starting

I'm still sort of stuck in my "What do I knit?" rut. I say sort of because, I sort of decided what to knit, but am still swatching, thinking, and doing the algebra necessary to perhaps pull it off.

I picked some grey Sidar DK country style yarn from my stash that I had gotten a long long time ago to make a different sweater. and decided that a top down sweater from Ann Budd's newest book Knitter's Handy Book of Top Down Sweaters. If you don't know about Ann's handy book of patterns collections, you really should. They are wonderful books full of all the math and directions you'd need to make sweaters, socks, hats, or mittens from virtually any yarn. They also make great templates for your own designs. You knit a gauge swatch decide a size and she lays out all the numbers you need.

This book also has a number of "copycat" patterns, some by other designers. One of these copycat patterns India Print Henley, really speaks to me. But in the vein of this book, I want to change a few things. For one, I only want the lace pattern at the top. And for another, I'm not getting gauge the pattern is calling for, hence the math. I think I have it figured up so if my gauge stays the same after washing I can make the smallest size and have it come out to my size (which is not the smallest).

At the same time, the book Knits that Fit that I requested from the library came in. I'm reading the fit part, and planning to make something from that book.

But the most exciting thing is that Saturday, I took a hand spinning class. I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. While I am hilariously bad at it, I do enjoy it. I know--practice, practice, practice will help me get better. So far, I've made a tiny bit of yarn, too little yardage to actually knit, but I still have more roving from the class, so hopefully I'll have enough to... well I don't rightly know what.

drought

So yeah, I'm having a huge creative block. I really have no idea what I want to knit next. It seems to me that my knitting life is sort of a "when it rains it pours" kind of thing. Usually, if I am excited about a project, I'm also excited about 20 projects and have a serious case of starter-its, followed by.... well a drought.

I have new needles, some spiffy knitters pride Carbonz dpns, in size 1.5 to replace my harmony dpns. And I love them, but....
they are a little off size wise. I mean I get that 1.5 is tricky as it is technically 2.5mm diameter, but these are closer to a US size 2. I don't use size 2 very often, as I like tighter knit socks usually. And I would have gotten straight US size 1 except my LYS was out. I do have birthday money though, so I may go back. And I have US size 1 needles so this in itself isn't holding me back. In fact I even have another set of US 1.5.

It is just I kind of wanted to use those new needles.

Except I don't want to make socks.
I should because I love hand knit socks, I wear hand knit socks 95% of the winter (exceptions being when I run, and when I need to wear my tennis shoes--like this volunteer stint I have caretaking butterflies with my knitting/running friend. That's my hand holding the orchard swallowtail). So you'd THINK I'd always need more socks. And I kind of do, I just don't want to make any right now.

See I'm kind of bummed at some of my socks and how fast they are wearing. I mean I fixed actual HOLES in a sock that I've only had for two years (I checked my ravelry link. Or here's the flickr link ). And I put a lot of work into those socks. And even though I KNOW that was a case where I was blinded by the pretty colors into not noticing that it was essentially knit picks sock yarn (which don't get me wrong, I like, but I don't put that much work into knit picks sock yarn anymore), I just feel all mournful about socks.

I did dig out some stash Lorna's laces and wound up a skein (and tried out my new needles and SWORE at how loose the stitches looked) and I know Lorna's laces last for freaking ever, because the very first socks I ever made were Lorna's laces and while I have repaired them, let's just say it was more than 2 years later and was not nearly that damaged. And I may get back to those because I did walk past it this morning and think "oh pretty. Oh lovely. pretty pretty yarn." (yes, it was as creepy as it sounds)

I also have some really nice yarn. I won some buffalo gold earth lite in red. I intended to make a cowl or something but I wore the skein around my neck for a while (shut UP) and found it to scratchy for my neck. And I dug it out this week because the newest Interweave knits has a pattern for a set of fingerless gloves that I thought would be perfect for this yarn. It was Inlaid lace mitts. But the gauge is wrong. Really wrong. Like I don't think going down a few needle sizes (I think we'd be talking US 00) is going to help.

