So I've been thinking....

As I was walking around Wally World in my work-induced sleep-deprived state this morning, I realized that I was going to be bringing home even more plastic bags. I've been planning on making some bags to carry with me to the store but I've just never gotten around to it. Just then, I happened to wander by the craft/fabric area and on one of the end shelved was the big cones of kitchen cotton. For a little over $6 each. Hmmm....

I bought two cones. Because sometimes when I go grocery shopping, I buy a lot of stuff.

That means tonight will be devoted to my second Monkey sock in STR Seastone and to starting the first of what will hopefully be many reusable shopping bags.

Two down!

Two patterns have been written, one has been sent out to the test knitters. I haven't sent the other one simply because I'm waiting on a couple of people to get a free account on the system I'm using. I'm lazy and don't want to do attachments to emails.

Now it's time for a little food/knitting/movie break, then I try to bust out the third one....or at least get a start on it.

And can I just rant a little? Don't companies have people testknit their stitch patterns? I'm using about 17 different stitch pattern books and liked the looks of one picture better than another. Then as I was writing it out, I thought it looked funky so I pulled out the needles to knit a swatch. Sure enough, instead of the little motifs I was looking for, I got zigszags of eyelets. Went to the book with the picture of a similar pattern that I didn't like as well. That one came out with the motifs the way I wanted them. What the heck?!? Needless to say, I used the second one because I just wasn't in the mood to rewrite a stitch pattern that should have been correct in the first place.

Now I'm done.

It's here!!!

The first shipment for the RSC '08 came in the mail yesterday. Of course since I didn't get out of bed until almost 9 last night, I didn't see it was here until even later. It's really not my colors, but the pattern looks neat and it's top-down so my yarn is already wound into a ball and I'm getting ready to cast on.

I also spent a couple of hours working on the secret project. I've still got a few stitch patterns I need to find and then tonight I'll buckle down and try to write out at least two of them, maybe three and get them sent out to the test knitters. Now if I could just get the charting software to load onto my computer.

Off to snuggle the puppy and spend some quality time knitting.

a night of rest

....and getting rid of the housework looming over my head.

Work is slowing down a little...thank goodness. I just think that a lot of my stressing out over work has been from lack of sleep. I was able to get some good rest on Monday and again yesterday. I'll be in to work tonight, then it's three glorious days off.

I dashed off a quick crochet bath pouf tonight, just to give my hands something to do. I also finished the laundry (so I had a uniform to wear tonight), vacuumed the house, and washed the dishes. Now I just need to find time this weekend to pick up all the general clutter around the house and do a little dusting. Yes....I said the D word. I despise dusting, but when the dust bunnies begin to morph into dust buffalo, then it's time to break out the dust rags and pledge.

And since I finished Mom's socks, I don't know what my next pair will be. I'm kind of waiting for the first kit of the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club to arrive. If it's something that I really like, I want to be able to cast-on right away. I can hear you all now, telling me that I can have more than one pair of socks on the needles at a time. I tried that once and it didn't really work. I hit a point where I got sick of both of them and just didn't knit on either one for about 3 months. So one sock project at a time. That's fine with me. I need to get going on stuff for the finish-a-long anyways.

Tonight I also finished re-writes on the second pattern for my secret project. This weekend I'm setting a goal of writing up three more to get out to the test knitters. More if possible.

A couple days ago I signed up for the Mystic Lights shawl KAL. It won't be starting for a while, but it's knit in fingering weight yarn. So now I need to decide what to make it out of. I'm leaning toward STR in the Oregon Red Clover Honey colorway. I'm thinking that it'll be a warm enough yellow that I won't look jaundiced if I try to wear it. I'll have to look at E's skein of it when I'm out there on Friday.

I guess that's it for now. I need to go try to get warm. My feet are freezing!!! (Even with wool socks and felted slippers.)

drat!

I forgot about the 4 skeins of sock yarn from my Taste of Germany package. And the two skeins of handspun hanging up in the bathroom. So the total actually should have been 124. Oops!

But I did cull 33 pairs worth from the stash.

