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.

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):

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!

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

Finished

I have an FO to showcase today: DM's Paprika Toe-Up Socks

DM graciously agreed to be a foot model for her own socks, with the stipulation that she get to do suggestive poses. I said sure, since the only things being photographed were her feet. We had lighting issues, so these were the best of about 20 different photos I took.

I bought some extra size 6 needles for the HKAD, which has only 3 and 3/4 stripes left to go. This is what it looks like with all 4 sets of circs:

I thought it would be difficult getting used to working with that many needles and not confusing them, but I was smart and I put the two new needles that were both the same color on opposite sides of the work so I wouldn't mix them up (Happy accident actually, but I'll take what I can get). Anyway, it's been super easy so far, aside from the miles of stockinette in the round that kill.

I also bought a set of size 7 circs and all of the yarn required for DM's Christmas afghan, the Lace Panel Throw:

That yarn-eating project requires 7 6 oz skeins of worsted weight yarn. I chose Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Rose colorway for DM, who is a vegan and requested that I not buy any more with wool content for her. 100% acrylic it is! Caron is actually wonderful to work with, and I'm not really too picky about my yarn. I cast on and started working on it, but I cheated and did a backwards loop cast on, and I dropped like 8 stitches working the first row and had to start over. I measured out the right amount of extra yarn for the long tail cast on and just started casting on for the second time. I think when I'm done with the HKAD, this will be my naptime knitting project because I can't work on it at home or mom will see it. I'm a horrible secret keeper, too. She already knows what color I chose because I didn't want her to hate it after all my work, but I was careful not to show her how much yarn I bought because she could probably figure it out from there.

I picked up DS's Clown Lace socks this morning and knit 2 rows of the heel flap but I'm stumped trying to decipher the pattern. It says to work the heel flap in the lace pattern on the RS and work a plain purl row on the WS, but the lace pattern has a plain round for every even round, which I would think equates to the purl row on the heel flap, so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to include the plain round or not. I'm gonna look up the book's errata and see if there's a note on it. Those socks need to be done by DS's birthday in May, and I may make her another gift to go with them since she already knows what her socks will look like.

In my personal life, my car's exhaust pipe fell off on Friday and I had to get some random stranger's help to fix it enough that I could drive it home. The whole experience was trying because my sister and her friend were there and they knew how to fix it but the stranger wouldn't listen to them. Anyway, the next morning DM and I drove the 5 feet or so to the nearest mechanic, who charged me just under $60 to fix it. I was ecstatic because I thought it would be a $500 fix. I also managed to get the car fixed and the stranger's ratchet strap returned to him before 1 p.m.  and I had the house cleaned by 1:30. (Sidenote: Strange men who call me 'honey' and 'sweetie' are totally and completely not okay in my book) All in all, it was a productive day. Life never goes that smoothly for me, so I feel like it needs mentioning when things go well.

Quote of the day:
Kid: Where are my cookies?
Mom: Maybe your dad took them
Kid: That a**h**e took my cookies?

Dreamed

DM is always telling me that I unless I can sum up a dream in 10 words, people don't care, and even then, they start to get bored by the end of the sentence. So here it is, my 10 word summation: My dreams are seriously whacked out. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
So remember when I said I was trying to get rid of stash yarn so I could have less stuff when I move? Check this out:

Sock yarn doesn't count right? Yesterday DS and I went shopping and I wanted to stop at the yarn store to see about some rainbow colored sock yarn for DM because she finally said I could make her some socks. The yarn in the top right is what I chose for her. DS came along and decided she wanted me to make her 2 pairs of socks in addition to the pair I'm already making.
Remember these?

 I think in this post I mentioned that I might frog this sock because it was twisting like a macrame bracelet, so yesterday I did. DS and I looked at some patterns and decided on the Women's Lacy Footlet in The Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor, which is one of exactly 3 knitting books that I own. Most everything I knit is either super simple self-designed stuff or patterns found on the internet (Ravelry is fast becoming my new best friend). So basically, I have 4 pairs of socks to knit, plus the ripple afghan, a lace shawl and my harry potter scarf (which seriously only needs like 3 more stripes, I really should buckle down and do that but it's too hot for a scarf here anyway). Since I bought 2 skeins of everything to make sure I wouldn't run out of yarn, I'll probably have 3 sets of socks all my own made from the leftovers (my feet are so tiny that I only needed 3/4 of a skein for a pair last time). I've been swatching away for DS's socks made out of the toe up eyelet yarn, which is Regia Stretch in a colorway appropriately named Clown. I discovered that either this yarn is super thin, or I knit tighter than I thought because I've had to go down a needle size already and I'm not sure that'll be enough. I've never worked with a size 0 needle (seriously, they're miniscule) but I might have to. *Edit: Everything I just said is completely backwards and wrong. I don't really know why I got it all confused but I did. I would have needed to go up a needle size, but I realized I'd measured wrong. Guess I'm having a day, huh?

In other news, the daycare where I applied last week (you can read about it in this post) called back today to ask if I could interview at 1:30. I'm so excited. Kids are something I can definitely talk about. I'm gonna nail this interview!

Also, that ripple afhgan will have a home outside of mine. I was talking to NS yesterday (she's the friend who got me the interview and the recipient of the owl cable hat that I've blogged about several times) and she said she really liked it, and I thought about how much I cared where it went and decided she should definitely have it for all her interview-finding awesomeness. Anyway, I'm gonna go get ready for that interview, and do some housework while I'm at it.

Sorry about the disappointing lack of pictures and glut of words in this post.

*Edit: I GOT THE JOB! Just wanted to to tell you. That is all.