Dude!!!

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!

I know most people won't be excited about that, but I'm of the mentality that it's not really winter until it snows. And we haven't had snow here in Omaha until today. Yay!!! *does the happy snow dance* On the opposite side of the coin, I'll be completely happy if this all melts (which it will because it's been in the 50s for most of December) and then we don't get snow for the rest of the winter.

I got my Woolee Winder attached to Grace and have been spinning like mad ever since. I'm almost halfway through some roving that I got from the limenviolet etsy shop and I'm loving the fact that I don't have to stop spinning to move the little guide thingy. So cool!! I'd post pictures of what I've done, but the light stinks right now and the one pic I took with the flash completely washed out the fiber. The fiber is called Meteor and it's cream, pink, lilac, and a blue-y purple, but when it's spun up it looks like cotton candy. Prettiness.

Second skein of Red Heart *shudder* is tied onto the pinwheel baby blanket for Brooque's little one. I showed it to her this morning and she loved it.

The test-knit for Miss Lime is progressing. Things are going faster now that I'm onto the foot. I'm hoping to have this sock done by Thursday so I can give her all of my clarifications for the pattern. I feel bad that it's taken me this long to finish a sock!

And now I should probably go to bed so I can be up in time to make myself stunning for the neighbor cop's New Year's party.

Sock Yarn Inventory

Since the L&V Sock Yarn Marathon is due to kick off in the new year, I decided to do a little inventory of my sock yarns. So I got the pup distracted with destroying one of her toys and began the tally. I was a little shocked when it came out to FIFTY-FIVE PAIRS WORTH!!!!

So...that being said, my New Year's Resolution list for knitting is going to be as follows.
- I can't buy anymore sock yarn until I have knit at least half of my current stash...or 27 pairs(exception being the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club yarn because I already signed up for that)
- I am joining the multitude of knitters in the Knit From Your Stash 2007. I've got too much yarn and projects planned for said yarn to keep buying more yarn (I may fall off the wagon if I go to Estes Park for the fiber festival out there)
- I must knit at least two sweaters this year.
- I need to finish the lace projects on the needles (Leaf Lace Shawl and Branching Out)
- Complete Cindy's wedding afghan before her first anniversary in October

....I'll add more later if I think of them. And I need you all to hold me accountable. Unless something absolutely fabulous comes up (like cashmere laceweight for $20 or something like that) you must hold me back/tackle me/tie me up/or restrain me in any way to keep me from buying more yarn.

What's that? You want to see the complete list of my sock yarns? Okay. Consider this a drool-bib warning. Picture first.



Sock Yarn Inventory

All Things Heather - 560 yds
-Pinkie
-Rapunzel

Austermann Step - 420 m
-10
-14

Brown Sheep Wildfoote - 215 yds
-Rhapsody (2)

Cherry Tree Hill - 370 yds
-Silver Streak

Cherry Tree Hill - 420 yds
-Foxy Lady
-Java
-Life’s A Beach
-Northern Lights
-Peacock
-Spanish Moss

Koigu KPPPM - 175 yds
-100 (2)
-105 (2)
-113 (2)
-202 (2)
-212 (2)
-446 (2)

Lime’s Sock Yarn - ? yds
-Shadows (2)

Lisa Souza Sock! - 450 yds
-Berry Poppins
-Emerald City
-Joseph’s Coat
-Shade Garden
-Sky Drama
-Wild Things

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock - 215 yds
-Watercolor (2)

Mountain Colors Bearfoot - 350 yds
-Northern Lights (2)
-Thunderhead
-Wild Raspberry

Regia - 420 m
-5758
-5759

Schaefer Anne - 560 yds
-Bright Rainbow
-Easter Egg (pink, blue, lilac, white)

Sockotta - 414 yds
-08
-18

Socks That Rock
Light-weight - 360 yds
-Carbon Dating
-County Clare
-Lapis
-Mustang Sally
-Ruby Slippers
-Titania
Medium-weight - 380 yds
-Chanticleer
-Love-in-Idleness
-Rare Gem
-Rocktober

Storytellers Yarns - ? yds
-Flamethrower

Sunshine Yarns - 450 yds
-Chinese Fireball
-Hungarian Horntail
-Swedish Short Snout
-Welsh Green

Trekking XXL - 459 yds
-66
-76
-100 (2) (meant for kneesocks)
-109

The Binge

So someone (cough *k2p2* cough) on the LnV messageboard pointed out that Personal Threads was having their end-of-the-year 20% off everything sale, and she and her friends were driving over from Des Moines to partake in the yarny goodness. Even though I'd worked Tuesday night into Wednesday morning and was really tired, I decided to go.

