The Nameless Monkey

Monkey doesn't have a real name right now, but he will one day. Today he left his home in the giant martini glass on top of my fridge and went to do what Monkeys like to do. Climb trees.

Monkey's a little too hardcore for nature.

All the booze from the martini glass caught up with him after his tree climb causing him to wreak havoc behind this poor rock.

I really, really like my monkey. He's a badass as far as Monkeys go. However, I must say that properly piercings his eyebrows and ear was SUCH a pain in the ass though. He's made from STR Heavyweight in Mr. Green Jeans and Lemongrass.

Nothern Wisconsin Hat

I'm just churning out the bog posts this week! I guess that happens when one actually has something to show for themself.

I finished up this hat yesterday while at work. I enjoy knitting hats. They're quick, fun, and full of purpose. It would have been helpful if I had worn something that even remotely matched this to work yesterday because it worked great with my nasty, unstyled rainy weather hair. Mmmm. Sexy.

Here's a slightly more detailed view of the lace-

...and the back

And to better represent the color, a freakishly ugly picture of me-

Just ignore the human element in that shot. I've been cleaning all day, have no makeup on and am just all around grubby. Also, that blur doesn't do anything justice. Mental note-find someone who has a reasonably good handle on photography so I don't end up with all these odd angle crap shots.

Pattern: Northern Wisconsin Hat by this chicky

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Wisteria

Needles: US size 2 and 8.

Mods: I didn't use the needles called for in the pattern (0's and 7's) because I couldn't find them. I also did the ribbing magic loop style because the needles I *did* find were something like 32'' long. This all worked to my advantage though because my head may be slightly larger than average....because of my massive brain, I'm sure, and most hat patterns just don't fit me right. This fits me pretty spot on. If I make this hat again I might bump up the stitch count and make it a little longer so it would be more slouchy.

In other news, my brother in law called me yesterday while I was at work and mentioned that he was going to get some portrait work done on his back tattoo. He asked if I wanted to go with him but I had to work until 6 and his appointment was at 5. Since the work he was getting done was going to take a hell of a long time (supposedly), I went up to the Baltimore Tattoo Museum after I closed up and met him. Because of the craptacular weather, it took me longer than anticipated to get there and he was almost done. Still, I was able to squeeze in a little tattoo-istic artistry for myself done by this guy.

I was really happy with the work. I'm piecing together kind of a star collage on my collarbone/shoulder area and even though these are extremely simplistic tats, he did an excellent job. We had to do quite a bit of work with the placing and such, but I'm thrilled with how it came out. I started this a few months back with a tat from some hillbilly place in Tennessee. I don't want to come down to hard on them because they were clean and nice, but it was still kind of country. Also, the ink has already started to fade big time and looks kind of splotchy.

Now I'll be going back to cleaning. For a house with two adults and two dogs, I really don't understand why I have to ALWAYS be cleaning. Well, I do know why....but I don't understand why it's always me that has to do the cleaning....of messes that aren't of my making. sigh. Additionally, after trying to take a picture of myself in the hat, I'm going to be doing quite a bit of research on diminishing under eye darkness.

God help me, I finished them! A tale of sock horror.

Yet another FO. These socks both pissed me off to the extreme and made me happy that I've clearly learned more patience in my knitting.

And a little closer...

And closer, still....