I also have some nice laceweights hanging around the stash. Some Helen's lace, sea silk and one whose name I can't remember and I'm too lazy to dig it out and look--but trust me same category. But I'm a little burned out on lace. I need a project I can carry around.

And so I thought sweater. I bought some yarn to make a red sweater after seeing a red sweater that I LOVED in Knits that Fit, but before I buy the book, I'd like to look at it again and make sure, and maybe swatch. The library has it, that's where I saw it originally. But it is checked out and not due back for two weeks. I have a hold though so maybe it will come in faster.

I also have yarn to make that pesky dollar and a half cardigan but I'm afraid that if I knit this it will be: a) a pain and b) not a sweater that will magically transform me into the model.

I have a few more chunks of yarn in sweater amounts, but nothing that excites me. I guess I'll just keep thumbing though my books and magazines until something strikes me.

What do you do when you hit a knitting drought?

details

I must confess that since finishing my rick socks, I've been at a loss as to what to knit next. Me, the person who has always had a project going, has sat for the last 3 days with nothing to knit. Oh I've swatched and darned a sock, but really for three days nothing. It is something I'll write about later.

For now here are the details on the rick socks: Pattern: Rick found in Sock Innovation by cookie A.

Yarn: Cascade heritage in a purple that seems to be discontinued. Used most of one skein

needles: 1.5 us My knit picks harmony dpns, now retired due to a chip:

They took two months but I love them!

Rick

I set a goal of finishing my rick socks by my birthday, and last night, with hours to spare, I did it.

More later, there is cake to eat.

pajamas

Yes I am still knitting on my rick socks. There is a spot on the foot where the diagonal pattern shifts and goes the other way, and I messed this up (and my lifeline was 6 rows back and I was lazy). Eventually I couldn't stand it and ripped back, so I lost maybe 15 rounds. But I'm back to where I was when I ripped and it looks much better. I can not believe how long it has taken me to get these socks done.

My twin daughters are turning 10 next week. And ten is a funny age. Ten is your first decade and honestly it seems to me a perfect time to look back and see what a different person I have become, what a different family my husband and I have become. I realized in this nostalgic look back that although I technically knew how to knit, I never did (and I had no idea to get started beyond handing yarn and needles to my grandmother). I also never made homemade jam (That came about when we made baby food). I certainly never canned anything.

Basically my children have made me a hippy domestic goddess. or something

One thing I had done before they were born, was sew. I don't do quilts often (I never really did), but I used to make all my own pj pants. I started because at the time you couldn't really find flannel pajamas in stores. In fact the pattern I prefer for me is a homemade one made from an old pair I had that fell apart. Now of course, you can buy flannel PJ pants for very little (I bought I pair I need to hem for $1!! NEW!). But I still like to make them.

My girls at ten are tall, and one is very skinny and the other is a little husky. What this means is that I can not find PJs to fit them beyond nightgowns. If I buy their size they are too big on one and tight on the other. So over presidents day weekend I noticed that JoAnne Fabrics had Simplicity patterns on sale for $1 and I picked up three different pajama patterns. Flannel was on sale as well for $3 a yard and so I did what any rational person would do and I bought some, even though I KNEW I had flannel at home.

And I set to work making pants.

This pair has been worn three nights in a row, and the recipient requested that instead of making the top to match, I should do another pair. I have no picture of the second pair, but they were also well received (In fact she was all--when are you going to finish MINE! and has declared them "comfier than I thought").

I have a feeling there are more PJ pants in my future.

chip

When you don't have a finished object to show off, it can be hard to think of what to knit blog about. Because seriously how many times can one write "still knitting on those socks!" "Got another row done last night!" or "whew turned a heel!"without people abandoning you.

But I am still knitting. It isn't a very portable project so I am going very very slow. Ok and it is lace so there is another reason for slow. And yesterday I ran into a problem where I seem to have an extra stitch. But mostly this has been a problem:

Yes, one of my dpns is cracked! And I sat on the spare that came with this set and broke it so, this is it. And every time I come to it the row takes a major long time because it snags a LOT.

Regardless, I'm turning the heel today--I've saved the only portable part for an outing in which I have to do basically nothing for a half hour.

