Aaaaargh!

Gauge swatches are damn dirty liars!! This lovely little aspiring sock will soon be a not so lovely badly-rewound ball of Esprit. :(

*sigh* Oh well.
The Socks of DOOM went out today. :) I won't post pics yet so as not to ruin the surprise.

Here's the other yarn porn pic from the other day:

This is my tiny stash of "good stuff." (Not including the stuff I've gotten in the past week or so or the stuff that's been worked up.) Once again, my alpaca fetish is showing. :P
There's the Plymouth Indiecita Alpaca (my post-interview treat), Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk (from the NC trip), and Drops 100% Alpaca (from a swap... originally supposed to become a Branching Out scarf). Then in the back there's a pile of the most balls of one dyelot I own... the Classic Elite Patina (cotton/silk blend) I got on sale in NC. On top of that pile is the last ball of Plymouth Royal Bamboo for the Branching Out in progress. And last we have the Knit Picks Bare Fingering Merino for my first foray into dyeing (aside from the RIT thing that doesn't really count :P)

My brother was released from the hospital today. He's at home waddling around, resting, and discovering the wonders of Percoset.
My cousin has been able to move both hands just a tad which is really good news. They're flying him to Atlanta next week for surgery. This surgeon is supposed to be one of the best in his field so hopefully that'll go really well. I might be driving up there with Mom at some point, depending on when the surgery will be.

Tonight is tacos, Purple Haze and fishtank cleaning. Oh joy. Then I get to frog that blasted sock.

I need to go take a shower but I'd really prefer a nap right about now.

Oh, and if anyone knows who keeps sneaking into my kitchen and stealing *all* the forks, could you please ask them to stop? :P

happy yarn pictures

Ok, I'm still up so I decided to go ahead and upload some of the pics with the new camera.

Here's the lovely Christmas collection I've gotten in the past couple weeks. :) I'm thrilled. I love giving stuff away and I had mostly run out of any "good yarn" and was back down to my acrylics from last year.

The garnet & black on the left is the KP Gloss for Daddy's socks. The blue Cotton Fleece is house socks for my brother.

The Elann Esprit is for a regular wear pair for my bro and Knitty's Broadripple for Mom. Only project she doesn't know about. Thats the one on needles.

Merino Style for Mom's fingerless gloves she's *so* excited about. :)

The pallette is the boy's socks. Ew, the orange. :P The things you do for love. Lol ;)

The eggplant stuff is Cashsooooooooooft for more gloves. Mmmm...

Green w/ needles is the beginnings of the Sock of Doom.

Grey is a surprise hat for my best friend in FL, who I haven't seen in a year. :(

+ some more sock yarn for whatever

This is the CWYC swap hoodie. It's fabulous. My pictures don't do it justice but it was the best I could do at the time. Note the great ears that stand up so well and the neat rainbow pocket lining! Good stuff. I love it.

Here's most of the cotton collection. Mainly Christmas cloths and potholders. The bright blue ball is representing for the rest of his pound in the stash hamper. That one's for me.


Oh, in the background of these, that's the nifty 'husband pillow' I got Saturday. Totally got me though trying to lay on that horrid hospital cot yesterday, lemme tell ya!
And of course Kitty had to stick his butt in a couple of em too. Hehe.

When it rains, it pours... and floods...

Spent yesterday at the hospital with my brother. They took the tube out of his nose/throat/tummy about midday and he felt much better after that.
Today Daddy stayed with him so Mom and I could go up to Charleston to MUSC. We got the call yesterday that my cousin on my mom's side had been in a bad accident while on vacation in Myrtle Beach and was being air lifted him to MUSC. He's stable and there's no brain damage, so that's good. He's alert and aware and his color is good. But there's spinal cord damage. Too much swelling to say much yet but he's paralyzed. They'll do surgery once the swelling goes down and said it's way too early to lose hope about getting movement back.
My aunt, uncle and cousin (and her kids) made it in from NC last night and are staying until they can transfer him back up to Asheville. His girlfriend's there too with some of her family. She was in the car as well but only got minor scratches on her legs. They were driving along when he got a pain in his side then passed out, slumped over the wheel she couldn't get his foot off the accelerator and the hit a tree. Neither of the airbags deployed.
We're going back up there after the surgery. He was working when we visited this summer so I still haven't seen him in years. I'm looking forward to being able to talk to him. He can only blink right now because he's intubated. They'll be replacing that with a trach soon so he'll be able to talk. I hope he'll be able to communicate more about what happened so they can get to the bottom of why he lost consciousness.
He's a young (30s), healthy, brilliant fella so I know he'll be able to get through this. I just don't know what "this" will turn out to be in the long run. On the positive side, my aunt says he has some feeling in his chest and shoulders and was able to shrug. That's hopeful.

