Otters and Hew

Today we went to a local museum for a free, fun day. The main attraction for my kids has always been the otters.



DS#2 insisted he didn't remember anything about the museum, including the otters (which made me feel like a bad mom. "You mean you haven't gone for a long enough time that you've forgotten ever being there? You used to beg me to go see the otters.")

DS#2 was okay with posing in this picture:



However, he refused to pose behind this picture. (What a nice blackmail picture that would make. Right, Diane?)



The whole point of taking my camera was really to get a pic of DD#2 in her finished Hew shrug, which I thought I totally had forgot to do. However, this picture does show a pretty nice view. (I'll provide more pictures later....)



(We're at the top of a lighthouse in a really cramped area, and that's my friend who went with us. I was backed up as far as I could go to take the picture from that far away.)

The sweater was finished last night and DD#2 wore it today and is really happy with it. Me too!

Reporting in....

I have some misc. things to report.

1. Leaving out an ingredient, even 1/4 cup of shortening, can drastically change the outcome of a cookie. On the left: a very flat molasses crinkle. On the right, the way it should look. (It tasted much better, also. The first one was way too crisp in a not-quite-right way.)



(The only reason I made these twice is that I was mailing them to DS#1, otherwise I would not have bothered.)

2. DS#2 is still alive and well, despite his attempt to make me crazy (see previous post.) Not only does he enjoy puddle jumping, but apparently it runs in the family. DS#1 told me that yesterday he went to a football game where it poured, and I mean poured. He got so wet that by the time he left he was running across the parking lot and JUMPING THROUGH PUDDLES! All I have to say is that they must've inherited that from their father and not from me.

3. Speaking of DS#2, I voluntarily took him to a yarn shop over the weekend. I even begged him to keep me company on the trip. (Well, not totally begged, but asked nicely. Some bribing might have been involved.) While I was paying for my yarn (more on that some other time), I mentioned that it was totally my fault since I talked him into coming. No puddle jumping was involved, but some quarters were rolled the whole way across the store floor. (I was the only customer, so I figured if this was all that he was doing it would be okay.) The saleslady even invited me back with my finished item without suggesting to leave my son at home, so it must not have been too bad.

4. I have finished my grammar refresher course and passed the final exam with a grade of 97. Now, the challenge is to put all that refreshing into something useful, like some better constructed sentences. (That last sentence itself seems poorly constructed, but I don't know what to do about it. So I'll move on.)

To answer Kathy's question, parentheses are using in sentences as an "oh, by the way, this is a side fact but not the main one". I am queen of the parentheses! (But you already knew that!)


5. I'm in the midst of a new project and just successfully cast on 100 stitches on the first try! See the fuzzy, squashed stitches below:



I usually cast on about what I think is enough, without counting them, and then I like to see how close I got. Casting on exactly 100 is doing really well, for me.

This is part of a project that I'm making for DD#2. (I almost wrote DS#2. While he almost made me crazy, that still is not enough reason to make him wear a girl's shrug. I draw the line right there.)

This shrug has cap sleeves and is knit from the top down. I'm using another acrylic yarn (two times in a row!), Red Heart designer sport. The body part was done and now I'm casting on for the ties (200 stitches on one side, then 100 on the other!) There will be garter ribbing going around the neckline and then I'll be done.



Except, you know that I will have gotten the sizing wrong and will have to cast on all those stitches again. I'm sure that's what I'll be knitting tomorrow.

Puddles and seams, and a sweater or two.

I bet you're thinking, "Oh, look! She didn't lose her camera, or have her computer stolen, or forget how to type after all!" ("And she's still taking her grammar course as evidenced by the proper use of punctuation inside quotes in the last sentence. But her continual use of conjunctions at the beginning of sentences still needs work.")

We have that whole "let's celebrate Christmas in September" thing going on at work, plus the kids are using the computer more and more at home (and when it's to do homework, I feel guilty about kicking them off.). Also, my "falling asleep on the couch" is hampering my knitting.

Anyway, those are my excuses of the week for not blogging. Take them or leave them. (Please, take them. Then I can get some new ones instead of using the same ones over and over.)

Today, I took the teal guernsey sweater to DD#2's field hockey practice. All of a sudden, everyone went outside while I was left indoors, sewing.

"One more seam and I'll be there," I called.