Old photo:

cowls

Work proceeds on the rick socks, I've managed to complete the right sock and have started on the left.

You might have heard though that last week the midwest got bitterly cold. I mean bitterly. Here in Michigan was no exception. We had several days in a row where we deemed it too cold to walk the one block to school (seriously). And in the midst of this we discovered the girls did not have scarves.

I KNOW!! I couldn't believe it either. And then some well meaning family member suggested I buy them scarves. I swooned.

Actually I picked up my big needles (size 11--was the biggest circs I had) and some stash yarn and created not a scarf but a cowl:

Which worked well for one girl--who loves purple more than anything, but the other one has been balking at pink and girly things lately. So a trip to Michael's and an good afternoon of knitting later and she too had a cowl:

Several teachers oohed and ahhed over them and I realized that hey, these would have made easy teacher gifts. Nothing like realizing that a month after the fact.

the reward entry

Yesterday, I managed to accomplish a lot of stuff on my to do list. My treadmill workout seemed easier, I stayed within my calorie allotment despite eating out, I ordered new glasses, figured out how to manage a part of the sock that was driving me nuts (more on that in a minute) and managed to take a "refraction" picture (This is a picture where you can see a picture in a small drop of water--and it can be tricky to pull off):

So today I am rewarding myself by putting aside the gazillion things I *should* be doing, and do something I *want* to do. (which if you haven't guessed is this entry)

So, the socks. Back at Christmas we planned a small car trip (12 hours in the car all told) and I had recently finished a pair of toe up regular socks (the purple stripes last entry) and so I thought that I wanted a portable project, but I didn't want "regular plain socks". Evidently I don't do anything halfway because before I knew it I had packed Sock Innovation, my harmony DPN pack and a skein of cascade Heritage (in purple solid).

I picked out the pattern Rick somewhere along the way and cast on in the car. The ribbing went fine, and soon I had started on the lace. And soon I ripped back to the ribbing. And then I started the lace again. And then I got distracted and pulled a needle out of stitches, couldn't find them again, and ripped back to the ribbing. Then I started the lace again and we reached our destination. By this time I think I had about 2 inches of lace.

So we did our trip thing, got back int he car to go home, and I pulled out the knitting. I was doing well, so well. Then I don't even know what happened but suddenly instead of 60 stitches on the needles I had 59. I tried back tracking, but couldn't find where I had dropped them. I was devastated and not sure what to do--do I rip, do I tink? And then a driver in the next lane pointed out we had a flat tire. After that car knitting just didn't happen. We pulled over at the next town took everything out of the car, changed the tire, loaded everyone back in and by then it was getting dark, we were all wound up and nervous about driving home on the spare (oh and 2 low tires--which we fixed at the next exit).

Back home it was clear, I needed to rip back to the ribbing, and start using lifelines. After the lifelines, I only have had one "swear incident" (as my husband calls them), in which I was getting ready to put in a lifeline and again pulled the needle out of 20 stitches--but 8 rows lost and it didn't take me near the ribbing.

So then I'm knitting away happily, I do the heel and it looks good, then I pick up the gusset stitches and for some reason it is easier than I remembered (probably because the pattern gives no number of stitches to pick up (which is sensible, it really doesn't matter) and then I start across the top of the foot--which continues the lace. For some reason I no longer had the 32 stitches I had put aside when I did the heel, I now had 31. (insert cosmic scream here)

However, while I was waiting for the eye doctor yesterday it clicked for me--it had dropped at one end. Quickly I figured out which end and made my peace with the idea that that row might look a tiny bit funny and suddenly I had a sock again.

Now I'm debating the need for a lifeline in the one lace row (I think I need one) and slowly moving along.

