The knitter who saw too much

I'm a little under the weather having finally gotten the spring cold the visits me every year. The cold gives me the excuse to stay in my PJ's and lay on the futon watching old movies. Right now I've rented a box set of classic film noir, 3 DVD, 9 movies, over 13 hours!!! says the box. LOL The period sound tracks get a little distracting but I found the movie D.O.A to be pretty good. Some of the other movies have more famous actors, Mickey Rooney, Kirk Douglas and the beautiful Barbara Stanwyck. (Double Indemnity still the best thing I've been her in but Christmas in Connecticut holds a special place in my heart) The movie plots aren't hard to follow making them the perfect companion to all Ysolda's Coraline which was cast on a week ago. It was abandoned for a bit while the Ripple socks were finished up. Now I have a heck of a lot of stockenette stitch to do before the the knitting gets interesting.

The Pippie Ripples were done by the weekend and I lovvvvvve them. Oh Smooshy you feel so nice knit up and on my feet. The little ripple lines with their yarn overs are delightful and I can't help up think they would make for a nice sweater. Knitting that would probably drive me insane though so let's just shelve that idea. Overall is was a great pattern, I enjoyed knitting it and I'd buy a pattern from Diane Mulholland again.

Under the Influence

Hey look kids, in the tree! Is that a skein of yarn? Will my kids think that sticking yarn in trees is perfectly normal or will the other kiddies clue them in that their mom is "special"? Haa haa I'm sooooo special just ask anyone related to me. Anyway the skein of yarn said to me, "Hey you with the big hair, put me in a tree and take a picture, all the knitters are doing it." I said, "Let's switch it up and use the tree near the neighbors wall with the fancy bricks." Then the yarn said, "Hey I think that neighbor dude is outside. Do it, I dare you." (It turned out my neighbor was outside.... as always. Maybe he lives out there. Maybe the shed in the back is actually a big dog house for him. Maybe I've been sniffing that yarn too much)
Yeah, moving on to what this post is suppose to be about...what socks to knit next. There are so many contenders that I'm all a twitter. First is our pictured yarn from the Woolen Rabbit, Herb Robert a special color made for Yarn4socks kits. The yarn is green with little subtle hints of violet but goes all silver looking in photos. This goes with Anne (is a frecken genius) Hanson's Rising Violets pattern. Click on the link, look at the pics and then wipe the drool from your face.
Even thought the Rising Violets are smack you in the face gorgeous I've been wanting to make a pair of of Ironwork socks for 5 months (my ravelry queue tells me so). The Platinum merino tencel in my stash would be perfect for this. Ironically half of my wardrobe is gray but I have no hand knit gray socks. A gaping wardrobe hole that needs to be filled!
And thanks to a generous gift certificate from the in-laws (You guys rock) I'm now rich with my crack... ahem yarn of choice. The Baroness is commanding I make her into a kick ass pair of Firestarters.
Do I dare to go against her wishes? Maybe if I sniff this yarn again the answer will come to me in a dream.
(I'm so much more special with I'm high on yarn fumes.)

Confusing non-knitters

The yarn harlot's blog post about being absolutely inexplicable as possible got me laughing this morning. She inspired me to throw my skein of yarn over my shoulder while boarding the train, instead of packing it away for 5 mins. The conductor, who is a outgoing and friendly guy anyway, was drawn to me and asked, "Are you crocheting a crazy hat?" "Actually I'm knitting a sock," I replied. He stared at my sock for a instant and said, "Wow that looks really tight, does it stay that way?" I think the idea of knitted socks just blew his mind. :) He came back at the end of the ride and said, "Hey is that your second sock? When you get a pair done do you put them on and go Whoo Hooo!" LOL, see he understands us after all.

Hopefully I'll be slipping a pair of these socks on this weekend and saying Whoo Hoo! It's the first skein of dream in color I've knit up and finally I get why people love the yarn sooo much. The color is "Some summer sky" but it reminds me of hydrangeas, blues with a bit of purple sprinkled in. The pattern is Pippie Ripples which is on the enjoyably challenging point of the scale. My row gauge is a bit off (I don't need to knit no stinking sock gauge) which makes the stockenette portion of the leg a little larger than the designers. Probably should have fudged when chart B started instead, but that's OK. At least the foot is the right length this time. :)

Socks and Chocolate

Happy Easter, hope you're eating some quality chocolate like we are. Here's a little picture of my husband's easter basket. I was making up an easter package for my sister and my husband asked if he was going to get one too. "Sure the easter bunny will bring you something tasty," I said. He replied, "Don't you mean the easter frog?" Haa haaa. Now it will be his fault when our future children get visited by the easter frog.

I sent the nutkins to my sister who kindly called me right away to say they fit. Hooray, I totally guessed at the length thinking that 7-1/2 feet would only need a little shorter sock.