In the meantime, I was left alone with the eerie silence and a not-so-pleasant sweaty smell of many athletes after a hard workout. (I'll blame that, not on the girls, but on some previous mens' practice. Soccer. Soccer can take the blame.)



The seam was sewn, and I joined the team outdoors.



See those clouds? They became a 15 minute crazy rainstorm that rained cats and dogs and got DS#2 grounded for the night. (HELLO! YOU'RE ELEVEN AND YOU'RE JUMPING IN PUDDLES WITH YOUR ONLY GOOD PAIR OF SNEAKERS!!!!!!! Way to instantly make your mom crazy, son.)

Moving on...

The guernsey is done. I did a sewn bindoff. That's the first time I've done one for the neckline, and only the second time ever.

Can I just say.... What took me so long? It's great! And stretchy! And easy! And looks better than a regular bindoff!



Sewing all those seams provided a reminder of why I like to knit in the round. TO AVOID SEWING ALL THOSE SEAMS!



Specs: Guernsey Guys from "the Best of Knitter's Arans and Celtics", size toddler 4.
Used size 6 and 7 circs using Too Teal Paton's Classic Merino Wool, 5 balls.

Fun knit, but next time I'll do it in the round. Also, it looks much larger than a size 4.

With the wonder of blogging, I can pretend that I totally finished the guernsey sweater before beginning the below sweater, but it's just not true.

After sewing the neckline, but before sewing all those seams, I actually made a whole sweater for me. It's Shimmer from Knitty, which is really a shrug and not a sweater, so it's a much faster knit. (Why is it that I never bookmark my patterns and only discover that when I go to link them?)

I wanted a shrug for work, so it had to be black to go over a black shirt. (Is that boring, or what?)

I wanted 3/4 length sleeves to not get quite so hot quite so fast (plus, less knitting was involved.) The sleeves have a slight flare on the cuff. Not too ruffly, but enough.



The back has a pretty lace stitch to add interest.



The result is a cute little shrug that will be perfect for work (I hope).



I'll try to get pictures of Shimmer on me sometime soon, but for now, here's the specs:

Shimmer from Knitty, size large.
Used 3 balls of Red Heart soft (I know, it's acrylic, but it needs to be washed often to get rid of all the Christmas glitter from work.), size 7 and 8 circs.
Changes: To make the sleeves 3/4 length, I cast on using the XL measurements and increased until I got to the L number of stitches.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. You've found out that jumping in puddles makes me crazy, sewing seams needs to be avoided at all costs, but sewing a neck bindoff is definitely worth while. Now I must go to sleep on the couch.

September Roundup

I just keep getting later and later with these writeups, don't I?

In September I finished the following:

1. Waffles For Brunch forest green sweater.

Wow! That's it? How can that be it? I feel like I was knitting at the same pace as usual. I had most of the guernsey sweater finished, but it wasn't sewn together so it doesn't count.

Well, from my charity knitting I did mail out 9 pairs of mittens, 7 hats, 1 vest, and 2 sweaters (but was in too much of a hurry to take a picture.) They went to the Cheyenne River Reservation as part of a CIC challenge.

I do have a growing list of projects I want to make, so I'd better get crackin'!

What's perfect about it?

Today, I present to you some pictures of my current knitting project, as brought to you by a recent grammar lesson: verb tenses.

A word of note: I realize that when I write, I shouldn't be changing tenses, but I should tell the story using one tense. However, I'm practicing my conjugation so just bear with me.


Present Tense:
I knit
you knit
he,she,it knits
we knit
you knit
they knit

Use in a sentence:
I knit the garter ribbing at the bottom of the sweater.




Past Tense:
I knitted
you knitted
he,she,it knitted
we knitted
you knitted
they knitted

I knitted the body portion of the back, with an occasional purl blip every now and again.




Future Tense:
I will knit
you will knit
he,she,it will knit
we will knit
you will knit
they will knit

I will knit the yoke part of the back next. I will knit the cables the way the directions state, even though they both cross the same direction. I will not mind the non-mirroring effect, at least not enough to rip it out.




Past Participle: (In double checking my typing I found that I wrote "particle" here instead of "participle". This doesn't bode well for my understanding if I don't even know what it's called.)
I have frogged
you have frogged
he, she, it has frogged
we have frogged
you have frogged
they have frogged

I have frogged only a couple of rows on this sweater, and I have knitted the front to match the back. (This includes the non-mirroring cables.)




