More Monkeys!!

IMG_2249
Originally uploaded by knitglit

I joined a KAL on Ravelry and actually did the knitting!! I think I was just really excited to use this yarn, and who can turn down a Monkey sock? I have the first one completed....obviously, I guess, and am about to do the heel flap on the second. The colorway is KawKaw and was the sock camp colorway at this years Camp Crow's Feet. I wasn't able to go, but Cindy was kind enough to nab a skein for me. If anyone's interested in the colorway, Tina just put it up on the BMFA website today.

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.

Freak of Nature!!!

The baby shower at which my blanket is supposed to make it's debut is next Saturday. How did I miss this?? I'll refrain from posting a new picture because it would be depressing. If you're really interested in the progress, scroll down a few entries and look at the last picture of it. The only difference between then and now is that the blanket is currently balled up in an ice bucket that it was thrown in as we were bringing things in from the van. Shit. I'm off to knit.

Woot!

I got in my shipment from BMFA a few days ago. Rarely have I ever gotten such a thrill from a yarn shipment. Almost everything I took out of the box became my new favorite thing. And the Single Silk?? O.M.G! It is sooooooo nice. I don't have the patience to post a picture of each of the items received, but more detailed info can be found either on my Ravelry account, or on Flickr. In fact, I think that the individual photos should be rotating thru that little Flickr badge off to the left right about now.
In knitting news, I FINALLY finished my Leafling socks from the March RSC. More details on that to follow.....once this shitty weather goes away and I can take decent pictures. Today I think I'm going to cast on for a pair of Crosswalker socks with one of my new yarns. I love them all so much that it's going to be hard for me to decide which. No new progress on the baby blanket, because I suck and am very, very selfish.

The Power of Sunshine

I took advantage of the nice weather the other day and photographed a good deal of my newer stash (i.e, sock yarn).

I plan on doing some more of this advantage taking today. Not so much with the photographs, but with the leisurely outdoor knitting. I FINALLY finished a sock from the RSC last night and I'm eager to get into the 2nd as I'm semi afraid I'm going to run out of yarn. Size 11's and sock yarn yardage don't always get along so well. Especially when you're a super-tardo like me and decide to knit an 8 inch cuff while all the while sitting there thinking, "hmmm, I hope I have enough yarn!". Oh well. We soon shall see.

Also (keeping fingers crossed here) I might be getting in a mega packed order from BMFA today. They put up the new/returning colorways awhile ago but I was trying to hold out for the the Inside Out sock pattern to be posted before I ordered. Tina had told me that it would be up a few weekends ago, but no such luck. I decided to just go ahead and order. I'm VERY eager to do the Inside Out socks though, and now that I'll have the yarn it's going to eat away at my poor brain. I'll get it eventually though. Not like I don't already have enough to keep my hands busy.

Off to lounge in the sun!

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.

I'm Baaaack

Yes, yes. I know it's been forever and a day since I last posted. Sorry. All I can say is that I'm one of those people for whom the more time there is to do stuff, the less stuff gets done. Conversely, if I'm super crazy busy, I go into frantic mode and manage to get absolutely everything I need done and then some. I'm still adjusting to not having such huge deadlines always looming over me and when given the spare time, I just kind of flit around trying to decide what it is that I'm really supposed to be doing. Anyhow, that kind of explains it.

Sooooooo.....I have lots and lots to share. My game plan to get myself back into the swing of blog maintenance is to post a little spread over a few days. Seeing as how I'm so all over the place, some of the stuff may be (severely) out of chronological order, but oh well. To start, I'll begin with the present.

Most of my sock club subscriptions have expired, which is a little sad. I had some massive issues with Paypal that kept me from being able to renew anything. Maybe that's for the best seeing as how my sock yarn stash has grown to legendary proportions. I think we all know where my heart really lies, and *that* sock club is still in full swing. Yes, I am referring to the 2008 Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock club. I don't really remember if I ever even posted my first shipment....I'll have to investigate that....but here's the second.

and a semi fugly close up of the yarn

The colors really don't show well at ALL in these pictures. My house s so dark and with the schedule I was keeping, sunlight and I were distant strangers. I really like the color, and am liking the pattern too. I wasn't sure about it when I first looked at it, but once I really saw the details of it I'm digging it a lot more. I'd really like to say that these socks were completed, but a little touch of masochism got in the way. It looks a little like this.....

