Prayer for Rain

2007-12-06T15:49:00.001-05:00

Lately, originally uploaded by rahime.

Okay, I have some explaining to do. I'll start by posting the things I've been (not) working on since my last post. Right to left, you'll see: the Congo socks I claimed were done in October - and if you look closely, you'll see that they're still on the needles. Well, they're almost done - they just have to be bound off. And they've been sitting on my bedside table gathering dust for over a month.

Next to them is a sock out of Scarlet Fleece in 'popsicle,' which I'm just so not into lately and can't get myself to pick up. On the left, is Zeliha Abla's sock, which needs to be tried on her foot to check whether it's time to turn the heel. I haven't been to her house in about a month either.

Underneath it all is the back panel of a Bump maternity sweater from "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms." Yes, that's my excuse for not blogging for so long, but now that I'm in the second trimester I'm hard pressed to claim that morning sickness and fatigue are keeping me away from the computer. So... I promise to try and blog more... but honestly, there isn't much knitting going on here anyway. But I'll do my best.

Oops?

2007-10-27T13:56:00.000-04:00

Has it really been a month since I posted? Big Things are going on here, and I knew I was distracted (not just from blogging, but even from knitting) but I didn't realize it had been that long. I've still been peeking in at other people's blogs at least...
Anyway, the Autumn socks are done, finally.

As you can see, they ended up pooling a little, but with the way they're dyed it's not overwhelming, so I'm fine with it. I think, though, that they have a little bit of the Fleece Artist "two halves of the skein being noticeably darker or lighter" syndrome that I've seen others mention. The second sock, which is on the bottom in the picture, is definitely a bit darker than the first. That kept this pair from being the Best Socks Ever, but I still like them a lot.
The Congo socks are done too, but I'm holding them back in order to blackmail myself into posting again in a reasonable amount of time. I don't like being MIA from my own blog!

What is it about orange?

2007-09-29T23:24:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to citrusy colors lately, but I'm crazy about this Fleece Artist (Autumn). No pooling, no striping, just a subtle play of pretty colors. Yay!

Soon it'll be time to cast on some socks for someone else; on my list I've got my mother-in-law, Zeliha Abla #1, and Zeliha Abla #2 (abla means older sister, a common form of address for women older than you, but not so much older you can call them "auntie"). Zeliha Abla #1 is probably going to come first, just because I know which yarn I'm going to use for her:

Her kids say she likes blue, on the lighter side. I think it's going to be perfect...inshallah!

2007-09-27T12:14:00.000-04:00

Actually, I've already frogged the new sock - I made it too wide, and then it was pooling badly. Which means when I do restart it (um, I've cast on two completely different new socks since then) I'll have to do a short-row heel and not a heel flap - if I don't want the pooling, that is. And I've discovered that heel flaps fit me much, much better. Hmm, I wonder if this could be a sign that I might want to knit this yarn up for *gasp* someone else? I recently decided to do just that, and have two wonderful women in mind, and I think one of them would like this yarn. It might be fate...

2007-09-25T22:18:00.001-04:00

The Happy Orange Socks are blocking! I finished them late, so I'm going to wait for better lighting tomorrow before posting a picture (hopefully... assuming I get home while there's still light).

Sweetie's birthday was yesterday, and we had a nice dinner at Dervish, yum. At one point Sweetie left me alone at the table, and I had a brief inner conflict about whether or not it was appropriate to pull out my knitting in a fancy restaurant... especially when I was on the cuff and so close to being finished. At first I was intimidated, but finally decided that if knitting in public is gauche, I don't want to be right, and pulled it out. (There was no visible reaction, unlike once in a less fancy Turkish restaurant when I got an eyeroll from a girl dressed like Paris Hilton, which I thought was rich!) None of the fancy people there who know my husband (apparently we just missed a chance to meet Emine Erdogan , and I am so sorry we didn't. If you ever thought a big deal was being made over Hillary's hair, then you should see the press over Ms Erdogan's headscarf. She's banned from attending almost all government functions because of it) seemed to notice.

I cast on for a new sock! I'll try to post that tomorrow as well.

Baby Love

2007-09-22T23:39:00.001-04:00

Either babies love yarn, or I found a little knitter. This is what happened to my Trekking after about 1 minute with the seven-month-old sitting on my lap:

(Sorry for the poor lighting.) She alternately waved the yarn around maniacally as she thrashed her whole body and shrieked "Bah! Bah!" and tried to stuff it in her mouth - good thing Trekking is superwash. (I'm sure at least some of us would be tempted to do one of the two with prize stash members if it were more socially acceptable.) When her aunt took the yarn away she freaked out, but I substituted the finished sock and it was just as fun.

I felt too shy to ask her mom if I could put her baby on my knitting blog (I was imagining the lengthy explanations and incredulous looks - she's a non-knitter - in my head) but trust me, it was very cute.

My goal is to finish the second Happy Orange Sock before I go back to work on Monday... so I'd better cut this short and go knit.

2007-09-20T12:06:00.000-04:00

They're done! And the fit is amazing. The colors aren't my favorite ever (I think it's the greeny-yellow flecked stripes - I really really wish they were just green) but they fit so well that I just don't care.

Now I'm fighting the urge to cast on something new, and trying to finish my second Happy Orange Trekking sock - today is my day off and since I'm exhausted, I'm not planning on making even the pretence of doing any housework. I'm going to knit and watch my Netflix movies, and that's it. (Can you hear the sigh of relief?)

2007-09-15T15:55:00.000-04:00

Oops, so much for posting twice more this week - although if I post again tomorrow I suppose I will have managed it.

I've had a few days of quiet knitting time - Ramadan started Thursday, and coincidentally we had Thursday and Friday off for Rosh Hashanah. It's been really nice to not have to go to work for the first few days of fasting, and I've been able to start and (so far) get through the heel turn and flap on the second Luna Park sock. I have to say, it is hands down the best-fitting sock I've ever knit for myself (well, the first one is, and hopefully the second one's going to resemble it). I'm definitely converted to heel flaps, although now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with variegated yarns that will pool with a gusset - I might have to knit short-row heels, knowing how badly they're going to fit (they slip and slide around on my foot - down into my shoe, or up over the heel - everywhere but where they're supposed to sit).

My newest knitting challenge just transpired to be much bigger of a challenge than it was supposed to be. I finally remembered to have Sweetie ask my mother-in-law (I could've asked myself, but I forgot until I'd passed the phone onto him) what size her foot is and what color she'd like. She insisted to him that I already knew what size her feet were, and exactly what color she would want, but was inveigled into giving away her foot size at least. But now I have to pick out The Perfect Color of Her Dreams, and of course I have no idea what it is. The only solution's going to be to knit at least 3 pairs in different colors and hope that she likes them. Gahhh...

2007-09-10T18:12:00.001-04:00

The Happy Orange Trekking Sock is coming along - I've turned the heel and done the heel flap (it goes in that order toe-up, of course) and I love how it looks!

I'm using leftover 110 for the heel flap - I might have enough of it left over to do the same thing on a pair of BLUE Trekking socks, and that would be cool. I couldn't decide whether to use what I had on the orange stuff, or wait for the blue, but maybe just maybe I can do both.

I just wish I could knit more - I'd either have to slack off on my work, or my housework, and while last year I pretty much had to ditch it all and knit just to preserve my sanity, at this point I think I need a clean house to be sane.

2007-09-08T12:07:00.001-04:00

Apologies for not being around! I've had quite the week - ridiculous, funny, but stressful nonetheless. To sum it up, I had the police called on me at work! (Not by my work) On a complaint that would have been serious if it had any basis in truth, but since it was all made up it was quickly dismissed. After all, there were over 20 witnesses! The whole thing was pretty funny, but still stressful.

I've been hoping to move on to more complex patterns in my sock knitting, but now that I'm back at work again, I'm having to accept that I'm just not going to have the time and concentration I'll need, and I shouldn't feel bad about knitting stockinette sock after stockinette sock.

On that note:

Here are my latest efforts. This is Luna Park yarn, which I came across in a yarn store and just had to buy because I'd never heard of it before. I bought this rainbow-y colorway, and a pretty olive and navy one.

Then there's the Happy Orange Trekking sock, on which I'm also plugging away, and which I think I'll work on today since I could use that orange color's powers of cheeriness.

Next week I'll make it my goal to post at least twice.

Here they are...

2007-09-01T11:52:00.000-04:00

but I kind of want to put that in tiny letters, because these socks too are *sigh* deeply imperfect.

I still love my idea of these socks; they are for an "Anne of Green Gables" craft-a-long. The guidelines were simply read the book, and do something inspired by your reading of the book, before September 1st. I was inspired by the scene at the end of Anne's trip to White Sands to recite at a concert at the hotel.

The girls are talking about how fancy and impressive everything "in town" was, and Jane says "Did you see all the diamonds those ladies wore? They were simply dazzling. Wouldn't you just love to be rich, girls?" and Anne answers "We are rich. We have sixteen years to our credit, and we're happy as queens, and we've all got imaginations, more or less. Look at that sea, girls - all silver and shadow and visions of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy it's loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. You wouldn't change into any of those women if you could. Would you want to be that white lace girl and wear a sour look all your life, as if you'd been born turning up your nose at the world? Or the pink lady, kind and nice as she is, so stout and short you'd really no figure at all? Or even Mrs. Evans, with that sad, sad look in her eyes? She must have been dreadfully unhappy sometimes to have such a look. You know you wouldn't, Jane Andrews! ... I don't want to be any one but myself, even if I go uncomforted by diamonds all my life. I'm quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads. I know Matthew gave me as much love with them as ever went with Madame the Pink Lady's jewels."

