Not gonna lie.

I kinda hate July a little so far. It's the weather. Ugh.

Too hot and WAY too humid to do anything fun outside. Or anything outside really. (You could swim.......but I don't have a pool.) I've been reading a lot lately. Which is good for working through the stacks of books (both paper and digital) that I have. But man, I hate humid. It turns me into a whiny princess. :(

Way back a couple weeks ago, before the dew point parked it's ass in the 70-75 degree range and refused to budge, I did manage to finish a couple projects.

Cookie A - Jubilee pattern

Yay! Socks! Only my second pair this year. NUTS. I am seriously lacking in sockitude this year because of my tendonitis issues. They are..........a little weird? They look massively big but fit pretty okay. Probably too thick to wear with lace up shoes but, as luck would have it, I tend to wear clogs more often than not in the winter around the house. (I contemplated doing the smaller pattern size but the gauge was telling me they would have been too small then so I didn't even bother to try it.) Cheetos-colored socks aren't for everyone though, obviously, so these I'm definitely keeping for myself. :)

That's it for me with knitting though until the weather changes. I started a scarf but it's too too too sticky draping over your legs, etc. to work on it right now.

Also finished, little L*K strawberry sampler that's......also a little weird? I had almost none of the hand-dyed threads it called for and the DMC conversions provided were........less than stellar. I'm not 100% on some of the colors, as far as them all working together, but, you know - it is just a little sampler. No sense in driving yourself mad over it either.

Do you know how hard it is to find collectables that have LIGHT-colored Himalayans in them? IMPOSSIBLE. Everything is done up with the darker Seal and Chocolate point Himalayans.  *pout* 

So I was SUPER stoked to find this original watercolor on Etsy with a Blue point kitty, just like my Mooshie. OH HELLO, I MUST HAVE YOU.  (The seller is Amble and Sing. SUPER cute stuff!) It's just about the most perfect thing EVERrrrRRrrrrr. *ahem* I put one of his favorite 'glitter' balls he loved to fetch with  it and I just love it. Makes me smile every time I pass it in the hall. :)

I'm really over how quiet the house is too. I had tuna fish for lunch yesterday - alone.
By myself. Do you know how sad that is? No one cared. No one came to sit with me. No one begged for a treat. It tasted like salty tears and disappointment. 

To remedy that, expect a can of whoop ass to be unleashed around these parts around mid-August. Hopefully. *fingers crossed*

Squared.

 Well, that's that. For now, at least.

I'm all squared out on knitting squares for a while. I do like dabbling in some mindless knitting for a bit but it does lose it's appeal at some point and then it's time to move on to something more challenging.

I now have17 new squares to add to the stack in this endless, never going to be finished, blanket.

(I think that brings me up to 65 now?) I'm in NO danger of running out of yarn scraps any time soon either - even after knitting up all these squares I still have a GIGANTO-HUGE bag of them left. It's like a magical bag of yarn that constantly refills itself when I'm not looking. (Something that would be better served if it were food..........or money. lol)

It's pretty crazy for me to only have finished a single pair of socks done at this point in the year (I usually have 3-4 pairs done by now) so I drug out this Cheetos-inspired orange yarn for a pair of socks. I'm going easy on it so far though so my hand doesn't start getting cranky. :(

Do you Hobby Lobby? I've always heard it's a great store to browse and I finally made it to the one that opened near here this winter. (Iif you consider 45 minutes away 'near' - which I do because I have to drive that far for everything that is good.) It felt very old school 90's craft store-ish to me in the sense that it carries everything that was ever made in the history of making things to sell at a craft store. But a lot more organized. And clean. (If that makes sense? It might just be me, but I've done a lot of shopping over the years at local craft stores that were like treasure hunts trying to find what you wanted, everything stacked up in piles, year after year. You never knew what you find. Each aisle was a mystery. lol)

Anyhoo, I wasn't there for any particular reason so all I ended up with is a cute polka dotted bundle of fabric quarters (perfect for small finishes) and an adorable little needle tin with old-timey stitching motives on it.  (Oh sure, there was more I *could* have purchased but I was trying to be good.) 

