TARDISed

Yesterday I finished my first pair of Tardis Socks, The Doctor's Wife on Ravelry. They're blocked and everything!

They look so very lovely, I don't even have words for how well they turned out.

I got sick of working on DM's afghan, and I wanted to be sure I got all the other Christmas projects done on time, cause DM knows she'll get her present eventually. Anyway, I started another pair of stockinette socks for Jen (NS's mom, who so graciously hosted me this summer):

I ordered a set of size 1 circular needles from Knit Picks for the second set of Tardis socks because I've found that the way I hold my dpn's causes my hands to ache a lot, and I'd like to do the second set two-at-a-time. I found that doing them one at a time was frustrating. I didn't think I had a problem with second sock syndrome (and I guess I don't because the second was completed shortly after the first) but the repetition wore on me, especially because it involved colorwork.

Aside from Jen's socks and NS's tardis socks (the finished ones were for NB, who conveniently wears the same shoe size as me),  I still need to make a pair of socks for Jen's husband Joe, a pair of wristwarmers for Renee, a hat for Michael, and I need to decide whether DS gets socks, a bag, or a hat this Christmas. I really wanna do the Harry Potter fair isle bag for her but I really don't think I'll have enough time. I might have her give me an extension on that. I hope next year I can afford to buy more gifts because this is a whole lot to knit while also taking full time classes and looking for a job.

Frogged

It's been waaaaaay too long since I've posted. The beginning of a new school year has been a little annoying, despite being pretty easy (gen ed courses are all retarded) and I've been in the process of moving in and unpacking all of my things (which all fit nicely into my closet). This, of course, is made all the more difficult because I can't move any furniture into my room until the floors are re-done. The wood has to be chemically sanded and re-varnished due to the damage done by the previous tenants.
I did get the opportunity to locate all of my yarn, which is a pitiful stash, let me tell you. I have a filing box full of acrylic nastyness, which is destined to become another stupid crochet chevron blanket- I really thought I had gotten rid of all of the leftover Red Heart crap, but I guess not. I don't actually mind acrylic yarn, though. Being a relatively poor person and a college student has made it difficult to be picky about my yarn, and I have a deep and abiding affection for Caron Simply Soft because of it's sheen and rich colors. In fact, that's what DM's afghan is made of. I just don't like Red Heart, I guess.
I also had a milk crate filled with WIPs, excluding DM's afghan and all of the materials for the Tardis socks, which I have re-started. In that bin, I found my Harry Potter scarf, (so close to being finished that it's laughable), and my Owl Sweater.
Thursday I spent the day working on DM's afghan and making these two lovely Christmas gifts:

They are a modified version of the Chain Loop Circle Scarf. I just chained until I got the right length using my yarn and preferred hook. They look really cool, despite being just about the simplest and quickest FO's I've ever made.
 I had classes on Friday, and I spent the evening at NB's apartment about an hour and half's drive away. I sometimes wonder if I'm a dim person (lightbulb not on and all) or if I'm just really absent-minded. I forgot my knitting, and so lost a lot of time I could have been working on it. Luckily though, I was prepared for this eventuality, since it has happened more than once. After that, I decided I needed to keep an emergency project at NB's place, so I gave her the second skein of the yarn I used for DS's birthday hat and an extra hook so that I could make another. I got about 80% of the hat done while I was there, so I guess I should remember to pack more emergency yarn to keep at her apartment.
Saturday morning I visited NS at her new apartment, which happens to be in the same city as NB's since they both attend the same school. We hung out for a bit and I headed home.  Once there, I went about doing some more organizing (I think that job has made me a bit OCD- about every 10 minutes I had to walk around and straighten chairs or clean tables or sweep or mop or clear off counters or clean up toys). When I encountered my Owl Sweater I decided it was high time to frog it. I like the yarn a lot, and I was never going to actually be able to fix the problem with the sweater. So I spent the night frogging and reskeining, and came up with this:

I think I'll be able to make a nice cardigan out of it, owing to the fact that my sweater was about 3 times too big from the collar up, and about 4 inches too long. The yarn is Cuddle by Jo Ann sensations, in Lt Green. It's DK weight and it will make a lovely cardigan one day. When Christmas knitting is over.

I did restart the Tardis socks, but DM and I don't spend too much time together, so I've mostly been working on her afghan and my homework. The first sock still looks like this:

The day before I moved, I took one last trip to the LYS and bought a second skein of this yarn so that I would be able to make another pair of Tardis socks once I finished this one.