So my socks are Anne socks; she was wearing a white dress in that scene, though (with a pearl bead necklace) and I just can't make my handknit socks white. So I used Claudia's Handpaint in Butter Pecan - it's a cream sort of color, with shots of a yellowy color that reminded me of the infamous ugly yellow dress Anne first wears, and another color that sometimes looks purple and sometimes looks auburn. Purple reminded me of the amethyst brooch of Marilla's that Anne admired so much and then was accused of stealing, and of course auburn would be for Anne's hair. So instead of white for the dress she's wearing in that scene, the socks represent the things that have helped make Anne who she is.

I'm also working on a pair of "Pink Lady" socks with crystal beads that will be a frilly, lacy pattern, but I haven't finished yet. Unfortunately, my Anne socks a) don't fit me and b) don't match each other. The second one is smaller than the first, but even the larger first one won't fit on my foot, and I'm kicking myself. Right now I think I'm going to *gasp* frog the second one and re-do it to match the first, and then I'll find someone they fit and give them away. But I'm really mad at myself for having stopped trying them on once I turned the heel.

Confession Time!

2007-08-28T09:14:00.000-04:00

Those Trekking socks which Hilary so kindly admired (by the way, those other socks were Claudia's Handpaint Sport and the toes/heels were sportweight Lorna's Laces! And I'm starting to think I really need comments I can answer with e-mail...) - those socks have problems. Well, one problem, which I artfully disguised with photography when I posted them and tried to pretend wasn't there.

Why am I confessing now? Well, those craftalong socks I haven't posted yet are done, and they too have problems. I'm starting to think the past several weeks of my life have been a time of general imperfection, and that it's time I face up to it and try to do better. So I'm vowing to try to do whatever I do with more attention, because these sock problems are getting ridiculous.

If you've ever considered doing your gussets wrong as a design feature, I can tell you there is apparently a reason (beyond the aesthetic) that they're placed how they are - the messed up sock is a huge pain to get onto my foot. It will go on my foot, just not very willingly. Why didn't I rip? Well, by the time I noticed (and yes... if it's occurred to you to ask, this was the sock I was knitting while absorbed in The Deathly Hallows!) I was simply too lazy to rip all the way back. I didn't think it would matter that much.

It did. I think, at some point, I'm going to have to learn to frog.

A little more for good measure

2007-08-26T12:07:00.000-04:00

Does it get more cheerful than that? That's Fleece Artist, and it turns out that when you buy FA from a store instead of online, you don't know what colorway it is! Their dyelots vary significantly, so I'm not sure- is it Jester? is it Rainbow? I guess all I really need to know is that it's so beautiful it calms me right down to look at it.

I've been putting in a lot of hours at work this past week (you thought I quit? So did I! I guess it wasn't my fate to leave quite yet. The main reasons for my wanting to leave have been removed though, so I have a good feeling about it - I really do love my job) but I'm free for the rest of today and I'm taking the next day and a half off. I've felt slightly battered by my personal life lately (not Sweetie - he's my rock, just want to make that clear!) so I think it's time to knit and nap and lick my wounds.

Oh, and next time I have a major confession to make!

I need a little cheer today

2007-08-26T01:31:00.000-04:00

and just thinking about an orange this bright helps.

2007-08-20T16:54:00.000-04:00

There is the promised knitting content! That's also at Natural Bridge (Virginia). More about that sock later. I promise, when I do catch up with my knitting there will be a lot of it!

Today is Independence Day for the Republic of Rahime - I took the bus! And got to work, all by myself! Backstory: the buses in my hometown are pretty bad, and I never ever used them ever. I was afraid of them. The buses in Brooklyn are nice, and safe (I think) but I still found them intimidating and developed a sort of phobia of the bus. So, in two years, I've never used them (okay once but I was with a friend so it doesn't count). But this year I've realized it's just too impractical (and uncomfortable, when I have to wait) for me to rely on Sweetie to drive me everywhere. So since last week I've been trying to psyche myself up to take the bus to work, and today I finally did it! And it was really, really convenient, comfortable, and easy. I had to fight the urge to stay on the bus and see where it went - now I'm frantic to get a bus map so I can see where else I can go! My mind is full of possibilities. Next step: knitting on the bus???

Wow.

2007-08-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

I can't believe somebody identified that statue so fast. Congratulations, Bryony! I am definitely sending you a prize, because that was awesome. I just need a little time to get it together. (It was at Natural Bridge, Virginia, a much more historically legitimate attraction than some of the other destinations associated with it. The statue was an ad for Dino Kingdom, and you should definitely click on that link for an entertaining anecdote about the role of dinosaurs in the Civil War.)

And now I can post my Foamhenge pictures! I was so worried that if nobody guessed the location of the cowboy statue, I wouldn't be able to show y'all Foamhenge, and now I can (assuming Blogger cooperates). In case you were wondering, here's a general statement of fact and purpose:

Here is part of it, looking Stonehenge-like:

And here are two theories regarding the construction of the original Stonehenge:

And a statue illustrating the second theory (there was one of the first too, but it wasn't quite as compelling somehow)

And no, I don't think those things are considered exactly normal in the US. Taking pictures of them was a source of much hilarity for our group, at least. Sadly, I don't know if any of the dinosaur statues within the "Dinosaur Kingdom" part of the Natural Bridge complex of tourist attractions had cowboys riding them, because we didn't go there - we just hiked to the bridge and had lunch and giggled at things like the Instant Civil War in the gift shop. Oh, and went on possibly the most uninspired cave tour ever.

I'll put some knitting in my next post, promise!

I wanted to post today

2007-08-16T13:46:00.000-04:00

I really really did. And then I picked up my purse on the way out the door to work, and something in my neck went (my purse is not that heavy!). And I went to work anyway, and it hurt, and I took some painkillers, and it got worse. So I came home early and I can't move my neck, and it's cloudy today so there's no picture-taking light. (Not that those things are related...bear with me, I'm in pain.)

So I had the bright idea to just post some pictures from my recent vacation, and set up the camera, and was briefly very confused, forgetting that Sweetie kept borrowing my camera while we were on vacation - there are many pictures on there I didn't recognize, not having taken them myself, many of them featuring my own unsuspecting rear end as I was walking around at various tourist attractions (is that something all guys do? Or does my Sweetie just find stalking his own wife endlessly entertaining?). Once I realized what was going on I felt much better... they're so hilarious I would post one, if it weren't for the fact that I wouldn't be able to control who actually ogled my rear on the internet.

In lieu of that, here are some wacky things we encountered.

A cowboy riding a velociraptor! Double the excitement of regular cowboys and regular dinosaurs! (If anyone [who wasn't on vacation with me] knows where that is, by the way, tell me within a week and I will send you a prize. I don't think I have such an extensive readership that I need to worry about multiple correct responses, but if I get them I'll either send smaller prizes or randomly pick winners. Um, duh, but I just realized that since I provide no e-mail address, the only venue for answers is comments, which will then be visible to everyone, so I'm changing it to "the first correct answer, ever, will get a prize." Still only applicable to people who weren't actually with me at the cowboy-dinosaur statue.) Then we have

Instant Civil War!

We weren't seeking out weirdness, exactly. There is more of it, but I'm afraid posting it would give away the whereabouts of the raptor-riding cowboy so I'll wait. I did knit a little too - and I have pictures, but the camera battery just died and my neck can't stand any more computer.

I got my computer back!

2007-08-05T06:50:00.000-04:00

Oh happy day! (And my camera, and ipod cables, and my diary and the yarn and beads for a second sock I desperately need to knit...)
So of course I got up at 5 am, brewed some hotel-room coffee (double strength - those little packets of coffee they give you are always so disgustingly weak), and gorged on all the knitting blog posts I've missed while I was computerless. And by the time I finished there was some light and I could take this

...a mess of Trekking. Someone and I went in on an order from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions, and it was well worth it. We splurged for the priority, signature-required shipping (what if something happened to the yarn?? Can't have that - better get insured) and it still came out to about $9/ball of Trekking. It's only a good deal if you're going to get a lot. (But who would be able not to? Certainly not me.)
Those unpostable socks haven't gotten much further (see above for the newly recovered yarn) so all I have are a fairly boring Regia Mini Ringel pair for sweetie - I've discovered that knitting socks for him is a useful way of assuaging or deflecting any, ahem, guilt I might feel from my yarn-buying habits. Just don't tell him that's why I'm doing it.

2007-08-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the absence! I'm just coming off of 4 days of thinking both my laptop and camera (plus the yarn for my second sock - the mysterious ones I'm not posting yet) were gone forever. It turns out they're not, but I still don't have them, and won't until the weekend. However, I'll be in transit then - the blog pickings are likely to be slim hereabouts. (Oh man, sorry - I've been reading fiction set in the boonies and it's getting to me. I also keep wanting to add "That's what!" to the end of everything I say.) Anyway, point being: no computer + no camera = no posting from me. So hopefully I'll have some dramatic never-before-seen FO picks when I do post!

2007-07-26T13:29:00.000-04:00

It's hard to know what to blog when I'm trying to keep the only thing I'm actively knitting on a surprise. I could let that tempt me into casting on something bloggable, but I'm trying to be monogamous because the craft-along project I'm working on has a deadline, and I'm probably only 10% into what I ultimately want to do. And I have about a month, during which I will be on vacation, which means, while I'll certainly bring the project along, I can't count on having much knitting time. Which I suppose should inspire me to stop putzing around on the computer and start working!

