wips – Page 2 – Behind the Smile

April 25, 2010June 24, 2010

Heating Up

It’s kind of hot today so I’m hiding in my dark house with only the glow of the computer monitor lighting the room. I don’t want to turn the A/C on yet!! I plugged in the big fan in the den where it was helping me enjoy the latest episode of “What Would Brian Boitano Make?” (lots of cheese related items, apparently.)

This has been a nice relaxing weekend except for the moment of “OH CRAP” when I was at Walmart buying cake pans and paper goods when my debit card was not in my wallet… but then I remembered where I put it and whipped out the abused USAA card to complete my purchase. Didn’t want to charge it, but whatever. Best that I was prepared! 😛

Incidentally, the cake pans I got, which I needed to replace the old ones that are suspiciously rusty, worked out really great, and I say this about Walmart brand cake pans. I’ve actually been pretty pleased with that cheap-tastic brand. I wound up making a Devil’s Food cake with them that turned out pretty much perfect in terms of getting out of the pans all right. I think I may have over mixed the batter because the cake was more light and fluffy than I care for. However it was eaten up by Malvina and Sam and I brought over a big piece for my dad today.

I’m getting geared up for the Milwaukee trip that is happening in like ten days. It snuck up on me! I first posted about Milwaukee back in February, and since then 2010 has been one big awful blur. So it’s nice that there is an inevitable-already-paid-for trip on my horizon! The only thing that is going to be tough is that I will be on Jason duty while my parents are gone (being that I am not retired or a business owner I am not participating in the road-trip portion of this trip and instead am flying out with Abby to rendezvous with the rest the fam in Chicago). This will entail me going there before work and making sure he has taken his pills and is fairly lucid. Sigh.

I also have another dentist appointment this week, a continuation of the Epic Dental Saga In Which I Have Yet Another Cavity Drilled Upon. I would have rescheduled it but decided to suck it up and go because I’m going to have to go at some point, so.

I definitely feel whiney about it, though.

SO WHAT I HAVE BEEN KNITTING ON? I’m glad you asked.

I finished one of the Laeticia socks and it totes doesn’t fit.

I hope it fits Abby because I liked making it and I still owe her a couple pairs of socks so it would be a nice addition to her collection, plus it looks like falling leaves which I know she wanted. As I was making it I was kind of thinking of this pair being one of hers anyway (seriously, it’s not an “oh it doesn’t fit me so I’ll just give it to Abby” sort of situation).

It has a handsome gusset:

So, with that sock finished I ADD’d over to a sock from the new Wendy Knits book, Toe-up Socks for Every Body and cast on with some Knit Picks Essential in a long discontinued color (which is why I’m saying Essential and not Stroll). This pattern is the Cables and Diamonds pattern for an obvious reason:

Considering I taught myself how to do toe-up socks long before I learned cuff down, I find it humorous that I’m not sold on them anymore. I just love a top down gusset!! But I decided that I should learn how to do a gusset from the toe-up (rather than a short row heel) and so far it’s pretty interesting. I’m curious about how it will look (supposedly identical to a top-down gusset) once I’m done. It’s a new technique for me, so I hope it works!

It’ll be nice to have some socks out of the Essential for myself finally. It’s my go-to yarn for Malvina’s socks because it’s hard wearing and she likes it because it’s soft. I like it because it’s nice to knit with and also dirt dirt cheap, hah. Abby also likes it and the Monkey socks I made for her forever ago still look really good, she says.

Anyway, so that’s what I’m working on right this second in my ADD knitting life.

April 10, 2010June 24, 2010

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

So anyway, the week before my life completely fell apart through no fault of my own, in a fit of fiscal irresponsibility (which always precedes terrible things in my life, so maybe THAT is a sign, :P) I ordered a bunch of the new Knitpicks Stroll Tonal sock yarn skeins. Like, a bunch. They have great colors in this new line, and they’re so cheap! *is weak*

Here’s what I got:

The colors are actually pretty accurate, considering I took these pictures on a cloudy day at 6 pm with flash. And I like most of them… but not the purple one. It’s too gray for me. I’m debating if I want to return it and get the darker purple. The yellow is a great butter yellow and I got that one for my mom, who was super stoked to receive it. (“That’s the last time this is going to happen for awhile, huh?” she joked, referencing the Jobpocalypse. :P)

The brown actually perfectly matches a skein of Dream in Color Classy I have to make a hat with. I was hoping that would be the case. The green is more green than pictured here, and the red has more variation. Red is a tough color for my camera unless it’s got strong natural light and no flash. But for the most part I’m pretty pleased with these yarns and look forward to using them. The yardage is generous as well at 464 yards; that’s more than enough for a nicely sized shawlette.