Pattern: Spring Thaw Socks by Cat Bordhi, found in the current Knitters mag

Yarn: BMFA STR lightweight in Amber

Needles: US 2, worked magic loop

Mg's of Xanax taken: 50

Don't get me wrong, I love these socks. As soon as I saw the pattern I HAD to make them. Seeing as how I 1) have giant feet and 2) am not exactly a pro at knitting socks from the toe up, I had some trepidation about doing these. They're 56 or 58 stitches and I'm used to doing more like 64-80 depending on yarn and needles. After trying on the toe several times I deemed the width sufficient as the twisted rib has incredible stretch. Seriously, unstretched these socks are about as wide as my three middle fingers. So obstacle one solved. Then came that goddamn gusset increase. I don't know why, but I NEVER trust the directions when it comes to where I should start doing them on toe up socks. This pattern has a very concise formula, as do most Cat Bordhi patterns with the "new" architectures, but I was confused. Seeing as how these socks were to be stretched to amazing proportions, I didn't know if I should be measuring my gauge for such calculations while it was just laying there or on my foot. I think the first go at these, I took my stretched measurement and then totally overshot my foot length. You have to do a certain number of rows in pattern to get to the heel and when I was at row 17 of 44 the foot was already working it's way up my ankle. Frog #1. I carefully ripped it back and started again....and apparently ripped exactly back to where my measurement mistake had taken place and did the exact thing over again. Frog #2. I carefully ripped it back and made sure to actually go back further on the foot. Still too big. Frog #3, though this one occurred at about row 30 in the pattern. It then occurred to me to redo my measurements. I used the unstretched rpi and remeasured my foot, finding it to be about half an inch shorter than before. So I started again. Then something else happened...which I've obviously blocked from my memory because of the trauma and I had to frog it AGAIN.

So...I finally got my first sock finished, though I ran into mild issues with the heel. Due to lack of attention span, I did something that got my stitches all over the place rather than on there designated needles. I muddled thru. When it came time to bind off I painstakingly searched the internet and found a good tutorial on the tubular bind off. I went to work all set to complete my sock and quickly found that I had left the friggin' 16 page tutorial at home AND the internet at the store wasn't working. Considering that my sock was my only knitting for the day, I was peeved. Luckily I had the foresight to look in the magazine index and there were instructions. I then found that I loathe doing a tubular bind off, but I got thru it. Apparently, though, where it says in the instructions to pull certain stitches "snug", it's a vicious lie. I then sat there and picked thru my stitches to loosen them and in the process ended up with some jacked up bind off that looks like armless person did it with their mouth and feet. So happy was I to have the sock done that I just said fuck it.

After all this it, I handled the remaining yarn and found that it felt disappointingly light. I scoured the store for the scale and couldn't find it. Putting my faith in sheer luck, I cast on for the 2nd sock. When I got home I broke out the scale and lo and behold, sock #1 weighed 2.10 oz and ball remains weighed 1.9 oz. "Fuck!!" I thought...and said...a lot. Since I already had some of the toe done I weighed it, too. It was something like .5 oz but had a needle stuck thru it. I decided to go ahead. It shortly became apparent that there was no way in hell that I was going to have enough yarn....you know, because I couldn't have figured that from the missing oz's on the scale. I decided to suck it up and order more yarn only to find that Amber was one of the colorways that BMFA pulled just days before I needed it. So I checked on Ravelry to see if anyone had some up for sale. No. I decided that I could get a good ways up the leg and even though ,because these are toe up socks, any mismatched color would be the showing part, I could substitute a similar colored yarn at the top. And then I knit as tight as I could.

Somehow, and this is beyond me, I was able to finish the socks with the one ball of yarn. I even had a tiny bit leftover. AND my second sock is a little longer than my first even though I knit as tight as tight can be. And Voila! My socks are complete and I am nervous breakdown free!

Last night I cast on for some Mittens Interrupted by Eunny Jang with some StormMoonKnits Celestial Bulky for which I've been hoarding until the perfect project came along.

My hand really doesn't look like a brightly colored cow hoof....at least I hope not. I'm super happy with these and they're such a joy to make after the hell of the Spring Thaw socks. I was planning on finishing them at the hospital today while my grandpa saw the doctor but I, ever the tard, left all the finishing tools at home so I just sat there in the waiting area holding them. I may even have them finished tonight if I don't royally screw up the thumb. I have a way of doing that. I think they're completely awesome and thank StormMoonKnits for creating such a yarny masterpiece with which I can work. The thought of making these probably is what kept the Xanax at 50mg's rather than 150-ish.

Not Dead!!

Wow, for someone who was going to make a effort to really stay on top of the blogging this year, I suck BIG TIME. Life has been particularly busy lately and while I've had ample time to knit, I haven't been able to squeeze in the logging of artsy activities. Sorry.

