D’oh!

I feel like I have given up on my blog, but I don’t think I really have. It’s just that my intended purpose for starting the blog was to post about my knitting, and I haven’t produced so much lately. I finished the socks I was making for my friend’s birthday, and am very happy with how they turned out, but I was a dummy and in my excitement I forgot to take pictures before I sent them on to her. D’oh!

Speaking of d’oh, I went to the 7-11-turned-KwikEMart in Mountain View yesterday. That was pretty cool. They’ve rebranded all the 7-11 things so now they’re all Simpsons-esque, complete with shelves of Buzz cola and Krusty-Os, and Slushees instead of Slurpees. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera, so all I have are memories and the Lisa Simpson crazy straw I bought. Ah well. It was fun.

I’ve been working on a scarf for the Harry Potter book and movie releases. Hopefully I’ll get it done before the movie, but I will be sad if I don’t finish before the book comes out. I’m 1/3rd of the way there though, so with the help of a bunch of DVDs, I’m looking forward to a scarf-producing weekend. Woohoo!

Oh yeah, happy belated 4th of July.

alternate means of transportation

I rode my bike to work today. I don’t honestly remember the last time I rode my bike at all, and today I rode all the way to work, about 9.5 miles. The first half is a steep bumpy downhill (and I forgot my gloves) and the second half is pretty much all uphill. I didn’t know when I started out if I would make it all the way, but I did, and I’m proud of me. Yay, happy dance in celebration of me!

P.S. I will be taking the bus home.

finished sockapalooza socks, and a cute baby hat

Well, I finished my socks for Sockapalooza pal. I originally intended to knit the Red Dwarf Socks since I was planning on using Wick yarn , but I guess I just used that pattern as a rouge guide and made my own interpretation of it. I have wanted to use this diamond pattern for a while now, so this presented itself as an opportunity. I hope my sock pal likes them! She lives where it’s warm, so hopefully these will be nice and cool enough for her. I used two size 4 circular needles, one Addi Turbo and one my KnitPicks options needles, for my first two socks on two circs attempt. I must say, while I enjoyed the finishing of two socks at the same time, I found it a bit fiddly to have so many needle ends and yarn twisting together. I think if I do 2 socks on circulars again they’re going to have to be magic looped (which I’ve yet to try), or else I’ll just stick to my tried and true DPNs.

Also, this past weekend I administered a standardized test, which meant lots of concentrated knitting time. I used it to knit what I think is a very cute baby hat:

It looks much cuter on a round object, but my hand was the most easily accessible model at picture time

I also started a pair of socks for a friend’s belated birthday, but as they’re a surprise and I’m not sure if she knows about this blog, I’m not posting anything else about them. Shhh!

hippity hop, little grasshopper

I really like my Knee high to a Grasshopper socks. So much so that once I finished my socks, I wore them all evening, and then to bed, and then all of the next day. This is unheard of, as I never wear socks to bed, and don’t like to wear the same socks two days in a row. But, I love these socks. Even though I messed up the lace pattern on the back of the second one. I fixed it to the point where it’s hard enough to tell where the mistake is , and that’s all that matters to me, right? Now, I can’t wait to see what the lovely Blue Moon ladies have in store for us next!

Finished Shedir, and my socks-in-progress

So, finally yesterday I got it together enough to put some knitting pictures up on flickr, so today I want to show off my finished hat and socks in progress. Here’s a top down view of my Shedir that I finished…two Sundays ago?

I really do love the way the top of this hat comes together. I discovered that it is REALLY hard though to get a good picture of the top of my own head. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

My reward for finishing Shedir was being able to start my April Rockin’ Sock Club kit, with the beautiful and soft Silkie yarn. Here’s where I was progress-wise yesterday morning:
              
If you can’t tell, that’s a finished sock on the left, and the beginning of the second on the right.

I am excited that I have discovered a new photo-spot for knitting pictures, which is the bottom of my IKEA footstool. It’s less shiny than the kitchen table I’ve been using, and the light seems to be better too. Yay!

Slacker

I’ve been busy so I haven’t posted, and for sure haven’t had time to take pictures, but I do want to attempt to be semi-regular in my posting, so I’m going to post picture-less for right now, just so I have some sort of update. I finished Shedir this weekend. Got all of the main chart repeat done in the test on Saturday morning, and made myself finish the rest Sunday morning before I let myself go to breakfast. It ended up taking more time that I thought so I ended up at more of a brunch time than breakfast, but I was glad. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It feels a tiny bit big, and a tiny bit long, but not so much on either that I would have changed the pattern.

Finishing Shedir allowed me to start the new RSC socks, called Knee High to a Grasshopper. I really do love this yarn. The way it works up in sort of dark/light stripes is just gorgeous. I started it at first on the medium size on the prescribed size 2s, but was using DPNs instead of the two circulars called for in the pattern, because I don’t have size 2 circs. After I got a few inches up the foot it was clear that it was going to be too big, so I took it out. It’s going so fast though, I’m not really all that upset. Since I have 2 KnitPicks circs in their size 1 (which is really more like a 1 1/2) I’m going to use those and try to follow the 2 circs instructions in the pattern. I did the small size this time, but it seemed to be too small after finishing the toe, so I’m trying once more in the medium size, but with the smaller needles. I think the real answer might be to knit the toes on the size 2 dpns and then switch to the smaller circs for the main body of the sock, but only time will tell. I’ll have pictures to post as soon as I can get my act together.