It's a Modern Log Cabin Blanket! Excitement.

I recalled that my impregnator nephew and his fiancees baby is due quite soon. So, in my brilliance, I decided to make a large, multi-colored, smaller gauged blanket for them. Smart! It's actually coming along quite nicely......attractive, more complex looking than it really is, and yet still on the easy knit/semi-speedy side. The only issue I'm really having with it is that some of the joints are a little......icky.

I'm hoping that when I wash it and all that good finishing stuff, I can kind of conceal some of the messiness. If not, eh, it's really not all that noticeable unless you're really looking at it.

Well, that's about it for now. I have my camera charged and ready to go so hopefully I'll be spitting out some FO shots soon. Not that I'll actually be spitting out FO's. That's one of the joys of not blogging for a long time. I have a lot done already:)

Happy Valentines Day

Considering that I haven't updated in God knows how long and have completely fallen short of my New Year's goals of keeping better records of my projects........I decided today would be a good day to do ne of my standard "Hi, I'm here and not dead" photoless posts. I HAVE been knitting and even crocheting a bit. I have NOT managed to tae any pictures......because I suck at such things. This past month hasbeen filled with familial sickness, having to go out of town to help a friend, and just more chaos than my life normally is immersed in. Hopefully things are slowing down, though I'll be going ou of town again this upcomming week for a few days. Anyhow, I'll break out the camera soon and give a real update.

What???

So the other day we were out and my mom said something about how messed up it was that she had a daughter who knits and she's the only person she knows who doesn't own a scarf or hat. This is from the woman who has specifically told me on several occasions not to knit anything for her because she wouldn't use it. From this experience, I opted to ignore her comment. Night before last, though, she called me to say that she had been feeling sorry for herself because she didn't have a scarf and gloves. I reminded her again today of her earlier comments, but it's been decided that I'll make her the scarf and gloves that she wants. She wanted some cashmere but for the set, that would be quite expensive. I ended up choosing Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky for the scarf and some DK for the gloves. I've never tried the stuff myself, but I've heard good things. Here's hoping.

Yay for Sock Clubs....as if I need more

For whatever crazy reason, I thought that if I signed up fora bunch of clubs this year I would slow down my yarn acquisition. My reasoning fall somewhere in the lines of that if I don't feel the obsessive need to check out what everyone else who's in the sock cubs is getting, I'll spend less time perusing yarn websites and feel less of an overwhelming need to compensate for my sadness. As of now, I have received two club packages. I have also placed 2 orders for Vesper sock yarn, one with Wollmeise, one with Joann's, and one with Yarnmarket. Oh well. To be fair to myself, the Joann's order was for the red yarn-of-hell, with which I am to duplicate stitch the aforementioned "B". For the sake of my sanity, I'll just leave that one alone for now.
On to the yarn goodies!

Yarn Pirate Superwash Merino in Kalamata

and

Lucky Lurker Sock Club DK Duets

This was my first time seeing the Duet sock yarn in person. I've heard fabulous things, though. This is my second round of the Booty Club, and I've loved everything I've received thus far. I'm fairly certain that my first ever BMFA Rockin' Sock Club package will be shipped this coming week, so stay tuned for my dip into mania when it arrives.

Trick Weekend

Hmmm...now that I've typed that, the chosen title may give slightly the wrong impression of me. No, no....It was not that kind of weekend. In the typical way my life seems to go, even after checking, checking, confirming, and checking again that I had no obligations associated with the MSMTA conference this weekend, I still somehow ended up staying at the Marriott all weekend and playing driver girl. While this considerably cut into my planned ass-sitting time, I was able to make the most of my time by knitting and taking baths. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the shower head there because to me, it is a marvel. One of my favorite things to do in hotels is make use of their superior shower equipment and water pressure. However, I've found that the showers at various Marriott's across the nation are more suited to say.....the under 4'3 crowd. Trying to take a shower while bent over backwards in a bridge formation is not my idea of relaxation. The room service was fabulous though, so I was able to survive. And knit!