I'm still here...

2007-07-24T10:41:00.000-04:00

Re-reading Harry Potter 4, 5 and 6 and then of course number 7 (and yes, I did re-read it too, as soon as I finished it the first time), and then absorbing it all, distracted me somewhat. But I was knitting while I read, and here are those Trekking socks finished! I have a surprisingly large amount of yarn left over, so this colorway might pop up again.

2007-07-15T13:06:00.000-04:00

I promised to update with whatever I decided to cast on next yesterday, so here it is:

Yep, Trekking! I think I'm going to do another plain stockinette sock, although I might do a heel flap this time.

I've also been knitting this

and knitting a laceweight that fine on size 10 needles is not as easy as I thought it would be. It's like trying to knit cobwebs. Here it is side by side with the Trekking for comparison

I also need to get moving on a project I'm doing for an Anne of Green Gables craftalong, but I won't be posting about that here until it's all done - I like the element of secrecy!

2007-07-14T14:59:00.001-04:00

Here's a pic of them on (I had help! It turns out to be so much easier that way!). They're so soft and squishy - really comfortable.

As Promised!

2007-07-14T14:13:00.001-04:00

I finished the cuff late last night and bound off this morning before my eye appointment (I'm getting new glasses! The ones I'm wearing are around 8 years old - I can't remember exactly, it might even be 9).
I'm away from home, housesitting, which means I'm very limited in what I cast on next - I can only choose from what I brought with me. Update tomorrow!

Why I love sportweight sock yarn

2007-07-12T15:45:00.000-04:00

This is two days of knitting (Tuesday and Thursday - Wednesday I didn't get to it). I've turned the heel on both socks. It may look familiar, unfortunately.
This time there are no pooling issues, and hopefully will be no fit issues (if there is one it'll be bagginess). I'm using beaded rib, which isn't my favorite for this yarn but if it means I don't get crazy pooling I'll deal. I'm hoping to have an FO post up by Saturday!

One more pair done

2007-07-09T17:09:00.000-04:00

The Geranium socks are done! And here they are:

I really wanted a picot edge at the cuff, but after some googling and thought I decided against the kind where you do a row of yarnovers and then keep knitting a stockinette bit that gets turned inside the sock and sewn down to the inside edge - I don't yet want picots that badly, i.e. I'm too lazy. I tried Knitty's picot tutorial but found it was rolling. So I ended up doing 3-4 rows or so of 1x1 rib and using a sewn bind-off as usual. The very tiny bit of ribbing is also cute - not quite as cute as picots, but I like it too.

I ended up frogging that Fleece Artist sock - once I got up close to my heel, it was too tight. I keep forgetting that I should make them a little *too* big down by the toe in order to end up with a sock that fits exactly how I want. Oh well. I've set it aside for now because that failure killed my motivation for working with it for the moment.

So now I get to go shopping (in my own stash, of course) for my next project. Excitement!

2007-07-07T11:00:00.000-04:00

In the knit-blog tradition of doing things with strawberries, taking their picture and then blogging about it, here's what I was doing last weekend:

I was in Connecticut visiting my sister, and we went to a u-pick farm and picked a ton of luscious strawberries (plus some barely ripe raspberries and more summer squash than we knew what to do with - I just finished eating it yesterday). She made gluten-free strawberry shortcake out of it but I think I forgot to take a picture of that.

No way this weekend is going to be as fun. But I am going to make good old-fashioned all-American hamburgers (and fries and macaroni salad) for some guests from Far Far Away, who may have never had any ever, tomorrow - if I remember I'll try to take a picture.

2007-07-05T14:53:00.000-04:00

I really wanted to post today, but I don't have much in the way of knitting progress (I picked up the Geranium socks and have been halfheartedly knitting along because I realized there are 10 days left of the Lime and Violet Sock Marathon and I could get another pair in if I work on them instead of the single Fleece Artist sock) mostly because of this:

I've dived, maybe a little obsessively, into sewing! I got a sewing machine at the Black Friday sales back in November, but haven't found the time to do much with it until now. So far I've made a skirt and top (not pictured; maybe I can get Sweetie to help me with that), and am in the middle of two bags. I'm stalled waiting for an answer to a question about bias tape (I think my go-to sewing question answerers are going to kill me if I call them AGAIN, so I resorted to online forums. The downside of which is that I have to wait until someone responds) so I took a blogging break which is soon to become a knitting break. Then maybe a cleaning-the-house break!

I finished something!

2007-07-03T07:44:00.000-04:00

And I'm inordinately psyched about it! Sweetie's New Blue socks are done:

They're a little short for his taste but that was all the yarn there was. After a short discussion of how nice the yarn was and how much I liked it, and how he insisted that *he* liked it, and how I unselfishly decided to knit it for him instead of myself, I think we have an understanding about the shortness of the socks. (That said, I do have another skein in the "Congo" colorway - softly variegated muted green - that will be for myself, and when I knit it up I think I'll do contrast toes and heels because ankle socks drive me nuts.)

The Fleece Artist non-pooling stockinette sock is moving along slowly, and I'm not sure I've picked up the Geranium socks at all since my last post. I'm just not motivated to knit red - I'm sure as soon as Project Spectrum switches to orange/purple/brown I'll be nuts about red. Right now I'm eyeing a green and yellow Trekking stripe as my next pair...

Time to check in

2007-06-29T22:13:00.000-04:00

and see how I'm doing on my goals for 2007:

*try non-Knitpicks yarn - check! So far, I've tried Schaefer, Trekking, Lorna's Laces, Yarn Pirate, Great Adirondack, Bearfoot, Fleece Artist, Cider Moon, Regia, Koigu... I'm really happy with how that resolution has gone.

*cables - still haven't tried those... I bought cable needles though!

*more socks - check! Non-short-row toes - check, technically. I've tried one or two new kinds but I'd like to really experiment more. Non-short-row heels - half check. I did a heel flap, then frogged it. And I sort of get it but not totally. So that one needs some more attention!

*dyeing my own yarn - check! I've overdyed some manufactured stuff. I did intend to actually dye yarn blanks...haven't gotten there yet.

*do some KALs - check. With mixed results. I've learned that kals are not always what they're cracked up to be - some can be really fun, but I wasn't necessarily missing out on much by not participating, because some are really blah.

*Magic Loop on 2 circs - um, if it's 2 circs it isn't Magic Loop, is it? Oh well, check!

*Moccasin socks - still on the list.

*That last idea I wouldn't say - check, and it didn't go so well!

Cute! And useful!

2007-06-28T23:15:00.000-04:00

This thing is so freaking adorable! My newest knitting toy:

A digital scale for weighing my yarn. Now I can finish Sweetie's Blue socks!

Exactly 56 grams of a skein that was 112.

And 11 grams left to finish up the first sock. Fun! Scientific!

2007-06-28T08:29:00.001-04:00

I think I was premature regarding the Tangled up in Blue pattern too - 2x2 ribbing made the yarn pool in spirals, which I'd thought Fleece Artist did rarely. I frogged back and continued in stockinette and seem to have a good balance with minimal striping,

and I'm afraid that if I start a pattern or mess with the stitch count I'll end up with inconsistent pooling (if I have to have it, at the very least it ought to pattern consistently throughout the sock) so I think I'll just do another stockinette sock - like the Geranium socks, which I keep abandoning to work on other things!

They're moving along slowly but surely, though. So I'll have two pairs of stockinette socks right after those stripey Regia Silk stockinette socks... and I'm feeling compelled to finish both of them off with a picot edge. But there's nothing wrong with having a bunch of identically patterned socks if I love the pattern, right? I keep telling myself that. I think it's just boring to blog, is all. Speaking of, I've got to start doing things first and then blogging about them, since the only thing that seems to always be true lately is that my plans won't work out. A little chaos builds character...

Perhaps I was premature

2007-06-26T08:22:00.000-04:00

in announcing the advent of Vinnland - it's been frogged. Thank you for the comments on it though! I knew I had messed up the chart somehow, but when I picked them up and paid close attention to the next row so as to get it right, I realized that I now had the wrong number of stitches - somewhere along the line I messed up the M1s and ssks, but I didn't know where or how best to fix it, and right now I need mindless knitting (more on that in a bit) so I frogged immediately and mercilessly. The yarn was Knitpicks Gloss; when I come back to Vinnland I'll use the same yarn, I was liking it a lot.

So why do I need mindless knitting? Well, I'm going through some job stress at the moment. Namely, I think I quit. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I am something like 95%. I'm feeling a lot of relief at the prospect and some twinges of regret, but mostly I'm going over everything again and again in my head and trying to work out whether I'm doing the right thing. So knitting patterns won't be getting anything like the attention a more complex one would deserve.

I'm also treating myself in the meantime - I'm eating cold halal Chinese leftovers for breakfast right now - and last night in that spirit I cast on some Fleece Artist Sea Wool last night:

When I cast on I had plans for a plain sock - maybe not stockinette, maybe ribbed - but when I woke up this morning I felt like using an actual pattern, one that wouldn't mess with the colors too much. I was thinking maybe Cable Twist, maybe Snicket. But on further examination, I decided those patterns are too complicated for my life right now - I'd have to change Cable Twist to toe-up and really mess with the gauge and stitch count, it's written for worsted weight, and Snicket is just more complex than I thought it would be. There's also something I just found on Ravelry, Tangled up in Blue, that's just gorgeous in semi-solid yarn, but I'm not sure how solidish my Fleece Artist is. It seems to be mostly blue with shots of color, but I'm not very good at seeing the end product when I'm looking at a yarn cake. Tangled up in Blue starts out with ribbing, so I think I'll do the same and see how it knits up before I decide whether to do the patterned leg. Perfect knitting for pondering my further career path...

