catch up

if you happen to get my feed (so sorry!) you might have noticed a flood of posts today. that's cuz they've been sitting around waiting for pictures and i decided to let them go without the pics. i still haven't taken the pics. once i do, i'll have a big pic post. how's that sound? for some reason it seems like a post isn't a post without pictures of some kind. if that's true, none of those count and you can't feel overwhelmed :)

sunday i was very encouraged to get some squares from people. *whew* i was worried i was the only one making them and there wouldn't be enough for even one blanket. looks like enough for one blanket at least, which is good. now i'll just have to hope that someone wants to help me seam them together saturday....

after finishing broadripple friday (i even grafted the toe and weaved in the ends! i'm such a good girl), i swatched all weekend for thuja. first a normal swatch to get the gauge i wanted, and then to test the stitch pattern. since the pattern is for worsted yarn and i'm using sock, it did look a bit different. i adapted the seed rib to have the same wide look as the original. and then i figured out all the math for the size and the repeats, and then i worked through 3 different toes. cuz, oh yeah, i'm knitting it toe up and with a short row heel. so basically it's a totally different sock, except the idea for the seed rib came from bobby whats-is-name (which i still give him credit for).

i ended up using a crocheted provisional cast on, because the other ones seemed to leave the stitches too loose. i hate having to go back to tighten stitches and stuff. after finishing the broadripple, there was still a decent amount of yarn left and i thought, darn i could have added a couple inches to the leg. so i figured going toe up will help me use up more yarn. those little bits of leftover yarn make me nuts. i don't want to throw them out, but usually can't find a practical use for them. argh.

so the thujas are on a roll, the pattern is easy and fast (so far - bet it'd be faster with worsted yarn). the socktoberfest is still moving along. today i got the yarn for the second mossgrid and woven towels, plus another set of US 1 dpns. goody goody. now i can cast on the second broadripple too. i figure if i work 3 days this week, i'll get the second broadripple and the thujas done.

for a special treat try this rosemary apple meatloaf. it's good stuff. very juicy with interesting flavors. i only used one apple, and some of the rosemary i grew this summer.

the other day i was leaving my web page while commenting somewhere (still diligently trying to delurk), and accidentally left out the "p" in blogspot, making it blogsot. hmmm....do you thin it's possible to get drunk on blogs? if i'm reading so many blogs i don't have time to post in my own, if i eagerly check every couple hours for new posts, would that be a blogsot? are you a blogsot?

tempt me not. . . .

o thou evil purveyor of out of print knitting books and coins and steins

this weekend chuck discovered ebay. he knew of it, but hadn't really looked on it. i was looking for myrna stahman's shawls and scarves (prompted by something i no longer remember on ravelry) which i found. while i was there i looked up aran knitting, the horribly expensive out of print book, cuz i would love to have it, and look for it if i happen to remember it. it doesn't happen often. this weekend, there was actually two of them for sale. unfortunately, chuck had just gotten a bonus from work. oh, the temptation.

while i dithered over spending so much money on a book (i mean, it cost like 30 bucks when it came out, how did the paper get to be worth so much? supply and demand, man, it's all supply and demand), chuck asked what else they sell on ebay. hello. is he on drugs? they sell everything. so we looked up some ship's chronometers and beer steins, both of which chuck loves for some unclear reason. now, chuck is an auction man through and through. i think he picked it up in arkansas. of course he had to place some bids. and then he started looking at coins, which he collects (cuz they're an Investment and Will Be Worth Something Some Day).

so.....by today, chuck had won 2 steins and some mercury dimes (never heard of 'em before). and i ended up with both books. ebay is a dangerous place. i am both elated and ashamed of the aran knitting. the final cost was still less then $200 but more than $150. ajajaj. the worst part was i did a brother tom. let me explain.

at church a while back we had a dessert auction to help fund the youth group. chuck, as i said, is an auction man. he likes to bid even if he's not going to buy. he likes to bid people up and watch them fall on their faces. we were sitting with our home teacher, brother tom. after watching the fun chuck was having, he decided to join in. him and chuck went back and forth for a bit and suddenly chuck stopped bidding. tom was dumbfounded, and ended up with a german chocolate cake.

so back to ebay. since chuck spoils me so much, and knows how much i wanted this book, he said i could bid. the lowest price i've seen it for is $200 on amazon, and i wasn't sure if i wanted it that bad. saturday morning the auction was ending, and i thought, i'll just bid a little. i was automatically bid up a couple times, which made me curious. how high had the person set their limit? the highest i would go was $175. i bid up to that, and was still outbid. by then i was really curious, and thought to myself, i'll go just 5 more dollars and that's final. seriously. $180 for a book? it was a big stretch but i was expecting to be outbid again. oops. i wasn't. so i am now the ashamed proud owner of aran knitting. not quite the same as german chocolate cake, but it'll last longer.

from the evils of ebay, dear lord, preserve us

EW

so today i was a health teacher, and got to knit show a movie all day. i don't know about you but i have very vague memories of health class, involving a little about vitamins, this guy asking how to not get pregnant (which let everyone knew he was sleeping with his girlfriend) and the movie of the lady giving birth.

guess what movie i showed today?

the fetal development/birth one. i felt so sorry for those kids (grades 7 & 8 - at least i was in 10th when i had to see it). lucky for me, the desk was facing the class on the same side as the tv, so i didn't actually have to see it again. *whew* every class went exactly the same. a little reaction when they talk about conception and show the sperm squiggling around, and maybe a little about the developing baby. the movie goes through the development by week, and ends with a little bit on labor. then the voice stops talking, and you can hear, from the baby's perspective, the mom breathing harder in labor. i don't think the kids noticed. cuz all of a sudden the baby literally pops out (and i'm studiously not looking and remembering 10th grade) and across the classroom everyone shuts up and has the most grossed out expressions you can imagine.

