating nag bar and all the advertising). If this doesn't work, the Retro Red Kroy is going back into stash and something else will be coming out.  I've been futzing with it Memorial Day Weekend! 

My poor monkey girl is all stuffy, with gunky eyes and a cough.  She's just rubbing at her face and eyes.  I gave her a stiff shot of Benadryl last night and she was able to sleep through.  Eyes were terribly gunky this morning and it took some cotton balls and warm water to clean her up.  Poor monkey girl.

Here's one of those quizes.  I haven't posted one in a while and I liked this one.  I think it pegged me pretty well.

********

What Kind of Needles Are You?

You are "turbo" charged. Fast moving and classy, you get things done with
power and grace.  Your expensive tastes can be
deceiving, since what you really value is
quality and efficiency.  As you're careening
around those corners in life, finishing a dozen
knitted objects each month, stop and smell the
roses.  Don't miss the beauty of process!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

*******
Craft on!

Summertime

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  It was hot and humid here all weekend, temps well into the 90's both days.  The monkeys and I spent a goodly amount of time here:

While not a picture I took (as I couldn't remember to put my camera in the bag either day) it does give you a vague impression of the pool.  My googling skills are being challenged today as I can't seem to find any specifications on this pool.  It is a rather large, sand bottom pool located near one of the town's middle schools and borders on the Passaic River.  The baby area is a small slice that is fenced in and came to just about my knees at the very deepest part of it.  It was a perfect depth for the twins.  I could even sit with the level below my shoulders and one of the monkeys could sit in my lap.  I brought sand toys and they alternated between sitting on the curb of the pool and playing in the sand and wading around in the water.  We all got some good fresh air, plenty of sunshine and a little bit of color.  It was a beautiful weekend. 

Best part of the weekend?  MOTHER'S HELPER!  What a fabulous concept that is.  J is a great girl.  She just graduated 8th grade last week and has spent the last year or so working at their daycare center after school so the twins know her pretty well.  J's mom is their 8-3 teacher at the center and has been since they started at 12 weeks of age.  They live pretty much around the corner from me and mom will drop off J when I ask.  I'm having J babysit on Friday (the daycare center is closed this week for vacation) to cover a half day for me rather than take a full vacation day.  Which reminds me, I need to check if my sister is going to be around so that I can leave her number as an emergency.  Having J with me at the pool was just invaluable.  Kat got a bit upset yesterday and being able to sit with her on the blanket in the shade while J was in the pool with Alex was just priceless.  Love the idea. 

Now for the knitting content.  First up?  BIRCH.  I was into the second repeat of the pattern and while I could read the lace, I just couldn't see it.  I know with lace there is that leap of faith thing where it looks like nothing more than a glob of yarn.  I've just seen so many pictures of Birch in progress on other blogs that actually looked like something that I was sure that I was doing something wrong.  I had been using the 7US Addi turbos and really knitting loosely.  A necessity when knitting lace with those things as the tips just suck for lace.  As a result, the lace was very very loose.  I pulled out my Lantern Moon US6 straights that I bought at the yarn store closing last month and tried those.  The tips were far pointier and now two rows short of a pattern repeat it is really starting to look like I would expect it to.  Only problem is, straights stink for commuting knitting.  I just ordered a set of Addi Naturas online and hope to have them SOON.  I'm sure I can suffer through the straights until the circs arrive. 

Speaking of ordering, thanks to Denise and her link to the Kid Seta, I have some of that on order.  I ordered enough to knit another Birch.  The Kid Seta looks like it would be a good alternative to the Kidsilk Haze.  I ordered a very unusual color for me.  See, I'm embracing my Autumn Colors palette.  Green was never a color I'd select, but with the hazel eyes and the red highlights to my hair, this should be good.  Right?  Regardless, it should make a pretty Birch in a good leafy color. 

Fessing up to one last yarn purchase before a new era of austerity (and using up something in stash) is Shine from Knitpicks, in Apricot.  I'm going to use this for the Eyelet Cardi.  I realized this morning that I need a nice light cardi in a non-dark color and this just fits the bill.  I love that color and when it arrives, this moves to the top of the queue.  I ordered a little extra as I plan on full length sleeves.  I'm not a huge fan of the 3/4 length jobbies. 

Well my last new project doesn't seem to have confused many of you as to what the pattern is.  Just about everyone guessed Soleil.  Katy was the first so she's the winner of the angora fuzz.  We don't have a winner for the yarn yet as it isn't All Seasons Cotton.  I'll leave the yarn piece of this "contest" open until Noon on Wednesday when I'll announce what it is.  I did make a collection of stitch markers just in case someone does get it. :)  I also made myself a row counter bead bracelet.  Not one of the nicest beaded things I've ever seen, but should be handy for the shaping instructions I skimmed in Soleil.  I did finish the lace piece of Soleil on the train home Friday night and she's sat untouched since then.  I was distracted by both Birch and my secret project, which I would rather finish sooner rather than later. 

One last piece of knitting business is that goofy sock, the PGR Dream Sock in Retro Red Kroy.  I'm halfway through the foot of the first sock.  Still.  I just can't seem to get up the energy to work on it.  Its a perfectly functional sock.  I tried it on this morning on the train (got a odd look from my seatmate) and it fits fine.  I'm just not moved by it.  I'm further concerned that if I'm this less than enthusiastic about the first of the pair, how sad will the second be, not to mention how darn long is it going to take me to make that one!  I could rip it, but then that would be the second ripping of this damn sock.  I do like the Cable & Rib socks in the new IK, but don't have the pattern with me.  I didn't take my big bag with me this morning as I had a nasty headache and went with the lightest load possible.  I had Birch (on the straight needles) and the sock.  When I got stuck on the inside of a 3 seater on the train and straight needles became untenable, I unhappily switched to The Sock.  I tried to read my ebook on the Path train rather than continue on The Sock but found that Alexander futzed up my Palm Pilot when he got into my bag yesterday.  It wouldn't turn on and I had to reset it just now.  I'm going to rip the sock.  I just hope the now splitty Kroy holds out for one more go 'round.  I think I'm just going to do my standard, vanilla plain sock with the good old heel flap and be done with it already.. unless of course I can find a pattern hiding on my desktop.

Craft on!

On the Mend

I'd like to thank everyone for their very thoughtful comments to my last posting.  I'll be individually responding to your comment but if I haven't I just wanted you to know I have read it and I thank you.  I tend to agree that the blog is for whatever I want to use it for.  Like most of you, I do prefer to keep it more of a surface level record of my projects, my family and what's on my mind.  I am careful when I do post something that it isn't of too personal and is something that I don't mind the world knowing.  As a footnote, I'm still amazed that anyone reads and that this would be a problem.  So thank you all!  My dilemma was that I did have something on my mind and if I had posted it in the language I was starting to use I would have hurt people.  Not faceless blog readers who if they disagree with what I write could not read anymore.  That wouldn't bother me.  This would have involved people that I see FTF (thanks Laurie for that!) almost every day and I didn't want to do that.  Do I know that it involved regular reader(s)?  No.  But I can take a guess.  While I'm discontent feeling disconnected, I don't want to inflict it on others.  Sorry for those who got a bit more in response to their comments than they bargained.

Returning to the regularly scheduled light hearted blog that this is...

I'm getting to be a pretty good judge of how much I can get done during my commute.  On Wednesday I predicted that I was going to finish the back during my trip home.  I did just that.  (Thank goodness for timestamps from digital cameras to keep us honest.)  Here's the back reclining on the middle seat of the three-seater train car on the way home.  I saved casting on for the front until my commute in yesterday.  Nearly forgot to change to the smaller needles, but remembered it at the very last minute.  Read that as being RIGHT before I would have had to tink.  As of this mornings arrival in Hoboken, I had four rows past the initial cable twist done.  I've been knitting Mondo on the train and saving the sock for the PATH train rides.  I'm a smidge short of starting the heel on the sock.  Normally this sock would probably be done, but it really has been limited to PATH knitting.

For clarification, the PATH train is akin to the subway, but more limited.  Port Authority Trans-Hudson is a quasi-government agency headed by the Governors of New York and New Jersey.  They operate this little subway like thing between New Jersey and New York.  The Port also operates Newark Airport and were the owners of the World Trade Center.  If you're curious, here's a link to their website.

Now that we've had a minor mass transit diversion, I honestly haven't been spinning.  Either I've come home too late from my parents house because we opted for swimming:

These were taken on Wednesday before dinner.  Kat is sitting her on the side of the pool with her very favorite person in the whole world.  Pop-pop.  They are loving the water and we haven't felt the need to torture the monkeys and shove them into bathing suits.  The only problem with this pool, as you can see from the shot of me standing in the shallow end is that it isn't shallow when you are only 31" tall.  And there are no steps, just that ladder.  Thanks for all the feedback on the municipal pool!  We'll be joining that this summer and hopefully the kids will enjoy it.  I've also arranged with their daycare teacher for her daughter to be a mother's helper, so I'll pick up a pool membership for her.  So strange to be arranging for a mother's helper.  I remember when I spent the summer as a mother's helper.  That included a three week stint at a rental beach house on Long Beach Island.  That was the summer I turned 17 and I got my driver's license the day before we left on the trip.  How to torture a teenager right?  It was for a family with one boy, who now that I think about it was about the twins age.  Stephanie, I would have loved to take one of your girls as a mother's helper!  Maybe next year.

I've been music-less, or just about music-less during my commutes recently.  I have an iPod.  The 10gb size that I bought in December of 2003.  It's worked pretty well though I have noticed that its battery life had been seriously decreasing.  I don't listen to it all the time and it has been in my bag for a while, unused.  But then I'll go through a period where I want to listen to it, everywhere.  Now that I'm sitting in a different car on the train and not getting off when all my old traveling buds where, I wanted it again.  I charged it up, dropped it in my bag and then after a day of not using it (yes I put it on hold) the damn thing turned itself off immediately yesterday, bevitzing about its battery.  I hadn't used it!  I vaguely remembered the news bit that I heard last week about Apple settling an iPod lawsuit so I did some searching.  I turned up this website and actually found the claim form in the mail.  I does pay to register ones purchases.  I even managed to turn up the original sales receipt from my time of purchase.  Thank you Judge Judy for recommending keeping a drawer and just tucking receipts into it.  No I haven't found the receipt for Purl yet and I've given up looking.  I charged the iPod last night so it was fully charged when I left this morning.  When I got to the office, I turned it on, noted the time and waited for it to run down the battery.  Beast only got 1 hour and 37 minutes of playtime before it shut off.  I'm well within the definition of battery failure for the purposes of the lawsuit settlement.  I've filled out the claim form and opted for a new iPod or battery replacement.  Their option.  Don't really care.  I ordered one of these in silver yesterday.  It shipped last night.  Checking the FedEx tracking, while the package arrived in Newark, NJ this morning at 9:37 (which is less than 1/2 hour from my home), delivery is estimated for Monday before 4:30.  Geez.   

