Checked

So my idiotic self decided I didn't need to check the fit on the Tardis socks because I'd done a gauge swatch before I started. I didn't really deem it necessary to try on the WIP until this point:

where I determined that my first foray into intarsia didn't go very well and my tension was off, and the socks were so tight around my ankle/calf that my foot went numb. The lettering is almost unreadable and the sock itself is definitely unwearable. I think part of the problem is that the white yarn was mystery stash yarn and was a bit thicker than the black and the Tardis blue yarn that it was contrasting. That meant that the spaces between white letters were way too small to be noticeable. And to give myself some credit, it was my first try with intarsia and I thought it looked great...when I wasn't wearing it.

In other knitting news, I've done 6 pattern repeats on DM's lacy throw (and my nerdy self calculated that this is exactly 29.54% complete). It still looks pretty much the same though, so I think I'll post another photo at the halfway point. It's coming along nicely- it isn't taking nearly as long as I thought it would.

I also started a pair of plain stockinette socks for Chris for Christmas (try saying that 3 times fast). The yarn came from Tuesday Morning of all places. I had heard they sold good yarn, but when I went in to check I walked every aisle and didn't see any at all. Then I wandered in with DM looking for something entirely different and the yarn just materialized in front of me like magic. And it was all awesome. Anyway, it's Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks Phoenix (I think they specify the city in which the colorway was dyed) in the colorway Salt River. And it really does look like a salt river when knit, check it out:

I also picked up some more Marathon Socks, this time dyed in the Twin Cities I guess, for Jeff, Chris's husband:

He'll also be receiving a pair of plain stockinette socks. One day, when I haven't got quite so many gifts to give, I will make a pair of patterned socks in the two-at-a-time toe-up method. I'll also make myself a Haapsalu shawl, or maybe try Ravelry's Queen Susan shawl. One day, you know when pigs fly and all my dreams come true and they finally come up with fat free cheesecake that doesn't taste like crap.

I tested out some turmeric dyeing for Erin's bolero and the smell seeped through NB's entire house (she and I collaborated on this experiment). Here are some photos:

Not my favorite color, but definitely Erin's, so it'll do. I'm planning on dyeing the other skein as part of the hand dyeing competition in the Ravellenic Games, then entering the bolero as part of the sweater competition. Maybe I'll do a pair of socks as well, but that might be overstretching my abilities.

Promised

Pictures as promised:

 This is really overdue, but this is the best FO photo I have for Erin's Owl Socks. I think the color, combined with the fierce Florida sun made it insanely difficult to get a good picture of the stupid things.

 Obviously the last four are of the same object. That's DM's afghan, and the paperclips indicate the number of pattern repeats, which at most recent count numbered 5 and 1/4.

This is my FO of the day. Crochet hat for Stevie. Finally, a finished Christmas present! Born of the spark of inspiration created by my last post, this will go directly into the Christmas box. When I find a good place to store said box of course. There isn't room at NS's and the rain keeps making its way into my car and destroying or moldering my possessions. And that's enough about my personal life for one post.

Motivated

So this is the game plan for Christmas:

1. DM's afghan

2. 3 pairs of Tardis socks, one each for me, NS, and NB

3. A pair of socks each for Chris, Jeff and Jen. I've looked into a few different patterns, but if I'm pressed for time I might just give them all plain stockinette socks.

4. A pair of wristwarmers for Renee (I might send a pair I already made for myself last year that turned out a little smaller than I meant them to. Fortunately, she and I share the same favorite color).

5. Bolero for Erin using yarn dyed with tumeric

6. A hat each for Michael, Katie and Stevie

7. A toy for Stevie's baby boy. I haven't a clue what kind of toy yet though. Something monkey-related probably.

And here are my goals for July:

1. Finish one more pattern repeat in DM's afghan. (I've already done almost 4 this month and had to start carrying my gigantic knitting bag to the daycare for naptime knitting) because by my calculations, I need to do at least 3 pattern repeats a month to finish by December, which would probably mean casting off at 11:59 p.m. on the 24^th.

2. Cuff and hopefully a whole leg on one Tardis sock. Dream big, right?

3. Stevie's hat (crochet) probably in Caron Simply Soft colorway Ocean

4. Dye yarn (Patons probably) for Erin's Bolero. Maybe knit a swatch.

5. Simple knit beanie for Michael. Also in Caron Simply Soft in the colorway Ocean. Can you tell I'm trying to get rid of that?

I guess I just wanted to post this to motivate myself to get through these presents. I do tend to underestimate myself, so I'm sure I could manage all this in this month. I'm excited to see how many FO's I can get done so I don't have to worry about them at Christmas time. 

Sorry about the depressing lack of photos. Until my phone or my camera decide to cooperate, I can't really upload anything. I'll try and work it out and post some of those photos tomorrow

Sunshined

So a few weeks ago now, I was nominated for the Sunshine Award. And of course, I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but have since found out that anyone nominated should write a post about it, answer some questions, and nominate others. For those who don't know, the Sunshine Award is given to bloggers that inspire others so needless to say, I'm thrilled to be nominated! Thanks to the amazing gings for nominating me!