My progress in the 52 Pair Plunge is going at approximately the rate of a turtle stuck in molasses while trying to move up a steep cliff. I've knit some single socks...but they don't really count. I do, however, have this to show.

Pattern: Spring Forward by Linda Welch, available in the current Knitty.

Yarn: BMFA STR Mediumweight in the Lunasea colorway.

Needles: US 2's, done magic loop

I did 3 full repeats on the cuff. These socks took an extraordinary amount of time to complete despite the fact that the pattern is quite easy and structured in such a way that the sections roll by. The delay was due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to a shitty needle that was way too short for magic looping, loss of pattern while my computer was out of action, sweltering Italian heat that kept me from knitting like I planned to, and general distraction. The 4th installment of my Rockin' Sock Club came in right after I got back from my trip so that kind of stole my attention. Sadly, and typically, I have yet to complete that pair.

What else, what else....I went back to work at the yarn shop. That's going well and I have to say that while having to wake up in the morning isn't exactly my cup of tea at the moment, I very much enjoy being back. In fact, I kind of like working the morning shift as it's generally easier on my day. It's just a little tough at the start since the decision of when I go to sleep at night seems to no longer be my own. Gotta love the old folks.

The next thing on my knitting agenda is completing Cat Bordhi's Spring Thaw socks from the newest Knitters magazine. I've been having some "issues" with that which I'll go into more detail on when I have the FO to show. Also, as the weathers been getting a bit chillier at night I'd like to get my newest Clapotis done. I think it's going to be absolutely ass kicking when it's done. I just get easily bored with the Clap pattern. Still, the project is sitting here by my knitting chair taunting me with it's glowing green and yellow beauty.

Oh, oh!! I don't know if I mentioned this previously because I haven't posted in an eon but I've been gifted the basement as my craft and exercise room. That'll be mega sweet but I have a LOT of work to do down there before I can get moved in. I'm going to have to do some major stash reorganization which I'm not exactly looking forward to.

I think that about covers it. Till next time....which hopefully won't be such a long time off.

Finally!! FO's

I FINALLY got the baby blanket not only finished, but photographed and sent too! And the baby's only 4 weeks old. Amazing! The blanket I knit for his 4 or 5 year old sister is still folded up in my bedroom. I possibly should have sent that along, too, but I've not exactly sure how late in childhood a blanket is an appropriate gift. Anyhow, on to the good stuff.



And a really blurry shot that sucks, but at least it shows the blanket in its entirety.



Frankly I'm too lazy to type out all the yarn information, and actually I don't even know the colors offhand. The ball bands are long gone. If you're really curious you can check it out on my Ravelry project page. Here are just the basics-

Yarn: Dark Horse Fantasy in various shades of blue with a bit of black and tan
Needles: Size 7 circ's
Pattern: baby size Modern Log Cabin Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting
Mods: Instead of using the 4 colors the pattern called for, I used something like 8 and just put them in where I saw fit.

I can't tell you how thankful I am to finally have that monkey off my back! It shipped out today and should arrive on Friday morning.

Next order of business: Zombie Socks!



It was really hard to even *try* to get the pattern details or an accurate color, but here's my attempt.



Pattern: Zombie Socks by Emm1e on Ravelry
Yarn: BMFA STR lightweight in Rook-y from the Raven series
Needles: Size 2 circ, worked Magic Loop
Mods: I did 5 pattern repeats on the leg instead of 3 and had to add a few repeats onto the heel.

These socks are also my first pair for the 52 Pair Plunge....which I joined with some crack-pipe aspirations in my head. I am SO far behind, but I'm not too pressed about it. I'd rather enjoy what I'm knitting than feel like I'm knitting with a gun pressed to my temple. Tonight I plan on finishing the first of my second pair, the Spring Forward socks from the summer Knitty. Pictures of that to follow.