Since I haven't been able to find any good summer skirts in the local stores and 1) fit and 2) aren't made of some cardboard-like fabric, I think I'm going to sew myself some.  I spent a little time surfing patterns online and came on this one.  (Simplicity 7655).  I made a post-it note and stuffed that in my bag in preparation of hitting a fabric store sometime today.  Somehow this pattern looked very familiar though.  After the twins were asleep last night, I pulled out my box of patterns and lo and behold.  There was 7655 looking at me.  Nice to see my tastes haven't changed.  Classic is classic.  I had gone through another period of sewing some three years ago and must have picked it up then.  I'm going to make the skirt in the shorter length in something summery.  Probably two.  Maybe event three.  I purged my closet a few months ago and really don't have much.  Not to mention now that I found my seasonal color scheme I honestly can say I've been buying the wrong colors.  I had on a black top yesterday and really looked at myself in the mirror.  Ugh.  Its the wrong color for me to wear by my face.  It brought out those very lovely yellow undertones that squarely put in me Autumn colors.  I think a few new skirts in my new found colors are called for.  Maybe I'll make myself a nice totebag too, though I have recently been using a backpack as my tote/purse/knitting bag.  Julie's venture into sewing has me seriously tempted to make one of these as well.  Would matching skirt/totebag be a bit much?  Honestly, I don't do a helluva lot of sewing though I've been sewing for even longer than I've been knitting.  My Home EC Sewing teacher didn't particular like me because by the time I got to take that class, I had already been sewing for years and wore a jumper to class that I had made.  She pretty much ignored me and left me to my own fun while teaching others the basics.  While they were busy making pillows (which I did with my leftover fabric), I made this off the shoulder, long sleeve blousy top. 

This weekend I hope to finish off the rest of the second batt of butterscotch wool and get the two bobbins plied up.  I love that little wheel and I found that with the right diversions, I can actually spin when the monkeys are out of their cages cribs.  I'm going to head to the bookstore this weekend as well, as my employee discount gets an extra boost for the next 3 days and pick up a couple of books.  I think my Secret Pal might be getting herself a book as well. 

To answer Lynne's question:  who are your two favourite captains?- Kirk and Janeway :)  Though I can appreciate Picard and Sisko.  Though with Sisko I didn't really like his mopey brooding demeanor in the early seasons. I found fault in Picard in that he actually relied on Troi.  Useless empath.  "Captain, I sense hostility."  So instead of saying something like "Oh yeah, what gave it away sister, was it the fact that they are FIRING ON US" he would act as if he couldn't tell this himself.  She certainly didn't belong the bridge of all places, wearing a cheerleader outfit.  Nothing against cheerleaders.... 

..Sorry rabid trekker took over the keyboard there for a moment.  The crazy fiber person is now back in control.  Before the trekker comes back, I think I'll close this longish post.  Maybe pictures of spinning/stash this weekend. 

Knit, Live Long and Prosper, Knit on!  (Down trekker)

Don't Blink

Remember the pretty picture I posted yesterday of a lovely red sock in the Gull Wing pattern from Socks3 reclining on my leg on the train?  Forget it.  That sock wannabe no longer exists.  The needles were pulled from its fragile existence on the way home last night and the yarn reclaimed.  I spent the trip starting another sock, this time with a picot edge and when I got off the train I was planning on adding a diamond pattern on the cuff from my pi shawl. Worked until I sat down with said sock last night to relax a bit and knitted the cast on edge together with the live stitches to make that nifty cuff.  It was 3 rows past this point that the needles were yanked again.  I then performed an exhaustive search of my sock pattern queue and came up with a bunch of socks I would love to make, except they all wanted a sport weight yarn.  Yeah yeah, I remember the nice Louet Gems that I bought when out with Cassie at Purl except I was too lazy to get out the swift and wind it into a ball, not to mention I now had this started skein of Kroy and I better do something with it.  I cast on this morning for Priscilla's Dream Socks from IK and after my commute in, I have 1.5" of 2x2 rib.  Excellent commuting knitting project.

Okay, so I still don't have pictures of my MA haul because I was distracted by the sock thing last night.  There must be some block that I'm fighting regarding photographing the stuff.  Part of me wants to be super creative, take the stroller picture and do an image map to link to individual pictures of the stuff.  Yeah, in my vast amount of free time.  Its not like the haul is neatly put away and I have to pull it all out to photograph it.  Yeah.  Not likely.  Its in the corner of the living room at a 3+ ft height to keep the short people out of the fiber.  I saw Kat fiddling with the Sheep Shed peach colored merino from its hanging place on the stroller.  I do have this picture though.  My mother took it on Monday while I spun on the back of her boat as Kat napped.  I love the little wheel.  It is a great addition to the collection.  BTW, the monkeys slept very nicely on the boat Sunday night and other than fishing a pacifier out of the Hudson River, the time was uneventful.  My father deemed this little wheel:  cute.

Having answered the questionnaire yesterday regarding favorite colors/palette and all that and not really knowing an answer, I frittered away some of my ME time last night googling a way to find my colors.  Based on my hair/skein/eye color, I'm an autumn.  I was really (to borrow a phrase) gobsmacked by this.  Me?  Who used to own only two colors?  Black & White.  Autumn?  Could explain the recent pull by the oranges, not to mention the initial color venture away from the BW, brown.  He-he.  Earth tones.  I can dig it.

There was chatter yesterday on the EZasPi list about doing Rogue.  This has been on my ToDo list for a while now and I can swear I had earmarked the blue Shetland Aran from eBay for it.  My new found color palette told me the blue wasn't really my color.  I did what any crazy would do. I ordered more yarn. In this case, 14 skeins of Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks in Cranberry.  I nearly got the Briggs & Little Heritage that I see is being kitted up for Rogue, but I'm really unfamiliar with that yarn.  The price is certainly attractive, but I didn't want to commit to a sweater out of an unknown.  If anyone has worked with it, please let me know what you think of it.  While was ordering, I seem to remember adding a few skeins of sock yarn to round it up to the free shipping level.  Only sane right?  I'd like to make the cardigan, but would love to knit it in the round.  I'm seriously considering {gulp} steeks.  I might just try that on a swatch first though.  I'm not completely nuts you know.

Craft on.

This and That

Okay, first:  ignore the terrible look on my face.  I was seriously tempted to cut my head off in the picture but figured that would look even stranger.  Here is Ribby Shell in Rowan Handknit Cotton.  Love the sweater.  Hated the knitting of it.  I'm definitely planning on doing it again, but this time not in 100% cotton.  Honestly, I don't think I'll ever knit in 100% cotton again.  Ever.  Serious.  Good thing I live in a cooler clime eh?  Anyway, here's the requisite shot of me wearing my newly (and I mean newly, I had just cut the last tail off when I pulled off my black shirt and put this on.  That also explains the black bra under this thing.) finished tank.  Nifty.  Comfy.  It will definitely get alot of usage if the weather ever frickin warms up around here.

Falling in the "As If I Didn't Have Enough to Do" category is this.  I've joined in a little office Knit Club group project.  I don't think the end user is a reader, but I know other members are so I won't say too much.  I started this last night while watching The Apprentice (yeah I watch that on and off) and after an hour had 36 rows of 42 stitches complete.  I'm up to 64 rows as of this morning with a total of 72 to hit.  We're using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and this is the My Blue Heaven color.  I've never used the yarn before but have been eager to try it.  OH. MY.  I LOVE IT.  80% cotton.  20% merino wool.  The wool snob (as Nancy correctly calls me) really likes the way the merino has softened the feel of the cotton.  It works up very nicely, though I do have to pay some attention as it is softly plied and subject to some serious splitting.  It is very nice and would be a contender for another Ribby Shell.  Need to compare it to the Rowan All Seasons cotton.

As I correctly predicted, I finished the first of the F&F Twinkletoes socks yesterday on the train home.  It fits very nicely and I'm truly pleased with it. 

Which brings me back to the commute home.  It was only yesterday that I musing out loud, so to speak, about my train options.  I opined that the trip in through Penn Station sucked while it was glorious going home.  Actually I think I said brilliant.  Kiss of death you know.  Not only didn't it work brilliantly last night, but it just sucked.  The train left the station on time.  It chugged out of the station and then entered the tunnel under the Hudson River.  About a minute into the tunnel, the lights go out, the fan stops blowing and then the train coasts to a stop.  There we sit in the dark with only the emergency lights lit.  For 40 minutes.  Not only did I miss my usual connection at Secaucus, I missed the backup train as well.  Oh lets not forget the fact that I FORGOT MY CELL PHONE in my car yesterday so I didn't have it with me.  There's also the small fact that my father was waiting to pick me up!  Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers.. who don't have NEXTEL service (they don't work in the tunnel).  The gadget laden fellow across the aisle kindly loaned me his phone.  I got home an hour late.  ARG.  My father advocated skipping Penn entirely.  I'm inclined to agree with him.  I'm going home through Hoboken tonight.  So there.

Since I'm likely to be coming home from Cummington with a new wheel, I think its time to get rid of one already in the house that I don't use.  There's nothing at all wrong with this one, but with 6 in the house and maybe one on the way, its time to reduce.  I'm offering up my European Danish Flax Saxony wheel.  It is a small wheel and this one on eBay looks like it could be its fraternal twin as the drive wheel is slightly different between them. As you can see it has a removable distaff and integrated lazy kate.  It has 4 bobbins and with Baron immediately behind it, you can get an idea of the scale of the thing.  Those tiles on my floor are 12"x12" for further scale. Anyone interested, drop me a comment and I'll be happy to discuss. 

