Noro stripe sock

I'm doing a basic toe-up sock in noro sock yarn, and I'm striping by pulling from both ends of the yarn...

And, well, all the pukey colors converged at the bottom of the sock. I'm not sure I'm loving it.

She's back!

You know, I went to Florida to visit a friend in Clearwater/Tampa between semesters. And you know what? I didn't take a single picture. It's all right. Steve, his friend Ryan and I went beaching, to an aquarium, and Busch Gardens, as well as playing some video games! Woohoo. We'll just ignore the part where Northwest airlines stinks and it took us 24 hours and an overnighter to get back to Detroit...

I did finish some socks though:




The pattern is Crosswalkers, a rip-off of the ubiquitous Jaywalker pattern. You know what, though? The fabric is much stretchier, and I love these damn things! The yarn is Fortissima Colori Disco. Pink, with a few spray-dyed colors and a strand of glitter running through. What more could you want?



Oh, what's that? You want one of my homemade Oreos? Too freaking bad! The recipe is here though, and fucking amazing if I do say so myself. Go on, make yourself some! You deserve it! Although they're laden with fat and sugar and everything else bad, they at least aren't laden with preservatives and weird Nabisco chemicals!

Socks!

So, I discovered a great pattern on Ravelry and decided I needed socks. These suckers are the "monarch" socks, because I thought it was clever with a mix of the colors and the butterfly stitch motif.




Pattern: Flutter-By Socks
Yarn: Yarn Hollow superwash sock, purchased at a yarn festival in Ann Arbor
Needles: Size 1 1/2 US or 2.5MM
Mods: I made the toe much less pointy, stopping with 26 stitches to go. I used the eye of partridge heel, but that's not really a mod since it's given in the pattern...

It's strange how knitting melds in with whatever is going on in life. Last week should have been awesome, as it was spring break and I was off classes. However, on Wednesday my father passed away. (I know I sound crass, but at least he had the sense to go when I was off classes and didn't have to miss any. Trust me, if you knew him, you'd know he wouldn't mind comments like this.) The rest of break has just sort of been a blur of visiting mom, DVDs, knitting, and trying to forget. I didn't get any fucking schoolwork done. At least I have some freaking socks to show for it.

Socks that Don't Rock

So, they're done...



The toes, in the pattern as written, are far too pointy. The second sock, after the cat fiasco involved five little balls of yarn cut away from that mess. Now to cast on something that ACTUALLY rocks...

I also sewed a messenger bag, but all the photos I've attempted to take of it have been absolutely dismal.

Oh, and let's not forget that I could be voting today, but my genius state and the national democratic party have given me a fiasco where I get a choice between Clinton, Kucinich, and "uncommitted." It pisses me off. This explains well what the hell is going on. Normally I'm excited about voting, but... not today. If you hear any pundits tonight saying "Clinton wins Michigan!" they're lying.

Socks, ornaments

I finished some socks...



They're simple, easy, happy little things. I really just wanted to play with the yarn, Skinny Duets from A Swell Yarn Shop. I can't believe how perfectly the colors worked out. Usually with hand-dyed yarns one can expect some crazy pooling, but that just wasn't the case! Color me happy.



And for some belated Christmas cheer... ornament covers. The furry one went to Jason, and the other two to my mother... Considering I don't have much in the way of a tree to hang them on.

Not much is going on. Still waiting on grades. Still knitting. (I should have some more things to show off soon.) Still playing a lot of Rock Band, which Santa brought me. I RULE at drumming.

Oh, and speaking of video games, you all should check out Sprite Stitch. It proves that 8-bit characters work well in charted form... for knitting, cross-stitch, or otherwise. There are some AWESOME works on there!

Socks!

Yay! Finally finished my first pair of socks for the Southern Summer of Socks. I have a healthy fear that my camera might be dead, so please accept my apology for the cell phone photo...