2007-06-24T20:30:00.000-04:00

I'm sick and in hibernation... but I'm moving along well on the Geranium socks (finished turning the second heel - I'm doing them 2 at a time) and have cast on for Vinnland (with some mods). I've already messed up a row or two of the chart, but I think if I keep going correctly it won't be such a big deal... I hope.

The blue socks are stalled at the moment because my new scale for weighing yarn (with school out for the summer, I need a replacement for the science teacher's triple beam balance) is enroute, and I need to weigh the yarn that's left before I continue so I don't use too much.

In other news, we got a countertop dishwasher like this one, and it's amazing. I needed one so badly. So life is good...

Progress is beautiful

2007-06-19T09:28:00.000-04:00

and so is this blue.

I've turned the heel on Sweetie's New Blue socks. As usual for me with sportweight socks, I started out with fewer stitches than I'd need further up the foot and had to increase on the way. But since I'm not using variegated yarn this time, no change-in-number-of-stitches pooling = no biggie. Although I really want to remember to cast on enough next time, even if it seems huge when I'm down by the toe.

I finished something!

2007-06-17T16:46:00.001-04:00

(It's been awhile.) My happy, springy Regia Silk socks are done and blocking. Here they are:

And again on the background of my fantabulous pink stretch velvet skirt (I love you Turkmen fashion!)

Now onwards, towards finishing the Geranium socks and Sweetie's New Blue socks... after I wash some dishes and do some laundry.

I don't have much to show for myself

2007-06-13T20:35:00.001-04:00

The combination of the end of school and (finally!) getting my invite to Ravelry means I'm neither knitting much nor blogging about it.

Just a small start on the second Silk sock. The Geranium ones are coming along too, and I've just barely casted on (but not done anything else) on this:

The yarn is Cider Moon (Glacier, the sport weight) in an amazing colorway called "Casablanca." The socks are for Sweetie- reluctantly, I decided to knit something for him. I have a shamefully extensive stash, and bought most of it with the intent to knit for myself, so I decided it was selfish of me to begrudge him this one skein, even though I'm crazily in love with the intensity of the blue.

Random Thought of the week: I took some kids to Astroland, home of the Cyclone! in Coney Island. It was crowded and dirty and didn't have rules about minimal clothing or cussing like 6 Flags did (went on a field trip there a few weeks ago), and some of the people were kind of sketchy - the whole place had a kind of X-Files "something sinister going on just under the surface" vibe - but it was so much more fun! And way, way cheaper. The kids had fun, without $40 tickets and 2 hour lines for rides. I really, truly enjoyed myself (6 Flags was pretty hellish) - although I'm turning into a curmudgeon. Much to the embarassment of my pre-teen students, I turned around in line to ask some kids behind us to stop cursing (they were yelling a particulary unsavory, to my taste, anatomical term). It worked great - their jaws dropped and they immediately shut up, and then behaved much better (they were little - 4th grade or so) and I teased them about having bad luck for being in line behind a teacher because teachers are bossy - but I got a hissed "Ms Rahime! They're not your students!" and "You're embarassing me!" from my own students. Ha. I told them everyone starts doing embarassing things in public without caring when they get old. (I'm 27.) Although they might have a point, because I find myself wanting to lecture youngsters of varying ages about their behavior on a regular basis. Sweetie even had to restrain me from lecturing a smoking 11-year-old in Turkey once...

Voila

2007-06-11T19:53:00.000-04:00

Here are my Pomatomi! Knitted by go-fish at Five Gallon Bucket! She posted about them here. I love the color - the yarn is reclaimed from a thrift store sweater, recycling at its most fun! I'm so glad to have my own Pomatomi - I feel very far from being able to knit lace, but I've been coveting the pattern for quite awhile.

Because I have no self-control...

2007-06-09T21:17:00.000-04:00

it's 9:17 pm and I have 9 papers (yes... 9) due tomorrow (yes...tomorrow) and here I am posting an (awful) picture of my socks on my blog. (Yes, I got sock blockers! From The Loopy Ewe! And they're great. The sock isn't blocked, btw, it just looked nicer that way.) And now I really do have to go write. My papers are almost done though.

Oh, and I did just cast it on, but as far as I can tell the stripe colors are reversed on the second ball of Regia Silk. I'm wondering if it's worth winding it up on my ballwinder and starting from the other end so they'll match...

Almost half done

2007-06-06T22:16:00.000-04:00

I'm binding off! And after much fruitless searching for the tutorial for the bind-off I like, (hey, who knew I remembered the html for that? Not me...) I decided I better post here - who knew I had to google crankygrrrrrl with *5 r's* and not 3 or 4? I'll stick it in the sidebar or something later.

I am alive

2007-06-04T17:57:00.000-04:00

despite my total absence from the blog. And I've even been knitting! My Project Spectrum curse continues - I feel nothing for the two sets of red socks I'd been insatiably drawn to when I was supposed to knit pink, green and yellow. (June is red, black and metallics.) Instead I've suddenly begun knitting away on the cheery, springy Regia Silk sock:

I've felt not only knitting-lazy lately, but everything-except-work-lazy. It's been hard! The Regia Silk sock has gone really quickly the past few days though, so that's a good sign. School's almost over, and then things should pick up.

I also now have my own Pomatomi! It's really exciting! My go-to blogging laptop died, though, so now I'm on my Mac which doesn't give me all the easy html options for linking and whatnot, so I'm sadly putting off posting the link to where my swappee blogged them in the hopes that our school's computer teacher will resurrect the laptop... They're gorgeous though! If I feel up to doing the html myself I'll come back and edit.

Random thoughts

2007-05-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

that have nothing to do with knitting!
*Sweetie is back from a week in our old stomping grounds in Central Asia, safe and sound, and I am SO HAPPY! Although being forced to do things like drive myself around, bring my own packages to the post office and run out and buy random groceries myself when I want them was probably good for me.
*Whoever dented my driver's side door so that it won't open more than 6 inches, I usually try not to use such crude language, but YOU SUCK! Because I'm soooo happy to have to climb over from the passenger's side in an ankle length skirt while everyone in the parking lots of the supermarket, Dunkin Donuts, and the JFK Airport stares at the girl in a headscarf who knows how to drive, which is apparently an exotic creature worthy of being in a zoo. (I have had people point and laugh! Although maybe I should mention that that was in New Jersey...)
*Getting a sunburn only on the center of your face, with a pale ring around the edges where your scarf was, looks really freakish. I have to stop doing that.
*Turkish people are everywhere. In the past two days, I have had a car full of my students scream my name while I walked down the street, run into two people I know while buying groceries, picked up two girls from a bus stop and driven them home, run into two other people in the airport, and most memorably had a random Turkish ice cream truck guy sell all of my students ice cream at a steep discount while we waited for our school bus to pick us up from a field trip. Then there was the elderly Albanian guy who stood and watched us for quite awhile on said field trip before asking if any of us was Albanian - and of course, one of the Turkish girls was half Albanian! I've been using the term "Turkish Mafia" to describe this phenomenon but maybe I need something more all-encompassing.

Well...

2007-05-24T19:29:00.000-04:00

"6 Flags with a bunch of tweens" wasn't bad. Although towards the end it kind of fell apart. But I did work on this:

A toe in Regia Silk. The figure-8 cast-on came out really wide this time (I can never tell how wide it'll end up after I've knit the yarn wrapped around the needles), and I think I'm going to leave it that way for now and see how it fits - pointy toes bother me.

It's a curse...

2007-05-23T20:46:00.000-04:00

The closer we get to the "red" Project Spectrum month, the less I feel like working on my red socks and the more I feel strangely drawn towards blue (intense, rich, royal blues) and orange. It figures. Anyway, the Geranium socks are maybe halfway up the foot, and the Electric Red one's heel has been turned. And I'm shopping from my stash in my head...

I'm feeling really low over the swap socks - it turns out they didn't fit her - too small. They do fit her daughter, but still - I was really disappointed and annoyed with myself. And I'm not sure how to make it up to my swap partner!

We're in the busy phase of school, which is why I haven't been around posting (or commenting, sorry!) lately, and tomorrow I have to take a bunch of tweens to an amusement park - which sounds like my own personal hell. But who knows, maybe I'll have fun... it's always possible, I do surprise myself sometimes!

Swap Socks!

2007-05-17T20:35:00.000-04:00

These are Trekking Pro Natura, the new bamboo blend. I really like the texture and look of the yarn:

The only issue I had was that it had tufts of what I'm guessing is the bamboo bit that weren't fully twisted into the yarn in spots:

Which obviously isn't thrilling. (That was the worst spot in the whole skein; there were one or two other similar, but lesser tufts.) But I'll still buy and use the yarn again.

Return of the Red

2007-05-15T08:26:00.000-04:00

I took some better-lit (whatever else might be said about them) pictures of those socks.

These are Knitpicks Memories (again!), this time in Geranium. They do seem to be striping well - I've found that Memories does really well at not pooling, as long as your stitch count is consistent. The pooling I had on the one Cape Cod sock must have been due to an odd number of stitches on one sock - that's why I'm doing this pair 2 at a time!

