knit1frog2

i <3 my sockpal!!!

Hooray for my sockpal Gill!!  Look what I got in the mail...

lovely lovely socks!!  The rest of the skein, a skein
of Rowan Kid Silk Haze and Cadbury eggs!!

These are the most FABulous socks ever!!  I just can't get over all of the work that went into them...do you see the beads?  There are cutie beads carefully knitted into the upper portion!!!  My picture doesn't do them justice, I'm sorry...but, they are so soft and comfy.  I squished them all of the way home from my mailbox.  My friend Shug-D can attest to that fact too.  Squish squish squish, all of the way home!

Gill is from a town in the UK called Towcester (pronounced "toaster" for those of us in the US) and it just really blows my mind that I've received socks all of the way from there!  How much fun is THAT?!  I go to the British Pantry here all of the time, and I always go and look at the Salad Cream wondering if it really IS that good.  I ultimately end up leaving without it, but get steak and vegetable pasties and some banger rolls instead.

Gill, I know you're out there and I don't know how to thank you!!  I absolutely adore them and really appreciate every minute you put into them!  The pretty skein of Kid Silk haze has a lot of friends to hang out with...I have 7 other skeins in various colors that I haven't yet done anything with, and when they saw this one, they welcomed him with open arms!  The Cadbury eggs are SOOO good, I'm trying really hard not to eat them all...haha!

I thought I was going to have to walk up to the main street tomorrow AM to catch the bus (my car is in the shop -- sigh.  Things come in 3's right?  I hope this makes three.) so I was going to hold off wearing them since it's raining here and my feet would most likely get wet.  It turns out, I'll have a ride tomorrow to work so I'm going to wear them with some mule-type shoes so people can see them from the back.  I then can't wait to show them the upper part!

they fit great!  woohoo!!
(um, and no my foot is not up on the table
it's on a chair...)

With my car conking out, I was kind of bummed.  This package really made my day!!  I don't even care that it's been raining all weekend now!  ^_^  Thanks again Gill!!

who woulda thunk

Now who woulda thought that you could make socks out of a fluffy fluffy yarn like mohair?  I never did, but I saw a picture of them in a Jo Sharp book and the yarn was right in front of me and I can't ever seem to leave a yarn store with only what is on my list and it was really pretty and it was really soft and um ... here it is.

Jo Sharp Rare Kid

I think the funniest part about this yarn is that part of the care directions say "Dry flat in the shade."  I imagine laying them gently in the shade under a tree, on a grassy hill on a sunny day.  Then, suddenly a dog runs by and grabs one and runs off into the brush.  I'm left standing on the hill yelling, "STELLAAAAA" because that's the dog's name. 

Yeah, what?  hahahaha I don't know.  I guess I'm giddy about the idea of these super soft socks.  I will be sure to lay them flat inside to dry.

On Nothin' but-a-t-shirt news, I guess I was so excited about the t-shirt knitalong that I started before the official date!  Whoops!!  Well then, this will give me extra time to work on the other projects I have going.  (the official date is 4/1)  Thanks to Nona for adding me to the knitalong! 

On Sockapalooza news, I did mail mine off on the 15th...I hope they get to its destination safely!  And I hope the recipient doesn't recoil in fear from them...

a good lesson

Have you ever looked at a pattern and wondered how much yarn to approximate for a certain part?  Many of you might already know, but I didn't and thought just in case you didn't either, I'd share the knowledge. 

Remember in January, I had received 4 free skeins from the Rowan International club and while I would never make ... this, I would be interested in making this, but 4 skeins are not enough for an entire sweater.  Also, I just wouldn't make a sweater out of the color that I received in the welcome packet anyway.  The best use of the yarn?  A scarf?  Well, it's not a color that I would make a scarf out of either.  The best fix would be to mix it with another color!  Use 2 colors:  one for the sleeves and another for the body.  What could be better? 

So, how to do it...it's very simple.   Sleeves take about 1/3 of your total yarn!!  Yes, that's all there is to it (barring complicated cables or other yarn eating stitch patterns!)  Looking at the pattern for the sweater mentioned above, I see for my size it takes 1200 yds for the entire sweater and there is 120yd/ball, so, one-third = 400 yds.  I see I have enough yarn for the sleeves and that was free!  Now I just need to get the yarn for the body of the yarn.  For the sweater body, it would be 800 more yards, or 8 skeins, 9 for safe-keeping. 

