New Socks 4 Me

I started a sock for myself. I figured the yarns already wound might as well use it. I just did a twisted rib for 1" and then swapped over to stockinette stitch. It's just going to be a simple plain jane sock generated from Sock Wizard. I am loving the way the colors are pooling. I'm using Cherry Tree Hill in the Spanish Moss colorway on US 1 Knit Pick DPN's.

As a side note, blogger says that I've only used 18% of my space for photos.....I've uploaded a lot of photos to this blog in the last 5 months. I also just discovered that you can get into your photo album to edit and share it out if you want. It's like using photobucket. Sorry if you all have figured out how to do this. For someone who is computer literate, I completely missed this one. :~)
Just go to Picasa Web and sign in with your google account log on and password. If you've ever loaded pics directly from your computer you'll find them in your Google Picasa Web Album.

Busy Weekend

I want to say sorry to you all for not responding to your comments. I'll just post one Great Big Thanks to everyone who commented yesterday....the comments helped. :~) Today was a busy busy day. We went to Boise, shopping at Costco's and a luxury treat of lunch at Red Lobster.....we normally grab something to eat at Sonic so Red Lobster is a nice treat. Tomorrow is going to be busy to since I still need to head to the commissary to pick up milk, bread, lunch meat and such.....ah there goes more sock yarn money. Darnit, that whole eating things really sucks the money out of the account....lol. Although I could take the money we are spending in diapers and baby food for my yarn fund as soon as Bree is potty trained and eating table foods. I wonder how fast I can get her to potty train.....lol. Diapers are pricey!
I've set the Monkey socks aside till my Knit Picks DP's get here. The only set of US 2 or 3 needles that are pointy enough to work with for this pattern are 8" long. That's just way to long to work with socks....drives me crazy. With the new needles I'll be able to get the socks done in less then 2 weeks, which means I can pack them up and send them off to their new home.

Suitable Yarn Found

It took me forever but I decided on the yarn I'm going to use to make the Monkey socks for my swap partner. As you all know the Raspberry socks were goofed so my sis is going to give them a new home.
I picked another Fearless Fiber yarn. This one is called Kildare and was sitting on top of my stash waiting patiently for me to finish knitting the Monkey socks so I could start using it. I was going to use it to make up another Cookie pattern. I was going to use it to make Gothic Spire. I actually tried 2 other yarns before I gave in and wound this one. :~) I really hope my swap pal likes these socks because this was yarn that I'm totally lovin'. The only reason I'm using it is because it's the only suitable yarn in my stash that will show the pattern. I've already blown through my yarn allowance......lol.....The Loopy Ewe and Knit Picks made sure of that. :~) Otherwise I'd probably drop by one of my LYS today when I head up to Boise.
So this is what I will be knitting with on my almost hour trip from home to Boise. Glad I can knit in the car. :~)

Decision Made

I sat there and stared at the sock for what seems like forever but I couldn't bring myself to rip out the sock. So I've made a command decision, the sock is staying the way it is and it will be sent to my sis who will give it a loving home regardless of it's goofed up yarn overs. I'm going to send the sock down to her as soon as she gives me a mailing addy. She's down in Texas right now and they are moving from the crappy hotel they are in to a new hotel here in a few days and she'll have a mailing address there.....Yippy! They were all put up in a hotel that charges for local calls, has no internet service, tv's that have had the RCA inputs removed so they can't play their video games systems and to make it crappy the hotel has no washers and dryers to use. They are going to be in Texas for the next 2 months so it's important to have all the creature comforts in life. Hell she had better accommodations when she was in Iraq last year. So they are moving to a hotel that has kitchen suites and washers and dryers and all the extra good stuff and the funny thing is the price of the room is still $50....this is of course at a government discount. But I digress, she'll try on the sock to make sure it fits and then I'll make the mate for it. :~)
Now I need to wander through my stash to see if I have anything suitable to start another pair. I hope I do since I really don't feel like waiting for more yarn in the mail.
Now that my night is considerably brighter I can get myself a snack and find some yarn for some new Monkey socks.
Thanks everyone for your kind words and cheering me on in my moment of sockly need. I'm off to wade through sock yarn....Yum!

Feel Like Crying

OMG, I'm so close to crying. I'm like 14 rounds from being done with my first Monkey sock and for some damn reason I kept thinking that there's something not quite right. The holes from the yarn overs were smaller then everyone else's. I told myself that it was because I was a tight knitter and kept on knitting away at the sock. For some stupid reason I decided to look up yarn over at knittinghelp.com and I've now realized I've been doing my yarn overs wrong for the past 9 months. *Smacks head against brick wall over and over again*
So now I have this friggin' sock that is less then an hour from being done that I'm going to have to rip back and start over......7 days of work are going to be out the window here in the next hour or so.....talk about depressing! If they were for me I would just do the second sock wrong so it would match the first one and then start doing the yarn overs the correct way with the next project but they are for someone else.

Made My 100!

WooHoo!!! I hit my 100 miles today. I've also thrown myself in for another 100 miles by July 4th for a grand total of 200 miles. Doing me Snoopy Dance again. :~)
I'm off to find something for dinner. For some reason there are certain individuals in the house who feel they need to eat. :~)

Great Night of Sleep

I was so tired yesterday evening that I crawled into bed at 8:30 pm and went off to dreamland and didn't wake up till 7:50 am. I'm still feeling a little cruddy but I think with a little moving around today I'll be feeling better. I'm going to get my happy butt onto the exercise bike and try to get some more miles in. I'm going to hit my 100 miles by April 1st if it kills me.....I only have 11 miles to go and that's not to hard to do on the bike. :~)
Naturally I have no knitting updates other then I will probably knit on one of the socks today while I'm riding the bike. I'm really hoping that my Monkey Swap pal will like her socks. I'm trying not to stress myself out over it. :~) I don't want to stress and take the fun out of the swap.
Well I'm off to find some lunch, get Bree down for a nap and get some exercise time in among other things that need to be done......anyone know of a maid who will work for hand knit socks?.....lol. Sounds like a busy afternoon for me. :~)

Yarn in the Mail....Yippy!

