I <3 socks

I have been on a sock frenzy lately. No pictures at this minute, but maybe I'll take some at work. I keep meaning to blog, but life keeps getting in the way. Although tons of overtime makes for nice paychecks, it really cuts into life.

I'm on some sort of posting frenzy here!

So, I have this terrible obsession with memes. I've now found out there's a knitting one, so of course, I have to do it:

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan

I-cord

Garter stitch

Knitting with metal wire

Shawl

Stockinette stitch

Socks: top-down

Socks: toe-up

Knitting with camel yarn

Mittens: Cuff-up

Mittens: Tip-down

Hat

Knitting with silk

Moebius band knitting

Participating in a KAL

Sweater

Drop stitch patterns

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn

Slip stitch patterns

Knitting with banana fiber yarn

Domino knitting (=modular knitting)

Twisted stitch patterns

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting (No idea what this is)

Charity knitting

Knitting with soy yarn

Cardigan (at least not for myself)

Toy/doll clothing

Knitting with circular needles

Baby items

Knitting with your own handspun yarn

Slippers

Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)

Continental knitting

Designing knitted garments

Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)

Lace patterns

Publishing a knitting book

Scarf

Teaching a child to knit

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)

Knitting to make money

Button holes

Knitting with alpaca

Fair Isle knitting

Norwegian knitting

Dying with plant colours

Knitting items for a wedding

Household items (dishcloths, washcloths,tea cosies…)

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars (I like DPNs)

Olympic knitting

Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn

Knitting with dpns

Holiday related knitting

Teaching a male how to knit (If there's a male I know who wants to learn I would try to teach them, but I don't get this whole OMG! A boy who knits!!!!!11!!eleventy-one!)

Bobbles

Knitting for a living

Knitting with cotton

Knitting smocking

Dying yarn

Steeks

Knitting art

Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously

Fulling/felting

Knitting with wool

Textured knitting

Kitchener BO

Purses/bags

Knitting with beads

Swatching

LongTail CO

Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards

Machine knitting

Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn

Stuffed toys

Knitting with cashmere

Darning

Jewelry

Knitting with synthetic yarn

Writing a pattern

Gloves

Intarsia

Knitting with linen

Knitting for preemies

Tubular CO

Freeform knitting

Short rows

Cuffs/fingerlessmitts/armwarmers

Pillows

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Rug

Knitting on a loom

Thrummed knitting

Knitting a gift

Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Knitting with dog/cat hair (But there's plenty of cat hair that works its way into my knitting)

Hair accessories

Knitting in public

Ingrid's Bridal Knot

The center is done! Now I only have to do two borders. I'm currently on the 2nd of 160 rows for the second border. I've also decided that garter stitch in the round is not very high on my list of favorite things to do, so hopefully that will motivate me to chug right through this part.

Smoke on the water

Fire in my dumpster!

I was awake bright and early yesterday (7 pm) and heard noises that sounded like gravel hitting the window. Since we've been having a bit of a problem with basketballs bouncing off the window, I kind of looked outside, but didn't see anything going on. A little bit later, I looked outside to check the window and thought there were some mighty serious clouds outside - until I realized there were flames attached to the "clouds". Apparently, the noise I heard was firecrackers and somebody was so environmentally conscious they recycled them, which set the cardboard recycling container on fire, which set the commingled bin on fire, which set the regular dumpster on fire and burned down a bunch of the fence around the dumpsters. There were a lot of luckilys involved...luckily the fire didn't get a few feet further down the dumpster corral or it would have gotten to the shed where the tractor and the lawn mower and the gas are stored. Luckily there was virtually no wind so it didn't jump the corral and get the cars (ours weren't parked there, but there were plenty enough to make for a big boom). Also, I got to meet a bunch of my neighbors.

On a knitting related note, I finished the center part of Ingrid's Bridal Knot! Expect pictures soon (maybe even later today depending on when I get up)

At Last

Here's a little update on Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl. After a month long break, I"m back to working on it and I'm finally on the decrease section!

Close up of the center motif:

Here's 348 rows:

Why are my batteries always dead???

I really need to remember to plug the battery charger in the wall - it works so much better that way.

I've gotten a whole bunch done and really want to put up pictures.

I've finished the "baby butt covers" for Maggie's shower, I've finished an arm warmer based off of Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts, but with my own fair isle design. I have a sock done.

There's also stuff for swaps that I can't put up pictures of until my partner has them.

Hopefully Monday I can get some pictures up.

There seems to be a theme in my life

And that theme is masters. I'm waiting to get an e-mail back to find out if my Psych classes will work instead of Social Work ones. I really, really don't want to have to take Stats again! In the meantime, I used my Birthday money to finally enroll in the Master Knitting Program. The pin will be mine!!!

Yesterday, Kent had a manager's meeting in Madison, so since I was awake when it was time to leave, I decided to go along with and tour the yarn stores of Madison. I didn't even get lost (well, I got a little turned around, but Yahoo directions sometimes lie and you should use your common sense and go ahead and turn left on John Nolan even if they say to turn right) and I even found a new way to get to the zoo. After the boys got dropped off at their meeting, I went to Wisconsin Craft Market. It was kind of disappointing. They were listed as one of the distributers of Plymouth Galway, but nope, they didn't have any. It was basically a slightly nicer version of Ben Franklin's. Didn't get anything there.

Next I went to The Knitting Tree and drove in squares for about 15 minutes trying to park. They also were supposed to have Plymouth Galway (all I needed was one skein of color 143), but didn't. They were pretty nice. Kinda small, but a good collection of sock yarn. I got two hanks of Koigu KPPPM in a really pretty colorway. It's different shades of reds, oranges and purples. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled, so I didn't even think to ask to have it wound and they didn't offer, so I'm going to have to take it up to Iris to wind it.



Next I went to Lakeside Fibers and fell in love. The place is amazing. From the front it looks pretty small, but it keeps going forever. There's even a coffee shop hidden in back. They have an amazing selection and I could have blown the budget very easily. In fact, I kept petting a hank of Artyarns Cashmere. I managed to resist, but I did treat meyself. I got a hank of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Raven (it's really hard to find sock-weight yarn in black). This will go with the KPPM to cheat at a pair of Fair Isle arm warmers.

Since the Bearfoot is 350 yards and I'm thinking I'll need somewhere aroun 150-180 yards for the armwarmers, I got more fun colorway yarn to work with. This is Interlacements Tiny Toes in Carbon Dioxide.

This was the impulse buy. It was on sale, otherwise I probably would have walked by, but it's such a pretty color - the flash doesn't do it justice. I got two balls of Louisa Harding Kimono Angora Pure. It's 70% angora, 25% Wool, 5% Nylon and was 25% off.


And the best part is that Lakeside Fibers does a punch card and on odd numbered Tuesdays gives out double punches, so I have the majority of a card filled up already!

I also finished a sock and a swap item (I almost put down what it was :) ). The sock started out a Baudelaire, but I was almost done with one sock and decided that I really did not like the way it looked with the yarn, so I frogged the whole thing and started over. I still did a toe-up sock (which is nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be), but I put togeather my own rib and cable design. I love how it turned out so much, but I told myself no pictures to show off until they are both done.