Brian's sweater.....dubbed the "special" sweater. Right now one cannot truly witness its "specialness". I just looks like a little brown.....well, a large brown hat, really. That's because 1) I have yet to separate the arms from the body and 2) It won't have the giant red "B" that he demands be put on it until after it's finished. Hopefully the process of duplicate stitching a giant red "B" on my freshly knit sweater will induce such alcohol consumption that the letter will come out looking more like cool abstract art. Now, I'm not particularly old. I'm aged enough to know that I don't always understand all the lingo of the tiny aged people, but I like to think that I'm still pretty on top of fashion. I'd hate to think that wearing giant red initials, a la Alvin and the Chipmunks, had somehow gone into style and I completely missed it. I mean, the whole point of the Scarlet Letter was that it was going to be a noticeable label. As the book goes, people would notice the letter and go , "Oh my....that woman's a whore!!!". In my version of the story, The Scarlet "B", I see people taking notice of the letter and thinking, "Oh my....that boy's a reta-,uhhhh, I mean...BRAVE!!!". We'll see. As I should have learned many ties over from past endeavours, it's not always wise to confer with the giftee beforehand. Just make and give! Hopefully my sweater won't get mangled in a schoolyard brawl, or anything like that. That's my big concern. You know how certain "things" can happen to certain kids.....on a daily basis in the lunchroom by one group of kids, then again at recess by another....then again on the bus ride back home, only to start over again the next day when you wear a sweater with a giant red "B" on it.
Alright, time for dinner. Then maybe I'll feel like gambling and breaking off the arms of this bad boy. Not the kid, just the sweater. I'm not really THAT upset of the "B". My sisters family moving 45 minutes away has put a serious damper on my responsible plans of actually trying the thing on him. It's looking more and more like it's going to be more a game what I like to call "Wow, I sure hope this fits!!". I like to live on the edge.

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.

Christmas Knitting in Review....plus some other stuff

FINALLY I found my friggin' camera cord so I was able to upload some pictures. My grand plan was to post one of those murals of all my 2007 knitting. As I went looking through my old pictures, I realized how haphazardly I've photographed a lot of stuff, how many things I haven't taken anything but baby progress shots of (helloooo...Lady Eleanor? And that's a kickass project, too), and finally, how many things I just haven't bothered to take pictures of at all. It's bad. So, I decided to scrap that project. I now have a new New Year's resolution to treat my projects right and give them the photoshoots they deserve. This is, of course, somewhat dependent on my developing some picture taking skills that don't blow. I'll work on that, too.
Ok, so since I'm not doing a year in review, I can at least cover Christmas.

First:

These technically weren't Christmas gifts, but they were knit right along side all the others and gifted......so I'm just going to throw them in here. This set was knit for Sara's baby. I still have to make another set in pink for my nephews daughter. I made a tiny mistake by mentioning that I was sending a gift and hoped it would get there by Christmas in their card. Oops. I better get that started soon. Here's the info-

Pattern: Suede Bootys and Suede Baby Hat by Candi Jenkins

*available on KnittyGritty site

Needles: US sizes 2 and 3 for boots, 6's for hat

Yarn: Berroco Suede in colorways I'm not sure of and Berroco Plush in Creme

Second:

A cashmere neckwarmer knit for my awful sister. I won't go into why exactly I would knit such a thing for someone like her, but those of you who know me well understand the motives behind such gifts This is not the best picture. I took it super last minute while ppl were gathering downstairs for Christmas Eve.

Yarn: Artyarns Cashmere 5, unknown colorway

Pattern: Neckwarmer from Pretending Sanity

Needles: US 8's

Third:

The super secret super project. This is one the Colinette Ab Fab Throw kits in a colorway that's called Santa Fe something. Needle size 11. Making this makes me want to go buy one for myself REALLY. BAD. Maybe even 2 of them. I already have one that I made about 5 yrs ago but its just the vertical stripes. Not too interesting. I'd like to make this pattern and one with the mitred squares.

Fourth:

This is the scarf and hat set that I knit for one of my other sisters. I have yet to give it to her because she didn't show up for the family party and I really don't see her. I'll have to mail it, I guess. I really like the hat and am eager to make one for myself.