Now go forth and mix it up!

calmer

Calmer yarn...how is it that I've never tried it before?  Wow is this stuff soft (sowoft if you say it like I do) and it doesn't fuzz up into your nose while knitting!  AND I finally got gauge.  I never get my gauge to match up to the pattern's suggested needle size.  This time I did and I keep rechecking to make sure along the way.  It's remarkable I tell you.  This makes me worry, however about going back to a sweater that I started in January.  I used to knit a lot tighter then (read:  was getting callouses on my index finger from pushing the needle tip.  eek.  I know.)

Here I go!

Even though I haven't yet been officially added to the knitalong, I have started.  I had always wanted to try that knit hem.  It's quite clever actually!  The purl row gives you that nice scalloped look to the edge.  I am also doing a knit stitch at the beginning and end stitch to get a handy 2 row counter up the side.  Yes, I'm being a good girl of doing that and following Susanna's other piece of advice of carrying some waste yarn up the sweater front as a counter.  Knit 10, flip the yarn, knit 10, flip the yarn back.

I can't wait until next Monday for Susanna's Japanese shortrows class to see what other tidbits of information I will learn.

a brady day

"I think I'll go for a walk outside now, the summer sun's calling my name, I hear it now.  I just can't stay inside all day...I've got to get out, gimme some of those rays.  Everybody's smiling (sunshine day).  Everybody's laughing (sunshine day).  Everybody seems so happy today...in the sunshine day."

It's a glorious day, but I'm in kind of a funk from an earlier dream montage today.  I won't go into it, but it was very sad and not fixable...sigh...so hence the brady song...to try to cheer myself up...la la la.

Things are looking up, however...it really IS nice outside, my gum is healing up nicely and even better news...I got into Susanna Hansson's Japanese shortrows class for Perfect Shoulders at Acorn Street on 3/21 (after being on the waiting list for 2 months)!!  Woohoo!!  I will be the shortrow master soon.  I did somehow finagle the shortrow shoulders for the Weasley sweaters...but am not sure if I really did them the right way.  I guess you should always put yourself on the waiting list...it does pay off sometimes.

And here's something that always makes me smile...

this is Luke, we call him "the Loo"
he's got one blue eye & one brown eye

I feel better already...

lookie lookie

What a great day.  I went to breakfast with Shug D, we walked about the Bellevue park in the gorgeous weather, went to Belsquare and drove home while blasting Lady Marmalade with the windows down on 520.  (and yes, both of us were singing at the top of our lungs!)

Shortly afterwards I went to Hilltop Yarn with a friend from my old team, to get my yarn for the nothin'-but-a knitalong!  Look!  I'm all ready to knit!

I forgot all about Lucky when I saw this color

Have I told you how much I adore Hilltop?  No?  Hover over the link on the LH pane and you will see.  They have an entire room in their converted house, devoted to Rowan yarns and pattern books.  OH, that reminds me.  I looked and they did have about 7 copies zero copies (as of 6/20/05 sorry!) left of the Weasley sweater pattern in case you think you've left no stone unturned and are still empty handed.  If you would like a copy, I can try to pick one up for you, let me know.

This trip to the LYS was especially nice b/c I was able to get this yarn "free."  I used my voucher that I had received from previous purchases!  If you think that's all I went home with, you really don't know me, do you?  ^_~  I'll leave the details for future posts...I got some fun stuff!

I'm almost done with the Oral Surgeon socks and am brainstorming on some custom knitting for MF.  I'll explain more about this later too :) ... until then, happy knitting!!

a new knitalong!

So, check out my knitalong area over there to the right.  See what I've recently added?!  It's the nothin' but a t-shirt knitalong (pattern created by lovely Alison).  It's being hosted by Nona.  Though I don't know who she is, anyone who wants to host this knitalong can't be all that bad!  ^_~  Aha, here is a little bit about her...

What PERFECT timing for this knitalong.  Not only have I been interested in knitting this t-shirt, but I have a $75 voucher to use at Hilltop Yarn before the end of this month!  Up until now, I had absolutely NO idea what to do with it. 

this is a pretty Calmer color

I'm supposed to go to the oral surgeon for a follow up for my tooth (or lack thereof) ater today.  Wish me luck!  Oh, and yes, I have my knitting in my bag just in case...

damn, dam, damn

Wow.  It's been awhile since I've posted...but I've had a pretty good reason.  Things have been hectic at work...our team is moving to a new building, so I was busy coordinating that.  We also had an offsite while our offices were being moved and I was the one to manage the logistics of the team meeting.  Then on Friday...I had my visit with the endodontist about my troublesome tooth. 