Unfortunately, that store is situated right next to a Joann's AND a Michaels so I'm going to be faced with an uncomfortable choice when I'm in that area again. Joann and I are pretty tight bff's and I've actually DATED Michael (read: I worked at one in the 90's). Not sure I can dump them for the flashy new Miss Hobby, even if she is pretty tricked out. lol

Well that week FLEW by! Always the worst part of taking a week off - the CATCHING UP you have to do when you get back to real life.  

SOMEONE had a 17th birthday the other day. (Hint: it wasn't me.)

Thanks so much for the kind comments about my poor boo-boo kitty. He perked up a bit mid-week and seems mostly back to normal now, or at least his 'normal'. As his brain started healing though the 'must eat everything sight' switch got turned off again and I'm now back to trying to coax him into eating all day. He really, really, really hates the kidney diet prescription food. Like, really hates it. What's the point of food to extend his life a little if he's going to starve to death in the meantime? I keep trying to stick with it (and have for over a year) but at this point I think we have to concede that we are both terrible at sticking to a diet. I can't blame him for being happy with bits of ham or cheese. Aren't we all?

Anyhoo, I'm trying to catch up on photos, photos, photos. I keep taking photos of things but then never posting them. Grrr. I actually did manage to finish a few things on break, that I was very glad to get finished and off to the great Finish Bin in the sky, I mean my closet.

 God I really don't like these socks. I started them in January and JUST finished them, so that right there tells you how disinterested I was in them. I took a skein of yarn I really didn't care for (too thin and splitty) and paired it with a slip stitch pattern that I also didn't care for (because it's a TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR A SPLITTY YARN) and GUESS WHAT? They were a miserable knit from start to finish and I will forever be shocked AND awed that I finished them. (In my defense though I picked that pattern because it helped alleviate the thinness of the yarn. It creates an almost woven fabric that adds bulk.)

 Also finished: the bonus charts from the L*K mystery sampler that I started last summer. Very much not miserable to finish and I'm glad I finally got to it because these are cute and I love Halloween stitchies. :)

 And a bunch of totally unphotogenic Scrap Yarn Blanket of Doom squares. I needed something mindless and quick to start/finish to clear my head of the oogie-boogies from the stupid socks. Blanket square I can finish in 90 minutes? YES PLEASE. I think I'm up to 8 new squares now to add to this never ending, not even CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED project because I'm still having fun doing up new ones. Once I get a bunch, like a dozen, I'll wash and block them so they look pretty and totally not like wadded up Kleenex. :)

To 'reward' myself for finishing a stitchy wip I did up a brand-spanky new-to-me small one. I randomly picked colors for this Val's Stuff freebie and think it came out pretty good. (Though I curse you Belfast green linen for always being IMPOSSIBLE to photograph nicely. What is it with this color??? So pretty in person SO HORRIBLE ON THE INTERNETS.) Could use some more contrast in the nose but I can live with it. Original pattern doesn't chart a flower or bunny tail but it's pretty easy to put them in. (Can't have a bunny without a TAIL?!?)

Now that that is done I reached into the nether regions of my wip stack (also known as my storage ottoman in the living room where things go to die a lonely death) and pulled out another wip to tackle. Oh, how optimistic I was when I happily stitched in the year 2012 on this!!! Twice. *face palm* Oh well. 2012, 2013. Isn't time just an illusion anyway? How can be sure that ANY sampler with a date stitched in is correct, right? So I'm keeping the 2012. And don't be thinking I'm almost done with this because there is whole other section of frames that go on the bottom of this. I originally abandoned this because - SURPRISE SURPRISE - I made a little boo-boo with the border and one of those borders is off a little. And ripping out black floss is miserable so I put it in time out. I think I'm mostly over it now though. Aside from talking about my failure on the internets, of course. lol

Whew. Now I'm all caught up I think, aside from adding these to my project pages. Yay!! :)

Summer knitting.