Pattern: Scarf-basic seed stitch, Hat-Monk Hat over at RedThreadsUntangling

Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande and Eros Glitz...don't know colors

Needles: Scarf, 15?? Hat, 10

If I did this again, I would have used a larger needle on the hat. I had to do it fast and I the 16" tens were what had sitting near me. It is QUITE dense, but still very nice.

Okay, there it is. Soon, b/c I'm really, really going to work on this, I'll have some pics of what all I'm working on now. Till then......Happy New Year everybody:)

Crappers

Well, I had myself all set up to do a real update post with pictures and all. I painstakingly photographed all my Christmas gifts and other various items of interest in addition to snapping pics of a whole drawer full if old stash for Ravelry. I joined a stash-burning group for 2008 and the first step is to log all of your stash. Anyhow, I did all this and was all ready to go.....and then I realized that I have no clue in hell where the cord to my camera is. Considering that I had absolutely WRECKED both my office and bedroom during a frantic last minute search for Christmas yarn that was MIA, it may take me awhile to find it. It was not pretty. As it became more and more apparent that the yarn was nowhere to be found while I was mere moments away from having to wrap the thing, my search quickly moved from shifting things here and there to pulling out/dumping entire drawers, haphazardly yanking out/dumping storage units.....it just wasn't good. The yarn turned out to still be in the shipping box on my little table downstairs, btw. Absolute destruction for nothing. On the bright side of things, this will at least give me reason to get a jump on my New Years cleaning and organization effort.
Alright, so another post w/out pictures. I suck. This I know......at least with this.
Oh, and guess who guest starred at the Celtic Knot this afternoon? Moi. I'll be doing an encore performance tomorrow morning and afternoon, so if anyone wants to stop by and say hello, that's where I'll be.

Meryy Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm having a good day relaxing and plan on knitting myself a new pair of socks. I'm thinking something chevron-esque out of my now giant stash of Storm Moon Knits Twilight Sock. Either that, or some Charades. I had the urge last night after the super fun "please kill me now!!!" family gathering, but I thought back on all the nights I've acted on my last minute knitting urges and been sad afterwards. I just don't do well starting things when I'm exhausted. Anyhow, I'll be back later with some photos (gasp) and a mini-run down of our Chistmasy events.

I'm trying here.....

Okay, so Yes. I haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Evil, evil me. For those of you who don't know, things have gotten just a tad crazy here and my knitting time has....well, it's pretty much vanished. The little time I have has been (supposedly) spent on gifts for the fast approaching holiday.....though I may have knocked out a hat or something for myself in there, too. Anyhow, nothing to show b/c it's all secret, but I am here, I am knitting some, and I will post some pics of what I can show when it's ready to be shown.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Non-knitting in Vegas

I started for Vegas with all the supplies to make my double knit diamond scarf and swatch/start my nephews Christmas sweater. I had bought some of the new needles from the shop for the former, and I brought it all in my purse on the plane out there. I got a wee bit done on the scarf but it was a bit uncomfortable knitting on the plane, at least while fumbling around with my not-so-great double knitting skills. Once at the hotel, I eagerly went for my project to knit in comfort only to find that one of my new needles ha evidently not made it off the plane. So that was sucky thing number one. Sucky thing number two was that when I started to swatch for the sweater, my fabric was all holey and gross. I had assumed when packing that I would be doing it on size 9's s the ball band suggests a size 10.5. Being the loose knitter that I am, I figured the 9 would be great. Being me, I figured entirely wrong. On to massive suckfest item numero trois. I had the swift idea to look up the "local" knitting shop in the phone book and hopped a cab out there Tuesday morning. $55 later, the cab driver pull up to the address and says,"Oh, you just wanted to get your nails done??".....because the knitting store was now a great big ol' nail salon. I had him wait for me while I wandered around the shopping center and eventually found someone who could give me a vague description of where the store had moved. The cabbie took me there, then informed me that there was no way in hell that I was going to ever get a cab back to the strip because we were in the middle of bum-fuck. He was kind enough wait for me at no additional charge. So I went into the store and was icily greeted by about 9 women sitting around a table knitting. I swear, I've never been given such a noticeable once over before in my life. I stood there until they went back to their knitting and then proceeded to head back where I saw yarn. Before I reached my destination, a woman jumped up fro her chair at the table and very rudely demanded of me," Can I help you!?!?!". I asked her where needles were, to which she huffed and said "Over here!". There selection sucked ass, but I was able to make out with a pair of plastic 6's and 8's. I started back to the front, then remembered that I also needed a tape measure. Here is out dialog:
Me: Excuse me, but where are your notions?
Mean,Evil Lady: WHAT!!
Me: Your notions.
MEL: What do you mean!?
Me: I need a tape measure. Where are your knitting notions?
MEL: Oh, you mean accessories????
Me: Yeah, I guess so.
MEL: Back where the needles were! I don't know how much we have back there though.
Me: Thanks....(and in my head, I hope you get gonorrhea that envelops your entire body)