On to the promised Blush pictures. Doesn't it feel good when you get a project done that has been a slog to finish up? Ahhh the feeling of accomplishment. The sock pattern has not been added to ravelry, maybe I should do it...hmmm. Don't know if Jen is going to offer the sock club patterns in her shop later on or not. Anyway the original pattern had a bobble cast off. But bobbles and long boots don't mix, so I cast off in purl with a double strand of yarn. Other than that my socks look like the originals. The kit came with Zen Yarn Garden merino/nylon yarn, which seems similar to Dream in Color Squooshy. Pretty nice yarn which I may buy again.

So that's the last pair of socks for the first Woolgirl sock club. Can't wait for the next round of the club to start next month.

Fun things in the mail

This week was a blur of sinus headaches and wondering if I'm getting the sickness rotating around the office. But there was going to be new Hazel Knits yarn coming in the mail so I pulled it together and worked the whole week. It turned out that my favorite yarn wasn't the only goodies that were going to turn up on the doorstep. A very good college friend surprised me with a package containing this adorable monkey back pack. The card said, "I couldn't help myself. Now your frog and chicken can ride in style." Got to love a friend that sends you ridiculously cute stuff for your toys.

The Hazel knits yarn is wonderful as always. This is one of Wendee's new colors, Shady Verdant. You can get it at her Etsy shop or at Woolgirl, new colors up this Sunday. (A certain Woodgirl gift certificate will be used up then) You know this already but I have to keep my status as a Hazel knits pusher.
Shady Verdant could be cast on as a leafy socks next orrrr use I could use this color exclusive color Bobbin's Nest. (The shop has a blog but you have to call to order. However the ladies will be very nice and tell you your email is cool.)

Tomorrow pictures of finished Blush socks. I'm so relieved.

When you love too much

Caution the following images might be disturbing for some knitters.

Oh the horror!!!! My favorite jean socks in my favorite yarn pirate colorway Cannon Beach. sniff sniff. I loved you too much. But without you there is a gaping hole in my sock wardrobe. Must cast on blue sock immediately, my jeans are lonely.

At least I have these to console me.

Second Sock Sadness

Hello blog readers! I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been stopping buy and leaving lovely comments. No offense to my sister but it's nice to have some knitters reading too. :)

This good to have two feet except when you have to knit that second sock. But I'm cracking the whip, no more new first socks until the other two second socks are done. (These rules should never be made, it just makes me stubborn and I cast on 5 new socks) The easter monkey's will be done this weekend, only 3 more pattern repeats and the toe to knit. But I'm gritting my teeth about picking the second blush sock back up. All that cabling with no chart makes me cranky and I'm too lazy to chart it myself. The solution might be to put on some good DVD's and finish the blush pair in a weekend. I'm netflixing Foyle's War and highly recommend if if you like PBS dramas.

Thanks to train knitting a pretty little pair of Nutkins are all done. According to my kitchen scale there is enough yarn left to make another pair of socks! So much for stash busting that skien. There is going to be an April Nutkin knit along over on the 2008 Sock knit along group on Ravelry. Join it, you know you want to. LOL

Springing forward to fall on my face

This is the note I wish I got last week,
Dear future Heather,
You may have forgotten but this weekend is "spring ahead" which means there will be some internal confusion about your wake up time. You might want to spend the whole weekend sleeping to counter act this. By no means stay up to 11:30-12:00 watching Deep Space 9 episodes at your in-laws the entire weekend. Do not wake up early to get some extra knitting time in. Do not pass up the afternoon nap. If you do the consequences we be dire!
Love
Past Heather

But instead I stayed up late and now my body is really unhappy about waking up at what it thinks is 3:45am. I hope the involuntary twitching in my left eye goes away. It's going to be a long week.

On a yarny note spring seemed to sneak into my knitting while I wasn't looking. There is a pink and light green thing going on that wasn't really planned. I think the yarn just muscled it's way onto my needles. It had been languishing in the stash and finally got fed up and cast it's self on. (That would be totally cool if it really happened, I hate casting on) Lucky for me the sock patterns chosen last week were really simple ones. It may be possible to finish up the mates even in my half comatose state. Now for the sock porn!
(I was visiting the in laws and got to use their pretty trees as backgrounds again)

First sock is knit in Yarn Pirate merino, the colorway Rosie. This might have been the first yarn I ever bought from the Loopy Ewe. Pattern is Cookie A's Monkey which goes super fast on 1 1/2 Dpns. (Frog says he likes her name.)

Second sock is knit in Dashing Dach's super wash, in color way Strawberry Chocolate. The colors are gorgeous but their fingering is very thin. I'm thinking about trying out the sport weight next time woolgirl gets some in. The pattern is Nutkin also on 1 1/2's which really when well with the yarn. The decreases do make the socks bias a bit but blocking may help. Sooo pretty, I just want to lick them. :)

Notes from the Frog

Hello Readers,
This is the blog frog. You’ve seen me about the blog since sometimes I pose nicely for the camera. Mommy has been very lazy this weekend and said I could write the blog post if I wanted. I’m glad you enjoy reading about my mommies knitting, since it’s pretty much all she does with her free time now. (She sometimes skips cleaning the bathroom to knit too) In order to get her to bake cookies I have to follow her around saying, “Cookie, Cookie, Cookie!” until she gives in. She made oatmeal raisin last week. I ate as many as I could before she put them in the tin I can’t open. It’s hard not having thumbs sometimes.