All this work and I still have to do the left sock (yes the socks are mirror image patterns--it is going to be totally cool).

christmas knitting

I've been sitting on this for a while. Back in the summer, June or July maybe, I started a scarf for my mother in law. She likes red, and hates scratchy things. So a while ago, (April maybe) I picked up this misti alpaca pima cotton/silk, in red. (yes, she is a good mother in law!). Anyway, I made this from a one skein wonders book:

I had forgotten the pattern name, thankfully I recorded it in ravelry! It is called: Ruffled Merino-Seacell Bias Scarf, and is from 101 Luxury one skein wonders. It is super soft and nice (I left off the ruffles), and I think she likes it. here is the pattern closeup:

The other project I finished, wasn't a gift, but more a finally finished. I started these socks for my daughter a long time ago, but kept putting them aside to work on more urgent things. Finally Christmas Eve, I finished them.

Given that I've washed them twice (and I think they are dirty again), I think she likes them.

I started a pair of socks for me (in purple) and her comment was--oh socks for you?! The implication being that I should knit more purple socks for her!

More on my socks after everyone goes back to school.

Christmas stuff

Ok, so in the last two weeks, I've been on a knitting, baking, Christmas binge.  I have cards sent out, I have presents bought, and most things wrapped.

I knitted up this scarf for the aide in girltwina's class:


here's a closeup when it was in progress.


 title="basketweave scarf by jodieg99, on Flickr">


I ended up putting a crochet edging around the whole thing which was mixed.  On one hand it evened it up, on the other, I think my gauge on the crochet was a little off and so was tighter than the knitting.

I didn't take any pictures of the e-reader covers I made for a variety of reasons. First, the pattern I was following made one WAY too small, and so I had to adapt the pattern.  So that made what should have been an easy sewing project into a nightmare--that I saved until the last minute.  Then I decided the end results were ugly!  However, add a gift card and who cares.

The parties were Thursday.  I had been baking for days so that all the "Specials" teachers could have some goodies, and then at the end I only made up goodie bags for the science teacher, math teacher and social studies teacher.  Some of whom already got other presents.

Part of my problem was running out of time.  Christmas snuck up on me in a way that it hasn't in a while.  Part of it was just sadness weighing me down.  It was really hard to do anything on December 14th except cry and craft angry letters to my legislators.  Then I felt because I didn't make a small metric ton, that I didn't have enough to divide up to the art, music, gym and spanish teachers and the principal.

I made: Spiced pecans, peppermint marshmallows (yes I made marshmallows!), hard candy (just cherry), peppermint truffles, and salted caramel.
Sometime in 2013 I should write the recipes down for the spiced pecans and hard candy--I did a quick search because I was sure I'd mentioned them before, but evidently I hadn't.
The salted caramel didn't ever really set to a point where I could wrap it up, so I wrapped up everything else.  Well, I clearly had too much and clearly should have at least made a plate for the principal or the teachers lounge because man do I have a lot of leftovers.

I've been slowly eating the caramel--although other people in the house like it, I seem to be always taking it to new heights (high calorie levels that is). The caramel must be eaten on a spoon or on a trefoil cookie.  Just to kick it up a notch, I add melted dark chocolate:

ruffle scarves

Ok, so the two ruffle scarves, I mentioned in the last entry are finished!

As you can see one is considerably bigger than the other. This is because I made them with two different brands of yarn. Both went faster than I thought it would, despite the fact that the process itself was so slow. The blue one is made with red heart Shashay and the black one is Starabella.

Red heart Shashay Had a video on how to knit with the yarn (cheater tip: knit into the top--and sort of backwards loop cast on)and was the cheaper of the two. I also think it looks fuller. However, I could not find it in the black I was looking for. Also, I discovered later--it was on sale, but didn't ring up as such--but I wasn't driving across town for $1 difference. It has 30 yards, and I knit with a US size 9. I still need to sew in the ends.

Starbella, was as I said a touch more expensive. It was $6.99 when I bought it, and I used a 40% off coupon. I've seen it on sale since then for 2 for $6. I thought the color choice I had was better (perhaps because of the price difference!) and they had the black I was looking for, whereas there was no black to be found in shashay (and I again, didn't want to drive all over town looking). It felt a little more sparse when I was knitting it, but it looks full. The longer length may come from the fact that it has 33 yards. I would never have guessed that 3 yards would make nearly a foot difference. This basically knit up the same as the Shashay, and I finished both within 10 days.

