FYI...

Leaving work at 10:30pm after arriving at 8:15am sucks.

Will post more later about knitting space/time continuum issues.

Another month gone.. I want a refund from 2007!!

Again, another month has abso-friggin-lutely ripped on by. People keep asking me how work is, and I keep responding that I *think* I am on the downward slope, but there are sure times when I question that! I am enjoying what I am doing and I really like the people in my department a lot, we have a great time together and I laugh quite a bit working with them every day.

Not a lot of time for me to knit lately, I can hardly believe that I have been so slow at finishing sock projects. I'm still knitting, but I have been knitting far less than usual. But, I did manage to finish one of my Marigold socks.

This is Yarntini in the Vintage colorway in the self striping yarn:


I love the colors, I love the feel of the yarn, I love the pattern. I just freaking love these socks. I don't know if after I finish these, anyone will be able to pry them off my feet! The pattern is easy, it's very much like a feather & fan pattern with a purl ridge tossed in for flavor. Here's a closeup of the leg:
I can't wait to start the second sock! I am going to do my best to get the striping to match. The skein is rather large so I don't have to worry about yardage. I am JUST past the part I needed to start at for the toe, so I'm going to have to waste a full repeat less one color segment. Maybe I can knit it into a swatch that I can make out with while I'm sitting around working. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Have myself a little swatch lubbins.

I'm still working on my beaded scarf. I did have to cut the ribbon yarn and add more beads, I was WAY short on what I strung the first time. It was impossibly hard to tell how many strands I actually managed to get strung with the whole thread tangling issue I had. Argh. It is beautiful though, I am looking forward to finishing it.

Both projects are going to have to be patient with me though, I have to finish a baby sweater for a shower I'm going to on the 10th (coincidentally the same day my mom is coming to visit, hooray!).

Oh, and the alien that is sucking my brains in the last post is a pattern I found on Ravelry on Tuesday while I was surfing the pattern page. He's a brain slug from Futurama. I used dishcloth cotton from my stash! I knit the body and the tentacles and legs on size 6 needles and then the I-cord ties are knit on size 7 needles. I started the first tie on 6's and I was like, wtf this is a tie... it doesn't need to be a tight fabric, it just needs to freaking get done! So I ripped the few rows out that I had done and started cranking out the I-cord on the bigger needles. I took a few more pics than the self-portrait one.





I totally freaking love him. It's tempting to knit another just to have him sit around or rip out the I-cords on this one so he's just a stand alone stuffed toy. I struggled to find my bags of polyfil I know I have, so I was trying to decide what alternative products I would use to stuff him with. But then I managed to get enough brain cells together to realize that I had an old pillow taking up space in my closet that I was fairly certain used polyfil stuffing. So hubby ran to grab it for me and I ripped it open and walla! Polyfil! Woot. Now I have enough stuffing for 130598103985 brain slugs! (Or amigurumi projects... no excuses left to not make some of the patterns I've been buying!)

Xi Xi says, "Zzzzzzz."

Happy Halloween!

FO Friday

I so love that I have finally finished these socks. These are the Waving Lace socks from Favorite Socks. They are awesomely stretchy and I so love everything about the pattern. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the colorway Ruby River. The subtle color transitions in the yarn are really beautiful. I can't say enough great things about these socks and I am looking very forward to wearing them.


I did my usual cast on but this time I did an increase round and then knit a round with no increases. I didn't really like how it looked on the doomed Grasshopper socks, but I started realizing that the pattern on some of my socks was starting really far down my toe, so I decided to try lengthening the toe and see how I like it, and I think I actually prefer how it looks. Not that I dislike my previous knitting work, I think I might just like this better.

Anyways, what is going otn next are the Marigold Socks in my precious skein of Yarntini in the Vintage colorway. Here is the skein awaiting cast on:

My yarn is the self striping variety, and I am absolutely DYING to see these socks cast on. I really loved Sandra's self striping socks, I cannot wait to see them in the Vintage colorway.