Have a good weekend. 

Craft on!

Clickety Click

For a process knitter who hates the artificial pressure of knitting for others, I set myself a deadline for the Ribby Shell and then had the audacity to move it.  Closer.  Now I do better with deadlines at work.  Seriously.  I like deadlines.  Now this doesn't mean that I'm going to finish something way ahead of the deadline so I can coast into it.  No way.  That wouldn't be fun.  Not this former Queen of the All Nighter.  Does this mean I'm going to knit until my fingers cramp just to get Ribby Shell done tonight so that I can return one stinkin' skein of Rowan Handknit Cotton in Flame tomorrow?  Rest easy Cassie, no.  I finished it last night.  Woo hoo!  I still have to work in the ends and sew up the shoulders, but the knitting piece is D.O.N.E.  While I can't find my receipt, I hope Purl will take the skein in exchange.  Not sure for what, but I'm pretty confident that I can find something.  I'd seriously doubt that it would be for more 100% cotton.  Maybe the All Seasons Cotton. 

Nancy was kind enough to forward this link over from the  Knitty.  The smallest size calls for 4 skeins of the All Seasons Cotton.  I do have two upcoming babies (not mine!) to knit for and I'm tempted to make this for one rather than a blanket.  It would also give me cable practice before I was sick enough to take on an adult sized one for myself.  I do think this sweater in a 6 month size would be good for my cousin's pea in the pod.  She's due in September and lives in New Orleans.  This would probably be good for the less than totally chilly winter that they get.  Though blankets have a longer lifespan.  Not to mention, cabling in cotton?  Should I just have myself committed now?

I'm really progressing nicely on the F&F socks.  I started the toe on the PATH this morning.  I should have it finished  by the end of my commuting today. 

Non-knitting content

Speaking of commuting, I've modified the whole thing.  I had been taking the Bergen Line of NJ Transit from home to Secaucus, where I then transfer ed to a Penn Station NY bound train.  At Penn I would either take the subway to the office or in a fit of extreme energy I could walk to the building.  Going home just meant reversing the process.  Now when it worked it worked very well and I could get from my parking spot to my desk in just about an hour. However, it doesn't work very well very often.  The trains heading to Penn Station are never on time and are generally packed.  I find myself standing on the platform waiting and waiting and waiting.  When the train finally shows up, most days you need a shoehorn to wedge yourself in.  Certainly not conducive to good knitting time.  Now you also need to consider that all this transferring means a lot of short little hops.  12 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 2 stops on the subway.  Bleh.  More time walking and waiting than actually riding and knitting.  Granted I've still managed to be pretty productive, but all that moving about does reduce the knitting time.  The train alternative is to skip transferring at Secaucus, take the Bergen Line all the way to Hoboken and then take the PATH train to 14th Street.  Works nice and was my commute for years and years prior to the opening of Secaucus last year.  However, it does involve a two avenue schlep from the station to the office.  Okay, tis shorter than the schlep from Penn Station to the office, but lets be honest, I didn't walk it all that often.  It also takes a little longer and makes for more of a 1hr 10 min commute car to desk.  Not too terrible considering I've had a seat, transfer ed only once and have been knitting almost the whole time.  However, I get home later as I can't catch the early train home without leaving the office conspicuously early.  Now Hoboken works for coming in and Penn method works for going home.  Hoboken is cheaper than the Penn.  PATH is cheaper than the subway.  So what's a girl to do?  Hoboken in.  Penn out.  Keep the monthly pass as is for the more expensive leg and keep my options open. Difference isn't all the much but I could crunch the numbers and find a cheaper way to do it. I'll see how it goes.

In the "You don't see that everyday" category, get this.  Go.  I'll wait.  I was one of those pedestrians on 14th street on my way to the office.  I saw (and heard) those two beautiful white horses trotting up 14th street towards the park, hooves clapping the pavement, harness chains jingling.  It stopped me dead in my tracks.  I thought I'd seen it all in this city.  New York.  Gotta love it.

Knit on.

The Eyes Have It

Well yesterday I sort of promised a bunch of pictures.  Well I took the pictures, spent some time trying to dig up decent graphic editing software at home (found disk after disk) but foolishly only brought one with me to the office this morning.  Yes I remembered to put the camera back in my bag.  Well for some odd reason I couldn't install the desired software so I was faced with either huge arse pictures eating up server space, surfing for free image editing software or resigning us to another pictureless posting.  I surfed.  Just so many blog posts I can fill up with text.  I'm no writer.  Even had a high school english teacher tell me that.  She was right.  I think.

But I digress.  I found a pretty decent freeware graphics program that isn't your every day little beast.  Quite nice to use and it met the needs of this techie geek.  http://www.xnview.com for those who care.  So I bring you PICTURES!

Here are the Feather and Fan socks from Socks*Socks*Socks in the fabulous Twinkletoes yarn.  If there is one plus to having small feet it is that I get to make short socks!  Oh and I can buy sneakers in the children's department.  But that also means that I need to look for dress shoes in the children's department.  Not such a plus.  PITA if you really ask me.  That's why I have a closet full of shoes.  If I find something that fits that looks decent I'll buy multiples.  Especially if they offer several colors! Oo-la-la that is just heaven.  Now you know why I tend to favor my handknit socks and my Birkenstock's.  Just easier and far less frustrating than shoe shopping.  Anyway, the sock fits beautifully and I'll start the toe when the foot reaches 6.5".  I made it another 1" or so past this picture's length during my much delayed commute this morning, but that's a story for another day.

Here's the Rowan Handknit Cotton Ribby Shell.  After this picture was taken, I came within an inch of finishing the left front.  I would have done it but I was so enthralled by last night's episode of House that I couldn't tear myself away to get another skein.  Ignore for the moment that I have ReplayTV and could have paused it.  Please further ignore that the ReplayTV was taping the thing all along.  Yeah.  I'll have that piece done tonight and a good start on the right side.  I'm setting an even more artificial deadline for myself than next week for Cummington on this thing.  I'm meeting Cassie for coffee on Friday and since we're surely going into Purl, I'd like to return the extra skeins.  I do like this pattern very much.  I don't like the yarn.  Well I love the color.  I like the feel of the fabric.  But I dislike the inflexibility of the cotton.  Ick.  Ouch.  Even with the nylon needles, I still can't work too long on this without paying for it.  I couldn't use the Denises (though you see one serving as a stitch holder) as the joins suck and I spent far more hand energy pushing stitches around.  All in all a loosing prospect.  I sit in dread of the fact I have two packs of this yarn in different colors to make baby blankets out of.  Ugh.   Maybe I can trade for some wool/cotton blend or even acrylic/cotton blend.  I just can't see myself knitting with this 100% cotton again.

Here's the singles I've been spinning from the romney roving that I got from The Barefoot Spinner.  You can also get a good look at the wonderful Woolee Winder sitting on my Lendrum.  LOVE IT.  I'm ever so glad I picked it up.  The downside to the WW, it winds on so evenly that I get MORE onto a single bobbin and it takes LONGER to fill the thing up!  I try to sneak in a little spinning when I can, but it is competing with all the other projects that make up my crafting life, not to mention work and last but no means least, the short people who live in my house. 

Speaking of the short people, Kat has a new favorite word:  No.

Ain't toddlers fun?

Knit Craft on.

Still Here

Just a quick post, I'm still chugging along.  Been awfully busy for the last couple of days.  Work has had a combination that made it difficult to blog ;)  Both having a deadline to make for a project and finally getting my new computer.  I had to clean off the old one and move the files that I wanted to save someplace else.  Unfortunately my network homedrive has a quota and I was going to go over it by a far cry.  I had to get the Helpdesk to copy a directory I put together on my old machine over the network onto my new one.  I finally got the machine yesterday at 4:30.  It is snazzy.  While I haven't had a chance to put it through its paces, it has twice the memory of my old one and a considerable processor upgrade.  The old beast was a sluggish 733mhz pentium.  Slightly faster than my Sony Clie handheld, but not worthy of a software developer.  The new one is a womping Pentium4 3GHz.  Vrooooom.  I should probably notice the difference the next time I try to compile code.  It also has 6, count em 6 USB ports with two of them on the front of the machine! I spent a good deal of time today installing things that aren't part of the standard package and have a few more things to go, like my Clie.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my Feather and Fan socks.  I've been plugging away at them, quite contentedly too and finished the heel on the train this morning.  I'm now an inch into the foot.  I haven't tried them on yet, but will later.  I really do like the pattern very much and have no intention, nor urge, to rip the needles out again.

Work progresses apace on the Ribby Shell.  I finished the back portion last night and started on the right front (knitting backwards you know - right front direction is actually that written for the left front).   I should be pretty close to finishing the right front by the end of House tonight.  Love that show!  With hopes of not giving the project the kiss of death, I'd love to have it finished for Cumington.  We'll see :)

I've also been spinning again.  Yeah, if only to justify going to another fiber festival and adding more stuff.  I moved my Lendrum upright to the bedroom so that it could stay set up and I could move my glider rocker to a better spot in the living room (it used to live behind it) and spent some time Saturday night trying out the new Woolee Winder (love it!) and spinning some of the new roving that I got at MDS$W.  This is a romney roving from the Barefoot Spinner.  If you check back at my SEX picture, it is the blue/pink blend that I'm doing now. I'm spinning it pretty fine and tightly twisted.  I'm aiming for a good sock yarn (big surprise) and while I have a pound of this roving, I think I'm going to do it all at this weight and sell the excess over my sock needs.

Maybe photos tonight.  All depends on whether I can remember to bring in the photo editor software to the office tomorrow.   Ain't nothing good on the machine and the freebie stuff doesn't allow resizing of graphics.  Dumb. I can rotate to my hearts delight but I cant shrink a 2048 pixel graphic to 480.  As I wrote in the feedback to one company as I was uninstalling their software, the automatic resizing is all well and good, but they severely lacked the manual option.  Just plain dumb.  Would that mean standard sized graphics on my blog?  Probably.  Is that a bad thing?  Uh nope.  I don't think so.  But the geek in me doesn't like when software makes all the choices for me.  Too big brother if you ask me.  I don't like Wizards and tend to disable them.  No, I don't have a pocket protector! ;)

On that note, I'm back to play with the new toy.

