The story of the Rubik Cubes...

... or how to start every sentence with a conjunction...

In the beginning, there was a Rubik cube that DS#2 got as a freebie at a computer competition.

And it was solved (with a little help from a YouTube video).



And it was joined by a friend.

And it was solved.



And patterns were made.



And it wasn't hard enough, so DS bought a 4x4.

And it was solved.



And patterns were made.



And the promise was made that if he solved the 4x4, that his mom would buy him a 5x5.

So she did.

And it immediately fell apart.



But he put it back together.



But it wasn't sturdy enough, so a new one was bought. This one was from Greece.

And it was solved.



And patterns were made.




And the family was astounded.



And the kid went to bed.

The End.

Sock knitting time

Since finishing Elena's sweater, I've been working on Diana's socks. I had started these once before, only to run out of sock yarn on the 2nd one. That can be fixed, since the sock yarn is being held together with a worsted weight and I can just use another color, but it will look a bit different and I didn't want that for a graduate.

So, I dyed more yarn.

Actually, when I dyed yarn, I meant it to be blue for Elena's sleeves, but I didn't have any more blue coloring, so I dyed it green. (Can't waste yarn that's ready to be dyed.)

Then, I dyed some blue and continued with the sleeves. Taking another look at the green, I decided I didn't have enough for a pair of socks, so I dyed some more green.

And that's what I'm using. But in the meantime, I have leftover blue plus almost a whole skein of green ready to be used, plus the first green socks to finish.

Lots to knit.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Anyway, here's the sock so far.



The cabling pattern is still there, although it's hard to see. And I have a whole 'nuther skein of sock yarn so this time I won't run out.

In the meantime, I've had occasion to need plain knitting, like at yesterday's soccer game, so I started another sock.



I know, I know, I had another plain pair in the works, but they were smaller. I figured if I started over again with a bigger size, they might get done in time for the graduates' box, so I cast on again.

I've had lots of knitting time on the plain ones, so they're going almost as fast as the cabled ones. Look, I'm past the heel already.



So, lots of sock knitting being done around here. Now, does anyone want to clean my house?

Elena's sweater

Elena's sweater is done. It's a nice warm, thick sweater, which it should be considered how much yarn it took up.



Pattern: Pattern: Hooded tunic #244 from Knitting Pure and Simple.
Yarn: Every skein that I had in my house. Oh wait, it just seemed that way. Actually, it was 8 oz. Fisherman's that was dyed yellow and 8 oz. Fisherman's that was dyed green. Several 3.5 oz. skeins Patons Classic Wool in sesame. Let's call it 6 skeins, but it could be more.
I knitted the smallest size using size 8 and 10 needles. That's up one size from the recommended but I knitted with 2 strands held together so it's nice and dense.


The stripes on the hood ended up evenly without any fudging on my part. I did a 3 needle bind off on top and the middle stripe is still 8 sts wide, just like the rest.

The blue was added when the yellow ran out. The yellow had just enough yarn to do the next yellow stripe, with about 5 inches leftover.



It's been washed and blocked and ready for the Akkol box. I have one more pair of socks to go and then it can be mailed. They're thick socks, so it shouldn't take too long.

Signs of spring

There's been signs of spring popping up around here all over the place. We've had some really warm days, some beautifully nice days, and an occasional rainy, miserably cold day. (Like Tuesday, when DD#2 had her track meet and I sat out in the rain for 3.5 HOURS. At least I wasn't trying to run in that weather, so I probably shouldn't complain.) People have been mowing their lawns and every horizontal surface outside has a lovely green coat of pollen.

In our yard, we have our lilac bushes blooming like crazy. Here are some pictures by DD:













Another sign of spring is DD#2's birthday who turned 15!



And as she tells me, once or twice a day...
Only 9 more months until she can get a driver's permit.

I. Can. Hardly. Wait.

Hiding those ends

What did I do yesterday? Not very much, other than I WORKED REALLY HARD ON ELENA'S SWEATER!

In the morning, I watched "Sense and Sensibility" and finished knitting the sleeves. I had trouble getting them done since this sweater is a big black hole that swallows up pounds and pounds of yarn, never to be seen again. (Which reinforces my decision to do the hood first, then I can be creative with the sleeves. Which I was.)

The yellow and the green were each 8 oz. of Fisherman's wool, and I ran out of yellow, right where I have the first blue stripe. (Knitting top down.) Then the green started running out, but fortunately I had dyed enough blue yarn to make a second blue stripe. I think it looks ok (and I sure bugged my family enough for their opinions.)

I'll show you more pictures later of the finished hoodie, but now I'm showing a picture of the sleeves inside out to show that I also hid all the ends.