The pattern is Cookie's monkey socks. They're still fun to do the second time around, but I'm never very excited about doing a pattern a second time. I don't think I could make more monkey socks without having my head explode, so it's time to get on ravelry and find some more good stuff to do!

And the yarn? It's from the seller Pinkwool on etsy, her Teamfeet yarn. The socks are obnoxiously U of M colored. They're a gift for my grandmother who has had season tickets to U of M sports for a really, really long time. I can't wait to mail them out!

Speaking of knitting things for a second time, I'm working on a second Branching Out to send to another friend... Sheesh, what is it with me making two of a pattern lately? I also fear that I may run out of yarn... but never fear! Threadbear is near! (And open Sunday. Wow, I'm a dork.)

It's not just about politics, but also my booze!

The pink mouse I made for the kittens last month finally met its maker. After spending the night in the cats' water bowl, I decided that it was in their best interest to just throw the soggy, tailless, unraveling, partially-felted guy away.



His replacement was made out of some leftover Malabrigo. I'm sad to report that this new kitten toy isn't holding up so well; after just one day of terror from Orangecat and Blackcat, his i-cord tail is already unraveled and gone! Oh well, it's obvious that these guys still love him, so I'm not too heartbroken just yet.



The Flame Wave socks from Favorite Socks finished! Fishnets no more, I rather like their second chance at life as comfy socks. I wish I could use these for the Southern Summer of Socks, but that action doesn't start until Monday. Don't worry, there is plenty of sock yarn just waiting for my sole goal of being knitted up!

Speaking of Monday, I should probably go to Meijer and get more liquor. Why, you ask? Well, my government is shutting down. It boggles the mind that the fact that Michigan is going into government-induced anarchy isn't making national news. Most of the residents of this fine state were blissfully unaware of the fact that this was a possibility. What do we get? We get limited police force, limited funding to colleges, and no distribution of liquor, among a lot of other random, annoying things until the legislature comes to some agreement over their budget. The most tragic part of this isn't really the liquor, it's the bazillions of people who suddenly are laid off. Virtually every government worker is out of work starting Monday. They are only keeping people in prisons and hospitals and such to keep this from being complete state-induced anarchy.

There are a lot of fingers being pointed at our governor, but I don't think it's entirely fair to place the blame on her. Rather, what I see is a bipartisan host of morons in the legislature so stubborn and so motivated by sheer politics rather than goodwill that they've caused a shitstorm. At least Governor Granholm has been proposing a budget since January...

No wonder West Virginia's economy is better than ours. Fuck you, Michigan. I'm going to go buy another huge bottle of Stoli while I still can.

1967 was a good year

Once in a while, my mother comes to visit me and we go antiquing together. She has an ubiquitous collection of glass, while I look around for random kitschy knick-knacks and LPs. I've always secretly hoped for old knitting and sewing patterns... Of course, most of the sewing patterns are for a 30" bust (!), and the knitting patterns were usually just never there...

I scored last weekend. Really.



It's from 1967, and published by a now-nonexistent yarn company. I LOVE some of the styles in this book, in particular the sweater being modeled by the blonde girl with the flip hairstyle. The only dilemma? This book is so clever that it has many of the same patterns available as cardigans OR pullovers! Choices! And thankfully, it's not SO old that the patterns are written in Greek. I can't wait to get started.

In other can't-wait news, I've joined up with the Southern Summer of Socks. I'm not an Aussie (right now), but I need an excuse to use up all my sock yarn. And, really, I think that's my main goal for the "summer" challenge.

Socks, redux

Once upon a time, I thought that knitted fishnet stockings were a good idea. I thought that these were SUCH a good idea, in fact, that I have enough Elann Esprit to last me a loooong time. I started out with the ruby color, as I had every intent to wear them as a transvestite to a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight thing. Long story short, I finished one. It looked like crap, was too short for my garter belt, and I ended up with storebought red Victoria's Secret fishnets instead. The rest of my outfit? I was pretty much half-naked in October. This was not the greatest idea. There is still photographic evidence of my bad, bad idea.