My wonderful mailman brought me these yarns to brighten my tired self. I bought the 4 skeins of Knit Picks Shimmer lace yarn from Karen. It's the Grape Hyacinth colorway.....very pretty. The other yarn is a Potluck dye from Heather of All Things Heather.....pretty, pretty. This was a nice surprise after only getting a few hours of sleep last night. :~)
Next week I'll be able to enjoy my other orders that I made this morning. It's almost like Christmas when the packages come in. It's funny because even Kaity and Shawn gather around watching me open up the packages to check out what has come in.

It has occurred to me that I haven't posted about some of the other yarns that came in. Bad blogger, bad blogger! This is the yarn that came in during the great family sickness of 2007. In the back of the picture is some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes yarn. I picked it up to use for swatching for the Barbara Walker Treasury Project. Shawn's already claimed the Lake Ice Heather color....it's the one in between the green and light blue yarn. He's claimed it so I can make him and ipod case. I'll have to sit down and work on that one in the next few days. I can't believe he wants me to make him a case.....lol. I know he wants a sweater but I told him I need to make some smaller sweaters before I tackle one for him. :~)
The two hanks on the left are the Bart & Louise in the Garden colorway from Zen String that purchase at the Loopy Ewe. Then there are the two skeins of Opal yarn that I purchased from eBay seller *silkandmore*. She's a fabulous seller. I contacted her about not receiving the yarn that I purchased and she dropped 2 new skeins in the mail the very next day. It had been over 3 weeks and the stuff was sent out airmail. We both figured that the first box was lost somewhere between Germany and the US. The Opal next to the Zen String is the Hagebutte, which is one of Opal's handdyed limited yarns.....yes it really is that vibrant. It's very gorgeous. The other Opal is called Rainbow. The colors are a little washed out in the pic. I bought it because Kaity liked it. :~)

Sleepless Night

Tonight's a sleepless night for me. Bree woke up at 3 am and is refusing to go back to sleep. Course you wouldn't go back to sleep if you'd already slept for 7-8 hours. :~)
I've utilized this time wisely, I went shopping.....lol. I paid for the skein of yarn that Susie (who makes the lovely Perchance to Knit sock yarn) was holding for me. I placed another order from the Loopy Ewe.....sad sad sad.....two orders in less then a 12 hour period. Yesterday evening I was on the site when the Yarn Pirate yarn went up. I snagged the two skeins I wanted and then checked out. Then this morning I noticed that there was more Scarlett Fleece and the colorway Irish Eyes was there and I had to have it. It's a very pretty mix of greens. After that, I hopped over to Knit Picks to put in an order for some more DP's and of course I had to throw a few skeins of yarn in to the order. What order from Knit Picks is complete with out some yarn.....no sock yarn though. I grabbed a couple of different yarn weights, types, and colors. I want them for swatching for the Barbara Walker Treasury Project.....go see my button in my side bar, it's linked to the site....to lazy to go look up site after all the sites I've linked this morning. Boy aren't I the over achieving blogger this morning....lol. :~) I also found some stuff for my swap partner out on Etsy. I still need to find one more Monkey item, I have an idea but I won't know till I head into town some time this weekend.
OK, I'm tired from all that shopping. Of course I still have to go up to Costco or as KnitTech calls it "The $200 store".....It may very well be closer to a $300 store since I skipped going last month and the freezer is getting pretty low. :( Oh well, everyone's been sick so we should be able to go out to eat. If Kaity gets her way we'll be heading to Red Lobster. Me I'd rather go to The Ram....I've been in the mood for a good burger that doesn't reek of Fast Food. Red Robin would work too.
I worked on my Monkey socks last night. The Raspberry sock is about 1-2" from starting the toe decrease. I'll probably work on the Monkey socks and my Mom's gift tomorrow. I had great plans to get back on the bike and try to get the last 11 miles out for my 100 miles by April 1st. I'll get them before the end of Saturday. :~) I've signed on to keep going on runagogo so now we are all pushing for another 100 miles by July 1st (I think the dates right). I'd have to double check and right now that requires more effort then I'm willing to put forth....I'll probably post more about it on another day.

Haloscan

Haloscan seems to be working great. They send out an email every 30 minutes with comments that have been left on my blog. I have to do a little cutting and pasting to email replies but that doesn't bother me much. :~) Hey did I mention that the service is free....yup free. They do have an option that if you donate like $12 they will upgrade your service for 1 year. I'm still testing before I decide to donate or not. Plus I want to find out what the added benefits are before I toss money out the window. :~)
I forgot to mention that I found out about Haloscan from Kates blog. She's the knitter that asked for fun fur hats. I made like 8-9 hats and apparently there were others that made a lot more because the total ended up being around 1200 hats....enough to spread the love to other hospitals and such. :~)

New Addition to the Blog

I've decided to give Haloscan a try. I'm sick of not being able to easily respond to everyones comments so I've installed Haloscan. It's up for a trial run to see how it works for everyone. You will no longer need to sign in with a blogger account to leave a comment. Just fill in your info and leave your comment. It's also Smiley enabled. You will have to put in your email addy but that doesn't get published with the comment. I'm the only one who will see your email and I will not sell your email to a Spammer. :~)
The only drawback to installing Haloscan is I lost all previous comments on the blog. It'll be a small price to pay if this works out. :~)
So give the comment thing a try and let me know what you think of it. If you all hate it I can go back to the old template without a problem.