So that leaves me with a current stash total of 91. Still pretty bad, but not as bad as before. I'll be going through the stash again next month I think and try to whittle that number down a little more.

Off to work on that second Monkey sock.

coming up for air

I survived the stash diving!! But now I'm in a state of shock. Here's why.



118 skeins.
.....one hundred....eighteen....
*gulp*
(Phoebe the wonderdog included for scale.)

So I went through and culled the stash a bit. Thirty-five or so skeins gone.



Mom called just as I finished and laid claim to 10 of them. The rest will be gifted/given/traded/sold away.

And now I'm going to bed.

diving in

I've got to finish up the final load of laundry, then I'm really going to do it.

Do what you ask?

Go through my sock yarn stash that has gotten completely out of control. There will be pictures.

E, Minnie, Tara, Deawn.....if I'm not at SnB tonight....send help!!!

I made it!!!

I survived the conference and all the traveling that I've been doing for the past week. I am now safely ensconced at my parents' house and a lot has happened this week. How about a list? I like lists.

1. Got all the Greensburg squares sewn into strips last week while I was home dropping the pooch off with my parents. Told Mom that she'd need to work on sewing some of the strips together while I was gone since it had to be mailed Nov. 1. Got back last night and Mom had been busy over the weekend and first part of this week, so they're still in strips. I started sewing them together today.

2. Completed the RPM sock #1 in STR mediumweight Chanticleer.

3. Finished the Johnny Cash/June Carter chevron scarf while I was at the nursing conference this week. Pictures once it's blocked.

4. Worked on my Cherie Amour at the nursing conference as well. I'm starting in on the neckline decreases. Saw at least 3 other knitters at the conference and talked to two of them. The third one escaped before I could ask her what the fuzzy white thing on her needles was.

5. Found a yarn shop in Rochester and got a couple skeins of sock yarn (don't look at me like that Minnie!!!)

6. Got to knit at Tires Plus while the starter on my boss's car was replaces after it died in the St' Mary's parking garage and we had to be towed.

7. Got my hair colored and cut today. I'm now blond and have bangs!!!

8. Dad called and he got 2 pheasants today. After not getting any the last two times he's been hunting, this is a big thing. He called and was very pleased with Cozy. I'll get a picture of them with their birds tonight.

Tonight is going to be knitting, sewing together the afghan and going to see Fiddler on the Roof.

Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's.....

Super Monkey sock!!!


I hurried into the backyard to get a better view and what do I see? A pair of Super Monkeys!!!


This was Cookie A's Monkey pattern from knitty.com. These were done in Cider Moon Icicle in the Superman colorway. And the sky was too perfect not to take advantage of cheeseball pictures. Yep....got some weird looks from the neighbors too as I was lying on my back on the ground and trying to take pictures of my feet up in the air. Oh well. They already think I'm weird. May as well perpetuate the myth.

I survived!

And do I have pictures to show you!

First up is a picture of Toffee, my mom's toy poodle. Eliza seems to think that my dog has what she refers to as Einstein hair. So I took this picture of Toffee to show her that Phoebe's hair is nothing compared to Toffee's. Look at that fro! It's as big as the rest of her head!


I did manage to make it down to Wichita to see the Yarn Harlot. I did it all on my own without anyone with me and no one ended up dead because of my lack of sleep. We can thank Starbucks for that. I was about 10 minutes late, so I missed the start of the talk. But that's okay. It was funny and entertaining and just so refreshing to be in an auditorium full of people who were all knitting and weren't being looked at funny for doing so. I managed to finish the hat to donate to the local charity while I was listening.

Here's Stephanie at the end of her talk, demonstrating Irish cottage knitting.


I took other pictures while she was talking, but they all came out blurry because of the low light in the auditorium.

Once the talk was over, we were told that we'd be lined up in the order of the number on our ticket. Since I was about the last person to come in, I was number 226. Went out to the car to retrieve my Monkey sock, then came back in and sat down. Maybe 20 minutes into sitting, these two shady characters came up and introduced themselves.