That lone fishnet stayed in my stash for far too long... But when I got a copy of Favorite Socks, I knew the destiny of that Esprit!





Yes, Flame Wave socks. One is done, the other is on the needles and on its way. Part of me still wants ruby red hand-knitted fishnets... but then, I remember the miles and miles of windowpane stitch and smack myself for even thinking it.

Janet's still a slut, as far as I'm concerned.

Fiber festival, orientation fame

I was so excited about posting the Absorba that I totally forgot to mention two other awesome yarn-related things.

I initially thought I'd be unable to attend the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan this year. It was only today and tomorrow, and I was supposed to work tomorrow... but I quit my job! Yay! After less than a month of working in Lansing I decided to quit. I hated it, and it won't mix with law school by any stretch of the imagination. What was I thinking? Now I'm going with Steve to the fiber festival, and I have a meager paycheck I can put toward my bad habit. WONDERFUL!

Speaking of the law school thing, I had an orientation seminar this morning. One of the Dean-types welcomed us and then told us how diverse our class was with random facts about us. There were pro basketball players, poets, a student that knows how to eat fire... "and," she announced, "one student enjoys knitting socks!" I sort of groaned and sunk into my seat, because my entering class seemed to think this was one of the most amusing things they'd ever heard, and erupted into laughter. I think I'm going to take it as a compliment. I don't remember exactly where I said I enjoyed knitting socks; perhaps it was on the application? Maybe it WASN'T something I mentioned anywhere, and someone ELSE enjoys knitting socks!

Fun fact: Total cost of my books was roughly $500 this semester. This may sound really expensive, but it really isn't that bad, considering I was expecting it to be much worse. No one book cost more than $50. I did far worse as an undergraduate, when I had a java book that was $110 by itself.

An update!

I have to admit, I'm liking Lansing. This could be because I'm working 15 hours a week and sitting on my butt waiting for classes to start... It's like a vacation. It'll be over soon enough, though. The main stress is Steve's job hunting and money situation. Unstable would best describe it. As I type, he's working on perfecting his portfolio site. This could be pointless if none of the tech jobs in the area want him and he ends up waiting tables at Applebee's or something. Some freelance work would be really nice right now just so he has more to show off... As he's a web designer (and quite talented, not that I'm biased or anything), would any of you lovely knitters like a spruced up blog?

Anyway.

Continuing the Lansing-area yarn crawl, I went to Rae's Yarn Boutique last week because Meg had mentioned it in her blog. Imagine my dismay in finding out that there was a yarn shop like, literally a block south of a shopping center I've started frequenting! And oh, what a cute shop! Steve and I made it there on an evening that they were open later; I assume it was for the knitting group talking Harry Potter on the front couches.

Well, they were sort of talking Harry Potter. When one of the ladies there would start to go into ANY detail about the plot of the last book, another would screech, "Don't ruin it!" It was really amusing. I really wanted to walk up to them and proclaim that ---- kills ---- on page ---. Really, I haven't read any of these books, but my experience with literature has overwhelmingly been that it doesn't matter if you know major plot points in advance. Does Pride and Prejudice lose any of its charm if you pick it up knowing that Elizabeth and Darcy get married? For me, it certainly does not.

Anyway, back to Rae's. Back when I worked at the shop in Ann Arbor, I was always disappointed that the ladies didn't keep a very good selection of sock yarn. (They don't like knitting socks, so their customers shouldn't either!) Not only was Rae's full of luscious sock yarn, but imagine my delight at seeing an entire box of Socks that Rock waiting for homes. There were probably at least a hundred skeins in this one box! I'm lucky I only came home with one skein:



The colorway is Lemongrass. It's springy and happy, perfect for the Sockbug Lava Flow socks it is becoming. The pattern is absolutely mindless, and highlights the little stripes that are forming.