Yeah....I'm sure you can all see where this is heading. I ended up with a very large armload of yarn. Violet came up behind me just as I plunked it all down on the counter. I'll have a picture up tomorrow, but here's the damage.

- Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool in Indian Corn (3 hanks for Mom)
- one of Shaefer Andrea in Hermione
- 6 hanks of Koigu KPPPM in 3 different colors for socks
- one Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Elderberry
- 4 hanks of Malabrigo....2 each in Oceanos and Little Love
- and a ball of Austermann Steppe in a color I can't remember...maybe Peach Melba?

So V and I met up with k2p2 and her friends and we ended up at the Starbucks on 72nd and had great conversation and I had a wonderful hot caramel apple cider.

I ended up staying awake until about 2 pm, finally got to bed and woke up with a major headache at about 8. I'll have to see if I'll be able to sleep today so I can get up for SnB at Touche. I should probably pack the rubbermaid container of stuff that I have to bring to show everyone.

Planning on spinning some this weekend to get used to my Woolee Winder (yes Mom! I put it on my wheel) before I break into the Sock Hop roving. Plus I need to go shopping to find a cute top to wear over to the neighbor cop's house for New Year's Eve. I'm almost certain I won't find anything at the mall, so it's very tempting to wear either my Knit Happens shirt or one of my other knitting t-shirts. I won't....but it's tempting.

The haul....

I lied. Here's pics of the haul this year. I decided to get off my butt, find the camera and take pictures.

Phoebe's present from auntie Sarah.


Toffee's sweater


Phoebe's sweater


Cozy's sweater and Dad's hat....for the "huntin' buddies" This would be the terror of a dog that led me on a merry chase through the neighborhood.


Reading shawl that Mom knit for me out of DB Cashmerino Chunky


Knitting 2007 calendar (from Sarah) and Woolee Winder with bobbins


Dirt Devil Kone vacuum (are my parents trying to tell me something? ;)


Dog sweater, Willow Tree Nativity, new winter boots, tether for the dog, dog treats (from Tony), coffee scoop and hook, Gummy Savers, WPI tool, and extra dark chocolate. Not pictured is a gift certificate for a pedicure at a salon the next time I'm home and the dollar that I won from the lotto tickets.


Close-up of the coffee scoop and hook. The hook says "Wake up!" and the scoop has "Smell the coffee...."


Snowblower!!! I told Dad that once we actually get snow I'll probably be out there using this thing even if there's only a 1/4" of the white stuff on the ground.


There's also some stuff that I didn't take pics of....two pairs of jeans and a sweater. But most of you will see me wearing those at some point or another.

And now for stuff that I bought myself.....

Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop roving in My Boyfriend's Back.....Phoebe head included for reference size.


More CMF roving in I Got You Babe.


Sunshine Yarns sock yarn Harry Potter Dragon set in (L to R) Swedish Short Snout, Hungarian Horntail, Chinese Fireball, and Welsh Green.


What have I been knitting on? A baby blanket in Red Heart *shudder* and the test-knit socks. That's all. As you were.

Merry Christmas!! (a day late)

I hope that everyone had a good Christmas (or at least a tolerable one)! I had to work overnight from Christmas Eve into Christmas morning, so that put a little bit of a damper on my celebration. And to all the girls at SnB, my dad was able to get Christmas day off, but he's pretty sure that the crap's going to hit the fan when he goes into work on Tuesday. But at least he was able to come down.

The dog sweaters were a huge hit, Dad loved his hat and Mom loved her socks. I'll try to get full pictures of all of my loot up on Wednesday. The big ones for me were the Woolee Winder for my wheel and a snowblower. Mom also knit me a shawl and I had the usual $1 winner from the strip of lotto tickets that my dad puts in the stockings every year.

Walked in the door this morning and since I didn't close the garage door, Cozy (Dad's hunting dog) slipped out. Lovely. Off I go after her. Trying to run in my crocs. I chased her about 6 blocks through at least 8 backyards before I caught her. I haven't run that much in ages and I thought I was going to die before I finally got her.

I finally collapsed into bed at about 11, then the doorbell rang at 1 or so. All of a sudden Mom's in my room telling me to get my butt downstairs because Tony (the neighbor cop) is at the door with a present for me. I stumble downstairs in my ripped up basketball sweatshirt (from 10th grade) and my flannel pajama pants (with the toasters and pancakes on them) and all my make-up from the night before smeared under my eyes to see Tony waiting at the front door with a present in hand. Dad's downstairs trying to coax my dog out of her kennel (Phoebe doesn't like visitors) and I just plunked my butt down on the stairs to open this present which turned out to be some expensive doggie treats for Phoebe.