I go to the office...get the novocaine shot, hope that the undoing of the root canal and treating the root will do its thing and fix me up for good.  After a bit, I'm all numbed up and the Doc comes in to put the rubber dam in.  He goes to clamp on the metal bracket and suddenly things start flying out.  The metal clamp flew out.  The rubber dam flew out.  My TOOTH came flying out!!!  The endodontist is in shock.  I'm in shock.  I ask him what just happened.  He tells me and I am in disbelief.  I feel the area with my tongue and my tooth is gone at the gumline.  I'm trying not to panic.  I'm trying not to cry.  He tells me that he's going to call my dentist and quickly scampers off.  I'm sitting there and a zillion things are going through my head.  "Did my tooth just crack off??  How are they going to get the rest of the tooth out??  How am I going to afford the $3,000 implant??  What am I going to do??  How can I not cry??"  Then he returned.  He says that he's talked to my dentist and she wants the tooth out.  He's also called in a favor at an oral surgeon who can see me at 11:30AM if I want to.  Um, WANT to??  I'm happy to go, I tell him.

I go home to get my cellphone all the while, trying not to cry.  (I promise there really is knitting involved in this story...)

I go to the Oral Surgeon's office and I'm nervous.  I fill out all of the paperwork and after I'm done, I watch the guy cleaning out the fish tank.  He's humming, so I'm sure he's uncomfortable with me watching him, but there's nothing else to do but watch him.  Then my name is called and I clutch my messenger bag and walk back to the room.  I'm sitting in the chair...waiting...and I'm nervous...so I get out my knitting.  I'm working on a sock for MF (the mother of the twins) and I'm furiously knitting away.  The oral surgeon comes in and says hi, and asks me how I'm doing.  I tell him that um, I'm a bit nervous and knitting helps relax me.  He seems surprised that I'm nervous and asks me why.  I reply, "hmmm, let's see.  (knit knit knit) I've had a tooth that's been bothering me for a month now (knit knit), I go to the dentist (knit knit knit) who in turn wants me to see the endodontist (knit knit) who thinks that I have an abcess and need my root canal undone and redone.  (knit knit knit)  So I go.  And when I go, (knit knit) my tooth cracks off!! (knit knit knit!!)  And now I'm here. (knit knit) And I'm wondering how in the heck you're going to get the rest of the tooth out...(knit knit) yet at the same time I'm thinking that I really DON'T want to know how you're going to get the rest of the tooth out!! (knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knitknit knitknitknitknit knitknit knit)  And he says, "Have you ever had laughing gas?  I think we might want to give you some..."

Laughing gas rocks.  And so does the Rx you get afterwards for pain.  But, I still am slightly traumatized about losing that back tooth.

Oh, and here is the sock that I was working on.  I got through the heel...the regular plain ol' heel...wow does that make things thick!

the sock at the oral surgeon's
Regia yarn 6-ply

I'm finding the 6-ply a nice change from the 4-ply RW&B socks that I made for my nephew!  I really do think it's going to take MF awhile to work through that heel!  ^_^

egad, now what?

I bought a skein of the Regia Jubilee yarn.  It was the last one on the shelf and it looked so lonely.  Kind of like the last one to get picked for a team. 

Jubilee #5672

I thought it might be kind of fun colors for a crazy sock, you look at the skein and think, hey, kinda fun!  It was the 55 year anniversary yarn and yes, I am a marketer's dream, b/c I bought it.  But...um...I don't have a picture for you now, I'll have to get one later for you if I can stomach it...it just doesn't knit up so pretty.  What I didn't see in the ball, are the brownish strands...that's okay I like brown, but the pink is neon pink.  It's highlighter bits of pink.  My sock looks wretched.

After some research, I know the name is "India" and it really does look a bit Indian, so perhaps I can deal with the colors.  And in all fairness, after looking at this swatch that I found online, it's not so bad...

not so bad?  Or is it?

The pattern I am using is the Retro rib from IK.  It's such a great texture, but perhaps better left for single colored yarn.  I also noticed that this yarn and that pattern knitted up quite lofty and puffy.  Again, not pretty.

Something else ironic.  I tried to knit the regular sock heel...across 30 sts.  I had never done it before and um...for some reason I wasn't getting it.  I usually use PGR's short rows for heels.  Following the pattern had me turning to the purl side at exactly the same place each time and that split the yarn off of the needles in the strangest way and didn't allow me to work the yarn behind it. 

I haven't frogged the sock yet, but I'm positive I will.  While contemplating that last night, I surprised myself.  I wasn't upset as I normally would be.  I actually thought that it was great practice.  I learned the retro rib stitch, I attempted the 'regular' sock heel (not successfully though I just now had one of those 'eureka' moments and think I know what I was doing wrong!  Oooh, I can't wait to retry the heel.  If only I brought my knitting with me today!)