Avert your eyes if you're squemish!

I never did like these socks. Knit from Lorna's Laces, I wasn't ever happy with the fit. And I really didn't like the color pooling. But I was a relatively new sock knitter and didn't do anything about it.

Until today. I opened my drawer to pick out socks and these were staring at me. I try to rotate which socks I wear so I don't wear out a "favorite" before its time. But these don't get worn their fair share. So off with their toes! Err...something like that.

I figured they were LL to begin with. A good sturdy yarn. And while they had been worn, it wasn't that much. They unravelled rather well. A bit of fuzz, but even the heels and heel flap weren't a problem. I have the rewound skeins washed and hanging to dry. Not sure what they will become now. Jaywalkers? Monkeys? Lorna's Laces needs a pattern to break up the crazy color pooling.

Edited to add: squemish? squeamish? I ran spell check, and it said everything was correct. And neither spelling looks right, so who knows! Do you? Which is it? And it's totally cool that I got a comment from Lorna's Laces! How do they do that??? I mean, I have a tiny blog. How on earth was this post found in the vastness of cyberspace?

My Christmas post!

I had grand plans for these pictures to be posted on Christmas. That obviously never happened, but far be it from me to let perfectly good ice pictures go to waste! So what if it's been warmer than that ever since Christmas. You will not hear me complaining about the lack of ice on the roads. Maybe plenty of other things, but not the lack of ice!


Hope your holidays were merry - whatever holiday you celebrate. I don't know about you, but I have grand expectations for the new year.

Must Not Lose Focus

I received some bad news today. Nothing health related thankfully. But several months ago, I paid $1,700 to be told the direct opposite of what I was told today. What is not going to happen would have made my life much better. Finances would have been easier. Bills would have been paid and there was actually a plan of action in place.

Not any more. After several hours spent in a funk, I realized that I can not lose focus. I have to keep my eye on what is important. And on the bigger picture. Yes, it will be more difficult. And while the "plan" will not work the way I had pictured, it can still work. It will just take a longer time frame. Everything is still possible. Well, ok, I have to cancel a yarn club subscription.

Must Not Lose Focus.

And in the laugh for the day.....I read a headline (I didn't think I could read the whole article without tossing my cookies) that said Laura Bush and C. Rice do not think that G.W. is the worst president in history. Let's see here - I'm sure they are totally unbiased. One is married to him and one is employed by him. Riiight.

Christmas Stockings

A couple of months ago, I knit a Baby Surprise jacket for a newborn. It sorta still fits - his fat little tummy sticks out of the front, but the chest still fits. A new larger one may be in his future. But two weeks before Christmas and I realized this baby needed a stocking. I called my new local yarn shop and got a stocking "kit." I bought Annie's Woolens Snowman stocking pattern and some Cascade 220.

cue ominous music here The pattern is written for Bartlettyarns 2ply at a gauge of 4 spi. Cascade isn't as hefty as the Bartlett and won't ever get 4 spi and not be see thru. And the red bled like there was no tomorrow. Big disappointment.

But little twinkle lights as ideas pop I found a leftover skein of red Patons. And a free pattern from Cascade for a mix and match style stocking. Perfect! With warnings from Ravelry, I cast on more stitches and I am so very happy with this pattern. You do need to be careful though - on at least one of the graphs, the stitch repeat isn't correct. But this is flying off the needles and is so fun! Depending on internet connection issues, pictures will either be added into this post or put up later. I want to be sure to save this for later posting RIGHT NOW while I still have a good connection!

Koolhaas finished!

Finished! I can't even remember any more how many times I ripped. All my doing and not a single thing wrong with the pattern. And the decreases for the crown? Jared Flood is a genius.

So I'm trying to take advantage of the genius and I'm using the left over yarn to make fingerless mitts. The plan is to use Jared's pattern for the cuffs. I'm using a bit of the Dashing pattern and info from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns to come up with my numbers. I'll confess to living dangerously though - I just guesstimated the cast on number and went to town!



So far, so good. I'll let you know when I get back on-line.

I might be gone a couple of days!

This is what it looked like Thursday afternoon:



And Friday morning:




In case I lose internet, I think I'm going to try doing a couple of posts in advance. Might as well take advantage of the wireless while I have it!

Radical Knitter

Courtesy of Anne at Knitspot, you must go here I don't have tv - I miss so much!

Weather, Schmeather!

Last week's huge horrid ice storm missed my area thank goodness. I got a bit of ice that by the next morning was totally gone. I feel bad for the north that got hit so hard. And I realized that I have no idea where I would go if we lost power here - I don't have a back up heat source, so staying here sure isn't an option. Brrr....

Friday I met a friend at Panera for lunch and knitting - rather made up for not going Thur night. And then tonight I met up with a different group of knitters. Good thing there isn't ever a name quiz - I left knowing one more name then when I arrived.

But that is one of the very best things about Ravelry. I have spent all these years being the only knitter that I knew. And now I am making wonderful friends that I see on a semi-regular basis and it's just the best.

My Thur night B&N group is usually fairly quiet. Between five and eight of us are usually there. Now, there's chatter, but we're usually busy knitting away so the talk frequently takes a back seat to the concentration. Not tonight though! It may have had something to do with the fact that there was wine and snacks to get us through the too-close-to-Christmas knitting!