The parents left about 2 or so....I think.....I wasn't actually very conscious. I kind of fell over, first on the dining room table, then on the couch while Mom vacuumed up the dog hair that Cozy had managed to shed. I woke up long enough to wave goodbye at the door, then stumbled to my bed and slept until 9. I'll be up the rest of the night knitting on a baby blanket or socks while watching Voyager.

Six weird things and some sock stuff

Let's start off with the sock stuff. My final Rockin' Sock Club '06 package arrived on Saturday. The one for the kit is a lightweight called Mustang Sally. It really reminds me of the Ruby Slippers that I bought last year. I'm going to have to do a side-by-side comparison of the two in daylight this weekend. The pattern is called Winter's Eve by Sivia Harding and it's gorgeous!! Cables and beads and.....ooooohhh.....prettiness!

There's also a bonus skein of medium-weight STR in Rare Gems. From what I've seen on other blogs, everyone's is different. Mine's a lot darker than the skeins I've seen. Navy, burgundy and chocolate brown. Yummy!



And now for my six weird things.
1. When I'm anticipating a movie that I really want to see, I'll do obsessive research about it online and in magazines. I absolutely love all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

2. I'm a nosy neighbor. You know the kind....the ones that spy on their neighbors by peering through the mini-blinds? That's me. I'll catch myself doing it and I'm really trying to stop, but it's so hard!! I almost wish my housing development had a neighborhood watch so that I had a legitimate reason to spy on people.

3. I've been accused of having an eating disorder since I was a teenager. This is insane because I love to eat, hate to exercise (can you say couch potato?), and can't even stand the thought of throwing up let alone making myself throw up. I actually had a counselor at church camp try to counsel me about eating disorders one summer because I would always have to pee right after we ate a meal and I'd make a bee-line for the bathroom as soon as I was done eating. What can I say? When you gotta go, you gotta go!

4. When I like a movie, I'll watch it obsessively until I'm sick of it. Then I won't watch it for a few months and then start watching it obsessively again. That leads me to #5.

5. I can accurately memorize quotes from a movie after only watching it a couple of times. Three that took me a little bit longer are from Lord of the Rings, The Emperor's New Groove and PotC: Curse of the Black Pearl.

6. I love to sing (especially show tunes), but I don't really like singing in front of other people. I think it's due to the fact that I took voice lessons through high school and college and had too many people judging my singing. I'll sing for church occasionally, but never in public. Karoke scares me to death. Again with the judging.

I'm cursed....

....the curse of the poo. Not Pooh.....poo. That's all I'm gonna say.

sock orphans

The last few days here have been the days of sock orphans. Let's not even discuss the Christmas knitting....I'm with Miss Violet in the land of Denial about that.

The first sock orphan off the needles was the RPM socks that I'm doing in Scottish Highlands medium weight STR for a friend who lives in Scotland. She has absolutely no idea that I'm knitting socks for her. I've basically been emailing and asking for shoe sizes and then having to email again and ask whether that shoe size was US or UK. I'm sure she probably thinks I'm insane. I've dubbed these socks "The Ugly Socks."


I've never had such a pooling problem with STR before. What's that? You can't see it? Let me show you. Here's the back....not too bad....I can live with that...a pretty burgundy zig-zag down the back of the sock bordered by the light blue.


And then the front. It looks like a Green Bay Packers fan threw up on it. Why the green and yellow decided to stripe every row and then pool like that down the whole front of the sock is beyond me.


I'll probably get to the second sock sometime in January....or at least after Christmas.

The next sock orphan is from my November Rockin' Sock Club kit. The yarn is STR medium-weight Pink Granite and the pattern is a faux cable called Marble Arches. I had put off doing this pattern for three reasons. Reason #1 - It's knit on size 1 needles. Nothing ever goes fast for me on size 1s.

Reason #2 - There's a short row heel. Not counting the Hippy Crunchy socks that I did out of the July kit, this is the first short row heel I've done since the disaster that was my second pair of socks. I never wear that pair of socks because the short row heel makes this instep so tight that blood flow to my foot is cut off and within about 3 minutes of putting the socks on, my toes are numb. Not so with this sock. I'm loving it.


Reason #3 - Since I was doing the largest size, I had to cast on 156 stitches. Yes....you read that right. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX!!!! Of course, they have you decrease within the first couple of rows to a reasonable amount of stitches, but still!! But through the amazing pattern writing of the woman who designed these socks, you end up with a pretty, girly ruffled edge to the cuff. Very nice. Here's a close-up of that edge and the faux cable pattern.


