AmphibiaKnits

Goodbye May

May has not been a stellar month for a whole bunch of reasons.  I will be quite happy to bid it adieu after today.

My big accomplishment today was going out and getting a new lawn mower, putting it together (during which process I only broke 1 nail), and mowing the lawn.  It was at the point where really we needed a goat for the side of the house.  

Last year we had a very lush luscious green lawn.  Then we got dogs.

Now we have a bunch of brown circles surrounded by verdant green rings. It's the dog owner's equivalent of crop circles.  Funny that they can be so destructive and yet fertilize all at the same time.  

They have also worn down a path around the shed and in the back and near the gates.  So this year the lawn looks like the grass equivalent of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  Sigh.

Oops. I forgot to take photos of the little peaches on the tree.  If the damned dogs would leave it alone, it might even get a chance to grow.  What's up with dogs and digging?  

Anyway, that's my outdoor housework for the day, so now I feel that I can spend the rest of the day knitting.

No yarn-related deliveries this week, I'm afraid. But I'm waiting for the Knit Love Club skein of Sokkusu to arrive.  I peeked at the spoiler threads -- it's a beautiful blue with some purpley hues in it.  The May RSC shipment is en route as well.  I have no idea what California Dreamin' by Kermit the Frog and Singing in the Rain will produce.  But knowing Tina, it will be a spectacular colourway.

I have slowed down a little on the dishcloths.  I completed another one of the slip stitch dishcloths.

And I did a Christmas Lace Dishcloth.  I should probably have done it an extra repeat wide, becasue I was only using 3.75 mm needles. I did figure out how to do a crochet cast on which looks like the bind-off, so all edges are consistent. 

I finished the first Icy Sidewalk sock.

I did a regular heel flap and gusset, but without the slipped stitches.  I continued the slipped stitch pattern down the foot.

Meh. 

I started an orange and purple striped sock.  It's one of the yarns from DyeHard Fiber Arts.  I was forced to use size 2.25 mm Kollage square needles because I can't find anything else.  They're bendy. And blunt.

The other thing that was delivered this week was my latest set of pencil crayons.  This month they're in the green range. 

I have picked up my Stonewall stole and have been working on it.  I started this in October 2010, if that gives any idea of how long it has been hibernating.  I have three skeins of Bugga in Cotton Stainer.  I finished the first ball this week and am on the second ball.  If I'm consistent, I may have it finished by sometime next week. 

Then will come the blocking.  I've never actually blocked anything.  I'm not really a fan of that sort of thing.  Wash and wear is my motto. 

I don't even own an iron.

But I am going to have to get out the foam blocking pads (which contain letters because they were a kids' play set) and my T pins in order to block it.  I figure it will be about 24" x 48" unblocked, and then bigger than that when it's blocked.  But hopefully it will be warm.  It's for me.  

The bag I'm using is the dragon bag I got from Peg's Procrastinations on Etsy a couple of years ago.  I just realized it has one of those little round keyring things inside where you can feed the yarn through.  It's genius.  I love the bag.  It's perfect for this project.

I told myself I can't cast on anything new until I finish this.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.

I have three skeins of Cherry Serenity Silk from Zen Yarn Garden, so I might make a Potager next. I also have some lovely skeins of camelspin and sea silk from Handmaiden, so I could do other lacey things.  I really wanted to do the Hillflowers shawl at one point, but it wasn't working for me at the time.  Maybe I should take another stab at it.

Or maybe I should stop counting my chickens before they hatch and just finish this one first.

I could finish Exonumist as well. I started that the week it was released, way back when Wendy was just starting on her lace kick and was still knitting a pair of new socks every week. 

Yesterday's big accomplishment was cleaning the knitting room and my bedroom and rearranging my bedroom.  I moved a chest of drawers thing from my bedroom to the knitting room, so now there's a bit more surface space.  It's also between the computer desk and the knitting cat/dog/animal chair, so the dogs have a bridge to get to the computer.  I have to be vigilant.

This afternoon's big accomplishment will be a nap.  

The Lad is now bugging me to make him a sweater.  I gave him the death stare and told him it was out of the question.  I don't have the yarn (at which he guffawed) or the needles (which elicited a similar guffaw).   He has decided he wants me to knit Cable Guy.  Have I mentioned that I can't abide the idea of large amounts of cables on a large garment? And have I mentioned that Cable Guy comes from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch, which I don't (yet) have?  And have I mentioned that I will have to purchase a size 5.0 mm SNA circ in order to knit it?  Not to mention a sufficient quantity of worsted in a colour which is acceptable to him.  And that's all before swatching (which in my world is like ironing -- never gets done) and starting the darned thing.

He told me I should aim for Christmas.  I told him I wasn't going to specify a year.

How can this be?  I haven't knit a sweater in years.  And come to think of it, I've never actually finished one and seamed it and all of that.  That sort of stuff is a whole level above my skill set.  I'm not sure that I'm up to it or that I want the commitment.

Why can't the kid just be normal and ask for a pair of socks? 

The more pressing question, of course, is whether there is something similar to the Boyfriend curse.  If I knit the kid a sweater and give it to him, will he move out of the house?  Fingers crossed....

Captain of the Team

Team Unemployment, that is.  That's right.  Turtlegirl and I have something in common other than our love of Socks that Rock and double gusset decreases.

My last official day at work was today, but I noticed this morning that I have already been removed from the website.  

