2011 and still no flying cars.

What is UP with that?? I am very disappointed in science.

What have I been doing lately? LIVING. Not blogging about it, but LIVING.

Bradley and I in October...



Captain Jack & I at the same shoot...



Now, for knitting...

I FINALLY finished Branching Out for my mother. FINALLY. Blocked it using my wire set, and love the wire set.

I finished those red Austrian Socks, which felted in our new washer & dryer to the point that I can't wear them. Thankfully, my friend Jen has smaller feet than I, and she knits, so she is among The Knitworthy and will be receiving them as soon as I get them blocked [soon, Jen, I PROMISE!!].

Here they are, pre-felting:



For Christmas this year, we visited B's aunts & uncle who live in the Midwest. They live in a very small, quiet town, and I was able to knit to my heart's content! I finished the Waving Lace socks in KnitPicks Turtle Multi, and cast on the Padded Footlets for my brother.



I have a couple of other socks ready to go, but they are gifties, so I will post pictures after they are all blocked and in the mail to the recipients. No worries on the surprise factor; they know what they are getting, but I want to post nice pictures!

K's socks are almost done! I'm down to the start of the toe on the second one. I should have pictures soon. K has always had excellent taste; his care packages in college were the BEST. Godiva truffles + useful things = heaven to a broke college student. I still have (and wear on one of the three cold days a year we have here in Florida) a periwinkle blue sweater he gave me one year. The colors he picked out for these socks continues his trend of good taste: the main color is Snowshoe and the contrast color is Jacquard, in KnitPick's City Tweed (heavy worsted).

I have some sooper-sekrit baby projects to work on as soon as I'm finished with his socks. A coworker in my department is due in August, and I have some really fun ideas for gifts. She sent me a link to the nursery set she & her husband picked out, and it's simple and gorgeous. I've been mentally listing yarn possibilities that will be excellent matches for the colors.

Since busy season is over, the house has become cleaner and cleaner. The grout in the kitchen floor is almost back to its intended color, and I scrubbed away some serious frustration in our bathroom tonight. For now, the husb needs to get onto his computer, so I am signing off for now.

welcome to the new decade!

I finished Dad's last sock today. I turned the heel last night as 2009 turned into 2010. Nasty weather today made it easy to sit on the couch and finish the foot.

My friend J.S. and I are in the process of ironing out a commission. She'd like a pillow cover; she found one she liked at Pottery Barn but didn't particularly like their price. We've been able to improve on their design, and currently she's deciding on a yarn.

While I wait for her to decide, I dug out the yarn to work on the second sock of my Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks. Took me a little while to remember where the first sock was after I found the yarn, but I found it. Can't find the remaining yarn of the first skein, but I'm sure it will show up eventually.

So, off to wind the skein into a ball and cast on... fresh start for a new year!

BRAAAAAIIIINNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS

.... I do not has them. A puppy has eaten them!!!



He's gone from a tiny little lapful to a total lapful. His name is Captain Jack and he is a total boob pirate.


Oh wait, did I say that out loud??


Definitely not a dog person. Definitely not a kid person. My temper is too hot, and it's just ... I'm not ready for the 24/7/365 commitment.

And I hate the time suck away from my knitting!

I knit three washcloths for my mother for Christmas and packaged them up with some wonderful Burt's Bees soaps and hand salve. I made a neato flowered shirt for my oldest niece, based on a Martha Stewart wedding pattern...
She's a minor, so I've hidden her pretty young face from all the internet creeps! I made hair ties for the two younger nieces in pretty purples ----

WHOA something else I'm not used to is the MALODOROUS STENCH that emits from this dog's rump!!! I think I am going to VOMIT. ARGH!!!! He's worse than Bradley!

Anyways. So, all the knitting for Christmas gifts is done; now I can get back to knitting on my daddio's socks. I've finished the second sock's star chart, so now I get to zip through the rest of the sock. YAY!

sock obsession

I love socks. LOVE. I love the speed, the portability, the tempest in a teacup-ness of socks. I can learn new knitting techniques on a small scale; try outrageous patterns or colors -- or BOTH! -- in one little item. One of my favorite designers is Hunter Hammersen, and you can find her sock designs at http://www.violentlydomestic.com/. I am drooling over several of her patterns while I work on the socks for my father... I really like the Bines pattern, although I'd probably make them a little taller than her pictures. I have some lovely green variegated sock yarn that would be perfect for those. The Popped socks totally catch my eye - the sinuous curves of the pattern make me want to use a green yarn, something close to a Slytherin color. The Propitiate socks actually remind me of the beach, and I have a lovely blue cotton yarn that would be good for those. My next dilemma is finding a pair of brown work shoes that I can wear socks with; my dress shoes are too snug to wear socks with - only hose.

