Krafty Kitten

Ch-ch-changes

2008-11-24T18:09:00.003-05:00

Ok, so after a bit of a hiatus I've decided to move my knitting journal over to my new domain. I believe I'll keep this one for other craftiness, since there's a fair bit of that as well.

I'll also be re-structuring my photobucket so that may break some links to photos here in the older posts. I'd rather that not happen but it's simply unavoidable because I can't find a darn thing in my photobucket now because of my haphazard (or lack of) use of albums. :P

All of this probably stems from some naive urge to once again attempt get organized. It would make sense to get all of my knitting stuff organized under one heading... one email address even. We won't even go into how many of those I actually have. It's absurd really. But the one I've been mainly using for years long ago became so cluttered with this 'n that, that I miss everything important now. All my knitting stuff, all my school stuff, anything with any validity or usefullness falls through the cracks. All the crap is readily accessable though, I assure you.

Of course, always one to get a little overzealous, I have delusions of registering my domain name again and tinkering in doing my own web design and such. Then it struck me how much I hated doing web design... enough that I quit and started going to school for accounting. Yeah, that much. So, it's probably a lost cause. But I still want the domain name. I'm not the most rational person in the world, occasionally. Lol.

So yeah, I can't even organize this simple posting but I'm gonna "get organized" dagnabbit and it's starting here. Or there. Whatever...
Lol ;P

Back in the saddle again

2008-05-12T08:05:00.002-04:00

Well, I've finally been knitting again. Finally finished my Lady Eleanor last week but haven't gotten any pictures yet because my camera is dead and I can't find the battery changer. :(
Sock Wars III is underway. Been working on that the past couple days. I'm sure I'm behind but what the hell. I'd really love to at least finish my pair myself to send to my target, even if I'm killed immediately thereafter.
Tofutsies is a nifty yarn. I just happened to have a skein around that I picked up for another project that never got off the ground (and I don't think it was right for that project anyway), so I'm actually using the recommended yarn this year. *gasp*

Was hoping to have my mom's Knucks ready by Mother's Day but that didn't quite happen. All I have left is sewing up a few finger gaps but I got frustrated after I accidentally started sewing up one gap with the wrong tail the other night and had to put it down for a minute. Then Sock Wars started so it'll hafta wait 'til next week.

Hopefully I'll have some new pics soon. If I could just figure out what I did with that darn camera bag... :P

SOCK WARS III

2008-04-27T00:26:00.002-04:00

Hooray for Sock Wars! I just signed up for the third round. Participated in the original but somehow missed the second war so I'm thrilled to have caught this one.

Sadly I have not been knitting much lately. Well, until the past couple days. One thing or another seems to come up or I keep misplacing all my WIPs. *sigh*
Kinda stressin' finishing up classes this weekend and have managed to sneak in a little super basic knitting and crocheting time. Once I get better organized (hopefully over the next few weeks) I hope to wrap up a couple *almost* finished projects and get crackin' or froggin' on my other WIPs.

Disaster struck the first sweater project... It seems one of the cats got ahold of the all but cast-off back and tore a nice hole so now I must frog back, splice, and re-knit. Discouraging. As is the fact that I was using a patter I printed from MagKnits so if I can't locate my original print-out, I guess I'll need to find a whole new pattern anyway. :(

and now I think I shall go eject my snoring dad from the recliner and get some knitting or crocheting done before I turn in. :) Tomorrow will likely be nothing but schoolwork so I should wind down and relax beforehand, I think.

Long time, no update...

2007-11-27T12:42:00.000-05:00

Well the reason behind that is actually long time, no craft. :(
I haven't gotten back in full swing since my accident. It was hard to do much over the summer due to the broken hand and then my super stressful course load. Just after Fall semester started, my Season Affective Disorder started kicking in along with some other life stress (end of a relationship, death in the family, my mom having cararact surgery, money stress, etc). I ended up dropping my classes and taking some time off. You'd think that would allow me to craft again but alas, I just couldn't find the motivation. Or my tools. All my stuff is in complete disarray because that's just what happens when I get depressed and anxious. So I've been spending time getting all of that out of my system which involved me not being home much and sleeping most of the time when I was.
I also hurt my back on the world's most evil fold out couch a few weeks ago. I thought that being bed-bound for a week might allow me to start crafting again. I tried but apparently whenever I have another injury, my hand decides to act up again too. Luckily it seems to be the only time I have problems with it.

Anyway, today I'm starting the reorganizing of my room and my craft stuff in particular. Then tomorrow I'll be making my first trip to the LYS in months!! I'm so excited, even though I have to take my little bro with me again and he's not too keen on those trips. I haven't told him we're making that stop on our shopping trip yet, actually. Heh. I'll just take him to the bookstore first so he can get something to entertain himself with.

Since I'm so terribly behind and all my WIPs seem to be in varried states of distress, I'm not doing a lot of holiday crafting this year. It's just too late in the game for that.
Having said that, the one thing I have made prigress on is my dad's Gamecock socks (despide the shitty second half of the season... I'm a long time loyal fan so I've been through much worse :P) and I'd like to have those ready for Christmas. Also, my mom lost one of her Knucks so I'll be whipping up another pair of those for her. That's not so much of a Christmas present but I'd like to set that deadline for them.
I had really hoped to have John's socks done for him by now but they're not even started yet and they're fair isle (I've never done a whole fair isle project before) so that's not in the cards. We're not together anymore but we're still close friends and planning to do a Christmas exchange and I do already have the materials so the socks will come to be eventually. (What the hell else am I going to do with that hideous orange yarn? Lol. ;P)

I'll try to get a pic of the socks soon and I'm sure I'll have some pics after my shopping trip tomorrow. I'm so excited!!
I also reorganized the stash into big Ziploc bags so maybe I'll get a shot of that too.

Well, I better get busy. Much to be done and little time to do it in because I have an eye doc appt in a couple hours.

Oh! I almost forgot. The one big craft advance I made on my break! I'm now doing crosstitch as well. I'm almost done with one of the Subversive Crosstitch designs for my mom. Now I just have to find that WIP so I can finish it. And her pinking shears before she kills me.

Woohoo!!

2007-07-27T00:16:00.001-04:00

I just bound off the back of my first sweater!
It ended up about an inch longer than I intended but hopefully everything'll turn out ok. I'll just have to make the front the same length and still try to get my short rows in the right place. :P

It's done!!

2007-07-22T03:14:00.000-04:00

I finished the extra large SSS clapotis! :D Still about 2/3 of the ends left to weave in but other than that's it's done and ready to go. Woohoo!

2007-07-17T23:31:00.000-04:00

I just finished the 5th repeat of Budding Lace 2. :) I'm also nearly through the regular straigt reps on the SSS clap.

Lace!

2007-07-13T01:58:00.000-04:00

I finally started my Swallowtail Shawl today from the Fall '06 Interweave Knits.

I'm using KnitPicks Shadows merino in Redwood on KnitPicks 24" US3 circs. So far I have Budding Lace 1 and two reps of Budding Lace 2 done. :)

Sale yarn, the crazy blankie, and more

2007-07-10T21:15:00.000-04:00

Alrighty, on with the pictures! I haven't posted any since I got my new camera. Remember, everything is clickable for larger versions. :)

Here's the obnoxiously 80's entrelac blankie. I think it shall henceforth be dubbed "the electric blankie." Caron Simply Soft Brites on US10 Denises.

This is my latest Clapotis. It's going to be a bit larger than the pattern. Caron Simply Soft Shadows on US8 Addi Turbos.

This is my latest haul. Picked this stuff up the same day of the hand incident so I haven't been able to do anything with it yet. :( It's just been sitting at my mom's waiting so I picked it up today. Left to right: Aurora 8 (3 colors), RYC Cashcotton, SWTC Tofutsies (for a pair of lacy gloves), and Cherry Tree Hill Possum Lace. Everything except the Tofutsies was 50% off!
Also found out that my fav semi-LYS now carries a whole bunch of new lace yarns! So exciting because they had only one kind before. Now there's at least 5 or 6 I can think of offhand. One is... MALABRIGO! Malabrigo LACE. *faints* It was soooo nice and soft. (And sooo not on sale. :P)

And just for the heck of it, here's me recently. Check out how long my hair is getting. It's about time it started growing again. I'm excited. :D

And now I think I'll go knit some more.

*ETA*
I did manage to find my missing WIPs, thankfully. Located the sweater, Malabrigo clap, and Lady E all hiding together.

Catastrophe... Hooray... and a smaller catastrophe!

2007-07-10T14:38:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have meen MIA for quite some time now. :( Unintentional, I assure you. I broke my hand!! Broke two metacarpals in my left hand (pointer and middle) all the way up by my thumb! Don't ask. :P
So I was in a horrible ER splint for a week and a half or so, a full cast for two weeks, then half that cast as a splint for another three weeks. *whew* I finally got clearance to startusing it again this past Friday. I'm not 100% yet but I'm doing much better. (We'll pretend it didn't keep me up hurting last night and out of class this morning. :P)
So I can finally knit again! Hooray! I went to grab my Malabrigo Clapotis I started forever ago and enjoy the squishy soft goodness. But no! The bag I thought it was is only contains my failed first attempt where I ran out of yarn too fast on one side and the ball for the center piece. That's ok, I'll work on my sweater. Nooo! Sweater is MIA too! *@%^ #$*%!!

For now I'm off to investigate some stuff for my other project I'm restarting... Project Make Tiny Bedroom Liveable.
Then I'm going to pick up the yarn I bought the day of the hand-breaking. More on that later. :)

2007-03-26T20:35:00.000-04:00

I just saw this and could not be more excited about it! I think Eunny will do great things for IK. Can't wait to see.

There's a big photo update in the works. New camera big. ;)

Thursday I'm heading up to Myrtle Beach for the weekend with my dad for a Miata-owners get together. I'm such a dork. I'll be sure to put the new camera to use there as well.

Hurty fingers!

2007-03-15T17:12:00.000-04:00

But I guess I haven't forgotten absolutely everything about playing an instrument. :P I still have no rhythm though. Heh.
I've come back across some music I used to love in my search for tabs as well. That new order/regulation that made so many places take their tabs down can just suck my ass though. Seriously, it's a load of crap! I can at least understand some of the downloading song files stuff but fer chrissakes who am I hurting by practicing my (crappy) guitar skills by playing a tabbed out version of a song? Fucking stupid. That's what it is.

Well, I haven't gotten much interesting knitting done. I'm still playing catch-up on the part of the clapotis I had to rip out so that's nothing interesting to see.
So here's my favorite guitar and my bass:

Going to school in your underpants!

2007-03-14T15:01:00.000-04:00

No, it's not a bad dream. Come to find out, my Bus. Math class is broadcast on the local cable channel so I am sitting at home in my pajamas, knitting and playing on the computer rather than sitting in class bored out of my mind because they're going over the last test. I'm so glad I didn't go today (and still get credit) because I just found out I got 100% on that test. :)
Unfortunately they show a gardening show next instead of broadcasting my Personal Finance class so I do have to go in for that one. Drat!
Hahaha... he's using my "scratch paper" from the test to show how to work the problems rather than writing it out himself. I must admit, my paper was pretty and well organized. Funny that my work is on cable though.
I pulled out my bass and one of my guitars this afternoon and played a little bit. Boy are my fingers tender now! That's the worst part about playing guitar. The necessity of calouses.
The only thing that would make this better would be if I could take a nap while they do the test and just wake up for the actual classwork. I can't complain much though.

Had to rip out an increase repeat or so from the size 11 clapotis. Forgot a yarnover and that would have spelled disaster later. It was easier to rip back than I anticipated. Always a good thing.

I think I might have a low grade fever. I'm overly warm. Enough that I don't really want to knit.

Man that nap would be nice.

MMMMalabrigo

2007-03-12T19:03:00.000-04:00

What better pick-me-up when you're feelin' puny than deliciously soft Malabrigo merino?
I picked up two skeins of Col. China and one Pagoda last weekend. It's becoming a clapotis. A beautiful, soft, candy apple colored clap. Lovely. I feel better just working on it. Well, that and instead of taking my ADHD meds and doing housework, I opted for cold medicine, something for the budding migraine and wonderful wool. Did get the desk cleaned off and my painting supplies put away so the day wasn't a total loss.
Anyway, since I only have 3 skeins but want a large clap, I have been experimenting with needle size. Here's a shot of version 1 on Denise 10.5s. I'm now doing another version on 11s with the second ball of Col. China. I think I'll end up going with this one and frogging the first for the decreases.

Well, I think I'll check in on Craftster (I can't believe how long it's been compared to usual) and go back to my knitting.

yawn sniffle groan

2007-03-12T14:38:00.000-04:00

Blargh. :P I feel like butt. Today it's my sinuses again but I've been generally dragging for a good while now. Getting next to no knitting done, totally worn out nearly 24/7, scattered, anxious, foggy... bleh. I haven't been to the gym in weeks. Haven't knit in a week and hadn't knit for a couple weeks before that. Horrible with checking my email. And simply cannot seem to make it to the post office during actual business hours. I won't even go into the six million other things that keep getting put off.
So there you have it. Or as much of it as anyone who's not me would care to hear about, I suppose.
The boy is coming over before work to make tacos. Mmmm... tacos. I will then be drugging up and getting some stuff done around here if it kills me. For a couple hours at least. It's a start.
Good thing last week was spring break. Too bad all the plans fell through.
Must.Not.Lay.Back.Down. :P
Improvements to come shortly. :)

How 'bout some pictures?

2007-02-09T15:48:00.000-05:00

Here are a few shots of my modified-Fetching glovies. I added a thumb gusset because I don't know about you, but my thumb does not just jut off the side of my hand at a 90-degree angle. ;P Also shortened them a bit for my stumpy baby hands. Made in Patons Classic Merino on US4 Plymouth Bamboo DPNs. Took 3 days, start to finish but I really didn't work on them the second day.
For the record, it's hard as hell to get decent pictures of your own hands. I'm not sure I succeeded but here's my best try:

And an amusing shot of Snarf for good measure. ;)

My dog ate it!

2007-02-01T14:59:00.000-05:00

When I got home from class last night, I found one of the boxes form my Secret Pal package in the floor with a chewed up corner. Didn't damage the cute snowman figurine but I was annoyed. We have one dog that likes to chew cardboard boxes and one who eats any and all things paper-y that she can get her paws on. After raising hell and kicking them both out into the yard, I noticed that other things were missing as well. Apparently they ate all my dark chocolate I was saving! Luckily everyone is still ok today. The one I suspect on that part (Sassy) has an iron stomach. That dog can eat anything, I swear. I also found my fine weight cotton yarn in the floor, sans ball bands. I started looking around for them and soon realized I wasn't going to find anything. Ball bands = Paper. Sassy figured this out so she removed and ate them!!! Didn't hurt the yarn, beyond a minor rustling up but damn. Ate the ball bands right off the yarn. Sheesh.
Needless to say, they'll be waiting outside when no one's home from now on. :-P

2007-01-30T22:46:00.000-05:00

Very entertained by Dirty Jobs tonight. Got to see Mike Rowe shear an alpaca, spin, and help alpacas get it on. Lol.

I'm much less entertained by my complete inability to find a suitable fair isle pattern. I have three colors of Patons Clasic Merino I'd like to do something cute with but I can't find anything suitable. Everything is either more colors, fewer colors, wrong gauge or too much yarn. Dangit! All I want it a hat or bag or something. I'm having fun with my swatch but I'm eager to start an actual project with this yarn.

I guess I may end up attempting to whip something up on my own. I'm not sure how well that'd turn out though.

Well, I better get ready for bed. I still have homework to do tomorrow. Did well over half of it today but I still have a bit left. :P Then I have 6hrs of class.
Better get tucked in before the fire burns out. There's no more dry wood to throw on tonight. At least it's not 20 degrees tonight.

Mmm... fiiiire

2007-01-30T14:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't gotten around to that homework yet. Soon as I get off of here, I swear. Has to be done, unfortunately.

So what did I do yesterday? Lots. Really.