Yippy & a WooHoo Too!

I'm happy, happy, happy. All is right in my world even if the wind is threatening to blow it away. :~) I got the yarn to finish my mom's B-Day gift from Knit Picks. That's not what is making me do the Snoopy Dance. Although getting the yarn in quickly definitely makes me love Knit Picks. What's making me happy is that the yarn they sent is from the same dye lot.....WooooHooo!
How could I not be happy when I opened the package and see the dye lot numbers are the same as the ones from the first order.
So I guess you all can figure out what I'll be working on this afternoon. :~)

Knitting ADD

OK, I'll finally admit it.....I have knitting ADD. I swear it kills me when I can't start another project. I held out as long as I could but I couldn't hold out any longer. I cast on another pair of Monkey socks last night.
Quite some time back I went out shopping with my sis and we hit up several yarn shops. I had found some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I fell in love with. It's from the Potluck Brights that they did. I think it was a special thing and once the stuff sold out there would be no more made. Anyway this yarn is very nice shades of blues and greens.
Now I have to decide which socks I'm going to send to my Monkey swap pal and which I'll keep for myself. Oh the decisions, decisions!
Oh and another thing that has me jazzed is Scout who owns Scouts Swag is talking about starting to handpaint the Zephyr Wool-Silk lace weight yarn. How friggin' cool is that! From what I understand, she's working on the details now. If you haven't gotten her hand dyed sock yarn you're missing out.....she does an awesome job.
The wind is blowing bad here today. Actually it's been blowing since yesterday. We're coming in around 25 mph steady with gusts in upwards of 45+ miles an hour and this has been going on for over 24 hours and it's suppose to keep going clear through till midnight. Shawn said that last night the highest recorded gust was 57 mph....no wonder the windows have been rattling. It's crazy bad out there. Oh darn, guess I'll stay indoors and knit today. :~)

Quick Update

I'm doing a quick update on my sock projects and then I'm off. I've got a lot of stuff to get done today so I need to get a move on it. :~)

The Monkey socks are going great. I'm cruising right along and I don't think it's going to take me long to get them finished. I'm using Fearless Fibers for the Monkey socks so I know I've got enough yarn.....she puts like 550 yards in a hank. Kaity's sock on the other hand has pissed me off. I knit this one on smaller needles so of course it's at a tighter gauge. I'm going to have to break into the second ball of yarn to finish up her socks. I'm going to run out of yarn right as I'm starting the toe decreases, which is right there at the last green stripe. Thankfully I decided to rewind the ball after I finished up the first sock so I know about the "running out of yarn" part so I'll be prepared. :~) I'll probably break the yarn at the beginning of the blue stripe and go from there. I'll just use the left overs from the second ball to make a pair or two for Bree.

It's Monday & All Is Well

Kaity is doing great. Kaity and I both thank everyone who wished her well and hope she got to feeling better. I don't think there was anything wrong with her. I think her problems are caused from getting over excited or worried about things. She's been eating well and playing all day long. It's hard to explain to a child the difference between a tummy that hurts because your going to get sick and a tummy having butterflies because she's excited. She's always thought that if her tummy hurts she's going to get sick, which brings her to the not eating and of course with Kaity if she doesn't eat she gets sick. She's a lot like by sis in those matters. She's starting to understand that just because her tummy feels weird doesn't mean she's going to get sick, with a little more time and patience, she'll get it all figured out. :~)
Right now Shawn is BBQing up a yummy Tri-Tip that has been soaking in beer and other yummy seasoning for the past day and half. :~) I can't wait for dinner! It's BBQ time again so it's time to be on the lookout for ribs and such to toss on the grill. OK, I'm going to be getting some crab legs soon. We BBQ in the winter too but not as much as we do during Spring and Summer.
Now on to knitting. As you can tell from the picture I've been busy. Kaity's sock is only needing the toe decreases and I can Kitchner and start the second one. The Monkey sock has 7 of the 11 pattern rounds done before starting the heel. I think they are coming out great and I'm in love with this colorway....it's Raspberry by Fearless Fibers. Hopefully my swap partner will love them too.

Sunday Sunday

Todays been one of those days were you just want to crawl back into bed and sleep the day away. It's cloudy and we've had thunderstorms off and on. I did end up taking a little nap while Bree was sleeping.

Kaity seems to be miraculously better. She's been playing all afternoon. This morning she was curled up in the fetal position on her bed so Shawn decided to take her to the hospital. They never made it out the door because Kaity started feeling better and eating.....go figure. I'm happy she's feeling good but it's aggravating that the stomach pains come and go. I'm beginning to believe that the stomach pains are made up, although I can't figure out for the life of me why.

Anyway, so that there is some knitting content in this post I'll talk about what I knitted on last night. Kaity's sock is now had the gusset completely decreased. I think I have a few more rounds to go before I start on the foot. I may work on her sock and my Monkey Sock Swap partner sock. I'm really wanting to start a pair for myself but I'm waiting till the Monkey socks are done.

Bunny Blankie

The bunny blankie's almost done now. I worked on the blankie and my Monkey Sock swap socks. I didn't bother with a pic of the socks since I'm still working on the pattern repeat. :~)
When I get through a little more of the sock I'll post a picture. Next time I'm going to take the sock outside to get a pic so hopefully I can capture the actual color of the socks. :~)
Kaity is sick again. At least this time she did it on Spring Break and isn't missing any school. I swear that kid is sick all the time. I'm definitely glad we canceled our trip.