Present Participle:
I am knitting
you are knitting
he, she, it is knitting
we are knitting
you are knitting
they are knitting

They are not knitting this sweater; it is just I. (a flash of a future lesson on pronouns, which I hope I got right.)



You'd think that 5 tenses would be enough, wouldn't you? But no, there's more!


Present Perfect Tense (where I'm getting bored and will skip the conjugation. Plus, I'm not sure how.)

I have knitted the first sleeve and now I knit the second sleeve.



Past Perfect Tense:

I had bought enough yarn, so I finished the second sleeve. (Wow, that was hard to get a sentence for the Past Perfect.)



Future Perfect Tense:
I will have run out of yarn after I finish this sleeve. (What's perfect about perfect tenses, anyway? They're certainly not very easy to do.)

You'll be happy to hear that I'm going to totally skip the Progressive Tenses. You and I are both becoming extremely bored.

You also might be interested in hearing that I took these pictures at DS#2's soccer practice yesterday. I felt weird walking away from the other parents only to start throwing my knitted pieces of the floor of the gazebo and taking pics. However, the light was good and I'm not sure the parents even noticed.

The sweater is another charity sweater in kid size 6, knitted in Paton's Classic Merino on size 7 needles, with the ribbing done on 6s.

G.I. Joes' Party

Several days after I prepared for our non-hurricane, I went into the bathroom again and saw this:



Not only did the G.I. Joes have diving lessons, but apparently they called all their friends, both large and small (plus some wrestlers who live in the next county over), to come and join them. They must've had a fun time diving, and maybe some partying was going on, 'cause is it just me, or do they all look exhausted and passed out? (Ahhh.... we visit the run-ons again!)

I've finally reclaimed my trash can, so the troups need to go somewhere else to have fun. (Maybe they can invite themselves over to the wrestlers' house so that can do some fake fighting.)

Remember this blanket? I gave it as a present at a baby shower over the weekend where it was greeted by many ooohs and aaahs.



Since it was met with such enthusiasm, and since I enjoyed doing it so much, that I decided to make another one.

At least, I was going to make another one until, after many an hour fruitless internet search, I discovered that the yarn is discontinued. (Plymouth Encore Colorspun DK, and yes, I checked Ravelry's FSOT.)

Discontinued, I say. At this moment I'm at a loss on how to proceed. I have it fixed in my mind that this is the only yarn that will do. Shortly, I hope, I will realize that the blanket can be made out of absolutely any yarn that looks good; it's just a matter of picking one.

An ode to English plurals

A friend sent this to me today (I suspect she's sympathizing with my grammar struggles.)


An ode to English plurals


We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

Hurricanes, GI Joes, and Waffles for Brunch

Yesterday, when I was done blogging, I went to take my shower (trying to keep up-to-date and all.) DS#2 filled the trash cans in the bathrooms for flushing. I was telling DH of all my preparedness for the hurricane when he says,

"You know, it's passed by already."

"What do you mean it's passed by already? I'm not done getting prepared."

"What can I tell you, the hurricane moved quicker than you thought."

"Okay, well I'm taking a shower anyway, even if I don't have to. So there."

So, nothing much happened around here. We had one branch down in our yard, and it was a dead one at that, so it was time for it to go. (Am I allowed to have three independent clauses in one sentence even if I separated them correctly? I'm thinking not.)

We had electricity; hence, we had flushing of the toilets. (Ooooh, fancy, a semicolon plus a conjunctive adverb.)

The saved water didn't just sit around and do nothing, however. It seemed to become a diving pool for some GI Joes (which, as we all know, are action figures and not dolls.)



My first clue that something was going on was looking at the shower wall and thinking, "why is it so wet? No one took a shower here today. And then I looked up.

Okay, now I get it.

The fact that DH and DS#2 had a long discussion about it today: the way that the Joes can dive to achieve minimum splash and the probability of them reaching the bottom lead me to believe that I'm the only adult living at this house. (And even that is questionable.)

Here's a photo of my second finished Waffles-for-Brunch sweater. (I bet you thought I forgot about knitting, didn't you?)