So I guess I'll have more time to knit, which is good.  I need to be gainfully re-employed within a couple of months or we'll be eating dandelions (which are plentiful, so we wouldn't starve) and living in cardboard boxes. 

Enough of that for now.  What I've been doing in the last week is more dishcloth knitting.  It's my potato chip knitting. 

Since I last blogged, I've knit these. 

This is the E dishcloth for my BFF. It's out of some worsted weight cotton which we got as an extra in one of the Three Irish Girls sock club offerings a couple of years ago.  You can imagine how I love the colour -- it's a steely light blue. 

I saw a pattern for a seed stitch and lattice dishcloth for $2 and decided I could probably figure out the pattern on my own.  So  that's what I did.

I discovered that the seed stitch panels have to be 5 stitches wide and 7 stitches high to be roughly square.  

I prefer to slip the first stitch of each row in order to give it a nice clean look.  I think I finally figured that out on about dishcloth #8.

I did a Rav search for dishcloths and narrowed it down to only knitted dishcloths. On about the 35th page was a fee pattern for this exact dishcloth.  Oh well.

I have also done a plain stockinette cloth with a garter stitch border (which was before I decided to slip all first stitches).

I've been perusing my various stitch dictionaries to look for patterns which might lend themselves well to dishcloths.   I found the Squared Check pattern in one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries, and turned it into a dishcloth as well.

This is the Revenge dishcloth which I didn't get to photograph for last week's blog because it had been used for dusting and was in the laundry.

I found a slipped stitch dishcloth pattern which works for variegated yarns and decided to make one for the yellow and green and blue bilious Bernat Handicrapter Handicrafter cotton which I have.

It actually worked pretty well.  I slipped the first stitches on this one.

I also started one of these out of the pink and green and blue and cream and white Handicrapter cotton as well.  

And then I decided that it might work for socks. 

So I grabbed  a set of 2.75 mm SNA DPNs (which have, of course, been chewed by Sebastian and now contain little irritating nicks and notches) and a ball of Casbah in some nameless colourway and cast on 64 stitches.

The pooling is barfy, but the slipped stitch stuff works pretty well.

I am going to call them Icy Sidewalks -- because you slip sideways -- rather than something like Dishcloth Socks or Slipped Stitch Socks or Sideways Slipped Stitch Socks.  I'm mindful of Leslie's scornful comments about boring names for patterns.

So that's what's on the needles this week.  

I thought about casting on a lace shawl for about a nanosecond and then came to my senses.  I figure that a protracted period of unemployment would make for good project knitting, but I think I'd associate the final product with bad mojo, so I decided it wouldn't be such a smart idea.  Maybe I'll work on the Leo Scarf. Or maybe I'll just knit dischloths.  We'll need something to put over the windows in the cardboard boxes where we`ll be living in the fall....

There were no yarn deliveries this week. 

There was, however, an accessory delivery.

Remember this from two weeks ago?

Oops.

I am using the magenta and yellow (gold) bag for my SNA circs.  I haven't decided what I'm going to use the blue one for.  Right now I just like to look at it.

Someone purchased the matching large zippered bag which I blogged about last week.  And no, it wasn't me.   I hope it goes to a good home where it's loved and appreciated. 

Before I get to the Windows Shopping portion of the blog, allow me to digress yet again.  I had to give back my work iPhone.  We got the work iPhones sometime in April.  I was reluctant to give up my Rogers iPhone account and phone number, but in order to get the phone through work, I had to have my own personal cell phone number ported over to the firm's Telus account. I was reassured that if I were to ever leave the firm, I could have the number ported back to me.

Lies.

I spoke to four different Rogers people in the last two weeks (two in person and two on the phone) about my options.

Suffice it to say, the phone number stays with the firm.  It was *my* cell phone number which I've had since I had to give up my last cell phone number to a former firm which shall remain nameless. It's the number which is on -- most importantly -- my resume, but also on all my bank accounts and banking information, cable information, and all places where I have to provide a contact phone number. 

So I have a new phone number.  I was going to reactivate my old iPhone but somehow managed to get myself suckered into an HTC One X Droid phone.  There were some issues with the Rogers network, and it couldn't be activated for 24 hours.  Now it's activated partially.  That is to say, I have a working phone but no internet capability or messaging capability.  I'll be off to the Rogers store tomorrow to see what's up.

The camera is actually superior to the iPhone 4S camera.  It's also 8 megapixels, but it has way more features and options, and apparently you can take still shots while recording video.  The screen is larger than the iPhone screen.  It has Beats Audio built in, which is nice.  The down side is that in order to convert any of my iTunes music, I'm going to have to burn it to disk and then import the music from the disk using something like Windows Media Player.  It will be a royal pain in the arse, but I suppose I have nothing better to do.  Ha ha. 

If and when I get the phone working, it should be good.

Okay, now on to this week's edition of Windows Shopping.  

Here's what I looked at and lusted after but didn't buy.

Argyle self-striping yarn from Fishknits on Etsy.

A drawstring project bag from Christine Creates on Etsy.

A cell phone bag gadget case from HautTotes on Etsy.  It`s $29.75, which seems pricey for a fabric bag this size, but I'm willing to cut HautTotes some slack, particularly because she knows not to put an apostrophe in "its". 

This is another bag I really want from Ocean Patch. Hopefully someone will snatch up this one as well so that I don't have to be tempted by it.

 

I really like some of the silk brocade project bags by Mulberry Magic on Etsy, but they are way out of my price range.  This is lovely, but it's $95 USD and $100.47 CAD.  Um, no. 