It's been a long day. Long week. Long couple of weeks, really.
I've been getting better. Less fatigue (less, not none), my hair, skin and nails are much improved. I think the Synthroid is helping. But I haven't slept worth a shit or before 4 to 6am in weeks. The relationship with the boy has been strained. A fw weeks of worry, a week of stress after we talked about it. That is improving so far and hopefully will continue to do so. But it seems that every time I so get sleep I wake up to another family member in critical condition in the hospital.
So much, so fast. And so serious! My brother was within two days of a fatal intestinal rupture. FATAL. He's 19. My cousin is paralyzed. It's extremely likely that he would have died on the scene but by some act of... there was a doctor driving along right behind them who was able to get him breathing.

I'll be back at the hospital with my brother tomorrow until my class at 5.
School is still going really well. Can't say the same for my brother but that's a different topic for a different time.

My brain hurt by the time we got back today. Took a xanax and a nap. That helped but when I got up I got nauseous. That's better now though.
I don't know, I'm just a bit stunned. I'm not even sure how clear this entry is but I don't have the energy for writing in my paper journal. My hand rarely moves fast enough for my brain and jumps around.

What's more stunning is that it's two family members I would never have suspected to be in these situations/conditions. I have an aunt who is in and out of the hospital a lot but she's doing well now. Another aunt with diabetes and a lot of personal stress right now but she's getting through as well. Cousins with substance issues and high risk lifestyles (or who have lost touch with the family completely). I would have expected something like that. Not this. This is not right. This is not fair. This makes no sense.

Stuff can turn so quickly. It's amazing. It's disturbing.

The past few days I've been so thankful that I took up knitting. I don't now what I would ahve been doing. I can't read when I'm waiting or on edge. I can't write anymore except on the computer and even then it's not like I used to write. It doesn't flow as well. But I have my yarn and the progress there and it keeps me occupied both mentally and physically plus it feels productive.

I've been working on the sock wars socks through this. I love the yarn and the pattern. I love the new needles.
I finally have an active target. That's exciting. I'm having fun with the whole thing but I was worried when I couldn't get my target's addy, or any response at all. Turns out she dropped out so I contacted her target. Thank goodness she's the same shoe size because I'm proud of the grafting on the first sock. Her target seems lovely and very cooperative and she's having fun with the game as well. :) Now my socks will be going to Australia! I get to visit vicariously via sock! Hehe. I really hope they fit and she'll be able to enjoy them. I'm really enjoying making them.

I took a bunch of stash photos over the weekend and I'll be posting them soon. Seems a bit trivial to tack on the this entry so I'll wait until things settle down a bit.
I may do that in a bit, depending on how soon I can convince myself I'm tired again. I guess it's not really so trivial. Yarn makes me happy. Happy is good. Maybe a little blurb on the specs of my weekend day trip and what not as well.

I can't let all of this get to me the wrong way. I'm proud of my ability to cope thus far. You have no idea what an amazing improvement it is. I have to say, I honestly believe that knitting has played an enormous part in a lot of the positive changes I've made in the past year. It's so great.
I worry about how much everyone else will be able to take without cracking though...

Uh-oh!

Hmm... Well, I just noticed that my Sock Wars yarn is worsted weight rather than DK weight. Whoops! It was the yarn high from teh new store, don't blame me! Anyway, I'm already half into the sock so, whatever. I got gauge on my swatch and the leg came out in the same size range as other people's so it'll be ok. Hopefully I'll finish in time that no one will have to worry about matching my gauge anyway. :) And the yarn is super soft and snuggly. These should be wonderful house socks. I hope my target is somewhere cool though because these puppies are gonna be toasty!

I got to go to Knit yesterday. They were finally open! YAY! I love it. Great place and really nice people (staff and customers). Great selection as well. I got some alpace/wool blend for Sock Wars, the new issue of Interweave Knits, a few sets of 6" DPNs (Plymouth and Crystal Palace... I'm trying the Addi's next), Cotton Fleece for my bro's house socks, and some perfectly eggplant Rowan Cashsoft for gloves to match Mom's hat. Then we had awesome sushi at Wasabi, went to AC Moore (got a cheaper version of Cashsoft for a hat to send to Mo, a ball of Magic Stripes, and some stencils), hit Linen's 'n Things for a 'husband pillow', and Barnes & Noble where we got my bro a PS3 magazine. I got to look at the Tracy Ulman book Knit 2 Together and I was really surprised. I really want that book! Lots of patterns I'd actually make.