Closeup of the blue:

and the black:

Overall verdict: I don't know. On one hand I liked the longer Starbella, but on the other, I thought I liked how much fuller the Shashay was. So for me it was a toss up.

christmas decisions

First off, I want to say, I got some great suggestions about teacher gifts. And so thank you! One of the most liberating of these was the suggestion of: You know they don't all have to be the same.

Well I took that and ran with it. I have five teacher/aides I wanted to gift this year (plus specials, but they get homemade candy). So here is what I decided:

both main teachers will get a gift card to Barnes and Noble (already purchased on special).
girl twin B's teacher and one of the aides in girl twin A's class will get a ruffle scarf. (already made!)
Girl twin A's teacher and the aide in the other class are getting quilted e-reader covers, that I'll be sewing.
The remaining aide is getting a regular scarf.

All of this feels do-able to me. The two ruffle scarves are done, and went fast. (I'm planning a post on them--hopefully tomorrow) And the other scarf is well under way:

It is at the stage where it doesn't feel like it is getting any bigger, but it is. I'm just using a cheap (but nice) acrylic, I picked up on sale. I initially bought a variegated thinking I would make a drop stitch scarf, but once I started knitting it I realized two things:
1)it didn't match her coat and
2)it was UG-LEE!!

So I returned it, picked up two skeins of this cream, and decided a basketweave would be pretty. It is going to need a crochet edging or something I think.

I know the two people with e-readers have nooks so that's all good. Now to find a time to stash dive and get a selection for the girls to pick out. More on that, as it happens!

holiday knitting

This is the time of year when I am usually up to my ears in projects for teachers. But this year, for the first time, I am feeling eh about it.

Part of the issue is that this is the first year my twin girls have been separated, so now I'm dealing with twice the teachers as usual. Also because my time has been split between the two classes, I don't know either teacher very well. And they are in 4th grade, which means that I am not helping in the classroom nearly as much as I did when they were in first grade.

Let's also add to the fact that there are three aides between the two classes.
Usually I wouldn't worry about aides, as they are really there not to help the whole class but to help one child within the class, but girltwin b has an aide who has been with both girls every year since kindergarten (excepting first grade) and she does actually help the whole class too. Add to this that I've made her two scarves and a necklace over the years, I feel like this year I need to give her something. But then if I give HER something, do I need to give the two aides in girltwin a's class?

Other complications have also arisen. Girltwin A's teacher told me she is allergic to wool and alpaca (we were on a field trip to a farm, so it isn't as weird as it sounds), and girltwin b's teacher doesn't seem like the scarf type.

Initially I had thought I'd go over to the dark side and make ruffle scarves. (red heart sashay!)I KNOW! but they are really in right now. The thing is, with those scarves, you kind of need to be a scarf person. Or shall we say a fashionable person who might think a nice accessory is a scarf. And of the 5 people in question--ONE of them is (and she's the aide I know the least).

This is starting to feel like one of those terrible logic problems.

The other complication is that last weekend barnes and noble was running a special--buy $75 in gift cards, get a $10 bonus card. And we bought 5, $15 gift cards, thinking that they would come in handy for things like teacher gifts, emergency gifts, and donation gifts. But now it feels super tempting to just give the teachers the gift cards and either bake something for the aides or I guess I COULD knit them scarves. Do those ruffle scarves take long? I mean I could make 2 one each for the two younger aides (and the one I know gets her fashionable stuff appropriated by her daughter) and a nice sturdy scarf (like the Irish hiking scarf ) for the third aide. But do I want to?

So many decisions, so little time.

halloween post-mortem

Before I go on and start in on my next knitting conundrum (what to knit for the holidays), I thought I may need to do a Halloween wrap up.

In the end, everything fit. Everyone was pleased and many compliments were had. The only problem was poodle skirt girl lost the handkerchief on her ponytail and doesn't know where it is (and it was one of mine!).

Closeup of her wig:

Project runway Halloween

Halloween, for me, has started to take on a Project Runway type feel.