He does custom bags made to order, and while I agree that this would be a lovely fabric, I just couldn't justify it.

Lest you think that I am no longer interested in yarn, let me allay your fears.  There are some really great skeins up for sale in Ladybug Fiber's Etsy shop.  This is a self-striping yarn in Groovy Garden Party.

This one is A Little Bit Wild & Crazy.

This skein of MCN in North Shore Lupines from Indieway Yarns is lovely.

In terms of my random ramblings, I made Red Velvet Cake today.  I don`t even know what Red Velvet Cake is.  It`s red, that`s what it is.  The batter looks like blood or borscht. And why is it twice the price of regular cake mix. ^wonky French keyboard has removed my question marks again... 

I bought a hydrangea for the front. It`s a blue one.  I may get a matching pink one at some point.  I also bought 12 different tomato plants and 5 herb  plants.  I bought yellow and orange and striped tomatoes.  There were varieties I`ve never heard of.  But the back deck gets lots of morning sun, so that should be a good place to grow tomatoes. At least we`ll have food in our cardboard house.

I bought 2 different types of mint (Wintergreen and English Mint) and 2 different types of basil.  One is Nufar and one is Genovese.  

BTW, greek salad made with fresh mint instead of oregano is to DIE for. 

I also purchased my very own dandelion extractor.

The Lad has conveniently gone to Cape Breton for the weekend, leaving me with constant puppy duty.  Princess of course will bugger off all day and all evening, so I will be on puppy duty all weekend.  Wretched children. 

The last bit of Windows Shopping I`m doing is looking at various stitch markers from ScaryMerry`s shop on Etsy.  I love her stitch markers. I want some.  

What I would really like is to make a charm bracelet using interesting stitch markers.  Or a bunch of charm bracelets using interesting stitch markers. Some of these would be so cool. 

I think the breakfast stitch markers need a bacon and eggs, though.

I think the dusting of paprika on these devilled eggs is inspired.

The bagels are also cute.

And Skull Cupcakes!  Maybe that`s what Red Velvet Cake is for.

I might need a set of googley eye zombie stitch markers.

The soup and sandwich stitch markers are another favourite of mine.  I have almost bought the grilled cheese zipper pull several times. 

The hot dogs are also pure genius.

The That`s Italian set is also divine. 

I urge you to run out and buy stitch markers from ScaryMerry.  They are fabulously whimsical.

Okay, this is a long post for such little content.

It`s time for me to round up the beasts and take them for their evening walk. 

Perhaps next week I`ll have something other than dishcloths to show for my knitting efforts.  But I am planning to take a wee trip out to Bayers Lake to just browse around the Michaels store, so I may happen to check out their craft cotton while I`m there. 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Again

It's been an interesting week.  I'll leave it at that for now.

I started the second Skoosh variation sock in my Sweet Georgia autumn jewels colour.  Other than that, there has been no sock knitting. Nada.  Nil. Zilch. Bubkes.

Oh, no.  Strike that.  I lied. I finished the Cephalopod Yarns Hawaiian Bobtail Squid sock because Princess tried it on and said it fit fine. (?)  I had decreased to 64 stitches for the foot, so I'll just have to trust her judgment.

But there have been dishcloths.  Jo-ann wanted pictures of the dishcloths, so I bring you dishcloths.  Feel free to fast forward if you're not interested in dishcloths.

I gave a couple away without taking photos, but these are what's left.  I think this one is the Eelominator dishcloth.  These are all Bernat Handicrafter cotton from Walmart.  I have no idea what the colour is.  The cool thing about these is that the colours are more vibrant and intense when wet.  

I did another of these bias Eeloominator things out of natural cotton, but I already used it for dusting, so it's in the dirty laundry basket.

I can't remember what these all are.  One is a Washboard dishcloth, and one is Revenge and there's a Textured Dishcloth and Grandmother's Favourite.  The last one is a corrugated cloth or something. 

This one is a Chinese Waves pattern done on the bias with a 5 stitch garter stitch border. 

When I was in Walmart getting other stuff I wandered to the craft zone and saw the array of Bernat Handicrafter cotton. I was getting bored of the red and orange and yellow and white stuff, so I bought some of the green and blue and pink and beige stuff.  It was on sale for $8 for the big thing.  It seems to last forever.

I like the pink and green stuff.  I also got small balls of several other colours.  It's so unusual for me to pay only $1.88 for a ball of yarn. Six dishcloths will cost less than a skein of real yarn. Go figure.

So there you go, Jo-ann.  Those are the dishcloths.

In terms of deliveries, this week I got my May offering from the Tanis Fiber Arts Year in Colour club.  Can I just say how much I love the colour of the yarn?

The pattern is for a lacy cowl, but I'm probably going to make socks.  I can't remember what the name of the colour is -- Thrills, maybe?  As in the purple soapy gum which I love.

Anyway, that's all there is for this week.

Now that I have LOTS of time on my hands (or at least for the next few weeks), maybe I'll get more stuff done.  Perhaps I'll take a stab at finishing Stonechat or Stonewall (or whatever it's called).

I spent four hours today removing dandelions and thistles from our lawn and the next door neighbours' lawn.  They lent me their dandelion device. I had no idea that we have a ban on pesticides and herbicides here.  I don't know if it's just in Halifax Regional Municipality or if it's province-wide, but you can't buy them and can't use them.  No wonder the city is overrun with dandelions. It's like the bubonic plague but in vegetation form.

