Magic 28

I decided to join the Magic 28 ring.

It's using worsted weight yarn and 28 stitches, 28 rows, 28 socks....maybe even 28 pair? to knit warm socks for those in need.

I'm going to do 28 pair, but also count any that use more than 28 sts, as long as they go to someone in need. (This will be primarily for CIC.)

There's no time limit, no stress, so I'm going to interpret that to mean no start date. I'm going to include the orange socks I made last weekend as my first pair.(32 sts, 32 rows, sz. 4 needles, hand-dyed Fisherman's wool yarn).

Pink and Lilac

Webs had a sale on Cascade 220 (in fact, it's still going on--check it out here. Here's some more stock photos of the colors I got:




Aster and magenta




black and red. (really. Black. I suppose if it showed up really black that it would be hard to photograph, wouldn't it?)

After taking photos (sigh) of my project spectrum yarns, I felt a need for more pink in my stash.


Update on robbery: The robbers have been found. Two kids. The cameras have not been found. (big sigh)


No cameras, but the lilac bush is in full bloom. Here's some more of DD#2's pictures from last year. You'll have to trust me that it looks the same this year, even with the butterflies.

Cameras

You know how much I was struggling over dyeing the correct color of maroon yarn? How I never got the right color but decided it was close enough?

Well, while I was working on the vest at the game, a long-lost memory came sneaking into my mind.

"I think I might have a skein of maroon in my stash......"

Sure enough, I did. (If I had remembered that a couple of days earlier, it would've saved me time and effort. But where would be the adventure?)



Why didn't I take my own picture, you ask?

It's because my camera got stolen.

That's right. Our house got broken into on Monday and several items got stolen.

First, I was missing my camera. Since my house is a mess, and I'm rather forgetful, I thought I'd just misplaced it. I spent a couple of hours looking for it before figuring it would show up when I least expected it.

Then DH asked me why I moved his insulin (which I hadn't). That's when the truth dawned on us. We also found a missing ipod and DVD player. (Stupid robber--how can you get high on insulin? And why would you think of looking into the refrigerator anyway?) Made the police report, felt violated and unsafe, called the insurance company, all the usual stuff.

DH consoled me over my camera. "You can use mine whenever you want" which is really only when I blog. He gets to take any other pictures that we have. My camera was old, but I liked it and it worked for me.

So, the next day I resigned myself to learning how to use a fancy camera. That night we were preparing for DS#2's baseball game.

"Where's my camera bag?" says DH.

OH, NOOOOOOOO....... it's gone.

The robber apparently didn't like my camera, so came back THE NEXT DAY to take DH's. He took the whole bag, which also included the DVD camera. Who would think that we'd be robbed two days in a row!!!

Now we're getting a little freaked out. Made another police report--feeling very stupid.

Yesterday, the police came by to show us evidence that they've recovered. It was empty insulin bottles. (Stupid robber. Threw them in the burn pile when he realized it didn't have the same effect as smoking crack.) So....no cameras have been recovered yet, but at least they think they've found the robber.

Lots of things left to do, but at least we're feeling safer now. And our air conditioning got fixed, just in time for a cold snap. AND..the part was still under warrenty.

Things are looking up, and I know you'll patiently wait for pictures until we either recover our old cameras or get a new one.

Back from VT

We went to Virginia Tech this weekend to see my son's UM baseball team play. The VT coach wanted to keep the games for the weekend. It gave the community something to do and something different to focus on rather than the recent tragic events. I had a friend come sit with me for the game. She goes to VT and had 3 friends die. It was good to see her and hang out with her.

We took time to view the memorials at the drill field.



The only sounds were some whispering and lots of sniffling. This was not on Friday, but still there were maroon and orange where-ever we looked. I can't come up with words to explain it, but I know you're feeling it too. It was heartbreaking, and made us want to hug our kids. Or give them a call.

I believe this is an exerpt from a speech that was given during the memorial service on Tuesday.



To view more pictures that we took, click here.

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The games were more subdued than normal. It was almost eerily quiet for the first few innings. Later it became livelier, especially as the game became close for the last few innings. The umpire was boo-ed several times. Back to normal.

I worked on my CIC vest. Even though it was hot, I was glad I picked those colors. (In case you're wondering.....I redyed my maroon yarn, then fell asleep with it in the crockpot. Woke up in the middle of the night and pulled it out. Still not maroon, but closer. In the morning I rinsed it, spun it in the washer, then dried it in the dryer on low heat on the drying rack. It was wound in the car. Think I was cutting it a bit close?)