June 21 was the start of the Summer of Socks fun on Ravelry. 'Socks' really isn't a word that comes to mind when you think of summer but a knitters gotta knit, season be damned.  (As if I knit anything other than socks anyway, right?) I jumped right in with a pair of Dragonfly socks. These are part of a knit-a-long that Dee started this week. I started off strong,  getting this far on the pair of them in two days (the pattern is super easy to memorize, which is perfect for two-at-a-time socks). We'll see if I can keep up with that or not. 

The yarn is that old craft store standard brand of Red Heart. I didn't know they had a wool (75%) sock yarn until I came across this at Joann's a few months ago. Most of their stuff is acrylic which, needless to say, is downright awful for socks. It also has glitter in it so bonus points for that. SPARKLY GLITTER, YES. This color is akin to a bowl of oatmeal........only with SPARKLES. I suspect I'm probably the only person out there who finds that in anyway appealing. lol The verdict so far is: little splitty and likes to stick to itself like OMG WOAH but that seems to be par for the course for a commercially spun yarn. /shrug

I got this little kit in yesterday to make a star-spangled stuffed (?) box so I might have to break-up with the socks for a few days so I can get at least ONE patriotic finish in for the 4th. I'm not super-duper crazy about the flag material that is provided for the inside of the box as part of the kit but I'm not worried about that. I know I have a couple of cute fabrics in the ole stash that can be subbed in for that. :)

That's it for me for now. Got 923234232 beads to make this afternoon and I have to get started ASAP if I want to find time to go for a bike ride before sundown, grill some burgers for supper, maybe catch a couple rays on the deck, etc. (Note: I will probably only get to one of those things today and I'm not gonna lie: my stomach gets first priority so BURGERS WIN.)

Oh happy happy weekend!

And it's nice and SUPER sunny too, which is ALWAYS a mood booster this time of year. :)

 Hard at work this week on adding little goodies on the site/Etsy for Valentine's and spring. Ahhhh, spring! It won't hit here until May but one gets tired of working on nothing but snowmen after awhile. (Still no snow here though. Haven't had a single flake since Halloween, which is totally crazy! I really don't remember if we've ever had a winter with NO snow before?!?)

Also: finished my 'Christmas' hat this week. Yay!!! Another WIP killed, only one left to tackle now. Nothing like being two three weeks late and stuff with the christmas knits, eh? But it's just for the hubs so he can deal.*snort* 

(He *did* get a pair of mittens and socks that made into his stocking for Xmas so I wasn't TOTALLY off the ball here.)

The pattern is called Snowbird (check Ravelry for links) that I purchased from the Stitches East show in 2010. It's pretty funny looking when you are wearing it, to be honest, but this is the same man who goes around the yard in a humongous rabbit fur hat - complete with ear flaps - when shoveling, etc. so at least nothing DIED for this one. :(

Of course, I find ALL winter hats slightly ridiculous in a vague, make-me-chuckle type of way, so it might just be me.

He wanted to have something he could wear to work so I did it in the color palate of his uniforms/work clothing - though he still can't actually be caught wearing it on work grounds, they're so so so so picky about such things. *sigh*  He'll have to save it for when he is working away from work - if that makes sense - but that comprises 98% of his work day so it's all good. The double layer of wool will be nice and toasty for working outdoors all day. :)

The only change I made was to make the inside brim in the same wool (Cascade Superwash) as the rest of the hat instead of doing it in cotton like the pattern suggested. Hates knitting with cotton. Hates it. *shudder*

I'm getting a little tired of doing nothing but colorwork project after project after project but I still have a pair of colorwork mittens that needs some thumbs so once more into the breach....................After that is done though I'm digging into some serious STITCHING. I WILL FINISH SOME ORNAMENTS THIS YEAR. WILL. I WILL. I WILL.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!!!!!!!!!