I would have made more progress on those socks if it weren't for this little guy:



He's based on The Anti Craft's Purasuchikku no Tetsujin. I really shouldn't call him a little guy, considering he is no less than two feet tall. He's completely finished, save for some arms and maybe an antenna on top of his head. I wasn't a huge fan of how the original has wrenches for arms. While wrenches are clever, I want to do something different. I haven't come up with anything yet, and am open to suggestions. The antenna may not happen, because I'm thinking of putting a slot in the top of his head for kleenex or maybe an air freshener.



Thank god I have a robot for a tampon holder now, even if he has no arms or antenna sense of direction. While working on the tampon robot, I was thinking about the merits of plastic canvas and the other things I could make with it... Until I finished seaming up the tampon robot and had sore fingers from all the tight spots and tough seams! Ugh. Honestly, I can see why plastic canvas went out in the seventies.

FO: Monkey Socks

Even the Yarn Harlot has made Monkey Socks! I was working on these all through Traverse City, and just finished them a couple days ago. I couldn't show them off sooner because the USB cord to my camera mysteriously disappeared. The same gremlin that took Steve's wallet must have hidden it. The difference is, I found the cord, but not the wallet!



The yarn is Knitpicks Essential tweed. I'm not sure that I'm completely crazy about the yarn. The "tweed" effect to me almost looks like a normal purple sock has been thrown in the wash with a primary-colored load of something very fuzzy, and the pills have clung to the once-purple sock. Oh well. I wanted to try out the Monkeys in something more solid, and I like that part of the effect very much.

I've been trying very hard to work on UFOs, but I pull many of them out of my stash, only to be reminded of why they're UFOs in the first place. Case in point:



Doily for mom. Phone included for scale. I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I did, and hooman, the 12 stitches per inch are killing me. They're so tiny, and there are getting to be so many stitches that each round takes me at least ten minutes, sometimes more. (Don't worry mom, I will finish it. One day.)

Oh well. Here's some Natalie Dee to brighten your day.



I'm off to listen to the cure now.

The weekend adventure

I was supposed to go to Chicago this past weekend. The plans fell through at the last minute. I almost never get weekends off, so I had to make last minute plans of some other variety and seize my rare opportunity to get away... I guess Steve and I still could have gone to Chicago, but we wanted to do something more relaxing. I booked two nights in Traverse City, MI. It's about a four hour drive, and it's located in the part of the state where the beaches are mostly sandy, not rocky. It's a delicious relaxing tourist trap. There were two local yarn shops, one right downtown and one a little farther out. I had grand plans to go to both, along with a couple of close-ish side trips.

Perfect.

The drive up there goes through a pretty boring area of Michigan. If one of the highlights is Mt. Pleasant (infamous for being a boring college town), you know you're in for trees and sparse gas stations.

So, when you get almost to Traverse City, it's really, really odd to see a somewhat tall building:



This building became a running joke though the rest of the trip, because it towers over everything else in the area.



This is Grand Traverse Bay by daytime. Well, it's a small portion of it, anyway, but it gives you some idea of the delicious sandy beaches. Friday consisted of driving, arriving, shlepping around town to antique shops, and trying to find Lost Art Yarn Shop. It was right downtown, but somehow Steve and I missed it when we were there. It wasn't on any of the business directory map things either! Naturally we found it that evening on the way to the pub when it had closed. I cursed this fact over a lot of vodka and delicious food before having a long walk on the beach back to our hotel.



This is what that walk looked like, minus the blurriness I get from not being able to hold a camera still while somewhat inebriated.

Saturday morning consisted of a delicious breakfast (mushroom, swiss, and ham omelet) which I'd feel silly taking a photo of in a crowded cafe while sitting at the counter. Just trust me, it was good. We then decided to trek the hour and a half to Petoskey, home of the famous... rocks? Oh, and nice beaches and a cute downtown, too.

The beach bumming didn't amount in any swimming. Even though it was almost 90 in Traverse City, it was only 75 in Petoskey when we got there. Swimming didn't seem nearly as fun (the lake water was pretty damn cold), so my idea of a good time on a beach?