Knitting Updates

Now that great yarn disaster of March 07 is over and taken care of I was able to move on and get a some knitting done tonight. After looking sadly at the stalled project, I moved on to work on the Bunny Blankie, which now has part of it's arms.....Yippy! I doubt this one will go to Bree, it's more of a test to see how well the pattern works up. I'll probably get some Encore Colorspun Chunky to make up Bree's Bunny and I think I'll be making one for Baby Peanut, who since finding out "it" is a "he" has now been bestowed with the name Blake. So I think I will make one for Baby Blake. Guess I need to go take the Peanut out of WIP sidebar.....nah I'll leave it there. :~)
I also cast on the Monkey Sock for my swap partner. I frogged the first one because it looked like cat vomit. This one is looking sooooo much better. :~)
The pics came out like crap tonight. The Blankie is actually a dark pink and the Monkey sock is actually purple.

Incidentally my Martha socks are currently enjoying the freedom of being off the needles. You can tell from the pic that they are happy. :~)
Thankfully they didn't turn my feet blue and I'm going to give RC's suggestions a try if they show any more signs of bleeding which I'm sure they will.


Oh, BTW.....has anyone been out to Knit Picks to check out their new look....very nice. I think navigating the site has gotten better. Looks like they are going to bring in some new yarns soon.

Knit Picks Update

I'm not going insane and the yarn wasn't shorted. There was a problem with the pattern. It should state that you need 4 hanks for the pattern not 2. They probably forgot to factor in that this is a double stranded pattern when the pattern was finalized. Apparently there have been some others who have called to complained about it. Knit Picks really needs to fix the pattern and the info on their site. I bought two more hanks and they are waiving the shipping. Not to much of a deal but I'm not really going to fight over it. I'm getting my yarn, the project will be done, and my mom will get her b-day present.
Hopefully Knit Picks will use the USPS so I'll get the yarn here in the next few days instead of the slowpoke Fedex Smartpost shipping they normally go through. When they send out replacement needles and cables they've always shipped them to me via USPS. It's sad when you can get boxes from overseas faster then you can from here in the states. I know, I know I shouldn't complain because the shipping is cheap. :~)
I doubt the die lots will match but I don't think it's going to be noticed with the way the pattern works up.....at least I hope it doesn't matter. Guess we'll all find out soon enough. :~)

Gone Insane

Mom: Don't bother to read any farther if you don't want to know about your gift. :~)

OK, now with that said let me give you all the run down of my completely aggravating experience last night.
A while back I purchase yarn and a pattern from Knit Picks to start knitting a gift for my mom. Now I'm already going to miss the B-Day deadline of 24 Mar but with the way I've been knitting she would have gotten it around the 1st of Apr. Back to the story at hand, I purchased the pattern and the yarn needed for the pattern which was 2 hanks, now a smart person would have ordered 2 more hanks but no ones ever accused me of high intelligence in all matters of life. :~)
I have my 2 hanks, I wind each into a ball, then wind the two together to make life easier....this pattern calls for the yarn to be double stranded. I then cast on and start knitting away.....everything's going great till I hit a round that has 6 stitches left after the pattern repeat. Well I needed a grand total of 30 stitches. So adding the 6 stitches to the 24 stitches that were already worked gave me 30, right. So showing my true daring knitter self I knitted the stitches and went on my way. After a few round I looked at the pattern, every thing looks great so I move on and continue to knit.
Thus comes to lasts nights problem, which by the way has nothing to do with the 30 stitch problem I just mentioned above. Don't ask why it's there, it's 5:20 am, I'm dead tired because Bree was kind enough to wake me up at 4 am.
So back to the story. Here I am last night knitting away thinking "yeah I rock, I'm kickin' butt and takin' names". At round 40 I look down at the yarn and notice it's getting pretty light but I keep chuggin' away. I look down again at round 50 and that's of course when "Ah Shit" comes flying out of my mouth.....don't worry the kiddos were sleeping. My ball of yarn is getting pretty damn low. At this point I knew there was no way in the world I was going to make it to the end....As if I couldn't have figured that out at round 40. I keep knitting. I made it through round 58 before I had to stop. So now it's sitting there pretty but unfinished.
Now before you all go hitting me over the head with comments of "always buy extra yarn for a project" let me share a little more info with you. The pattern has 98 rounds and then the yarn used in the edging. I was knitting to gauge.....surprise surprise.....I know I was.
So why did Trish run out of yarn way before the end of the pattern? Trish has pondered this question long and hard and has come to one answer....."The yarn on the 2 hanks were short way to many yards". No one out in blogland has been complaining about this pattern and yarn shortages so I'm figuring the yarn didn't have the stated 440 yards, not even close.
I remember when I wound them I thought to myself that the hanks were kinda small but I chalked it up to the fact that they are lace weight. This is the first time I've bought lace weight yarn. OK, OK I'm a yarn idiot. I'm learning though. :~)
I've emailed Knit Picks to inquire about this. I wonder if anyone else has had this problem with their yarn? I'll have to let you all know what I find out from them.

Panda Cotton

I don't mind yarns that split a little but this yarn is coming untwisted while I knit. Now I've had yarn come untwisted a little bit when I'm casting on for the socks.....I use the long tail cast on, but the yarn doesn't untwist anymore after I'm done casting on.
Here's what the Crystal Palace Panda Cotton does when I knit with it. Anyone else have this problem?

It goes from this:

To This:

Yarn Bug Bites Again

Damn I've been bitten by the Yarn Bug again. I bought some Zen String in the exclusive Loopy Ewe colors (which is gone now), the Loopy Knit Notes book, a little sock key chain for my mama....I'll even knit a sock for it....who's your fav kid now :~) .....lol, and a shawl pattern that I think will be perfect for my Schaefer Anne yarn. The pattern says it needs 600 yards of lace weight yarn. Anne has 560 yards but is a little thicker then lace weight. Does anyone with lace experience have an option on this? Do you think the one hank is going to be enough or should I use something else? I'd love to use the Anne that I have.
I'm going to miss out on the Yarn Pirate, which is a bummer....oh well maybe next time. I'm happy I managed to get some of the Zen String. :~)
I'll post pics when my loot comes in, which if I'm lucky will be by Saturday.