Did we all survive the holiday??? :)

I'll let you know if I did - as soon as/if I make it through the heaps of turkey soup in my fridge without bursting. Ooof. *pats stomach*

I filled a big stockpot right up to the tippy-top when making it (literally - I had to watch it like a hawk so it wouldn't go over the edge) as I kept throwing leftover stuff that didn't get cooked (a bit of string beans, a slice of prosciutto) and stuff that was cooked but leftover after a couple days...........WOW. Truly EPIC amount of soup going on in this house this week. It's a good thing I like soup. lol

It was back to work on Saturday so I only got three days off - more than some people, less than others, I'm sure. I'm just smack-dab-in-the-middle-bear, I guess. I did a little shopping online but not too much. A few presents down, a couple things for myself. One small (silicon tea strainer set), one really big (more on this one later maybe *grin*). No 'real' Black Friday shopping offline (unless a trip to the supermarket for salad stuff counts) but we did go to the Country Folk Art show out in Sturbridge, MA just to get out and enjoy the nice weather. (It can be a quiet ride getting out to that area.)

I did pick up a couple presents but mostly I admit to indulging in my weakness for Blossom Bucket figurines and a couple fabric ornaments. God I love these little guys. They are just SOOOOOO hard to resist.

Oh, and glittery Charlie Brown type trees. Totally weak in the face of those too. :)

(I had to get some glittery cinnamon scented teeny pine cone potpourri too because if it sparkles, it's guaranteed to be coming home with me.)

 

The husband found this beehive for just $3 so we had to have that too. I'm just not sure what to do with it......yet.

If you pull back you can see it's a beehive..............tree. A two foot high tree. Hmmmm. Hang teeny tiny cross stitch finishes off of it? Do up some bees/birds beads and hang them from invisible thread? I'll figure it out eventually or just lop off the tree part and call it a day. (It was only $3.)

I didn't finish the mittens but I'm close (REALLY close!) and I did manage to finish up a pair of Boy Socks. Super long, super big boy socks. It felt like I would never finish them but, in actuality, I finished these up in 3 weeks.

Regia Striping Yarn, pulled from deep in the stash. 

He has a pair of these, only with blue stripes and they are holding up well. I wish I more of it actually. I really miss when elann.com had great deals on Regia and other 'boy sock' (read: has nylon/holds up well) yarns.You could get enough yarn for a pair of socks for like $7-8, which was awesome. I think I only have *one* skein left now though from that particular stash. *sniff*

So all in all it was a pretty quiet weekend, with the minimum of family dramaz. (There is one person who likes to ramp it up, so to speak, at this time of year and she's nothing if consistent but we're ignoring it for the moment. lol) 

Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend too! (Or a nice weekend in general if you don't celebrate.)

Patch job success!

From these holey heels:

To two new life-saving patches:

Annnnnnnnnd my favorite pair of socks are back in action for a little while longer.

I even had some of the original yarn left in my cupboard to use for the darning! (Though, obviously, we've got some MAJOR fading going on here over the three years these socks have been in use.) 

You basically use a lot of duplicate stitching with a regular sewing needle to 'fill' the hole. The heel with the totally disintegrated stitches was a bear to do, not gonna lie. (Creating new knit stitches out of thin air is NOT fun). That one is clearly not as neat as the other but I'm fairly certain it will hold so I'm happy with it. I can always get back in there and widen it a bit if needed.

HUGE thanks to Jackie for pointing me in the direction of Knit Picks darning tutorials.They worked like a charm. :)

You can't keep me down for long.

Back in February I lost a beloved member of my sock family. The King Sock, if you will. I loved them too much, for too long, and blew a huge hole in the heel. *sniff*

(Mr. Chicken was in charge of the inspection process.)

There was only one thing to do, of course........

KNIT ANOTHER PAIR EXACTLY LIKE THE FIRST.

Same yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts - Socks that Rock.

Same pattern: Crusoe (free Knitty pattern)

AND I SHALL LOVE THEM UNTIL THEY FALL APART.

 

(Mr.Chicken approves.)

Austin Hoodie.

Ravely link.

Stick a fork in 'er - she's done!

Crazy how the camera picks up different colors in each photo! The one above is the most 'true', I think.

I can't say it was always an enjoyable knit - the pattern inconsistencies drove me mad - but it is a lovely design.