Monkey socks out of knitpicks essential tweed to be exact. I did more than just knit... I mean, I did find one (very small) Petoskey stone at the state park. The Monkey socks are much bigger now, though.



Just an aside, people: if you're going to visit pretty pristine beaches anywhere in the world, pick up your damn trash. I'm really hoping this behavior is limited to us lazy Americans; I never remember seeing trash on the beaches surrounding Sydney. I don't care how artsy Steve's photo of this litter is, I promise you this trash was still an eyesore in person.

What was worse were the (undoubtedly underage) kids we witnessed later that night who left an empty twelve-pack of Old Milwaukee (stolen from a dad, undoubtedly) laying around. Ugh.

Anyway.

We shlepped to downtown Petoskey, where I found a yarn shop! Yarn and Fiber Etc., to be exact. I got three balls of Berroco Foliage, which were incidentally on sale! YES! We also stopped at an amazing coffee shop (The Supreme Bean) which had white chocolate hot chocolate, amazing mochas, and an etch-a-sketch:



Then it was time to drive to the Sleeping Bear Dunes. This is a thirty-mile stretch of... sand... along the water in a relatively desolate (sleepy?) part of the state. In a corner of the park, we found a trail...




...which led to a beach! Exactly what we wanted: MORE SAND!

No, really, we did. And this one was far superior because there were no people. But there were more rocks and a dead tree.




We enjoyed ourselves here for a while, too. After we cleaned up, we went to dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant called Ciao Bella. Oh, I paid out my ass for it, but it was worth it. It was followed up by decent Gelato (that still doesn't beat the stuff in Italy) at the American Spoon. We walked back, with every intent of going to the casino to lose some money, but we fell asleep almost immediately...

Only to wake up today, and decide to head out early. There was a race at MIS, and that was definitely going to throw a monkey wrench into our driving time. We planned accordingly. We were going to get home pretty early...

Until we hit Mt. Pleasant. We stopped for a pit stop at the casino (to lose the $5 I was going to lose the previous evening in Traverse City) and Cold Stone for ice cream... Except we got a flat tire at Cold Stone! (The Cold Stone is next to a Curves, which is pretty funny to me.)



We then ended up driving around looking for a tire place that wasn't Wal-Mart, but alas we ended up in my version of hell: the automotive repair section of Wal-Mart. Actually, Wal-Mart in general is pretty much my version of hell. We walked around the store a little, commenting on censored music, video games that aren't carried, and telling stories of shirts pulled from the shelves. We spent the only money we've EVER spent in Wal-Mart, and hopefully it will be the last... so long as we never end up in a strange city on a Sunday with a flat again.

We're home now. And I'm tired. There are bits and pieces that I left out, but for the most part, you've just had a play-by-play of my weekend.

Two WIPs

I've been working on two projects lately that I'm currently so in love with, I'm actually showing them off before they're finished. I don't usually do that.

First up are the gift socks I've dubbed the Dorky Germany Socks. These are to be given to a friend who studied abroad in Germany and consequently adores everything German now and is planning to live there. When I saw the yarn, Regia Nation, I knew that she needed Dorky Germany Socks.



The pattern is just Wendy's Generic Toe-up Pattern. I figured I'd use up the Dorky Germany Yarn and go until I ran out. As you can see, the yarn went awfully far. I had to add calf increases because they stop not too far below my knee. I know that the recipient will love them...

The other thing I've been working on more is Knitty's Mariah. I know, I have major Knitters' ADD, as I've already put the Exchecquered down for now. My progress on Mariah has barely gotten me into the first sleeve. But somehow, it's extremely exciting for me to see the knotwork cable coming together.



(Excuse the difficulty I had photographing the gray yarn. I have no idea why the details got so washed out.) I only am nervous because the buzz in the knitting community seems to point to major issues with the pattern. I haven't seen them yet, but we shall see if Mariah continues to come together nicely...