In non-knitting news, guess what I'm doing right now?!?! Oh yeah....I'm just sitting here watching DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER!!!!!!! Evidently A&E has decided that while Dog may be a bit of a "character" he may not be so much of a racist and have put his show back on the air. You know what this means!! My obsession can continue! I knew the new season was starting in July, but you can imagine my surprise when I heard that familiar riff and the voice of Ozzy as the show came on tonight. I totally spazzed out. Big time.

Alright, off to work on my sock!

Leafling

I believe I mentioned that I had finished my Leafling socks the other day. Voila!

In trying to take a picture of these, I had the realization that I am apparently rather retarded in the area of putting on socks straight. Oh well. We can't all be good at everything. I also found that it's very difficult to get a decent photo of your own feet/lower legs while trying to simultaneously bend over, keep you long pant legs from dropping down, elude shadows, and keep a balanced hand. Here are some of the pics from the first finished sock, but we'll just pretend that I planned to use them here as detail shots rather than their real intent/origin, which was just me being hyperactively excited about having a single sock and thus taking approximately 1000 photos of my single foot. Yeah...."detail shots"....that's it.

I hope this is a better shot of the design.

Semi decent shot of the heel detail.

These socks were a pretty fun knit. They used a heel from Cat Bordhi's new(ish) book New Pathway's for Sock Knitters: Book One. Instead of doing a heel flap, stitches were added along the sides of the pattern panel so by the time the heel turn was worked, half the foot was already knit. Pretty sweet. The ribbing on the heel continues down to about mid sole, too, which is a new one to me. I think it looks pretty snazzy.

On to the specs!

Origin: RSC March '08

Pattern: Leafling by JC Briar

Yarn: STR Mediumweight, Lucky colorway

Needles: size 2 circular

Mods: none

I guess I should also add that this is the first pair of socks I've completed using the magic loop method. I began using the one needle out of necessity and just stuck with it. I found it to be pretty intuitive in practice so I didn't check to see if I was doing anything "right". It all worked out though, so yay! Considering that I often lose needles if they're not practically sewn onto my hand, magic loop is my friend.

Hope everyone is having a fun day, and for those not in my immediate area I hope you're having better weather. It sucks here and has for a number of days. However, the rain and general grossness outside makes for good cozy knitting inside.

Je pense que je suis "jinxed"

Last week at Stitch n' Bitch I was asked if my Log Cabin baby blanket wasn't terribly boring to work on considering that it's all garter stitch. I said no, and at the time that was the truth. Since that night, however, progress seems to have come to a screeching halt. Up to that point I had been completing about a section a night. Currently I'm about half a section away from where I was a week ago. This is not 100% due to it being a boring project. I really don't even find it boring at all since I usually work on it while I'm catching up on my days DVR recordings. Something happened though......that's for sure. Here's where I'm at now.

You may notice that there's VERY little difference between this picture and those of my previous entry. Really though, it'll be done after not too long. After this top section that I'm working on now there are only 2 more to go. They involve a little intarsia action so the monotony of working on the really big sections will be broken up. I'm thinking it's not going to be quite as big as I had thought.

And here's one of those random FO's I promised.

Pattern: Noro Hat by Saartji de Bruijn

Yarn: Noro Kureyon No. 185

Needles: US 8 circ's

I don't think I modified this hat in any way. I started and finished it back in January so my memory on it's production is a bit questionable though. I do recall that I thought it was coming out HUGE but in the end it all worked out. Oh, and something is fishy with my camera so please excuse the amount of fierce blur in some of these pictures.

In non-knitting news, I signed up for an Italian class through the Italian Cultural Society of Washington. The Monday night class I wanted to be in got cancelled because of lack of space so I had to take Wednesday nights. That means no more Stitch n' Bitch for me for the next 10 weeks. My class started tonight, but after driving around for 2 HOURS I still couldn't find the building so I ended up coming home and missing it. WTF???

Oh! I also went to see the Yarn Harlot on Monday night. Typically, I left my camera at home. It was much fun, though. I started a new project while I was waiting there.....because we all know that's exactly what I need to be doing. I'll have more info on that later on.