DM's afghan is over halfway done, so as promised here's a picture:

It really looks a lot prettier than that, but there's only so much that can be done with a camera phone.  The afghan is wider than a standard twin bed, but that's good because DM likes big afghans.

Listed

Here's a quick list of the things I've got in the making:

Katniss socks for Renee, whose birthday is in July:

DM's afghan, which still pretty much looks like this:

Tardis socks, which also have not gained any yardage lately:

Today, I created a scarf for DM's childhood zebra toy, because that's what she asked for as a birthday present. I knit it in k2 p2 ribbing long enough to circle his neck, then picked up stitches at the cast on edge and worked a 3 needle bind off to avoid sewing, since I hate sewing knitted work. Here's some photos of that:

I frogged DS's hat again because I hated it. The decreases weren't working right, and knitting it was becoming a chore, so I crocheted her a hat instead:

 The colors are actually much prettier than that, but I only have a phone camera so I can't really depict them well. It's a bright blue, a dark green, a royal purple and a dark almost black purple. K and I had crochet group on our own last night, and since we went to the Panera closer to her house, we were near her favorite Big Lots which she swears has the best yarn. She got me a whole bag full of cool yarn there. It's all acrylic, but super fun colors and really soft so I was excited to get the yarn for this hat. It's 70 grams and only cost $3. K bought the yarn for me because I gave her a bag full of all the leftover yarn from the Hello Kitty Afghan, plus a lot of other odds and ends that I won't use but she might, so she said it was fair trade for her to buy my yarn. I also got the yarn for Zebra's scarf there, plus 100 grams worsted weight in a bright orange, and 50 grams worsted weight in a Noro-esque colorway: bright pink, orange, and gray.

I still have another pair of socks to do for my other friend with a July birthday, but DM's birthday present is out of the way, and so is DS's. I might even have time to work on NS's afghan, or DM's Christmas afghan, or maybe even my Tardis socks! I can't wait til all the obligatory birthday knitting is over and I can work on a project I enjoy again.

Since I started this week out with the exciting realization that our well (like for water) has run dry, and DS's caused a whole lot of family drama throughout this week, I feel like the simple joy in being able to choose my next crafting project is totally and completely deserved. Plus I got paid today and it was my largest paycheck yet!

I don't have any specific quote of the day, but today NS and I had fun scaring the kids with an elephant beetle. Most of the boys screamed like little girls, but the girls wanted to hold it and play with it. The whole experience was seriously funny. NS decided she wanted to keep it, so we were trying to find a name for a comic book hero/villain with horns and it took us waaaaaay too long to think of Loki, considering the fact that we're both comic book nerds and have recently watched both Thor and the Avengers.

Started

This week has been a little tiring. Lots of late nights (there was a Rise Against/A Day to Remember concert on Monday and the Avengers movie at midnight on Thursday), so I was super cranky at work. I don't think the kids suffer much from that, but I'm starting to get super pissed off at how my boss and my coworkers talk to me, but that's another story. As far as knitting goes, I completed the Hello Kitty Afghan on May 2nd. I just had the sewing left to go, and it really only happened because I was watching Farscape and needed something to keep my hands busy and it was the closest UFO. Here's a photo of that:

 That second photo is of the backing. Excuse the wrinkles, as this was straight out of the washer, hanging to dry. I think it really is quite adorable, even though I hate Hello Kitty. It's in my car, in a brown bag along with a notecard with care instructions written out onto it. I struggled to find a delicate way to say that when acrylic catches on fire it will melt to skin, so it isn't a good idea to leave the baby alone with it, but then just went with "This item is not flame retardant." Since it's 100% acrylic though, care should be super easy for the mommy, which was the goal because new mommies have enough to worry about.

Anyway, I also started two new projects, and plan to finish one and start another new one in the next week. As you probably know, Mother's Day is coming up, so I started a pair of socks for DM. They're the same pattern as DS's socks (I've made 2 1/2 socks using this pattern and I still love it, no second sock syndrome here), but in a beautiful blue colorway. It's Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight in Indigo. Here's a progress photo (or two):

I also started the TARDIS socks, probably for me since I have til Christmas to make the 2 other pairs, and because it would be nice to test the pattern out before gifting the product. I have cleverly named them the It's Bigger on the Inside socks on my Ravelry page, (*Edit: Since Knitty has that It's Bigger on the Inside shawl, I renamed my socks Sexy, cause, you know, they will be, and also cause the Tardis's name is Sexy). I've only gotten about 4 rounds in to the ribbing, but I switched it from twisted to plain ribbing because in my head I was worried that twisted ribbing wouldn't stretch as much and also because I didn't really see a difference in the fabric when I googled it (google for the win, by the way, most useful knitting tool around). Here's a progress photo of that:

