Friday, June 29, 2012

travel socks

I just got back from vacation. We left our house in Michigan, drove to Indianapolis, then on to the Champaign, Il area for a family reunion, then up to Chicago (and Skokie) to hang and see the sights and then back home to Michigan.

I finished the sweaters before I left, but they deserve their own post. When I left I decided I'd start a pair of toe up socks and try to photodocument my road trip with them.

I had very limited success.

Indiana

Here we are at the Indiana State line. When I realize that this probably isn't going to work.

The beef house is right along the IN/IL border and was always a fancy place to go when I was growing up outside Champaign, Il. We stopped for lunch there and couldn't resist the photo op.

Socks go to the beef house

After trying on the socks, I decided to start the first heel at the IL state line:

Nearly in IL

People were mocking me at this point about the sock, and so when my mom insisted I take her picture with the sock, I did and then put it away

Mom

Well until we were in our hotel and then I had to have the girls stuffed animals pose with the socks:

StillwaterStillwater the panda

OtterHarry Otter

I finished the first sock as we headed back to Michigan. Then I started the second sock and immediately got second sock syndrome. I did work on it some, but we've been home a couple of days now and I'm not to the heel yet. There is something to be said about taking more than one project along even if you know that the one project will be enough travel knitting. Plus people really do mock you when you whip out a half completed sock and try to take pictures.

I need something new so the second sock can be my travel take along project.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

procrastinate

I am the biggest procrastinator.

I usually put off things though for specific reasons. Well one reason really: I don't want to do it.

So it probably comes as no surprise that the one thing holding me back on the purple sweater was the button holes. It wasn't that I didn't understand how to do them. I watched this video:

It was just that I was going to have to swatch to be sure that the size I made fit the buttons. And you know what? I didn't want to do that.

I mean I really did not want to do that.

I'm not sure why--after I finally decided that if it was going to be done in a quiet house while I was awake and alert, it needed to be done today --it went easy.

Seriously easy. Like less than 1/2 hour easy. The panda buttons will work with a 3 stitch version, the smaller buttons probably would work with a yarnover, but to keep consistent, we'll do a two stitch buttonhole.

Now to actually do it.