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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.

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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.

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Things Wot I’ve Been Working On

So, here is what I am working on for now:

Berry Nice Socks Malvina's Birthday Socks

I am ready to turn the heel on the orange socks and will soon be done with those. They are pretty intensely orange, I have to say.

I have already turned my mind to my next sock project, and I am thinking of doing Popsicle. (rav link) I got some really fantastic green yarn from the Loopy Ewe and think it will do nicely with that pattern. I also want to get started on a pair of socks for my sister Abby, which are part of a trade – I once mentioned that it would be nice to have a quilt in “all the colors of the ocean!” which then prompted her to, um, start making me one, so I said I would knit her five pairs of socks in return. Now she is almost done with the quilt and I have made her one pair of socks.

Since she’s allergic to latex and can’t use elastic, she pretty much only wears handmade socks. My mom has been chugging out the socks like a machine, but I am a little more willy nilly about the whole thing. Abby wants some leaves socks, and I will be tired of the Embossed Leaves pattern when I’m done with Malvina’s safety cone orange socks, but I was thinking the new leaf pattern in the new Knitty would be nice. I have some Shibui in the wasabi color that might be cool. I also have thirty other greens that would be cool too. heh. And I still need to use some of the Dream in Color Smooshy I bought! (And 75 other skeins of yarn but whatever).

Pendants

It also occurs to me that I could make some jewelry with the above pendants, but man, I am not feeling the jewelry mojo. I’m sure it will come to a shock to none that those pendants represent but a small portion of my ultimate collection. Hahaha! I am a collector apparently.

I’m tired. Don’t forget to watch the Heroes premiere tonight!