First I finally made the pattern row counters for my Secret Pal. Hope she likes 'em. I made larger ones and smaller ones, each in both a 4 and a 5 round rep.
Then I decided I needed something cute to put them in. Whipped out the Altoids-sized tins I've been saving (and the ones I've been using), picked up Mom's acrylic paints and got to painting. Haven't painted in a long while so this was quite fun. I've finished two, one with a monkey and one with a kitty. Have two with jujst the background color so far. One will be a fishtank and the other either animal print or paw prints. We'll see what kind of animal print idea I can come up with once I sit back down with it. Then I need to find a glossy sealer of some sort to finish them off.

Next I ate dinner, watched a bad movie and went through some stitch pattern books I hadn't really sat down with yet, Knitting Beyond the Edge and The Vogue Stitchionary 3: Color. It was really cold so I took a warm bath and read the Knit 'N Style Dec '06 issue my Secret Pal sent (thanks again). When I got out of the tub, my fire was dead so I was too damn cold to get to sleep. :P I have this HUGE thing against central heating and will damn near risk hypothermia just to avoid it (not that such a thing would be a real risk 'round here). My skin is exceptionally unhappy this week so it was definitely a bad idea. And I'm pretty much incapable of building or reviving a fire. Also couldn't find the wood, which didn't help. So instead, I wrapped up in a blankie and took on some Fair Isle for the first time!
In the end I'd had my first go with Continental knitting, two color stranded knitting (one in each hand), *and* the two-circ method! Not too shabby! Hehe. Also listened to my new CD about 10 gazillion times while doing all of this. I'm in love. ;)
Finally Dad got up for work and revived the fire so I was able to get some sleep. I'm still pooped in that didn't sleep much, bad sleep timing, kinda pukey feeling way but at least I didn't just watch bad TV all night or something.
Pictures to come soon. Stitchmarker thingies are rather hard to get a good picture of, come to find out. :P

And now I have to go do some insultingly simple math and dig through my much dreaded financial information for school. *sigh* I'd rather paint and nap but I do have class tomorrow so that would be very bad. I've put it all off too long already.

I need another fire. Brrr! Gotta make myself some fingerless gloves!!

2007-01-29T14:51:00.000-05:00

Brrr... it's right cool here. S'posed to get down to the low 20's tonight!
It's been a good day. :) Got my final SP9 package (thanks, Debbie!). I also got the new Shins CD! Woohoo. I've been pretty excited about that being released. Can't wait to spend some time with it.
Then the boy took me out for lunch. Sushi! He made faces at me while I ate the seaweed salad and flying fish roe. Wasn't allowed to get any baby octopus though. He has this thing against watching anyone bite the head off of things. Heh. Mmmm... baby octopus.

How 'bout some pictures I've been meaning to get around to posting?

Here's my finished SWS Clapotis. I really need to knit this pattern again soon. I need a neutral colored one. I'm not sure what I'll made it out of yet though.

I'm not happy with this picture because the colors are total crap but I'm happy with the scarf. Another FO in line for blocking. Haven't gotten to show it to Mom yet, unfortunately. I'm anxious for her to see it and let me know what she thinks.
I think this pattern would be a good choice for my friend in WI's scarf she requested. Maybe in two different colors like the original Danica. I'm not sure about all those blasted ends though. Wonder if I could just carry the yarns through. I'll have to swatch that up.

Here's Lady E! 'Bout 1/4 into the third ball now. Please excuse the background here. My car was the only place I could find to lay it while trying to get a good shot in the sun.

Took this one for the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon on Flickr. This is my sock yarn collection, minus the skein of Bearfoot I missed. All 6.16 miles of it. Heh. I finally did frog the purple sock yarn Clapotis. I think I'm gonna go with the Pi Are Squared shawl instead. Not sure if I'll go plain or sinmple lace. That has been put on the back burner for the moment.

Okie dokie, time to clean off the desk and get some work done. Have homework for both classes and some pattern row counters to make. :)

Entrelac is addictive

2007-01-23T03:52:00.000-05:00

I finished the Mini-Lady E/Danica hybrid scarf last night. I'm amazed how quickly that went. I'm really happy with the results. Haven't sewn in the two ends yet (hooray for spit-splicing) and will have to block it as soon as I can find a place. The colors are wonderful. No photos yet.

Also started my full size Lady E. Finished the beginning triangles before bed (insomnia... again). Sat it on the table before falling asleep. I've had surprisingly good luck being able to leave my knitting lying around even though we have so many cats but I finally learned my lesson today. Someone, probably the female, who happens to hate me, made a giant mess out of my poor ball of Karaoke. Didn't hurt the WIP itself, thank goodness. But I spent all day trying to untangle that freakin' ball! Of course this would happen to the yarn that's way more expensive than my usual stuff *and* special ordered. Lesson learned.
After a maddening but mostly successful untangling session, I managed to get a little knitting in. I'm now partway into the second ball, almost through the 5th tier. :) It's really pretty. The colors are subtle but so pretty and multi-faceted . And it's so surprisingly light!

Going from a Kureyon project, to a couple SWS projects, to working with the Karaoke is interesting.

The Kureyon was nicer than I expected. The colors are really nice, especially in the skein. Some of the subtleties are lost once it's knit up, and more so after a wash, but the overall look is still really nice and interesting. The color combinations are interesting and kinda random-ish. Of course the biggest draw is the butt-load of colors available. The texture leaves something to be desired. It's not as bad as I expected. Not itchy but definitely rough. Decent to work with and soft enough for my mom to wear as gloves. When splicing ends together, I was surprised how much work it took to felt well. The yarn itself is a little more irregular in thickness than the other two but seems to knit up fairly uniformly.
Biggest complaint? The dye stained my fingers as I worked with it.

SWS is really nice. I love working with it. The fluffy texture is nifty. It is easy to split so sharp needles and knitting by touch alone can be a bit tricky. There aren't a ton of colorways but the colors are pretty. The striping is more uniform than with the other two. I found Natural Earth to be a bit more random and the pink/green to be a pretty set sequence. The yarn has a very alluring sheen. I wish it retained that a little more when knit up. It does to some extent, but the fuzzing does distort it a good bit. It's soft and great to knit but can be a little scratchy/prickly right against my skin and sheds a bit. Frogging is pain because it loves to stick to itself and looks pretty worn once you've ripped it out. That's not a really big deal since it looks pretty uniform once it's all knit up.

The Karaoke is really interesting. The colors are so complex. I'm using Mermaid Mix and it's very subtle overall but there are amazing variations within the yarn itself. The texture is totally different. Not as "soft" as the SWS but that makes it less fuzzy. It's more gentle than SWS though. And sooo much lighter. What I've knit up so far has almost a cottony feel. Better stitch definition than the other two. I don't think it will shed much, which is nice. My only real complaint with the Karaoke so far is that it's a bit weak. It broke on me a couple times while I was trying to untangle it. Still seems to produce a reasonably sturdy fabric though.

All three are definitely good yarn and have their places and uses.

Oooh, look... actualy knitting evidence!

2007-01-16T16:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a bit of what I've been working on lately.

First there's the back of my first sweater. Berroco Ultra Alpaca on US5 KP Options 24" (4s for the ribbing)

Here's the lovely SWS in Natural Earth my mom got at Michael's last week:

Here's the lovely SWS swatched up for an entrelac scarf. For the left swatch I CO24 and each square is 8sts. The right I CO20 and each square is 10sts. I like the way the colors were more isolated in individual squares in the left one but the larger squares gave a nicer fabric for the scarf so I went with that one. I'll be making my Karaoke shawl using the smaller squares on larger needles.

Here's a progress shot of the scarf. This was yesterday morning. I'm now finished with the first ball you see here and partway into the second. Not bad for only a couple days work. Especially if you consider the first two failed attempts plus the second swatch as well.

Entrelac is fun! I'm getting pretty darn good at picking up stitches and all that turning it not nearly as annoying as I feared. I'm doing this scarf on my Denise needles, size 8 for knit side and 7 for purl side. I think I might be more bothered my the turning if I were using straights.
The more I use the Denise needles, the more I love 'em . My only complaint is I wish they all felt as secure as my 7s. the other sizes seem to have too much wiggle in the join area. Haven't come loose or anything but I'd prefer they be more secure. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I think I'll take a look at another set when we go to pick up my yarn to see if they do the same thing or if mine are not quite right.

In other entrelac-related news... my SWTC Karaoke has gone missing!!! All three balls are apparantly on the lam. I have no idea how this happened. I would have sworn I put them in the stash drawers with the rest of the stuff that was in the same bag. I won't totally freak until I check the cluttered side of the room. I'll be picking up 3 more balls this week.

It's a rather nasty day here. I overslept considerably and it's soo gloomy I still don't feel awake. I think I need to knock myself out super early tonight, even though I slept in (to put it mildly). I have a lot to do tomorrow to make up for today, plus class from 2:30 - 8p. :P I want to go to the gym, do laundry, and get partially packed for Thursday. I have no idea what I'm going to wear to the show yet and it seems every article of clothing I own is dirty or missing.

Ridiculous

2007-01-10T18:42:00.000-05:00

School was a bit trying today. First I couldn't find any parking and ended up 40miles away. Ah well, I figure I can use the walk.
Then came "Business Math." Wow. Um, yeah. So the book is from 1994 (yet still cost a hundred bucks) and starts off with "introduction to Whole Numbers," I shit you not! WTF? We seriously did addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Next week we more up to *gasp* fractions. *dies* I would have died of boredom or fidgeted out of my chair and been really tempted to smart off if not for my knitting. I havent actually knit during class before. On breaks and waiting for class to start, sure, but not while we were doing work. I don't think the teacher minded though. I participated in the work and discussions and rarely actually looked at the sock so it went over well.
Class ends at 5 but we got out at 4:30 since it was the first day an all. I found my 5:20 class, put my stuff down and went to move my car. Got back and was still really early so I knit a little and did my doofus math homework. 5:18 rolls around and still there's no one around. I started to worry about being in the right place until one other girl wandered in. Around 5:30 we were informed that class had been rescheduled for "probably the same time tomorrow." Isn't that lovely? Makes for an annoying gap in my schedule if that's the case. And how am I supposed to know if it's even then?? Just show up and pray? Stupid little tech school.

I'm dreading English again tomorrow. The class is enormous, we'll have to do "group papers" and we apparently have to do presentations for everything we write. WTF? I guess I'll be ready to knock out that much more dreaded Public Speaking after this, huh? :P The boy is excited about me taking English since he'll feel less lost when hearing about my work. His mom was a high school English teacher and he's the only person I know who grew up in this hobunk town and doesn't have the slightest accent.

I wonder if I'll be able to start Lady Eleanor over the weekend. Perhaps I should hold off until I finish another project. I'll need to sit down and figure this entrelac thing out and I'm not sire I'll get that much alone time (and have the attention span for it at the same time). I'm sure it won't be too hard once I get going but I have to sit down with the needles and yarn and sort it through first.
I'll probably just work on the sweater a bit and see if I can get a minute to do a couple Branching Out reps in. I don't like to stop in the middle of those, in case the sticky note comes off my pattern. Oh, and the hat! I keep forgetting about that darned hat! Not sure why.

So, not really a bad day (finslly got the fish tank done) but I do have a headache, burning eyes, and no dinner.

School Daze

2007-01-09T11:12:00.000-05:00

My first class starts today at 1. Can't say I'm looking forward to taking an English class but tomorrow should be interesting (Personal Finance and Business Math).

I'm knitting news, the SWS Clapotis is done! I finished it night before last. Haven't washed/blocked it yet because I have no place to dry it. :P Trying to work that one out. Also, I'd like to get some sort of no-rinse wool wash. I'm not sure what to get or where just yet though. That, and I'm broke.
Secret Pal 9 is almost over. I need to sit down and finish my pal's last box. Wanted to do it yesterday but I had some sudden tummy bug that put me out of commission. It even made me miss the first half of the slaughter, uh, I mean game. I'm not a Gators fan at all but go SEC anyway.

Did another repeat on the Branching Out scarf yesterday. Then I messed up and had to go back to the lifeline with was two repeats below the one I had just done. Did two mre to catch back up. At least it felt like I made a little progress. LOL.

Been making more actual progress on the sweater and I finally picked the cabled hat back up for a couple rounds last night. I need to get that one out since it was originally intended as a Christmas present and it'll be too warm for it very very soon.
I'm planning to try cabling without a cable needle soon because I've found that my hands cramp up when I do cables the regular way.

I think I might frog the Fearless Fibers Clapotis and make it a Pie Are Squared shawl instead.

I wanted to spend the afternoon tending the critters, making stitch markers and maybe working on that stash organization but now the boy is suddenly off work (long story that just pisses me off) so he wants to go out to eat and stuff.

Speaking of eating... I need to improve that again. I've gained back most of the weight I lost last year and I'm really not happy about it. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good gym schedule going now since classes starting back will give my general schedule a little more structure.

Bath time.

more on the house stuff...

2007-01-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

Ah, nothing better than a shower after all that ick. :P
I cleaned that corner again, cleaned the area between the wall and floor, put a bunch of enzyme cleaner stuff in the appropriate areas, etc. Then I drug the mattress and box springs out by myself (my bro bailed on me today :P). As soon as I got the mattress out, Kitty attacked the box springs. Then I went to get a vacuum cleaner attachment from the kitchen. When I came back there was a Kitty head sticking out of the top of my dad's doorway. LOL He didn't waste any time getting on top of the mattress, huh? Lugged the box springs out (fell on my head at one point) and, going with the theme lately, I need a new one. This one's not really springs, it's a wood frame. Well, one of the stupid pieces that go across it broke on me. *argh*
Picked up under the bed. It amazed me how much stuff slides up under there because of the Pergo-type floor. I move my bed out and clean under it more than anyone I know, yet it's always a treasure trove (and land of furballs). After cleaning and vacuuming I got down and cleaned the floor by hand. Got it all spiffed up and moved stuff back in. As soon as I got the box springs back down I realized I forgot to vacuum the bottom so it dumped a bunch of dust and stuff on the damn floor!!!!!!! I just can't win.

I think I've earned a drink. Hopefully my bro will show up soon with a movie. I'm planning to order pizza and watch a movie. We watched Click last night. Pretty good movie but I wasn't expecting it to make me cry! There was a Dirty Jobs marathon on afterward but I was too tired to watch any of 'em. I guess they'll stop playing all the old ones once the new season starts next week. Dangit. I wish I had Tivo.
Was also too tired to knit. :( I think I am again. Cleaning that floor kinda took it out of my hands. Poo.

2007-01-03T13:01:00.000-05:00

So, how's everyone's new year going?
I'm doing well. Christmas was nice. New Years was wonderfully uneventful. (A great thing for me since I have super-duper bad luck with New Years Eve in general.)
I spent last weekend with my ass glued to the recliner watching as much football as possible and knitting up a storm. I finished the boy's socks, made my mom a pair of gloves based on Knitty's Fetching, and started my first sweater.

This week has been home-improvement based. Don't you just love how once you start home improvements/repairs, you always find more and mroe that needs doing? :P *blah* For example, we decided to replace the toilet, then noticed the floor needed to be done as well. Might as well paint then. Oh, check out the ceiling... lets get rid of the popcorn stuff and paint it too. I hate the lights and mirror/medicine cabinet and the sink is stained so there's another thing to replace. And shelves. Neeeeed shelves. Those will have to be custom though. Replacing a toilet becomes Operation Overhaul the Bathroom.

I also started on my room. Gathered up as much stash and knitting stuffs as I could find (more keeps popping up) and stuffed it in drawers to be organized soon. Find that there's no way the current drawers, *or* the extra ones I cleaned out, will contain it. So basically, I'm gonna end up with an entire wall of plastic drawers and hampers to keep it all together. LOL Took out a regular dresser to help with this. Clothes? Who needs clothes? I'll replace 'em with knits anyway. ;) Or just stuff the room with yarn and roll around in that rather than leaving the house for functions that would require clothes.

So last night I'm cleaning up the cat corner and I discover that my sweet little puss-pusses have thrown so much litter up against the wall over the past few months that it's down behind the baseboards.(My vacuum hates me and likely wants to fry itself because of cat-litter/fur overload.) So the baseboards on two of the walls have to go (note: cat corner :P) Well, actually I got all amped about it last night and armed with a paint scraper, crowbar, and hammer I got those puppies off. I was rather impressed with myself, actually. Didn't damage anything, not even the paint, with the exception of one spot of wall in the corner. Who knew it had gotten damp enought to become kinda soft? So that might mean a little area of drywall repair. And so on, and so forth.