This is fantastically bright - my camera can't handle the electric redness of it. It's Schaefer Anne, and the colorway's named Frank's Folly. (The toe is Louet Gems.) It's striping a little too, the camera just isn't able to pick it up - it varies from plain old red to a kind of electric, brighter than hot pink red. I'm obsessing over the red lately, and it's reminding me of an old coworker who was a little "woo-woo" urging me to meditate on something red when I was having trouble with anemia. Miss you Nuriya!
Anyway, as is probably evident from this post, I'm feeling much much better, and it's looking like tomorrow's the day to drag myself kicking and screaming back to work.

2007-05-14T20:51:00.000-04:00

I feel dumb, but after five and a half hours and about $200 spent getting a prescription from a doctor today (ironically, I think I was getting better health care when I lived in the Third World) I FORGOT to take my update pictures while there was still daylight. So sorry for the awful pictures...
I am now officially in a state of Project Spectrum rebellion:

I couldn't resist the red. I'm also obsessing about blue, which I had to force myself to knit during the February/March part. I'm sure as soon as it's June I'll be all over the pinks and greens. For whatever reason (I'm way too stubborn and hate being "told" what to do, is what my Mom says) I feel zero urge to knit the colors when I'm "supposed" to. I guess I'll try to focus on knitting a variety of colors over the entire project instead!

Success! And failure.

2007-05-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I did the heel flap successfully! Except that now I can't fit it on. I'm persevering, since I often can't get short-row heeled socks on right after doing the heel either - somehow continuing up the leg makes it go on better. I hate ripping back, so much so that I might find someone they'll fit to give these socks to, even though they're only about 33% done. Beh. At least now I get how heel flaps work!

2007-05-10T21:42:00.000-04:00

I finally have a picture! And the swap sock is done, too.

I decided to try and make this sock (which I've been calling Candy sock, because the colors remind me of some half-remembered kind of candy) with a heel flap instead of a short-row heel, so I'm following the instructions in Sensational Knitted Socks even though I can't get my head around how this is all going to work - I always was bad at spatial things. I'm trying to just have faith and do it.

I've also been off work since partway through Tuesday - I got sick, AGAIN, and have a disgusting hacking cough and no voice. Fun. But I should have seen it coming - my body pretty reliably gets sick when I'm overloaded and overwhelmed, and forces me to rest. So I am!

Still no pictures

2007-05-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

but after saying that I was having a nervous breakdown, I figured I'd better post something. There's no real progress on anything but the swap socks, which are not-yet-to-be-pictured. I don't think I've made any progress on other projects - the motivating factor of my nervous breakdown being feeling overwhelmed by work, I've been too busy.

So far this weekend I've spent my free time on housework, cooking, moving furniture with Sweetie (which prompted more tears when he asked, while shifting part of my stash, if I was going to use up all my yarn before buying more - honestly I don't know what's wrong with me, but I burst into tears and sobbed "You don't like my yarn!" And of course, poor guy, he swore up and down that he did like my yarn, that he loved my yarn, so I would stop crying. Sigh. I don't know what's with me but I can't wait until it's over!) and going through household junk to recycle. But I'm planning on getting some knitting done tonight so hopefully next week won't be as boring a blog week as this past one was!

Oh, and I forgot

2007-05-02T14:20:00.000-04:00

... to respond to people's comments about that cast-on and cotton sock. I don't think I'll ever use another cast-on again, that one is just really ingenious (maybe Turkish is better!). And the yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy, I think. Like I said, I just did housework so I think I "cleaned up" the ball band, but it's Lana Grossa cotton and it was on sale at Webs and probably still is. They had a lot of other attractive colors too.

And a nervous breakdown!

2007-05-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

I have almost no new knitting to show, because I'm basically having a (work-related, and possibly hormone-related) nervous breakdown this week, but today they sent me home early to "rest" and I managed to actually get some housework done! and also noticed this new sock pattern. I feel really good about having an actual pattern in my "queue" rather than just yarn. And now I can ponder which yarn to use for it and hum to myself during my "mental health vacation" and be glad that I'm at home, alone, with no one to make me feel self-conscious about my eccentric nervous-breakdown behavior. Sigh.

And...fresh starts!

2007-04-28T12:08:00.000-04:00

I dithered around trying to decide what to cast on last night, before deciding to stick with this one. I'm very excited about the sock it's going to become!
I'm also wondering why I spent the last month or so continuing to mess around with the figure-8 cast on that always results in the cast-n stitches bagging out (at least for me it does) when I had found and noted, but not tried, this genius tutorial, which is amazingly wonderful! (Don't mention it to Sweetie, or he'll get started on the "Of course it's wonderful, it's Turkish!" thing again.)

The Santa Fe sock is doing alright too - it has significant spiraling stripes in this incarnation, but there's no way I'm ripping again. It's currently stalled because I want to weigh the yarn before continuing - did I mention that skein, which was supposed to be 100g, was only 85?

Lost Possibilities

2007-04-26T15:27:00.000-04:00

I had high hopes of casting this on during school today, since I was giving so many tests. No luck though... I decided yesterday to make this cotton blend a pair of Project Spectrum Socks for April/May, in anticipation of summer.

I'm still almst half done with the swap sock...the sock legs always seem to take forever.

In other news, I guess I've decided NOT to quit my job and keep teaching next year. I've tried a new tactic with the rude older kids - last week two boys tried to hide from me in the boys bathroom, probably assuming I was too demure to follow them in there. Wrong! Unfortunately for them, I'm too stubborn for anybody's good. But I do find that kind of thing just a little soul-killing, so... I started "innocently" assuming that they don't know better, calling them back and well-meaningly "teaching" them polite language, then making them practice it in made-up dialogues with me. It's the first time I've seen any of the punk kids embarassed. Other than when those two boys slinked out of the bathroom after I told them I was coming in. Anyway, my point - I guess the school needs me. There might not be any female teachers next year if I quit, and I think that's something really important for the students, and also I like being an example of a working, car-driving, etc etc "covered" woman because stereotypes about that are rampant, even within the Muslim community. But I'm still asking for a day off.

Okay, okay

2007-04-25T17:13:00.000-04:00

I'll post something. If I have to. The thing is, I don't have much to show for myself - the swap item is almost half done, but I won't be posting about that until it's done, packed off and received.
I cast on again for the Santa Fe socks - only not with the size 3's. On a whim I tried 1's, and Oh My Goodness the fabric is so soft and squishy! I can't stop fondling it while I knit and fantasizing about how it'll feel on... I *may* have cast on way too many stitches, but I just can't tell yet. The pooling doesn't seem to be a problem...

I've acquired some sport weight sock yarns lately, and after this sock I can't wait to use some of them! Although it may be time to start knitting cotton blend socks so I can wear them in the summer.

If the third time's not the charm...

2007-04-21T22:28:00.000-04:00

maybe size 3's will be? I've now knit and frogged these darn socks THREE times. I need 60 stitches to have them fit without adding increases -which mean pooling - as I move up the foot. Unfortunately, 60 stitches on size 2's cause the. worst. pooling. I have ever seen - all of the blue on one side of the sock, and all of the red-orange on the other. No spiraling, just two completely opposite sides on one sock. So today I went to Seaport Yarn and picked up the size 3 dpns you see here.

This had better work or I'm going to give up on ever having a pair of socks out of this yarn...

This is why I love kids

2007-04-20T09:21:00.000-04:00

They get excited at the most random things. They're coming into my room, talking and playing around, and when they see "Good Morning. Today is No Talking Day." on the board I hear several gleeful "Yesss!"s. If I knew it was a *treat* I sooo would have been doing this before. The silence lasted a good 25 minutes, way longer than I thought it would.

Well.

2007-04-19T10:46:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning with a killer sore throat, and more relevant to my job, no voice above a whisper. (This is a big fat postcard from my body telling me it's had enough of the late nights and stress.) So home sick it is - although I promised to come in tomorrow no matter what, since so many teachers are out. I have 3-5 grade tomorrow and I think I can handle them even without a voice - I'll write on index cards and pantomime and they'll get a huge kick out of it - ooh, maybe I'll do a "No Talking Class" where we ALL have to pantomime! Anyway, it's 6th grade I was worried about.

So I'm off to the couch with my knitting and Netflix movies... I hope everyone has a restorative and restful day!

They're done!

2007-04-18T12:10:00.000-04:00

But they slouch. Darnit.
After I see how they wear I'll write up a thing about the yarn and everything. The basic details are:
Great Adirondack Yarn Co Soxie, Tropicana colorway
Size 0 dpns, toe-up, 2x2 rib
I threw some random garter ridges in for interest but they're overshadowed by the bright colors so I really shouldn't have bothered - it would have worked better in a plainer yarn. *If* you notice them they look cool, but they're not very noticeable.

I've already cast-on for the next project, but they're for a swap so no pics or details. I'll have to find something else to blog about!

2007-04-13T17:28:00.000-04:00

I don't have much going on, but I felt obligated to post since it's been awhile. All I've got is this picture of my in-progress second Tropical Sock:

The yarn is Great Adirondack Yarn Company (Soxie) and it's my favorite out of all the sock yarns I've knit with so far (Claudia's Handpainted would come in second). I can't pinpoint what it is that's so great about it - it doesn't look any different than the Koigu or Yarn Pirate I'm using for my Rosie socks, but the fabric it produces is softer and somehow draws me in more. It was the colors and not the quality of the yarn that led me to buy it in the first place, but I'll definitely be seeking this yarn out in the future.