As far as the socks for my father - I've turned the heel and am working on the foot. I think I've gotten the foot long enough to start the toe decreases, but I am hoping to get Bradley to try it on so I can be sure. His foot is wider than my father's but about the same length. Hopefully I can take some pictures while he has it on (as long as he doesn't run as soon as I pull out my camera).

A coworker has commissioned two baby headbands; they are going to be adorable. I have to learn how to crochet for the flowers that will be attached to them, but no worries; crochet can't steal me away from my true love of knitting.

Pattern Problems

So, I have to confess to spewing a lot of bad words over the weekend while working on the Eesti Hiking socks for my dad. The pattern isn't right in the book, so I found the corrections on Interweave's errata pages -- but THOSE were wrong, too!!! I was quite unhappy that I had to keep searching online and on Ravelry for what other people did to correct the problems.

Turns out, what you have to do is increase and decrease 10, not 8, stitches on rows 4 and 19. THEN you repeat the entire star pattern, just like it is marked in my version of the book - but NOT like it's indicated on the "corrected" chart on the website, which has you repeating only 2/3 of the pattern, not the full star band.

Once I figured out the problems, I was able to sail right along. My knitting style is Continental, and I grew up knitting English, so I was able to do the colorwork relatively easily. Slowly - but easily. I tried to use Continental for both colors, but I couldn't get it to work very well. I need to do some more reading/you-tubing to find out what I was doing incorrectly. I finished the colorwork last night, so now it's onward with the rest of the sock.

I'm still in love with the yarn, thankfully, even though the chart has a lot of loathing now. At least I have it figured out now, so the next sock and the other 2 pairs I'll be doing of this pattern will be MUCH easier.

quick update from real job

WHOA SLACKER. That's all I have to say!

The 9/15 deadline passed us this week, and now we're focusing on the 10/15 deadline. Yay. Except not really. Whatever. Can't get into work stuff on a public blog... am too paranoid about all the people who get fired for decisions/posts about their jobs.

Uh, house stuff: the door frame to the garage is finally finished. Just needs to be painted and then that little project will be done. Then we can move on to painting the office area. I think we might be working on the corrugated steel wall in the living room first; once we get that up and see how it works with the floor, we'll have a better idea of what colors will be most appealing. We've also been looking for a kitchen table. I've hit my limit for not having one so it's time. We measured the room and hopefully will hit Ikea for some inspiration this weekend. The kitchen and eating area have such dark wood that we're pretty firmly set on a glass/metal table. Adding more wood would probably make it far too dark in the room.

Knitting: finished a set of garterlac dishcloths: 2 red and 2 yellow. Next set will be lime green and brown. Also started on the Eesti Hiking Socks for my father. The City Tweed heavy worsted yarn is delightful! I love the way it feels and knits up. Doing colorwork is interesting - stripes aren't that hard, and I'm about to begin the star pattern tonight.

Well - gotta get back to the real job. Booooo!!!!

Busy-ness

My Sonnet is nearly done! I remembered to toss it in the laundry that my wonderful B does, and I was able to lay it out flat for drying. The sleeves evened up and the material feels wonderful. I need to brush up on seaming, and then I'll be ready to get it together.

I've learned how to Magic Loop! My friend RS at the nearby knitting group showed me the technique on a hat, and I tried it out a few weeks later on a sock. I'm working on the Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks from Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave in KnitPicks Essential Tweed in Ash. I LOVE IT. I love this pattern, I love magic looping, I love this yarn... SO PLEASED.

The yarn for my next project is here. I'm going to be working on two pair of Eesti Hiking Socks for my father. Same book, also a KnitPicks yarn, but this yarn is City Tweed HW. I have picked out some great colors to use, and the yarn is so soft. I'm finishing the first sock above before I start on these... so it's a good thing we have a lot of TV to watch ;)