Also since my last post, I got my sock pal’s info for the Sockapalooza sock exchange (link in sidebar). I am very excited about this, since I’ve never done a swap of any sort before. I really hope I can make something that my sock pal will enjoy. I think she and I have similarly sized feet, so hopefully that will help. I am hoping to figure out a pattern this week, though I won’t start knitting until the Grasshoppers are done. Fun fun fun!

An important, though non-knitting related post

So, I watch TV. Some might say I watch a lot of TV. Me, I say it’s cheaper than going to the movies and easier to do while knitting than reading a book (heaven forbid I do only one thing at a time). One of the best shows around that people somehow don’t seem to be watching is Veronica Mars. This show is awesome. The characters are awesome. The writing is awesome. It is entertaining and intelligent and one of the Good Shows. But sadly, its fate is uncertain. The CW network has not promised to bring it back for the fall season, and to me, and all of its fans, that is a Bad Thing. Perhaps even, A Very Bad Thing. So, if you are reading this, please consider the following:

<soap box>

1. Rent/borrow/buy/steal (j/k) the DVDs for the first two seasons of Veronica Mars and start watching. Heck, just watch the first DVD of the first season, and if you’re not intrigued, pass it along to someone else who might be. I haven’t found anyone yet though who hasn’t liked it enough to keep watching.

2. Visit the MI.net newbies page to get caught up on what’s happened in seasons 1, 2 and/or 3 so far (though, I seriously recommend watching, if you can)

3. Watch the latest season 3 episodes at CWTV.com , or buy season 3 episodes on iTunes
or on Amazon UnBox

Even if you don’t do any of those things above, you can still get in on the Veronica Mars action! The remaining episodes this season will all be single-episode arcs, so you can watch away and not need to know any back story.

So, watch Veronica Mars, Tuesdays at 9/8c on your local CW network starting May 1st. It’s great! Please help save one of the Good Shows! Thus ends my plea.

</soap box>

New shipment from the Rockin Sock Club

My April RSC shipment came today, and I am super pleased. I normally read the blog entries using google reader, and it’s been really hard to avoid spoilers, so now I don’t have to any more. Yay! This yarn is so nice. The last yarn (Monsoon) grew on me as I knit it up, but I just love this yarn from the getgo. It’s a new base yarn from the Blue Moon ladies, and it’s super soft. It’s got 19% silk, which takes the dye a little differently than the wool, which gives it such a neat look, and the colors are way more “me” than the brown/grey that predominated the Monsoon. The pattern calls for 2 circulars, but I don’t have circulars in the right size, so I think I’m going to start these on dpns, since I have them. We’ll see how it works out.

I do want to finish up the Shedir before I start these, so they’ll have to wait a couple of days. I’m supervising a test on Saturday, so I think that’ll give me plenty of opportunity to finish the hat, and potentially get a bit into the first sock.
Here is the progress on that, just to show that I am making progress

Weekend FOs

I have some FOs from this weekend, (I feel so knit-bloggy typing that; it’s fun). The first is a throw/afghan thingy for my Aunt Gretchen. She was in a pretty bad car accident a few weeks ago, and I just felt like knitting something for her. It’s 100% cotton (Lily elite, purchased at smileysyarns.com), and after a wash it’s pretty cushy and soft, so I think it’ll make a good lap blanket.

The second thing I finished was actually mostly finished a long while back, but was waiting for embellishment. This pair of socks has been sitting around waiting for the Apple logos on the legs, which I think bring a plain pair of grey socks to the next level of fun. We’re a Mac family, so when I saw this pattern I just knew I had to make them. I bought lots of this yarn (Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport) so I can make a matching pair whenever the mood strikes. I sent this pair to my dad, who has been asking for a pair of knit socks since I told him about the first pair I made last year, but I’ll probably make some for my brother and myself at some point as well. As a bonus, even after making these (to me) ginormous socks, I have a largish bit of yarn left over. I’m thinking I’ll make up a pair of semi-matching knucks to go with.

Another fun thing about these socks is they were my first short-row heel and toe, and the first socks I made using two circular needles. I still think I prefer using dpns, but since I knit so tightly I got gauge for the pattern on size 5s(!) and so these were super duper quick to knit. Good times!

The start of a shedir hat

Shedir start

Originally uploaded by amerob.

My job is such that I sometimes have blocks of time with nothing to do but sit and knit while I watch a progress bar crawl across a computer screen. Today, a block of time presented itself, and lasted long enough for me to get 11 rows into my latest project, Shedir from knitty.com. I’ve knit the pattern before, but gave the finished project to a friend for her birthday. This time, I’m knitting it for me. I’m going to try to do the cables without a cable needle, something I’ve tinkered with but never really done before on a whole project. I absolutely love this Calmer yarn. It’s just sooo soft and squishy, and I love knitting with it. I wonder if it would make good socks. Hmmmm…..