Playing catchup

Well, things have been crazy with the remodel. Whatever knitting-related time I can squeak out is spent on actual knitting. I've not even been very active on Ravelry for the last month or so.

Projects - well, several things started (of course). Let's see what I can find.

Entrelac purse - nearly FO. Need to weave in icord ends, insert a lining, and attach commercial handles. I like the look of icord handles but they take 4FR to knit up at a time when you just want to be DONE. Plus they do tend to stretch unless you thread some cording inside it. I have some nice black leatherish handles I can put on this, in the Yarn Room. However, it is currently being used as a staging area, moving stuff around during remodel. I don't expect to work on this again for several months because I'm not sure where those handles ARE.

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Celery Baby Aran - started this for a friend who wants to have another baby. Not sure why I put it on hold, there is quite bit more than this done on it, it just wasn't photographed recently.
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Yellow Baby Aran - I think my color preferences are changing. I would normally never be drawn to yellow yarn, but this was striking. I thought a coworker was going to be first-time grandfather, in duplicate, so I got the two colors. Turns out there's only one baby after all, and she's not due til late January. In the meantime, I found out that another coworker is also awaiting a baby, and sooner, so this might go to her instead. I figure I could pretty much always have a baby sweater on the needles, much like many people always have a sock project going. There will always be more babies!

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Speaking of socks, I have generally been averse to making them, never understood the addiction. However when the Summer Knitty came out, I had to immediately cast on for these. I love the wiggly-squiggly of them. Of course, they are on hold now because I am a fickle, ADD knitter.

Next thing on the remodel: excavation for foundation. It's been quiet on that front for the last week or so, as the GC General Contractor, also known as DH, interviews potential subs for this work. Link on the sidebar to the remodel blog.

I keep saying, I need to do this more often. I'm trying to email this to blog and then fine-tune with blogger. Let's see how that works.

Lime Greeny Goodness

I got a lot done on this sock during my appointment day on Tuesday. First sock was done 18 months ago. I hadn't even started the second sock. I finally pulled it out last weekend and got started on it. Tuesday morning, when I left for my marathon day of appointments and busses, I was at where the blue line is. I am stunned by how much I got done because I am just not a sock person. I think. I might be going through another flirtation right now, but it's just a crush - I'll get over it. I always do.

I took the big green bag to work on during commute. I expected that might be inconvenient, and it was. But I got my 10 rounds done for today. I figure if I do 5 rounds on this first, then I can work on something else. There are 100 rounds total, and I have about 46 now. At round 90, I need to attach some hardware, so I better find it or order it pronto. I'll add an updated pix later if I can get one before dark.

When Reason Abandons Me...

How many times have I tried socks? My mother has made 100's of socks. I got my knitting gene from her, but not the sock knitting mutation.

I got 3/4 of the last pair of socks, for DH, completed, but I just could not bring myself to finish the foot and toe. They sat forlornly in a bag at the bottom of the closet, forgotten, except for a few furtive glances of light when I was looking for something else, and found only guilt instead. Finally, I gave the whole mess to Mom. Within 3 days, L was wearing new sox.

I started lime-green mohair sox for DD, for Christmas 2006, same vintage as the ones for DH. These were much larger gauge, mini-cable, 48 stitches, should have been easy to finish. I finished one. Then they went to the bottom of the closet. In the meantime, DD's 3-year fascination with lime green finally ended. Yet she still wants me to finish these sox. I'm not even sure if it would fit her anymore, although her feet couldn't change much from 18 to 20, I would think.

Mom recently made several pairs of socks, with this accordion-y, slouchy pattern. I am fascinated. I want some. More than that, I want to MAKE some. No, wait, lace.

I don't have a car, although DH does. I use public transportation for work, and many errands. No matter what project I'm working, most of them eventually get too large for commute knitting, and changing busses/trains. Socks would not. So, maybe that is what's happening.

I've been craving sock yarn lately, much as one would crave peanut butter cups or fresh raspberries. After a stressful evening yesterday (did you know that parenting does not stop when they are 18? Did you know that?),
I simply HAD to hit an LYS today. HAD to. I ended up with the pattern for this (Leaf Lace Socks, Fiber Trends)<<=====



















to make out of this =====>

On #1's. Oy.

A weak attempt to play catchup..

So, it's been 3 months since I last posted. Why does it sound like there should be a priest behind a screen as I say that? I think I will try for a very brief recap.

Only made a few gifts for Christmas, one for a sister, who has to walk long distances to work.



I made several items for the raffle at work, and started many more.

Since the first of the year, I've done a lovely scarf out of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (yummy), not sure who that will be for.
Mom finished L's socks, that I started MONTHS ago, got 1.5 socks done and couldn't stand them anymore. She did the 2nd foot and toe in, like, 20 minutes. OK, 1.5 days, but still. They were in my Guilt Corner for months, and now they're done and he even wears them! What a concept!



and E is now lobbying for HERS, which I really should do - they are sportweight so won't take long at all. Except that she is no longer the LimeGreenGirl. Oh well. After that, I think I'm giving up on socks.