Tonights Knitting

I actually managed to knit on some socks tonight. I stopped the socks I was making for Bree out of the Crystal Palace Panda Cotton. The yarn and I are just not lovin' each other. Every round made me cuss more. The damn stuff comes untwisted as your knitting it and splits really bad which is a shame because the yarn is soft and I loved the colors. I may try again with my metal Knit Picks DPN's at a later date but I'm tooo damn mad at it right now.....back into the stash it goes.
On a brighter not I managed to get about 3 inches on Kaity's sock. Another inch to go and I'll be starting the heel flap. She keeps eying the socks to see how far they are knitted up. :~)
I'm also itching to start a pair of socks for myself. I have that Cider Moon in the Silver Pine that is sooooo calling for me to start knitting it up. I'm going to work them toe up so that I don't end up running out of yarn. It gets about 6 sts per inch and has about 253 yds. If I work them toe up that will save me from running out of yarn before I complete the foot. :~) I keep putting off starting them because I need to get some other projects finished. Plus I need to cast on my Monkey Swap partners socks. :~)

I'm not linking anything tonight, you'll have to fend for yourself for this post. :~)

Out Of Print Books

Holy Crap. I was surfing ebay this afternoon....what else is there to do when you have a crabby baby who doesn't want to nap.....which of course means that I accomplished absolutely no knitting today.
So I'm sitting here surfing through ebay when I come across this book that has a starting bid of $425. It's called Principles of Knitting, which I've heard is a good book, but not good enough for me to pay that much for. :~)
No ones bid on it yet but I wouldn't be shocked if someone does bid on it before the auction has ended....there's still 2 days left on it. I read on someones blog that the publisher will be reprinting this book some time next year (2008).
It looks like our trip is going to be put off for now. Bree is running a fever and I'm aching from head to toe so it looks like we may be coming down with what Kaity has. I don't want to go over to my Granny's house and risk her getting sick again. She's already been really sick this year, actually I think twice now. So we are going to try to go over there in June. A real bummer for me because I was going to go yarn store hoping. Oh well, more time to save now and my B-Day's in June so I can justify more yarn buying by saying its my B-Day gift....lol. Well it sounds good. :~)

Glass Needles and Such

You all have to go check out glasspens.com. They have some of the most beautiful stuff. I heard about them the other day when I was trying to catch up on the Lime and Violet podcasts. I'd love to get some of the glass needles and a few other things.....they would make great decorations. I don't think I'd knit with them though. :~)

Just wanted to share this site with you all.

Monday's Goodies

This is what my wonderful mailman brought to my doorstep this morning. It's enough to make a Monday seem a little bit better.
Shawn's taking Kaity to the doc this afternoon. We want the doc to check her out before we head on vacation because she's had a head & chest cold for over a week now. Getting authorization from our insurance is a great big PIA when you are out of the area. So to be on the safe side better to get her checked out now.
Shawn got me the necklace. It has my birthstone set at the top of the heart and the both of the girls birthstones move freely on the heart. I love it!
The other picture is of the sock yarn I ordered from Scouts Swag. It's gorgeous and the only way I could get a true shot of the yarns color was to take it outside. I'll definitely be ordering again. I may put in an order for custom dyed colors for the girls. I'll have to think on some colors.

Last Nights Knitting

I worked on my Monkey Swap partners socks last night. I got into the second repeat, wasn't happy and frogged them. So I didn't really feel like casting back on again so I worked on other things. The pic is the beginning of the Bunny Blanket from Lionbrand....sorry you'll have to have an account with Lionbrand to view the pattern, it's free to get an account. I've finally started it for Bree. I know it's been in my WIP sidebar for a little while now. I also worked on some squares for RC, which I need to get mailed off to her before I leave on vacation. If I wait till I get back, I'll probably forget about them.

"RC.....I'll be mailing out at least 2 here in the next few days".

Suggestions Please!

Alrighty then, the new socks are bleeding like a stuck pig. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make these:



Stop producing this (should have took a pic of the water...lol):


I mean I knew they were going to bleed seeing as my fingers would have a dark blue/black tinge to them when I would finish knitting on them but I also figured that vinegar would have taken care of that. They have already had a very nice soak in very stinky vinegar. The damn things won't bleed in the vinegar water but they will when swapped over to wash out the smell of the vinegar even in even the coldest water, short of putting ice cubes in. Any other suggestions? Or should these babies be washed on their own?

New Yummy Yarn

Look what I managed to get from Perchance To Knits etsy shop. You can check out her blog here and her etsy shop here. She has some really gorgeous colorways.

We ended up not going to Boise today. Kaity started her "I don't feel good, my tummy hurts crap again today". So she missed her Daisy Scout pizza making trip. She's fine but because she wouldn't eat I didn't want to take her to Boise and have her end up getting sick because she has nothing in her stomach. She seems to think that every time her stomach hurts she's going to get sick. We've tried to convince her that she isn't always going to get sick when her stomach hurts but she just doesn't seem to believe us. I think her stomach was just sore because she did a lot of coughing last night before she fell asleep.
She's eating now but it's to late to head out plus Bree is sleeping and I don't want to wake her up. So we'll have to save that for another time. It's really aggravating when she does this, but hey whats a mom to do. Oh well the bonus is that I don't have to cook tonight. Shawn's going to run into town and grab some pizza. It isn't as good as Red Lobster or Red Robin but it'll have to do. :~)

Done!!!!