That's Beth and Kristin, a couple of Lime & Violet listeners. It was great how they came up and said, "You don't know us, but we know you from um....uh....umm...." Once the uhs started, I knew what they were talking about. "You mean the sweater puppies picture, right?" "Yeah, but I didn't want to say that." Good to know that I'm being recognized by my chest now. "No! I recognized you from your face!" It was a good laugh, but I'm not sure being recognized for my face from that picture was a compliment or not....it wasn't the greatest picture of me. So we got to chat for a while before they went up to get in line.

I kept knitting until there were only about 10 of us left, then got into line. All of a sudden I heard someone ask if there was anyone else who had knit for the Rebuilding Greensburg project. I waved at the lady and she came back. It turned out to be Laura who was behind the whole Greensburg squares project. We chatted for a bit and then the line moved forward.


Introduced myself to the Harlot and she signed my books, then I gave her the bag from LnV. If you haven't seen her entry from Wichita, head over to her blog and you can see the squirrel in all its glory. Here's her reaction on first seeing it.


She just cracked up. When she finally recovered, she told me that in all the touring she's done, no one had ever given her a squirrel. Then she asked me if I was Lime or Violet. I told her neither, that I was filling in for one of the girls while they took a break they summer. Then it dawned on her, and she goes "You're that Carin!?!" It was all I could do not to do a happy dance!!! The Yarn Harlot knows me!!!! I was able to contain myself, and just grin and say "Yup, that's me." She giggled over the squirrel, the ransom note he held, and oohed over the yarn that was in the bag too.

Then I left and went to check out Twist, a new yarn shop in Wichita. It was very nice, but I was getting really tired (awake 30+ hours at this point) so I bought some laceweight yarn and headed out. I managed to make it back to Salina before I started to poop out, so I got a hotel and spent the night. Took off Monday morning and made it back to Omaha by noon.

And that's the whole story!

Phoebe ate a camel

Or she tried to tonight out at Eliza's. There was this big box of camel fiber in the studio and Pheebes made a beeline for it, went up on her hind paws, and stuck her head as far down into the box as she could reach. It was pretty entertaining to watch until she got some in her mouth and wouldn't open up for me to pull it out. I got most of it out, but let's just say she got some extra fiber in her diet tonight. I'm hoping there's no bungee poo in the next couple of days.

I'm still working on the SSP, the second Super Monkey sock, and the green blanket. Eliza guilt-tripped me into starting on a sweater soon so that I can order some of the heathered sportweight from Sarah's Yarns for a Dale sweater.

MS3 is going to meet it end very soon. I've decided that I'm not going to finish it (or work on it) in the near future, so it will be off the needles by the weekend.

And I've decided that spinning needs to commence in the very near future. I realized that I haven't spun since I was in Des Moines in June. This must be remedied immediately. Especially since I've got four more Sock Hop rovings coming to me very soon. In fact I think I'm going to go start some laundry so I can have a clean uniform to wear tomorrow, then spin while I watch Ghost Hunters and Dinner: Impossible.

Fawkes #1

And close-up of the stitch pattern.


It's in STR lightweight in Firebird, the June RSC yarn.

completed!

I just finished the first sock of Fawkes in the RSC June colorway of Firebird. This yarn was completely suited for the pattern. Pictures tonight sometime.....after I watch Dog the Bounty Hunter, sleep, wake-up, and mow down the forest that is currently residing on my legs.

an update

Well, at least it was a quiet weekend at work. It was also the last weekend that I got to have my nursing student with me. He did a great job and really got to learn a lot. And gave me time to knit at work. *wink wink*

That's how I managed to make so much knitting progress this weekend. Normally, when I have a work weekend, my knitting time drops off to nothing. But including the time I've spent knitting tonight, I'm already past the heel gusset of the Fawkes sock that I cast on last Thursday.