Pattern is here. It's a very fast knit with a very nice process. The yarn is Lamb's Pride bulky in a hunter green (the color on the last set of pics is way more accurate). Needles are whatever sized the pattern called for. (Meaning, I'm too lazy to walk to the other room right now. I think they were 10's?)

The stitch pattern is 6 sts wide by 6 rows tall. That would be fun to try out a different stitch pattern and see how it comes out.

Now, if I was taking a composition course rather than a grammar course, it would teach me how to write a concluding sentence. However, I'm not. So I don't have one.

Maybe I should take a course in Random Thoughts. Now THAT I would get an "A" in!

Run-onsRun-onsRun-ons

Run-on sentences, one of my favorite ways to write. (And I love sentence fragments, just like the last sentence. And sentences that start with "and".)

Run-on sentences can be fused sentences that just keep going without any end with the different ideas and clauses all smooshed together without punctuation which makes the reader want to quit and go knit somewhere in a quiet corner away from all the fusing.

Run-on sentences can also be comma-spliced, it only has a comma between two clauses.

Is anyone thinking about spit splicing right about now?



Fusing, comma splicing and spit splicing all just seem to go together.

I would show you pictures of the completed Waffles for Brunch (I love that name!), but my camera battery has died. I'll charge it up and get it ready for tomorrow.

Today is a nice relaxed day. Hurricane Hannah is coming up the coast, so we're just staying home and staying out of the rain. We're only expecting lots of rain and wind and maybe losing electricity. I'm getting my computer work out of the way so I can spend the afternoon reading and knitting.

We're taking showers and filling up trash cans with water to flush the toilets. Speaking of which... My daughter told me of a big argument she got into with a friend. The question was this:

Can you flush a toilet when the electricity goes off?

They were each emphatic witht their answers, my daughter saying "no--only once which will use up the water in the tank" and her friend saying "yes--it causes no problems". They ended up taking a poll of their friends, even texting ones from home. Half said "yes" and half said "no".

It turned out that they were both right. My daughter and her friends all had well water, and electricity is needed to pump the water to flush the toilet. Her friend and friends all had city water, so no electricity was needed.

Isn't it funny how sure you can be about an answer and be right and wrong at the same time?

I'm off to take a shower, do some knitting, and maybe flush the toilet. :)

August roundup

...because it's never too late for a roundup! (That would a sentence fragment, or an informal writing choice, you be the judge.)

August was the month of the Ravelympics where I knit many pairs of socks (plus some mittens).

The Ravelympics goal was to knit 5 pairs of toddler socks, which I met with days to spare. In all, I knitted 6 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of mittens, cut my son's hair, sent the kids back to school, and started a grammar refresher course (not coarse).

The UFO's were ignored (and so was the vacuuming), while the dishes jumped into the dishwasher and washed themselves! (Not really. Just checking to see if you were paying attention.)

Read the labels

Little mittens and socks have captured my attention the past few weeks. As soon as I was finished with one pair I would cast on for the next. There seemed to be no end in sight. Suddenly, though, I felt done.

Today was a visit to the hospital. Just tests and everything turned out fine. I was the designated driver. As in:
Him: "I can drive myself, you can just stay home."
Me: "Shut up, I'm coming and I'm driving."
See? Designated by me.)

Anyway, the trip provided several hours of knitting time, and since we had to be at the hospital at 6am, I had to pack my knitting last night. I was all ready to pack yarn for another pair of socks, but suddenly I reached for the pattern for the Waffles for Brunch sweater. I added two skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn and needles and was all set.

This morning I double checked the yarn. "Hmmmm..... I have both worsted and bulky weights of this yarn, I better make sure I grabbed the right ones. " I checked a skein, it said bulky, and I was off to the hospital.

Except, (can you tell where I'm going?) I only checked one skein and not both. That's right, one was bulky and one was worsted. (And why were they next to each other in my bin? Why weren't they more separated? What was I thinking? And why am I up so early in the morning?)



The whole skein of yarn was knitted. When I got tired of knitting, I would read and the sweater would become my leg warmer. (This picture was recreated. I didn't actually bring my camera to the hospital.)(I thought about it, but didn't bring it.)



Once I finished the skein, it became a covering for both of my feet.



Why must a hospital be so cold? I was never so happy to get home and find a pair of socks and a blanket.