So here are the questions:

• Favorite Color – Green
• Favorite Animal – Cat
• Favorite Number – 3. I was born at 3:33 A.M.
• Favorite Drink – English-style tea or lemonade
• Facebook or Twitter –I use Facebook, but I'm not really a huge fan of social media. I also have a Tumblr that I rarely use.
• Your Passion – Knitting, friends, Doctor Who, not necessarily in that order.
• Giving or getting presents – Well I love both, but I think I prefer to see that look on someone's face when you've given them exactly what they wanted but never expected to get.
• Favorite Day –I think I like Saturdays best. Sundays are a close second.
• Favorite Flowers – Oriental lilies and magnolia blossoms

I'm supposed to nominate 10 other bloggers for this award, but (no joke) every one of the blogs I've read has already been nominated, so I'll just say that nearly every blog inspires and brings sunshine to someone.

In other news, I finished DM's birthday socks on Wednesday and they were all ready for her birthday. NS's mom Jen requested a pair of socks for her birthday in July so I'm working away at those- two at a time, toe ups again since that's my new favorite method- but I really do have to start working on DM's Christmas afghan and the three pairs of Tardis socks I'm supposed to finish by Christmas as well. Plus all the Christmas gifts I'm meant to be giving. I really should take an inventory again and set some goals for myself. Next post, maybe. I promise pictures and maybe July's monthly goals since I never did one for June.

Vacationed

So this week is my family vacation. I write to the Blog from the porch of the cabin we rented, overlooking a beautiful river.

River

Cabin

Top of the state park where we hiked

which is also a part of the Appalachian Trail

DM, DS and I are the only inhabitants of our cabin. We had meant for a few family friends to come along, but disaster struck last week and a deer hit their car (I'm actually more inclined to believe the driver hit the deer, but that isn't the way the story was told to me). Don't worry, their all fine, including the deer, which ran off just after causing the accident. The only casualty is the car, which meant that they couldn't drive to meet us here. Anyway, I've been really excited for this trip for a few reasons.
1. No work. That means no screaming children, no annoying boss, and no coworkers or parents who seem bent on ruining my relationship with NS by pointing out how much of a better teacher I am than she was.
2. I get a room to myself at the cabin. Sharing a room with someone is difficult. DS and I did for about 2 years, right up until we all moved, but we managed it by not ever being there at the same time except for sleep. NS and I are managing because we're good friends, but I'm really a recluse and I like to be left alone most often, so it's hard for me.
3. Knitting/Crochet time. The drive was 9 hours, which gave me lots of time to work on NS's crochet afghan. I chose it for a driving project because the other projects I had were DM's afghan, which I couldn't work on in her presence, and my Green Katniss socks, which had 5 dpns that were looking a little sharp to be working with on the mountain roads. NS's afghan was in hibernation for a while, but at last measurement, it was a little over 2 feet long:

It's now a little less than 5 feet long:

and I've chosen some really intense colors for the last few random color stripes. I'm running out of purple yarn for the stripes between random colors, though. I decided to replace the light purple with a slightly darker purple and the dark purple with a brown in order to finish. I think one more white/purple/white combo should be long enough. It won't be a very large blanket, but it won't look out of place either. The goal here was to use up acrylic stash yarn, and I've definitely done that. There won't be any more of that purple, and very little will be left of the white, along with all the odds and ends I used for the random colors. I still have about 1/2 a skein of that dark deal and 3/4 of a skein of a wine red that almost, but not quite, matches DM's Christmas afghan. I think I'll turn both into Christmas hats to be gifted at random.

In the time that we've been here at the cabin, I've waded in the river, hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, hiked some more to see a waterfall (that was worse than the Appalachian- it was like a 45 degree grade and that's insane for a Florida girl who's never known hills), intertubed down a different river, gone to the local yarn shop and bought yarn locally spun and dyed (I spent waaaaay too much money there, but vacations are always more costly than you expect), and got lost multiple times. Did you know that a car with a shoddy transmission has a really hard time going uphill? Well, we did, but we drove it anyway.

The yarn I bought is called Footprints by Blue Ridge Yarns, a Superwash merino sock yarn, and comes in two skeins: 300 yarns variegated yarn, and 100 yards solid yarn in a matching color for the heels and toes of a sock. Brilliant idea, isn't it? Mine was one of the last two at the shop, and it appears to have no name for the colorway, just the number 028. It looks like this:

The shop owners were very kind, and spoke to me about a few techniques while I was there. We discussed blocking socks and sock blockers, tricks and tips for modifying a pattern if your gauge doesn't match, and various yarns and patterns in the shop. DM kindly shut her cakehole while I spent more than my fair share of time there, and way more than my allowance's worth of money there.