Work has been crazy, but I've finally offloaded most of the travel arrangements to someone else. She is very sharp and she is catching on great. I did it for 6 years, but I'm a glutton for punishment.

In non-knitting news, the big news is a new member added to the family about 6 weeks ago.
Her previous mommy simply could not manage her allergy symptoms any more. It's going better than anyone had hoped, especially with our original cat, Joey, thinking he was king of the hill and weighing roughly triple what she does. They have their moments but generally, there is a peaceful coexistence:

In her honor and to thank the friend who selflessly gave her up, I did this, which still needs felting. Her BD is next week, so it will be a nice little present from New Mommy to Old Mommy.

Mom's house, sold to a contractor in May, went back on the market in December, for $449K
We got to take the full tour and it was AMAZING, the changes. You can see the full show here:

We are now planning a huge remodel / addition to OUR house, which will effectively double the space. We own this house, a fixer-upper, free and clear so financing should not be a problem. We are getting contractor's and sub's bids for the work, and drawings are at 95%. By Christmas this year, we will either be closer than ever, or as my boss says, "one of you will be at the bottom of the lake and the other in handcuffs. I just don't know which will be which."

Ravelry is where most of my online time has gone to, and of course, if you have Ravelry, you pretty much need Flickr. I will put links to the side, hopefully, when I finish here.

Too Embarassed to Post

OK, so I haven't posted in a month. That's because I've been bad, starting too many things, stressing over moving, etc. I will try to do a brief catchup.

I did a search on my computer for photos and "it has been 187 photos since my last confession", er, blog entry. It would appear that most of them are related to house hunting, or adding photos to my new Palm.

The house - we have dropped that idea. New idea - build massive addition to current house (double garage underneath a master suite, at least one more bedroom, an office, kitchen remodel, move all the stairs to the side of house instead of all over the place like they are now. Probably $100,000 minimum. Which is likely the amount of debt we would have left over after all the buying/moving/cleaning/selling was done. We own the current small, ugly house free and clear. DH met with architect 2 weeks ago, and tomorrow we will both meet with him to hear his preliminary plans and perhaps see some drawings.

OKC - a few knitting photos DID crop up in that search.

One of the baby learning socks from Cat Bordhi's new book (will update with link this weekend). Book is stunning, and I'm not even a sock knitter. This one has the increase stitches all in a triangle on the TOP of the foot.
I can't wait to try out some of these ideas.




Unfortunately, I was already well into these socks for DH before I went to Cat's booksigning. I'm doing quite well with these, working both sort of at the same time (two sets of two circs). The most recent photo is just AWFUL, but trust me they will get photo'd again WHEN, not IF, they get done.

A trip to the newest LYS showed a long, luscious cashmere cowl in basic Feather and Fan, but the cashmere was in 3 blah, dull colors. Someone who shall remain nameless introduced me to Debbie Bliss Alpaca DK. I got one skein in red and faked the cowl just to see how far it would go. Not very. Plus, the yarn broke and released a few bound-off stitches while I was weaving in ends. And I wasn't tugging, just pulling through to snip. Fortunately, I had a longtail caston end which I cannibalized for repairs. I also got two shades in a lovely lavendar - no photos yet. I want to make a larger, longer one of these - this might work for a teen or petite woman, but especially if yarn is this fragiles, best not to pull on it, rather have it slip / slide / drape into place.

Finally, this week's project the Argosy scarf from Knitty (link later - google argosy knitty - it will come up. I promise you.) This newish LYS boasts the most ginormous selection of Noro that I've ever seen. The colors in this were radioactive bright and this is the only pix of about 10 I've taken that even BEGINS to capture the glory of this stuff. I have 2 skeins, which will be about 6 feet total. That's enough for a primarily decorative item; we'll see if I really want to add more after that. And my colors will sequence great from one skein to the next!

Summer Reruns

I've just re-upped at The Big List so I'm reposting this project from last summer. The blog that it WAS on doesn't exist anymore.

This is the diagram for the baby blanket. It's just 45-stitch mitered squares, started in the center and worked out, all in garter stitch. The diagram was actually put together in PC Stitch a cross-stitch program. I had great plans to finish this in 2-3 months but I got "garter fatigue" and I didn't atually finish it until recipient was about 6 months old. But once it was done, I loved it and hated to part with it.

In other news, I broke down and bought the BIG ipod, 80GB. I can now back up my laptop and still have tons of music and photos on it, too. In fact, it took a while to figure out the photo thing, but now I have 4000+ photos on it, which is about 3900 too many (grin).

Oh, and I got into the newest LYS, http://www.twistedpdx.com , and it was so good that I bought SOCK yarn. I don't even knit socks. Well, not much. We shall see. 2 huge skeins of blue Trekking XXL. Wish me luck.