I'm also planning on starting DS's hat as soon as I finish mom's socks, but it'll be tricky knitting both of those projects because much of my knitting happens at home, no matter how much I talk about naptime knitting. At naptime, I have to keep at least one eye on the kids at all times, and abotu halfway through, they start waking up and giving me hell. Anyway, I had to switch patterns for DS's hat, because the one I had called for size 10 dpns, which I couldn't find, and I really didn't want to buy circs since I've never needed size 10 circs for anything, and I probably never will. I chose this pattern instead. It's similar to the one I made her already, and it's cute and requires only 100 yards of yarn, though that is still more than I have in that colorway, I might have to switch yarns for the crown, or maybe make a smaller hat. I don't know, I'll figure it out later. Here's a photo of the yarn I chose for that, balled up with my crank yarn winder:

I forgot to say that when I went to ball up the Tardis yarn, I tangled it so badly that I spent the whole day untangling it. Probably 5 hours total went into the mess I created, but I managed to wind it up without losing any yarn.

After I finish with DS's hat, my mom's birthday will be coming up, so I really won't have much of an opportunity to work on those Tardis socks til the end of June. We're going on vacation for a week in the middle of June though. We're going to a cabin in Georgia, and since I won't be working for a whole week, I'm hoping to get a lot of knitting done.

Let's review my April Monthly Goals:

I said I wanted to spend 45 minutes daily on the HKAD, which I did faithfully. I finished the entire afghan in a little over a month, a feat of which I am seriously proud.

I wanted to read 2 books by the end of the month, and I only managed one: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa.

I also wanted to finish mom's socks, and one other (single) sock, which I definitely managed. I even cast on for a pair of socks in DS's pattern for me and had to abandon them to work of DM's socks of the same pattern, plus I cast on the Tardis socks. Lots of socks to go around here.

My last goal was to keep the blog updated by posting once a week. I only posted one blog post late, and only by a day, so I think I succeeded on that front.


My goals for this month will be:

Finish DM's Mother's Day socks

Start and finish DS's birthday hat

Start DM's birthday project (probably socks but I'm not sure).

Make some progress on NS's crochet afghan (my crochet projects have been seriously lagging behind recently)

NB has jokingly asked that I teach her how to knit, so I want to at least teach casting on this month, if she can put up with learning such a girly skill.

I'd like to finish at least one book this month. It will probably be a reread of Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher, which I have on audiobook.


Quote of the day (DM, talking about her encounter with Emmett the cat):

"I said, 'Emmett, you have dandruff,' and Emmett said, 'Purr.' I said, 'No seriously Emmett, you have dandruff. Maybe you should try some Head and Shoulders,' and Emmett said, 'Purr.' So then I said, 'You know, sometimes I feel like we don't communicate very well,' and Emmett said, 'Purr.' So I said, 'Purr,' and Emmett said, 'Stop mocking me.'"

Tired

Since it's the middle of the night and I have work and a concert to go to tomorrow, here are some pictures.
First up, DS's Clown Lace Socks:

They've been done for about 2 weeks now, but getting DS to let me take the pictures was like pulling teeth. She kept saying she was too busy or that she had somewhere to be. They turned out great though (the pictures and the socks). The socks even match perfectly, with absolutely no work on my part.

Next up, the Hello Kitty Afghan:

 They came off the needles the night before last, I finished adding fringe last night,

And I began braiding the fringe this morning. I just finished, and I cut off all the excess yarn, which weighed like a whole pound all on its own. Between cutting, looping and braiding, the fringe took me like 5 hours. I enlisted a few extra hands though. DM worked some of the braiding, and NB helped me with the cutting and braiding.
The only thing left is the backing.  I bought a yard of thin flannel that's white with pink polka dots, and it needs to be cut to size and sewed on.