Quant......the first of '08

Wow. It's only the 3rd and I have a FO already! Granted, it is something small.....but something none the less :)

side 1

side deux

Patten: Quant, by Star Athena....from the latest Knitty.

Yarn: Noro Kureyon, No. 172

Needles: US size 8 straights and DPN's

I really liked this pattern as soon as I saw it. I've found that whenever I go to do an entrelac project, Noro is the first thing I go for. On this particular project, however, I wish I had used the Taos the pattern calls for. The color runs in the Noro are just too long for the short width. I still like the project....just not as much as I would had the color been more broken up. Luckily for me, I already have two colorways of Taos on the way from Yarnmarket. Oops. So much for that yarn diet. I like the way this one fits, though, and can see myself wearing it frequently. It covers my ears nicely which will be helpful in the freakin' miserably cold weather we've been having.

Bellatrix

Finally, I present you with my completed Bellatrix socks.

Pattern: Bellatrix from Socktopia.net

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in Hard Rock

Needles: US 2.5 circs

These socks took me a loooong time to finish. This was due entirely to the fact that I decided to try knitting them on one short circular needle, which I hate, hate, hate. I just couldn't get into it. It hurt my hands, the heel flap was a pain in the ass to do, and the stitches were looking all spread out. I was not happy. I stopped knitting the first sock when I was about 8 rows from the toe and just couldn't pick it back up. After a month or so I finally switched the stitches over to two circs and finished it up. I was a bit nervous about knitting the second one because I figured the stitches would be much tighter than on the little guy. It turned out okay though.

In other news- I am S.I.C.K. I thought my throat felt a little funny on Friday night. Saturday I woke up at about 3pm and my entire throat was numb and very swollen. Within a few hours I had the full on super-congestion, big head feeling, weak muscled nastiness upon me. I was half delirious throughout the night because of illness and heavy medication, but I got out of bed pretty early due to my nose continually running. I made an effort to make myself look at least normal and went to work. I was the only one there today and I had a class to teach. My students sat there with me for awhile and then collectively were like," Uhhhhh.....how bout if we don't do this today". So they went home and I sat the alone in misery. Now I am going to sit here at home in misery, but WWE Unforgiven comes on PPV tonight so all will be well. The Undertaker is coming back from an injury and nothing can stand between me and the Undertaker.

Yet another FO

This one has been a long time coming. I don't recall if I had previously mentioned that I had started my Pomotomus socks. This was way back, like in April or May. I had been on a roll with the sock production and the new found obsession with STR, bu once I started the Pomotomus pattern it all kind of halted. There was something I wasn't getting about the pattern and I didn't like reading all the charts.....and the sock ended up tossed under a pile in my bedroom with about two inches of cuff completed. At some point of cleaning, the sock was found, placed in a bag, and moved into my office with the rest of my yarn. The other week I was looking for something else and I came across it. On a whim, I picked it up to see how much I still hated knitting it. Surprise, surprise......I didn't hate knitting it at all! I don't know what was wrong with my brain the first time I was fooling with the pattern, but it's not hard or confusing at all. There was one row of the pattern that my stitch count kept getting messed up on and I still have no idea why. It was easily remedied by adding in another stitch.

Here's a more accurate shot of the color.

Pattern: Pomotomus by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR lightweight, Mustang Sally coloway

Needles: size 2 circs

Modifications: left out some of the toe shaping due to reasons discussed below.

I became super nervous about running out of yarn when I was about halfway down the foot of sock#1. I ended up having just enough, though if I had knit the whole foot correctly I surely would have run out about one pattern repeat short of finishing the second sock.

I guess my absentmindedness saved my ass on this one. On the chart for the top of the foot, there's a point where you have to start adding stitches onto the end of the pattern repeat. I got wrapped up in watching TV and just kept knitting the regular pattern on the third (and final) foot section. It was easy enough to replicate on the second sock and didn't interfere with the fit, so all was good.

Stash Busting!!!