Anyway, I have knitting to do...

I'm soooooo dead!

The technical difficulties continue but the targets have been assigned (w/ just email addresses for now). I'm targeted for assasination by Manda of KnittingPsychos fame. I'm so dead, but at least I know I'll be getting some kick-ass socks! :)

Well, time to get ready to head up to Charleston for some yarn shopping and sushi (then more yarn shopping, steaks, and book shopping). Then I have to get to knittin'.

Of course you know, this means war!

The sock war is on! Target info hasn't been sent out yet since YarnMonkey is having some hurricane related technical difficulties, but she did get the International Sock of Doom pattern posted. I wish I could start but we're going on the yarn shop outing tomorrow so I don't have ammo yet. I am amusing the crap out of myself right now though. Polishing my weapons. *dies*
Conveniently, I got the package of swap needles today (and the Brittany replacements as well, coincidentally). They're semi-unfinished bamboo so thay're grabbier than I usually use. The boy and I ran some errands today and picked up some fine sandpaper, polishing cloths and wax paper. I'm sitting here sanding and buffing the needles in the range I might need. I find this funnier than I probably should.

On a much more somber note, there's been a medical emergency in the immediate family. My brother was ill with a tummy thing yesterday. I got a call from my dad this morning letting me know my bro was being taken in for emergency exploratory surgery! Mom took him in to the hospital for the abdominal pain this morning when she went to work (she works at the hospital), thinking he'd get pain meds and more Nexium or something. A few minutes later they're having a surgical consult! They were afraid it was his appendix at first but soon discovered it was likely an intestinal blockage of some sort. They had to open him up to see what it was. Turns out his intestines were twisted around and close to rupturing! Everything went well and actually it's best that we found this out finally because it's likely the source of much of his digestive problems that have been going on for years and years.
It's a lot to take in all of a sudden. He looks so pitiful right now but he's recovering well. I'm on hospital duty to sit with him Sunday night through release on Tues or Wed. Mom's staying the rest of the weekend. He'll probably be recovering for about 3 months or so.
Wow.
I think he'll be ok though.

Oh, and I just stabbed the end of my index finger hard enough to almost draw blood... with a US4! Yowie! War wound and I haven't even really started yet.

Looks like I'll be knitting the crap out of the socks of doom on a cot on the 4th floor of the hospital now. :(

Blah

Mmm... nasty noodle-y crap for lunch. I'm starving so I guess it'll do. Too tired to fix anything else.
Yesterday was torture, for the most part. Well, for the early part. Couldn't sleep Sunday night then came down with some ungodly stomach bug in the wee hours of the morning. This led to much head-in-toilet time. Not fun. Couldn't eat and couldn't lay down. Saved what little sanity I have left by knitting the toe and half the foot of the second crayon sock and watching the Firefly marathon on SciFi.
I did get a visit from the lovely postman though. My hoodie from the Craft What You Can swap arrived! Yay! It's awesome! Rainbow sleeve panels, rainbow lined pockets, Grumpy Bear patch, and ears that stand up better than the Torrid ones ever did! I'm thrilled. Can't wait for it to get cool enough to wear it! I'll definitely have some pictures soon. I still look like I had the plague recently and haven't messed around with the camera at all yet so it'll have to wait. Maybe I'll finish the sock so I can take all the pics at once.

I'm one chapter away from being done with my Computerized Accounting class. I don't have to go to that 8am class anymore once that's turned in. Hopefully I can fill that time with a PT job soon. Still no word from the firm. I'm disappointed but not surprised. At least it's not me. I'd put money on that office manager not agreeing to any help. She was pretty resistent to the idea, apparently. I jsut wanted to work with the firm on teh island anyway. Oh well, something else will come along. I haven't even looked recently since I want to finish this course first.

KnitPicks says my order should be here tomorrow. I'm annoyed because according to tracking it's been sitting across town since yesterday afternoon. I don't see why it should be delivered today. :P *pout*
Hmm... my Fearless Fibers order should be arriving soon as well. I'm trying to convince myself not to peek at that one though.

Well, I have homework for tomorrow so I think I'll try to take a nap and then do that. There's so much that needs to be done around here but I just don't have the energy for any of it! So frustrating. :(

Today? Not so good...