My Martha socks are done with plenty of time to spare. Hopefully my Fearless Fiber order will come in so I can get to making my Monkey Sock Swap pal his/her socks. I'm hoping that the yarn I ordered will work well for the Monkey sock pattern.

So here's my Martha socks in all their glory.



On the sock blockers I just purchased....I'm damn proud of these. Shawn watched me do the happy dance this morning when I slipped on the Martha sock I finished the other day and it fit beautifully. He thinks I'm a little off my rockers but that's OK I love him anyway. :~)

Sock Statistics:
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill in the Tropical Storm colorway
Yardage: 420 yds
Needles: US 1 Knit Picks metal DPN's
Pattern: Parallel Socks by Wildhorse Designs
Size of Sock: 6" cuff, 3" heel flap, 10" long foot
Pattern Adjustments: I made the cuff shorter and I didn't carry the pattern down the foot.

Another note on these socks: I didn't knit to gauge on these socks which was 8 sts per inch. If I would have knit to gauge which is tough for me, I probably would have used the medium size for the pattern and I probably could have carried the pattern clear down the foot. I like a nice tight gauge so I went up in the pattern size and my gauge was about 10 sts per inch.

This is the yarn that I had left over. It's not a very large amount. :~) It's a good thing I made the cuffs 6" instead of 7.5" and I didn't carry the pattern down the leg.....I know for sure I would have ran out of yarn. Now if I would have made these for my sis I could have carried the pattern down the foot and everything. She has a skinny little size US 8.5 foot.


Finally a pic of the socks on my tootsies.....oh these are going to be my new favs. Of course this is only my second pair of socks for myself. Hey and you all get to see very small part of my Tony the Tiger PJ pants....lol. Actually tried to get a pair of Lucky Charm pants that had Lucky on them and it say "Their Magically Delicious", but alas Wally World did not have a big enough size. The things that entertain me. Even I have to shake my head at myself from time to time. The scary part is when I start talking to myself and I answer my own questions. Wonder how much longer it'll be before Shawn has me committed? :~)


Some time tomorrow I'm going to try to get a shot of my socks outside in some natural light and get them uploaded to the photo gallery out at Sheri's site.
I'd better get my butt to bed. We promised Kaity a trip to Boise so she can spend her B-Day money at Build-A-Bear. She has her eye on a Hello Kitty stuff animal and an outfit. Plus she's jazzed because we promised her we'd go eat out somewhere that she likes, she's pushing for Red Lobster. Yes, my 6 year old loves seafood. She also loves fish but doesn't like Spaghetti-O's and Ravioli's and she'll eat salad as long as we don't make her eat the carrots or onions....lol. I'm not going to complain too much. I'd have to say that's pretty good eating for a 6 year old.

Latest Loopy Order

This was what my wonderful mailman dropped off to me this morning, my order from the Loopy Ewe. I bought a pair of the cute wooden sheep sock blockers, some Chibi darning needles, a hank of Cider Moon in the Silver Pine colorway, and a hank of All Things Heather in the Jellybean colorway. I'm not sure if 253 yards will be enough to make a pair of socks for my self. According to the label it should get about 5.5 sts per inch.....I think it would probably be more with the way I knit. I wear a Woman's size US 10 shoe. I may split the yarn in half and try a pair of toe ups, that way I'll just knit till I run out of yarn and not have to worry about having enough. Either that or I will turn them into a really nice pair of wristers. I just loved the greens and silvers. The ATH jellybean looks even yummier in person then it did in the pic....I know there's enough there for a pair of socks for myself, though Kaity was drooling over this one....lol.

Sock Progress

Weeeee.....I'm making really good progress on the second Martha sock. I need to put about 3 inches more on the foot before I start the toe decrease.....Yippy. I'm hoping to get some good knitting time in this afternoon. Today is an early release day for Kaity which means she has to be at school at 11:20 am instead of 12 pm and she gets out of school at 1:20 pm instead of the normal 3 pm. Those days are always a pain in the butt because the time she's needing to leave to head to school is normally when she's sitting at the table eating lunch.
I'll be posting my haul for the morning later. I have my Loopy Ewe order.....I'm in love with everything I got.....Love, Love, Love. The mailman just ran through here a few minutes ago but I need to get out of my PJ's before I head out to the mailbox. I'm just not familiar enough with my neighbors to let them see my PJ's....lol.

Internet Addiction

So how addicted to the internet are you? I saw this out at Isabelle's site a just couldn't pass taking this test and sharing it with everyone. I'd say it's pretty truthful....lol. I guess I can go knit in the sunshine. :~)
Back to sock knitting I go. I want to get those darn gusset decreases done before I head to bed.

You Are 72% Addicted to the Internet

In your opinion, life without the internet is hardly worth living. Could be, but you probably need a bit more fresh air and sunshine to think clearly.

Are You Addicted to the Internet?

4 Days of Progress

Here's what I've managed to achieve with 4 days of working on this sock. I've never had second sock syndrome and this is probably why. The second socks seems to go so fast. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have the pattern repeat memorized and I don't have to stop and measure as much because I keep count of each round on a patterned sock. Like this one has 11 repeats of all 6 rounds. I keep track of the rounds mostly to help me remember where I'm at in the sock pattern so that when I pick it up it's easier for me to get started.

This is after 2 days of working on the sock (11 Mar - 13 Mar):

This is after 4 days of work (14 Mar - 15 Mar):

So I'm now at the point where I need to pick up stitches for the gusset, decrease, then get my big oh foot knit. :~) I don't think it will be much long before I'm posting an FO. Now you get to check out my Scooby Doo pajama pants....first it was Eeyore now it's Scooby. I need to stop showing you all my PJs.
Actually it comes down to the fact that I was sitting in my computer chair listening to Lime & Violet....I'm trying to catch up on their episodes. :~) I was too lazy to go put the sock somewhere else to take a picture so I sat it in my lap.