Now I need to find the other bulky skeins of yarn. This time, I'll read the labels.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

As the summer went on, I would occasionally ask DS#2, "Hey, would you like a haircut?"

"Nope."

Alrighty then.

He almost got it cut the week of soccer camp. It was a week of being outdoors all day long (7 hours each day) in 90 degree heat. He had given in and actually asked for a cut, but by the time I could do it, he changed his mind.

"I think I'll keep growing it for a year," he said.

Alrighty then.

He went to school for the first week with nice, long hair. It's actually about the same length as DD#2's. So much so, that I thought you'd like to guess (seeing that you've been doing so well on my quizzes), which one of the following pictures is my son and which is my daughter?







Okay, I suppose it's not really that hard to tell which is which, but you can definitely tell that it's almost the same length.






(I'm adding some space here in case you're actually guessing....)







(sing amongst yourselves.....)









(here we go....)




It was the first picture. Here's the front view. (Goofy smile as usual. It'll make a good blackmail picture for later.)



He didn't really get teased about it. (Other than our family, of course, and we were rather relentless. Except for DH who would chime in to talk about the ponytail that he had in high school and ruin all our carefully planned teasing.)

It finally got too hot and he was ready to have it cut. (The whole "keeping it brushed and looking nice" was wearing on him also.)

This is what we did over the weekend.



(Water bottle shown for scale.)

He was thrilled with the cut and hasn't shown any signs of remorse. He can still fling back his bangs, and flinging is very important in his styling.



Today at school he could pretend he was a new student. At least one kid had no idea who he was.

(DD#2 is a bit sad, she feels like she no longer has a little sister.)(That's right, we were relentless.)

Mystery solved

Lesson #2 in my Grammar Refresher course had me going on a tangent that answered one of my longstanding questions.

What is the plural of cancel? canceled? or cancelled?

I've seen it both ways, and the answer is.....
Canceled for the American spelling and
Cancelled for the British spelling (that goes along with colour, valour, grey, and theatre.)

That's why I've seen it both ways. Even when I use spell check I get it right both ways. And that's why. Because they're both right.

The rule (for the most part, although cancel doesn't seem to follow this rule) is:

"Double the final consonant before adding an ending that begins with a vowel when the last syllable of the word is accented and that syllable ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant." Quoted from here. (I'm not linking to my class, since that would probably be illegal somehow. My links are all from other places.)

A couple of examples:
omit - omitted
travel - travelled
open - opened

That explanation helps a lot! I took a spelling quiz and only missed three.
Take this spelling quiz yourself! How did you do?

Okay, that wasn't really the topic of my lesson, but that's all the grammar I'll bore you with today.

Let's talk about knitting.

At this point I went upstairs to get my camera and take pictures of my knitting. Instead, I got two of these and came back downstairs.



Oh, that's right. Now I remember what I went upstairs for...

Knitting. And pictures.



These mittnz were made using the pattern-a-day calendar. They're adult-sized mittens with nice 2x2 cables the whole way around. The yarn is yellow worsted something-or-other. Maybe Lion wool. They're another pair for Mittnz 2008. I'm past 8 pairs, which was my goal.

One final bit of trivia. Did you know that one of the most commonly misspelled words is the word "misspelled"? Rather ironic, huh?

Here (not hear) are some socks

For those of you who read this blog, I have a bit of good news. It's news of something that, while I'm the one participating in it, you will be the ultimate beneficiaries. (I hope it will also tell me where the comma goes in the previous sentence, if any.)

Ready?

I'm taking a grammar refresher course (not coarse).

You're (not your) welcome.

Yesterday was the first day of "class". Since I'm doing it online, class is a relative thing. Lessons (not lessens) are (not our) released twice a week for six weeks and then presto! Your (not You're) grammar is all refreshed.

Can you guess the subject of Lesson (not Lessen) 1?

That's right. Homophones. Words that sound alike but have different meanings. So far, I'm doing okay (this is good since it's (not its) class #1 which (not witch) should be easy.)

Are you tired of reading all my homophones in parentheses? Okay, then, let me show you some knitting.

I've now finished my third pair of toddler socks from my new (not knew)(sorry, I couldn't resist) book. This pair is done using the Sky master pattern.