My next door neighbour said it's like plucking your eyebrows.  But even my eyebrows aren't that bad.

At the house on the corner, there were about 8 guys with dandelion spikes having a big old festive dandelion removing party when I drove up this evening.  And judging by the state of the lawn, it will take all 8 of them to do it.  Odious task.  

And speaking of driving up, I finally got my car back at 5:00 today.  How much do I love my car? And how happy am I not driving an automatic anymore. But I know that I have to be careful where I park in the parkade.  It ended up being about $4800 worth of damage.  Ouch. 

In terms of window shopping, here's what I haven't bought this week:

The large zippered project bag Sea Animals from Ocean Patch on Etsy:

If it's still there on payday, I'm on it like white on rice.  Please, someone save me. It's got a little strap.  And a crab.  Love.

There are currently several skeins of Numma Numma The Usual in the Numma Numma shop.  I have never been successful in purchasing a Numma Numma skein.  But there are several there which I heart. This one is Sangria.  If I embiggen the picture, it seems to be huge.

Golden Ticket is another colour which looks like it would make great textured socks.

Sweet Potato Fries is also a nice colour. This would be good for some of Hunter Hammersen's designs.

I think the Atenti Baguette Bags for sale at The Loopy Ewe are also quite cool, but $85 is a little steep. 

I'd really like one of the Jordana Paige bags (also from The Loopy Ewe).  It's $89 but I think it's larger than the Baguette.

I really want a skein of Sweet Georgia's CashLuxe Fine in Hummingbird.  It's a to-die-for colour.  I also like Charcoal and Deep Olive and Oceanside.

The Loopy Ewe is also stocking yarn from Biscotte & Cie, which I think is from Quebec. There's a self-striping line called Felix which is 80/20 SWM N.  I like Cupcake.

And I am not going to buy a skein of Tempted Yarns Tempted Good Grrl in Emergency.  I am not. But it is clear why Stacey calls her yarns "Tempted".  Just look at that colour.  I'm swooning.  And drooling a little on the keyboard.

This skein of Mistress in the Tempted Luxe Girl (80/10/10 MCN) is also lovely.

As is the Foliage. 

So I'm hoping to get some real knitting done at some point this weekend.  It's Victoria Day weekend here in Canada.  I think it might be Memorial Day in the US?  I grew up in Victoria BC, and I assumed that the holiday in May was named for the city where you live.  Not so much.

Anyway, happy long weekend, folks.  

And for my two readers who live in Metro, happy dandelion hunting.  

Friday

as in T.G.I.

Not much progress this week on the sock-related front.  I have been knitting dishcloths.  As in, I think I've knit 5 of them.  And I'm on number 6.  I don't understand it.  It's a phase, and it will pass.

In terms of non-cotton knitting, the only thing I've done is part of a vanilla sock in the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid. 

I am knitting 72 stitches on 2.25 mm needles (one of which is bent -- story of my life).  I did a long leg and decided to do the Strong heel from The Sock Knitter's Handbook by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott.

I'm not sure how much I like the heel.  Or maybe it's the vanilla stockinette that I'm not crazy about.  The sock is a little baggy on the front of the ankle, and I do *not* have small ankles.

So I decided to try it on Lola who is a much better sock model than I.  

I was toying with the idea of ripping back and doing another heel, but maybe I'll just carry on.  I'm part way through the foot.  The end of the finish line is in sight.

So without further ado, I give you the squid.

Oh, but first, I have to talk about the colourway.  If you look on Ravelry at various people's stashes, you'll see that some of the Hawaiian Bobtail Squids are much more purple.  Mine is much more green.  But in real life, apparently they can vary in colour because they're bioluminescent and they reflect what's going on around them. 

My skein is more like the second guy down.

I love the colours in the yarn, and I love the almost luminous quality of the colour.  But I have to say, the Skinny Bugga is not really soft in the way that the Bugga is.  I've only knit with the Skinny Bugga once before (I know -- how can that be?), and I think I recall the same thing. I guess you gain in twist what you lose in softness.

Why yes, I *am* going to eat my yarn. Doesn`t it look delicious. ^there`s supposed to be a question mark there, but the keyboard has gone all French on me again and I don`t know how to un-stick it.

This is where ¸the sock is today.

You can see how baggy it is on Lola.

So what do I do, dear readers?  Do I carry on with a large sock? Do I frog the whole thing and cast on again with 64 stitches?  Do I frog back to the heel and do a different heel? I await your recommendations.

Here's the overly sunlit dining room buffet.

And what, you ask, is that drop-dead skein of fuchsia goodness at the front?

Why, it's Valley Girl.

And yes, it really is that colour. I have a serious crush on this yarn.

That was the only delivery this week.  Probably because it's not quite sock club time (although Tanis Fiber Arts will be the first to arrive), and because I haven't actually ordered anything lately.

But I have been looking. 

So for those of you who are feeling kind and want to save me from myself, please go ahead and order these and take them out of the way of temptation.

This week's window shopping comes mostly from Etsy, but a bit from Cephalopod Yarns.

Here's what I haven't bought:

  

Those are Cephalopod Yarns (Skinny Bugga or Bugga Bugga) in Hermit Crab, Golden Tortoise Beetle, and Violet Sea Snail.  Oh be still my beating heart.

Then there are some seriously cool project bags from Ocean Patch Creations on Etsy.