I'm extremely thankful that the bad days have been have been in teh vast minority lately. Extremely. But I'm having one.
Not one of those universe-is-out-to-spite-me bad days, just a personal one. More internal (emotionally/physically) than anything else.
I feel like crap. I'm frustrated and unhappy about somethings I shouldn't really go into very deeply in a such public forum until I've worked them out with involved parties. I feel terrible about being so disappointed. I feel guilty about becoming resentful even though I have just cause. I don't know where to go from here yet and the appropriate time/situation to talk about it has not yet presented itself. I'm pretty sure I shuold feel so guilty for my honest and well thought out opinions on this. It's starting to take up more and more of my free thinking time though.

I think that's the largest part. Other things are ok. School is going well. I'm not too ill for the most part. (That's saying a lot lately.) My knitting is going pretty well. I don't have much to complain about. I'm not complaining. I'm... crying and lashing out inappropriately. But I'm trying.

I'm not feelin' the current projects this afternoon so I think I'll go sketch on out the plan for my brother's sock. Maybe a couple more washrags as well. I think I need to pick up something to function as a design notebook and maybe some knitting graph paper software.

Hopefully I'll be up to working on some swatches and starting some socks later. I got the boy to bring some of my movies over. He's working tonight so think I'll watch some old favorites and knit a bit later.

Maybe I'll do a bit of schoolwork first. I find accounting surprisingly relaxing, for the most part. The old school do-it-by-hand stuff at least. Honestly, I could do with much of the software work. For taxes it's great but I prefer doing much of the bookkeeping by hand. Of course this is only a reasonable option for small company and personal finance applications but whatever. :P

Anyway, I guess I'll step away from the computer and try to get some other things done. Even if that ends up being a nap. Resless sleep last night. Very odd and somewhat disturbing dreams.

*sigh*

More positivity later, I promise. :)

Yay, that was only semi-disasterous

Deciding to be cautious, I located the toe of a practice sock on needles, did a few rows of ribbing and started casting off with the regular bind off variation. That wasn't giving me the desired result so the plan was to finish going across the top of the toe then try the sewn cast-off for the bottom. Brittany had a whole other idea though. I'd been using the 2.25mm needles because they were holding that WIP (or UFO, really). That wet noodle one seemed to be working as well as could be expected until the effin' thing snapped. I've never snapped a needle before. Kinda freaked me out. I would have had a shit-fit if it happened on something important!
Instead of being discouraged, I took it as the opposite sign and jumped right into the EZ cast off on the crayon sock. That work fabulously. There's a bit of rolling but all in all, not bad. I love the look of the k3,p1 rib and enjoy knitting it but I'm not sure I like the functionality of it. *sigh* back to 2x2 I suppose. :P

I need a lot more practice with this toe-up method. John wants his done that way so hopefully I'll get a lot better on the second sock of this pair.

I'm so disappointed about my KP shipment right now. I've heard good things about their shipping. My Elann order got here in no time. I expected a few more days for the free shipping but I was saddened when I logged in to track my order and while it shipped on the 12th, it's not scheduled to be delivered until the 21st WTF? *sigh* I know it says 5 to 14 days but I was hoping for 7 to 10 like I've hear from most people.
It's not like I even have all the needles I need for the projects but I didn't really want to do my brother's socks first and I want my yarn, damnit!

Patience is not one of my strong points.

In other mail difficulty news...

My hoodie from the craft what you can swap was sent out almost a month ago and I haven't seen hide nor hair of it. :( This upsets me greatly! If customs had my jacket sitting around and never passes it on to me, I think I might actually cry.
Also, I sent out the Lamb's Pride Bulky last Thursday and emailed the recipient. I got no response. She had said she'd send out or at least update me by this Wednesday. Nothing. So I emailed her. Still nothing.
I'm sad.

Broken DPN, slow yarn, missing jacket, swap communication problems... and a neck knot and mysterious hand pain (unlikely craftly related since I haven't really knit much the past few days)

This calls for the application of a muscle relaxer and/or a beer. (It's a teensy Coronita... I think I'll live.)