I'm looking forward to knitting with and wearing a lot of different yarns in the near future, because I want to put reviews of them here on my blog. That's something I almost always search for before buying (except for those all-too-frequent impulse buys!) but never have much luck finding, and I've noticed that a lot of people end up here by searching for a yarn I've used, so I'd like to think reviews would be something useful to other knitters out there. Anyway, that's for the future - especially since I want to see how something wears before posting my opinion of it, so not only do I first have to knit all of these yarns, but then I have to wear them. Don't hold your breath...

2007-04-10T14:37:00.000-04:00

These are my new stitch markers from Teal, and they're on top of the (old) table I just painted gold! You can't really see the metallic-ness of it because of the angle of the light, but trust me, it's glittery. The surface is still slightly tacky (maybe in both senses of the word; I can't help it, I really like gold-colored furniture) but I really wanted to photograph both together. Aren't the stitch markers pretty?

Today is the last day of my spring break, and I've been cleaning and reorganizing and decluttering and all of that fun stuff. It's just reinforced for me how much I'd like to quit my job and stay home, although I'm not sure Sweetie agrees - I called him today in tears over the "Meth Addict Makeovers" on the Tyra Show and I swear I could hear him *thinking*, over the phone, "If she's home all the time, is she going to call me like this every day?" So maybe it's for the best. But I do think that next year I'm going to request a schedule where I'm off one day every week. I just can't keep up with the housework otherwise; if we had a washing machine and dishwasher (they aren't allowed in our building) or if Sweetie wasn't so busy himself and could help out it would be different, but as it is I do all my work, but the apartment is a disaster and I just can't keep that up.

As for knitting, I've finished the first Rosie sock and am now on the toe of my second Tropical sock. I have a baby sweater I really need to get cracking on because she's growing up, but I'm just not motivated to work on it. But I'll finish my April socks for Sock-a-Month (looks like the Tropical socks will be first) before I force myself to get the baby sweater done.

The H Word

2007-04-07T11:33:00.000-04:00

If today's picture showed something different than what it does, then I could call yesterday's post "confidence." But instead... I have to call it "hubris." Because this is the picture I have today:

I frogged it again. And I was up to the cuff. But I had had to put some increases in there (and some of them looked weird - fingering weight makes for a much more forgiving fabric, I think) and the increases led to pooling. And I tried to get rid of the pooling... partially frogged even, and re-knit, and it didn't work. And I decided I just couldn't live with it. So here we are again. I think I'll work on my Rosie sock for a bit and come back to sportweight socks another day.

Where have I seen you before?

2007-04-06T12:01:00.000-04:00

Oh yeah, here (pre-frogging; it was cast on with 4 more stitches).
Out of the three pairs of socks I'm working on, I'm the least-furthest along on these but might finish them first - it's addictive, how fast they come together in sport weight!

Project Spectrum yarns

2007-04-04T12:28:00.000-04:00

I took advantage of what light I could get today to follow Lolly's lead and take pictures of the next two months' yarn.

(There are notes on flickr labeling the ones whose labels aren't visible.)

I'm fighting with myself over what to do today - the weather is rainy and grey, the perfect day for lounging inside, but I really feel like I need to continue the spring cleaning and reorganizing and moving furniture that I did yesterday. It felt so good to be carrying bags of old papers and all the gunk from the vacuum cleaner filter out the door (not to mention probably every cardboard box that ever made its way into our apartment). But today the weather just isn't on my side; I think it's demanding that I sit and knit in my newly rearranged living room.

Here's what I've been doing

2007-04-03T15:22:00.000-04:00

Here's the Rosie sock - I ended up striping the Rosie and the pink Koigu, just because I felt like it. It's the Garter Rib that I've been seeing everywhere lately (from Sensational Knitted Socks) - really just ribbing with an all-knit-stitch row every other row. I've gotten as far as the bottom edge of the picture.

The Crazy Tropical Sock was really hard to photograph - my camera doesn't want to focus on it. This is as good as it got before I gave up to eat my lunch, which was ready and waiting.

There's a small hole at the corner of the heel, because I haven't woven in the ends yet. I'm really happy with the fit and especially the yarn. I'm just being lazy about doing the toe for the second sock...

**oh yeah, and I changed the background color to be a little easier on the eyes!

Baby got back...

2007-04-02T21:51:00.000-04:00

from Staten Island! Ha ha, was that too cheesy (or too stretched) of a pun? My weekend with the tweens wasn't half bad, although by 7 pm today I was so ready to be out of there. Staying in a three-story mansion filled with probably the same amount of material things we have in our two-room apartment has given me the urge to purge, though... it's my spring break and I think I'm gonna spend at least tonight staying up late having a cleaning party. While Sweetie's asleep of course, because he has work and because he's even more resistant than me to throwing stuff out (and that's saying something): the pile of cassette tapes (cheesy US and Turkish pop) that we 'unpacked' onto the windowsill when we moved here from Central Asia 2 years ago and have stayed there, untouched, ever since? He freaked out in the car when I used them as my example of useless clutter and refuses to even entertain the idea of throwing them out. Had I done so without mentioning it, he never would have noticed.

Anyway, I didn't have to frog the Rosie sock, after all, and in my rush to pack I brought everything I needed to cast on the other socks except the crochet hook for the provisional cast-on, so I managed to get quite a bit done on Rosie. No pictures now; I'm busy planning how I'm going to rearrange my living room after I've thrown out half my stuff.

Oh yeah, and the color change is in honor of the new Project Spectrum color group. I might change it every time, except I doubt I'll find something aesthetically pleasing for the "red black and metallics" bit.

Well...

2007-03-31T11:12:00.000-04:00

I had to frog the sock from the first picture, and I think I'm going to have to frog the Rosie one too. And I'm supposed to leave for Staten Island like, now (freaking out a little; I have to drive there and find the place by myself and I'm finding that overwhelming) and while quietly knitting away is something I could probably get away with at this program, casting on and doing the short-rows is probably a little attention-intensive, plus I have three toes to do (I finished binding off the Crazy Tropical sock). So I may not get anything done after all. Boo. Anyway I better go pack and figure out what I'm doing here...

*edited because I forgot to answer a question - I think I like circulars better than dpns, except that sometimes dpns feel faster because you're not pulling things back and forth along the needle to get to the right end. So I use whatever I feel like at the time (knitting ADD...). I was knitting the Santa Fe sock on dpns because I gave my circular in that size to a teyze (auntie; elderly woman) who was knitting Turkish slippers and was really intrigued by my short-rows and circular needles. I ended up ordering her some of her own off of Knitpicks! My Turkish wasn't up to explaining short-rows without a demonstration (I don't know any knitting terminology) and I was well past the toe and heel at that point.

2007-03-30T22:42:00.000-04:00

Well, the conferences went okay. 60% of my parents came, so I had lots of time to knit! I now have 3 socks on the needles. Here are some pics, unfortunately with flash (but "night mode" so I think they look better).

That last one is actually up and running - I took that picture last night. I have a 'toe cup' and a few rows of the Rosie; the only thing is I think it's going to be too big (I have the worst time with that! The Santa Fe sock (first picture) is actually slightly small, so I just stuck some increases in there and I'm going to see how it fits - I really, really don't want to rip unless I absolutely have to!). I'm going to be away all weekend (um...with a bunch of tweens. NOT vacation or anything remotely like. And it's a long weekend...), but hopefully with lots of knitting time so I should have something to show on Tuesday!

Oof ya....

2007-03-29T19:30:00.000-04:00

has it really been 5 days since I last posted? Work is eating my life. And tomorrow is parent-teacher conferences - anyone with the least amount of affection for me, pray that it goes well! I'm awful at talking to parents.

This is my first at-home night this week where I'm not passed out asleep by 8 pm, so I'm knitting, finally. I think I'm ready to start the cuff of the Crazy Tropical sock, but I want to weigh it and I forgot to do so before I left work today, so it's on hold until tomorrow. I'm currently swatching for the Claudia's Handpainted from my last post, and am working on a toe out of my Yarn Pirate Rosie - it seems like a good "bridge" colorway for the transition between color groups in Project Spectrum; white and blue for March and pink and green for April.

Weekend Update

2007-03-25T18:24:00.000-04:00

The "Crazy Tropical Luxury sock" has been moving along insanely fast - the toe pictured before was indeed too big and everything was frogged Thursday, and re-cast-on on Friday. The heel has been turned and I'm moving up the leg. Here's a picture of the back -

I have also now, despite myself and my social phobia, been to TWO NYC yarn shops, purl soho and The Point, plus I broke my no-internet-shopping-for-six-months vow, and so I have yarn -

Below is Schaefer Yarn Lola (ie sport weight) in an insane colorway called Frank's Folly. My camera can't deal with it; it's a slightly richer and less electric red in real life, but still pretty insanely bright.

Last is Claudia Handpainted (Sportweight) in Santa Fe, with Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport in Harvest for contrast. I was trying to get a picture that showed how the LL matched one of the colors in the CHP, but ended up with both either looking washed out or all yellowy; you can, however, see that they match! The LL looks heavier but if I'm using it for heels and toes I suppose that's a good thing.

I'm looking forward to trying sport weight socks; now I'm gonna go see how far I can get on that Crazy sock in what's left of my weekend!

New Socks in Action!

2007-03-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

I like taking
these pictures - maybe I'll do it for every pair.

I also have this:

my next pair! (Besides a boring and non-descript plain blue pair that will be my first heelflap socks, hopefully) This is Great Adirondack Yarn Company's Soxie in Tropicana. I'm looking forward to it! The black is Louet and I love it so far - so soft and squishy! And it doesn't split at all! Comfort and luxury all round. Although I think I cast on too many stitches and I might have to frog - but I always think the short-row toes are too big, until I start working up the foot. We'll see.