In Project Runway, each week the remaining designers are given a challenge, a budget and soem time to work on a design. About halfway through, the mentor Tim Gunn, comes in and critiques the designs. Then the models come in for a fitting. Usually the next day the models get styled (hair and make-up) and a runway show is presented with one or more designers being eliminated. It is a fun show to watch because of all the drama. I've seen all except for season 9 (don't ask) and feel like I've seen nearly everything bad that could happen, happen. Models lie about their measurements and garments don't fit, designers run out of money for fabric, designers run out of time, and of course garments that didn't turn out the way they had expected.

Of course, I am not a designer. I need a pattern (patterns are forbidden on PR and in fact one designer was kicked off because it was discovered he had pattern books among his belongings) for one thing. For another, I really do not work well under pressure. And finally, I have no Tim Gunn. So yes, I had patterns. And yes, I had time. and yes, I even came well within budget spending $70 all together. But for some reason, I also had problems, lots of problems. In fact I've decided to list my top five here.

Top five problems I encountered this Halloween

5) Kind of anti-climatic but the number 5 was how LONG it took me to make the petticoat for the poodle skirt. I know I already wrote about it, but Oh my.
4) The "poodle" fabric. It was supposed to be "sherpa remnant" but no fabric store nearby had that, so I ended up going with something similar I found at Michael's. It frayed like nobodies business and shed EVERYWHERE. I have leftover and I'm considering a doll "pimp jacket" that's how weird it was. I ended up having to use FrayCheck on the smaller pieces, and I surged the edges of the larger pieces.
3) Sizing! I measured the poodle skirt girl and made the size her measurements suggested and the petticoat was TOO SMALL. It was easily fixed by adding ribbon waistband, but then the skirt, based on the same pattern is snug. The panic that set in when I thought I might have to add some felt to the poodle skirt was crazy. However, everything has been tried on and fits. At least for now.
2) Up until now all the problems have been with the poodle skirt. I did have one grrr issue with the medusa costume and that was, again I sized it according to measurements and the neckline is HUGE. Also, and I think this may be user error, but the sleeves are set kind of funny, so when i tried to take in the neck it made the sleeves look bunchy. Medusa is all set to wear an all black outfit under her costume anyway, so she's not too distressed.
1) Buttonholes. I know this 50s poodle skirt has just been the worst. The blouse has buttons. My machine does buttonholes pretty nicely, but you have to program the first one, and for the first 15 I tried, I was hitting the wrong reverse button--my machine has 2 and one works for buttonholes and one has a buttonhole symbol by it. Then I switched to my old machine which has a buttonhole foot. You put the button in it and supposedly it will do the rest. Well.... I couldn't get fabric to feed through it. And I tried perhaps 5 or 6 times before I gave up. Then I got the buttonhole figured out and it took at least 5 more tries to get the right size. So away I started sewing only to run out of thread on the 3rd buttonhole (of 5) and have to reprogram the buttonhole.
All told, I made at least 30 buttonholes and 5 of them now are on the blouse.

Last night we had our final fitting, and all clients were happy. Tomorrow we go to the runway, with styling to be done in the morning (heaven help me). It is supposed to rain on Halloween though, so School may be our big debut and final showing.

state of halloween

I am a planner. I know I can't start thinking about Halloween costumes in October. I know Joann's usually has a big labor day pattern sale. So we start early.

I also start sewing early. In fact I usually take the patterns home, read through them and make lists of what I need to buy so that I only make one trip to the store. and then I plan out my sewing.

Last year on Oct 6 I started a new job and my remembrance is that I was mostly done with costumes at that point. I probably out to go back and check for sure, but my general feeling is that last year was not rushed at all.

This year, well things went very different.

First off I bought the supplies and patterns the same day due to a 30% off your entire order including sale (but not clearance) items. So while I didn't end up with stuff I didn't need, like I have in the past. I neglected to buy snaps and buttons. And trim for one costume, because the child had not given me a clear vision yet.

I had some knitting to do for one of the costumes and so I started that early and then made the plan that I had 4 pieces to sew that I would tackle one a week, which under this plan would have meant that this week I'd be dealing with problems. I always try to give myself a week in case of problems. Then if I run into an issue and I don't want to tackle it, I can save it and mull it over.