I also got my big Knitpicks order in the mail over the weekend. I ordered some of the single pockets for my options set, a book that Mom wanted, Knit Kimono for me, and 44 balls of Wool of the Andes to make an afghan for a co-worker. That's right 44 balls. And I spent over an hour tonight just winding them into cakes. They're all stacked into a box right now so all that's left is to cast on. I'm planning on using them to make the Ombre Alpaca Blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but in greens. I got (from darkest to lightest) Evergreen, Grass, Fern, Asparagus, Avocado, and Cloud. Think it should be pretty, but I'll have to resist the siren song of the socks and chevron scarf in order to get this done by October. At least now I can stop feeling guilty about the Colorful Waves afghan (another knitpicks creation) that I had started last fall as a wedding present. I've got this instead and at least this will be easy tv knitting.

Bellatrix

My Bellatrix socks are done and I got a picture of them once I got back from Eliza's late last night. Here they are.

Des Moines yarn crawl...a review

Saturday morning....

Knitted Together
Nice store. Good basic yarn selections. Dale, Dream in Color, a wall of Cascade 220, plenty of sock yarn. The lady working there was really nice, even when the internet (and therefore her credit/debit card scanning ability) went down just as we were checking out. I got some Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in Dusky Aurora, some Dale Svale and Stork for a co-worker with wool allergies, Opal Rainforest in Peacock, and a Lexie Barnes bag in Baja.

Purls, the Yarn Studio (no link)
Smaller store. Very nice help. Selection of Blue Sky Alpaca yarns (including the cotton), Yarn Love sock yarns, some handspun stuff and I know there was more, but I can't think of it right now. I came away with enough Blue Sky organic cotton in Shrimp to make a hooded pullover sweater (got the pattern too), and a skein of Yarn Love's Joan of Arc (merino/tencel sock yarn) in Bliss. Then I got into a little tug-of-war with Cheryl over a Jordana Paige bag. She conceded and I walked away with it.

Creative Corner
AKA the big pink house. In Valley Junction. A smaller knitting selection, but they also carry needlepoint, embroidery, and cross-stitching stuff. I ended up with Louet Gems (both sport and fingering). The sport is a deep burgundy and the fingering is a lavender-grey.

And that's the end of the damage! If you want to hear more of it, check the Lime & Violet blog in the next couple of days. I just helped record a new podcast tonight, so it should be live in the next day or so.

Life is good...

It's been a pretty decent weekend overall.

Friday started off with 2 hours of sleep after working all night, then driving to Des Moines. Mom and I got checked into our motel room, then met up with Cheryl and her knitting group at Borders for their knit night. I spent most of the time spinning up some more CMF roving in I Got You Babe and bought Spin to Knit. Back to the motel by 11 or so.

Saturday, Mom and I met Cheryl at Knitted Together and started our yarn crawl. We hit Knitted Together, Purls the Yarn Studio, and Creative Corner. No bad experiences and I came away with more yarn than I needed too (again) and two new knitting bags.

Then we headed across Des Moines to the surprise party for my Aunt Sandy's 60th birthday. She was shocked and spent the first half hour crying since she had no clue what was going on. Knitting happened while we were there and I've got a very interesting tan line thanks to sitting in the sun a little too long while I was knitting.

Drove back Saturday night and then took naps today so I'll be able to work tomorrow and Tuesday. My church's slow-pitch softball team won our second game of the season (just don't ask how many we've lost) and a group of us went out to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream afterwards.

Life is good.

Here they are

The pictures I promised.



First is one that I'd even forgotten was on the camera. Deawn had found these Hello Kitty keychains and made dpn holders out of them. Here she is doing her best Barker's Beauties impression.





Next up are some of the squares I've knit for Project Greensburg that I linked a few posts ago.





And now for the backyard. There are a lot of pictures folks. You've been warned.



We'll start off with pre-sod removal. All that green you see that's not within 3 feet of the fence? Yeah....that would be mutant dandelions and thistles and some yet unidentified weed. Oh yeah....and my garden. All the green stuff in the rocks by the house? More weeds.













Now for the post-sod removal pics. This took three guys the better part of a day to do by hand. My yard was a barren wasteland, but it was a great improvement from the weeds.













And the note from the head landscaper guy....too late since they'd already pulled up the grass that was under the deck, so now I've got a mudpit underthere. I'm foreseeing some tilework in my near future. It says "No Sod Under Deck" in case you can't make it out.