When I last talked about my current projects I mentioned that I was working on a couple socks and since then the sock WIPs have exploded. I even finished a sock:

This is the Papaver sock from Knitspot. It’s one of those great patterns that basically knits itself. It’s a sixteen row repeat, which has four rows of plain, four rows of pattern, four rows of plain, four rows of pattern. So just when you are getting bored with one thing, a new thing starts. Very cool! This pattern would look fabulous with all sorts of colors, and I wouldn’t be averse to knitting it again. I’m currently knitting it in Rio De La Plata merino sock in the “raspberry” colorway, and it’s great yarn to knit with. I don’t know that this company still makes yarn. I looked at Ravelry to see, and it looks like maybe this is still available but their other lines are not. I got this at my LYS two years ago for my birthday, so this is “birthday yarn”, heh. It’s now past the heel and over a couple of repeats till the toe.

The next project is one that I have meant to make for a long time. It’s the bluebell rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks in (I think) Dye Dreams sock in the “Peeps” colorway. I looked a long time for the perfect yellow and finally found it sometime last year (I think at the Loopy Ewe).

I have nothing in particular to report about this yarn. I like it. But then, I like most yarns.

My work BFF Amy stopped by yesterday to pick up some earrings I made for her to wear when she elopes this weekend and I don’t think she’d been at the house since I painted and put the Expedit full of yarn up. And she said, “Holy shit! You could knit a whole wardrobe!”

And I said, “Yep,” rather smugly.

March 14, 2010June 24, 2010

Sharks, Target, Knitting

This weekend was spent in abject lazypants-ness which has been fairly nice. Yesterday was “Big Animals Like Sharks And Crocodiles Killing People And Causing Mayhem” day on the SyFy channel, which I full up appreciated. There ain’t nothin’ like a little bit of shark/crocodile chomping action to help your coffee go down smooth.

Oh, one thing that cracked me up was on Dinoshark, where the main lady person was looking up ancient sharks on the internet and found the one that had been terrorizing the Mexican resort town in which the movie takes place. She calls the main dude to tell him this, then gets off the phone, backs away from the laptop and takes off her shirt. Aaaand: scene change! She apparently just felt like ripping her shirt off for no particular reason beyond the obvious.

Whut.

Oh B movies, you are terrible!

Despite all that, it actually was one of the better SyFy made-for-TV movies, but that is not saying much.

Today I went to Target to buy lightbulbs because my porch light is always going out (I always leave it on) and it takes a specialized type of curvy bulb that I accidentally broke the last two of a few weeks ago, while rifling around in the light bulb cupboard (I forget what I was doing). While I was at Target I noticed that today was the day that the Liberty of London stuff arrived.

I like the bold patterns. They had a lot of stuff at this Target which is just a regular Target. But they didn’t have any bed linens that I could find. I would have impulsively and stupidly bought bed linens, so they were totally off the mark as far as targeting my consumption. They did have a duvet set, but honey, I’ve got duvets.

I did like some of their kitchen stuff and I would love to have the big peacock feather patterned pillow to brighten up my futon couch, but I’m not paying $20 for a pillow. So I opted for the $5 peacock feather mug:

I liked the other patterns on the mugs as well, but I totally already have mugs and try to limit my mug acquisitions to ones that I think are really really awesome like my knitted texture mug from sbux.

The rest of the Liberty of London stuff was pretty nice. The clothes were cute but I was disappointed that they were for the most part made out of horrible chiffon/rayon blends which make my skin feel like it is burning off when it touches me. Nice! There were a couple of cotton things but not in the – you guessed it – peacock feather pattern.

ANYWAY besides watching sharks eat people and buying light bulbs and unnecessary mugs, I did work on a couple things this weekend:

This is the French Quarter Sock from Knitspot. Oh how I adore Anne Hanson’s patterns! I am knitting this out of Knitpicks Gloss in the Kenai colorway and I like it a lot. However it might be too soft for cable work. I’m not totally sold on its stitch definition. Other than that, though, it’s a win as fair as sock yarn is concerned. OH BTW do you see the tiny tiny circular needle up in there? It’s a 9″ Hiya Hiya that I got last weekend at the Yarn Boutique. I think I really like the tiny tiny circular, but not for cable work, so I might switch back to DPNs. However, I think for whipping out a plain sock they will be awesome. You do have to rearrange the way you knit because you’re really knitting with the tips of your fingers.

And then the other thing I am working on is a plain jane sock out of some old Trekking XXL in #167 that I’ve had laying around for years.

I am going to try to finish these, I really am. Really. They are kind of boring, obviously, but won’t they be nice when they’re done? Argh. I think keeping the leg shortish (about 5 inches) will help.

I am also working on a cardigan but it is also boring and stockinetty. More on that later.