*cue impression of Beavis jacked up on caffeine*

Yeeeeah... I'm on my second cup of coffee. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a regular coffee drinker. My coffe tolerance level is ~1 normal sized cup. I can drink full grown men under the table but can't handle my coffee.
So far, so good. No reports of nausea or trembling to speak of.
I'm jacking myself up in preparation for binding off this damn sock again. I bound off hte crayon sock yesterday. Used a larger needle and light tension. No good. Foot no fitty. :( The rest of the sock? Lovely. So I ripped out the ribbing and started again.
I should note that I loathe ribbing. 1x1 ribbing makes me want to kill people. Particularly in the round. 2x2 I can handle without a meltdown but I don't like it.
I went for 3x1 reibbing this time and I rather like it. Not as annoying to knit and pretty snappy looking. Soon er'll see how it looks on a foot... hopefully. :P
I have a few stretchy bind off options printed out. I'm debating between EZ's sewn cast off and one where you k2, pass first over second, place the remaining stitch back on the right needle and repeat.
I should probably swatch. I don't wanna swatch. But if I have to rip it out again I may never finish it and I'll certainly never get to sock 2. :P The sock must be finished.
Against better judgement, I think I'm going to finish this coffee and go for the EZ sewn bind off without a trial run. Oooh, life on the edge. LOL.

Started swatching for the Esprit socks last night. Not much progress since it was late and I was afraid that lying in bed might be affecting my tension.

Nothing much has been accomplished today. My butt has been in this chair for 99& of it. Redid the ribbing, downloaded podcasts, started a list of things I like and things I think I'd like for swapp-y purposes.

Ok, I'm a wuss... 1.5 is my limit. Coffee consumption much be terminated immediately.

Is it odd that I now feel like I need a nap?
Well, not really since it *is* naptime. It's sad that I have a naptime now. I just get so damn tired anymore that around 3pm I *need* a lay down. :( Pity me. Send sugar-free Red Bull. Lol.
And is it odd that I can handle Red Bull and the like but not coffee? Short of a little heartburn from too regular use, energy drinks sit well with me and give me the needed boost to get moving in the morning or pick me up later in the day. Coffee? More nervous energy than productive boosting. Poo.
Add liquor to the equation and it's all reversed. Irish coffee? Happy me. Not too jacked up and certainly not buzzin'. Jager Bombs? Yeah, that's always an interesting evening. Vodka and Red Bull? Nothing productinve about that energy. Lol.

Anyway, less substances, more knitting!

PS - I just noticed I finished that cup anyway while I was typing this. Hmm... and I have a weird compulsion to go in there and polish off that last cup. WTF?

Oh mailman, how I love thee!

Yay, my Elann shipment got here while I was having lunch. A box full of Esprit the Elann version of Cascade Fixation. I got the charcoal and french navy colors for my brother's socks. The charcoal is a bit darker than I expected but that's ok. There won't be as much contrast between the colors as I had planned but my brother's not really a 'contrast-y' kinda guy so it'll work just fine. :)
I also got a couple balls of the Esprit Print in Berry Garden to make the Broad Ripple socks for Mom. This is the only project meant for her that she doesn't know about.
Hopefully I'll be able to get gauge with my 2.75mm DPNs so I can get started immediately. Otherwise I'm stuck until the 23rd. :P Well, I do still have the crayon socks to finish. A little swatching isn't *really* cheating though, is it? ;) Heh.

Must make myself go study now. I think I'll go measure my bro's foot after my test.

Ah, it's a nice rainy day. Not much rain anymore but it was nice to sleep through this morning.

Yesterday was awesome, weather-wise. I walked out the door to go to class inthe morning and stopped dead in my tracks out of shock... it was...COOL!! Not less-than-100-degrees cool, the real kind. Fabulous. Of course it's humid and pretty warm again today but it was certainly nice while it lasted.
It's a damn good thing too since the AC froze up and had to be turned off early in the monring. :P Note to self: do not leave blankets piled up in front of the AC. Ooops.

I'm really looking forward to Fall/Winter this year. I used to dread it because I have a bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder and would get (sometimes pretty severely) depressed once it cooled off and there was less light. I still have to careful not to get into a big slump or anything but it's much much better. I also used to hate the holidays. Probably something siding along with the depression. I'm not sure exactly what changed there. I'm still not a big holiday person but anything's less dreary when it brings a ton of great knitting opportunities, right? ;) Ask me again a couple weeks before Christmas when I'm terribly behind... I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune. Lol.
But I can't wait for it to cool off! I'm quite ready for that.

Wow, in about a month I'll have been home for a year. It's been an amazingly short and amazingly long year at the same time. I'm in a much better place than I was a year ago and that's good because I feel like I'm following through on the stuff I wanted to change and get going. Doing much better. :)

Oooh, I got an emai from Deb at Fearless Fibers letting me know my special request is ready! SO gorgeous! Hopefully I can go ahead and order it by the end of the week or so. 'Course, it's part of my Christmas from Daddy so I don't get it yet. I'm sure I could have it if I wanted but I've instructed Mom to keep it until Christmas. I won't be able to play with it until after my Christmas knitting is done anyway and that way I have more cool stuff at Christmas and it'll still be brand new to me. :) It'll also be nicely complimented by my KP Options set and Barbara Walker treasuries. (And I wonder why I'm looking forward to Christmas this year. LOL)

My orders shipped too. Elann shipped Monday and KnitPicks shipped yesterday. I can't wait to get started. I have a couple more rows of ribbing and the first toe-up sock will be done. The second shouldn't take too long either so I'll be rarin' to go by this weekend.