I've been sitting here trying to justify what I could put in them.  Circs, perhaps?  Notions?  Fountain pens? I want them very, very badly, so someone needs to buy them.  Stat.

Fortunately, someone has purchased this skein of Robot Unicorn Attack yarn from Dark Yarns on Etsy.  It was in my cart, and I'm happy to say (kind of ) that it was cartjacked.

This Bright Butterflies Bag from Peg's Procrastinations on Etsy is also in my cart waiting to be jacked.  I have a couple of bags from Peg's Procrastinations, and they're great.  This one would be no exception.

I think  skein of this would look fabulous in that bag.  Don't you agree?  It's Snorgle Diva from HamptonArtisticYarns.

I also desperately love this skein, but I`m not sure about alpaca. This is from Spotted Circus on Etsy.

The Fire colourway is also pretty awesome.

As a final thing, I am also not going to buy this skein of Northern Lights in an MCN base from Countess Ablaze.  It`s only $20.60 with the conversion from the UK 12.50 pounds, which is a steal for MCN.

It`s apparent that bright things are appealing to me right now.

I am feeling serious project bag lust, though. Honestly, I don`t need the bags.  But I really want those Ocean Patch bags.  

Off to torment myself. Drop me a comment and advise what I should do about Squidly. 

Happy weekend. 

I promised yarn

And there is yarn.

This week I finally received my Cephalopod Yarns order.  It shipped out on April 13, and arrived on Wednesday.  I had to go to a different post office from the usual one to pick it up and pay the $34 in customs.

But it was oh, so worth it.  They're all Skinny Bugga.  Since I prefer thinner yarn, I think I'm only going to buy Skinny Bugga rather than Bugga Bugga from now on.  Bugga is quite a bit thicker than Skinny Bugga, and it's thicker than some of the other 70/20/10 MCN blends.

But here are my lovelies. These are a little light; the individual photos below are better.  From L to R we have Blue Ringed Octopus, Leafy Snapdragon, Purple Linckia, Violet-Tailed Bleuet, Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, and Purple Soldier Fly.

Individually they are just as lovely.

Do you SEE that Hawaiian Tailed Bobtail Squid? (Or whatever it's called)?  I am so in love with that yarn.  If I could marry it, I would.  But there would have to be a prenup. 

I am going to wind that skein and use it for one of my new experimental heels from the new Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott book.  It's just going to be stockinette glory.  Who needs pattern with all that coloured beauty?  

I also received a little parcel from the Plucky Knitter.  I somehow managed to actually score an update for the first time.  I ordered 2 skeins of the Primo Fingering (because of how much I absolutely adore the purple which I'm using for the Crocus vernus sock), and 2 of Plucky Feet.  One of the Plucky Feet shipped out at the end of April and isn't here yet -- it's some kind of variegated colour, which will be a surprise.

The 3 skeins are Karat Stick (Primo), Peep Toes (Primo) and Smokey the Bear (Plucky Feet). 

I love the super tight twist and the thinness of the yarn.  

The third parcel which arrived was my Stripey Sock Club for April from Nalani Yarns.  I had also ordered 2 other skeins, so Amber sent them all together.  

From L to R we have Pink Lemonade (100% 2 ply merino), Manic Watermelon (100% 2-ply merino), and Goofy (80/10/10 MCN).

Amber sends candy with the Stripey Sock Club offerings.  March was Rockets. This month is a pink lemonade sucker (lollipop?).

I am taking today as a knitting vacation day.

I am going pretty much Cold Sheep.  This is at least day 4 of not ordering any yarn.  In fact, it may be more than that.  So when the urge comes upon me, I think I will post pictures of what I *haven't* ordered. Think of it as window(s) shopping. Ha -- that's it!  I'll call it Windows shopping.

The only yarn I think I'm going to order will be the next installment of the Nalani Yarns stripey sock club because I love it so much.

Now I'm off to make another cup of coffee, scowl at the dogs, and decide what to knit.

...Finally ....

The marking is done.  

Well, it was actually completed around 3:00 this afternoon.  Then it took another approximately 4 hours to compile the grades and figure out the bell curve.  I swear, grading on a bell curve actually requires a degree in actuarial science.

It is 12:42 am (technically it's now Friday).  I just finished emailing the grades to the Associate Dean's assistant.  They were due about 12 hours ago.  Oops. 

I have spent three days in a row which I took as vacation doing nothing but marking.  In fact, I didn't even get a chance to shower today.  I'm still wearing yesterday's gym clothes.  (Well, technically I'm wearing Wednesday's gym clothes since it's now Friday).

I got three hours of sleep last night and then got up at 5:00 to continue marking.  

Ugh.  You'd think I'd learn from my procrastination.  You'd be wrong.  

Anyway, NOW I can start knitting again.  As soon as I've finished blogging, I'm going to go and knit. I haven't knit in what seems like weeks. 

I have received 3 parcels this week, so I have yarn to show.  And I have books to show as well.  But I don't have any knitting to show.  My hands are covered in red ink.  Literally.

So until tomorrow or Saturday, you'll have to make do with some puppy love. Sebastian had his arms and legs around Lila the other night and he was cleaning her ears. 

Tonight when I was up here at the computer trying to figure out my students' grades, there was a thunk.  Princess called me downstairs.  

Sebastian had somehow managed to get into the box of dog treats.  Literally.

I called him a box licker.  Then Princess blanched and I realized what I had said.

What can I say?  I'm tired and my mind is fried.  