There are several master patterns in the book. In back section are charts and directions to figure out the numbers to be used in your particular sock (stitches per inch, length of foot, etc.) and then the numbers are plugged into the master sock pattern. (If I had known this, I wouldn't have struggled so much on the last pair. That'll teach me for not looking over the whole book first.)

The gusset increases in this sock are made at the instep's center.



Yes, the sock does look really long and skinny, and it's not just a photography trick. The number of stitches/rows seem to be right according to the charts, so I dunno (not a proper contraction of "do not know").

The yarn, by the way, is the second skein of green yarn that I had previously shown you, but I'm getting tired of green so added some variations to it.

I also dyed this skein:



A pretty tan (dyeing that other skein of ugly light variegated yarn from before.) This will be my next pair of socks.

That'll be four (not for).

1st day of school

Sleepy. So sleepy. Why must school start so early in the morning? I managed to get one kid on the bus at 6:06am (9 minutes early which is good for our schedule) and the other kid got on at 6:16am at a stop 5 minutes away.

Then, I stayed up (hold your applause), did some reading and knitting and eating of poptarts before going to work at 9am. Plus, I drank lots of coffee.

Why am I sleepier than my kids?

Event completed!

My event has been completed! I competed for Team Burnin' Up the Stash in the Gift Knits Pentathlon (I almost wrote decathlon, which would mean another 5 pairs. Phew--good thing I caught that error!) Five pairs of toddler socks have been completed (which also completes my Magic 28 pairs.)

Pair #5:



This is the second pattern from my Cat Bordhi book, called the little Coriolis. If you remember, I made bigger Coriolis's several months ago. These weren't even a repeat, though, as the big pair used 2 strands of sock yarn held together and the little pair used worsted. (that may not sound like a big difference, but all the increases were done differently.)

I also decided to do an extra increase in the toe which change my stitch total, which messed with my brain the whole way through. This was the second teaching sock so there was lots of diagrams about stitch placement and numbers which were all different than what I was using. Add that to the fact that since I knit lefthanded, I had to read all the diagrams backwards. Phew. That'll teach me to just change numbers on the fly.

There are some patterns later on where you can figure out what size you need and use the master plan pattern to fill in the numbers. I may try one of those next.

Not wanting to start them right away, I finished up two more pairs of mittens. They have been waiting in the wings and the blue pair only needed thumbs and the striped pair just needed the ends hidden (that's a really dark green, not a black as you suppose).

Socks #3 and #4

Today was a day for Olympics overload. As a matter of fact, yesterday was too. And maybe every day since the games began. The TV coverage seems extra good this year. Not only do we get to see the exciting swimming and gymnastic events, but we also get to see events like steeplechase and trampoline and fencing and water polo. Even the marathon was interesting.

I remember way back when Mark Spitz won his gold medals, and tell my kids that they'll remember Michael Phelps accomplishments for the rest of their lives.

I've also made some special things during the various games over the years.

See this afghan?



It was crocheted from January through the Olympics and into March in between finishing my B.S. degree and getting married. This was my wedding present to me. I suppose, it was the handiwork that I brought as my dowry. (Don't worry, DH got another one made 'specially for him the next year.) It took 20 something skeins of acrylic yarn, crocheted in a thick basketweave stitch that I learned in college from Carol. I still have it and use it everyday (even in the summer if the airconditioning is cold, which it usually is.)

This is what I made during the Seoul Olympics of 1988. They were in September that year to avoid the bad weather season (typhoon season? monsoon season? hurricane season? Something bad and wet, anyway.)



The nice thing about that Olympics is that they aired a late night portion of the games from 12-2am, which was great after just having a baby 'cause who can sleep, anyway? In fact, I took a stroll down the hospital hallway around 1am and in each room the Olympics was playing.

I also have my sweater that I knit during the Knitting Olympics of '06. (check out March '06 to see the finished product.)

This Olympics I'm doing socks that will be given away, so I won't have proof, but I will have memories of children with warm feet.

Here's my next pair:



They're the first practice sock from Cat Bordhi's book, done between 5:00pm (when I bought the book) and 12:30 am (when the Olympics was finished for the evening and so was I). (Size 5 dpns and most of the rest of the 3 oz. skein. Four socks out of one skein, with a bit leftover, is not doing badly at all.)

The heel increases are done on the middle of the instep (check out the squashed sock on the left).

There's actually a little sock to do with each new type of increase, so I see more socks in my future.