Knit on.

Episode II: Return of the Sock

The last we saw the Twinkletoes yarn was  on March 9th and they looked okay.  Not spectacular, but okay.  Okay was enough to get them relegated to the bottom of the bag and then the corner of the kitchen counter.  Ignored.  Unloved.  Though re-reading my post from 3/9, I was never completely happy with these and had been tempted by Jackie's work to rework it.  As I couldn't decide, it sat.  And sat.  And sat.  So sad and forlorn.  Poor sock to be.  I even got so far as to pull out the needles but only to put them back in last week.  Strange I know, but I was looking for something that I could work on while I cooked dinner and it had been conveniently sitting there. 

We all know what happened with the poor sock on Tuesday night.  Thankfully there are no pictures to document that tragedy. Once again I was lured by the Twinkletoes yarn knit into the Latvian Socks from Folk Socks by fellow bloggers.  On the other hand, I'm being called by the Feather & Fan socks from Socks*Socks*Socks that Cassie is knitting.  As I have both books it was a tough decision.   I finally decided to go with Cassie on this one.  While catching up on some ReplayTV recorded programs, I cast on and got a respectable amount done.  Baron graciously assisted photo taking once again.  You might notice that the dark spot on his face is getting larger and darker.  This is normal for the breed, much like a Siamese cat.  The really dark bits should get considerably larger then it already is.  While the color seems to be pretty cruddy in this picture (and not so great in the original), I'm much happier with the results.  Let's see if I can finish the first sock before the urge to pull the needles and remake it again hits.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words yesterday regarding Mom in Pi.  She might be lucky to have gotten such an item, but I truly am the lucky one.  She's the one who taught me to knit all those years ago, reversing her right handed continental knitting for her severely left hand dominant daughter.  She also taught me to crochet, embroider, needlepoint and sew.  She's my role model for being the mom I want to be to the twins. She's invaluable where it comes to caring for the twins.  I can't afford full time day care for them right now (even if I quit buying yarn) so she takes them two full days a week.  Because I can't get home from work in time to pick them up from the daycare center before they close, she picks them up those days.  She makes dinner for us 5 days a week.  I don't know what I would do without her.  Thank you mom and I hope you enjoy Pi.  It is really the least I could do.

Knit on

Beautiful Day

Now that the excitement of MDS$W has passed, life is returning to normal.  We're getting back into our bedtime routine, which had been blown away over the weekend, including the babies NOT sleeping in their own cribs but with me one night in the hotel.  That, thankfully is in the past and we're back to reality.

As if we didn't see enough new animals at the festival, the kids were treated to something new this morning:

We were treated to seeing this pair of mallards on the front lawn.  I went out this morning to feed Yeti and heard some quacking.  These two wandered up and I treated them to slightly stale bread.  They were still around when it was time to head off to daycare/work.  The twins rounded the corner of the house and saw the ducks as you see them on the lawn next to my car (yup I made sure to smudge my license plate to protect the innocent). These ducks must be regulars in populated areas as they didn't flinch as the twins squealed in delight at seeing them.  Unfortunately, we still needed to get moving so after I prodded the little people to continue the trek to the car, the ducks got up and flew away... much to the little people's delight.  They've never seen anything that large fly.  Mr. Duck has had some issues recently and is missing a patch of feathers on his chest.  I'm going to keep my eyes open for the in the coming days as I wonder if they are neighborhood regulars.

Since Pi had to go to Maryland to meet the other EZasPi'ers, I was delayed in getting her to her final destination.  While some folk knew what I was going to do with pi, I didn't announce it in the blog because mom does read it periodically.  Now that Pi's obligations elsewhere have been fulfilled, I gave her to mom for a belated Mother's Day gift last night.  Mom was surprised as I hadn't told her that I was making it for her and as we all know, I'm a pretty darn selfish knitter.  She posed for a blogworthy picture last night after dinner.  Now I think she needs a shawl pin to go with it.  Happy Mother's Day mom, I couldn't do it without you.

Just so you don't think I've done nothing but shop and quit knitting, here is Ribby Shell this morning on the train.  I love the color and how it is working up.  I hate working with the cotton though.  It is so hard on the hands, even with the nylon needles which do improve the experience.  Feh.  Give me wool any day.

I did get some knitting time last night and sat down with the poor Twinkletoes sock that was halfway through the foot working cuff down.  Was.  Not anymore.  I had been flipping through Socks X3 and found the Gull Wing lace pair.  Having seen Cassie's lacey handpainted socks, I decided to use this pattern with this yarn.  I also wanted to play with the shorty sock dpns that I got this weekend as well.  So I ripped out the sock and cast on Gull Wing.  Except I didn't like the shorty needles. The ends were poking me in the palm and I could only imagine the fight later on when working the heel and putting more stitches on one needle.  Not pretty.  I found longer pointy metal needles (gauge fun and all that) and changed to those.  While the knitting was nicer, I didn't like the lace pattern in that yarn.  I pulled the needles and ripped back to the 2" 1x1 rib cuff.  I put it back on the needles and started to just straight knit it again.  About an inch into the stockinette, I really looked at the ribbed section and just didn't like the 1x1.  I really wanted 2x2 like it used to be.  So I ripped it again.  Now I have no twinkletoes socks on the needles at all.  I think I'm going to try Cassie's pattern now.

Its the process.  Ohm.  Its the process.  Ohm.  :)

Knit on!

 

Insert Title Here

There are just some days where I struggle for a title to the posting longer than it takes me to write the rest of it.  I don't feel like the fight today so you can imagine a clever, witty, on point topic header and insert above please.  Thank you.

Once again there is a several day lapse between posts.  What's with that you ask?  I'm not entirely sure.  Yes, work got a bit hectic recently, especially with my boss out and my covering for his on call duties.  I had just come off my own on call week and nothing happened.  Naturally since I was covering for him, the world crumbled.  Figures.  That didn't stop KB (new coworker feller) and I from enjoying the nice weather and venturing further afield for lunch.  We did indeed go to Chinatown on Thursday.  MMMMMMMM it was Marvelous!  I'd highly recommend Tasty Dumpling if you are ever in the area.  The food was ridiculous cheap and just downright excellent and worth the long line and small dining area.  While returning to the subway, I snapped this view looking up Mulberry Street.  Okay, so it isn't only Chinatown, but also Little Italy, you still get the area's ambiance.

Saturday, the twins and I were graciously invited to fellow blogger Deb's house to spend the afternoon with her and the famous Chappy!  This was the twins first real exposure to a dog.  While they were initially hesitant by this barking thing that was much larger (and louder) than their cats, they did get to be pretty comfy with him. Deb had a great writeup of the afternoon so I'll just lead y'all over there.  My favorite picture from the day is one Deb took of the twins.  You can see it here.  No, I'm not getting a dog, but if I did, I'd want one as sweet as Chappy.  The current lifestyle wouldn't be fair to a dog.  While we are indeed out of the house some 10 hours a day, cats deal with that far differently than a dog.  Someday.

Trucking onwards, I finished the Cable Rib Socks that were a cause of much consternation!   The second one was amazingly faster (well not including the initial knitting of the cuff) than the first one.  That seems to break all the rules of sock knitting as I know them.  I guess in my supreme desire to not fall prey to the dreaded SSS, I'm doing them faster?!  Mine is not to question why, its just to knit some more.

Which is exactly what I'm doing.  I started the hoodie for Mr. Alexander.  The back, the right front and half the left front are now complete.  I hit the cast off point for the armpit this morning on the train and the second front should be done by tonight.  Mom and I agree, I will be finishing with buttons and not a zipper.  Mr. Adventure knows how to open a zipper but can't as of yet handle buttons.  I haven't started the button quest yet, but should really do so soon as this project is a quickie. 

The yarn for Stonington arrived over the weekend and it is gorgeous.  After a quick field trip to a yarn store for a set of Addi Turbos in size 4 and I'll be ready to start it.  I gave the instructions a quick look over last night and it seems like a nice straightforward project.  I just love EZ.  I added a few more of her books to my collection.  I picked up Opinionated Knitter and Knitting Around last week from Knitpicks.  Speaking of knitpicks, they've now added cotton yarns!  Sport weight so far, no I don't count the texturized stuff, but it sounds like they're adding more.  Maybe a nice DK or Worsted.  Yarn yarn yarn yarn yarn.  Why is that running through my head on an endless loop???? Baby blanket yarn has arrived, pattern is ready, have to check what needles it needs, maybe a set of Addi's for it too, and I'll be ready to go on it too. 

Where to frolic for lunch today?  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  I think a trip to School Products for Addi Turbos is called for and Purl tomorrow.  I love NY in the spring!

Knit on.

 

Sunny Day, Sweeping the Couds Away

Tuesday at lunch, Bridget and Amy remembered something about the first cable sock that I had completely forgotten.  I had been working on it using my brand new Rosewood DPN's that had just arrived.  Somewhere through that sock, I switched to the pointy metal ones, probably after reading the page in Stephanie's book that I took as license to like my pointy metal dpns again.  (As an aside, I also feel better about preferring a flap heel to a short row heels thanks to her as well.  If its good enough for the Yarn Harlot, it should be damn well good enough for me.)  Looking closely at the first sock, you can indeed see where I switched needles, it's about a 1/3 of the way through the foot.  Not terribly noticeable unless you are really looking closely.  The cables from thereon and the ones on the second sock matched exactly.  I agree with Nancy that it would be a bit dodgy to add repeats to get the length to match up.  Preponderance of fraternal twins notwithstanding... here's how the socks looked by the time I went to sleep Tuesday night:

Yup.  I had to frog it.  I don't frog all that much, and I'm not exactly a perfectionist, but I really had no choice here.  Thankfully, I am also a fast knitter!  Here's the second sock as of ...NOW:

Yup.  I turned the heel this morning on the train to Secaucus and was picking up the stitches along the flap on the way to Penn Station.  The very large cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee precluded any further knitting though.   I will be tucking the sock in my purse for during my lunchtime trek with the new coworker to Chinatown.  I have my camera so maybe a picture or two later of the outing.

