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!

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.

Suffered

Since I've blogged a week and a half ago, not much has happened. And by not much, I mean my knitting is suffering (silently of course since I've never encountered yarn or needles that could talk). Last post, I talked about DM's Mother's Day socks, and teaching NB to knit. Since then, DM has received her socks, which she happily squealed over, and I've neglected to take modeled photos of them. Be assured, they look great, if a little short. I did finish that circle scarf for NS's mom, and gifted it to her on Mother's Day. It was 3 strands worsted weight (2 aqua and one a light blue like the one in this) and straight double crochet in the round with a size Q hook. It turned out great, but since it was such a quick project, I neglected to take pictures.

I haven't touched my Tardis socks at all, mostly because the deadline for DS's birthday is looming (May 25th) and her present is an unmitigated disaster. I first cast on a hat with one 50 g skein of Mochi Plus, which looked to be not enough from a very early point. Then when I finished the pattern with half left and tried the hat on, I knew there was something wrong. I decided never to use a pattern that doesn't include gauge information again. The next attempt found me running out of yarn so I headed to the nearer LYS (which is actually a pretty crappy shop for being so expensive, and they never have what I want) and SURPRISE, they didn't have any Mochi Plus. They had some chunky weight in their bargain bin, but nothing even remotely close to what I was working with. So I finally settled on a 100g ball of something else, which I reasoned was twice as much as what I had before, and would definitely suffice, though it meant I had a skein of Mochi and nothing to do with it. I quickly churned out this adorable crochet hat:

I've worn it twice and I love it to death. I did have to redo the last few rows to tighten up the crochet "ribbing" but that didn't take too long at all. I don't enjoy the join line that's so clearly visible, but I wasn't sure if I could do it in spirals instead. After some experimenting with other yarn, I know I can, so one day soon when there aren't so many birthdays coming up, I'll take it apart and redo it.

I'm just at the decreases for the crown on DS's new hat, but they aren't working out in the perfect spiral effect I wanted and I messed up a little so I've had to tink back like 3 rounds. This is what it looks like so far:

The colors are weird, but definitely her. She will love it, but the pattern is a modified version of the hat she got for Christmas, so I really don't think she'll appreciate the time and effort that went into it.
I addition to DS's birthday, two very close family friends have birthdays in July, and I have to make socks for them, and DM's birthday is at the end of June. We discussed what she wants because the only handknits she's ever actually liked were the 2 pairs of socks I've made her, and the 2 afghans: here and here that I've made her over the years. I told her that there was no way I could crank out an afghan in that time (which isn't true: Hello Kitty only took me a month, but that was working on it every second I could so I didn't want to set myself up for another project like that), but she could have socks if she wanted. She said that she didn't really care as long as I acknowledge her birthday, which sounds like a yes to me, so I guess I have to cast on 3 pairs of socks this month.

I had planned to make a pair of Owlie socks for one of those family friends for her birthday, but I cast on and had to double up the yarn (Cascade 220 fingering weight) in order to get gauge, and then the charting proved to be a little too complicated for me, and the pattern itself was obnoxiously over-complicated. I mean seriously, who puts cables in the cuff of a sock? Ribbing isn't good enough any more? So I have 100g of a wooly yellow yarn that I'm gonna use to make a pair of plain stockinette socks. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping I have enough yarn since it needs to be doubled up, so I really only have half of that.

I think the other girl's socks will be made of the same yarn I used for my Owl Sweater because her favorite color is green, and I have some leftover yarn I can use. I have yet to decide what yarn I should use for DM 's: I still have some pink variegated yarn leftover from the sock yarn binge my DS encouraged, and some more yarn in the same color as her Mother's Day socks, but I don't think I want to use that because she'd confuse the two pairs. I might get some Patons Kroy for her, but what I really want to do is get a vegan sock blank and dye it rainbow for her. I'm having a hard time finding yarn that meets my requirements though.

Quote of the Day:
Me: Floyd head-butted me in my womb
And along the same lines

Kid: Babies come from hoohas.

Gifted

This past Saturday I went to game night at my friend's house, and my friend's mom gave me a basket full of knitting supplies that she'd won in a raffle. It was all wrapped in cellophane and looked to be full of some really nasty acrylic yarn, but when I got home and inspected the contents, it also contained a pair of Knit Lites, which are straight knitting needles that have light-up tips, a set of Boye US size 3 dpns, and a set of 3 crochet hooks sizes G, H, and I. Since I don't use straight knitting needles I don't know how useful the Knit Lites will be, but they're dead brilliant so I don't mind that. The dpns and the crochet hooks are definitely useful though.

In other news, I completed DM's Mother's Day socks today during naptime. I actually Kitchenered the toe of the second sock while standing and walking around checking on sleeping children. Here's a photo:

I'm kinda pissed that the yarn was un-dyed for a section. I didn't have enough yarn to just cut the section out, so there's a white stripe on one sock. Check it out:

These socks are actually the second pair that I've made following this same pattern, and last night I hit a slump in the middle of the second Mother's Day sock. I really didn't want to work on it anymore. At first I thought it was second sock syndrome, but then I realized that it was the fourth sock, and fifth counting the one I started for me that I had to set aside to work on birthday and Mother's Day projects. So basically, I had fifth sock syndrome, which seems a little more appropriate to me.

I also started teaching NB to knit. Sunday night she learned to cast on and she learned the knit stitch. She picked it up so quickly, it was actually pretty amazing to watch. I taught her the long tail cast on and she was able to do it correctly the second time. The next time I was over at her house, her mom picked up the swatch she was working on and started knitting. She did it perfectly as well. I asked her when she learned and she said she couldn't remember and that she hadn't known she could do it until she tried. It was also pretty amazing.

The first day I taught NB, I drew this for her to teach her what the different types of fabrics look like:

When I wrote Knitting Theory at the top, she insisted that I had to call it AP Knitting Theory because it was a crash course and she wanted to learn it really quickly.

Because NS's mom is kind of like a second mother to me, I think I'll make her a nice circle scarf as well. I'll do some simple crochet so it'll be done in time, but it'll be nice to get her something.


Quote of the Day:
Evan, stop eating your shoe!