And I mean ALL. This took 3 hours all by itself, and was my evening knitting project. Yes, this little pile of scraps represents 3 hours of work. The dark purple in the corner were my place markers for the sleeve decreases. (Which would be nice if I had a picture, but I don't. I was concentrating so much on finishing this as quickly as possible that I skipped multiple pictures on the way.)




In the middle of the day, I did go to DS#2's first soccer game and knitted the i-cord drawstring.



The drawstring is all done, so today's project is sewing the casing and putting in the drawstring and then it'll be done!

P.S. Yes, that is my MDSW shirt. I'm starting to get psyched--it's only 3 weeks away and I think I'm going this year!

Elena's sweater

Elena's sweater has been making good progress. (Elena's one of the soon-to-be graduates from Kazakhstan). The body is done and I just finished the hood.



The yellow really is that intense. I think it's the first time that I wish some of the dye would wash out quickly. Just enough, mind you, not too much.

I did the hood before the sleeves in case I run out of yellow or green yarn and then I could put in a stripe on the sleeves for contrast. That would look much better on the sleeves than the hood.

So far, though, I think I will have enough to finish, especially since Elena has short arms.

March roundup

One pair of plain vanilla socks.

That's all that was finished.

Several things were started, though, so I look forward to having LOTS of finished items by the end of April. (That is, if I get over my startitis and instead get finishitis.)

Since I last blogged...

Since I last blogged, I did a thing or two.

I finished Murat's socks.




They started out being "misc. plain socks to knit while reading", but about halfway through, I found out that Murat (from the Mittens for Akkol group) needed blue thin socks that were 10.5 inches long. Since these blue socks are 10.5 inches long, then they must be Murat's. And they are and they're done.

Pattern: Plain vanilla, size 2 dpns 68 sts long. Marathon Boston sock yarn, color 212.


The biggest news? It's a two-parter. DS#2 had his birthday and turned 13! Not only that, but he has finally surpassed me in height. And I'm 5'9.5" so I'm not just a shortie. (Happy St. Patrick's Day--we're both wearing our green.)(That is, I'm wearing green and we have a disagreement over DS's shirt. He calls it green while I call it neon yellow.)



He's only slightly taller than me, but his arm span?



Crazy!


That same night, we went to the winter sports "banquet", that again had not a morsel of food, but insists on calling itself a banquet.

I took sock knitting this time, and only managed to knit the brown stripe and the blue stripe, and most of that was during the opening awards before the sports split up.



That's it. We were out of there in under an hour. The basketball coach may become my new favorite coach. (DD#2 got an award for Most Improved Player. Yeah!) I missed a picture, but the coach's mom had crocheted scarves in school colors for the whole varsity team! What a nice thought, and what a lot of work!


My Myrtille cardigan made a bit of progress. As I made progress, the purl rows didn't seem as bad. Now I'm up to the pattern stitch.




However, this needs to go on the back burner because I've taken on a couple of Akkol projects.


I started a pair of thick socks for Diana. I wanted to do something besides just plain vanilla but had trouble finding a pattern. So I'm making it up. It's turning out well (as I say so myself but shouldn't) and I'm trying to write down the pattern at the same time and may post it.



It has a cable on each side that works up nice and fast. It also goes quickly as it's on size 6 needles with worsted wt and sock wt yarns held together.



In a weak moment, I also took on Elena's sweater. I resisted for awhile since I didn't have the right color yarn, but when I realized I could dye yarn the right color, I gave in.



These are two skeins of Fisherman's wool dyed in bright yellow and green. I figure I'll do another hoodie, and if I knit with two strands held together it'll go quickly. But first, I have to wind the yarn.

This is yarn that I dyed earlier. It'll be used for socks and hopefully matches some odd balls so that I can make stripes.




We went to the library's annual book sale and I found some knitting patterns!



So, nothing earth-shattering happening around here, but still lots of knitting!

The problem with knitting cardigans....

The problem with knitting cardigans is that after every knit row is a PURL row. And not only that, but since I decided to knit the fronts and back together at the same time, then I have a reeeeeeeaaaaaaalllllllly long purl row.

And I don't like purl rows.

I'm on day 4 of my sweater and I'm already telling myself that if I can knit one inch per day, then it will only take 9 days until I can do the pattern stitch.




That's sad. I should still be in the "I'm so excited to be doing this project" phase, not the "I may be able to make it through if I try really hard" phase.

At least the sleeves are done in the round, so if I can just make it that far I should be okay.

Fancy that, me looking forward to sleeves. These are not gargantuan-long sleeves either, these are 3/4 length sleeves that should be a breeze to knit.

That is, unless I run into that ever present danger and start to fear about running out of yarn.

Back to knitting--I have 3/4 inch to go for the day.

Blue

I guess it's been awhile, hasn't it? And, from looking at my pictures, the color blue must be on my mind.