After all that though, the size is spot on. I did good there. Roomy enough to comfortably wear over all sorts of other clothing so my OCD doesn't kick in. lol 

(I *HATE* the feeling of tight clothing. Always have. Tight *and* smelling of detergent? Guaranteed anxiety attack and/or hives. I'm cray-cray in the head weird like that. No smells and no restriction or it's coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs time.)

I'm still not so sure that sweater knitting is for me but I'm not ruling it out for the future. What can I say? I'm a die hard sock knitter. /shrug. I likes what I likes.

What now that I'm 'free'? I took a breather this weekend and pulled out my long-untouched Scrap Yarn blanket project and furiously knit up three more squares for that. I think I'll do a few more to get the kinks out of my system - going back to size 1 needles was a bit of jolt after using the larger ones for a couple months. And then, of course, I'll start up the sock knitting again. :) 

I believe I had some goals for 2011 in that regard that I've fallen a bit behind on.

Weeeee - I'm no longer a virgin!

How's that for an attention-grabbing subject line? :)

Seeing as I'm going to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary later this year I'm not, of course, talking about THAT kind of virgin. I mean I'm no longer a SWEATER virgin. 

I've knit almost a 100 pairs of socks (or maybe even a little over a 100!), at least a dozen scarves, more than a few mittens/gloves and a few cutesy-poo toys but never, ever sweater. Partly because I'm SERIOUSLY, RIDICIOUSLY BAD at reading knitting patterns and wondered if I could actually muddle my way through it, and partly because, well, it's REALLY FREAKING expensive! lol 

But I saw this pattern last Year and was like ZING! Gotta have! MINE!

I bought the yarn for it last October from WEBS....

...similar color as the original but only because there weren't many colors to choose from when I purchased this...I'm kind of bummed at how many more choices there are now..

...and in my typical, procrastinating way I didn't get around to starting it until this week. *ahem*

Did my swatch, got gauge, measured for gauge a few dozen times more, wrestled with the provisional cast-on, watched a few cast-on videos, unfurrowed my brow, started the provisional cast-on again, worried about the looseness of the provisional cast-on, counted my stitches three times, still ended up one stitch over after the hem was done (*sigh*), knit that together with another stitch and pretended it never happened (BECAUSE IT DIDN'T *STARE*), measured for gauge a few dozen more times, worried it was too big.....Oh and this is all within the first 7 inches of knitting. If it goes like this the whole way I MAY DIE FROM ANXIETY BEFORE I FINISH IT. I think it's the whole ' you *WILL* turn this $70 of yarn into something wearable or ELSE, MISSY!' pressure.

I can live with too big though. Too big I can 'do'. I've been schlumping around all winter in the biggest, baddest brown knit sweater/cardigan thingy like it's a Snuggie, may have even rocked it at the supermarket a few times too, not caring how schlumpy and homeless it makes me look, so there. Damn thing could cover a small house if needed but who cares when it's 62 degrees in the house and you can cocoon in the middle of it until you get warm enough to feel your fingers/toes again? Yeah, so. Too big I can do. As long as I end up something that I can WEAR, even if it's only around the house, I'll be happy. And who knows? Maybe it will set off this whole sweater-knitting-revolution for me and I'll become a sweater-knitting machine! (Or not......unless someone figures out how to rewire my brain so I can read these stupid patterns a little better. Pfffft.)

Oh, sad day.

Sad, sad day.

My favorite pair of knitted socks finally wore through in the heel and now they are gone, gone, gone. *sob*

(Mr. Chicken is from the Pigeon Loft on Etsy. He's always helpful when something needs a good inspection. All business and cluck, cluck, cluck.)

These predate Ravelry so they are pretty old. I guess it was going to happen sooner or later. They were made with BMFA Socks That Rocks yarn, my all-time fav sock yarn, and no matter how much the color dulled, how many fuzzies they got, they were still comfy and squishy. Well, not too squishy in the heel, apparently, because the yarn seems to have just worn down to literal nothingness in that one spot. They were a little thick for wearing with shoes so I called them my 'slipper socks' and wore them around the house, usually once a week** in the winter.