And that's only my bath and bedroom. I'm not even gonna go into the fact that we're planning to re-floor the entire house and other such craziness.

Also took some time yesterday to go buy books and get some last minute stuff straight before classes start next week. My brother starts Monday evening but I don't have a class until Thursday afternoon. I'm taking three classes but anticipate spending way more time on school-related stuff because I have to keep an eye on the bro. He started pulling this super-stealthy class skipping BS so we've switched him to the tech school where I can stay up his ass and make sure everything's on the up 'n up. Can't complain too much though since I also went through my f*cking-off instead of going to anxiety inducing classes phase and my parents got me through that. Mom's at the end of her rope with him (and other things) right now though so I get to step in on this one. It's pretty much shape up or ship out, literally. As in Coast Guard. That's certainly not a bad idea, but hopefully we can get him back on track without resorting to military action. :P

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll get a shot of the sweater progress soon. Forgot to take pics of the gloves so I'll have to get Mom to model for me soon. I need pics of the "crayon socks" as well. And the boy's socks. I forgot to shoot those too. Not surprising since there's so much other stuff going on.

Now I'm off to figure out where the heck to move my mattress so I can clean under the bed. This house is waaaaaaay too tiny for the two biggest packrats in town. Well, actually not the biggest since the boy's mom is worse and I'm getting better but anyway...

more yarn pr0n...

2006-12-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

In case you can't tell, I just love yarn porn. I'd like to have more WIP pictures but I can't ever get 'em to look right or do the WIP justice. I'll have more FO pictures soon too. But by far my favorite is the yarn porn.
I'm so freaking lucky to be able to get/have all I do. I don't mean to come across like "oooh, check ou my tons of stuff" at all. I just get so excited about yarn that I must share. I don't have much disposable income but what I do have tends to go toward yarn and other knitterly goodness.
Most of it is stuff from swaps and gifts. I'm super lucky to have a momma and fella who support my yarn addiction pretty well. And I'm a good bargain shopper.
Yarn/knitting makes me happy, is the most economical entertainment around, and keeps me out of trouble. Also, I like to collect things. This is one of the better collection habits I've had. Since I'm finally purgin all the useless crap I've been lugging around over the years, I've picked up this new yarn addiction. Yarn is lighter, prettier, and more useful than all that other crap so it's a definite improvement.
Anyway, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this. It's just that I read something on a blog a while back complaining about people posting yarn pictures rather than "real" knitting pictures. But it's my darn blog anyway, right?

So yeah, enough rambling... on to the yarn and stuff...

Yes, I have given in. I'm dabbling in the dark side. I bought some *gasp* Noro.
The first time I met some Noro in person I was horrified. I'd hear all these wonderful things from people drooling over it. I expected beautiful, magical, irresistable yarn. I picked up a skein and actually squeaked in disgust and threw it back in the bin. LOL. Horrified. I couldn't believe this was what people had made such a fuss about. Weird uneven yarn that made burlap seem cuddly! WTF? At those prices? And wait... is that a twig?! Well, I've decided it's time I give it a fair shot. What brought this about? Two works yarn sale. Of course. ;) When I went to pick up some stuff I put on hold last week, I found a new basket that said "We are the last of our kind so take us home for 20% off" Had to poke through. I already had a skein of Malabrigo in my hand but found this neat brown w/ pinkish in the sale basket so I picked it up. Underneath I noticed some magical colors. Upon closer inspection, I realized that was some Kureyon makin' eyes at me. Who'da thunk? Under that was a skein of Silk Garden also eyein' me.
Short story long, I ended up with two balls of Kureyon and one Silk Garden. I figure if nothing else, the colors will be fun to work with and my mom can wear anything without it bothering her skin.

But what's that buttery goodness poking out in the middle of the Noro? Blue Sky Organic Cotton. Only non-sale item I got. Whatever comes of that fabulousness is mine all mine. I've been admiring the Blue Sky Cotton for a couple months and almost had to buy a skein of hot-ass pink but resisted until I saw the organic, unbleached skein underneath. Same price too. It had to go home with me.

And behing it all (no, not the stupid towel that hiding the chair) is the awesome container of needles I found on the doorstap a couple days ago!! My dad's friend is a retired knitter and she gave me her collection! 11 pairs of well-used aluminum straights, in smaller sizes I actually use. So exciting. The larger ones are a few I was given by a friend of my mom. She tried to knit and gave up. Inheriting her stuff was nice enough but kinda sad. Getting these well-loved needles excited me. The color is worn off of some of the tips. These were actually used. Makes me happy. :) You know it's a Knitter's collection when the US3s have the color worn off and one set of 7s is two different colors, indicating the inevitable disappearing needle syndrome. Hehe.

And here we have some more yarn sale goodness:

10 skeins of Cascade Pima Tencel. This will be a lacy tank for me. In from, best I can tell, ~825yrds of fabulously soft Chinese laceweight lambswool. Mmmmm... I almost bought this yarn in red or black in NC but it was $22-24. I got this pink for $11!!! Woohoo!

Not pictured are the Regia 4ply, Skacel Trampoline, and ball-band-less skein of mystery yarn I got for a buck each. What's more exciting than dollar yarn?!

Well, I should probably go shower and get ready for the evening's non-yarn related activities. Dinner and a movie w/ the boy.

Oh, in completely unrelated news, I just found out we'll be haing another lil outing next month! Rehab is coming back to Charleston Jan 18th. We'll be getting a room so it'll be a nice escape with both of us living at the parents' houses now. It's at the Music Farm. I haven't been there since the NOFX show almost a decade ago. Ah, memories. Heh. So yeah, that's really exciting. The last Rehab show was awesome even though my car broke down and we didn't have a lot of play money. This time we won't have to hitch an emergency ride with Ms. Pouty-pants and should have a little more fun money. Yay!

Ok, bath time...

F*@K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-12-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

Blogger just ate my effing post! RAWR! Must keep it short now to keep myself from spewing too much filthy language. I try to keep that to a minimum on my craft-y blog.

The post was mainly about my awesome LYS and my haul(s) from their we-don't-wanna-inventory-this-stuff sale. Oh, and the 11 pairs of aluminum straights passed on to me.

Instead of a quick rewrite, I'll take some photos when it's light out and post it all with those.

For now, here's some yarn porn, an FO, a WIP and some because-I-got-a-camera-that-day shots to tide you over:

Here we have :

(left to right)

- fingering weight merino dyed by one of the ladies at the LYS. Got a great scarf pattern to try out too. The sample they had was really cool.

- SWTC Karaoke in Mermaid Mix. This will become a Lady Elenor (Scarf Style), hopefully. I have 3 balls and 8 more on order. I think I'll be ok mixing dye lots on that pattern.

- UrbanGypz handpainted superwash sock yarn in "Playing With Matches". This is from Asheville. Done by a local gal up there. She has an Etsy store as well.
(front) - Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Glacier Teal or some such color. Something Teal anyway. This is gonna be a scarf for my friend in WI. Actually, it's already started but I'm not sure about my choice of needle size yet.

Here's my SWS Clapotis. I'm through 3 or 4 straight repeats now and I've moved it to my new Denises.

Here's the Simply Soft Shadows one in action. One of its many uses. I love this thing. Can't wait to use the bigger one!!

And here's Kitty being coy. Or sniffing the Bearfoot, whichever.

Tried to take a pic of the cabled hat and the pattern repeat counters I made but they turned out crappy.

Here's the obligatory *meh* picture of me in my car right after I got my camera (wearing my Knitphomaniac shirt... hehe)

This is my cute lil' pocketbook with wheels. I lubs muh car. Ignore the crater (F**cking drunk driver). Hopefully that'll be gone next month. Don't even ask about the other side. That's getting fixed as well.

Da' planes! (in front of the Airstation)

I'm still here

2006-12-15T02:31:00.000-05:00

Yup, still alive. Been busy so I haven't had a lot of online time recently. Had my last test for the semester (trimester, really) last night so that's over until January. Hooray!
The boy got me a digital camera so I have some WIP and yarn pics waiting to be posted but they're on the other computer so that'll hafta wait until next time.

The My So Called Scarf is no more. I love the pattern but wanted to do something with the SWS that I'd get more use out of. And so, Clapotis III was born. I'm almost through the second ball. I picked up 5 on sale in NC but once I got going I decided I wanted to go for full sized with this one so I needed more yarn. Made a trip up to ACMoore hoping to do my best to match a couple more balls and work them in with the dye lot I already have. To my surprise, they had 3 balls of the exact dye lot I bought in NC!! Exactly the amount I was looking for. It was fate, or something. ;)
I'm working this one up to the pattern specs but on US9 needles. I'm through two straight repeats currently.

Other things I'm working on include: worsted weight house socks for the boy, merino/silk socks for Dad, an aran lace scarf in Bearfoot for a friend in Wisconsin, and a braided cable ribbed hat for a friend in FL. I have photos of most of this stuff plus a couple new aquisitions from my first knit night last week.

More on that and maybe a couple book reviews soon.

Ok, now it's bedtime. I've made it to the gym twice this week (*YAY*) and I'd like to get there again tomorrow so I should rest up. I was draggin' ass all day today so little got done besides some knitting (and a good bit of chocolate eating I'm in a bit of denial about... lol). Of course, I have lots of knitting to get done over the next week or so, so it's just as well, right? ;)
I really hope to have more energy to work with tomorrow. It'll really suck if I stay tired and half crabby all week. :P

FOs & WIPs

2006-11-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

Yay, I finally have photos of my recent work!

Here's the progress on the Fearless Fibers Clapotis. It's coming along nicely. Still in the rolly-polly stage so I had to weight it down. I also included the pen for size reference. A few more increases to go.

Here's that Branching Out. Drops Alpaca, fingering weight-ish on my US8 bamboos. 17 repeats, 16 of which were done in one sitting. :)

A close up of the yarn blob that is unblocked lace.

I cat this on last night. It's the My So Called Scarf in Patons SWS on US10 Knit Picks Options circ. I'm loving these needles. Did have some cord malfunctions but the replacements should be on their way. My set was fine but the additional cords I ordered had problems.

Close-up. I really like this stitch pattern and it's nicer on the SWS than I expected. The SWS seemed to cry out for texture, if you ask me.

Here we have the Silver-toed Socks! Finally wrapped these puppies up last night. I still have a couple ends to sew in but that's it. Whew! I'm so sick of these socks it's not even funny. Can't wait to give them away. :P

Last but certainly not least, the finished Mini-Clap. I couldn't get the full length in the photo so here's a bunched up shot. I'm happy with it. It's super duper long. Washed it once and it's really soft now.

Finishing things is good. :) FInally measured Daddy's foot last night so I should get started on his socks, I guess. My scarves are more appealing to me at the moment though.

Won't be doing much of anything today considering I feel like death. My throat is killing me and I'm generally sick other than that. Hopefully it's a cold and not strep or anything. I had a job interview tomorrow that I had to cancel so I can go see the doc. That sucks. I hope I don't lose out because of it.

I guess we'll see.

Mmm... leftovers...

2006-11-27T13:45:00.000-05:00

That was a darn good leftover barbequed turkey sammich. :)
Thanksgiving went OK. The next day was super busy and involved a lot more furniture moving than expected. Saturday morning as well (yard sale). Then the Clemson vs USC game at noon. We won!! This means many things... #1 - We WON! Certainly been a long time coming this time around. Beat 'em on their own field as well. #2 - The boy lost a two fold bet which involves a silly and embarassing statement to be made at the close of every phone conversation, and buying me that Denise set. Hehehehe. ;) Hey, the wager was his idea! Silly boy didn't think we had it in us yet. #3- Bragging rights all year and hopefully people will stop trying to push around rumors about our ball coach straying. Give it up, he's stickin' around, people.
We cooked out after the game. John made some of the tastiest chicken I've had in years, at least. I was very impressed, particularly because I generally loathe chicken breast.

The boy randomly decided to buy me a skein of Soysilk Friday!! It should be here tomorrow or so I reckon. My needles were scheduled for delivery today but that didn't happen. *sob* I woke up all excited and there are no packages to be found.

My two personal WIPs are still advancing nicely. Everything else is still on hold. This is unfortunate and unwise. I should change it tonight. I don't feel like it though. *sigh* I was kinda using the needle delivery to postpone things though so I guess since they're not here yet... ;P
Ok, I better go finish my sammich and get in the tub. Massage at 3. Mmmmm... massaaaaaage.

Happy Turkey Day

2006-11-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

Well, last night didn't involve sleep but it was pretty good nonetheless. I frogged the 28" Branching Out I started almost a year ago. The yarn wasn't suited for the pattern and I finally accepted it. Actually, I accepted it a few weeks ago but I finally got around to taking action. And action was certainly taken. I now have a lovely new 27" alpaca Branching Out in progress! I got 16 repeats done!! Watched the mob stuff of the National Geographic Channel, then watched bad movies the rest of the night (and most of the morning). I formatted the pattern a bit differently and printed out a new copy that I was able to follow along with easily. I still can't believe I knit lace and watched TV at the same time. Or that I got so much done! I'm hardwired to pull an unintentional all-nighter on a pretty regular basis so it's nice to have something to show for it. Something lovely! I can't wait to block it. I'm not sure where the heck I'll do it though. I really need a blocking board.

Got a great massage yesterday afternoon so my back isn't even sore from knitting all night. It's great!

We were supposed to be eating at Mom's around 4 so I figured I'd just wait until afterward to lay down. Of course Mom called to push it back to "6-ish" due to a late start so I'll probably be ready to fall out just in time for dinner. :P

I think I might try to go to knit night at the LYS in Charleston next Thursday, or the following one. I want to go check out a few things anyway so I might as well go when they're open late and having social time. I'm a little nervous about a knitterly gathering though. I've never knit with anyone else before. I do have a pretty cool WIP to show off now though. ;)

Well, 4 hours til dinner... I think I may have to go lay down for a few.

I was just thinking about that!

2006-11-21T16:31:00.000-05:00

After I posted a minute ago, I checked my email and started thinking about the fact that I hadn't heard from the Rowan rep about my replacement yarn in a couple weeks. Even considered sending her an email to see what was up but decided I was too lazy to dredge up the address right now. (I have the most cluttered inbox ever. No, really.)
Well, not 10 minutes later, Dad came home. He walked in with a big envelope addressed to me, no return address. I was perplexed. I was please to find two balls of Cashsoft inside!
I love the mailman now that he brings me more than just bills and junk mail. ;)

2006-11-21T15:58:00.000-05:00

Good lordy it's cold out there! Well, it's only 40 but it's raining and windy. Wind chill is 20-something! That damn wet wind is sharp. My toes say it's time to make myself some socks!
I was told I had a massage appointment at 1pm today but someone's lines got crossed so I'm now scheduled for 1pm tomorrow. Never let my dad schedule anything for you. :P
My yoga lady is having a class at 8 in the morning. I should try to go to that. I woke up at 5:30 today even though I didn't have to be at school until 8. This was not intentional, of course. Woke up at 3:30 and freaked out because I swore I saw someone in the doorway... again. I'm getting pretty sick of that sort of thing happening. Went back to sleep and woke up again at 5:30 (in the middle of an odd dream involving my crush from the 6th/7th grade). There was no going back to sleep that time because my nose started acting up so I just went ahead and got up.
Lately I've been waking up at 3:30a and then 5:30 or 6:30. Usually I just go back to sleep or lay there for a while. I haven't slept through a full night in weeks. Doesn't matter what time I go to bed either. Weird.
This weather makes me want to go back to bed right now. Of course that wouldn't be wise so instead I'll work on some schoolwork for a bit. Then I might go snuggle down in the bed and knit. I'll need to get to sleep pretty early if I want to get up for that class.

--------------------------------------------------
YAY! I keep checking the KP site to see if my order shipped yet but it says "In Process." I was worried it wouldn't get out before the holiday so I called to check. The ever so lovely customer service lady said it already shipped! Yippee! :) Darn you, lying website for making me worry!

I just updated my Blogger account to the new beta version. I'll hafta poke around and see what options I have now. I see the post label thingy has been added. Of course, I have no idea how I should group my posts or what labels I should use. Eh, maybe I'll use it eventually. I guess I could at least lump 'em by project or something.