Monkey Sock Swap

I received an email with my secret Monkey Sock Swap partners name, questionnaire and blog addy....Yippy! I've got the yarn on order and should be able to start them this weekend. I've got plenty of time since the deadline for mailing the box is 30 April but I want to get an early start and I don't want to wait till the last minute to mail the box. Unfortunately I won't be able to show them to you till after I've revealed who I am to my partner. I'll post about them after she/he gets the box.

FYI: Creative Magazine's May 2007 issue is pretty suckish. They don't have the new magazine up on their website yet so I can't point out the very few things that I would make. Theirs a kids hooded cardi, a dishcloth pattern and one cable cardi that I would make and the cable cardi would need some serious adjustments before I made it since it's cropped at the waist and sleeves. There is one sweater that made me say OMG how could someone even think about putting this one let alone knitting it up. It's super tacky....It's knit in super bright stripes that I'd knit into a pair of socks but never into a sweater.

More Stuff

The mailman was kind enough to drop the following books of on my doorstep this morning.

-- One Skein Wonders
-- Mason Dixon Knitting
-- 100 Knitting Projects
-- Knitting Sweaters from the Top Down
-- The Yarn Girls Guide to the Basics

I joined one of those crafters book clubs. Yup I allowed myself to be sucked into another book club. I guess I couldn't resist getting $100 worth of books for $25. So if there's a book I don't like it's not to much of a loss plus I can always sell it through DeStash or ebay.
Now I've only had time to browse through the book but I'm pretty impressed with Mason Dixon Knitting, which I've already heard a lot of good things about. I also like a lot of the projects out of 100 Knitting Projects. One Skein Wonders isn't to bad either. Knitting Sweaters from the Top Down has a few cute sweaters in it but it also has some really tacky ones. :~) There are some cute projects in The Yarn Girls Guide to the Basics but yuck they had to waste space on Poncho's. Sorry if I offend anyone who loves Poncho's. I'm not against anyone wearing them but you will never catch me in one....hate them!

I joined the Walker Treasury Project the other day and when I get back from vacation I'm going to start knitting some swatches from my book. If anyone is has the books or can get their hands on one at the library and is interested in knitting swatches you can go out to the website and sign up. They have all the info you need out at their site.

I'm off to feed Kaity so I can get her off to school and put Bree down for a nap. I was going to take Bree to the hospital to be weighed in but I don't know if she'll make it much longer before she falls asleep. She's mega crabby right now.

Sock Patterns

Cookie's got her website up and running and is now selling her sock patterns. The ones everyone has been drooling over. I purchased Gothic Spire, Thelonious, and Twisted Flower. I really wanted all her patterns, but couldn't afford 8 patterns all at once. Specially not after my Loopy order of ATH (Jelly Bean colorway), Cider Moon (Silver Pine colorway), and some of the cute wooden sheep sock blockers. The great news is that The Loopy Ewe is now carrying Louet Gems so I'll be buying that later on down the road so I can start one of these patterns.

My Busy Afternoon

All in all this afternoon without power and internet went fairly well. I managed to get in like 12 miles road on the bike. I decided to go with the exercise bike when it because apparent that the sun was going to stay hidden behind the clouds. I knit on my Martha sock while I was riding and managed to get about 2" of pattern on the cuff so I have a total of about 3.5" done of the 6" needed. I have to do about 6 more repeats of the 6 round pattern so that should be....hold on have to think this one out.....ah ha, 36 total rounds is what I should have left before I start the heel flap. I'm not very good in math....shoot I hate math.

I managed to snap a pic of my three lazy animals this morning when the small patch of sunlight was shining through the small window next to our side door. Now you can plainly see how big this patch is....it's not that big, plus it doesn't last for more then a few hours before the sun has moved on to the other side of the house. These three will stop at nothing to be in the sun. Shadow (black cocker spaniel) is happy to have her feet in the sun, Zeus (gray/silver toy poodle) will fight with Skitz (fat lazy cat) for the sun. I've actually seen these two smacking at each other like boxers fighting for the $1 Million dollar prize....it's hilarious to watch a little 6 pound toy poodle boxing with a 18 pound grouchy cat.....no they don't hurt each other but it's really fun to watch Skitz try to run from Zeus. She's not a very fast runner. :~) Today they managed to share with each other. Needless to say I'm quite proud of them.

Next up is my sock. It's a sock, it's pretty, it isn't done, I'm going to work on it some more tonight after the kiddos are in bed for the night.

That been said I'm going to go throw dinner in the oven so that I can feed the masses and get my little underweight midget up from her nap. Incidentally we are taking Bree in tomorrow for another weigh in. I'll let you all know if she managed to pack on some weight. :~)