My dad came for the game. (He wasn't tempted to knit, though.)



Since there were two games, I finished the vest in the second game, second inning.



Since I don't want to break a trend, I ran out of yarn. Surprised? I had a skein of black with me, so decided to use that when the maroon ran out. Not too sober for a child, but still meaningful to me.

In the second game, ninth inning, I finished the second CIC sock.



DD#2 took pictures of the baseball game, so if you're interested, click here. DS won his game, pitched seven innings and striking out seven. (He's #31....and the pitcher in most of the pictures.)

Maroon and orange

Today is Hokie Hope Day where we were encouraged to wear orange and maroon in memory of the Virginia Tech victims. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read here. )

I had an orange shirt on, but own nothing that's maroon. At work, people were looking for ribbons and flowers in the Hokie colors. I have come to the conclusion that we all have a slightly different idea of what maroon is.

We quickly sold out of the regular maroon ribbon. That left us to improvise.

One customer kept picking up the red. "Is this close enough?"

No, it's red. See, it says "red".

Or, I would pick up a maroon, and another customer would say "no, too purple" to every maroon (it really was!) ribbon I picked up.

One person had sight problems with color, so she just took my word for it.


DS#1's baseball team have 3 games still scheduled this weekend with Virginia Tech, so we decided to go. I need to support Miami's team, but I can still support VA Tech's community. Therefore, I decided to knit a CIC vest at the game with orange and maroon yarns.

The only problem is that I don't have any maroon yarn.

I've had problems dyeing shades of maroon (and the whole red family) before, but it was time to try again.

What do you think?


Yep, kinda pink-y.

A sane person would just use it anyway, considering the game is tomorrow.

I, however, am not sane. It's not maroon enough for me, so it's back in the crockpot with some more dye. It can dry overnight and I can wind it in the car tomorrow. It'll be ready for the game....right?

The vest is done

The CIC vest is done. Here's the yarn that I have left:



And here's the vest:



It's a bit odd, but still...somehow I like it.

These vests are incredibly addicting to do. I'm going to force myself to stop for awhile and concentrate on something else. (There are baseball games next weekend, so I might just quit for the week.)

I'm working on my Horcrux socks from Six Socks KAL. Trekking XXL, size 2 dpns, 60 sts, following the pattern as written. Again, the lace "lightning bolts" part looks stretched out, but it fits well on my foot.

Let-the-dog-out kind of day

Here's my day:

In the morning I took DS#2 to a math competition. He did very well, but 3 hours of competing as a 4th grader (or anyone, for that matter), made him a bit tired. (Can I just say how proud I am of him, and how thrilled I am that he's interested in knowing what the cubed root of 1728 is? We do problems like that in the car when he's bored.)

Besides that, I basically let the dog out, let the dog in,

let the dog out,



let the dog in.


In between that important job, I did laundry--basically washing every single item of clothing that we own in the house. I'm not done yet, but I'm seeing the end.

I also watched DS#1's game on the net. (Live score updates, but no live video.)

Every time I sat down on the computer was a time to let the dog out. And in. Then stop the dryer to get out the jeans before they shrunk, check the game, knit a couple of rows, then it all started over again.

The game was on TV at 4 on a taped delay, so then I watched it again. (It's easier for me to watch the game if I already know the outcome. DS pitched a complete game getting the win and a season high 12 strikeouts.)

More up and down for me (gotta love that pause button), as I continued the laundry and tried to cook supper. (The smoke alarm didn't go off, so supper was a success.)

My favorite item to knit during DS's games is a CIC vest.

I've made two go-with-anything vests, so it was time for a using-up-the-leftovers vest.

I'm going to combine a neutral:


with a color:


and hopefully come up with something not too ugly.

Here's my start so far:


That's the end of my post. I gotta go let the dog out.

Exhausted

I have just finished the second of two little CIC vests, sized 2, I believe. Both were made using up misc. yarns. They are dense and are sure to keep two kids warm.



The blue and white one was finished at the same time as Miami lost to NC State in the bottom of the 13th. (DS wasn't pitching, so I wasn't super nervous--just normal fan nervous.) I'm exhausted, though. Can't imagine if I was a player.

I have lots of scraps left, so I'm thinking of making a "coat of many colors". That is, if I can figure out how the colors can go together.

Right now, I'm exhausted.

Project Spectrum yarn

For Project Spectrum, Lolly asked us to photograph our stash of green, yellow, and pink yarns.