What's that hanging off the needle you ask?  Here's a closer view:

That's a beaded row counter.  I have ten beads separated by ten jump rings.  As I finish a row, I slip the next jump ring on the needle.  This was sooooo incredibly handy when knitting the cuff of the sock.  The cables are on a 10 row repeat and instead of stopping to count rows, I could tell immediately where in the repeat I was.  Those little plastic row counters don't work with dpns, and are slow.  You have to stop and twist.  Blech.  The beads are fast!  I also got some beading practice while making this too!  I think I'm going to make me another set, this time with a different color bead each 5th bead.  How can I tell one end from the other you ask, well the 10th bead has a small seed bead stopper instead of a jump ring.  Ingenious if you ask me.

The best yet, I knit that sock while watching my ReplayTV!!!!  Woooo.  That thing will change your life.  I've had it one day now and I ain't ever getting rid of it.  Ever.  Never.  It was so very cool to pause the movie I was watching on TCM last night (Holiday with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn) when Alexander cried out.  Sweet.  I have it set to catch 24, House, Grey's Anatomy, ER for me and Barney and Sesame Street for the kids.  With the new DVD recorder I can burn all this stuff to DVD to play on the new portable for the car!  I love gadgets :)

As a quick informal survey, which do you prefer, large images in the post like today's versus the smaller thumbnails like Tuesday's.  Personally, I'm not quite sure which I like better and will vary from one to the other, sometimes both in the same post.  Just checking if there is a blogging etiquette that I'm missing.

Knit on.

While I've been happily busy at work, I've lost my primary blogging time.  I haven't posted, nor read in far longer than I care for.  While I have every intention of doing some of this after work, I just am so tired by the time the twins go down that I really want nothing more than to park on the couch, if not call it a night right then.  Weekends have been no better energy-wise.  I should probably start taking my vitamins and iron supplement again, but I don't have the energy ;)

This past weekend was absolutely glorious.  Sunshine and warm temperatures!  Saturday was for running around doing the errands that we can't do during the week, nor Sunday as I live in the one county in NJ where we still have Blue Laws.  No shopping on Sunday.  Swell.  Makes Saturday one busy ass day.  Still, we did get plenty of outside time.  Sunday was one of those spring days when you just can't stay inside.  The twins felt the same way and were just downright antsy in the house.  We went for a couple of walks in the stroller, played with the neighbor kids, learned to enjoy grass under bare tootsies and just enjoyed the 70+ temperature.  Ahh glorious indeed.  I'm closing my eyes (yup I can do that and blog at the same time.. I do touch type ya know) and transporting myself back there and ignoring the fact that it was 38F this morning with temps only going to the low 50's.  Spring indeed. 

I've hit a problem with my darn cable sock.  Here I was happily cruising along on the second one, getting excited when I counted the number of repeats done and looking at starting the heel flap in the next session or two.  Yeah.  Well last night I pulled my knitting into the bathroom and did one more cable cross while otherwise occupied.  Knitting time is knitting time :)  I wanted to double check the number of pattern repeats that I had completed on the first sock as I had cut the number from the actual pattern.  I pulled it out of the bag and counted.  9.  Good.  I just finished the 8th on the second sock.  Sweet.  Umm.  Errr.  I held the two together and my gauge is so different on the second bad boy that while it is one repeat shorter to the ankle, it is two repeats shorter lengthwise.  Holy crud.  I've never had my gauge change so darn drastically in such a short time.  I'm really at a loss as to what to do with the thing.  Do I just go for the length and pretend not to notice that one sock has 9 repeats while the other has 11?  I can't seem to find any mistake in the patterning in either sock so I can't just rip and redo correctly or mirror the error.  I can't just rip out both socks though I'm seriously tempted to.  Yuck.  I've got to spend more time analyzing both sock to see if there is a difference somewhere besides more aggressive yarn control.  Sigh.  No pictures of this as my little purse camera has no flash and doesn't like the office lighting.  This all leaves me less than enthusiastic to knit.

I started the hoodie for Alex on Sunday during their morning nap and actually had the back finished by the time I went to sleep.  I really like the Jaeger Shetland Aran.  What a wonderfully soft yarn that just knits up beautifully.  I'm glad I bought enough to make them each a sweater, and one for myself.  I actually have a sweater pattern picked out for me.  I'm going to use it to make Rogue.  I'm not going to make the pullover version, but hot off my success with adding the zipper to Ribby, I'm going with the cardigan mod to Rogue.  Neat.  At the rate I'm going, that should be my July knitting ;)

Thanks to Nancy's help, I've settled on a baby blanket for my coworker.  I'll be making one of the afghans from Leisure Arts' Knit One For Baby.  If you have this little nugget which contains 4 baby afghans, I'm making the one on the back cover... or it is also known as the "Lace and Fans Baby Afghan" from LA Beginner's Guide Knit Stitches.  I bought a package of the Rowan DK Handknitting Cotton from my new friend Jannette's Ebay Store.  I bought the Nautical and it should make a lovely, but non-standard baby color blanket.  In full and fair disclosure, this is exactly the same yarn and same pattern that Nancy's mom used to make a blanket for little Emily.  Hey, I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

While I was searching my pattern stash for a baby blanket pattern, I tripped on a couple of the Minnowknit patterns that I bought on eBay years ago in hopes of having little kids to knit for.  If I didn't have a daughter, I figured I could find a little girl to wear the stuff regardless.  Anyway, I found a few and there was this one.  I bought a bag of the cotton in the Rose color to make this for Kat. I might leave the big dots off of it and work it in one color (might?  will.)  So that stuff should arrive this week.  Jannette promised to get it out airmail on Monday.  The last packages she sent on a Tuesday were all here by Saturday.

Well time to get some work done...

Knit on.

 

Blue Horizon

Blue blue, all I see is blue these days.  Lets lead off with the big kahuna of the blueness, PI.  Sunday she was indeed blocked and is now a very happy shawl.  I too am a very happy knitter.  I enjoyed the project very much and actually avoided the resentment towards it that I felt while knitting the Icelandic shawl last year.  I actually quit knitting for a while rather than working on that beast.  In the end it took almost 4 months to finish it and the secret was to knit other things while working on it.  Looking at the work of Cassie, I'm going to have to dig that book ("3-Cornered and Long Shawls" by Sigrídur Halldórsdóttir - out of print) out again.

But I digress....

May I present to you:  Pi. (and a closer look at the now blocked border

That circly thing is a penny.  My camera alternates between wonderful and not being capable of taking a simple shot.  I'm not entirely sure why either.  I have ordered a tiny little digital camera for me to carry around in my purse (thanks again to the Cheap Stingy Bastards and Cate).  Anyway, Pi is completed.

The first of the cable socks went down last night.  Comfy cozy.  Love it.  Believe it or not, the second one has been started.  I cast on for it this morning on the train after battling the skein for the end.  Hate that.  Getting a skein that doesn't play nice giving up the inside end and spilling half its guts out.  Sitting on the bench at the station I had to fight the evil thing.  I won, in the end, as expected ;)

As if I needed one more reminder that the twins are no longer babies and are full fledged toddlers, I've now gotten one.  They've offically turned into picky eaters.  Once upon a time they ate everything I gave them (with the exception of Kat who had some texture issues).  Now, they are rejecting most meats and sticking with the veggies / fruits and plain old carbs.  They'd be happy with nothing but saltines, bananas, french fries and milk.  I did introduce them to beans (pintos) Sunday evening for dinner and they just loved it.  Good.  At least one protein source that they'll eat.  Must be something in the hardwiring that makes toddlers crave the carbs.  Probably fueling their active lifestyles and switching from the protein based dieting for their massive growth in the first year and a half.  I guess a balanced diet is a thing of the past for a while.  Last night's dinner, french fries, a bite of beef stew and vanilla pudding.  My father is incorrigible when it comes to feeding them.  Seems a junk food diet is okay by him.  Oy.

Spice of Life

Variety is indeed the spice of life.  While I'm a cat by nature, abhoring change, I do like a bit of variety within the routine.  This week has been one of those superb weeks where the beloved postman, UPS guy and Mr. Fedex have all be a-visting my door and leaving me presents.  I do so love those weeks.  First was the new DVD recorder.  Took a few days for me to get around to hooking it up and then it was Friday by the time I actually recorded something with it.  OOOOOH.  It was glorious.  The old POS did such a lousy job recording at SP off broadcast that I might as well be using a VCR on 6 hour EP on a tape that had been recorded over and over and over again.  Anyway, the new GoVideo unit is a wonder.  Without knowing it, Cate made it possible for me to get this.  She posted a while back about the Cheap Stingy Bastards.  I found this bargain through there.  Thanks Cate!

Moving on... 

I wrote earlier this week about my sock yarn binge at Elann when I found that they now carry the Kroy for super cheap prices.  I went nuts.  You see before you 12 skeins of sock yarn paired up 2 x 2 like Noah's pets.  Yes, there is self striping yarn and I am aware I've left comments elsewhere about not liking it. OKay, while I don't prefer it, I do use it from time to time.   I think I'm pretty set for socks for a while to come yet.

Two weeks to the day from when I ordered it, the Woolee Winder for my Jensen Tina II arrived!  Woo hoo!  As you can see, I didn't let dust collect on the box before I had that baby out and in use.  I was in a lousy mood Friday for some reason (having a sinus headache all day, along with starting and ending the day with a pair of cranky toddlers probably contributed a smidge) and didn't have much of a successful bonding period with it.  I've been having driveband issues with Tina that I think I solved yesterday, though I haven't had a chance to confirm this.  The original band that arrived with Tina was on its last thread.  I replaced it with some twine from the kitchen.  Not so good.  Was too stretchy, didn't hold a knot for its life and simply made spinning a bit of a pain every time I sat down at the wheel.  A trip to the Rag Shop yesterday and I found a spool of candlewick and have since tied a new band.  I'll gloss over the fact that I had it tied oh so beautifully and when I was trimming the ends, I cut the wrong one and had to redo it all.  Sigh.  Been a weird time for me ;)  Anyway, Tina now has a WW and a new band.  I'll be working with them again soon.

