Done!

Done! My socks are done!

It's not even Saturday evening yet (the completion date) and my socks are done!



I even ripped out the Kitchnering plus 2 rows on the first socks to make a not-quite-so-pointy toe.

Now.....what's next?

Music to my ears

In the blink of an eye, this little girl has grown up.



This little girl turned 18 over the weekend.

Here she is playing with one of her favorite presents--a kitchen with a whole set of dishes. And a phone. Notice how well attached the phone is to her ear. She's a quick learner. She can also make a great chocolate chip cheesecake, maybe that's what she's practicing in this picture.

Anyway, she came home last weekend--her first time home from college. True-to-form, she was too busy this weekend to take a current photo. (Remember her orange Rogue hoodie from last fall? I have yet to get a picture of her wearing it. I almost made her model it, but it was too hot of a day.)

She uttered some wonderful words this weekend. Really, music to my ears.

Talking about majors (she's currently a Chemistry Education Major), she was wondering how hard it would be to double major.

"What in?" I asked. Wait...could it be? "Is it math?"

She gets a sheepish look on her face. "I was thinking about it."

Statistically speaking (I couldn't resist), what a freshman is majoring in does not necessarily mean that's what she's going to graduate with, but at least there's hope.

And also, I'm still proud of that Chemistry Education idea. I mean, really. Who enjoys Chemistry at all, let alone enough to major in?

That math gene had totally passed DS#1. He picked a major based on avoiding any Calculus.

I was losing hope with DD#1. Then, out of the blue!

Music to my ears.

Seven days and counting

There's an outside chance that I can actually finish the current 6SoxKAL before the current challenge ends--seven days from now.

Here it is:



I'm past the heel on the 2nd sock, with the easy part left to go. Assuming, of course, that I don't drop any more stitches. I've dropped two since the heel. Almost ripped it back, but I managed to fix both drops.

DS has an away soccer game today, so there should be plenty of knitting time.

White Buffalo

Here are a few close-ups of my White Buffalo yarn. (In case you're picturing roaming the land looking for a white buffalo, I'm sorry to tell you that it's a brand of wool.)

I have 3-ply White Buffalo. It's wound on cakes of yarn that look like this. (Hand used for reference.) The three ply are wound together on the cakes. Separating the plies is not for the faint of heart.



They are not spun in anyway--together or separately. The slightest pull (or, the jumping up from the couch to answer the phone) will pull them apart.



Even so, knitting with the three strands held together has not been as horrible as I thought. I'm using metal needles, so the yarn slides around. I'm trying not to make mistakes, and if I do, I'm tinking and not frogging.


(I can hear your brain thinking. I DO try not to make mistakes. Really. I DO!)

It's going to be a warm cardigan for me. So far I have only used one cake, and this is 9" of the body.

Think I'll need all 8 cakes?

Logically speaking

Fearing my ever decreasing supply of brain cells, and the daily struggle that I have in writing a coherent sentence, I decided to take this English quiz.

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 80% Punctuation: 80% Vocabulary: 60% Spelling: 40%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Just as I feared, I need a remedial English course--and fast!

Concerned that I am losing every brain cell that I ever possessed, I decided to take the logic quiz.

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

Ok, I feel better.

I can't spell, but I should be able to figure out why.

The ugly side of knitting

Here it is, the ugly side of knitting.


The downside of using all those colors is having to weave in all those ends.

Uggh.

I decided not to fight with them the whole way through the sleeves, so I opted for weaving in some ahead of time.



One sleeve is most of the way done, then on to the next.

It came to this.

You knew it would.



Thanks for not mocking me.

I won the Milk War!

I'm sure you're all waiting with baited breath to see what Saturday's project turned out to be. Well...here it is...ready?

I mowed the lawn. Three fourths of the lawn, anyway. Half the back yard is not done. Too many branches to mow over (Not that I do that. No sir.) and not enough time in between birthday party pickups and drop offs to rake. However, I did do the part that the neighbors can see (right, neighbors?). Finishing the lawn will be tomorrow's project.

Mowing the lawn also meant....no grocery store. Which meant....no milk for my coffee.

Saying, "Why didn't you pick up milk on one of the many birthday party trips" means that you have no idea of the geography around here. There WAS no place to pick up milk. Well, none that I frequent. I believe the liquor store sells milk....Anyway, I had no milk.

The next day, DH says to me, "I bet I can last longer with no soda that you can with no milk."