While we've been here, I've also had some knitting time. I've worked on the second Green Katniss sock, and I've just turned the heel and begun the gusset decreases on that. Today DM and DS went horseback riding, and I didn't have any interest (citing the excuse that horses are big and scary and smell bad), so I started DM's birthday project. I only have 8 days left to finish it! I cast on for two-at-a-time toe-up socks and it's my first time using either technique. I'm hoping that doing them two-at-a-time will make them go faster, but I'm no stranger to math. 2 is still equal to one plus one but I'll let you know if this new method involves magic. Here's a progress photo of that (keep in mind I started today, and had to frog them twice before I got the hang of it and managed to figure out the right number of cast on stitches):

Pictured

Here's what I've been working on:

Yarn dyeing. The colors turned out way more pastel than I wanted, but that's what you get for having a vegan mom who can only receive bamboo blend sock yarn. Rainbow socks will be her birthday gift, June 28th.

DM's Lacey Afghan. Almost two pattern repeats, each 16 rows long. Finished, it'll be 21 pattern repeats long. 

I lost all the materials for the second Katniss socks, but I just recently found them. I keep all of the materials for every sock I'm working on in little makeup bags like this one:

which is nice when I'm digging through my purse-the needles don't stab me and I can find everything all at once, but it's unfortunate if I take the bag out and can't find it again.

I've also finished 1 and a half yellow owl socks for Erin. The owl is too little, but I'm lazy so I'm not changing it.

Sorry about the lag in posts. I've just recently moved into NS's house because my mom and sister moved away and my house has no water due to a dried up well. It's been really hectic trying to get settled in here, made only the more chaotic by the fact that my boss cut NS's hours and gave me her class, so I'm now officially a preschool teacher as opposed to an assistant, and now I have a pissed off friend (not at me, because she insists it isn't my fault, but she's angry at the situation).

Laced

I actually don't have a theme or idea at all for this blog post (not that I ever actually follow my themes, I mostly just write what pops into my head and edit a little later), so I'll just give a little update on my WIPs.
First up, Katniss. I finished the first sock yesterday. I even wove in the ends. Check it out:

I love the braided cable so much! I had to guesstimate on sizing, and I won't know if it fits til July, but I sized it a little big because she's still growing. These are for a friend whose birthday is in early July.

Second, DM's Lacey Throw. I worked the last 2 rows of the beginning moss stitch border and started the patterning (before I realized I had messed up and increased a stitch and had to rip back two rows). It's starting to look like a project and less like a pile of yarn with the intent to become a project:

Even though this afghan isn't due til Christmas, I wanted to work on it because I didn't want to cast on for the second Katniss sock. I guess I probably do suffer from second sock syndrome, but not in the way most knitters do. Most of us don't want to start another because it's boring to do the same pattern twice. I just thought this pattern overly difficult to read and I hate actually casting on and working the first few rounds on DPNs. I'm not saying I find it difficult or anything, I just don't enjoy that part of the knitting experience. For me, knitting is all about enjoying it. Since I almost never keep the products anyway, I'm not so much a product knitter as a process knitter.

That's it for projects. I guess I should probably start that second Katniss sock or the yellow socks for my other friend whose birthday is in July. Coincidentally, the two are actually sisters, so I can't just knock off and do one but not the other. I have to do both or neither, otherwise jealousy abounds, as I know it would between me and DS.

I got my paycheck Friday, and I've decided that I want to set aside $50 of it every paycheck for knitting related purchases. I know if I have a budget, I'll stick to it, but if I don't I would probably spend wildly. Yarn and other knitting related items are the only things I spend wildly on, and even then I mostly have some idea of what to do with them, but it's still good to limit myself so I don't buy everything I need at once. Anyway, I took my $50 and went to the LYS (which actually isn't too local, about a 30-45 min drive with traffic). I took NB, who if you recall, I was teaching to knit. Though she took to it immediately, she really had no interest whatsoever, so when I asked if she wanted to accompany me, I expected her to react with an opinion akin to the one you would have if someone asked you to watch grass grow with them. But she said she'd love to, so we went. I picked up some black sock yarn for my Tardis socks and some white bamboo nylon blend yarn to dye rainbow sock yarn for mom for her birthday, plus a row counter, which would have been seriously helpful when I was knitting my owl sweater and then I wandered for a while with NB in tow.

We sat on one of the couches to talk a little about knitting and to examine their display items, and of course there was yarn next to us. I picked up a skein of Freia Ombre Lace in just about the most beautiful blue colorway I've ever seen and admired it, saying how much I loved it and would like to take it home, but that I had no plan for it and it was lace. My only lace project has lain dormant in my project box for months because I never have time to work on it between birthdays and Christmas, a fact that still shames me because I've never completed a lace project before. It's about time too. I've been knitting for 7 years now, and lace shawls are my favorite item to gawk at. Anyway, NB told me I should buy it anyway. I said it was $32 and would put me over budget by about $8 and she said it's only $8. I said I have no plan for it and have never even finished a lace project. She said buy it anyway. I said I shouldn't. She said buy it anyway. So I did. It's quite beautiful:

I couldn't get a perfect picture of it, but this is close. The pale blue on the very outside of the skein is actually more teal. The colorway is called Atlantis, and I'm in love with it. I've even queued like 10 different lace shawls in an attempt to find the perfect one for this yarn. Check out my Ravelry queue if you're interested. 

Quote of the day:

Me: It's rainbow, I want it, give me!