The pattern is Crusoe from Knitty so I guess I'll have to put together another pair. I like the pattern (obviously) but I remember being slightly flummoxed, as a new knitter, at the number of stitches for the cast-on. My knitting 'brain' is all configured for a 64 stitch cast-on so a 44/48 stitch cast-on makes me break a few springs in the ole noggin', you know? It's not hard to reconfigure though. A few notes jotted down and you're set to go.

Anyhoo......Time to go digging through my stash to see what I have for BFMA yarn in there! (This sock was done with Fire on the Mountain but I'm open to all colors.) I don't currently have any socks on the needles so my way forward is clear. lol

**This is a big deal because I probably have 30 pairs (!!!) of hand knit socks in my drawer so I can rotate through them quite a bit if I want.

Apparently we've been bad.

Really really bad. 

And our punishment is to suffer the wrath of snow, more snow, and even more snow.

 Seriously, wtf is *UP* this winter with the snow?? The snow on the sides of my walkway is now piled up almost as high as I am (5 feet). And it's all come down within the last 3-4 weeks with another big storm coming next week. Anyway................sure glad I work from home so I don't have to deal with it too much. I hate driving in snowy weather. Ugh. :(

It's great knitting weather though because who feels like going out when it's this icky?? I sure don't. It's given me time to go back and watch some of the 234231234 gazillion hours of tv piled up in my TiVo. I had the whole season of Boardwalk Empire to get to and I figured now was as good a time as any since it just won some Golden Globes awards, right? Managed to get through half the season last week and make great progress on two new pairs of ribbed socks, even managing to finish these new ones for my mother (she's so spoiled - that's now TWO PAIRS for her this month!! lol):

Ravelry linkage.

This yarn is turned out to be something of a FAIL. Grrr. :(

Listen - I don't mind fraternal socks, I make fraternal socks ALL the time but when I pick out two skeins of yarn with the same dye lot I expect them to match a LITTLE better than this, yanno? One sock is a nice red/yellow/orange/etc rainbow and the other sock.............is just kinda green. I mean - WTF? 

HAVING SAID THAT, they did knit up nice and thick and it was pretty cheap, as far as wool sock yarn goes. (Less than $10 for both skeins.) It's the Paton's Kroy sock yarn that you can find at Joann's Fabrics, etc. I assume it's a knockoff of the (MUCH) more expensive Trekking type yarns that look just like this but to be honest, as far as knitting goes, I like the Paton's yarn better. That Trekking stuff splits like a mother and the yardage can be a little skimpy when doing men's socks. So I would use this yarn but I would definitely do a little looky-loo into the inside of the skeins before I bought them to try and match them up better!!!

I found this 'Brady Brunch special' skein of sock yarn at the local Job Lot this week for $2. The hubby said he would wear them if I make them so I bought it and we'll see if it happens. $2 for 75% wool yarn? That's a steal, but these colors are rocking a serious 70's vibe to me (and not in a good way). I hope it knits up better than it looks here. Heheheh.

One GIANT-sized monkey is off my back...

...because my Giant Skein is no more , and from it's ashes has emerged a Giant-sized lap blanket.

I do so love it and I'm sure I will use it a lot this winter, thrown over my legs and such. (I do, however, find it a teeny tiny bit itchy on bare skin. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to mohair - or is that normally very itchy? Only 2 of the 12 yarns used in this have mohair so it's not crazy itchy though by any means. THANKFULLY, I have no such issues with wool! OMG THE HORROR IF I DID!!!!!!)

 

It measures out around 65-ish inches by 48-ish inches. (It's hard to measure something that wants to stretch this way and that way!)  A little wider maybe would have nice too but, truthfully, after three weeks of going like gangbusters on this, I was very ready to be done with this project. If I'd had more yarn, serious yarn fatigue would have set in and then it would have been anyone's guess when I finished it. :)

 It's a very simple, almost mindless really, Feather and Fan pattern, that results in gentle waves. I used up every last bit of that Giant Skein, all 24 ounces of it, planning out my last pattern repeat very carefully to maximize yarn usage. As a result this is *literally* all that was leftover after the knitting and fringe (not counting the wee trimmings to even this out):

 

Just one small handful of leftovers. :)

Ravelry link.