Grade me like a kindergartener

2007-03-21T18:58:00.000-04:00

...and my sewing skills will get a "needs improvement."

But for a first time, I'm decently proud. Also, considering that my "batting" is a cut-up old sock, which I'm telling myself excuses most of the lumpiness.
That's supposed to be an ipod cozy from this tutorial; it certainly won't be my last attempt!

2007-03-20T18:21:00.000-04:00

I'll have to practice taking pictures of my own feet.

Yarn: Mountain Bearfoot in Wild Raspberry (Knitpicks Essentials for heels and toes), on size 0 needles. Short-row everything, 2x2 ribbed cuffs (they roll a bit where I started the ribbing, maybe I should have put some on the foot too).

Phew

2007-03-19T23:58:00.000-04:00

...they're done. Awful picture, but I just couldn't wait. I'll try to post a better picture and the details tomorrow. Debating whether to post on SAM now or until I get a better picture... I just want to be DONE!

Plugging away...

2007-03-19T18:47:00.000-04:00

I know it's boring, but it's all I've got...

Sometimes I like people. And then I don't.

2007-03-17T20:01:00.000-04:00

Warning: I've been emotional on the 'extreme' end of the scale lately.

I saw this snowman today and thought it was so cute, especially in Brooklyn... then on the way back, saw it had been stomped into the ground, carrot nose and all. Maybe that's why it looks so sad - it knew its destiny was heartles and cruel destruction? Anyway, I'm lucky I didn't start crying in the street. This past week, reading Little House in the Big Woods to my third graders made me tear up, as did a little kid mispronouncing Sweetie's name (I have privacy/paranoia issues, so if Sweetie's name was Mustafa, which it isn't, the kid would have been calling him "Mr. Mufafa" and it was just so cute.)

I've been busier than usual, so I'm just knitting along on the Bearfoot socks, trying to get them done for Sock a Month (I explained it to my students when they asked why I whipped out my knitting every break; they got excited and asked me what prize I would get if I "won." They were so disappointed when I told them yarn - "That's the lamest prize ever!" At which I can only laugh). I'm taking a weekend class in Manhattan, which, as much as I regret signing up for it the night before when I realize how much of my weekend it's going to take up, has been really good for me if only because it forces me to go somewhere besides work. More about that another time, maybe.

Fortunate-ness!

2007-03-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

Well, now it doesn't matter that my husband always forgets the camera at work... I got my own! Thank you Dad, the check will be in the mail shortly! Here's a picture, a decent picture, and not only that but taken at work on a grey rainy day! (Have I used enough exclamation points yet?)

Those are my Bearfoot socks, one down and one with the heel about to be turned. Here's the cuff; this picture's blurry when you look at it bigger but that's okay.

Next up will be knitting (or maybe sewing...wouldn't extraneous loose fibers be bad for it?) a cozy for the new camera so I can carry it in my purse!

Unfortunate events

2007-03-10T10:56:00.000-05:00

This unfortunate picture is all I have today - Sweetie left the camera at work, so I can't take pictures of my almost-done first Bearfoot sock. That's me measuring out the last few grams of yarn to be allocated to the first sock.
I also cast-on for a plain blue sock, with a figure-8 cast-on, planned to be my first heel-flap sock. I think I'll just do plain ribbing even though it'll make for a boring sock - I just want to get the whole heel-flap thing over with and figure it out for once. No pictures of that one either - I'm not thrilled with it, because the first two rows of stitches from the "figure 8" balloon out a little. I know I've seen tutorials on getting rid of that, so I'll seek one out - I just wish I could remember how I did it when I learned that same cast-on from a little old Turkmen lady when I learned how to knit Turkmen socks, because I didn't have that problem then. Beh.

Socks!

2007-03-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

Few things are as nice as warm socks, blocked on top of the radiator all night. I couldn't resist another (bad) picture. You can see that one sock pooled and the other didn't - I guess I ended up with a few more stitches on that one. It was frustrating, but by the time it became painfully obvious ripping back felt more frustrating, so I left it. I'm curious to see whether these hold up better than my Me socks - these are knit on 0s, and those on 1s.

Quick and dirty

2007-03-05T20:36:00.000-05:00

- here is a picture of my Cape Cod socks. (One of them, but they're both done.) There is a TON of ribbing at the top, because I consistently underestimate how far my yarn is going to go, and switched to ribbing way too early.

Now I have to decide whether or not to count them as my March socks for Sock a Month - it doesn't seem fair if I knit a significant amount of them in February, even if it is allowed. I'd rather push myself to finish the Bearfoot socks on time. Ideally, that won't need pushing, but who knows. I've been assuming the Cape Cod socks would be finished TODAY for about three days now so I don't think I'm a reliable source for these kinds of estimates. Now to block them, and hope that they're dry by morning so I can wear them to work tomorrow!

Another minor update

2007-03-03T23:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of how the Cape Cod socks are looking - one is ready to be bound off and I'm catching the other up - this time I'm determined to really knit until I run out of yarn, rather than until I run out of patience. I think they're going to be quite long.

Here's the Bearfoot sock - the colors are a bit washed out from the sun, it's more intense in real life and the brown foot doesn't stand out quite as much.

I'm currently mulling over what to cast-on next, and I think I've decided on Great Adirondack Yarn's Soxie in Tropicana (the bright blue and rainbow-y one from my pictures) with black toes and heels, but I might do something plain instead. Whatever appeals to my ADD knitting brain at the time.

I lied by omission on the yarn purchase...

2007-03-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

there was more. It just felt like an embarassment of riches. But last night I sat down to pet and re-organize and contemplate my box of Project Spectrum yarn (I have it divided and bagged up by the color groups, with combinations and projects in mind for most of it) and I just want to share. Plus it's a low-effort blog post - I'm still feeling pretty miserable. But I think the end is in sight (and it's not a "I'm laying down to die" sort of end).

Did I say "mixed bag"?

2007-03-01T14:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe yesterday I could, despite being sick, still enjoy the fact that I was home and had free time.

Today I'm so sick that I don't care. I'm still knitting and watching tv, but I'm not having any fun doing it. Bleagh. Plus, Sweetie made me eat half a lemon. I might forgive him in a year or two, but not less, especially since it didn't even make me feel any better.

A Mixed Bag

2007-02-28T12:25:00.000-05:00

I'm home sick today, I think with the flu. I'm imagining it as a cat: it's been stalking me for a week, following me around, occasionally batting me with a paw - and then last night it chomped my head. (Ironically, just yesterday I was telling the 5th graders about the 1918 Spanish flu, and explaining the immune system to the 3rd grade.)

But that does mean knitting time, and also being home when there is good light. I also found a solution to not wanting to take my knitting downstairs and outside in full view of my sometimes-judgemental neighbors: I have a fire escape! (Note that I put the knitting on a tray - the drama of finding the camera and opening that window were plenty while my head is being chomped by the flu. I didn't want the added drama of losing a dpn five stories down.)
So here are my Mountain Bearfoot Wild Raspberry sock, newly cast-on with a brown contrast toe and future, imagined heel (I'm doing them one at a time, since I have one mongo yarn cake which I don't want to un- and/or re-wind to turn it into two) and my Cape Cod socks, which I took off of the circular needles. After I turn the heel I know everything's identical, and it's a straight shot up the leg, and going around and around two at a time with the circular needles starts to feel like it's getting in the way, with all the double lengths of foot and the heels and what-not flopping around too.

So that'll be my day - knitting and tarhana soup with plenty of red pepper, perfect for stuffy icky head-sicknesses.

I'm so scientific!

2007-02-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

Using a triple-beam balance to weigh cakes of yarn. I wonder what the science teacher thought I was going to use it for? Interestingly, the Opal Sock Magic that was supposed to be 100 grams was only 94. The other two were both above-weight.
I've turned the heels on the Cape Cod socks, and I think I'm going to cast on that Bearfoot Wild Raspberry (the one being weighed in the picture, not that you can tell) today if I have time, thus today's weighing.

2007-02-25T20:09:00.000-05:00

A little advice...

2007-02-24T19:08:00.000-05:00

Don't go yarn shopping when you're bored of your knitting plans the way I just said I was... I'm "relaxing" in Hartford with my sister, and went to a real live yarn store for the first time. Now, I'm really happy with my purchase - but it's a lot of yarn, and a lot of money. (I took good pictures, too.) I'm crazy about every bit that I bought. But it's a lot. My sock marathon mileage is up to 7.13 - good thing they're extending the marathon 3 more months!

I bought some fabric too - I got a sewing machine in November and have been practicing a little, but it's time for some more intensive stuff. I'm really excited to get back home and start knitting and sewing all this. Maybe that'll alleviate the fact that going home also means going back to work...

Title? What's that?

2007-02-22T23:08:00.000-05:00

Thinking of titles always was my weak point. Anyway, I figured I might as well post the progress on my sock, since there is a little and also, since I got a site meter I've realized that way more people than I ever thought are actually reading this - or at least glancing at it briefly - even though I haven't been getting comments. It's actually kind of freaking me out - people from Switzerland and Chile and Beijing? Wow. The site meter thing is really neat, I recommend it. Back to my original point: if there are people actually looking at this, I might as well give them something to look at.