Is it just me or do toe-up socks seem to go faster? I cranked that puppy out compared to my other top-down ones. Maybe I'm just picking up speed. Maybe it's having the toe and heel (the identifiable parts) show up first. Maybe it's because I hate ribbing so starting there holds me up a bit. And maybe it's because I have only been knitting on that one sock this week. That's amazing. Haha. I never work on *one* project at a time. That's pretty much the plan for the holiday knitting though. Since they're small projects I'm thinking it might actually work.

There *will* be pictues again soon too!! :D I'm not going to be able to get a camera like I wanted but Daddy got a really nice one for work that I'll be able to use a little. Yay.
I've dropped not-so-subtle hints that the boy should get me a camera for Christmas but I'm sure as hell not counting on it. Boys can remain oblivious to even the most obvious things and he's certainly no exception to that rule. :P
And of course he has to be one of those "I wanna surprise you" gift givers. That's all well and good but really I'd rather just pick stuff out for myself this year. Ask me what I want, take me shopping, give me gift cards, whatever. Eh, we'll see how he does, I guess. He won't listen to reason so it better be impressive. I know what the ex he wasn't even with got last year and mine better be even better. ;) Then again, looks like he's counting on a Christmas bonus to do the shopping with. Personally, I'm not sure that's the best plan the way things have been going around there but again, you can't reason with him on certain things. He likes it in his bubble. :P

Anyway, it's time to go eat and get on with the day. I have an accounting test this evening so I need to study and what not.

How do I *know* it's the gnomes?

Well, how else do you explain such a thing? I cleaned the whole room and searched everywhere. This was no half assed search either. This search involved and Maglite, a broom, a lot of crawling around, taking everything out of the room and putting it all back in. Nothing. Finished cleaning and started trying to organize the stash. When I was just about done there *POOF* it appeared. It appeared somewhere I'd looked no less than four times last night and twice today. Somewhere I'd never put it. Somewhere it just wasn't!

I'm just glad it's back! The gnomes are forgiving. Manipulative, but forgiving. I guess even ones who live with someone as messy as me have their limits. Constantly saying I'm going to tidy up and not following through probably just pisses them off even more.
The gremlins, on the other hand, well, they're just mean. Those are the ones who sneak up, steal something as soon as I put it down and it's never to be seen or heard from again. Seriously.

I hear you snickering and it's not nice. ;)

Room's reasonably clean, I'm freshly clean, cats/fish/hamsters/dogs fed, and the needle has returned. I guess now I can work on that sock until my sheets finish washing and drying.

Now if only whoever took my purple size 6 DPN and my 10 1/2 bamboo straight would return them... Those have both disappeared in the past couple of weeks and didn't turn up in the search. :( I don't really use the metal DPNs unless I have to but I would like to be able to finish the scarf that's on the other 10 1/2.

%^$&$%^#$@@#%!!!!!

Why must the gnomes steal important things like one of my favorite DPNs from the only project I'm currently working on?! I try to be good and actually follow through on a single project in preparation for the arrival of the Christmas haul, and this is what I get for it?

I do have a bit of an inkling that the gnomes may have a larger plan with this one though. I'm now in the middle of a well overdue room cleaning. I suppose they knew that the loss of that particular needle would spark immediate action on my part. Well, an evening of pouting and grumbling then a morning and afternoon extreme action.

I do hope I find it so I can stop being slightly aggrivated with the boy since he was the only one at the scene of the crime and he did move a couple things around.

Anyway, yes Mighty Gnomes I get the hint. Please be appeased by my cleaning efforts and kindly return my needle. My first short row sock would thanks you. I'm sure my boyfriend would as well.

Ok, sammich break is over... back to it. :P

Oh, I forgot...