Because I'm excited about it, I'm gonna tell you one last thing. I went to the LYS this Saturday, and I picked up lots of yarn. Cascade 220 in a wooly yellow for Erin's owlie socks, Mochi plus in a purple, blue and red variegated colorway for DS's hat, and best of all, Madelinetosh sock yarn in the fathom colorway. IT'S THE TARDIS SOCK YARN!!!!!!!!! I've literally hugged it to my chest every time the nasty afghan started to upset me, and I'm dreaming of the day when I can start working with it. It's perfect, though it's super expensive. There's only enough for about one pair of socks, so I'm basically spending $30 per pair of socks, and I'm making 3.
That's it for now, but I'll keep the Blog posted

Updated

So just as a little update to my life, since it feels like it's been forever since I've blogged, I've decided to take a short break from my massively full schedule for the day and inform the Blog that I have an FO to showcase (DS's Clown Lace Socks), but I have to take some pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to post on it tomorrow. (No, it's not the Hello Kitty thing, I'm still about 2 stripes from being done, and now she wants fringe, which is gonna kill an extra 3 hours of work measuring lengths, looping them through the YOs I now have to create, and braiding the loops so the baby can't rip them off the blanket and hang itself or something. It's just about 65% done considering all of that.)
I cast on a pair of socks for me, and I'll post pictures of that tomorrow as well. Today I had like 5 tests due, 3 of which were finals and 2 were post-test survey things, plus a short essay. Despite work, I managed to complete 1 exam before work, 3 during my lunch break, half of the essay during naptime, and the last exam after work. I've also just finished a load of laundry. On top of all the homework, it also happens to be laundry day, so I've gotta wash all the laundry here at home with my awesome washer, then cart it all to the laundromat to do the drying and folding since I don't have a dryer. I never get done before 10 p.m., but I guess thems the breaks for choosing a weekday for laundry day and getting a day job.
In other news, I chose some yarn from the stash for a pair of socks for DM's birthday gift since her birthday is in June and I'd like to finish her gift early and not have to worry about it too much. I'll probably make her another pair for mother's day.  I'm obsessed with the pattern I used for DS's socks because it's interesting but not difficult and it only requires one 50g skein of yarn, so I think I'll make a few more pairs, 2 for DM, one more for DS's birthday since I fudged up and already gave her the Clown Lace ones, and at least one pair for me, since I never get to make anything for myself.
I also finished a novel, which counts toward my monthly goal. I read The Iron Knight, by Julie Kagawa, which was interesting, but you can definitely tell that the author didn't intend to write it, and that she never meant for a happy ending. I read it in the interests of finishing the series, which sucked me in the way silly vapid teenage supernatural love stories seem to lately. I definitely love the fae theme though. I loved the Wicked Lovely series, and this seemed along those lines, though a little more vapid. I'm getting to the Cleopatra book, and I have two other weird supernatural teen books in my queue, Out of the Shadows by Sarah Singleton and Shifting by Bethany Wiggins.

Random things (In list form, since I like lists)
1. NB and I have been watching mad crazy amounts of Doctor Who lately (which for us is like 3 episodes a week), so I've nearly gotten to the current season, and I so love it.
2. My car's acting super funny, and I'm pretty sure it has a transmission fluid leak. I'm hoping it's something simple and easy to fix since I can't afford another, even a clunker, but it's been worrying me for a few days.
3. Today is pretty much the last day of the school semester, and I'm so glad. Balancing school and a full-time job has been crazy-mad-strange, especially considering that the hours I'm supposed to be working are 8:30 to 4:30, but I'm usually there later (sometimes only 15 minutes, sometimes an hour) and I only usually take about half of my lunch break and spend the rest watching kids nap since I haven't got anywhere better to be. I've been seriously exhausted, so I'm excited to take one thing of my mental checklist.
4. I got an insanely disgusting and persistent coldy-thing which left me just able to claw my way out of the sheets, get dressed and go to work, but unable to do much else for 3 days straight. It's been a week and I still haven't kicked the cough. 
5. I've neglected housework for a few days, so DM's pretty pissed with me, but in my defense, it's finals week (though I'm about 99.9% sure she doesn't know that since we only rarely speak anymore because she works til 10 pm and I'm asleep by then most nights).
6. I'm the proud owner of a new cow.... Well, actually, it's a pillow pet thing, but it's still pretty awesome.
7. I thought about taking said cow to the daycare for naptime, but there was a case of head lice there, so I don't want to risk leaving anything there to get infested with lice. I've taken to tying my hair back tight and not letting anyone's blankets or heads get near me or mine because of it, even though the mom said the kid only had 4 nits, which are gone now. I'm not freaked out about lice, I just know that they would be insanely difficult for me to get rid of. My hair's grown like 6 inches in the last 6 months, for God only knows what reason, and combing through it for nits would be just about the most annoyingly time-consuming task I could think of. Wow, all of that sounds super embarrassing now that I've reread it.
9. Since I have an essay to write and I only really meant to catch up, I think I'll go finish that (and the laundry, where I still have another 2 loads to wash, ugh), but I'll be here tomorrow hopefully with pictures of DS's feet.

Quote of the Day: I think you pocket dialed me, but all I heard was you saying, "Give me a hug, where's my hug?"