I wish they'd add an option where you could reply to comments though. That's the thing I miss most from LiveJournal. I hate not being able to directly reply to comments! *rah*

Along that line... A reply to the comment on my last entry:

M - I was going to reply to your comment on your blogger but I couldn't pull it up.
I haven't tried the Denise set yet but I have seen it and looked at it a bit. They had a display one at my favorite (kinda-local)LYS. I'm going to be up that way in a couple weeks so I think I'll inspect it further and see if maybe I can try it out or something. I guess if I decide to break down and buy one, I could do it through them. Nice to support the LYS. I hope their price is comprable to the online prices. I can't afford to spend too much extra to get it locally. I'd pay a few bucks more since I wouldn't have to pay shipping but not too much more.
Of course, I'd *much* rather get a used set though. I'm not sure that'll even be an option though. Everyone leves theirs too much to get rid of them. :P

I am sure I'll love the KPO set. I love the classic circ I have now and, barring any huge defects, I'm sure the set will be even more lovely. There are two reasons I want a Denise set as well though.
First, I like to make hats on short circs. The Denise set is the only noe that comfortably makes circs short enough for adult hats.
Second, as much as I love my Addis and the KP circ I have, super slippy metal isn't good for every yarn. I have some bamboo I want to use that I already tried on the Addis. It was a pain. Since the Denise needles are resin, I think they'd be a nice compliment to the Options, working better for stuff that needs a little more grip.

I'm waiting for an email from my LYS about their Denise pricing and availability. I have an itchy ordering finger though. Good thing I have to use the boy's card (I just give him the cash), so I can't order anything spur of the moment. ;)

Oh how I wish a used set would come my way. *sigh*

Oh and...

2006-11-20T01:45:00.000-05:00

If anyone knows of anyone looking to unload their Denise Interchangable set, I'm really interested in picking up a used set. I don't really wanna go all out for a new one since I'm doing that with the Options, but I'd really like a set of Denises as well and I'm not at all against some gently used ones. Of course, if you know of a great price on a new set, I'm game for tat as well. I just don't want to pay full price since sparklin' new isn't a necessity for me as long as everything functions properly and is at least mostly complete.
Any offers or suggestions would be highly appreciated. :)
Thanks!

Little update before bed

2006-11-20T01:27:00.000-05:00

Whew, I'm about pooped. Made the 2.5 -3hr drive (each way) to a family get together today. Early Thanksgiving. It was nice and the food was great buy I barely slept last night so I'm tuckered out, despite the nap I took in the car. (I rarely nap in the car.)

So the mini-clap is complete!! Finished it up Thursday night. Haven't worn it yet because I wanna wash it first.
The FearlessFibers-clap is coming along nicely. I've gotten a few more increase repeats done this weekend. I hope to work on it more tomorrow after studying.
The socks are at a stand-still. I'll change that soon.

Placed a good sized KnitPicks order today. :) My Options set is on the way!! I also picked up a couple more fixed circs to try out socks on 2circs and a 40" cord to try Magic Loop. I love my DPNs, I just want to mess around with some new techniques. If I like the 2 at once method, it might make my Christmas stuff go a little faster.
I also ordered a lot of single balls and color cards to help plan a couple things I'm kicking around.

Happened across some Noro discussions and now I really want to try South West Trading Co. Karaoke. I like some of the Noro color styles but I just can't knit something I know I'm risking splinters with. Plus I'd be spending a fortune on something I could never wear since it's so unpleasant to touch. :P Apparently the SWTC Karaoke colors are similar. As if my longing for SWTC Bamboo wasn't bad enough.

I still haven't gotten back on the swatches I need to do for my next projects. I'm pretty into my purple clapotis at the moment. Especially since I finished the Simply Soft one. I'll try to finally get some pictures up this week. :P

Realized today that I need the extended family Christmas gift(s) done by the 17th. I'm doing baskets with a washcloths/dishcloths and nice soap or natural cleansers. I want to include the fabulous goat's milk soap I got in NC but it's a small Asheville operation so I don't think I'll be able to get any more any time soon. :( Gotta find a replacement.

Must. sleeeeeeeeeep. noooow.

Honey, I'm hooome!

2006-11-13T12:15:00.000-05:00

Yay!!
Decided to go ahead and come on back Saturday. I'll explore Greenville one weekend soon. For now, I'm glad to be home. I do miss the scenery and the weather of the mountains though.
Got my first Secret Pal package today!! It's the book Lavish Lace and some lovely chocolate covered dried fruit (quite tasty, as I have already discovered). There are some beautiful projects in the book and they're of the size that I can afford to try out some really cool spurge-y yarns! (*Thank you Secret Pal!*)

I'm swatching for my first sweater now. Swatched up some of the Ultra Alpaca. I'm thinking I'll modify the Donna pattern from Magknits. I want to make it just a smidge smaller. I think I can do that without jacking the whole thing up. I guess we'll see. ;) I love the swatch and can't wait to get started!

The boy made me dinner and we watched Cars. Cute movie.

I'm still tired. Planned a little sleeping in but we're having work done on the roof so that's proven to be a bit difficult. Guess I should just turn in earlier, huh?

I should be unpacking today but I may save that for tomorrow. I want to work up another swatch for the sweater and one for the cabled hat. I'm pretty excited about both.
I should also knock out the rest of that sock soon and work on my mini and maxi claps (that sounds really gross, not that I look at it LOL). I can't cast on for my new projects until I finish the sock and mini-clap. Thems the rules. I also have a secret project I need to get crackin' on. And of course there's the Christmas stuff but we're not talking about that right now. ;P

Well, I have a bunch to do so I'll be going now. Photos soon. Hafta get the camera back from my brother.

Almost done...

2006-11-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

On the home stretch of the silver-toed sock! Had the urge to impale a certain someone with a DPN earlier but I decided that blood-red simpley wouldn't work with the pink/silver color scheme. ;P
I'm on the final ball of the mini-clap, finally. I've decided I can't cast on anything new until I finish it. I love how it's turning out.

I got my package from Mom so right after work I'm going to run downtown and snatch up the rest of that Ultra Alpaca. I hope I can get an accurate photo of the color when I get home. It's really pretty.

Tomorrow is my last day of work! Yay!
I can't wait for my hands to heal up. All these chores have made this new eczema problem flare up worse. I'm going to get some shea butter at Greenlife tonight. Hopefully that will help.
Y'know that woman made me clean her *baseboards* today?!?! WTF? With a rag!
Anyway, not getting started on that stuff. Gotta get showered before the munchkins wake up.

yanks hair out

2006-11-07T14:50:00.000-05:00

Holding my tongue around here is getting difficult. For one thing, these people should be completely restricted from being pet owners. Poor neglected bunny, frogs, and cats. Things involving lack of food, moldy water, and even open wounds. I'm not gonna get into it right now because I don't have the time or energy plus I don't wanna shit-talk. I do wanna slap some people though. *sigh*
I've decided to take a stand on the really nasty job they want me to do. I'm drawing the line. I've been more than happy to accomodate everything else but I'm just not doing that.
Gonna start packing tomorrow. Might need to do some laundry tonight. I hate to do it here though. They only have powdered detergent and it won't dissolve so it sticks all over my clothes even after two rinses! Plus no fabric softener. Bleh. Hopefully I can get by without washing anything yet. Just a few more days.
I decided to just not let it get to me today. After a somewhat bumpy morning, I decided that my iPod would help me tune it all out. That worked well through lunch but couldn't swing it after that. I wish I wasn't broke (only until tomorrow though) so I could go do something tonight. I'm tired but I just can't stand hanging around here after work anymore. Last week it was fine but attitudes have changed drastically.
It's a dreary day. Rainy and blah. One of the kids is having a birthday party at 5:30. I want to go so I can see his (really cool) parents' place. I'm not sure I can get motivated for it though. I really should. We'll see.

In knitting news...
I've actually been able to get a bit done in the past 24hrs or so. I am ready to pick up the gusset stitches on the second silver-toed sock. I also finished frogging and reknitting the necessary part of the hearts washrag. All I have left now is the cast-off.
The yarn shop downtown is holding a few more balls of beautiful purple Ultra Alpaca for me. I'm planning to pick them up Thurs. I should have enough for a sweater once I get those. How exciting!
I found the perfect pattern for my friend's Christmas hat yesterday. A lovely braided cable rib design. Wound the yaarn today. I might get started on the swatch tonight.

I'd kill for a beer and a huge bathtub right about now. Scratch that... a few beers and a tub that just isn't yucky. :P

I would have loved to get the extra week of work in but I'm 'bout ready to get the heck out of dodge now. I miss my kitties. I'm sad that Daddy ham died last week and I wanna check on the last lil' girl and my fishies. I even miss my tiny bed.
Mom says she might have some more work lined up for me at home. I hope so. I'm ready to start saving for the move and such.

Ok, naptime is probbly coming to a close now. I'm ready for this day to be over.

Still here...

2006-11-06T14:15:00.000-05:00

I'm still up in Asheville. The weather has been lovely. Got to do some yarn shopping. Of course that's where the largest chunk of the budget went. ;) Mostly sale/clearance stuff though. Finally got some SWS. I loooove the colorway and can't wait to work it up.

Finished Mom's Knucks. I can verify their loveliness since I wore them for a bit yesterday. I'm not pleased with the cast-on edges and they're a bit short on me but overall they're nice for my first go and I'll impliment the changes on the next pair. I have plans for two more. Got some marked down Debbie Bliss Merino is a lovely brown to make a pair for myself. I also still have the Cashsoft for Mom's second pair. That eggplant color is fabulous.

Found out that the best stuff at ACMoore (Luxury Yarns and the hand dyed 100% natural fiber lines)really are being discontinued. I think that's a big mistake on their part. Hopefully they'll be replaced with something else cool. On the upside, I got a great deal on some cashmere blend and handpainted alpaca. Everything else was 25% off so I picked up a few other things as well. More on that when I have more time. Maybe some pictures too. :)

I hardly had any time to knit and no time to study. I thought for sure I'd be on the home stretch of the mini-clap by now. Nope. It's a little icky to knit anything right now though. I've been cleaning and washing my hands every five minutes so my skin is less than pleased. It's already been pretty dry in general too.

Last week, work went pretty well. I'm not happy with the way this week is shaping up though. They don't want to pay me for another week so it seems I'm being asked to do a lot more this week. I don't think that's fair. I at least wish she'd have let me know about this list of nastiness last week so I could have spread it out. I feel like some of it isn't really my job. I don't want to be rude but there's one job on the list that I'm just flat out not doing. It's really f-ing gross and totally not my problem. I've more than stayed on top of everything else and I draw the line at cleaning out a moldy sandbox that's been sitting outside under the bunny hutch with cornstarch in it for a month! She even told me that last time it gagged her and she deals with gross stuff all the time. I'm sorry but I'm just not touching that. Not unless I'm getting extra money for it. Yuck!
I'm disappointed about not getting to make another week's pay and stuff but I'm 'bout ready to get out of heree anyway. At first, they were all "make yourself at home," "have this... let me get you that... hang out with us... etc" Over the weekend though, things suddenly became oddly more uncomfortable. Not like they're being horrible but I wasn't even here most of the weekend and I still felt "in the way" when I was. I'll probably go stay with my cousin Saturday than staart heading back. Might spend a night or so at my uncle's place in Greer. I'd like to check out the tech campus there since I'm considereing transferring next year.

Overall, I've enjoyed my stay though. I don't mean to make it sound horrible, I'm just not really into their lack of clear communication and stuff.
I love this area though. I'll have to upload the pictures from my Blue Ridge adventure I went on yesterday. :D

Well, nap is almost over so I better go get the snaacks together. I wanna get everything handled so I can gete the hell out of here right after the kids leave at 5. I'm apparently expected to stay late at least one day this week (the list looks like it might require more though) so I need to get my stuff out of the way. Going to the health food store to tally up what I need and what my mom needs so she can send me a little money. Then I might hit the bookstore to read up on a few more trails and waterfalls I'd like to see before I go or when I come back. Depends on how tired I am. I'm pretty pooped at the moment though. :P

AAAAARGH!!!

2006-10-27T14:21:00.000-04:00

Come fold the rest of this god-forsaken butt-load of laundry for me and I'll clean you bathroom!! :D C'mon, you know you wanna.

Or, explain the freaky dream I had last night and I'll give you some really tasty chocolate muffin-y things. Started off that I somehow ended up making out with John C. McGinley. Well, actually that part almost makes sense. I have an unexplainable fascination with him. Heh. Didn't think it was quite *like that* though!
It's the second part I don't get. It involved hooking up with an ex, who in reality, I would strangle with my bare hands if I knew I would never ever get in trouble for it. To do the world a favor. Then it got really weird. Some psychotic social services dude comes busting in the apartment (my last one in FL), ranting and raving about me being under age (??). He runs in the kitchen, grabs a HUGE spoon and proceeds to start smacking me in the head with it! I grab the phone and run out of the apartment. As soon as I get 911 on the phone, I get out of range and psycho SS dude is hot on my tail, but suddenly, he's a chick! Still wielding the giant spoon of doom, though. There was a chase around the complex until I found my car and took off. Then I woke up pretty darn freaked out.
Strangeness.
The weirdest thing is that certain parts of it were *way* more realistic than almost any dreams I've had. Like all 5 senses were into it. Usually there's some sort of detatched feeling to it. Like I can't really smell or taste things correctly and I sure don't halfway jolt myself awake because I'm absolutely certain I can feel someone touching me. I could actually taste stuff too. Freaked me the hell out.
The night before, I kept waking up and swaering someone else was in the room. Once, standing by the bed, and once actually laying in the bed next to me. Saw it 'bout plain as day. Wasn't nearly as scary as it sounds either. Just odd.

Folding too much laundry must me doing weird things to my brain! Or maybe it's a side effect from the cat litter contact! Lol.

Ok, not that I've shared entirely too much information you never needed to know, I think I'll go eat lunch.

PS- I know the mini-clap will be unhappy but I think I'll actually start the sock-clap tonight. I'm too excited about it to wait any longer. :)

whew

2006-10-26T18:45:00.000-04:00

Got a good bit done again today. As much as I've done these past few days I still have a ton to do tomorrow. I've washed a *ton* of clothes, packed a few, fixed up the cats and hamsters (only fish tanks left), organized meds/vitamins (except could only find one week organizer so I'm still short), reorganized the stash, selected most of the projects and yarn to take, organized and selected patterns (still have books to go), etc
Still have the fish tanks to do, trunk to clean out, CDs to burn, clothes to wash and pack, toiletries to pack, school stuff to sort, etc.
I really wish they would have confirmed this trip a few days earlier so I'd have had more time. Aw, who am I kidding? I would be in teh same position because I would have said "oh, I have time." It's amazing I'm this far into things, actually. I'm a notorious 12 - 3am stuff everything but the kitchen sink in bags and go.
Anyway, I'm going to do tanks, fold the clothes on my bed, and call it a day. The boy is bringing me dinner in a bit. :) He's good like that. He's also going to help with my trunk tomorrow after work. Hopefully I'll have most things ready for him to help stuff in the car as well. I am incapable of traveling "light." The one time I did was my trip to FL. Packed one bag for two weeks. Stayed two years. No, three, actually.
Knitting hasn't helped lighten the load at all. Luckily my hair and make-up are much lower maintenence now though.
But seriously, two weeks?! Who knows what knitting stuff I could need in TWO WEEKS! :P But I also must consider the yarn stores I have to hit. Gotta leave room for that!
Anyway, that's the update on the pre-trip.