Sock Updates

Bree's sock now has a heel. I still have a few more decrease rounds before continuing on with the foot.....as if that's going to take long. Her itty bitty piggies are only about 4" from heel to toe. Baby socks are so cute....plus they knit up so fast. This was the only thing I worked on tonight. I'm using the CP Panda Cotton which I'm finding has a tendency to come untwisted. The softness helps make up for them. I'm not sure if I could make a pair of adult socks out of this yarn. Maybe I got a skein that doesn't like me.....hell with me anything is possible.
Oh man, I just realized that you all caught me in my PJ's.....well at least all you seen was a small portion of my Eeyore fleece PJ's. I don't want to scare you all by taking a pic of me in my PJs all vegged out.....lol. These are super comfy....now I need to find another pair before these wear out all the way. :~)
I need to get my "Martha" socks finished because here in the next few days I need to start the Monkey socks for my Monkey Sock Swap partner. I'm waiting to see what colors my partner likes.....don't want to knit up a pair of socks she/he isn't going to like/wear.
I'm going to be offline most of tomorrow afternoon because of a scheduled power outage.....please Sheri don't add any new yarns....lol. :~) I'll be checking my emails and such first thing in the morning then it's going to be nada till they get the new power pole up. They're moving our power poles again because of all the construction going on for new base housing.....we are surrounded by new houses.
I was actually trying to figure out how I could keep my computer and everything going. I need one of those mega Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)....the ones that will run all your crap for several hours....lol. Shoot I wonder if the construction guys would run a long extension cord to my house for a few hours.....lol. Can't you tell I hate being internetless. You should see me when I go to my granny's house. They have dial-up and no just dial-up but really slow dial-up......oh my poor heart, I'm going weak just thinking about having to use dial-up. Good news is we found a few coffee shops in the area that have free Wi-Fi....WooHoo, coffee and free high speed internet.....Yeah Baby! :~)
Anyways, as I was saying, from 10am to about 2pm I'll be enjoying having no power. The good news is I won't have to worry about laundry and vacuuming tomorrow.....lol. I think I'll take my socks out side and knit in the sunshine while the power is out. It's suppose to be in the 60's tomorrow so I'm good to go.
Yippy, I actually finished up and I'm heading to bed before 3 am tonight. Dare I say it, maybe it I'll get into bed by Midnight tomorrow night....lol. I'm a night owl which is not conducive to being a mom. :~)

Current Sock Projects

Here's a pic of the sock projects I have going on right now. From Left to Right they are: Sock for Bree (CP Panda Cotton Blueberries and Grapes), my Parallel Socks (CTH Tropical Storm), and Socks for Kaity (KP Simple Stripes, no name colorway). I'm still on the first sock of Kaity and Bree's socks but I'm a whole lotta rows away from starting the heel on my second Parallel Sock aka "Martha" socks.
For my socks I'm using the Parallel Sock pattern from Wildhorse Designs that I purchased from Sheri at The Loopy Ewe. I'm using a plain jane sock pattern for Bree and Kaity's socks.
I placed my first order from ScoutJ....Here in the next few weeks I will have my very own Scouts Swag. I sooooo can't wait to get it in. I picked the Fraises de Boise. I also want a few other colors (hope to buy later this year): (Click here to see colorways) Strawberry Quick, Bluetini, Fruit Salad, Hot Fudge Sundae, Needles on Fire, Storm Surge, and Tarzhay.....just to name a few. She's not limited to just sock yarn, she also does other yarn weights. Actually I don't think there are any colors in her gallery that I wouldn't knit with, they are all so yummy. I had a hard time narrowing it down to just one skein *sigh*.
I think I'll knit socks tonight. I'll probably start out working on my sock and then trade off to one of the others. Knowing me I'll probably work a little on each sock.
Well I'm off to go feed the masses and all that other fun Mommy stuff that I do so well. :~)

New KAL

Joined another KAL. This one is for the Dollar and a Half Cardigan in the Spring 07 Interweave Knits mag. Told you all that I was a joined. :~)
I am going to make them it's just going to take me a little while to get them done. :~) Maybe I can get them finished before the next issue of Interweave comes out. So I'm setting my sights kinda high....lol.

Happy Cat

I don't think there is a person out there that can honestly say that this cat doesn't look happy. We put some new fleecey stuff in Skitz basket and the damn cat hasn't moved since. She's laying there purring like a motorboat. :~)

I'm Baaaack

Alright Alright, I never really went anywhere but I also didn't blog yesterday. Shock Gasp Sputter! Yesterday was clean up day. We went through and worked on more stuff that need to be cleaned in the house. Not to mention the never ending piles of laundry that I had to work on.....I'm still working on that one today. :~)
I didn't get any knitting time in till last night after the girls were in bed that's how full our fun filled cleaning day was. :~) I worked on my gift knit so there isn't much to post about that other then it's about 40% done. I may just make the deadline.....maybe. If I can stay focused on it. I am going to work on my "Martha" socks. I want them darn things on my feet. Plus the deadline for the socks to be able to make the Loopy Quarterly Contest is the last week of this month. I'm sure I'll be able to make that deadline. The second sock always goes faster then the first one. :~)
I did get some things in from the mailman Saturday morning. I got my Overstock book order in and I got my yummy green Fearless Fibers yarn in. I'm going to be ordering yarn from them again......very nice! I also got two really cute kitty stitch markers from Weeones....they're so small and cute. She really is very talented to make something this tiny by hand. She hand sculpts all her stitch markers. She sent the kitty markers with the bigger rings she forgot to put on the stitch markers I ordered from her awhile back. It was totally unnecessary but really cool that she threw in the stitch markers. I'm going to be ordering more from her soon.

Martha #1 is Done

Yippy. It's done. I'm doing my happy dance. Oh man does this sock feel oh so good on my tootsies. I think it's a good thing that I have changed some things in this pattern. The first thing I did was make the cuff about 6" instead of the 7.5" that was called for in the pattern. The second thing was to not work the pattern across the instep on the foot. It all worked out great for me and the sock fits great. I love hand knit socks, they fit perfectly! Now if only I could knit a little faster.
I think if I would have followed the pattern I would have ran out of yarn while working the second sock. I've weighted both the sock and the leftover yarn and the leftover yarn weights 1/8 of an ounce more then the sock does. I'll have to see how much yardage I have leftover after I get done with the second sock. Since the ball of yarn weighs more then the sock I should have more then enough to get the second sock done.
Well I'm off to go cast on the second sock. I want these bad boys finished so I can wear them.....lol. It's still cold enough to wear them....we're in the 50's still. :~)