Slow Poke Blogging

Work has still been completely kicking my ass. I am dying to cut back my workdays but wow, so much to get done before that can happen. Although, I think I am finally over the hump so I'm hoping it will slow down in the next week.

I've somehow managed to finish a couple of projects, although it has taken me over a week to sit down at my computer and upload the stupid photos.

I finished my Koigu Monkey socks:

The yarn is beautiful and very nice to knit with, a lovely treat for the feet.

I know the yarn isn't as durable as some yarns, but I'm fine with however long these last me. I'll enjoy wearing them. The skeins are really small though. I knit these socks on size 2 needles and they are super stretchy and the leg is a little longer than I typically make them, but damn if I didn't use all my yarn. As in, I had maybe 24 inches of yarn left over. I had to use some of the remnant of the first sock to finish the second sock and I didn't even finish the cuff in quite the same way (I had made the first sock 6 rows of garter stitch and the second sock was only 3 rows of purls). But I was out of yarn! I had no choice! They look the same from afar, and I'd be shocked if anyone ever noticed while I was wearing them that the cuffs were slightly different. Although if anyone would, it would be the OCK. Stripey freak that she is!!

I also finished a dishcloth for my hubby's birthday. I was a little late getting it to him, but he likes it, lateness and all:


I started on my own bag of lies scarf, though mine isn't so much a bag of yardage lies as it is a bag of tangles. I spent multiple days unsnarling my ribbon yarn and then after measuring it so that I could get the yarn mostly divided in half, it proceeded to tangle itself up again. Though thankfully less tangled, I only spent a couple more hours unsnarling it before the bead transferring began. Which, again, there were tangles involved as my bead strands, despite my careful treatment of them, somehow got crossed so that I couldn't safely get even one strand away from the clump of other strands without losing half the string of beads. I had thought I got half of the beads, but it doesn't look to me like I'm going to finish the first half of the scarf without having to cut the yarn and add more beads. But no worries, I'm enchanted with the sparkles and I know in the end I'll be happy with the finished project. And there is definitely no chance in hell that I'll go into mass production of this kind of scarf. Ugh!

At any rate, it is late and my ass is kicked after a long work week so far and another fun night of Bunco. I think I'll definitely have sheepy dreams tonight!

Fetching, the second

So on Tuesday night, when I was leaving work one of my staff inspired me to help her cold hands. The AC at the office is particularly miserable on most days, so we're often using space heaters year round. But when she was shivering at her desk, I was inspired to give her some warm hands. So I went home and knit her a pair of Fetching gloves!

I really love this pattern. I know I said it last time I made them, but it is really simple and I love how easy it is to do the cabling.

She really loved the gloves and the timing worked out perfectly as her birthday is coming up on the 10th.

Before I left for the night, I convinced her to let me take a picture of her wearing them. She was shy at first:


But then she relented and let me take a nice picture of her:


Saylor and Xi Xi say, "Aww, c'mon. We're cuter than she is!!"

Yummy

So I am totally on a beautiful yarn high right now! A couple of months ago, the OCK and I decided that we would order some of the SockPixie yarn. I was totally in love with Jill's yarn that she was using one night at Bobaknit and I had decided to buy some for myself. I ordered the La Vie En Rose colorway along with her new colorway Ladybug. The socks that were posted on the site were totally cute in the Ladybug colorway so I got it. The OCK wanted the Poppies and the Stormy Seas colorways. When the order came, the La Vie En Rose and Stormy Seas were beautiful, but I was really not happy with the reds in the Ladybug and Poppies yarn. I was so heartbroken. I took time to think about contacting the dyer, it was so hard on me to write her because I know that hand dyed yarn is different with every run, but it just made my heart ache because the colorway was just not anything near what I had expected to receive. But now? Oh man, I TOTALLY have what I wanted. Feast your eyes on this:


Not this:

Look at this red!!!

So. very. happy.

The OCK's replacement yarn turned out beautiful as well:


I am so happy this is finally resolved!

The Saylor says, "I'm happy too. Now stop all that ruckus and let me get some sleep already!"