Hedera FO!

I finished Knitty's Hedera! Pretty exciting, as I think this is record time for me and a pair of socks. I cast them on perhaps three weeks ago, and between lunch breaks and such they got finished. The reason they were finished so fast is pretty much because of the nature of the pattern; the lace pattern is only four rows long, and easily memorized. I could take them with me everywhere and not be lost without a copy of the pattern!

The yarn is knitpicks essential. For the record, the color is gulfstream, which is a MUCH deeper turquoise than the website or my photo shows. It's a really delicious color.

Now, knitters, do I finish the Exchequered scarf that has been a UFO for far too long, finish Eiffel, or do I start gift socks instead? Decisions!

New Glasses

I got new glasses by SEE Eyewear, most assuredly the sexiest specs I've ever had.

Too bad I didn't like the pink ones.



They make me happy. There's not much else going on at the moment. I'm working on knitting Hedera for the most part. Past the heel on the first one.

WIPs, mostly

Not as much on the knitting front lately as I'd like. I'm pretty sure that this semester is topping last Winter as far as difficulty goes. Back then I had nineteen credits, and I ended up writing about 300 (yeah, I counted) pages worth of papers because most of my classes had weekly assignments.

Now, I only have fifteen credits. However, after Thanksgiving, I have two twenty-page research papers, a thesis, and two projects to turn in. Okay, so one of said projects is my first ever lost-wax casting project for my jewelry class... Fun, but still lots of work. The worst of that is behind me though: carving the wax model. It's a squared-off ring with an abstract (because I can't carve very well) star on it. It's taking 28g of silver (for a size 5 1/2 ring... yeah, it's bulky), which is every scrap I have from every other project I've done this semester, so I guess I budgeted well. That, the amethyst brooch, and the earrings I did will be the three projects from this semester that I'll probably wear regularly. I'll post photos when I get everything back at the end of the term...

The holiday gifts for a few lucky ones this year will be Felted Furry Foot Warmers from SNBN. I don't think the recipients look at this blog, and if they do, SHAME ON YOU! I haven't felted them yet, and they look kind of funny.



I haven't quite finished the second one of the first pair; they're deep green LP Bulky with black LB Fun Fur. It felt weird to buy Fun Fur, but it feels like one of those yarns that can be used in moderation only.



They're huge now, 16" long to be exact. The recipient of this first pair wears a size 12 women's shoe, so hopefully they shrink accordingly. Depending how it goes, I may shrink the pattern more for the recipient of the second pair which I haven't started.



The other major WIP is a pair of two-at-once toe-up magic loop socks. I've never done two at once or magic loop before. It's slow going and fiddly, so I'm not sure if I'm going to want to continue doing socks this way. I'm already crying for the DPNs and I'm not that far in! Anyone else feel this way?

Socks!

Hooray! I finished the Anastasia Socks! And to top it off, I've just started my first-ever pair of two-at-once magic loop socks. And wouldn't you know, I get it. This success is a surprise, because I already frogged my Deep V Argyle vest once - silly me messed up the ribbing on the very bottom. Oh well, three rows is certainly no loss.

He loves me!

So, I have finally finished the Lovemeknot socks. I had zero problems with the first sock. But then I got *smart* and decided that I would reverse the colors in the second. No problem... until I turn the heel. For some reason, I had a hell of a time CONTINUING the illusion pattern and getting the colors right after doing so.

But, I frogged back to the heel twice and they are finally done.



I used two balls of Knitpicks Palette, because these have been on my needles for so long that there wasn't black essential back when I ordered them.

Incidentally, I think I'm done with illusion knitting for a long time to come.



Whoa! Look! Hearts! And according to the mystic riddle at the end of the end of the pattern (props to Alice for always writing interesting patterns), Steve does, in fact, love me. Whew. And, because they are finished, Virginia Woolf will not haunt me. This is accurate because my days in literature classes are over. Whew!