Now, I'm going to knit.  See you on the weekend. 

 

No More Knitting

I am not going to let myself knit any more until I finish my marking. Wish me luck.  I am already experiencing withdrawal pangs.

This will be a short and largely random post.

Here's a bruise I got from stopping a goal fired at me last week at soccer shooting practice.  And I was wearing padded gloves!  My hand hurt for about three days. 

My car is off at the fixit place being appraised, estimated and fixed.  I'm in a rental for about two weeks. It's a Ford Fusion.  I think it's an experience akin to driving a WWII panzer tank. It's about as responsive and fun to drive.

Here it is from the back. 

Yes, that's my Namaste Hermosa bag which I use as a briefcase for work.  If you look at it closely, you can see where the damned dogs have started to chew it. Top left hand side at the opening.

But the more interesting thing about this trunk is the little dangly thing.

Here's a closer look.

It's an escape button for people locked in the trunk.  Fascinating.  I assume it glows in the dark, otherwise how would you notice it if you're locked in a dark trunk?

Well, it certainly came in handy for at least one victim. 

BTW, Old Sambro Road is less than a km from where I live.  

In terms of actual yarn content, I finished the Spring Crocus socks.

I had done some sort of a moss or seed stitch gusset on the first one (top one in photo above).  I don't really like the way it worked out -- too intrusive.

 

The second one is better. I did the Turtlegirl double gusset decrease on the sole.

They're also too big by about 3/4 of an inch. So if someone with bigger feet than I have (Marion, I know you have size 9 feet, but you don't actually WEAR the socks -- you just keep them in a drawer instead of on your feet) wants them, consider them a gift.  I can get them out of the Happy Couples pile and into a good home.  (If you want them, Marion, they're yours). 

At least they're done.

In other distressing news, I had to rescue one of the new stripey socks from Desmond's mouth the other day. Sigh.

No yarn deliveries this week.  I'm waiting for the next Nalani Stripey sock club installment (plus two skeins), which I think shipped out on Wednesday.  It will be a while.  My Cephalopod Yarns order shipped on April 13, but who knows where it is.  It's somewhere between there and here.  The Plucky Knitter stuff doesn't ship out until the 30th, I think, so that will be a while.  

But none of that even matters until I finish my marking, my conference paper, and my taxes. Grrrr.

I hate April. No wonder T.S. Elliot called it the cruellest month.

 

Well, sh*t, there goes the yarn budget ....

Sigh. Yesterday was not a good day.

I finished the Shur'tugal socks.  The colour is darker in real life.  But they're done.  I ended up going back to Alice's way of doing the twisted stitches, because the other way didn't produce as crisp a result.

I did 7 pattern repeats on the leg and did the double gusset decrease on the bottom. Love the yarn.  These are for me.

I decided to start the Redbud socks by Linda Welch.  It's such a great pattern.  I'm not crazy about the way the RSC patterns are presented -- too much writing and too little charting.  I feel like I have to do a ton of reading.  What I really need to know for a pattern is what the stitch pattern is.  The rest of it I can do myself.  But once I looked at the pattern I decided I had to cast on.

Since I hadn't wound the Budding Twig yarn, I decided to take a leaf from Mapleweave's book and use an existing STR colour.  I had a skein of Sassafrass already wound (and another one in the tub, according to my Rav stash -- I'm a severe victim of yarnesia), so I thought I'd use it.

I'm not so sure.  The colours are light and springy, sort of.  But there is crazy striping going on and I really think it detracts from the pattern. The pattern is a lovely braid going down the leg after the lattice under the picot, but it's all lost in the variegation.

I think that some sort of a chevron pattern (kind of like Jaywalker or something along those lines) would be ideal for this yarn.  2.5 mm with 64 stitches seems to give a nice consistent stripe.  But I just don't think it works for the Redbud pattern.  And to be honest, I'm not sure that the Budding Twig would either.  I think this is a pattern that needs a plainer yarn.

So I'm tempted to frog and re-start.  What do you think?  

I have some solids on the dining room hutch.

The tealy green one is STR in one of the newer colourways -- Rambalaba or Ramalaba, perhaps?  It would probably work.  The other yarns here are non STR.  The cinnamony orange one is Sweet Georgia BFL sock in Cayenne. There's a HandMaiden Swiss Mountain Sea Sock in Periwinkle, and one of the Tsilk Tstockings in Delphinium and a Fly Designs MCN in Violet.  The grey is from Yarns by Melissa, and the yellowy green at the front is Lemongrass by Tanis Fiber Arts in Blue Label.  The pinky skein in the middle is the Lorna's Laces Solemate from last year's Cookie A club.  I definitely want to try that for something, but I thnk it might be better for a different project.

There are also some of the rescued RSC skeins and the Sokkusu.

I'm almost  tempted to use the Sokkusu in the bluey purpley pinky colour (?Jammy dodger?  Can't remember -- the dogs ate the label).  It's in several smaller balls now, but I don't think it would affect the pattern.  The only concern I have is that I'd have to go up to 72 stitches and probably do it on 2.25 mm needles if i used that skein because it's thinner than STR mediumweight.

The other possibilities are a couple of skeins keeping me company here at the computer.  The top is a Hazel Knits something or other in some colour or other.  It's more blue than the photo shows.  The bottom is STR Chapman Springs in mediumweight.  I just fear that I'd get the same stripey effect as with the Sassafrass.