Here's pair #4:



These were done using 32 sts and sz. 5 dpns. The pattern is just purling each time I reached the brighter blue color. It makes random bumps that wanted to line up a bit too much but were fun to do.

One more to go and my Ravelympics event will be completed. Unless I pull a hamstring (or get carpel tunnel), I should be able to finish.

Glasses (again!) and Pair #2

I've had a common theme running around here: "Hey, has anyone seen my glasses? I seem to have misplaced them." It just seems to never end (and I might have to take back all the teasing I did to DH, who started using reading glasses a couple of years before me and continuously did the same thing.)

Finally, I found a pair (actually two, for some reason they were hiding together) under some old mail on the breakfast bar.

It took about 11 hours to break one of the pairs. Now, these are only $1 glasses, so no great monetary loss. However, I'm afraid to throw them out since I never know when I'll need them. So far I have 3 pairs of these lying around.



Even if I'm reading crookedly (and getting teased by whatever child is nearby), at least I'm reading. If this keeps up, I'll soon have a broken pair in every room of the house.

Wait, this is a knitting blog, right? Okay, then let's talk about knitting.

I'm behind.

Surprised?

I'm not even behind for any spectacular reason other than.... I am.

However, I'm not behind toooooo far, so I have hopes of catching up. Here's the second pair of socks for Ravelympics.



They're knitted using the first skein of green yarn that I dyed using the light variegated skein. The pattern is fun: Marguerite's mini-basketweave toddler pattern, using 28 sts and sz. 5 dpns.

What's behind that bag, you ask?

Well, I made a trip to my LYS today for some green sock yarn (yes, more green yarn), but instead I came home with this:



For awhile I really didn't think I needed this book, but I've since changed my mind and decided that I really did. (It wasn't an impulse buy, honest.)

An unexpected thing: There are several different baby sock patterns in there, one for each different type of increase. I can finish my Ravelympics event and make socks from my new book all at the same time!

Preparing, preparing....

Last week in preparation for the Ravelympics, I decided to dye some yarn. (Therefore it's from my stash but still new-to-me.)

I started out with this skein that was bought a couple of years ago at MDSW. I wasn't crazy about the colors, plus it's too light for socks, so I thought that a green overdye might do the trick.




After leaving the yarn in the crockpot for just a few minutes, I panicked.

It's going to be too dark and the variations will no longer show, so I took it out. There was plenty of dye left, so I put in a white skein that was supposed to become purple.

Check out the dyed yarn, and the original skeins above them. (edited to note: not the exact original skein, but one just like it. Where's my brain, anyway?)



See how the greens are different? It looks like the reddish tones took first, while the bluish ones took longer. Now I might have too much green yarn to use, so I decided to balance that with some purple (and one can never have too much purple.)

The right skein: I've dyed purple before (using Wilton's icing colors), so I knew that it would come out blotchy. I decided to help it along and only stuck half of the skein in the crockpot for the first several minutes (the more reddish tones). The second half got stuck in later and assumed the lighter blueish tones. It made a nice variegated yarn without doing any of the work.



The left skein: This yarn is handspun (but not by me) and has some natural lanolin left in it. I had originally made a soaker out of it, but it didn't sell and just hung around the house for awhile. I ripped out the yarn and washed it to get out the kinkiness. It might be a pair of socks, or I might save it for mittens...

Ravelympics: Opening Ceremony

It's 8/8/08 and the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing and also the start of Ravelympics. For my Ravelympics event, I'm knitting 5 pairs of toddler socks that will
a) use up some stash
b) complete my 28 pairs of Magic 28 socks and
c) keep five kids warmer this winter.

Even though Ravelympics started at 8am to coincide with Beijing time, I didn't start 'til I was watching the Opening Ceremony tonight.

Actually, I fell asleep, woke at 8:05 pm, ran to get my yarn and needles--okay now, it's time to finally choose the first yarn--and cast on.



Four hours later, I'm finished with my first pair of socks. (Technically, I finished these right after 12am, which put me into Saturday for blogging purposes, but I know how to change the date. And I do it way too often.)



These used 28 sts, sz. 4 dpns, Patons Classic Merino in Denim Marl.

Since I need to knit 10 socks in 17 days, this pair gives me a good head start. Not all will be this simple (but they might be towards the end.)