The socks're moving along well, and I'm trying to decide what else to cast on. I think I want something bright, and I'm considering bright green. Knitting has made me realize I have some ADD tendencies, and to be honest although I'm really enjoying Project Spectrum, the 2-month thing is driving me nuts. Maybe once we get into a color combination where I like more than one of the colors it won't seem so limiting, but I have all my sock yarns divided by color groups and I really want to "keep" them until it's "time"...but I'm bored! And it won't be "time" for green for more than a month!

Anyway, here are the (not-stellar) pictures (my apartment gets daylight strong enough for really nice pictures for about an hour, and that's on sunny days. I could go outside to take pictures of partially completed socks but the elderly Russians in my building who have nothing to do but observe their neighbors might change their minds about me and my husband being a cute young couple, and decide that we are hooligans instead - people have actually been driven out of the building after similar decisions. Of course, they would probably approve of knitting socks... perhaps someday I'll risk it.)

(Oh, and the background in those pictures is my sleeping husband. The bedroom has the best lighting, and then I thought the white background of his t-shirt might help. Does it say a lot about me as a wife that when he wakes up to find partially knitted socks on him, the camera pointed at him and me saying "Don't move" he doesn't even question it? Even though he can probably infer that the picture is then going on the internet? I think we may have the perfect marriage. Now do me a favor and repeat a quick supplication that the evil eye not touch us for that! Thanks. I probably shouldn't blog late at night...)

Moving on

2007-02-21T17:27:00.000-05:00

Here are my new socks - not a super great picture, I had to use the flash, but I'm really happy with them so far.

The toe is Knitpicks Essential, and interestingly enough it's been much rougher and also shinier than my previous experience with Essential. I'm curious to see if it plumps up and softens after blocking. Anyway, I wasn't sure about the colors when I started but now that I'm a little into the body of the sock I'm very pleased by how the colors work together. I think the more I get the little bits of beige in the body of the sock as I keep going the more I'm going to like it.

Sock Marathon update

2007-02-19T21:12:00.000-05:00

I decided to count my Me Socks, since they were knit in January after all. So I had a total of 6 miles of sock yarn, and in the meantime I've acquired 750 more yards (forgive me for not converting that) and knit 880 (the Me socks and Sweetie socks), which is about half a mile. So I've knit more than I acquired, and I should be somewhere around 5.5 miles. Not bad... even if the distance I've knit is actually a distance I think I could maybe run in real life, i.e. pathetic. (I may be overestimating the distance I could run, though - in college I ran 30 minutes a day and in my head I'm still there.) But what was all that talk of 5 miles in three months? Seems insane to me... maybe if I didn't have a job, but as it is I knit at my job, probably a lot more than I should. Better to get off of the computer and go knit the socks I cast on within ten minutes of finishing the last pair!

They're done!

2007-02-19T19:40:00.000-05:00

Sweetie's socks.

Knitpicks Memories in Yukon, knit on 80 stitches with size 0 Knitpicks circular. Stockinette with short-row toes and heels. Nice and simple! And done!

I've been enjoying my break - I've finished two books so far (Teacher Man and Stiff, which I couldn't put down even when I was eating, even though it was disturbing and I wasn't even sure that I wanted to be reading it at all). I got my copy of Sensational Knitted Socks, but I'm going to wait to do anything from them because I decided to use my Memories Cape Cod colorway for a pair of stockinette socks, with beige toes, heels and cuffs. So now I'm off to cast them on! And this time, since I finished my Sock-a-Month pair, there's no time pressure and I might even cast on for more than one pair at a time!

Wouldn't you just know

2007-02-17T07:59:00.000-05:00

Of course the day vacation starts I'm up at 5 am! That's okay, I wouldn't want to waste all the free time. Sweetie wants 3 more inches of sock, and I'm dreaming of what to cast on next. I'm thinking of blatantly copying these socks (I saw them on the Project Spectrum flickr group, and then google-stalked them) but I haven't decided yet. I did want to do plain stockinette socks... but I have so many pairs of socks in my future at the moment that no matter what I'll get to those anyway.

I've decided I need to get myself a sock book - either Knitting Vintage Socks or Sensational Knitted Socks (it seems like every time I stalk a pattern I love lately, it turns out to be from that book). If one of my friends is up for it I'm planning a trip to Barnes and Noble today - I've made a vow to not internet-shop for six months, so I'll have to see what I can find in real life (the horror!). One of my goals for my knitting year was to experiment with various toes and heels, and I think it's time to read up on them. If anyone has a book recommendation I'd love to hear it!

Minor Update

2007-02-16T13:22:00.000-05:00

Sweetie's socks are nearing completion - I've turned the heel, and the legs seem to be going quickly as they're straight stockinette. Somehow I got one sock turned around on the needles (I told you I was bad at spatial stuff), so in the picture you're seeing the back of one and the front of the other. I like this stockinette-sock deal so much I'm going to make myself a pair next...I just have to decide which yarn to use.

Yarn! Yarn! Yarn!

2007-02-14T14:39:00.000-05:00

Well, I was hoping to get good light today, but the storm is thwarting me so I had to use a flash and my pictures aren't that good. But the important thing is that I have new yarn! [Edit: I got better light, so I switched out the pictures]

First is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Wild Raspberry - my skein seems to have more blue, green and rust in the mix than others I've seen online, and I love it! In real life the burgundy color is much more intense.

Then there's Hill Country Yarns' Sweet Feet Sock Yarn (love the name) in Chocolate Covered Kisses.

Now I just have to decide whether to wait until their colors come along in Project Spectrum, or to "cheat" on PS - I doubt I have the self control to wait long, so that only leaves a decision about which one to use first....

Praise be!

2007-02-13T17:25:00.000-05:00

I've been making dark threats about what I'm going to do if this week were to be as bad as the last two, but finally the streak has broken! Today many, many wonderful things happened; I think I need a list.

1. I got a Valentine's present, and it is jewelry.
2. I got another Valentine's present, and it's yarn. Two skeins of gorgeous sock yarn. (I'll explain about pictures below.)
3. I finally confronted someone who's supposed to share a responsibility with me and has been consistently ditching me, AND I did it fearlessly and cleverly so it was almost a joke but they got the point, and I am so incredibly proud of myself because I'm usually too afraid to confront anyone! Much less cleverly!
4. I have another Valentine coming, and it's also jewelry (I'm 99% sure).
5. The program I was supposed to participate in Valentine's Day evening (!!) is CANCELLED so I can have my date with Sweetie as planned!
6. SCHOOL IS CANCELLED TOMORROW! (Cold weather) Which means I can finish Sweetie's Valentine socks, I can RELAX, I can take pictures of my new yarn in good light, I can do whatever I want!
7. I came home after school to a totally free evening, Interweave Knits and Glamour were in my mailbox, and there's good tv tonight.

So whatever it is I was being punished for by means of the past two weeks... it's over. I hope.

More blue

2007-02-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

Those beaded flowers I posted yesterday are from a pair of dollar-store slippers I wear as house shoes - here's a (slightly blurry) picture of the whole thing.

Taking these pictures and knitting helped me calm down considerably yesterday (after cleaning energetically (ie angrily), which also helped quite a bit) after a stressful week. Two weeks. I think I haven't made enough room for creativity in my weekday life.

Project Spectrum Blues

2007-02-10T15:12:00.000-05:00

2007-02-10T14:42:00.000-05:00

After a very bad day

2007-02-08T17:01:00.000-05:00

This is how I killed time until I could just veg and watch Tyra and not think about anything.

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system.

And while this may not seem big, it can be.

It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes.

You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Fun!

I've been tagged!

2007-02-07T07:58:00.000-05:00

Emilee tagged me for the "Five Secrets About Me" meme, and it's my first time! So exciting. So, five things I haven't mentioned here before...

1. I'm American, but I spent 4 of the last seven years abroad, most recently as an aid worker (teacher) in Central Asia (but not Afghanistan - I'm not that brave. I had some really great Afghan refugee students whom I love dearly though).

2. My husband is Turkish, and we met in 1. when he was an expat English teacher at a fancy private school in the same town where I was working. I earned the nickname "Turkish Princess" for how spoiled I got by all of the Turkish food (local food was...not to US tastes), Simpsons in English, and air conditioning he lavished on me. (I was there as part of a group, and the conditions we lived in were local standards and not US. Thus air conditioning was unimaginable luxury for most of us.)

3. When I want to, I shamelessly exploit my headscarf and the fact that people make assumptions to pretend that I don't speak English. Earnest cult member handing out pamphlets? Creepy, chatty guy in line or on the train? I've perfected this blank look that, combined with the scarf, somehow creates a forcefield that protects me from any and all weirdos who want to talk. It's like magic!

4. I used to be vegan, until I became allergic to soy. (I'm running out of ideas, can you tell?)

5. My little sister is taller than me, and the reason I was so crazy about platform shoes in high school wasn't because they were fashionable, it was so people wouldn't notice she was growing more than me.

Okay! I wasn't sure I was going to make it there. Now I have to tag five people... and I'm not sure who even reads. I'm tagging Teal for sure, and pretty much anybody else who's ever left a comment here. That means Knit Nurse, Smug Sheep, Kneesocky, and Lauren. Oh man, I hope you people still read here sometimes. And I think I'll also tag anyone else who happens along - and don't do what I always do and say to yourself "Oh, she doesn't mean me" and continue on your merry way - I do mean you! You're tagged!

And just for interest, although the interest is minimal because it's just longer stockinette than before, here's a picture of my progress on my Sweetie's Project Spectrum sock.

Now, anybody who read this should go write a meme! Seriously!