I did it! I actually broke down and knit something with stash material! Actually, I had to buy another ball of yarn for this, but I consulted some people on this and the consensus is that it can still be considered a stash busting project. Here it is:

And to get a better view of he colors:

Pattern: Artyarns Cashmere Diagonal Scarf by Iris Schreier

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted (black)

Paton's SWS in Natural Plum

Needles: size 8

Modifications: I tried following the directions exactly but the numbers for the foundation section just weren't adding up for me. I ended up skipping the slip stitches and just knitting. I tried to duplicate this on the end section but it got all nasty looking. Something just ended up not right with my stitch count. I tried to fix the little bit of fug that showed up in the last section while I was binding off and it worked, for the most part.

The other big (and perhaps even bigger) news for the day is that my fancy new sock blockers arrived! Even though I don't have too much of a purpose for them, this excited me to no end. Here they are sporting another FO, even though this particular FO is slightly older.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in the Alina colorway

Needles: size 2 circs

Mods: I omitted all the stitches and just knit the whole thing. This made it go a lot faster because I wasn't having to keep track of numbers, but it also left me with much less give. They still fit though and I think these massive blockers will stretch them into shape.

I also got this nifty stitch marker as a bonus.

The First Hat for Fall

IMG_1072
Originally uploaded by knitglit

So my feeling of knitting dread actually inspired me to finish something up. Amazing.
Pattern: Lady (Hat Trifecta) by Amy King of Spunky Eclectic
Yarn: Berroco Softwist, colorway presently unknown due to my band
trashing habits
Needles: size 8 16" circ's
Modifications: I did 2 extra repeats of the cable pattern before the decreases.

If I knit anoter one of these, which I just may, I'd add another few repeats of the pattern to make it a touch taller and I'd also thrw another cable into the circumference. My head is evidently quite a huge thing that regular patterns do not accomodate easily. All in all, I'd give this hat a thumbs up. I've been oddly drawn to this color lately and I'm excited to see how it will look with my fall hair colors. Oh,and the Softwist.....hmmmm. Lovely colors, but it can be a bitch to work with. I've dealt with much worse, but this stuff really does like to split and unwind.

Close call

I just got back from Chicago last night and had to be at a birthday party for my mom and one of my nephews at 7:30. This party was also to be my unveiling/presentation of my Lil' Devil Pants. This would have been all fine and well except for the fact that, well, I didn't have them done. By the time we got to the hotel on our first night of driving, I just didn't feel like knitting and instead entertained myself by marvelling at how strange Criss Angel is. He's one weird dude. That's about all I can say about that. Then, when I finally got settled at our hotel in Chicago I came to the awful realization that I had much more to do on the pants than I had thought. I did end up getting it all knit, but then I didn't have the tools for finishing. This was remedied by my trip The Fold (drool), but that's a tale for another day. Let me just say that I spent far, far less than I thought I would. Shocking, I know. So now, with tools in hand, I had to sew the damn thing up. I found this so confounding that I decided to put it off until I got home, thinking that I'd have plenty of time to make a few little stitches before party time. Oh how stupid I can be sometimes. I got home absolutely exhausted, still had to go gift shopping for my nephew, and still didn't know how to sew for crap. After much bitching and whining, I prevailed.

My favorite detail.

I had to use my imagination to get the drawstring through, but it came out pretty well. Also,I amazed myself with the evenness of my seaming.

My mom suggested to me that I not seam the leg cuffs. I don't particularly care for it undone, but I was already like an hour late for the party so I said f-it.

Perhaps the untrained eye won't even notice that this obviously was supposed to be sewn up.

So, onto the specs.

Pattern: Lil' Devil Pants from Stitch n'Bitch Nation

Yarn: Patons Grace in Cherry Red, 4 skeins

Needles: Size 2 Circulars and size 3 DPN's

Started: late July '07

Finished: August 4 '07

I predominantly followed the pattern exactly. I think I must have an early and error ridden edition of the book because I had to leave a row off of the buttonhole shaping. Also, as stated, I didn't sew the leg cuffs. Everyone seemed to love them, so mission accomplished. Hooray for FO's an meeting deadlines!