I've also got the first sock I'm test-knitting for Miss Lime on the needles. I made it through the ribbing and one whole pattern repeat while I was watching White Christmas the other night. I need to break out more of the movies that I can quote verbatim (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and my entire 7 seasons of Star Trek Voyager) so I can concentrate on knitting this pattern.

And now I suppose that I'd better head off to bed so I can get up early this afternoon to decide what I'm taking to church for my knitting/spinning presentation tonight. I've already found the Bible verse I'm going to quote at some point.

The writer of the psalm is talking about God. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." --Psalm 139: 13

I know that's completely out of context, but I'm going to use it as proof that God knits!

How much....

...do I want to scare the people at my church? Here's the thing. Our pastor decided to do Advent services a little different this year and have people share their different talents during a sit-down meal. Last week was arts and crafts, this next week is hobbies. I signed up to talk about my knitting and I'll probably throw some spinning in there too. And I said that I'd have a display. So the big question is.....

How much of my yarn stash (specifically my sock stash) do you think I can show non-knitters without scaring them? I'm only planning on taking one of my tubs filled with stuff plus my wheel. I'm obviously going to take everything that I've knitted and haven't given away.

Then I had one of the ladies in bell choir this morning ask me if I was going to teach everyone to knit. Ummm...no. This is supposed to be a short little 5-10 minute (at most) presentation. I can't coordinate 50 people who have never knit before and teach them to knit in that timeframe! Besides the fact that I don't have the needles! Not a chance.

And I found out that my friend Diane wears a size 5 UK (size 7 US) shoe, so that means the "ugly" socks are flying off the needles. I'm starting the toe decreases and should have the first sock done tonight. Then I really need to pick out yarn to do Miss Lime's sock pattern in and start that one so I can give her some feedback. ETA: I've picked out the yarn! I'm going to be using Lisa Souza's Sock! in South Pacific. I had wanted to use Emerald City, but Minnie's already using that for the pattern she's testing. *pout*

Back to the needles!

What a wimp....

That would be me that's over in the corner complaining about how cold it is. What's happened to me? Two years living 200 miles further south than where I lived my whole life and suddenly I'm a wimp with the cold.

Ended up with 4 kinds of cookies: spritz, peanut blossums, kringla, and orange juice frosted buttermilk creams. Yum! I'll be bringing them to share at Touche tonight. So people better be there darnit!

Christmas knitting. The retina-searing orange dog sweater is complete. I tried to take a picture of it on Phoebe because it actually fits her (just a little long in the body). But once I got it on her, she wanted to do nothing but chew on the collar. I figured that an intact present was better than a picture. I'll be sure to get a pic on my dad's dog at Christmas.

That leaves only one present left to do.....the thing for Sarah. I'm thinking it might get delayed until her birthday simply because I have turned back to the siren call of socks. And I found a couple of things that I've been looking for that will be perfect for her.

So the last few days have been filled with trying to figure out the pattern for the latest Rockin' Sock Club socks, Marble Arches. The way the pattern was written wasn't very clear and it took my mom and I about 20 minutes of sitting at Applebee's to figure it out. But it's progressing and it looks lovely.

I can't say the same for the Scottish Highlands socks for Diane. I'm still waiting to hear back from her on whether the shoe size she told me was US or UK. Makes a difference of about an inch in the foot.

And I got the sock pattern from Miss Lime today that she wants me to test knit. It looks interesting and should be challenging. I just need to dig though the sock yarn stash to figure out what to use. I'm going to have to dig out my cable needle too. Should be interesting since I haven't seen these socks or pics of them, so I'm just going to be knitting blind.

Speaking of knitting blind.....I signed up to share about knitting at next week's little church get-together that they're holding this year instead of Advent services. I've got to try and figure out how much of the yarn stash I can take to show without scaring people. Hmmm.....much sorting will need to be done. I'll have to dig though the closet and find all of my stuff I've knitted and actually kept. Not to mention that I'll have to make sure all of my knitted socks are clean. Good thing I'm off this weekend and then only work Monday so I'll be able to get it organized.

Back to socks and The Da Vinci Code. See everyone at Touche.

It's cookie time! Yeah...it's cookie time!

And when cookie time comes can cookies be far away!

Mom and I are working on Christmas cookies today. We've got kringla and spritz so far. Peanut blossums are being stirred up as we speak. The house smells like what you might expect Mrs. Claus' kitchen to smell like.

The bad of it is that we've already burned a couple pans of spritz, I've still got at least two more pans of kringla to roll out, and there's at least two more kinds of cookies we're planning to make tonight that we haven't even started mixing up yet. Plus my hands are all dried out from the flour and washing, and doing dishes.

But now we're taking a break before we start the last kind. We're going to sit down, drink a pop, watch a movie, and maybe knit.