No problem, I thought.

I could find plenty of green yarn, and this is skipping all the teal shades, of which I have many.



(What better way to display yarn than in a huge cup and saucer? It's actually a planter, but it may never make it outside. Looks pretty good with this kind of green, right?)



Looking for yellow and pink is where I ran into problems.

Here's a partially used skein of yellow Cascade 220. No other skeins were to be found. A couple of variegated ones, but no more yellow ones.



Pink was not much better. A few variegated skeins.



And three skeins that I'm not even sure are pink--they lean quite heavily to the reds.



After stash diving I have reach this conclusion:

I need to go yarn shopping.

Catching up

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever, but I guess it's only been a couple of days.

First, my car is now fixed. It was a problem with the battery and the connections, and not the alternator. I'm grateful for the quick (and not as costly as I expected) fix to the problem.

Second, a very happy birthday to DD#2! She turned 12 on Friday. We squeezed her birthday in between my work and going to church at night. (A birthday party is planned for the end of the month, so there's more time to celebrate.)

Didn't get a picture with her cake ("Wow, mom, trick candles, I never would've expected them!").

However, here's a picture of her feet on her new DDR toy. She's already mastered a lot of dance moves. When I get a chance, I'm going to do it too. Good exercise, huh?




On Saturday morning, I woke up to this:


It's April--go figure! There a bit of snow left in the shady spots, but most of it melted by noon.

Not much knitting has been happening around here, but I did find time to start a CIC vest.


I got the brilliant idea to try adding a dishcloth pattern on the front. This is in a different color, and I already have a mistake. Hopefully I can fix it tonight and move onwards. (My ever present worry: will I run out of yarn? and then what will I do?)

Happy Easter! He is risen indeed!

Spin, mom!

The kids are on spring break. We've entertained ourselves pretty well for the week. (I include me since I took off three days this week. I'm making up for it by going in extra early tomorrow and Saturday.)

Today was supposed to be haircut day (for me) and go-out-to-lunch (for us three).

However, last night my car's battery died. Completely.

There was no sign of impending doom. One moment it started fine, the next....nothing.

I'm thankful for:
1. DH who was with me and got to be the in-charge person. (Although if he had been at home he could've rescued me. Either way was a win-win situation for me.)
2. A friend who came, bought jumper cables for us, and started our car. (Thinking the problem was solved he went on his way. I turned on the lights and the car stalled.)
3. A teenager who gave us a jump with our brand-new jumper cables. He followed us to the stop sign (where I turned on the lights and it died. Again.) and tried jumping again.
4. A man who joined in to push my car out of the way until today.
5. Our nice friend who patiently watched our kids for an extra hour until we could get them, and then drove us all the way home.
6. The thought that I could've called several other people and they would do the same thing for us.

The car has been towed, and hopefully is being fixed right now (thinking it's the alternator, but maybe just a bad battery terminal.)

I've been missing my car, and my haircut, but am glad I'm rich in friends.

Since we were stuck at home today, we decided to play Life. (I'm on strike from cleaning my house. It's been that way for months.)

I like to knit while playing games. Card games make me antsy since I haven't mastered the whole knitting-while-holding-a-hand-of-cards thing. But Life is fine.



The problem I had today, though, is that I wasn't knitting, I was tinking. The whole time. Finally, I ripped out the Horcrux part of the sock, and started again. I could've saved myself a lot of time (or paid attention to the game) if I had done that in the first place.

I think this is why I don't really knit lace. I can't back it up if I make a mistake. (I know that I do things with yo's and k2togs, but I don't really knit lace. Not a whole garment, anyway.)

The kids are used to my knitting, and will remind me occasionally to "Spin, mom!"

The police officer raked it in today. There were lots of screaming, "SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! SPEEDING! " when we spun a 10. Which we did often.



The police officer won the game, and I frogged my sock.

Game over.

Horcrux WW

On Friday I decided to start these Worsted weight socks for myself, and by tonight I have finished!

Pattern: Horcrux socks, knitting as written with 40 sts on size 5 needles. Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino--the skein I just bought

It was a fast knit--especially since I did the foot on the first one twice. (Thinking I didn't need to follow the pattern at the heel, which I found out I did when the foot ribbing stitches weren't centered.)

They look goofy by themselves and unblocked.




But look much better when on.



If you look carefully, you can see the Horcrux(scar).



Do you recognize the green from my purple/green striped sleeves that were not to be? I love my green toes, and just in time for Project Spectrum!