I turned the heel on the first Cable Sock from IK last night while vegging in front of the tube after the twins went to sleep.  I like it.  I like the color (must be in a blue period).  I did a little work on the heel flap while making dinner last night.  Cooking was far more enjoyable with knitting in my hands.  I was only boiling some pasta and waiting for sauce to heat up, so it wasn't like I was knitting and stir-frying at the same time.  I did cut the cuff by two repeats of the cable pattern and judging by this picture, it was a good idea.  Two more and I'd have knee-socks... well maybe not that long, but this is a good length for me.

Taking advantage of the twin's napping this morning, I remembered that Pi needed blocking.  Here's a very attractive lump of lace sitting in the kitchen sink.  I let it drain a bit there while I went to change the sheets, make the bed and put on a protective cover in preparations for the miracle that is lace. After 45 minutes and 96 pins, Pi is blocking. I have a couple of pissed off cats that are locked out of their room presently, but there she is.  There's a fan blowing on her to speed up the process a bit (which will make a certain fuzzy trio quite happy).  This is indeed the miracle of lace.  I'm very pleased with how it came out.  It blocked out roughly 54" in diameter.  I probably could have gotten a few more inches out of it, but at my height, or lack thereof, I don't need a much larger shawl, 54" is quite sufficient. 

What is this sitting on the crazy fiber lady's couch last night?  Is that a new weird knitting project?  Nope.  Spinning?  Nope.  Tatting?  Nuh-uh.  Just when you think you had me pegged as some rabid spinner/knitter, I toss in a curveball with an old passion of mine:  counted cross-stitch.  Blame Thanks for this diversion from the yarn arts goes to Deb.  Last week she posted pictures of her the needlework that she and her mom have done.  Inspirational, all of them.  Reminded me, however, of a much neglected hobby of my own.  I've done embroidery (have two small pieces hanging in my bedroom), needlepoint, as well as having gone through a very long phase of counted cross stitch.  I even went so far as to buy the software to convert photos (bought a scanner just for this purpose) to charts.  The height of that period resulted in this: 

The original was a picture in a Entertainment Magazine about women in science fiction (the same year saw Star Trek:Voyager and Earth 2 premiere on tv).  I was immediately hooked by Voyager and found much to admire in its captain.  (Again, I out myself as a trekker - remind me not to show the uniform I sewed for halloween one year :) My way of expressing that was through this cross stitch. I originally charted this in color but when the resulting pixelization resulted in somewhere near a billion two hundred colors, I tried greyscale.  I then combined some colors to remove a speckling effect that I didn't like on the Preview view and that picture is the resulting stitchwork.  It was done in some 15 shades of grey on black lugana fabric.  As I was unemployed at the time, it took me about two weeks to finish.  It still adorns a wall, but is out of public eye in my bedroom.

Getting back on track from that diversion down crafts past, I started a new cross-stitch.  This time it takes my few colors of the greyscale Captain Kate down to the extreme of ONE.  Cornflower blue.  Yup definitely in a blue phase.  I'm working Matisse's Blue Nude.  Oooh arty.  I didn't convert the chart for this, but found it on a wonderful website that I bookmarked years ago (and was quite relieved to find still existed after Deb's post).  While I considered some of the Eschers and had actually considered one of the Monet's, this one just called me.  Good thing for stashes, and yes my stash does extend beyond knitting and spinning, I had a piece of white 28ct lugana in stash large enough, all I needed to start this was a trip to the store for 10 skeins of dmc embroidery floss, all in one color (I did have to substitute as stupid Rag Shop had only 9 in the original color).

To end the mail week on as good a note as it started. The postman rang the bell yesterday morning announcing the arrival of my Jaeger Shetland Aran (only 2 of the three packages arrived).  Par avion!  Super fast.  The seller sent it out Tuesday!  One package of each color arrived.  Shortly after this picture, I ripped the bags open and had to fondle the yarn. They pass the chin and wrist test and will make super duper sweaters.  That naturally called for some pattern checking for the perfect little sweaters for the monkeys.  During their nap I found this and after doing a little yarn weight math conversion find it just what I was looking for.  The pattern is originally for that Cottentots from Bernat, but making the largest size in the slightly heavier yarn, we'll get the size/usage out of it that I'm hoping for.  I'll probably get started on Alex's first soon. 

I also find that I need to make a baby blanket as a present.  The only other woman on my team is pregnant and I would love to give her something.  She's due in early fall so I do have some time, just can't put it off until August ;)  In do know that I'd like to avoid the usual baby pastels and go for something brighter and more vivid.  Any suggestions? Yes I'm open to crocheting.

Well time to get some laundry done and check on Pi before the twins get up from their daylight savings oddly timed nap.

Knit Craft on.
 

Echoes from the void

My time flies when you're busy as hell.  I can't believe over a week has gone by since my last posting.  I want to thank everyone for all their kind thoughts regarding my wrist.  It is indeed better and I avoided having to go to the doctor.  I still feel twinges from it every now and again as I pick up a squiggling toddler that would rather be running down the rain soaked driveway.  They're all suicidal I've decided.  The twins are now very into playing 'catch me' and are rather like herding cats.  Speaking of cats, the little beige fur-beast has taken to waking me at 5:15AM by alternately licking and nibbling on my hands/fingers/nose/any exposed skin.  I alternate which side of the bed I toss him off of until one of us gets tired of the game.  In his case, he moves to the foot of the bed and curls up with Earl, for me, I have to get out of bed.  Bleh.  I'm not a morning person by a long shot.

I've been terribly busy at work recently, ergo the lack of blogging.  I haven't even read others blogs.  I'm going into withdrawal and will be twitching at any moment.  I've been juggling two pretty big projects that both had similar deadlines.   By the time I get the twins down for the night, I'm so tired and so tired of computers that I just plunk on the couch with my knitting and watch television for a couple of hours.  Fortunately for my loyal readers, I got the work on the projects done yesterday and have nothing left to do but the paperwork to release it to QA so now I have time to blog again.  Yay.

I've made remarkable progress on my pi shawl.  I finished the body of it Wednesday last week.  I started the border on Thursday while I sat in the cold and dark waiting for PSE&G to show up to fix my power problem.  I called them at 8:30AM.  They were happy to send someone over, but they didn't know what time, could be any time up until 11:30 PM and that I would need to be there.  It probably isn't necessary for me to tell you that they didn't arrive until 5:30 and had no need to enter my home.  No power means no heat, no TV, no computers, barely any phone because I only have cordless phones.  My cellphone battery needed to be recharged and I couldn't do that either!  What a long day.  I did get 15 repeats of the border done though before the metal needles got too cold.  As of this morning have completed 75 of the 96 repeats.  I would be further along but I had to frog some 8 points on Monday night.  Seems I can't do these lace repeats at lunch  What a pain.  The lace pattern I chose for the border (thanks for all your help dear readers) is a fabulous one that I'm quite happy with.  It has enough variation that it isn't boring, even after 75 repeats, but it isn't so tricky that I wasn't able to memorize it during the first 1 hour/ 6 repeat sitting. 

I also got some spinning done during my powerless day, returning to the gray jacob roving on my Tina II.  Damn, whodathunk that preparing the fiber ahead of time would make me love spinning more than I already did?!  Thanks again to Stephanie for that.

Speaking of Stephanie, Saturday I went to Barnes & Noble and picked up amongst other titles:

I also grabbed a copy of this finally:

I'm completely inspired.  I have SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS repeating in my head presently.  A flip through this book, as well as the other sock books I've added recently had my running to the Internet for more sock yarns.  I really want to make the Aran Sandal Sock, so I have to find a good sport-weight to use.  While surfing for yarn (forget that I could be blogging then please) I found that Elann now has the Kroy Sock yarn for half the price that Joann.com sells it for AND they had a load of it in stock.  Needless to say I placed an order which should be arriving shortly.  I ordered some 12 skeins of it so I'm pretty set for standard socks for some time to come.  A picture of the new pile of sock yarn will be posted when the package arrives. Okay so I haven't purchased any sport weight yet, I'm hoping to find some locally.  I've been quietly adding sock yarn to the collection recently when I discovered I was down to 2 skeins of koigu and the 2 kits from Vicki.  This came in handy last night.  My copy of IK Spring'05 finally arrived yesterday.  I was flipping through it and came on the Cable Rib Socks.  They spoke to me.  Off to the yarn cabinet I went, pulled out two skeins of the Sock It To Me 4ply Essential from Elann.com in Marine Blue (had to choose between that and Chestnut for the Sock It To Me or Black or Natural in the Kroy that I got quietly from Joann's last week in placing my orders to qualify for free shipping for the rest of the year) and I was off to the races on the socks.  This is the very reason we have a stash!  No way in heck I could have gotten to a yarn store last night at 9pm, the twins were in bed, I was tired and yet I had the burning desire to knit these socks.  Forget Pi.  I've been knitting Pi almost exclusively for over a week.  So close to the end.  Thankfully.  So much yarn, so little time.

At the risk of turning this into a purchase history blog and making it appear that I'm a bit of a shopaholic, I'm a sucker for a good deal.  I couldn't pass up the price that Jannette has during her current sale of the Jaeger Shetland Aran yarn.  $55 for a bag INCLUDING air shipping from the UK.  Wowza.  Naturally I took advantage of the buy it now and bought.

I got two bags in the blue and one in the pink.  I'm going to make the twins each a hoodie in their respective colors with enough to make a sweater for next year as well.  The other bag of blue will be to make a sweater for me.  Though I'm very tempted to make one with both colors for a cutesy coordinating mom/kids outfit.  Yeah I'm sick.  I'm sure I can find a use for this stuff.  Its 80% wool 20% alpaca and just can't be had for this price.  Hell, I'm tempted to buy more, but I don't really NEED any more yarn or more to the point, none of the other colors are calling me.

That pretty much catches us up to date.  Other than a new Manager starting in my group this past Monday.  Cute guy too.  Wonder if he's single.  No ring, but that really means nothing. I'm waiting to see if pictures materialize on his desk.  I'm hoping for nothing more than a dog photo.  Hell, I don't meet anyone anywhere else these days, might as well keep my eyes open at work. 

I'm ready to frolic in the warm weather and am so ecstatic by the 60's temp that I actually put on a skirt!  I am a girl!  I have learned from "What Not to Wear" that at my height I shouldn't be wearing ankle length skirts so I opted for a just below the knee pleated light-weight knit in black with a sleeves gray sweater and my black cashmere cardigan over it.  Quite a change from my standard jeans and shirt fare.