I then went to check out, where the other woman completely ignored me while she stood there printing out color cards. Finally she said to me, " I am going to help you, really". Eventually she did and I was able to get back into my cab and bitch about the bitches to my cabbie.

So after my $35 cab ride back, I was able to play with my new shitty needles. Yay. I think in the end I only knit maybe 10 rows after that. I think the whole ordeal just disgruntled me. So now I'm back and madly working on stuff for the holidays. Oh, the joy. On the bright side, I came home to a confirmation email welcoming me to the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club. Kick. Ass. Also, the new Raven Series is out! I got me some Laci and two skeins of lightweight. I can't really recall he colors offhand, but I'm sure they'll be fabulous.

One little FO

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

Hmmmm...for some reason, when I took this, I didn't think that it was such a vomitous picture. However, now that I'm not looking at it in the middle of the night, I'm thinking that I'm a jackass for posting such things on the internet. Oh well. Jackass it is.

Pattern: Basic Seed Stitch-I think I cast on something like 27sts
Yarn: Something Brown and something brownish gold
Needles: US 13

Sorry I can't be more specific, but this was another stash buster. I'm fairly sure that the ladder yarn is either something from FFF or Whimsey from Plymouth. It's something I had picked up back in store #3 to make a brown butterfly shawl that never happened. I don't know what I got the brown base yarn for, but I'm sure it couldn't have been anything too important. The fringe on this is killer. Too bad I didn't think to photograph it. I maxed it out bigtime.
So I'm leaving for Vegas in the morning and an still about 70% unprepared. I'm going to attempt to clean up my office for my nephew, but you know me....no guarantees. I also have to be on call to possibly pick him up from Towson tonight so he can get the key and van.
I think I've decided what I'm going to knit in Vegas. I'm bringing along some yarn and a HUGE boys shirt to swatch for a Christmas gift, and I picked up some Fantasy today at work to make a double knit diamond scarf designed by Karoline. I would link to her blog, but I don't have the addy at the time being. I swear though....I went to Target after work to pick up this shirt to use as a measuring tool. I was told to do about a boys 14, and that shirt was just friggin' monsterous. Literally, I could even have worn back when I was slimmer, yet still a boob filled adult woman. I decided to go a size down, but still, this thing is going to be far more time consuming than I had thought. Oh well. I should have learned from past experiences (like my nephews 3 years scarf/hat set) that I shouldn't open my mouth about knitted gifts until they're done.
Alrighty, I'm off to clean up and pack. Be back in a week, hopefully not madly in debt.

Cripes....what am I gonna talk about now???

So A&E pulled Dog the Bounty Hunter off air. I don't really know what to do now. I have yet to listen to this taped conversation where he drops the "n" word, but I hear it's pretty fierce. I don't know if can take it.

Nothing new on the knitting front. I'm still plugging away on my SSSP, which is turning out nicely. I need to figure out what all I'm going to take to Vegas with me. I know what I should take, but size matters when travelling and I'm thinking some socks may be on the menu. Surprise, surprise. Oh! And I sent in my info today for the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club, but I have yet to get a confirmation email so I'm beginning to sweat bullets. Hopefully it'll come tomorrow. Also, I guess I'm going to miss the premiere of the Raven series. Bah! I suppose I'll be able to hold off until I get back from my trip.