Sock Tale

I don't know what it's been lately with all my sock mishaps. There's the one pair that I kept finding in dirty parking lot puddles. There's the one where I waited and waited to use this pattern that I really liked, only to find that it doesn't show up a single bit in the yarn.....Oh! And what's the deal with me never being able to get a sock over my heel anymore? My heels don't look like they've suddenly expanded greatly. My legs, maybe. Heels, no. Anyhow, remember how I ordered all that sock yarn the other month and it all accidentally came in at once and I thought I was gonna pass out? I stayed true to my prediction and plunged right into the Fire on the Mountain.

preeetttyyy

With help from my mother, I was able to successfully wind it into a center-pull ball using hands and the winder, sans swift. I don't know why it never occurred to me that this could be done. I recently read somewhere about doing this, and while it was a tad troublesome and undoubtedly more time consuming/messy than doing it with a swift, it worked none the less.

I decided to keep the pattern about as simple as a pattern can be 1) because I didn't want to obscure the color at all and 2) I wanted my socks quick. I opted for plain stockinette socks, loosely based on the Sock Love pattern at Chic Knits. Then this happened.

fug

As unappealing as I found the severe, creepy tie-dye-gone-heinously-wrong appearance of this, I received multiple compliments on them. I kept thinking."Well, maybe they're not so bad." and kept knitting, in case you're wondering why I worked all the way thru the heel while a large part of me loathed them. I like my heel, so I new it wasn't the necessarily the sock yarn itself.

I did some poking around on the internet and after I saw what some of the less goofy socks looked like, I knew what had to be done.

ouch!

Luckily I was able to salvage the ribbing because I've developed quite an aversion to doing it. All I did was decrease 4 stitches around and this what I ended up with.

worst FO shot ever

Please excuse the fact that it looks like my feet are propped up on a mountain of trash. They're not, really, but I quickly cleaned off the table afterwards. Since completion, my socks have travelled to Atlantic City, where I mistakenly hoped they would be some sort of good luck charm, and got to go on the beach. Then my f*cking shoe broke exposing a large chunk of metal that poked and rubbed away at my heel. I was able to quickly get another pair of shoes, but I thought my socks had bit it. After I got them home and washed up, I thin they'll survive. They must have had some luck in them after all. If I can figure out how to send my phone pictures to my printer, maybe I'll show some of our adventures. Maybe I'll also get off my butt and take some shots of my finished Quill Laces Socks, which I realized earlier that I had never done. Oops.

Goes From Virgin to Yarn Whore in 60 Seconds

I've come to a realization about myself. I need to anticipation of packages arriving in the mail to get through the average day. I knew bad things would happen when I started shopping online. I knew it! Oh well. I guess having yarn issues,while still a legitimate worry, is much less severe than many problems one might develop. That being said, here is what arrived for me this week.

I hate to say it but I'm less impressed with this shipment than i was with the previous one. I think it's practically because the colors are a wee bit different than they appeared on the screen (whereas the others were spot on) and that the first order I placed was ones that I really, really wanted while this one was more in the category of "Hmmmm...do I want this one?.....or do I want that one?" which basically culminated in my just kind of randomly deciding on two of the multitude that I desire. I still like them though. And maybe when they're knit up I'll be doing imaginary back flips over them like I did with the first order. And yes, sat here for a good 10 minutes with at least one hank of the yarn pressed up to my face while I semi-psychotically inhaled it's fabulousness. The one on the left is STR Henpecked and the other is Little Bunny Foo Foo, both in medium weight. LBFF is essentially Lucy but with pink instead if the blue. In my head I think of it as being grey, but it is in fact a beige-ish color.

On to the next subject.....oddly still related to my new found obsession with STR.

Guess what I have???

Why yes, that's a photo of me relaxing in my super-terrific Monkey socks!

I enjoy standing in them, too.

Here's a closeup of the pattern.

As previously stated, this is the Monkey pattern from Knitty. I used STR lightweight in the Cracked Canyon colorway and size 2 needles to accommodate my humongous feet. I love them.

Now I get to break into the new stuff: )-