Right after finishing the hoodie, I decided that I needed something to knit besides stockinette, so I started these Snowdrop Socks from 6SoxKAL. I haven't done one of their patterns for awhile, but these looked fun.


And they are fun!

They're knitted toe-up and I'm just past the heel on the first sock. Actually, I've reached there twice. The first time, they were too short. That's the thing that I find about toe-up--even though I follow the pattern it still feels too short. I did the foot until it was two inches shorter than necessary, and I like mine 10 inches long, so I did them to 8 inches. Then I did the heel and tried them on and they were too short. I do this all the time so should automatically add 1/2 an inch or so, but I don't.

That's why I prefer knitting socks from the top down. If they're too short when I'm done I just have to rip out the toe and not the heel which is much easier.

Anyway, it's a very pretty pattern and I'm using Arucania sock yarn which feels very tough (in a good way) and not at all splitty.

Then, since I needed some plain knitting, I started these socks. They're moving along fast since I've been doing the knitting-while-reading thing.




And then, as you all know, I had some new blue yarn hanging around and begging to be made into a sweater. So I picked a pattern and began.




This is the Myrtille Cardigan and can be found here on Ravelry. It had all the elements I was looking for: a cardigan that has cropped sleeves with not too much pattern, but a little bit for interest. I was looking for a top down version with raglan sleeves, but I hope that sewing in the sleeves won't do me in. I used to do that all the time, and while it's been awhile, I should be able to remember how.

This is the hem. I'm doing the front and back pieces in one piece and am hemming it with knitting it together rather than sewing at the end.

February roundup

Where did February go? (Typing February reminds me of elementary school spelling, and I still say it out loud as I type it. F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y )

The biggest item I finished in February was the hoodie for Yegor. It took 14 days which is really pretty good for me. The Olympics were exciting to watch and the sweater was exciting to knit. I finished both the Ravelry Olympics and Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. See my new gold medal on the sidebar?

Besides the hoodie, I also finished a pair of thin socks that will also be set aside for Akkol.

Finally, I finished two hats.

The purple Unoriginal hat (that's the actual name, not just that I think it's unoriginal. Actually, I think it's quite orginal and have made 4 of them so far.) This hat went to a great friend whom I've never met.

The teal claudia hat went home with DD#1. She took a total of four. One day she had a hat party and handed them out (keeping one for her, of course.) It sounds like they are all liking them. I'm hoping that she also passed on the instructions to "not put them in the washer or dryer". You never know with college kids.

New yarn...

Using up those 8 skeins made me need to buy more yarn. 19 skeins worth, in fact.

The first batch was ordered while I was snowed in. I read about a sale at Little Knits, and that's all it took. They require a $25 minimum order and there were some good sales, so I stocked up.



The green Atacama Alpaca is for mixing with wool for Akkol socks. Two skeins of cotton and blends are for summer socks, two skeins of wool sock yarn are because they're pretty. One skein of Opal is because I just don't have hardly any solid sock yarn (see above picture: the percent of solid sock yarn did improve much, did it?)

Then, there was some clearance yarn at work this week. First I bought 5 skeins of Patons Classic wool in sesame.




(And if it goes any cheaper I might get more.)

Then, I couldn't resist 8 skeins of blue Patons.



It's enough for a sweater. And I don't have a blue sweater.

Yet.

Gold Medal

I'm a Ravelete!




And here's my gold medal for finishing my event:

Olympics: Day 14, Skein 8. Status: finished!

That's right--the sweater is knitted, the ends are sewn in, the button is on, and it's all done!

Not only did I watch lots of Olympics this week, but I had 3 days of basketball knitting, two of which were double headers. (One JV and one Varsity, not two JV games. Is that a double header, or just two games in one night? Anyway, it was a lot of basketball.) The games were all over tonight and the sweater was finished a couple of hours later.

With 3 days to go!

DS is modeling it again. ("I know you need to go to bed, but just give me a couple of minutes to sew on this button and then you can pose for a couple of pics. Pleeeease?")







By Monday I was starting the hood by basketball time, but then I ran out of yarn and forgot the extra skein.

Tuesday's basketball knitting included finishing the hood and knitting half of the i-cord tie.

Wednesday's day off knitting and Thursday's basketball knitting consisted of lengthening the body. It seemed long enough so that it "would do" and I would've left it there if I had run out of yarn, but I hadn't. I had most of 3 skeins left so I ripped out the bottom ribbing and side slit, added 1.5 inches of body, and reknit the ribbings.

Much better.



Stats:
Pattern: Hooded tunic #244 from Knitting Pure and Simple.
Yarn: Univeral Yarn Inc. Deluxe Chunky Tweed in Nottingham Forest. Only 8 skeins so I still have two left over!
Needles: size 9 for the body and size 7 for the garter st ribbing.

This will travel to Kazakhstan in the summer to get to Yegor for next fall. I hope he likes it!