Well the petticoat week happened. Did you know that under every successful poodle skirt there is a petticoat or crinoline that makes it poofy? Did you know what a monumental pain in the rear end it is to make a crinoline or petticoat? Yeah me, neither.

First there was tons of tulle to be cut, sewed together and gathered.

And THEN you sewed it on. AND THEN you did that three times!

What you see up there represents 9 hours of nothing but tulle work.

Usually I do not keep track of "how long that took for me to make it" unless I am trying to either charge for my time or trying to do a cost benefit analysis (like for brownie vests). But in this case, it was unavoidable, because I thought hi ho I have a morning free I should be able to finish this petticoat today! Sadly, by lunchtime I was swearing and screaming and cursing bobby soxers everywhere.

And I only had one row of tulle on.

My husband said, "Oh but you know it won't take you three hours to do the rest, remember the first brownie vest? It took you tons of time longer than the second."

He was not only wrong, he was quite spectacularly wrong.

Ok maybe it didn't take me three hours to do the second, but it was close. And the third I know took at least 2.5. So yes, petticoat week was actually two weeks.

So here I am one week before Halloween (WHAT?! ) and I still have one more piece to start. Needless to say, I am glad I saved the easiest for last. I cut and sewed in all my free time on Monday and today, and am now at the try it on point for 3 of the 4 pieces, and only have buttonholes for the fourth.

Somebody save me.

or send junior mints

knee socks

This summer, my girls told me that this year they'd really like some new socks. Knitted socks. And I realized that though I have made them a pair nearly every year since I first learned to knit socks, I had not made them any last year. They sort of seemed at that age where they wouldn't really wear anything but white athletic socks.

Also, their feet are getting so long that it takes more yarn to make their socks. I used to be able to get two socks from one Lorna's laces hank, and now I would need two. Those are expensive socks when you are talking about kids who will outgrow them before they wear out. We'll get back to Lorna's laces when their feet stop growing.

For now that means shopping around for some cheaper sock yarn. So I was thrilled to find some sensations bamboo and ewe patterned sock yarn at Joann's in colors I knew my girls would love.

I'm glad I bought two balls even though I probably could have gotten away with one, for a normal sized sock, because well ... the first girl up requested knee socks.

In fact I used so much of the skein and the repeat is so long (3 inches of sock!) that I didn't bother attempting to get these to match exactly. She doesn't care, she loves them.

The pattern is the basic toe up sock I always make from an old Interweave knits article by the wondrous Ann Budd. I changed needle sizes to go bigger, and then ended up adding stitches. I kind of did it on the fly as for some reason I didn't or couldn't I don't remember which look in the magazine because I KNOW there is a pattern for knee socks in it. However, improvising is always fun.

She had fun modeling, and insisted on wearing them tucked in her pants to school.

Now to make her sister a pair, although she claims to want "normal" socks.

first world problems

One of my biggest problems with getting entries done is pictures. I want to show you all pictures of my work! But I seem to be in this technology limbo, similar to what I felt ages ago when the internet was a new frontier.

I have a camera, a pro flickr account, an ipad, and a desktop computer, so everything should be easy? yes?

Well actually no.

You see if I take pictures with my camera, I have to download them onto the desktop, and then move them over to Flickr. The quality is good even if the photographer is bad. I just need to remember to take the pictures, and then download them. And then if I just dumped everything to flickr right then, well half the work would be done.
Problem is, I often forget to take pictures. Then when I do remember, it takes me a long time to get the camera downloaded. Then usually someone needs me before I can do anything with my downloads. Or getting the downloading to the computer and then edits (usually rotating or cropping) and uploading again take up all my allotted blog time (and I must get back to my life outside the computer).

I could and do take pictures with the ipad, which I use more than the desktop computer on some days (my husband is currently working at home, so the ipad has become my "laptop."). I didn't buy the camera connector kit because I figured I didn't really need it, as I can connect to the desktop. But the ipad does have a camera. I just don't always appreciate the quality. Plus it took me longer than it should have to figure out how to get pictures from the camera roll onto flickr. (an iphone app for flickr exists, but not an ipad app--and the uploader from flickr uses flash I think--anyway won't work. But iphone app works!)

