A finished pair..,

I finished some socks!



Pattern: Mad-Tini from Sock Madness
Yarn: Kona Superwash dyed by me with acid dyes
Started: 3/22/07
Finished: 3/27/07

Well, here they are - finished and with modified toe shaping. :) I don't like this yarn quite as much as the fingering weight skein I used for these socks, but this pair is nice as well. I have more yarn I've dyed where that came from, too!

Also, the comment on the last post about writing a manifesto cracks me up. See, my friend's boyfriend's roommate spends all his time in the bathroom, and I always say he must be writing his manifesto in there. :) I'll think about it. I'll have to decide what I want to manifest first.

Plodding along...

Knitting progress is being made, though currently on many projects and because of that nothing is getting finished lately.

As you've probably noticed I go through phases of finishing and phases of casting on, and another finishing phase is right around the corner. But until then...

I've finally started some socks with the Black Bunny Fibers sock yarn that I bought a couple of months back. So far it's doing the zig-zag pooling thing, but I don't mind.



Pan makes a good knitting helper.



The pattern is the Eleanor from Socktopia. It was a speed knit-along this weekend, but I totally forgot about it and didn't realize the pattern was up until Sunday afternoon. Not that it would have helped much, I worked both days this weekend and moved my fish tanks on Sunday morning.

It was sock laundry day today (ignore the ugly tile colors in my bathroom).



That's not even all the socks, there are a couple of pairs hanging on the towel rack and a couple more on a towel in the living room. Good thing the roommate is gone. ;)

Listening to: A Smart Kid ~ Porcupine Tree, H. ~ Tool

De-FEET-ed

In the wee hours of the morning, Sarah bested me in Sock Madness. (Congrats!)

The Thursday night pattern release wasn't great for me, what with work and all, but the real tragedy was getting my knitting locked into a friend's apartment for a bit last night. I started on Thursday night and made it to just before the heel flaps and planned on making short work of them on Friday night. When I was about to kitchener the toes I refreshed the Flickr group and saw that my opponent had just posted her photo, so I ripped back to modify the toe shaping. :)

Because of the nature of the contest everyone has to knit the socks exactly according to pattern, but this gives me an opportunity to change them for me.

Although I have an unhealthy desire for competition, it's probably for the better. Now I can focus on WIPs and moving and such - and I can even blame my failure on
Catherine for forgetting her keys. :P

OK, so I don't really blame you, knitting buddy.

And so this post isn't totally boring and devoid of pictures, here's the last package I got from Scout's Swag Club. I didn't join round two because most of the colors really weren't me, and I have SO much sock yarn anyway. Of course the last package is my favorite of them all!



Beautiful sock yarn and a pattern from Kate Gilbert.

Listening to: Stand Inside Your Love ~ Smashing Pumpkins, 405 ~ Death Cab for Cutie

Rockstariel Strikes Again!

Today I got another package from my amazing SP, Rockstariel.



Pan showed an interest in my package right away. After I read the card (which my SP designed just for me - featuring pictures of my pets!) I learned this was a "Wild Kingdom" themed package, so for that reason I present the following events as they occurred.

I unwrapped some of the little packages to discover that some of them contained kitty toys! Pan began loving his right away.



Then Java arrived to see what all the fuss was about, and Pan decided that both toys were his.



I opened the package containing stitch markers modeled after my fish! These are just beautiful and simply amazing. They're from Wee Ones on etsy.



At that point I noticed Java had escaped with one of the toys and taken it down to the floor away from Pan.



I found that my SP had sent a hippo-shaped Kinder biscuit, a cute postcard, the fishy stitch markers, the cat toys, an adorable notepad, and a t-shirt for me which says "Mind the Stash" but in the "Mind the Gap" style. :D I tried to get a group picture of my SP goodies (minus one cat toy) but Pan had his tail covering one of the more amusing items.



I moved it onto the t-shirt, see? There's the notepad where I can jot down all of my cats' most secret thoughts!



Thank you so much, Rockstariel, for all the wonderful goodies and the effort you put into my package. As you can see the kitties fully approve, and I agree with them.

Listening to: Ghost of Perdition ~ Opeth, Wake Me Up When September Ends ~ Green Day

When bad things happen to good socks...

Remember these?



Well I was on the phone with my mom a couple weeks ago and as we were signing off she said in a lowered voice "Oh... There's something I feel like I should tell you."

This is not really something one wants to hear, and I was wondering what horrible family tragedy had occurred. It turns out that there was a run-in with a monster.



Poor sock! I told my mom to have my sister send the socks back to me - I still have the leftover yarn and will fix it to the best of my ability - although the stripes might not match up quite as perfectly as the first time...

Listening to: One Year From Now ~ Katatonia, My Long Walk to Jail ~ Filter, Evidence ~ Katatonia

Another one off the WIP list

I've been working pretty hard lately on clearing things from the WIP list. Well... socks at least.