Ok, how 'bout some knitting related pictures to go with my pissin' and moanin'? :D

Here we have Mom's Knucks. Unfortunately I hadn't discovered the wonders of the cable cast on yet so I used the long-tail and the fingers look a tad bulky/sloppy. Oh well, I still have another pair for her and hopefully one for me to go. I'll get better. These are done in KnitPicks Merino Style. Nice to work with. We'll see how it wears. I have some beautiful and super soft RYC Cashsoft for her next pair. I wound the second ball today and was HORRIFIED to find THREE knots from two pieces being tied together, one weak spot so bad it had to be cut out and two non-spicing tight knots!!! WTF? If I pay nine effing dollars for a ball of yarn I should get a ball of crap I have to mutilate! As much as I despise weaving ends I'm super duper pissed. I sent them an email about it but I really don't expect that a company that large will give two shits. I'm very unhappy. I loves me some Cashsoft but thatis just unacceptable! *sigh*
Anyway, here's the picture... lol

Next up is the washrag/dishrag from hell. I like the colors even though you can't see the design very well but the heart chart + the gauge = very large rag which ran out of yarn two rows from the end. I tried to crochet cast off (desperation makes you do retarded things) and of course it looked like crap. Bought another ball (Peaches & Cream, gotta love it), picked out the cast off and now I'm slowly going backward to fix the shortened st st part and make it look less craptastic. I kow I should just kill the whole thing and redo it as two rags with one heart in the middle of each but I'm stubborn. I'll make this one the way it should have been, hate it, frog it, and be too mad at the yarn to use it for a while. Good plan? Yeah, that's what I thought. ;P

This is the crayon kit thingy I made into a DPN case. Perfect fit. As you can see, I loves me some DPNs. Actually, this is only about 2/3 of em. I need more. No, seriously, I need more. I don't have enough 6"ers.

Behold the super cool bag I got for $1.99! It's the perfect size for my mini-clap in progress, which makes sure I take it everywhere I go. Fear the mini-clap. Obey the mini-clap. Ignore the messy sheets.

Last but certainly not least we have my trusty crap-holder. I got this puppy at WalMart on sale for a buck and a half.

And a shot of the guts. The camel tin is stitch markers. The bigger altoids tin is needle cap-y thingies whose name I am drawing a blank on right now. :P The smaller one is crochet stitch markers and a couple yarn needles. Then we have the retractable tape measure, gauge wizars, US0 DPNS, crochet hooks, scrap yarn, post-its, and emboridery scissors (can't see those).

I've gotten so much use out of this puppy, I picked up a green-ish one yesterday.

Ok, that's all I have.

Eh, the fish can wait a few more minutes. It's time to have a beer and watch Scrubs.

WIPs

2006-10-25T14:16:00.000-04:00

Took a few WIP pictures today. Here's the first batch. I'm planning to edit a few more after I tend to my fish and hamsters and do some laundry. Hopefully I can keep today incident-free.

This is the first silver-toed, doom-free sock of doom. The yarn is "Cashmere Luxury Aran" or something like that. It's basicly a Cashmerino/Csshsoft type knock off. Super soft. Bonus points for being on sale.

This is Broadripple ver2.0
This puppy better work out to be the right size or it may be doomed. It'll at least go on the back burner since the next size needles will be occupied by a long line of house socks.

Here's a full length shot of the Clap of Questionable Intent. The color quility of this photo is atrocious. Hopefully it won't get mad about me posting unflattering pictures on the internet. ;)

Here we have a really bad shot of the Swatch of Ill-Repute. It's much nicer looking in person. Apparently not overly photogenic. Then again, this wasn't the best batch of pictures in general. :P
The rolled up bottom part was done on US5 Addis and it's best that you can't really see it since it looked all sloppy. I'm a fairly loose knitter, particulary with flat knitting, and can't imagine how people have made such lovely fingering weight Claps on size US7s and such. Funny thing is I *feel* like a tight knitter. Weird.
Anyway, I love the colorway. Can't wait to work with the tone-on-tone green as well. Very striking.
I'm not crazy about how loose and wonky the twisted stitches look though, particularly the left ones. I've entertained the idea of twisting them on the purl side as well and while I think it'd be more asthetically pleasing, I also think it could be the death of the Clapotis because I'd get annoyed with it. Since I'm making this one pretty large and that's a US3 circ you see in the photo, I think I'm better off just sucking it up. I think it'll look fine once it's all said and done.
Oh, and the weird poochy dropped stitches are from the purl line I put in when I changed needles.

Dagnabbit! I just remembered I have class at 5! Here I was thinking I'd just work on cleaning and what not a little later to make up for the late start, but now I only have two and a half hours until class. I better get going! Damn my crappy short-term memory!

Ok, one more because this just begs to be shared :P

2006-10-24T17:44:00.000-04:00

Everything was going smoothly. Feelin' good, end in sight, all that jazz. I go to clean the "cat corner" (litter box and such) and discover that someone has decided there's just not enough box and the informed my by missing over the back corder and tossing some litter back there for good measure. Nice. I debated over the best way to handle this particularly distasteful, and set-in (read: dried up all gross like) mess. Suddenly I had a great idea. I'd just use the stiff brush I bought to clean around the edge of the tub but ended up not needing to use. It'd fix around wall edges perfectly. And so it did. First swipe proved what a great plan this was. It was taking it right out of the nooks and crannys. Awesome. I scrubbed in the other direction and the fun began. A little chunk of not-so-clean litter shot directly into my left eye! Nothing got anywhere else just cat litter straight in my damn EYE!!! I jumped up, yanked off the gloves, ran to the bathroom and started flushing my eye out with water. I loathe having to put anything near my eye, much less *in* it but I had no trouble keeping my eye open for this. I did discover that the bathroom faucet is much too low and the sink much too shallow (and a bit overly grimy once we got up close and personal) to make this work well. What to do? I run to the kitchen thinking I could do better. If anything, that angle was worse. Tried the spray nozzle on really low. Pain in the butt but it was slightly easier to aim. I alternated sinks and methods until I had the bright idea to the the shower. Why doesn't the showerhead have an "eye rinse" setting?! After all of this I finally felt I had the offending substance out of my poor poor eye. Of course it still felt scratchy as all get out. I had put allergy drops in that eye not a half hour before the incident because it was itching a little so I grabbed them and added a little more. Had to do something after all that blasted water! Mom brought me some different OTC drops and I used those too. Finally it dawned on me that I should probably consult an expert. Called the opthalmolagist (the heavy duty fella, not the corner store optomitrist) and he said to come on in to have a look since it obviously felt a bit scratched. I changed into a slightly less raggedy ensemble (well, cleaner at least), grabbed the mini-clap bag and my purse and headed out. I guess the knitting found a way to get its attention after all. :P I ended up being there for a good hour and a half so I made some progress. Thankfully I was feeling much better by the time the doc got to me. I apparently did a good job and only suffered minor scratches. Got some drops and instructions not to mess with it. Only cost me $12.50, which was a blessing considering how my insurance loooooves to jerk me around.
Got home about 45min ago. Called Dad to give him an update and what does he remember by the end of the conversation? Oh, there's an eye wash do-hickey under the sink!!!!
*dies*

I have threatened the physical well-being of the next animal to piss in the effing corner.

I'm ok now, save for the headache I have brewing. I'm keeping an, uh, eye on that eye for the next few days though. The last thing I need is some cruddy cat-piss-y eye infection (*shudder*) to ruin my NC plans.

I now have a sneaking suspicion that the mini-clap will go to some dirty extremes to get attention. Good thing those Addis aren't too pointy! Maybe the insomnia was a blessing in disguise... I might have been attacked in my sleep for ho'in around with that tarty sock yarn swatch last night.

Great mysteries of the universe

2006-10-24T13:42:00.000-04:00

Ok, I really just can't comprehend how two cats can shed so much and not be totally bald! It's insane!
I've managed to gather up all the dirty clothes (and the clean ones that got lost in the shuffle at some point), throw out a bunch of boxes and what-not, pile all the crafty goodness on the bed and I'm 'bout ready to hit the floor. It hasn't really been that long since I cleaned, I just live in a closet. (Sadly, I'm not really exaggerating there.) Every time I get down to the sweeping and vacuuming and such I am simply baffled by the accumulation of fur! I could build a herd of cats here! As soon as I clean it up, there it is again. Everywhere. Some sort of kitty-cat voodoo or some such supernaturalness. The why part is beyone me as well.

I made a fabulous discovery while cleaning. Came across a little clear plastic zip-up baggie that was part of a kiddie art set. Said baggie is the *perfect* size for DPNs! Finally, something to get me through until I can get or make a proper roll up case. My DPN storage situation has been horrible and involved random plastic baggies, a cardboard box, and stuffing some in the binder that's already too small for my other needles. Not idea by any means. It's a miracle they've survived.

Ok, time to get my money's worth out of that shop-vac and Swiffer thingy. :) I may not be the most alert today but I'm getting plenty accomplished. Productivity makes me feel so much better. Especially when it results in a significantly less cluttered living space. Key word being "less"... it's still cluttered as all get out but that's just me and my closet sized room. No, actually it's just me in general. At least I'm trying. ;)

In case you're wondering, the absurd amount of blogging today is just some sort of odd little break time reward system thing. It's less likely I'll end up getting sucked into Craftster or something if I just yap here for a minute then get back to it. One can't very well just sit there on a break whilst all jacked up on caffeine. And there can be no knitting until I'm done for the day.

yawn

2006-10-24T11:33:00.000-04:00

My teacher happily agreed to let me make the test up when I get back. *yay* I also got my shopping done. *yay again*
Now I'm tired of being up and about but it's just ridiculous to even consider lying down now.
I keep starting to organize the yarn that is consuming my room bet each time I do, I start dilly-dallying and trying to justify knitting instead. ;P It's totally the yarn's fault though. I take no responsibility!

Never a good frying pan around when you need one!

2006-10-24T07:18:00.000-04:00

I was in the shower at 12:30 so there wasn't one accessible. The shower seems like a bad place to knock oneself upside the head anyway. Well, looks like I needed that knocking-out worse than I though. That's right, I'm still awake and it's pushing 7am. This simply cannot be, yet somehow it is. :(
I'd like to just take a pass on Tuesday and try again tomorrow but I don't have that kind of time to spare. One option would be to go to sleep now, try to get up in 2-3hrs to catch my teacher after class then hit WalMart w/ the boy, have lunch and try to get something useful done after that. But in all reality, if I go to sleep now there'll be no moving me until afternoon and then it'll be too late to go by school. I've decided the only reasonable solution is to stay up for another hour, catch my teacher before class (rather than after), consume large amounts of caffeine, do shopping, eat lunch, start laundry, take nap, change laundry, more caffeine, more laundry, clean the kitty corner (and maybe the fish tanks) and call it a day. If I can get by school, make it to WalMart, get two or three loads of laundry done, and switch out the litter boxes, I'll take that. I can do the hamster cages/room cleaning/trunk purging tomorrow. I'm taking an f-in' sleeping pill tonight, dammit. This is just getting ridiculous. I *hate* all nighters. I am not a nice or reasonable person when I haven't slept recently. It doesn't help that I have an unreasonable amount of crap I want to get done in the next few days.

Later I will have to cover: the insane demands house socks, the faaaaaabulous new yarn, my newfound desire to knit for myself, and my recently discovered long lost twin I didn't know was lost. I'll spare you those details until I am in a position to make more sense. No sleepy makes me loopy. :P

Ahoy, Busy week ahead!

2006-10-23T14:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, I really have to start sleeping during reasonable hours if I expect to meet my goals for this week. I've still been on that 3/4am-1/2pm schedule. Not because I want to... just can't seem to swing anything better. Have to do better than that though. I'll be asleep by 12:30 tonight if I have to knock myself out with a frying pan!
Since my temp 'assignment' in Asheville came through, I have butt-loads of stuff to do to get ready for 2 weeks away. First, I have to get my school stuff straight. I've done this week's work and I'll be doing next week's as soon as I finish this entry and the lunch I'm having simultaneously. Tomorrow I need to go in during Comp ACC and talk to my instructor about the ACC102 test on the 8th. I won't be back until the following weekend so I either need to get it out of the way before I leave Saturday or schedule a make-up after I get back. I'm going to be up there for two weeks and making $400 a week so I can't pass that up. Getting paid to spend two weeks in Asheville? Yes, please!
I also have to do things like clean my room, locate and wash 2 weeks worth of clothes, change my hamster cages (and add the new wheel that just came in), locate my travel bags, hit the WalMart (ugh) for some things I need to re-up on, Mapquest directions to all the yarn shops/thrift shops/health food shops I wanna hit on the weekends, and pack.
And of course I must carefully select the knitting projects and supplies to take with me. I drive a Miata so the clothing/bath products/knitting selection process could take longer than you'd think. I do have to leave room for stash expansion acquisitions as well. ;)

On the knitting front, this weekend was quite productive but not as productive as I expected, in certain ways.
I started, and finished, the first SOD sock for my SP. Only problem is, it's not for my SP anymore. :P I got most of the way down the foot and realized I didn't have enough in that first ball to complete the toe. Logically, if the first sock takes more than one ball and I only have two, I won't have enough to make it through the second sock. :( I weighed my options...
I could:
* keep going and hope, against better judgement, that there'd be enough yarn for the sock then knit the second on in fear of not having enough as well. I went with this option until I could no longer deny how tiny that ball had gotten.

* finish the sock then make a desperate trip to ACMoore (over an hour away) in hopes of finding a third ball. This seemed like a bad idea.

* rip it all out and make the top shorter. This would look silly seeing as how it wasn't a tall sock to begin with. And even though I knit the thing all in one day, I wasn't keen on having to do it all over again.

* rip back to the start of the heel, then knit the heel and toe in a silver/grey I bought for my friend's Christmas hat. Again, this involved ripping out a lot of work I didn't want to lose. I also wasn't sure how successful I'd be considering the stitch pattern.

* do the toe in silver and repeat on second sock. This seemed like the best idea. Mom thought so as well. Actually she loved the idea of silver toes. She also loved the lilac color of the yarn.

So, I went with door number four. Apparently door number four leads to Mom claiming the silver-toed sock as her own and offering to pay for more yarn for another pair for my SP. Ripping it out would have actually saved me time on the SP socks, it seems. LOL
So now I have a second silver-toed sock to finish, more yarn to buy, and a third pair of SODs to knit. :P It's a good thing they go quickly!
Speaking of SODs... I've been wearing my killer socks all weekend. They're fabulous. As I've mentioned, I love this pattern. It makes for wonderful house socks! I want another pair for myself. I think I might scrap the hat idea for my friend and make him a pair as well. He lives in FL but who doesn't get cold toes at some point? This idea also stems from me being a little stuck on the designing of his hat pattern and the fact that I've already used part of his yarn so I'll need to buy more anyway. I think I remember what size shoes he wears. I think. I suppose I should ask though.

Anyway, there will be a silver-toed SOD photo soon. Maybe not until I get back though since I think i'll wait until I have the pair done and I'm not sure I'll have time this week.

I also re-started the Broadripple socks last night. Went up a needles size and can't quite tell if it's enough yet. If not, this pair will have to go on hold until I get the SODs done. Actually, if this doesn't work, the Broadripples may never come to be since they're pissing me off. :P

The mini-clap didn't get as much time as I expected. I thought I'd be through the second ball by now.

The swatch for the boy's Go-Team socks didn't get finished like I expected. I got distracted. I'll probably work on them in NC. Should have plenty of time since you can work on a plain sock anytime, anywhere. Here's what I'm thinking now though... I originally bought a charcoal grey as a base and purple and orange for the heel, toe, and gym sock-esque stripes. I wanted to buy an ash grey but he liked the darker one on the screen. Of course once the yarn arrived he realized he'd prefer the lighter grey. So I ordered the ash. The plan was to use the ash in leau of the charcoal and be done with it. Now I'm thinking maybe I should do the foot in charcoal and the top in ash. The ash would be visible (it goes better with the orange and purple) but the charcoal would be there to keep them from looking dirty. This is a boy who will wander outside in his socks. This is also a boy known for wearing things more than once and since these are handwash socks, I'm sure they'll be no exception. Plus he's moving back to the parents' place for a few months and they don't have the world's cleanest floor, but that won't keep him from running about in said socks. Anyway, I can't decide yet. Any opinions?

So there's a nice long-winded text-y entry. I have to go do work now. ;P

Blogger ate my post

2006-10-20T16:16:00.000-04:00

My long post. Way too pissed and short on time to rewrite it though. PISSED! Rawr! I even copied the damn thing but apparently copied something else afterward and before hitting post because all I have left when I pasted was a freakin URL.
Poo... poo, I say!