An example of the quality is this picture of the poodle skirt in progress:

A little grainy for my taste.

So, what this means is that most of the days that I have time to write something, I'm relegated to the ipad and usually I don't have a photo that I want to share already on flickr--or even on my camera half the time. So then I have to decide, grainy photos taken on the ipad as I'm updating (and WHY are they so grainy?!) or entry first, pictures second (really it takes me two days to get one entry?) or no entry?

I don't have answers. I wish I did.

Oh I do have a sort of answer--I'm thinking of going over to the dark side for Christmas/holiday gifts. Yes, novelty yarn. Specifically Redheart sashay scarves. If they had a lime green colorway, I'd probably already be casting on for a gift, and I may still do some discreet "what color appeals to you" poking around. These just seem like the kind of hip thing that wouldn't take much in the way of technique and yet would still impress.

September

So September escaped from me. For some reason I always always think: "once school starts I will have SO much time!"

I'm not sure if that means that then I put off stuff until school starts and I spend September playing crazy lady catch-up or if it really is that busy. Maybe both. I know I certainly worked my job like that, I did only what needed to get done (without working ahead). Meaning of course that when school started I was behind.

Also indicative of life right now is the fact that my nine year olds have somehow morphed back to preschoolers. The two paragraphs above took 20 minutes to type because suddenly they need me for everything from mediating arguments, to keeping them from getting into everything. I swear I need to babyproof more now than I did when they were 3.

At any rate, here is a project update:

-Halloween costumes! Yes, they have begun. Every year I think maybe the girls get too old for this, but I hope I have a few more years. Anyway they chose to be a 50's girl (complete with poodle skirt) and medusa.
I was initially worried because medusa started as bride of frankenstein and as we talked, the only sense I could get of what the bride of frankenstein looked like had to do with hair. As I was trying to figure out how to do the hair, she casually mentions: either that or medusa.
Well my brain started ticking and let's just say, this will be one cute medusa.

Progress on these is slow, but I do have medusa's hair underway and have mostly finished the blouse that goes with the poodle skirt (saving the buttonholes for that mythical time when I can concentrate).

-Knee socks. I started the second knee sock and have gotten the foot done, and started up the leg, not quite to the point of the increases yet, but I'll get there. I am a little sad that she won't be able to wear these with shorts, as the weather has turned cold, but eh, she'll figure something out.

-Misc. I have started thinking about Christmas, especially my gift knitting. My daughters are in different classes this year and so that doubles the teacher gifts. Also, the aide in one daughter's class has been the aide for her class every year except first grade. She manages to balance helping her assigned student and helping the class as a whole, and so I have in the past knit her a gift too. Since I've known her a few years, I was thinking socks (plus she always admires mine), but I'm debating how to figure out her size.
Also complicating things, on the farm field trip I learned that one teacher is allergic to wool and alpaca (or at least sensitive to it). So no wool scarf for her. But I'm debating about what replaces that.

It hasn't been all busy busy busy, I had time to enter a contest run by the lovely Annie Modesitt on her blog (which you should be reading if you are not already, because she not only has fabulous insights into knitting, but she's funny to boot). And I WON! A skein of buffalo gold earth lite. (I think I got the name right--I'm too lazy to get up and go look at the label, despite it being draped over the arm of my knitting chair, where it has been since it got here). In the contest you had to say what you'd use it for and I thought a scarf. It is too small for a scarf but would work for a cowl. Although after draping the yarn around my neck (yes, I am weird but BUFFALO people), I'm not sure I could wear a cowl for very long. So maybe fingerless gloves it will be.

I'm open to suggestions, on knitted teacher gifts, sneakily finding a person's shoe size, or what to do with 200 yards of red buffalo yarn.

sorry

In almost a month you'd think I'd have SOMETHING to show you. Something finished and marvelous or at least edible.

But no. I have finished a Christmas present I can't show you, canned some tomatoes (and forgot to take pictures), and finished this sock:

Halloween costumes are on the agenda, as well as the second knee sock. My goodness that was a long long sock to knit. I'll try to be better about blogging now that the girls are in school.