Things I Have You Wish You Did

This whole weather change and lack of daylight and general crankiness has really got me out of sorts this week. Luckily, I have this awesome custom-handmade quilt to get me through seasonal affective disorder:

quilty goodness

You will notice how I am strategically holding the quilt upwards so as to hide the crap heap that is my room. I have a lot of clothes/yarn/jewelry/books/magazines/lamps. And you don’t need to see that. And pretend I washed my face.

Now: to finish the Lizzy socks (ten more toe rows), start some laundry, and decide what socks to knit the sibling for this most fabulous quilt. (Probably blue.)

What Goes Around

So, that anticlimactic sound you hear is me paying off my credit cards.

Two years and $9000 later, I am free of credit card debt! Woo hoo! Honestly, I am not even sure what I bought, other than some furniture for the apartment, which amounted to about $1000. What I bought with the rest? Anybody’s guess.

I definitely learned my lesson, too. Never buy what you can’t afford to pay back. Don’t live outside your means. Just because you want it, doesn’t mean you need it.

And so on and so forth.

I’m knitting on socks:

Lizzy Socks

These are Lizzy socks by Stephanie van der Linden (rav link). I am knitting them out of Socks That Rock lightweight in the Sapphire colorway. Even though STR is not my favorite yarn as it felts/fuzzes up like a mofo, it certainly comes in awesome colors, and I had this in my stash, already wound and ready to go. The second sock is actually a lot farther along – I’ve turned the heel and have completed the first motif on the instep.

The next socks in the queue will be for my sister.  She finished my quilt that she’s been working on for 1.5 years, and I owe her! She decided on her own to make me the quilt when I said, jokingly, that I would love a handmade quilt in “all the colors of the ocean” and the next thing I knew, she had bought fabric and was going at it gangbusters. I didn’t think that was extremely fair for me to get a free, awesome quilt, so I said I’d make her some socks/small items in exchange. She wants some leaf socks, so I’ll make her a pair of those, and I also want to make her some fun fair isle mittens.

Put A Spork In It

…’Cause it’s done, yo.

Malvina's Embossed Leaves

Yes, I have finished another pair of socks! In about a month, which isn’t too bad lately. These are Malvina’s birthday socks.

Pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt from Interweave’s Favorite Socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill in an uber TANGERINE
Mods: various. I hate how the star toe feels (though aesthetically it works better on this pattern) and I love grafting, so I put in a regular French toe, and a regular stockinette heel, and a regular long-tail cast-on.
Oh, and I started the second sock a half-repeat down so the pattern would mirror-image itself. *is a matchy-matchy nerd*

I would up liking the yarn after all.  It works up nicely and let’s face it, the color is great. I am not sure how it is going to wear, and I am not sure how Malvina is going to feel when I tell her to handwash these socks, but whatevs. I still need to give ’em a soak, but I broke the sink plug the other day so it will have to wait. Uncle Evan is coming over tomorrow morning to fix it.

P.S. Malvina your socks are done.