Finally, the almost completely backyard. This is the sight that greeted me when I got home from work Friday morning. Evidently, they underestimated how much sod it would take to cover my whole backyard and they left me with this blank patch until Monday.





The yard is now complete and I'm watering the heck out of it. I've got one of those sprinkler tractors that moves itself, so that's nice. The landscape people said that for the first two weeks at least, I need to keep the backyard "squishy". Their word, not mine. Well, it's squishy.....I'm almost scared to see what my water bill is going to be.



And I forgot to tell my funny story. I tried to kill a fellow nurse with wool. Barb, my co-worker that taught to knit socks, had finished her first pair in Opal Rainforest Caterpillar. She was so excited that she put the socks on, then started winding her next skein into a ball. Harley (her overweight cat) got so excited by the sight of so much string that he pounced on it and made a royal mess. Barb gave up and went to bed, still wearing her new wool socks. The next day, her legs were covered with welts and bruises. Turns out that she's got a wool allergy. So she greeted me at work with "You tried to kill me. Thanks." Oops! But I've got her hooked on knitting, so I'm trying to find yarns she can work with. She can't use anything with elastic in it either (latex allergy), so she may have to switch off of socks. I'm going to buy her a copy of No Sheep for You. She gave me the tangled skein of CTH and another whole skein and just told me to call it a teaching fee. I'll probaby spend all night tonight finishing untangling.

lots of pics!!

I don't know why I've been saving these up on my camera. Maybe I'm just getting lazy with the pictures.



First up is the ripple afghan out of Red Heart that I wrote about a few posts ago. RIPPP!!!!





Here's the bloody end. All of this got donated to my church's VBS along with other various skeins of stuff I'll never use.





And now this....last week I mowed my lawn. Then Phoebe wanted to go outside at 2 am. Pretty normal. Until she came in and I didn't have a white dog anymore.



Those are green paws people....green! My poor little tie-dyed dog. First she has a blue spot on her side from Miss V dripping dye on her, then her paws get tinged green from the cut grass. But she's white again after a much-needed bath.



Then comes the finished Jonagold roving. I haven't been able to find anymore of this. It's BMFA 50/50 merino/tencel in Jonagold. I ended up with about 550 yards of 2-ply. This is the stuff I managed to ply in the same direction I had spun the singles. But it came out okay!





And here's an indoor shot a little truer to color.





Finally. A shot of the Borg Queen Jaywalker. I'm calling these my One Mind, One Voice socks. What's more appropriate for the Borg than socks that pretty much every sock knitter on the planet has made?





I think that's it for now! I'm meeting k2p2 (Cheryl) from the LnV messageboards and some of her friends at Personal Threads in the morning, so maybe I should get some sleep. But I think I'll spin a little first.

No go for launch

Well, I got an email back from Blue Moon and was basically shot down. According to the lady who emailed me, they don't have any Sheep-2-Shoe kits and aren't offering any roving right now. Hmmm....then why did I just see over on Cookie A's blog that they're spinning up Sheep-2-Shoe kits?!? Very interesting.

I did manage to save the Jonagold roving. It's kind of lifeless right now, but it's not overtwisted at least.

I started my One Mind, One Voice Jaywalkers out of the Borg Queen sock yarn Miss Violet dyed up. I'm loving it. I showed the yarn to my pastor last night and once I explained it, he laughed. He actually talked about the Borg in his sermon on Sunday. I'm so glad I have a pastor who's a sci-fi geek!

Started spinning the Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop fiber I got around Christmas time. Decided to start with My Boyfriend's Back. Gorgeous!! If I wouldn't have been hosting a couple of college girls at my house last night (they're part a touring bell choir), I so would have been on my computer and ordering more.

And finally....I might get another puppy. I heard on the news this morning that the Humane Society had raided a puppy mill and rescued over 150 puppies overnight. They're letting people adopt them starting Sunday and they're only asking half their normal donation for them. I'm seriously debating.

Off to bed!!