I received a nifty little tube in the mail yesterday. Since it was from Brittany and said 5" 2.25m on the label, I assumed it was my replacement size 1 DPN I requested a couple weeks ago. I assumed wrong. Inside the tube there were four 5" DPNs. I was excited about getting extras until I checked the imprints... They sent me four 2mm needles! WTF? So I now have a set of 4 useable 2.25mm and 4 useable 2.0mm. That would be lovely if I didn't need 5 to work with, especially with such short length. *sigh* I felt kinda bad having to send them another email thanking them for the speedy service but could I please have another. :P
If they'd send me one more of each they'd be my favoritest needle company of all. I love my Crystal Palace DPNs but I have to give higher ranking to anyone who sends me extra needles. ;)

I've discovered that I have a different fiber issue than most knitters seem to. Everyone goes on and on about wool this and wool that... I love me some nice wool but it seems that everytime I buy yarn I feel it necessary to include something with alpaca, silk, or (ideally) both. Actually, almost all of my yarn contains alpaca, silk, cotton, or some mix of those.
I'm not complaining, I just find it odd...

Christmas

Well, I got to place my Christmas yarn orders today. Well, the yarn for Christmas presents, not the yarn I want for Christmas. I can't wait for two boxes of yarn to show up on the doorstep! :D Of course this excitement is (barely) tempered by the knowledge that I must knit (most of) said yarn in the next few months. :P
Hopefully I'm not getting myself in too deep this year.

- 3-4 pairs of socks
- 1 pair of fingerless gloves
- some dish/washcloths and crocheted potholders.

I've started the cloths already. I have two done. I'd like to end up with 5 or 6 I guess. 2-4 potholders. I can make two potholders in one day though.
It can't be as bad as last year. I didn't even learn to knit until November! Then everyone wanted scarves. :P I had three done by Christmas and the other two a few months later (I hated the yarn and the needles). That makes the socks sound less intimidating. Besides, I got the jump on it this year, right? Of course there's still the Haloween costume I want to make and the various other projects I have going and school and... yeah...

Ok, I admit it... Christmas is just an excuse to order a bunch of yarn. ;)

No, swaps are *awesome*

Oooh, excitement. I have bunches of fun mail to look out for. Still waiting for my hoodie from the Craft What You Can swap but it's coming from British Columbia (I think) so I'm trying to be patient.
I'm swapping off a skein of bulky Lamb's Pride too. It's is going for a whole butt load of DPNs. Sizes US 0 thru 11! I'm thrilled.
And of course the Sockotta from yesterday's set up.
I've also signed up for Secret Pal 9. I can't wait. I've wanted to get in on once of these secret pal things for a while now but I never caught the when and wheres before they closed. Well, I'm on it this time so, yeah. I hope I get good pals. :)

Oooh, Sock Wars starts soon too. I'm so dead already. That's ok though, I just wanna play. :)

I had that interview with the accounting firm today. It went quite well. I'm supposed to hear back tomorrow about meeting with the office closer to me sometime next week. If that goes over well there's a background check so I could start in a couple weeks. Hopefully the my idiot ex's financial circus didn't end up attached to me in any way. :P I suppose there might be some medical bills that show up because of the insurance rigamarole but I should be able to explain that. Oh and the arrest 6yrs ago for "underage drinking" that was dropped. That should really need no explaination. Heh.
I'm hopeful about the job. I'd be an administrative assistant, basicly, but they're willing to let me do some more accounting tech level work too! I can't wait to get some experience in the field. I think it'll make the school stuff a lot more helpful if I get to apply it as I learn it. Being able to pass tests is one thing, being able to do the work efficiently is another.
Apparently the office manager here in town took offense to the idea of hiring a student to help her out. Feeling threatened or something. Ugh, what *is* it with office managers anyway?? I've never had a sane/reasonable one. I guess she's afraid I'd be looking to replace her or something. Haha, fuck that. The last thing I want is her job. I just want some experience and some money. I wanted to tell the partners, hell I'm after *your* job not hers! Lol. Well, maybe not quite. I'm not sold on the CPA thing yet. I'd be happy just to be a well paid senior at a firm or a private accountant in the long run. We'll see though.

Oh! I also discovered that this is a regional company, not jsut a local firm. They even have offices near where I'm interested in moving next. That could be super handy!