My Mommy was going to knit down her sock yarn stash but then she bought new sock yarn instead. She said it’s not her fault, they were so pretty that she couldn’t help herself. I can’t help myself around a plate of cookies so I guess I understand. Now Mommy says she will knit up the sock yarn that has been in the stash a long time since she always buys more. That means I have to hide my favorite yarn balls so she doesn’t pick them. If she turns them into socks I can’t nap on them anymore. (I’m not napping in the sock draw, ewwwww) Maybe I should put that lemon yellow yarn on top, the one she bought because she was going to knit me a hat. That might not work because she seems to be picking out all the pink yarn from the drawer. Even she was surprised she had so much pink yarn cause it’s really girly. I say Mommy looks pretty in pink and so do I. Do you think she will knit me a hat out of some of the leftovers? I promise not to eat the last cookie if she does.

Not much knitting done

Nasty germs have been sending me to bed at 8pm for several nights in a row. I don't feel sick exactly just exhausted by my normal work day. The project for this week was a sport weight cardigan so you get to knit all day to finish an inch. I'm going to blame past Heather for deciding to buy enough sport weight yarn for a sweater. She obviously didn't know what she was getting future Heather into. Pictures of four inches of black cardigan is boring so let's look at pretty new sock yarn.
This is a new dyer at the Loopy Ewe "The Sanguine Gryphon" and the colorway is Tangled up in Blue. Sheri had posted a picture of a green colorway on the blog as a bit of a teaser and my account had loopy credit. I went there with full intentions to buy that green colorway because I have so much blue yarn. But old habits die hard and this blue is gorgeous. The color depth really can't be captured by my camera, its much more sophisticated then it looks in the picture. (I didn't notice the neighbor's cat in the background until I posted it here, so cute.)

The February Woolgirl kit really didn't get blogged about because it came the day before we left for vacation. I didn't remember to take a nice picture of the assembled goodies. There were two choices of sock patterns because one was a complicated cabled the other a simple stitch pattern. The yarn is marked fingering weight, but it's really thick and knits up pretty quick even if you have to remember a bunch of cable crosses. The cables look like hearts within hearts, which you might be able to see on the foot where there was pooling. This is the first toe up sock I've ever knit and the toe seems really bulky. Could be the yarn or maybe I just prefer to knit top down toe. We'll see, there are a couple of toe up patterns I've had my eye on. Boyfriends socks anyone? :)

Expensive weekend

The work on the bathroom is supposedly done, at least done enough that we got the bill. Yikes is all I can say, though the amount was not unexpected. Good news is that our landlord is not charging us for any labor he put in and he did a lot of it.
The bathroom mats are shot and my husband asked to please please replace them. (The rugs shed all over the place + my husband does must of the vacuuming = stormy relationship between the two of them)
Then the toaster oven broke down, can't blame it since it's eight years old. Target already has provided me with a replacement but it was bit more than I guessed. Hasn't toaster technology become less expensive? I don't need to roast a whole chicken, just reheat my leftovers. :)
And to cap it all off, just finished the taxes and we have to pay the state and the feds each a Benjamin because of the interest earned on our house fund. A fund whose interest rate keeps dropping because the Feds are trying to bail out people who bought houses they can't afford. Oh the irony. (Dear Federal Govermnment, I am trying to be able to afford my future house. Could you please stop taking my money so you can blow stuff up. Thank you Froggie Girl)

Haahaaa It makes me think of my sister's workplace where they blow stuff up. My sister doesn't do the exploding, instead she gets startled by it as she's working on her computer. I think actual miltary guys get to dentonate whatever it is they are blowing up. You can hear the explosions all the way over at my childhood residence; my grandmother complains about them often.

Very nice things also happened this week. I was the recipient of a lovely bit of knitterly generosity, my loopy ewe partner Jessica knit me a thank you gift. Let me say that again, she KNIT me a thank you gift. Like Wayne and Garth I bow down and say, "I'm not worthy." See a lovely Woodland stole in Dream in color smooshy. It's a great size, you can use it as a little stole, or wrap it around your neck as a delicate scarf. You can also wrap it around your head, put big sunglasses on and pretend to be a glamorous starlet driving your convertible around sunny California. Maybe Cary Grant is in the car with you... sighhhh Cary Grant.
Anyway on Tuesday I put on a pair of handknit socks, a handknit sweater, and the smooshy stole around my neck for my walk to the train. I was filled with so much happiness to be wrapped in wool that was knit by hand with love. I thought this is why we knit for other people, we want them to have this feeling of happiness when they pull on something hand made. They might not get it as quickly as another knitter but I hope they do. It's one of those things money can't buy.