"Ha!" I say. "I have you beat hands down. I found an old milk cup of DS's in the frig and I've already used it twice. There's a drip in the bottom that I can use for my next cup, and then I have vanilla ice cream. And then the powdered stuff when I get desperate."

He went out and bought some milk and some soda (very quickly, and slightly disgusted. Alright, a lot disgusted.) He tried not to think too hard about my previous statement.

I bet you're wondering how long that milk cup was in the frig? I'm not sure. And I'm trying not to think about it.....

Moving right along, here's my knitting progress:



While I enjoy knitting on different projects throughout the day, it's hard to see the difference between one day and the next. Just take my word for it.

And take a swig of milk to help me celebrate me winning the Milk War!

Turned the corner

After a rainout and a DH-driven practice, I have returned to soccer practice last night. That means....work was done on the sock.

I managed to printout directions the night before, read them (yes--read them--the whole way through--at least once!), and got started on the heel.

Not just any short rowed heel. I, like so many others, have trouble with the short row heel. I get holes. And a fat ridge going up the mitered corner. And both sides don't match. Yuck.

I was so happy, then, to see emails from 6SoxKAL about the Sherman heel. (Not only run across, but saved them until needed--very unusual for me.) You can check them out here at hipknitism which refers to the Toe-up Sock using the Sherman heel. (You might need to be a member of the yahoo knitlist group to view them).

There's only 2 wraps, no holes, and no big tense ridge going up either side. Plus, it's simpler to do. What more can you ask for in a heel?


Pretty, huh?

(Feeling smug that I had saved the directions...I began to think....I saved the emails, but did I actually bookmark the directions? No. Of course not. So much for my smugness. It has now been fixed, and I can move on....)


My second CIC log cabin sweater is moving along.



Quite bright and cheerful. I continued on my "why wind a ball when I can skip that step" and....yep....the purple yarn is now all tangled.

Surprised?

DS#2 and I spent some time picking up the big branches from our yard. We still have plenty left to do.



This is today's project. Plus, washing the leaf imprints off the cars. But today's project was also going to be vacuuming the whole house (at the same time.) And also, a trip to the grocery store. We're out of food, and even more importantly, almost out of milk for my coffee. I'm not going to even mention the report that DD#2 has to write, or the 3-4 birthday parties that are going on today. (If twins have a party, is it counted as one party or two? There are two gifts to be bought. But one cake.)

Maybe I'll go knit.

The picture of laziness

Here's a picture of laziness:


That's right. I couldn't take the time to wind up my yarn before I started knitting with it. It's not as dangerous as it looks, however. I have it wedged on my knee, so as long as it stays put, and I pull out the yarn carefully, I should get no knots.

Sadly, this is something where I have a lot of experience. And the percentage of times where I do this successfully without knots is....

Hey, do I hear a kid calling?

No, wait, it's the dog....

Gee, I think I forgot what I was talking about....

Anyway, here's what I'm doing with the green yarn:


I've started a new CIC log cabin sweater, using this pattern again. It's a good knit.


I took a picture of our back yard to show that we got off lightly with the storm.


Just some branches and leaves, but no damage.

I took a look at this before heading down the road. Less than 1/2 mile away the neighbors have NO leaves in their yard. Nada. Zippo. Nothing.

Now I'm feeling like we got the brunt of the storm. I remind myself that the neighbors either have no trees or pine trees, but aren't surrounded by leaf bearing trees like us. But still....I'm a bit annoyed.

Then I see a tree down. Then another. Then I hear about the power still being out. Today, three days after the storm it's still out.

So now I'm back to ---hey, we got off pretty lightly.

I'm going to go and count my blessings, enjoy my electricity, and do some more lazy knitting.

Playing with color

As you can see, I've been playing with my blog colors. Waddaya think, too dark?

We lost electricity today for about 4 hours due to Ernesto. It's nice to get it back (hence this blog), but it's always kind of fun to come up with things to do in the meantime.

I was asked how I dye such bright colors. I use Wilton icing colors (the little pots of gel). For a whole skein of yarn I probably used a teaspoon of Wilton (I never measure) and some white vinegar (a big glug) in my crockpot, added the yarn, and stirred a few times. I probably left it in for a couple of hours, but it really only needs to be left until the water is clear. The purple tends to split into variations of blue, purple, and red, but since I like it like that, it's all good.