Any suggestions?  The Redbud is a super fast pattern to knit.  I am sure I could get one sock done on the weekend.

It's another heavy marking weekend, but I have to have a break sometime, don't I?

The thing which made my day today was a surprise visit from Magda between step and body trim.  She brought me a present.

It's about the author's experience over the course of a year attempting to knit the Mary Tudor sweater from Alice Starmore.   It's a ton more than that, but it looks awesome and I can't wait to read it.

So that's where I am for now.  

I have to finish the second Spring Crocus or Early Crocus sock and then I can free up my 2.25 mm needles so that I can do the second Jewelled Autumn sock.  Some of the Lonely Hearts I fear will be relegated to the status of "confirmed bachelor".  I absolutely HATE the flabella.  And I am not crazy about the colour of the Flaming Desire, even though I did a pair in Casbah in Sangria and they are wonderful.  And Rimefrost looks like a lost cause as well.

Oh well, the Shur'tugals have now joined eYarnmony and are a Happy Couple.

Once I get some suggestions about what yarn to use for the Redbud, I can start those as well.

For now, a little surfing and then some marking.  Blech.  

Post the Second (aka Lord, I was Born a Rambling Maa-aaan)

The historic building across from my work is scheduled to be incorporated into a downtown monstrous commercial tower.  The lower part of the building is a designated heritage property, so the developer is required to incorporate the facade into his new design.  They've emptied it all out, and now the outside is being propped up.  They've added great big huge cement slab weight things.  But I think it's kind of cool how you can see other buildings through the empty window spaces.

 

Over at Purdy's Wharf, they're doing something which involves erecting scaffolding. When it was lying on the ground, it looked kind of cool because some of the ends were painted in pastel colours. 

In terms of offerings from the yarn gods, this week I've received only the Tsecond Tsock kit from the Tsock Tsarina.  

I must say, the offerings this time around are done with a lot more thought and care than previously.  In  the previous tsock clubs, we got a ziploc bag with the yarn and the pattern thing, but there were no regular extras.  I guess in fairness we got an extra skein of yarn each year, and there were a couple of things like lavender and eucalyptus sachets and a thing of goat's milk.

But these kits are all carefully considered and surround the theme.  This month's inspiration is A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The sock is called Bottom's dream.  It's a donkey head.   The kit came wrapped in tissue paper which looks vaguely Arthur Rackham-ish, and it was sealed with a manilla donkey sticker.  There's a copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as an Arthur Rackham Bottom card (complete with oatmeal cookie recipe inside), a donkey cookie cutter (LOVE), a donkey stitch marker, and a donkey finger puppet.

I suppose technically they're asses and not donkeys, but whatever.  

I love the idea of socks with ears on them.

Last week (Thursday) I went to Chapters for the first time in about a zillion years.  Since I've been buying ebooks for the Kindle (or technically, the Kindle app on my iPad), I haven't been going to actual brick and mortar bookstores.

I used to have a rule about Chapters:  I didn't permit myself to buy more books than I could carry between my chin and my hand.  That's a lot of books, though. 

I used to buy books like I buy yarn.  I guess technically I still do, but it doesn't seem as real when they're electronic.  I can no longer feel the weight of them from my chin to my wrist.

But I went in the other day looking specifically to see whether they had the new June Hemmons Hiatt Principles of Knitting and the new Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott sock knitting book.  Nope.  They had neither one.  

But they did have The Sock Knitter's Workbook by Ewa Jostes and Stephanie Van Der Linden.  

The book is mostly technique and very little pattern.  As I was flipping through it, I realized that it contains information  which I haven't seen before.  For example, there are four different heel flaps in the book: square (the usual one which we do), round, horseshoe and heart-shaped. Who knew there were 4 other types of heel flap heel?  There are some additional diagonal heels, and a bunch of cast-on things like rolled cuffs and different methods for tubular cast-ons.

The book is illustrated with lots of clear and bright photographs, and the text is clear and easy to read.  

So I was pleasantly surprised by that.  It lives on the kitchen counter and is my meal-reading book.

I also picked up a copy of Gothic Knits, which I hadn't even heard of.  But I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

There are I think 12 different dolls to make.  They're all made out of DK, and they come complete with shaped bodies and knitted clothes.  There are even templates in the book for stitching on the eyes and the mouths.  It's lovely.  Instead of knitting Dangercraft monsters, I might knit some Gothic weirdos.

The other really fun book which I got was Hello, Cupcake!  If you are any kind of fan of cupcakes or children's birthday parties or whimsical food in general, you MUST get this book.  

It has designs for a bunch of different cupcakes.  There are dogs on the front.  They're called Pup Cakes in the book.

Among my favourites are the Garden Variety cupcakes.  Check out the lettuce cupcakes.  See the lettuces?  They're made from coated cornflakes.  Genius!

Then there are the bugs . I am particularly smitten by the Smartie Scorpion.

But I am absolutely blown away by the Monarch butterflies.  The butterflies are made from piped chocolate and something called melting wafers.  The instructions are in the book.  If you didn't know what you were looking at, you'd never know these are cupcakes.  Look closer.  You can see the yellow round frosted cupcakes under the Monarch butterflies.

Then there are other whimsical ones such as the Spaghetti and Meatballs.  The meatballs are made from Ferrero Rocher chocolates covered with strawberry preserves.  Talk about amazing.

Anyway, if you have $25 to spare, I'd suggest you get the book.  It's fun to look at, even if you never make any of them. 