Ah well... maybe later.

kicks ass SP9 sock yarn

2006-10-19T19:14:00.000-04:00

How nifty is THIS?? Waltz is jsut wild enough to be something I'd pick myself but the Foxtrot is really really something! It's not something I'd come up with in a million years or usually choose but I LOVE it. Check out the closeup. Beautiful.
Come to find out, this is brought to us by an Etsy seller whose gorgeous merino/silk laceweight I was drooling heavily over a couple days ago. This rainbow colorway is stunning.

On a mostly unrelated notw (well, they *are* from a seller offering a SP discount but that's about the only relation)... Aren't these the cutest?!

Balls

2006-10-19T16:37:00.000-04:00

I love winding yarn into balls by hand. I like the excuse to spend extra time with the yarn. I like being able to take care of any knots beforehand.
I've always been fascinated by center-pull balls of yarn so I still feel clever everytime I wind one. :) Well, now I feel even more clever because I've figured out another way to add to the looseness of the ball. My first ones were terribly tight because I didn't know any better. Then I figured out the winding around the thumb method. This works well but I don't want to wint too far in advance since I'm not sure if it's loose enough or not. A swift would eliminate my tension problems but don't have one of those so I make do. I just rolled my first really loose yarn ball! Finally I was able to wind the yarn over my fingers without compromising my ability to keep the darn thing in my hand. I wasn't even thinking about doing anything different.
That's one of the funny things with knitting... I'll be chuggin' along and suddenly *poof* something will click and I'll be a gazillion times better at it. Good stuff. :)

Looks like I'll be heading up to Asheville not this weekend, but the following one. I'm going to help a family friend out for a week or so. She broke her leg and had to have surgery. (WTF is with all the surgery lately?!!?) She runs a small in-home child care business (in a multi-level home, no less) so she'll be needing a bit of help. I have some time between tests in ACC102 and I finished my other course early so I can swing it.
I'm still totally under the weather but I'm looking forward to this. I think my sinuses will shape up a bit in the different climate. :) I can use a little extra money as well. And, of course, I'm always up for a trip to Western NC!
I haven't gone on a solo road trip in a couple years so it should be nice. I love driving up that way. The coming back is pretty anti-climactic but the getting there is great fun. The scenery gets better, the air more crisp, the road starts to wind and hills appear, followed by mountains. Lovely. The fall foliage should be setting in by now as well. I haven't seen that in many a year. *sigh*

Today is sock swatch day. I'm going to wash 'em tonight then get started on a pair or two tomorrow. I'm trying not to get too many things going at once so I can actually finish stuff at a decent rate but I can't decide which ones to work on next so I'll probably cast on a couple.

Ugh... little sleep + benadryl & sudafed + one bowl of soup being the whole day's food tally = blaaaaaaaaaah
I can't seem to pursuade the clean launrdy to remove itself from the dryer and stack neatly somewhere. Lazy ass laundry! ;P

drool

2006-10-19T03:39:00.000-04:00

Sleep is just not my friend right now. :( For a couple months it's been bad quality. Not that the quality seems to be improving, I'm having more trouble with the quantity portion. *sigh*

So while not sleeping I came across handpaintedyarn.com Exactly how have I missed out on this? Awesomely priced laceweight in neat colors. Too bad I can't do any more shopping for a while. :(
I'm particularly fond of these:
http://handpaintedyarn.com/product_info.php?cPath=65&products_id=1138 <-- reminds me of caramel apples http://handpaintedyarn.com/product_info.php?cPath=65&products_id=1279 http://handpaintedyarn.com/product_info.php?cPath=65&products_id=1127 http://handpaintedyarn.com/product_info.php?cPath=47&products_id=521 <-- apples again http://handpaintedyarn.com/product_info.php?cPath=47&products_id=500

This is beautiful stuff too but not nearly as affordable.

I really want enough handpainted laceweight to make the Pi Are Squared shawl. I'm really intrigued by the shape of that shawl. Can't wait to read the book. Should be arriving next week. :)

Craftster is my my favorite insomnia outlet. Find all kinds of neat stuff!

But once you realize you've gone through the better part of an 83 page thread, it's time to go to bed. I think I can probably get to sleep now. Of course I'll not be seeing clapotis and fabulous handpainted yarn in my sleep, no doubt. ;P

**edited to add**
Oh lordy, I think I'm going to be ill! The trackpad on my iBook is going out! Seriously. It's all jumpy and crazy with a mind of its own. It's not that much of a shock considering she's almost 6 years old. There's a crack in the handrest now and a chip on two corners. Now the trackpad. *wah* :( There's no way I can afford a new laptop anytime soon. I love this laptop! I know it has to go sometime but I just don't want to admit it. It's not allowed to dessert me until I can afford to replace it!!!
*sniffle*

Death by Cashmerino

2006-10-18T14:06:00.000-04:00

Rough, ain't it? ;) The killer socks arrived yesterday. As you can see, they are lovely teal Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. War is hell.

Here's an action shot. This is my first pair of handknit socks of my very own!! So cool. :) Even cooler that they were knit by two people!
I really love this pattern for house socks because it's so squishy. Combined with the Cashmerino or Ultra Alpaca, it's just fabulous. My secret pal will soon be the proud owner of a pair as well. I won't divulge any details yet just to be on the safe side.

I snatched this next shot from my target's blog because it's just too funny not to share. XD (I love her carpet too.)

And here's a shot of the mini-clapotis in progress. I love the way the colors are turning out. Really neat. :) I started the second ball yesterday but didn't get to work on it a lot. I'll be taking it to class with me today and working more on it tonight.
On Friday I'll be ordering 3 skeins of this for my shawl version. While I'm at it I have to have this and this as well. (*best* customer service EVER... really a lovely lady to deal with)
If it weren't for my kittys, I'd have to start decorating with her yarn. I think you can see why:

If you pull the Mermaid skein apart a bit you can see all the neat color variations in there. It's really nifty. Can't wait to work it up!

Okie dokie, there's the photo update. :) Now I must go get ready for class.

Welcome to the Procrastination Station!

2006-10-17T13:56:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm still gonna do that other stuff... in a minute. I did get the lunch part completed. ;)

I've decided to get on the Socktoberfest bandwagon since that's really what I need to be focusing on this month.

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I started sock knitting this past June. I taught myself using a couple books (not devoted to sock knitting) and an online tutorial.

What was your first pair? How have they "held up" over time?
This is my first pair:

Lion Brand Magic Stripes on 2.75mm Clover bamboo DPNs. Top down, slip stitch heel flap.
They came out too big for me but they're good house socks for the boy. He wears them a lot. He even runs around outside in them. :P They seem to be holding up well. I'm amazed how soft they've gotten! The first one is pretty baggy but that was knitter's error, not wear.

What would you have done differently?
Nothing, really. They were a great practice pair. I made the second pair by formula rather than pattern so they actually fit but I wouldn't change the way I did the first ones because I liked having the numbers set out for me so I didn't have to worry about it.

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I'm still figuring that out. So far I've completed 4 pairs. 2 Magic Stripes, one Knit Picks Simple Stripes, and one Berrocco Ultra Alpaca. I loved working with the Ultra Alpaca but it's not a sock yarn. I've started and practiced with some Bernat Sox and some other Bernat acrylic (decent practice, not for wear), Elann Esprit (still working out the best gauge for this), Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (not loving it but I'm about to experiment with some carry-along elastic), KP Gloss (very silky with a great sheen)... I think that's it right now. I have some KP Palette that's about to be swatched. I also have some KP Dancing and Fearless Fibers superwash merino in the stash. I think the Dancing will make nice socks and I can't wait to work with the FF. It's soooo soft and pretty!! Oh, and I have some KP Bare merino as well. I'm going to try Kool Aid dyeing after the holidays.

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I'm a 4 or 5 DPN gal, depending on the sock and which section I'm on. I haven't tried any circ methods yet. I might experiment later but I seriously doubt I'll switch from DPNs as my main method.
Crocheted socks sounds like some sort of torture device to me. :P

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
How many pairs have you made?
As I mentioned above, I've made 4 complete pairs with some in progress and some practice.
I like both flap and short-row heels. I'm fond of short-row toes because of my foot shape but the decrease toe is better when knitting for some others I know. I haven't tried any increase toes yet.
I think each variation has its place and the variety is wonderful! :)

2006-10-17T13:10:00.000-04:00

Yay! I'm completely finished with my Computerized Accounting class!! No more 8am on Tuesdays! That's really good because I seem to be incapable of waking up on time these past couple weeks. Last week I was 45 minutes late and this week it was 15. :P Luckily it doesn't matter much in that class. That's why I stayed in bed last week but today I don't know what came over me. One minute I'm getting out of bed, the next minute I'm waking up again and it's 8:00! WTF? My sleep is all jacked up. At least the weirdo dreams are winding down so hopefully it's just a matter of schedule now. And cleaning up my room. It's so tiny that when it's cluttered you just can't function correctly in there.

It's overcast again today. I actually like it because it makes it cooler but I think it's f-in' with my seasonal-affective thing. I thought I'd be pretty home-free this year since things are going better and I'm not in a general funk but I guess it really is more than that. Sucky. It's not too bad though, just a general *blah* I have to try to control at certain times.

Despite the bad lighting, I was about to try getting soe WIP shots only to find that the camera isn't here today. Poo. Dad said he'll bring it home tonight though.

Might have a temp job up in Asheville for a couple weeks. That would be awesome. Details when/if it pans out.

That's about it for the moment. I'm about to have some lunch, do some ACC102 work and start on the second skein of my Clapotis. That puppy's just flyin' off the needles! Of course, I really should be working on other things (like Christmas socks) but I'll justify it by making it a Christmas present.

It was bound to happen...

2006-10-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

Yep, I finally got around to atarting a Clapotis. They're mandantory, right? ;) This one will be smaller than the pattern because I only have 450yrds of the Simply Soft Shadows I'm using. (It's the green one which is much nicer looking than the photo.) Hopefully I'll have enough to make it a decent length. I did 3 increase reps and I'm on my third straight rep. It's coming out nicely. I can see now why everyone is so crazy about this pattern. It's almost mindless with just enough entertainment and it works up really quickly. This is my practice run (and an excuse to get this nifty cheap yarn). I'm planning to order some of the new tone-on-tone yarn from Fearless Fibers to make a big shawl sized one. I just loooove her yarn! The colors make me hungry. You ahould go buy everything she has to save me from doing it. ;)

Of course I'll have to take some pics of my Clapotis in progress. I planned to do that today but Dad's in last-minute-tax-mode so I got the hell out of there. :P It's overcast anyway. I'll probably need some good sunlight to get a decent representation of the colors in the yarn.

Well, my bro is out of the shower and eyeballing me menacingly for holding up his computer so I better run.

must.buy.yarn.

2006-10-13T22:18:00.000-04:00

Uh oh... I've entered the world of yarn-buying on Ebay. Burn the credit cards! ;)
I was innocently poking around for a good deal on some Cashsoft and happened across this.
10 skeins for $19.99 and free shipping?!? Yes, please! Hey, I was gonna spend that much on a lot less at the LYS tomorrow so it's all the same in the end, right?
Mmm... tingly toed yarn purchases. Hehe. From what I hear it's a great seller too and the shipping really is fast.
I've never actually bought that much of one yarn.

Tomorrow we're going to Charleston to pick up the Summer edition of Interweve Knits they're holding for me. :) Maybe a little Secret Pal shopping as well. I have big plans and I'm excited to get started. :)

Secret Pal

2006-10-11T21:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, here's my questionnaire, finally. I'm super excited about SP9! :)

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I'm really fond of alpaca, merino, and nice soft cotton blends.

I love sock yarn and would love to try new ones. I've only actually used Magic Stripes and some Knit Picks thus far. I really like varigated and self striping yarns but I'm not crazy about the ones with the faux-fair isle/ jaquard patterning in between the stripes.

The only thing I really can't stand is mohair. It irritates me in more ways than one. :P
100% acrylic is usually not my friend either.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a zippered binder case but it's not really appropriate for my needles and I've outgrown it.
I *really* want a roll-up DPN organizer.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I taught myself to knit last November. I consider myself an intermediate knitter and I love learning new things.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/002-3029433-3432820?ie=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=2Q0D5E3II6VB3

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Almond, gardenia, green tea, blueberry, cherry

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I have a mouth full of sweet teeth! My favorite candy is whatever I'm in the mood for at the moment! ;) I love sour jelly beans and chocolate with nuts, caramel, and/or peanut butter. Dark chocolate is a plus too.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I crochet a little. I want to get into sewing. I don't like doing it by hand because I suck at it, so I'm holding out for a sewing machine.
I don't spin yet but I'd love to learn.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like a pretty eclectic mix of music. I'm still really fond of mid 90's alternative-type stuff. I love The Shins. I like old (mostly 80's and before) country. I also like some classic rock and 60's-70's folk-y stuff. I listen to a lot of different stuff.
I can play MP3s.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
My boyfriend says I have "a blue problem." Lol. So, yeah, blues are probably my favorite. I gravitate toward them without thinking much about it. I also like red a lot. I've been into bright color mixes and pinks lately.
I can't wear light beige or "nude" colors because they make me look ill.
Other than that, I am up for anything. I love color. Everything has its place and I love to work with different colors and color combinations.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I moved back in with my dad this time last year. We have a veritable zoo. It's been described as my 'menagerie.' Heh. I have two cats, three hamsters, and three freshwater fish tanks (two 55gals at Dad's, one 20gal at the boy's place). We also have four dogs and half a dozen other cats. I'm close with my mom and younger brother (19), who live just across town.
Relationship-wise, I'm divorced (got married young :P) and have been with my current fella for the better part of a year. Early next year we're looking at moving me into his place, partially, and getting a puppy (he has one super-sweetie already).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
It's pretty darn warm here year-round so there's not a lot of opportunities for scarves, hats, or mittens.
I like light, decorative, lacy scarves. Anything that goes around my neck has to be super soft because I itch easily.
I'm not a big hat person because I'm pretty warm-blooded. I do love to make hats though.
I like fingerless gloves and can't stand mittens. Something about not having free use of my fingers. I'm clumsy enough as it is. ;P
I'm not a big poncho fan but I loooooove wraps/shawls/etc and wish I had one to go with each and everything I own. Sadly, I can't even find the one I have (had?) and since I rarely (read: never) knit for myself, I can't seem to get around to making one for myself. I'd like to though.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I love sock knitting. Hats are nice little projects that I do frequently. I usually knit accessory stuff because I can't afford to get enough yarn at one time for larger projects. I also like small projects because they're portable and practical in such a warm area.
I'm always looking for more favorites.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Currently I'm working on my Christmas projects... mostly socks. Lots of socks.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Of course! :D

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I love knitting in the round. I'm hoping for the KP Options set for Christmas. I wish they had a 16" option too though.
I loooooove DPNs. I can never have enough small gauge, 5"-6" wood or bamboo needles. Or 16" circs, any gauge, preferably metal or hardwood.
I like trying new materials, especially wood. So far I have a few different brands of bamboo, some birch (a little soft for my taste), and just got some rosewood DPNs. I'd love to try any other hardwoods or casein.
The only material I'm not too keen on is plastic. I also don't like really long straights, especially metal.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I don't have a ball winder and actually kinda enjoy winding by hand. I would love to have a swift though.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Almost a year.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I like birthdays better than holidays for the most part

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarn, critters, Care Bears stuff (Grumpy and Bedtime Bear), more yarn, knitting books, other books...