I met some people from Ravelry. Michelle and I drove up together. And that alone was an adventure! Thanks to the never ending PA road construction, it took 45 minutes to drive 10 miles. Then we managed to get lost - well, no not really lost. We just couldn't find where we were going. Stopped at a hotel to ask directions and we were so close they told us to park in their parking lot! I got to see Chris again. She has a brand new blog, so stop over and say hey! Met Eve who is absolutely gorgeous! Her picture on Ravelry really does not show what a very pretty woman she is. She seems to have just as much fun "collecting" yarn as she does knitting. And then there is Amber who is just as cute and nice as can be. Has an etsy store, two very young kids, brought the aforementioned wine and snacks, makes soap and some how finds time to knit! There were other wonderful people there and it will be a lot of fun getting to know everyone. Of course, Amber was the only one smart enough to bring a camera - I'll cross my fingers that I do better next time!

Thursday night knitting?

There is a local group of us that met because of Ravelry. We've been meeting weekly on Thur nights at our local Barnes & Noble. Not sure about this week though. This is my weather forecast:

Light Freezing Rain...Possibly Mixed With Sleet In Some Areas...Will Develop Over Northeast Pennsylvania Around Daybreak...Then Move Into The Western Catskills By Late Thursday Morning. The Freezing Rain Will Continue Through The Day...And Become Heavier Thursday Afternoon And Evening. Freezing Rain Is Likely To Change To Rain In The Lackawanna...Wyoming And Delaware Valley Areas On Thursday Afternoon. The Most Significant Icing Is Expected Over The Higher Terrain Of The Northern Poconos And Western Catskills...Especially Across The Heavily Traveled Interstate Corridors. A Half Inch Or More Of Ice Accretion Is Expected By Friday Morning In The Mountains...With Considerably Less In The Metropolitan Valleys.

Freezing Rain Will Change To Sleet And Snow Later Thursday Night...Before Ending As Snow Showers On Friday. Snow Accumulations At The End Of The Storm Of 1 To 5 Inches Are Possible.

Conditions Will Become Very Dangerous For Travel Throughout The Poconos And Western Catskills Thursday And Thursday Night. Trees And Power Lines Are Likely To Be Downed By Heavy Icing...And Gusty Winds. Prolonged Power Outages Are Possible.

Sounds like a good night to stay home!

Koolhaas 1.4

I think this is the fourth version of the same hat I have attempted to knit. Don't have a finished hat yet - but then, that seems to have been the theme of my knitting for about a month now.

v1 I managed to twist the cast on.
v2 I actually managed to knit correctly but it was too small (I'm using sport weight instead of worsted. only cast on 8 extra stitches)
v3 I have no idea what I did. No, I do know what I did. In this pattern, you are instructed to move the beginning stitch of the round twice. Somehow I didn't do that. Instead of the stitches travelling across the hat, it just made little diamonds in a straight row. Not the intention.
v4 is (so far) going well. I'm afraid to jinx it.

Audrey: Do you sleep with your brother? Do you know how sick and twisted that is?
Ellen: Well, I'm sleeping with your father. Don't be so dramatic.
(from Christmas Vacation of course)

Fixed the newel post!

One of the fun parts leading up to Christmas is rewatching all the great seasonal movies. Tonight I am watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. What a classic! There are so many wonderful lines. This link has a list of great quotes from the movie. I'm always impressed with Chevy Chase at this scene:

Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, fore-fleshing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is. Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?

It's almost as if he says it all in one breath!

Magic Yarn Ball Swap

In the NEPA ravelry group, we decided to do a Magic Yarn Ball swap. The idea is to wrap goodies into a yarn ball and as the person knits up the yarn, the presents are discovered. Bet you can see the flaw in that plan - I sure didn't wait to knit up the yarn! Look at all these goodies Chris (sadly blogless but busy with little ones) sent to me:

This was what the box looked like when I opened it up. Unwrapping the Magic ball revealed all this:

What a box full of goodies! And Chris even made the blue stitch markers on the big tag.

But I will admit the yarn has had its first ripping. The first project with the yarn was the One Day Beret. Got it about 95% finished before it met its demise. Not sure I should confess how much longer than one day it took me! I think I'll try a koolhaas

Meet George

I would like to introduce you to George. George does not belong to me, but is visiting for awhile. A friend believes it is her mission to bring all knitters into the spinning fold and has let George come play at my house for a bit! And those twisty knobby bits? Yep - my first spinning. I can't quite bring myself to call it yarn - but I was the spinner. And in an odd color note - while my hardwood floor does need refinishing that badly, the door is actually chocolate brown and not navy blue! Go figure.

Nighttime walks

I seem to have a bit of an upset stomach. Not the yucky kind, but the crampy kind. So at 8pm I decided to walk up to the post office. It's a "bit chilly" here - low 30's to high 20's, but thankfully I am a knitter! So while I am wearing a fleece coat, notice I am also wearing my warm knit hat and my Bird in Hand mittens. These mittens were knit for me last year in a No More Humdrum Mittens swap. The really fun part was that I knit the same pattern for my partner!