Knit on!

Long time, no type

I know, it has been a while since my last posting. While I intended to blog, things just didn't work out that way.  Friday was very busy at work and I had a serious deadline to meet.  Naturally I also had to leave early on Friday.  I took a short lunch, left early and then after the twins went to sleep, I sat down at the computer and put in 3.5 more hours to finish the project.  I did have all weekend to do it, but I really wanted to get it out of the way.  I could see myself starting it at 11pm on Sunday.  It was nice to get it finished and out of the way early in the weekend though.  It did, however, leave me with a bit of a computer allergy for the rest of the weekend.  I didn't so much as check email, though I did perform my ring checker duties while the monkeys napped on Sunday.  Yesterday saw me busy still so no blogging then either.  I'm waiting for a stored proc to run on the database so I have some time now.  Yesterday the proc took an hour and a half to run so I have a decent amount of time.

While I haven't been computing, I have been knitting.  Ribby is sewn up!  I finished the last side seam during '24' last night.  All that is left now is to put in a zipper (need to buy that yet) and do the collar.  Naturally I did try it on and I love it!  Super sweet sweater.  I'll certainly be doing this one again and more than likely a cotton version. 

Yup, the cotton-ease did arrive from Joann.com, though I haven't opened the box yet.  I just can't get all excited about a cotton/acrylic yarn.  Though I have been looking at unmaking a Gap cotton sweater that I have and don't wear.  The thing is a hand me down from my brother in law and is absolutely huge.  It weighs a ton.  It should be easy to unravel, but hell, where to store the yarn. 

Yesterday was one of those super-duper mail days.  I came home to three packages sitting by my front door.  What was in them you ask?  Well first was my recent unblogged book order from b&n.com.  Thanks to Cassie and Cate for their recommendations, I got  Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road:  Sock Patterns for the Travelling Knitter and XRX's Socks, Socks, Socks.  I can certainly keep myself occupied with those two books alone for years to come.  I was partially tempted to rip out the half sock that I started late last week with the Twinkletoe's yarn (no pictures yet) to work on one out of SocksX3.  What stopped me was that it was a handpainted yarn and I still think lace or texture is best served with a solid yarn.  However that isn't going to stop me from working on another pi shawl and/or stonington shawl out of the gorgeous lace weight yarn that I got from HandpaintedYarn.com. IT ARRIVED YESTERDAY!!  Those two plastic bags in front of the books are my yarns (see this post with individual colors ordered).  Wow.  Almost a month later, they finally arrive.  Worth the wait.  Gorgeous.  Beautiful.  Fondle friendly.  Naturally I haven't knit with it yet, but I'm dying to.  Did I take them out of the bag?  Nope.  Was too scared that I'd be rolling around naked in them if I did and I had too much to do last night.

On a fuzzier note, little Baron is settling in nicely.  I saw him and Earl curled up together on the couch the other night following a mutual grooming session.  So the boys are bonding nicely.  While Duchess doesn't join in the reindeer games, she will share a bowl with Baron.  He is trying to nurse from Earl, much to Earl's chagrin an his own disappointment.  Hopefully he'll outgrow that little habit shortly.  This little cuddly boy curls up under my chin every morning once I start with the snooze button on the alarm clock.  Sweetie he is.

Well, I'm off to take a decongestant (spring allergies are here even as it snows outside) and then to a telephone conference.  Knit on!

Little Progress

As I haven't progressed very much on anything, I don't have any pictures of goodness to offer up.  I did cast on the first sleeve for Big Sack yesterday at lunch and managed to get through the first two increases, but I have a great deal left to do.  I haven't been knitting on the train as I've finally hit the really exciting part of the book I'm reading. 

I'll have this done tonight on the way home so I can return to my knitting and actually post progress on that.  I've become a big Dan Brown fan this year having read 4 of his books in the last 6 months.  I know folk either really like him or really dislike him.  I have yet to hear anyone taking the middle ground.  Personally, I really like a good action book.  I love a techno thriller and adore Tom Clancy novels.  Ah shades of my nerdism shining through once again.

I lost knitting time last night.  As soon as I finished my chores and plunked down in the glider rocker, His Highness was up crying.  The twins are coming down with something as are all sniffly/coughing.  The night before I had the princess up, so it was his turn.  I do admit that I enjoyed sitting in the dim room with this warm little body molded to me, rocking gently and listening to him breath.  Sigh.  I guess he lulled me sufficiently that after I put him back in the crib at 9:30, I went to bed.  I still had trouble getting up this morning and couldn't manage to quit hitting the snooze alarm until 7am so I had a goodly amount of sleep for a change.  Lots of sleep, not much knitting and no spinning.  I'll make up for it.  I promise.

I'm going to put Big Sack on quick hold and try and whip out a pair of Fuzzy Feet, now that I've seen Stephanie's pair and recall my ground level/concrete slab abode.  I have a pretty decent stash of Lamb's Pride in various colors though the largest portion is in white.  I've read in various places that white yarn won't full the way other colors will so I'm kind of hesitant to use it.  I seem to remember a whole skein left over from the booga bags.  I can probably whip these out pretty quickly.  This morning's very frigid temperature educated me in the fact that my glovens, while pretty, ain't all that warm.  I'll be digging out that Morehouse Merino mitten kit that I bought at Union Square before the holidays and seeing how quickly I can get me some warm mittens.  I'm secretly hoping that the area thaws out before I can finish them though.

I fondled the Aurora Bulky that I bought at Majestic Yarns for a sweater for Alex.  I need to get a swatch sample of that, though it might have to wait as the 10.5 needles are being used by the Big Sack sweater.  Geez I hope the Denise Needles arrive shortly.  Though their absence is indeed keeping a lid on the number of projects I can work on at once.  I guess I could use {shudder} straight needles and have a lovely set of bamboo 10.5's but ick.  I don't like straight needles. 

I got in on a group order to Elann yesterday.  Bought more of the peruvian highland.  For another Ribby Cardi.  Yeah, I know, I haven't started the first one yet.  So what?  This one is going to have the black body and ruby sleeves.   Must be the geeky trekker in me, but I've thought of nothing else but a black sweater with red sleeves since I saw the colors earlier this week.  It pushed aside the two tone grey one that I had been thinking about for over a week.  I'm willing to go out on a limb and predict that the black/red sweater is going to be the next big project for me after the BS sweater, leapfrogging the Dusty Rose version.  Bad Risa.  Very bad.  I toyed with buying the yarn for both color combinations, but thankfully Amy talked me off that cliff.  Thanks Amy. 

I've got to find the right yarn in stash (I doubt the newest ebay win of Skacel Merino Lace is enough) for a the EZasPi knitalong.  I have a cone of some very nice kid mohair that I got a couple of years ago at Silk City that might work, not to mention some more of the angora that I knit Amy's Kris Kringle gift out of.  I'm just not sure what weight yarn and how much I need.  I guess I need to open the book and take a look ;)

I need to change groups at work.  I found out yesterday, while over asking a question, that there's a group around here that knits openly, during the day, at their desks as a mental break!  Whoa!  How very cool is that?  I know I used to get up, go outside and smoke for a bit, especially when some puzzler was eluding me.  Every now and again, I'd tuck my knitting in my pocket and knit during those cig breaks.  Since I quit, geez 4 years ago, I haven't had those kinds of breaks.  I would LOVE to knit.  I'll have to try it.  Though I don't have those kinds of puzzlers right now.  Work is pretty routine and more like a code version of babysitting.  At least I have things to do these days.  Makes the day go a little quicker at best.  Now if I could knit??!?!?  Work would be less like work ;)

Knit One, Sneeze Two

Ugh.  I've been laid flat by the flu.  Silly me thought that going to sleep a half hour earlier a few nights ago was going to be sufficient in kicking this bug out of me.  I'm deluded.  I hope I didn't pass this tendency towards delusion, along with bad basic math skills, to the twins.  They seem pretty level headed so far.  I'm pretty sure they don't think a nap is what it takes to beat the flu. 

I woke up yesterday running 102F.  Taking some Tylenol and dragging my ass into the office was probably not the smartest thing and having done that on Monday, I thought that I should perhaps rest a bit more than that extra 1/2 hour afforded me.  I called my folks, informed them of my decrepit condition and my mom came to retrieve the aforementioned monkeys.  We packed them a small bag and they stayed with my parents last night.  Mom took them to "school" this morning.  She picked them up tonight and brought them home to me.  I really did miss their little monkey faces.  This morning my temp wasn't quite as high, but still well above normal, and I have a nasty juicy cough so I opted for another day in bed.  I'm feeling "much" better now and will probably return to the routine tomorrow.  Fever is finally normal, thank goodness!  Before the twins arrived, I can't even remember the last time I had a fever, was probably sometime around June of 99 when I got strep from a friend's child.  Since the twins started school, this is my third illness that has given me a fever!  Oy.  It's like being a kid again myself.  I hope our immunity systems improve soon.

Anyway, between naps, juice and cups of tea I found that even in my reduced state, I could still knit.  Chris challenged my assertion a while ago that I couldn't knit in my sleep.  while I still think that I can't, I can knit while pretty darn sick.  I got quite a lot accomplished in the last two days.

Project Info

Yarn: Cascade 220 color #9404 - Brick Red
Pattern: Atypically Knit
Started: 01/06/05
Finished: 01/11/05

Second time is the charm.  Here is Kathryn's cabbage patch doll modeling the hat.  I do have to block it a bit bigger, or wait until my head decongests a bit because it was almost painfully tight when I finished it yesterday.  I think it was pretty and definitely much easier to knit in the Cascade than in the Lamb's Pride that I used last time.  It did teach me one thing, I don't like to do bobbles and I can live without cables, especially all over cables.  This rings the death knell on Wensleydale Cables.  Big Sack sweater is another story as it is one cable running down the front center.  Speaking of cables, I have to go back and finish the Irish Hiking Scarf.