Pattern: plain sock, 72 sts on size 1s
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Liberty
Started: 2/28/07
Finished: 3/13/07

I've also vowed to start knitting some plain socks with some of my crazier variegated and/or patterned yarns. I buy them because I love the colors and then they just sit in my stash while I knit more subtle yarns in fancy schmancy patterns. No more!

This pair also put me just past the 3 mile mark in the Lime 'n Violet Sock Marathon. I don't really have a goal exactly, just to knit through as much of my sock stash as I can. And have all those yummy socks!

And now for BIG NEWS:

I'm going to sock camp! Yes, Blue Moon sock camp, and it's on my birthday! And I get to see my family since it's over by Seattle. I'm so unreasonably excited, and I promise to take tons of pictures and post a long and detailed account when I get back. SOCK CAMP! I am such a dork.

As promised...

I took better pictures of the Sock Madness socks and the Autumn In Oregon socks together today.

Pair #69



Pattern: Autumn In Oregon from Gardiner Yarn Works
Yarn: Sunshine Yarns in Fall Leaves
Started: 11/10/06
Finished: 3/9/07

Pair #70



Pattern: Mad Cow from Sock Madness
Yarn: Fearless Fibers (orange) and Brown Sheep Wildfoote (black)
Started: 3/10/07
Finished: 3/11/07

As you can see it takes me a lot longer when I knit socks one at a time. Somehow the motivation to finish the second sock is just not there. Now the only orphan is my Hippy Crunchy, so I'll be putting in some hours on that one before the next Sock Madness sock is started.

Spinning and yarn swapping

It's been a rather fiber-oriented weekend. Friday night I finally finished the second sock of these for Amanda. I was freeing the needles in preparation for the start of Sock Madness on Saturday morning.

Today I did a spinning workshop with some of my knitting friends and we got a couple new spinners started on both spindle and wheel spinning. Then I headed to the Knitsmiths swap where I got some lovely sock yarn.

And back at home I finished my Mad Cow socks for Sock Madness.



Better pictures tomorrow when there's light.

Favorite Color Swap

Today I received my Favorite Color Swap package from Cindiluhu, who was the pal I sent to in the first FCS!



The package contained some lovely Anne yarn, a blue bunny with jelly beans, a Little Mermaid bookmark and some A seals, two different kind of star stitch markers, a cute Shoot the Moon book, and a pin. I think she may have made the stitch markers herself (if you're reading, did you?)

Thanks so much for a great package!

In other knitting news, I've been working away on my WIPs and trying hard not to cast on anything new before March 10th and the start of Sock Madness!

STR Club is here!

I received my first package today for the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club. I was a member last year and loved it, and this year promises to be even better. :)



The color is called Monsoon, and the pattern is a neat cable and ribbing combo. However... I still haven't finished my sock kits from last year. I'm going to continue working on those for the time being (Hippy Crunchy sock #2 is on the needles now!) and see how long I can resist the temptation.

Now for another order of business, the WIP of the month. I was thinking the Ribbed Ribbon Tank, which really is a cursed project that may end up frogged if I can't find a coordinating yarn, but I'm not sure where I put it. Somewhere safe. ;)

Also, I don't post a lot of pictures of my kitties because #1. This is a knitting blog and #2. They always move or get yellow-eye or something in pictures. But today Mr. Pan was sleeping and looking especially adorable, so I present this kitty picture:



Miss Java couldn't be outdone, so when I decided my WIP of the month - Cherie because I did want to knit more sweaters this year - she decided to jump into the way right when I took the photo.



So there you have the "before" picture of Cherie, our WIP of the month. Another reason I picked this one is that, like Hush Hush, it has endless stockinette so it makes a good project while I'm watching Netflix or catching up on my DVRed TV.

State of the WIPs and some mail

In the end of January I announced that Hush Hush would be my WIP of the month, and it was. I promised to devote 2 hours a week to my WIP.

When I started Hush Hush was just the bottom lace section like here, and now it looks like this:



OK, so it doesn't look like a lot of progress, but that's a very big round in stockinette!

So, what should my WIP be for March? I could do Hush Hush again I suppose, but maybe it's time for a little something different. Pick any non-sock WIP in the sidebar and post your answer in the comments, I'll determine the WIP of the month by popular vote.

I also wanted to report on some mail that came yesterday:

My 2nd Sundara Petals Collection package



And a package from my YFC SP!



She sent 6 skeins of allhemp3 - I've been wanting to try hemp yarn for a while, plus chocolate tea, magnetic checkers/chess/backgammon, some yummy smelling green tea soap, a book, a notepad, and a really lovely project bag from Mama-E. It's bigger than my current project bags, which are all sock sized, so it should come in handy. :)

My fabulous pal was Craftlilly! Thank you!