In my Amazon wishlist, I have some knitted food books.  One day, when I'm feeling flush with cash ...

On the needles right now, I'm on the second Shur'tugal.  I've turned the heel and have finished the gusset decreases.  I'm on the foot, so it's all downhill for now.

I am also on the heel flap of the second Spring Crocus sock.  As soon as these two are done, I will cast on for Redbud and something else.  My pile of Lonely Hearts is slowly dwindling.  On the other end of the bookcase, I have the Happy Couples.  Right now there are four happy couples, and as soon as I finish Shur'tugal and Spring Crocus, there will be six happy couples.  It's like e-Harmony, but I guess it's e-Yarnony. 

See, there IS method to my madness.  I don't start a new one until I finish a Lonely Heart.

I have a metric crap ton of marking to do over the next week and a half, as well as prepare a paper for a conference (and file my income taxes -- can't forget *that* happy task, nosiree, bub).  So I may be a little absent for a while.  If I haven't succumbed from writer's cramp, I should have sufficiently well-developed hand muscles that I'll be able to knit at the speed of light. 

Until then, I bid you adieu.

And I guess that's when I'll be able to show you about my little fall off the wagon into the Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga trail.  And my fall off the wagon into the serendipitous Plucky Knitter trail. 

But for now, I leave you with happy cupcake thoughts. 

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

I meant to blog last week or last weekend.  It didn't happen.  I feel badly.  So I'll make today's post extra long. Or maybe I'll break it up into two posts.

Post the first.

When we last left off, I had finished the Papaver  socks, and nothing had arrived in the mail.

Last week, I got arrivals in the mail.  Yes, there was more stashquisition, but it was of the sock club variety, so it doesn't count. And there has been some progress knitting-wise.

First off, the goodies. 

I received my March Rockin' Sock Club offering from Blue Moon Fiber Arts and my April Cookie A Sock Club offering.  

The Rockin' Sock Club contains the usual host of lovely goodies:  dyer's notes, 2 patterns, a mini-skein, and a bumper sticker.

The yarn is STR Mediumweight in Budding Twig.  One pattern is a shawl (meh), and the other is a pair of socks called Redbud by Linda Welch.  I keep referring to them as Rosebud.  Whoops. 

The socks are actually a lovely pattern, and I think I want to cast them on as soon as I have two more things off the needles.  I really like the pattern, and I think I'll use the club yarn, since it's such a nice mix of light colours.  I'm not usually a fan of the light stuff, so I have to strike while the mood is upon me.

The second sock club offering is from Cookie A.  The yarn is Sokkusu Original from Socktopus (Alice Yu).  I find it intriguing that Cookie A's yarn comes from a fellow designer who also has a yarn club.

On a philanthropist level, I am super-happy that Cookie A has introduced Alice's yarn to the world at large.  If you read the comments in Ravelry, people are really taken with the yarn.  As am I, which is why I have 18 skeins in my stash.  The selfish part of me knows that this will likely turn Alice into a sock yarn superstar and she and Ling will never have another quiet moment to themselves. But my love of Sokkusu and wanting to share wins out.  I just hope I'll be able to scoop some updates every now and again.

The yarn is called River Styx.  I think I might use it for the Socktopus Tideway pattern and I might use one of my HB#2 skeins to knit Turbulence.  And perhaps I'll use Grellow to knit Nanaimo.

There was also a very cool band around the yarn, which I have of course put on my bulletin board of yarny goodness. 

I had also ordered some short circs to attempt sock knitting with 2 circs at a time.  I ordered ChaioGoo red lace in 2.25 and 2.50 mm (16") and a set of Hiya Hiya Sharps in 2.75 mm (24").  

I initially tried the ChiaoGoo needles and wasn't sure.  I was emailing Christine, and she said she doesn't like the ChiaoGoo needles because the cable is so stiff and it creates ladders.  So I switched socks and switched needles.   

After doing the comparison, I think I like the ChiaoGoo more than I like the Hiya Hiyas.  

Of course what I really want is SNA circs in a 20" length.  That would be perfect for me.  But they seem to be working more at the big end of the spectrum than at the small end of the spectrum.  Yesterday they announced the arrival of size 10 circs (6.0 mm).  Why can't they work out the bugs and do 2.25, 2.50, 2.75 and 3.0 mm circs?  They'd make a killing.

But as usual, I digress.

Last week's knitting consisted of finishing the second stripey sock.   I did the Sweet Tomato heel again, but I knit a couple of rounds between wedges, so the striping doesn't match anymore. Grrr.. It only matches to the heel.

So I cast on another self-striping sock.  It's the Platypus colourway from Nalani Yarns.  I decided to do an afterthought heel, now that I realize that I didn't actually pay enough attention to Leslie's video tutorial.  I neglected to knit 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of sotckinette before starting the heel decreases.  Duh.  No wonder it was uncomfortable.   So I am trying again.  I have the first sock done sans heel.

I did it cuff-down and went down to 2.25 mm needles.  I think I knit 18 rows of ribbing and then another 72 rows of leg before inserting the heel.  

It looks to me as though it's going to be a short sock.  I should probably have done another 12 to 15 rows on the leg, since I forgot to compensate for the smaller needle size.  

And finally, there was some puppy love last week.  This is mostly for Magda.  

Lila - deceptively cute.

Des on the floor

Sebastian on the floor

Lila and Bastian

And Bastian taking a nap

They're cute when they're not destroying things.