Ah the joys of pocket dialing from the daycare.

Wow, it's been a while

So since I last blogged, I have completed a number of projects, with pictures to follow. I had a whole semester of college and a new semester just began last week. I'm taking a whole load of stupid classes, but they're all gen ed or required for my major. Mostly I chose the stupid ones because I had to take my classes online (long story) and the only ones available are ridiculous. I'm taking Communications, Theatre Survey, American Government and Intro to Tech for Teachers. Though they are all classes that would require very little effort at college, online they require about 8 times more work, albeit busy work. Aside from all of that, I am on my way to a Rise Against/ A Day to Remember concert tomorrow with a friend and I'm really excited for that, though I have to brush up on my ADTR because I only know a few of their songs. I had a pretty uneventful Christmas, and my birthday was around the same time, also uneventfully.

I started watching Dr. Who with a friend and have been getting very involved in it. I've only gotten about midway through the 4th season and I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague. I absolutely adore it though. In addition, my other friend was jealous that I was watching Dr. Who with someone else, so she decided we would watch the spin-off series, Torchwood, together, and we've been doing that off and on. I think the next episode we'll watch is the first episode of season 2. Really, the way it works with these two is that whenever we have time we hang out, so I generally end up watching maybe one or two episodes a week.

In books, I've been listening to the new Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince, on audiobook. I love the character of Jem. I'm also trying to reread Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld because he just put out a new one in that series and I don't remember what happens. I'm rediscovering though that it's a little bit childishly written. I read the new Inheritance book by Christopher Paolini and I hated the ending. I won't spoik it any more than that. I gave up on Atlas Shrugged because it got really boring. I finished the first of three parts, and it seemed like the book could pretty much end there. I listened to the Charlie Fletcher Stoneheart series on audiobook. That was also a little juvenile but with a good plot. I'm eagerly awaiting Crossed by Allie Condie. I requested it at the library over a month ago, but I'm still on the waiting list. I'm also excited for the Hunger Games movie, though the ending of the last book did sort of make me want to die a little.

On to yarn crafting. I created a whole series of berets with leftover yarn for myself. They're all in bright colors. I also made I think 2 scarves for myself. I also recently completed a pair of my very own socks. For Christmas gifts I gave a bright green beanie, a dark green scarf, a black scarf, a red beanie, a blue beanie, a beautiful red cable scarf, a bright orange beanie with purl heart, a multicolored lace eyelet beret, a yellow and black steelers beret and a knitted sock monkey which took forever and made me want to stab its eyes out. Right now I'm working on a gray beanie with cabled owls at the brim for my friend and a light green sweater with cabled owls at the hems for myself. I've never made a sweater so it's kind of an adventure for me. I've made nearly anything else one could think of so finding a new project is rare for me. I've also just gotten a hank of laceweight yarn to make a lace shawl. I'm still working on my harry potter scarf, but I only pick it up every once in a while. I'll post pictures in a few days I think. As soon as I figure out my sister's camera and I get her to let me borrow it.

Edit: I forgot to add a few other projects. I did the Knitty Fish Hat a couple of months ago, in pinks and purples. I also bought some gold crochet thread to do the lace shawl in another color with bigger needles. As promised, here are the pictures of all this:

Afterthought Heel socks from Kathleen Taylor's book, The Big Book of Socks

Self- designed berets. There were the only three I could find today, but there's also a bright blue and bright green and maybe one more.

These two are self-designed scarves. The first is just a double crochet pattern with a Q hook. The second is a design based on a granny square, only it is done in rows, rather than rounds

These two are the Knitty Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts.

These next two are the same shawl done in two different yarn weights and needle sizes. The first is gold crochet thread and size 6 needles and the second is an alpaca blend laceweight yarn that A from the library traded me (I gave her some leftover sock yarn for it). It's done with size 2 circular needles.

This is the multicolored eyelet beret I made for my DS for Christmas.

These are all parts of the sweater I'm working on. A close-up of the owl cables on the torso, the full torso, the full sleeve and a close-up of the owl cables on the sleeve. The last picture is a close-up of the original swatch I made before I started the sweater.

This is my Harry Potter scarf, done in a K2, P2 pattern with size 3 needles and worsted weight yarn, which makes it super thick. The other picture is the Gryffindor patch that will be ironed on to the scarf at the end. I think that's about it for now. All of the other projects I mentioned were given as Christmas gifts, so I don't have any pictures of them. Sorry about the fish background to the pictures- that was about the best lighting in the house, and the most plain background I could find.