it was great.

one of the kids said he thought they should wait till they're older to show it. but i told him i didn't think the age difference helps any, cuz i didn't even want to see it. after the movie, all the girls were saying "i'm never having kids." maybe that's why they show them that movie.

anyway, while they were being grossed out, i finished a broadripple sock. whoo-hoo! guess i'm not such a slow knitter. it was just barely past the toe when i started the day. i'll post a pic of it once i take it.

i even had time left over before school finished, so i went over my clessidra. i was hesitating over the ankle because it looked enormous. comparing it to the finished broadripple (which fit like a glove) it looked even worse. so i tried it on and measured and figured that it was probably an inch too wide. so i frogged back to where the side cables join, and i'll reduce them down to the one cable. that ought to fix it. they fit ok when i tried them on, but i didn't want any extra material rubbing my feet in shoes.

i'm excited now to cast on the other broadripple. this socktoberfest thing is fun!

my ankles lost weight

yesterday i pulled out the broadripple sock to reacquaint myself with its problems. i swear the ankle was too tight. i swear, back in the spring, that there was something wrong with the fit in the ankle and heel. if it didn't have any problems why would i stop knitting? (problems and boredom are the only reasons i stop working on something) well, i tried it on and it fit perfectly. like it was tailored to me. like my math was fine, like my ankles weren't too fat. so the only conclusion i could come to was, either my ankles lost weight or my memory's wrong. ankles losing weight sounds way cooler.

so i'll be working on that sock this week while i mull over the clessidra gauge problem.

tonight, after hours with a needle, fjörgyn is absolutely, totally finished. yay!! i sewed a couple buttons on last night, and finished them off tonight. it looks good! once i get around to taking pics i'll post them. for thread i just used the yarn itself and wove it in really good, passed through the button twice. they seem sturdy enough, and that yarn practically felts on contact so i think they'll be ok. feels good to have everything done on it now, since it's all it's needed since springtime was buttons. now i can wear it and feel extra-cool cuz i made it myself! and give myself a pat on the back for finishing something!

at school today i got started on the broadripple again. knitting in school always brings an interesting amount of attention. surprisingly, no one says, man you must be a dork, you're knitting. a few kids either knit themselves or know someone that does, and say it's cool. a guy actually wanted to try knitting, but i didn't trust him. there was a girl who obviously wasn't sure what she thought of me knitting. they always ask what i'm knitting, and when i told her a sock, she asked "why would you knit socks?"

well, it was a duh moment for me. doesn't everyone know the benefits of knitted socks? i told her they were way more comfortable than store socks (a girl near her nodded enthusiastically, obviously she had personal experience with that), they're warm but not thick, sock knitting is fun, you can try out different patterns without making a huge sweater......about there i petered out. she still looked at me like i was nuts. *sigh* handmade socks rock! if only she knew.

fiddling

this weekend was great for snow, conference and knitting. it snowed for 3 days, but only worked its way up to real snowflakes yesterday (day 3). total accumulation was (maybe) 2 inches. back home in MA if it snowed for 3 days (o glorious blizzard) we'd have 4 feet or more. cuz we get real snowflakes there, not these dandruff flakes. *sigh*

clessidra got a lot of attention. i got to the bit in the pattern that says knit 4 inches to the top of the ankle, which should have been about 3 reps of the hourglass pattern. except i got through 1 rep, and tried it on. came exactly to the top of my ankle. hmmm. since i have big feet and long legs i didn't know what the heck was going on. until a rare thought struck me - what was my row gauge? yeah that. usually it doesn't matter. this time it did. so i knit less reps, and got through the heel - twice. the whole heel/ankle needs some fiddling to fit, just because of the gauge difference. augh. and here i though i'd be avoiding the math and fiddling with patterns.

so i'm still not sure if i'm satisfied, but by then i'd had enough of one project and needed to move on. i'll let it stew in the back of my brain until i figure out what i want to do. i figured 4+ hours of sock knitting was a good start to socktoberfest.

but - i finished the first moss grid towel!!hoo-ra!

started the other towel in a woven stitch pattern that chuck picked out. i'm liking it. too bad towels have to come in twos, cuz i'm not looking forward to the other moss grid one.

and the log cabin square is done (from mason-dixon knitting btw, forgot to mention that last time). i really like the technique. for this shelter project, somebody donated a huge bag of (horrible) acrylic yarn. there aren't very many colors in there to match, but i think i got a decent color combo for my log cabin square. but next time i think i'll plan out the color placement a little better, cuz i'm not sure about the green and yellow opposing each other. oh well.
the ill-fated knitting group met. it's living up to its name. i'm going to have to give it initials, just to avoid writing it out all the time. the IFKG. one person showed up thursday morning. she was reminding herself how to knit. it was fun, but only 1 other person to a meeting is not exactly encouraging. interestingly enough, none of the people wanting to learn came. hmmm....

my ravelry is slowly shaping up. i'm (sort of) doing good not spending too much time there. the hardest thing is getting pictures and specs of finished projects. a photo shoot in MA is already planned to get pics of gifted projects. ravelry has so much information gathered in one spot that it's easy to wander around and lose track of time.

a funny story to end with: i know i've become a mild sort of yarn snob, turning my nose up at acrylic. wool is queen or a cotton blend, although i'm still too poor to be a rowan or mohair addict (besides mohair is too furry for me i think). if i could afford it, i'd be a quviut junkie. but anyway. chuck has apparently been on enough LYS trips with me to become a mild snob himself, because when i got that bag of free yarn he said, "that's the yucky stuff isn't it?"

i was so proud of him.