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I really want some more advanced books. Especially lace or sock knitting. I'm also interested in books about writing your own patterns and stitch libraries.
I'm really intrigued by the last book on this page - Creating Original Handknitted Lace.
As far as magazines go, I only have the last two Interweave Knits and the next to the latest Vogue Knitting. I'd like to have others, especially summer editions or ones with articles on lace or socks.
I only have an IWK subscription.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Lace. Well, I've done a bit of simple lace here and there but I haven't worked with laceweight yarn or more complex patterns yet.
I'd also like to make a top. I haven't made an actual garment yet, just socks and accessories.
And maybe felting. I haven't gone anywhere near felting yet.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes!!
I wear a size 8. My foot is about 9.25" long, 8.5-8.75" around at the ball/arch, 9.5" at the ankle, 11.5" at the base of the calf. I like shorter socks. Not anklets, just not 7" long, like so many patterns suggest.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
March 6th

2006-10-11T16:03:00.000-04:00

Ah, it's been a decent day. Treated myself to sushi for lunch before getting my hair trimmed. Mmm... problem is, sushi is like crack (or sock yarn) to me... whenever I get it, I just want more. ;)
Does anyone else think that salons have just gotten way out of hand? There's this little place downtown where my dad and brother go. I had my dad's stylist spruce mine up earlier in the year to knock off the splits and the very last bit of old color. She did a nice job so I planned to go back. Usually I put it off until I'm an inch deep in unhappy ends but I decided to get the jump on time-damage by actually getting a trim before it got out of hand. (Figured I might as well take good care of it now that it's finally started growing again and isn't falling out as much.) I have my own hair routine that doesn't mesh well with most salon routines, since most salons aren't on board with the no sulfates/silicones/dryers/brushes thing. Because of this, and because I just needed a *teeeeeeeeeensy* trim, I don't need the full wash-cut-style deal. But they still wanted to charge me 30 bucks! WTF? My brother had ringlets halfway down his back and paid 20-something because he's a dude but a <15min trim-only would cost me 30 + tip? Uh, no thanks. I called around and got quotes of $27 - $40 from about a half dozen other places. INSANITY! What happened to being able to get a freakin' trim?! It's nuts. Finally remembered a place I'd gone to a few years back and called them. $14. $16 w/ wash and style. At least someone's still reasonable! So I was able to have a nice lunch, get my hair cut, tip at both places and still come out a couple bucks shy of what the other trim would have cost me! She did exactly what I wanted too. .. another rarity.
Anyway, there's my rant.

My bro is doing well. He's been home since Fri and he's at a doc appt now.
My cousin is coming along and will be shipping out to Atlanta for rehab within the week. He'll have a 10 person team working exclusively with him and my aunt and uncle will have a temp apartment there and will be trained to care for him as well. Sounds good. We're hopeful. Got to see him Monday. His body may be a mess right now but his mind is not hampered at all. I'm really thankful for that.

The stress of all of this has started getting to me. I don't know how to handle being the healthiest, most well-adjusted one. I'm used to being the problem. Not I'm trying to hold it together, hold everyone else together as best I can and not get run down. It's exausting and there's not a lot of time to process it all. Mini-breakdown at 3am. The boy is tired today from staying up with me. I feel better though.
I haven't knit in 3 or 4 days. I tried once but just couldn't concentrate, especially through the mini-migraines. I'm feeling better today though and after my test at 5, I'm planning to go tend the dogs I'm dog-sitting, grab a movie, have the boy over, partake in uh... herbal refreshment, and work on some socks. :) Gotta get back in the swing since I have some more cool stuff on the way. More on that later.

Better go glance over the chapters again before class.

I have the Secret Pal questionnaire mostly filled otu so I'll be posting that in the nest day or two.

Soooo tired...

2006-10-05T21:46:00.000-04:00

I'm about worn out. :P My brother was readmitted to the hospital Monday because his wound was developing some infection. Hopefully they'll be releasing him again tomorrow. Poor little fella!
No new word on my cousin yet.

I've been at the hospital as much as possible this week. On the upside, I've gotten a good bit of knitting done. I'd probably be (more) nuts by now if not for my knitting. I'll post some WIP photos soon, hopefully. This is the first time I've been on the computer in a few days.

I finished my mom's fingerless gloves today. I still have to sew in most of the ends but that's all I lack on them. They're cute and I'll definitely be making a few more of those.
I started a brainless sock. KP Simply Stripes in an interesting melon/lime/grape colorway on my favorite 2.5mm CP DPNs.

Ok, I'll have to cut this a bit short because I'm a little dizzy. I've been workin' on a migraine all week so that might be part of it. Anyway, I'm gonna go lay down. :P

Aaaaargh!

2006-09-29T18:00:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-27T00:51:00.000-04:00

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...

2006-09-26T21:42:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-24T15:13:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-23T08:11:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-22T19:46:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

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...

2006-09-15T16:36:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-14T17:23:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-14T15:14:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-13T13:09:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-09-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

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?

2006-09-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

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.

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

2006-09-11T16:11:00.000-04:00

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...

2006-09-09T18:42:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-09T18:20:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-07T18:42:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-06T01:33:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-01T15:25:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-01T08:58:00.000-04:00

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.

No holes barred

2006-08-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

This sock just keeps getting better and better! I turned the heel this afternoon. I think I managed to match it up to the first one... can't seem to find part of my notes. :P I had a much easier time picking up stitches from the flap this go 'round. Used my new 2.5mm Crystal Palace needles. The point on them is fabulous and made it so much easier! The smaller size didn't hurt either. With a little experimental fiddling in the gusset area I was able to complete my first heel with NO HOLES! No gaps, no holes. I'm thrilled. I've had a bit of trouble with that on all the previous socks.
I've also discovered why the feet of my socks are tighter than expected and I tend to get hand and arm pain more frequently once I get well into a sock. I've been starting out on 5 DPNs but going down to 4 once all the heel stitches are picked up. Apparently that has been altering my gauge and stressing my hands. I think that going back up to 5 will solve the problem.

Another great thing that happened today was my trip to the bookstore. I took my brother over to Hilton Head to pick up a book he ordered. I hadn't expected to be able to get anything myself. Just before we left it occurred to me that I had a book to return. I got this book on thyroid imbalances a few weeks back and while it's loaded with useful information, I simple cannot read it. The writing style just makes me go crosseyed. Can't hold my interest at all. It's not overly technical or even dry. I'm not sure why but I just can't get through it so I took it with me.

Once we got there I realized it was a more expensive book than I thought so I had a little more money to play with. Since I no longer have the receipt, I had to exchange it for something else. Of course I was hoping for a good knitting book of some sort. The selection there isn't the best though. It's a small Barnes & Noble and not very well stocked in most areas. Plus it's always so much easier to find beginner how-to books and fast, easy patterns but it can be difficult to find good intermediate or advanced books around here at all.
I've been wanting to get a stitch dictionary pretty badly. I'm hoping for a couple of the Barbara Walker treasuries for Christmas. So I considered the vogue Stitchonary but it's more than I wanted to spend and I the first green yarn they use burns my retinas. :P Can't bear it.
Considered Sensational Knitted Socks but again, it was more than my other book and while I really liked the content, it should at least be spiral-bound for $25! Geez.

Found the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns. I dug back past the first two bent up copies and happened across a lone copy with a 30% off sticker! That's 40% with my card. Seeing as the book is only $15 to begin with, I had enough left over for a magazine. :)

That plus the fact that our trip took only about half the time I expected and included Backyard Burger made me a pretty happy camper.

Ah, freedom...

2006-08-29T00:26:00.000-04:00

I ought to be snoozin' now since I have my early class tomorrow but that's been even more difficult than normal lately so here I am. :P

I'm thrilled to say I ripped *partway* back without fear for the first time tonight! Thanks Knit Fix I got the nerve (and the know-how) up to grab the stitches up correctly the very first time and yank out the tainted work. Now that I've taught myself to tink properly, figured out how to rip back, and I'm armed with clear instructions for dealing with dropped stitches, I can knit without fear of having to start over if I mess up at all. With the help of the occasional lifeline, of course.

I'm very pleased with the way the second yoga bag turned out. Wish I could take pictures! I suppose I could hunt down some film for the regular camera tomorrow while I'm out but then I still have to wait to finish the roll and develop them. :P Digital caters to my complete lack of patience.
Anyway, back to the bag... I did it in Peaches & Cream Fiesta Ombre. I'm in love with this colorway now. I was looking originally looking for pink (to break away form my knee-jerk everything-blue thing) but they were all out. The Fiesta looked quite interesting so I decided to go with it. It knit up into a great sorta tie-dyed look. I added a triple crochet border to the top of the bag and laced that with a bright pink beaded silk scarf to function as a drawstring. The whole thing is very 'hippie' and it works. It *is* a yoga bag after all. The colors length of the yarn color sections turned out to be the absolute perfect fit for the triple crochet, changing at just the fight time. I should think of something interesting to do with the remainder of the last ball. Actually, I think I'll pick up a couple more balls and crochet something neat.

I realized the bag is quite vibrant with the rainbow colors and hot pink scarf and all so I'm giving my swap partner a choice of the hippie bag or the blue one before I send out. I'd hate for her not to use it because it was too loud or something. Mom loves them both so she'll use the crap out of whichever one doesn't get sent off.

Well, this halfway done (for the second time) heel flap and I are going to lay down now.

Overhaulin'

2006-08-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

Well, in an effort to correct the format of my poor blog a bit, I've changed most of the photos into links. I think this also kept all the links from being broken when I reorganized my photobucket earlier. I could be wrong. Let me know if all the links are broken or anything. :P

Hopefully I'll get around to some other formatting stuff I've been wanting to do soon. Until then, at least my sidebar has returned to it's indended position. It's a start.

I'm a terrible person... didn't get the handle attached to the yoga bag in time to mail it yesterday. :( It'll have to go out tomorrow.

Today is the boy's mom's birthday. They're grilling so my dad and I will be heading over there in a bit. I suppose a shower would be a good idea. :P

It's that time again...

2006-08-23T12:59:00.000-04:00

Started classes yesterday. I'm taking another light load this semester with just two classes again. Computerized Accounting started yesterday morning. I'm feelin' good about that one because the work appears pretty basic and if I turn it all in early I get to stay home. *yay* ACC102 starts tonight. The great news on that class is 1) it's the same book we used for 101 and 2) I was informed that the second workbook the bookstore sold me is unnecessary so I got to take it back. I'm elated. This means I'll actually be getting a couple hundred bucks from my grants in a month or two. Last semester they only covered about half of my books. I'm hoping to be able to pick up a camera with the extra this time.

I had considered picking up another class or two but now I'm glad I didn't. Apparently my thyroid has chosen now to start acting up again. Or, more accurately, underacting. :P Hello fatigue, weight gain and hair loss. :( I'm hopeful that I'll finally be able to get treatment now though. I should be seeing the doc next week and I had the lab work done today. I've been having on and off trouble like this for 10 years now so it'd be fabulous to finally get it taken care of.

So that's the un-fun stuff...

Asheville was awesome. I'm ready to move now. I was spoiled by my no-humidity time. The weather's great, the scenery is gorgeous, the people are nice and yarn is everywhere!! I hit up three yarn shops I'd found online before the trip and happened across yarn in two other completely unexpected stores. *swoon* Around here I have to drive an hour to even hit a Michael's!

I managed to restrain myself in the spending department. The first places I just bought needles and waited until the last place to buy yarn. I'm so glad I did though. At Yarn Paradise I got two skiens of Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca-Silk and seven balls of Classic Elite's Patina (cotton/silk blend) which was 40% off. Oh yes.
Downtown I picked up a set of #1 (2.25mm) 5" Brittany Birch DPNs. I've been dying to try those since I started even thinking about knitting socks. I also got a set of #1.5 (2.5mm) 6" Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs. I haven't gotten to test drive the Brittanys yet but I've fallen madly in love with the CPs after using them to whip up a little freehanded extra thingy for my Craft What You Can swap buddy. I should be sending out tomorrow. I just have to attach the strap and sash to the bag and pack it up. I hope she likes it. The hoodie I'm getting from the swap is due anyday now. I'm super excited.

Oh! I forgot... I also got a skien of Lamb's Pride Bulky in a nice pink to go with the leftovers from my blue hat. I think I might try felting a hat. I haven't attempted felting yet.
I'm thinking Green Gable for the Patina. Either that or I have a design sketched out for a tank that I might design. I'm decent at designing simple patterns (hats, socks, scarves, toys, etc) but I haven't *made* a top yet, much less designed one so I might just go with the Green Gable pattern for now and pick up more yarn for the tank idea later.
The Blue Sky Alpaca will be waiting patiently for me to get around to knitting for myself for once. That means it'll likely be hanging out until after Christmas.

Christmas knitting will begin as soon as I get the swap bag shipped out. I'm going to attempt a Claptois for mom. Might make Dad some socks if I can get the yarn. I was going to make the bro soem socks but I think I'll have to aim for his birthday for those. I should still pick up the yarn ASAP so I can get going on them. Freak'o wears a 15 and will only wear really tall socks so I've got my work cut out for me there. :P

Anyhoo... there's an update. Now I'm off to finish up the bag while trying to resist the xbox. Oddworld awaits.

2006-08-02T14:34:00.000-04:00

I devoted yesterday to the persuit of a less devistatingly expensive phone bill. A fun filled day of the wonders of Sprint. :P It was reasonably successful even though it didn't go anywhere close to my original plan. In the end I shaved $30-40 off my bill and got a new phone number. It was really the only option to get my account down to one phone (since I wasn't allowed to add a third like I wanted) and not have to buy out of the contract on the second phone. :P I've been contimplating changing my phone for a bit now though. It seemed like it might be time to do so. I've had that number for 5 years or so now. Through the exhusband, the crazy guy, the other crazy guy and all of FL. It's time for a fresh start. Kinda weird though.
Anyway, another bit of getting my bill down was to cancel my Vision service. This is what allowed me to use the piddly web browser on my phone and upload pictures *sob* I finally decided that my phone's little camera simply isn't good enough to pay that much to upload the photos. :( On the upside, I should be able to get a real digital camera in a few months. Yay! I haven't had one since I fried my beloved Nikon by losing it in my car in the FL heat for a couple months. Don't ask how you can lose soemthing in a Miata, I assure you it's entirely possible. I can lose anything, anytime, anywhere. It's a gift. :P
So until I can afford a sparkly new camera, I'm stuck with no way to take pictures and get said pictures onto the computer. I'm deeply saddened by this.
I'm 98% done with my third sock and can't take pictures! Not even crappy ones! *weep*

Yeah, I have a problem. I'm completely addicted to documenting everything with photographic evidence. I loooove pictures.

Anyway, the sock is almost done and that excites me because I get to try my hand at grafting again.

The yoga bag for the Craft-What-You-Can swap is coming along but I have to admit I've neglected it this past week to spend more time with my socks. There's still time though. Once I finish this sock and cast on the second I'll devote the week to the bag.

Started the third incarnation of Mom's hat this week as well. I started a flat knit ribbed beanie for her a good 6-8 months ago. Made a couple mistakes I couldn't live with and frogged it. Started again not long after that and finally decided I was completely over that patter and loathed the needles I was using. Frogged again, rolled the yarn into a pretty egplant colored ball and tucked it away. I've thought about starting a new hat pattern, carried it around to do to, lost it twice... you get the idea. Saturday I cleaned up at a nice JoAnne sale (40% off coupons and 50% off items. *wheeee*) and picked up some yarn to make a swap hat for a friend of my dad. Found Mom's yarn again and decided to knit one up for her first.
This it the pattern : http://stitchcafe.com/freepatterns.html
Same as the alpaca hat of a few months ago.

I also picked up some cheap acrylic/nylon baby yarn to try out a toe-up short row heel sock pattern. I've signed up for Sock Wars and want to make sure I have a little more practice in before the start next month.

In other news...
Not this coming weekend but the next I'm going on a trip. Woohoo! Should be lots of fun. Mom, the boy, my brother and I are headin' up to Asheville for a couple days, with a couple stops on the way. I haven't been up that way in at least a decade. and haven't seen my uncle in at least that long. I also haven't been on a recreational trip since that fateful trip to Orlando three years ago.

So in short:
- no more photos for a few months
- third sock almost done
- going on vacation soon

:)

It's a PAIR, baybee!!

2006-07-31T20:28:00.000-04:00

Hehe, well the first sock was done on July 1st so isn't it fitting that the last of the pair is done on the last of the month? I can't believe I actually finished the pair! In less than a month too!! Yippee!!

It's a SOCK!!!!