So the HH firm's office is within a mile of a yarn shop. Hehehe. Well, I'm not thrilled with the shop in general but any shop is better than none so I stopped in hoping for the best. Eh. :P I was looking for some small gauge DPNs. I wanted 0s, 1s, or 3s in bamboo. Preferably 5 or 6 inch but I wasn't looking to be too picky. Well, they don't even carry 0s! And of course the only ones they had in the other sizes were Quicksilvers or Clovers. Poo. I'm not into metal DPNs and I'm not paying 'yarn shop' prices for freakin' Clovers. I can get those on sale at ACMoore. I'm extra glad I didn't get any now though! :)
Of course I didn't leave empty handed though. ;) I came home with three skeins of Indiecita Alpaca Sport in a nice cranberry-ish color. I was intending to see if I could get some of my Christmas present yarn there but they didn't have anything I was looking for. I like a couple of the sock yarns but they only had one skein of most of the colors! WTF?? It wasn't even on sale! Ridiculous. They're pretty snotty too. Screw it, I'm probably going to Charleston this weekend anyway.
Anyway, the alpaca is for me so I'll have to put it aside for a few months. Funny, I never knit anything for myself really but all my alpaca is "for me." Wait, I *did* finish something for myself... a chunky cabled baby alpaca hat. Hehe. Of course.

Is it really odd/bad that the correct pronunciation of the work "skein" irks the hell out of me? I don't care if I sound like a total moron saying "skeen" I just can't make myself say "skane." *shrug* I guess that kills my shot at being a well known knitting podcaster. LOL
(The way it's spelled suggests a long E though so *nyah*)

Swaps rock!

Yay, I've found a happy new home for my Lamb's Pride worsted. And I'm getting sock yarn. I've warned my dad that everything might need to be nailed down and the critters hidden to keep me from trading it all for sock yarn. ;) I'm happy about the swap though. That's a perfectly nice skien of yarn and I've wanted to use it for a while but I just can't make my skin forget about the damn mohair! I still have some LP Bulky that I want to try to felt with but we'll see how that goes. I successfully worked with it last year but my skin seems to have gotten more sensitive as of late.

On the mohair thing... I really don't get it. Why do people love mohair so? It's a pain in the rear to knit with, particularly anything you might have to rip back. It itches. I know I'm not alone there. Even people who like it seem to have to plan to keep it out of direct contact with much skin. Yes, it has a pretty halo of fluff, but I prefer my fluff to be *soft* and itch free. But really... could someone explain the appeal to me? Eh, maybe it's just my not being able to touch the stuff that makes me unable to understand the love of mohair. Poor me. I'll console myself with alpaca. ;)

Speaking of alpacas (oh yes, I am the segue queen :P )... I recently stumbled across some information on alpaca farming. I had no idea alpacas were so friendly, easy to care for, adaptable and snuggly! I'm in love. So now I've decided that it's not totally impractical to want to have an alpaca farm. You don't even need a whole lot of land! Since I want to get a place with a bit of land once I'm out of school and settled a bit, and the area (western NC) would be suitable, I'm totally on my alpaca farming kick now. :) I'm just thrilled to find out that it's actually a reasonable and attainable goal! Now I can be the crazy alpaca and cat lady. It'll set me apart from all the other crazy cat ladies.

Since I can't order my Christmas gifts yarn yet I've been working on various kitchen cotton items. Peaches & Creme is my friend. It's the only non-acrylic yarn I can get without driving an hour or more, comes in fun colors, and can make useful stuff. It's more a habit of opportunity than anything else but it's keeping me entertained this week. I'm trying out new designs and what not on facecloths 'n stuff. I've been winging the patterns mostly and I kinda enjoy that.

Well, I have much to do tomorrow and less time to do it in so I better start thinking about bed.

Christmas lists

Is it bad that pretty much all I want for Christmas is sock yarn? Truck loads of sock yarn. Lol.

I made a Knit Picks list for Mom which pretty much includes sock yarn, lace weight, the bulky for her hat and the Options set. Plus a pair of black Crocs.

Went on Amazon to mark the Barbara Walker books for Dad. I'd also like some Cascade Fixation and Opal Rainforest.

Most of my Christmas gift list is socks as well.

Knitting crack, I tell ya!

OUCH!

I've been getting some sort of back cramps the past couple days. This morning I woke in serious pain. :( It's right across my upper back, between my arms. I certainly hope it's not knitting related or hindering! Getting a chiropractor and massage appt today. I'm well overdue anyway.

My football team kicked off the season well last night. I'm thrilled about that since it's been a rough ride for us for a while. Wooohooo football season! :) (Panthers won in preseason last night as well.)

I've started experimenting with toe-up socks. I'm having a little gauge issue with the short row toe though. Since it's knit back and forth it ends up significantly looser. I've dropped down to a 2.0mm but I'm still not quite getting what I want. :P I'm also wondering if I'm picking up the wraps correctly. I'll have to do a little more research there.

Started thyroid meds yesterday. I hope this helps with my hair, energy level, etc. Especially energy level... I have an interview next week with an accounting firm in Hilton Head! How exciting! :)

Ugh, back hurty... might have to lay back down.