Project Info

Pattern: Own - Style: Cuff down-2x2 rib
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM - 2 skeins
Started: 11/28/04
Finished: 01/12/05

For the first time in my history as a knitter, the second sock took FAR less time to knit than the first one.  I only cast on the second one at bedtime on the 8th.  I knit one row and called it a night.  Monday night, I knit an inch before actually going to sleep for my delusional additional half hour.  The rest of this lovely sock was knit between yesterday afternoon after I finished Hatmione and 1pm today.  While I bought two skeins and knit each sock with a separate one, I have plenty left over.  I suspect that I can get at least one pair, if not two, for Kathryn out of the remainder.

Moving on, here's a finished project that never appeared in the "On the Needles" or even "In the Queue".  While it is supposed to be 60F tomorrow, the cold weather is bound to hit this area shortly and they are calling for temperatures below freezing this weekend.  As I mindlessly knit the sock, I thought about this weather change and my poor little kids' fingers wiggling out beyond the extensive sleeves of their coats.  I also gave some thought to Kathryn's current status as a thumb sucker.  Mittens are the easiest for toddlers, like hell I'm going to try and get all their little fingers into gloves, sleeves are problematic enough.  So it had to be mittens.  But I've seen her pitch a fit because her thumb got stuck in her sleeve (her jammies in the crib) and knew that until I was ready to break her of thumb sucking, I'd have to come up with a solution.  Here she is wearing them:

As you can see, her preferred thumb is out and about for sucking purposes while the rest of her hand stays toasty.  The other hand is sporting a standard mitten avec thumb.  I'm pretty pleased that they work for her and that they fit.  I knit them this afternoon while they were at daycare and I had to guesstimate size.  I mongrelized a couple of patterns, freebies on the net and my old trusty Ann Budd's Knitters Handy Book of Patterns.  she looks a little um weird in the picture.  It was after a long day of daycare, where they don't quite sleep as well as they do here.  The twins are still recovering from their own illness and are still a bit congested themselves.  After this picture was taken, we played the take them off and put them on again game.  I have to add leashes to these things and make them idiot mittens or I'll be knitting replacements all winter long.

Project Info

Pattern: Own
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby left over from Kat's Cardigan
Started: 1/12/05
Finished: 1/12/05

I just need to make a pair for Alex.  Judging by how fast I whipped these two out, I'll have his done tomorrow ;)  Ooooh tempting the knitting goddess.

And what is this??

The beloved postman delivered this to me today.  What is it?  14 skeins of Peruvian Collection Highland Chunky from Elann in Redwood.  What about the diet you ask?  While I'm tempted to retort, 'what diet'?  I had to.  This is the yarn for the Big Sack sweater to fix my math error of New Years Eve.  You'll remember that I snuck in under the diet wire and ordered yarn for the sweater that night but badly mangled the math.  Must have been that one bottle of beer that I had.  Yea.  That's it.  I got snockered on a 7oz bottle.  Ha.  I'll admit it.  I ordered these skeins the night I discovered my serious math mistake.  I'm sort of glad I had to order more as I like this color better.  I feel better now that I fessed up and admitted the diet breaker.  I haven't bought anything else, though I will need new needles for the big sack replacement sweater as I can't find any 13's around here.  That won't be for a while as I'll probably take Ribby Cardi next or Big Sack.   There's also the I'm So Sari Knitalong that is starting this weekend, though I think we'll be starting it at Knit Club on Friday.  Hmm, I'll have to find the needles for this too.

Mom's glovens are moving to the On the Needles tonight/tomorrow as my new night table knitting.  I've changed the yarn on that project yet again.  I finally removed the last bin of yarn from the twins' room and in there was my baby yarn collection.  I found a skein of 100% acrylic (cringe) Pingouin Pingorex Baby.  I had her test the yarn on her skin this evening and it passed her itch test.

Well, time for some tea and the rest of Nanny 911. 

Ahhh yarn

By popular demand, I have a picture of me wearing banff.  Okay, two comments and one email is the sum total of requests, I shall bow to said requests.  Ignore my crappy hair.  I had an ill advised haircut in early October that I'm trying desperately to outgrow.  I was also sick on Friday.  My ill but very generous children did what they always do, they passed the illness to me.  I felt really cruddy on Friday and stayed home with the sick little beasts, missing a knit club get together at work.  Without any further ado, here's me in Banff.

Banff is a rather large sweater and I'm a rather small person.  I'm all of 5'0.25", so the very generous ease is extremely generous on me.  That said, the sweater is outstandingly comfortable.  I'm almost sorry that the weather here turned warm as I was finishing this.  While it was on the needles, it was single degree wind chill out there and this week we're going to flirt with 60F.  I'd almost consider taking up skiing so I could slouch around in this thing in the lodge drinking hot cocoa from a cup the size of Kat's head ;)  If I were to make this again, I might shrink the sleeves a touch.  While they are designed very long so that can be cuffed, the sleeve is too long on me.  I either shorten the cuff or do fewer rows before the sleeve shaping so that the massive cuff would hit me on the wrist, rather than knuckles.  I love it anyway.  I still have some 3 skeins of the yarn, used 9 rather than the 7 the pattern called for.  I'm going to keep the partial skein for repairs/emergency/insulation, make a 42 stitch hat to match. 

I've finally finished the first koigu sock.  I can't believe how long it has taken to do the first sock.  I started it in November.  I just finished it last night in January!  That kind of time frame is more in line with the second sock, not the first!  I can only imagine how long the second one is going to take.  I'm scared I'll finally be finishing it on my folk's boat this July.

I want to thank everyone for the kind wishes and hopes that the sickies in this house get better soon.  Being the very generous kids that they are, they once again shared their illness with me.  This time was better than July when they gave me the coxsackie virus and 103.5F fever, for my birthday no less.   I don't think I got the fever this time, but there is a general feeling of malaise, stuffiness and a scratchy throat.  I have a feeling that this might be the flu when one has had the flu shot.  Mom came over Friday to help me with the kids.  She was sinussy and not up to full speed either.  Around 4ish, she took Alex home with her.  Neither one of us was really up to caring for two sick toddlers, so divide and conquer we did.  It was nice having a little girl time with Kat.  She ate and slept well for me as Alex did for his grandparents.  Yesterday he came home after lunch.  Kat took a 4 hour nap from 11 to 3pm.  Alex freaked me out and took a 15 hour nap from 4pm to 7am.  If he weren't napping now, I'd think he used his napping quota for the month! 

I've had a bit of crafting time with all that napping.  Besides finally finishing the first koigu sock, I've made some progress on Hatmione, though really not worth posting a picture of.  I'm about an inch into the cabling pattern.  I do have to say that I find cabling with Cascade 220 far more enjoyable than with the Lamb's Pride.  Blech.  I spent some time with Tina yesterday and filled a second bobbin of that brown corrie.  I did have to do a little wood repair work on her yesterday.  As I was putting her away I noticed that one of the back legs was wiggly.  As I was about to put some wood glue in the crack, the leg came off in my hand.  Ick.  It was a really jagged break that would be a cinch to glue.  A little glue, some twine to keep the leg in place and she's as good as new.  I let her sit and set up for 24 hours now and will probably ply up the yarn tonight.  After woodworking, I decided to try my hand on the thread crochet bear that I've been looking at for a while.  It's on a size 9US Steel crochet hook, 20 crochet thread and barely visible to work on.  It's also articulated.  I have the head, body and half of one arm done already.  When finished, it will be about 2.5" long and held together with dental floss.  Neat.  I'm actually enjoying it, though will probably be blind by the time I finish!

A new home, new photos

To celebrate the new blogging home, I wanted to post some update photos...

This is my gloven as of Saturday morning.  Ignore my red flannel plaid jammies please :)  I actually finished the first gloven on the train home tonight.  Though I'm still trying to decide what to do with the thumb.  I stopped the thumb just around the top knuckle, like the other fingers.  But with the mitten add-on, the rest of the fingers have a way to hide from the cold, while poor Mr. Thumb does not.  I could tuck my thumbs under the flaps, but that does pose a problem for driving.  I'm leaning towards making a full thumb out of it.  Whatever I do, I need to do it fast as the steering wheel was damn cold this morning.

Here's a picture of the koigu socks as they've languished for the past week or so...

Pretty, no?  Should be nice once I get back to them.  I think when I change to using a smaller wallet, I can put these in my purse as a really portable project.  Once again I've changed my commuter bag setup.  The nice bag from Joann's was great.  It was too big and too big is bad.  I fill it.  Bad.  Can't lift.  Certainly can't be toting it around.  Was a bit odd sized for my little body as well.  Anyway, went back to using my B&n.com tote bag and a purse.  Oooooh.  Purse is a nice little thing that I got from QVC.  While it holds everything that I want to carry, it is a bit tight as my wallet is on the huge side.  Anyway...

Here's the Irish Hiking Scarf as it stands now:

The cables are so much more apparent in person.  For some reason the yarn is really hiding the details in this photo.  I also didn't realize how tweedy it was until I saw this picture.

Give me a couple of days and all my blogger archives will be here as well.  Unfortunately, while I'm pretty sure I can import the content, the comments will be lost :(  Sorry all.  I do have copies in my email, when blogger forwarded them which it didn't always do.  I might just finagle them over here anyway.

Socks done

Well I finished the socks for the twins last night!

I like how the color patterns are random. One pair is closer in color layout than the other. This picture is a better represenation of the colors, but it is still a bit washed out. You get the general idea though. I spun the roving in random lengths, generally between repeats. I plied the single on itself so the yarn is a mix of solids (blue, green, lilac) and mixes of the three. I worked the ends in after I took the picture so the socks are completely done. The twins will be able to wear them Saturday to the festival.

Speaking of the festival, I asked their daycare teacher this morning if one of her daughters would like to come to the festival with me as a mother's helper. I really hope she can. I don't even want to think what it would be like without some help.

I went back to Kat's cardigan and finished the cuff on the second sleeve and started the "body" of it. The rest of the sleeve should take no time at all. I'm using the percentage sweater cardigan from Jacqueline Fee's Sweater Workshop. (I have an extra copy of this book if someone is looking for one :)

I actually had some work to do this morning! Wooooo. Done though. I just got something else, but its cruddy busy work and I'd rather do anything but cruddy busy work. I hope this situation changes for the better soon. Idle is a baaaad thing for me.

On another happy note, Kathryn Rachel took her very first step last night! I'm so proud of my little girl.