2006-07-01T19:31:00.000-04:00

Finished the first one!

sock pic

2006-07-01T16:19:00.000-04:00

Superman was not bad. I've never been a big Superman fan in general. Wasn't crazy about the comic books as a kid and never watched any of the other movies all the way through so I'm no authority, obviously. The new Superman fella did a good job and looks disturbingly like Reeves, except a little more "hunky." And lordy those briefs are gettin' tiny! Next Superman's bound to be flying around in a thong if this trend continues. Lol.
I didn't realize that part of the IMAX version was goign to be in 3D. I could have been more impressed but it was fairly entertaining anyway, if a bit fuzzy. I'm sure my astigmasism didn't help that much but every one agreed it was less that clear at points. I wish more had been in 3D though. By the time I got used to it each time, it was over. :P
A screen the length of a basketball court and 3D glasses didnt' prevent me from knitting though. I got almost to the decreases on my Hello Kitty hat.

hat

Yesterday I turned my first heel. :) Today I finished my gusset shaping and most of the foot. It fits the boy better than I expected. The heel is still a bit baggy but these are just for 'round the house anyway so it'll be ok. The heel is just about perfect. It's just about toe time. :) How exciting!

Terribly sorry for the picture quality (or lack thereof)...

shot 1

shot 2

This isn't knitting related but OMG world's most comfy shoes! :

croc-flops

again

My adorable new Crocs flip flops. I'm in love and may never take them off!

I'm anxious to get abck to my sock but I guess I should get a bit more homework done first. Perhaps some laundry as well. *sigh* 'Life' cuts into my knitting considerably. ;P

2006-06-29T12:11:00.000-04:00

Skipped out on payroll this morning because I was feeling crappy. Sinus problems, cramps and such. That and Narfie woke me up at 6am threatening to hock a hairball in bed next to my leg!

I can't believe I've been allowed to maintain a knitting blog for a month without the requisite cat pictures!

Snarf is the white and orange tabby and Lil' Kitty is the grey tabby:

kitties

Narfie is 7 and Kitty is going on 3.

Narf 'n scarf
Snarf
Lil Kitty

Anyway, like I said, didn't make it to class. Had a little breakfast and decided that knitting would make me feel better. Popped in one of the books on tape I checked out the other day and worked on the sock. Behold, the beginning of my first heel flap!

heel flap

I should go find some pants and maybe take a comb to my mop since the boy is bringing my puny ass some lunch. :) And chocolate! He's a good 'un.
Did I mention that he actually drove across town to meet me at my mom's before he went to work yesterday just to I could measure his foot? Hehe. He humors me... someone has to. ;)

I had plenty of things to do today but I think I'll just lie around with the cats, the sock, and some cold medicine.
As demonstrated in this photo, my cats know how to relax. ;)

naughty kitty
cat nap

It's been a trying week

2006-06-28T19:22:00.000-04:00

There's a new dent, nay crater, in my car. I had nothing to do with it. I've been exhausted for a good week and a half. Then there are family and financial issues. *sigh* Add one part PMS and shake vigorously. :-P

On a brighter note, I've started crocheting something larger than a potholder! Behold, my first afghan!

chevron afghan

Also, I'm learning to knit SOCKS! :)

Well, sock, so far. Actually it doesn't really resemble a sock much yet. But whatever...

shot 1

shot 2

shot 3

action shot

I love how impressive DPNs look. ;)
This is just the practice sock. I'm eagerly awaiting another package from Canada. A lovely lovely fellow craftster-er has graciously sent me a whole bunch of sock yarn!! Woohoo!!! Bernat Sox and some KnitPicks. I'm beyond excited!

I came agross a big sack of worsted cotton last weekend for $5 so I'm swatching for this:
Pretty In Pink Tank

I'm also working on a Hello Kitty hat. That will be accompanying me to the IMAX theater Friday night. We're going to see Superman.

School is still going really well. 6 tests between the two classes and nothing less than a 92. Actually, one 92, two 93's, one 96, and one 100. Woohoo. (Yes, I realize that's only 5. Haven't gotten the 6th back yet.) I'm all signed up for three classes this fall. Just have to make another visit to FinAid and I should be good to go. I hope it'll cover more of my book costs this time. :-P

Well, now I'm going to see what I can scrounge up for dinner. Hopefully I can get ready for bed at a decent hour so I can work on my sock. :)

I'll leave you with a this picture of the boy and me participating in another of my favorite hobbies. ;)

mmm... beer

2006-05-28T16:01:00.000-04:00

The blue yoga bag only lacks making up now. Hopefully I'll actually do that soon. And hopefully it'll be big enough for my mat. Might not need the drawstring. Gauge swatch, girl, GAUGE SWATCH! Yeah yeah, I know I know. :P Well, at least it's stretchy. I think Mom's mat may be smaller than mine and I'm growing more fond of the green than the blue now anyway. Plues she's more antsy to get hers. If it's too small I think I'll just make a panel to expand it. Hopefully I have enough leftover yarn for that. But a different dye lot wouldn't be too noticable behind the strap anyway. Or so I tell myself.
I guess this one should be Mom's since she's actually attending her yoga classes. *hang head in shame* I was doing so well for a few months but then staying in bed with the boy was way more appealing than going to 8am yoga so I started missing it. Then I started missing all my gym visits. *sigh* This and some backsliding on the food has added back up to a few pounds again. Nothing major but it must stop now. We've both gained a bit in the past three months (as of next Saturday... hehe) so it's time for me to get back on it so I can get him off his butt too. I was on a roll having lost about 25lbs between November and March. It'll be hard now with classes though. I start Tuesday, 8am to 10:30am Mon thru Thurs. That also happens to be my exact gym time Mon, Wed ad Fri. :P I don't like the Tues/Thurs yoga lady so I guess I'll have to make every effort to make it to the Friday class. That'll be hard because I'm used to staying at the boy's whenever possible. (Whenever he and his grumpy roommate don't both work in the morning. I don't want to chance a bathroom traffic jam or even interacting with the roommate at 8am at all. :P I try to avoid any interaction as much as possible as it is. Unpleasant, undersexed, unhappy, narcissistic f*cker. No, let me tell you how I really feel. Heh.) I have trouble getting out of the bed as it is and a warm cuddly boy who doesn't have to get up until 8/8:30 or 1:30p (lucky bastard) is not condusive to making it to an 8am class.
Anyway, tangent there. Hehe. I'm notorious for those.

Today Daddy is making ribs, taters, collards, etc and the boy will be over in a bit for that so I need to go clean up a bit. My Red Bull is kickin' in so I should take advantage of that.

Hopefully I'll have a shot of a completed yoga bag soon. I really really need to get crackin' on my Branching Out again too. It's just one of those things I have to pay close attention to in order to avoid having to actually employ my lifelines so often. I love the pattern and it's not overly complicated, it's jsut really easy to end up short a stitch and tinking lace is a pain in the booty and rarely a successful one.

2006-05-27T04:39:00.000-04:00

Fuzzy Wuzzy wuz a hat

Well, between the movie (quite good) and a little finishing at home, the hat is done! Yay.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fluffy_hat_no_head_w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fluffy_hat_w.jpg

My brother is convinced I've lost my mind for knitting during the movie.

Just say no to mohair ... AKA Disconnecting the cable

After I finished the hat I was pondering my leftover Lamb's Pride worsted from my SnB Basic Cable. This was my second hat and while I thoroughally enjoyed knitting it, it came out waaaaaay too short and just awkward even if I had altered the pattern to make it fit an adult head. Finally I've gotten over the initial "but I made it" thing and decided, in the words of the Yarn Harlot, "I like yarn more than I like bad hats." So I frogged it.
This was the first real wool I bought, along with the skien of smurfy-good Lamb's Pride bulky. At teh time I had no real idea about fibers (I still know very little firsthand). I ended up liking the bulky but I really dislike the worsted. It was a little funky to knit with and turns out that 15% mohair makes it a pain in the rear to frog. :P
From what little I know of it, I've decided that mohair and I will likely never be close buddies. I'm okay with that. At least now I know.
Here's the offending hat:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/cabled_hat.jpg

Frogging at 3am can lead to oddness...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/disconnecting_cable_w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/ball_on_head_w.jpg

Finally, it's done!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/disconnected_cable_finalbal.jpg

And now I suppose I will attempt that sleep thing I hear such good things about. :P The boy's roommate has company this weekend so he's staying at the parents' place. That means no snuggles for me which seems to be the only thing that lessens my horrible insomnia. So I play with yarn balls. Perhaps I should avoid mentioning that to people? ;)

I require Opal Rainforest self striping sock yarn

2006-05-26T17:47:00.000-04:00

In Tiger and Owl. Maybe Flamingo as well. Not want... require! Hehe... but seriously, now that I've seen it, I need this yarn. I've been itching to try my hand at socks and while I am too impatient and plan to head to my LYS for yarn and DPNs ASAP (hehe acronym overload), I must have tiger striped socks! And I want to try the Brittany Birch 5" DPNs. I doubt they'll have those over on Hilton Head. I'll fins something though I'm sure. They had a lovely needle section and it was so well organized!

I finished the fluffy ribbing on my hat again. Now I'm ready for the movie. :) I really could have cared less about a third X-Men movie coming out but after watching the first two with John this week and his being so excited about it, I'm looking forward to it now. Plus it's my little brother's birthday. We're have reservations at 6:30 to have shrimp burgers on the water. Then ice cream cake at Mom's and the late movie. I'm also excited because I've discovered the joy that is plain stockinette in the round while watching movies. I like to do a little more watching TV because I'm more knitting than watching anyway but I have discovered the ability to knit stockinette my feel and in the dark so now I'm ready to practice in public. Hehe. I'll be crankin' out socks at the movies in no time.

I seem to have misplaced the bulky wool for one of Mom's hats. It's a nice plum/eggplant kinda color. I started a rendition of my first hat twice but once I lost it in my room for a while and finally admitted that I loathed the needles it was on and had no replacements I frogged it again. Now I want to knit it in that simple cable design I used with the alpaca but I can't find it!

Well, I better go get dressed. Mmmm... shrimp burgers!

Here's my lovely knitting bag that goes everywhere with me now...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/knitting_bag-w.jpg

CATASTROPHE!!!!

2006-05-26T10:34:00.000-04:00

*sob* Aluminum DPNs must die! I was boppin' along finishing up my fuzzy hat last night and ended up pushing one of the DPNs out and dropping a ton of stitches. I did everything I could to save everyone but it simply wasn't happening. My recovery skillz leave much to be desired.
The hat is no more. It has ceased to be.
I'll probably go restart it in a few. I was too frustrated to do so last night.
Actually, it's not really the end of the world. I was planning to start a second one to use up the rest of the trim yarn and some Lamb's Pride worsted I has left over from another project. I like to keep a simple hat on the needles for mindless knitting moments. I just didn't want to have to knit that exact hat again. :P But I do need something to take with me to the movies tonight. I'd been working on it while rewatching the first two X-Men movies with the boy this week so I guess it's fitting to resurect it during the third movie, right?
I suppose I'll go redo the fluffy ribbing so I won't have to fool with that in the dark.
Poo.

For good measure, here's a picture of the first hat I ever made. Smurftastic version of SnB Hot Head pattern in Lamb's Pride Bulky.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/first_hat.jpg

First Post

2006-05-25T18:24:00.000-04:00

Well, while this isn't my first foray into the online journal world in general, it is my first go with Blogger in particular. I've been a Livejournal devotee (read: addict) for a few years now but seeing the number of lovely knitting and general crafting blogs and communities here I've decided I wanna play too. :)
This is also my first knitting blog. I've been posting some photos and such in my personal online journal but I wanted to have a place to share with other knitters without having to expose them to too much of my day to day lunacy. ;)

I guess I should start with a little about myself. Hmm...
I just turned 24 in March. I'm a South Carolina native and recently returned to my roots after a few years in Florida. I've been in freelance graphic design/ digital media for about 6 years now. I've gotten a little burned out on the whole thing as of late so I'm starting accounting classes next Tuesday. Just a little change of pace while I plan my next move.

Moving back to the small town I grew up in was certainly a change of pace from my time in Orlando. Spent the first month or so going completely stir crazy and plotting a quick escape. Then one day I got a whild hair up my ass while wandering around a Michael's and decided to try knitting. Picked up a kit, hit up Barnes & Noble and by midnight Debbie Stoller had me knittin' away. I've been at it ever since.
When The Happy Hooker came out I decided to try my hand at crochet. Mom had taught me to chain many many moons ago but I never got any further than that and she eventually gave it up as well. Despite my best efforts, crochet did not come nearly as easily as knitting had. My strong desire for a Yehaw Lady hat kept me trying for a while but the overwhenming urse to stab myself in the eye with the hook to end the misery eventually drove me to give up for a while. Not a one to be defeated my a little metal hook, I eventually picked up another book to help me and completed my first project.
My next craft to conquer is sewing. I'm not a big fan of hand sewing. I don't even like finishing up my knitting projects. :P But I have a deal with my mom that if I overhaul the dining room at my dad's place she'll buy me a sewing machine. I haven't gotten around to the task yet but it's high on the to-do list.

Now let's get to the fun part... the pictures!
You'll have to excuse the extrordinarily crappy quality of my photos currently. I had a nifty little Nikon digital until a mishap in Florida where I uknowingly left my poor camera in my glove box for a couple months... in the summer. There were no survivors. So now I'm resigned to trying to capture the moment with my crappy phone camera. I do what I can and hopefully there's a new digital camera in my near future. Until then we'll all just have to exercise our imaginations a bit.

I made an attempt to get some pictures of my WIPs today. Here's what I'm working on now:

Here's a close up of the yoga bag I'm making for myself. I finished the body of the bag last week but it still lacks a strap and the making up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/yogabag1_closeup2.jpg

I'm also working on one for my mom. Both bags are good ol' Peaches 'n Cream cotton.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/yogabag2.jpg

I would have finished this hat last night but I was at my boyfriend's house and realized I had neglected to put my DPNs in my bag. :(
The pattern is my own creation, albeit a simple one. It's Wool Ease worsted and the trim is the same double stranded with Modea Chichi. I came across these at Michael's one day and couldn't resist picking them both up because they match so perfectly. You can't tell so much from the pictures but the flecks of color in the Wool Ease are almost identical to the shades in the fluff.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fuzzytrimhat.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/fuzzytrimhat_closeup.jpg

My favorite project right now is the Branching Out scarf I'm making in the fabulous bamboo yarn I fell in love with on my last LYS expedition. It's so silky, soft and shimmery! The pictures do it absolutely no justice at all.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/branchingout_bamboo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/branchingout_bamboo2.jpg

I plan to make a second Branching Out from the lovely alpaca I recently got in a swap.

Cameo appearance by the lovely swappers hand. :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/alpaca_swap-w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/alpaca.jpg

My end of said swap was a shawl's worth of Lion Brand Microfiber. Here's a couple shots of the second shawl I attempted with the Microfiber before admitting to myself that I was never going to finish it. The first rendition was a feather and fan pattern I grew quite bored with. This is the Convertable parrern from Knitty, minus buttonholes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/microspun_shawl3-w.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/microspun_shawl-w.jpg

While I never really wear hats, I love knitting them. Luckily my mom's a hat person so she benefits greatly from this. I did recently make oce for myself though. I picked up a single skien of fabulously soft Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca Grande a few months ago and couldn't decide what to do with it until I came across this simple cabled pattern.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/alpaca_cabled_hat-w.jpg

On to the crochet.

My first completed project was potholders for the boy since I was tired of trying to get things out of his oven with a dishtowel without burning the crap out of myself. Well, actually I'm notoriously clumsy so I usually delegated this task to him instead.
I wanted to make them in the colors of his favorite college football team. Seeing as how they happen to be my favorite football team's bitter rivals, this is certainly a labor of love. :P Since Clemson has such horrendous colors, I ended up having to dye the yarn myself. You simply cannot appreciate the bright offensive orange from these photos but I assure you it is hideous, and pretty much dead on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/dyed_yarn_bathroom-w.jpg

Backs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/both_potholders_backs-w.jpg

Fronts. This is a terrible shot but it's the only clear-ish one I have of the fronts. I charted the C myself so I'm a little proud of myself there since it was my very first project and all.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/both_potholders_table.jpg

Once I got into this project it went super quickly and was pretty fun. This was the week before Mother's Day and it had become quite clear that Mom's yoga bag just wasn't gonna happen on time so I decided to whip out a couple potholders for her as well. I charted her initials for them too. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/moms_potholders_front_inprogress.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/moms_potholders_front-w.jpg

This is my favorite.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/thekittenavenger3/J_potholder-w.jpg

Well, I suppose that's plenty for now. I think I'll drag myself off the computer and go finish up that hat. :)