I'm back

and the socks went well. I got my sister The Very Best Sock Kit from Tangle (I want to put in a link but I don't have the "edit html" thingy - maybe because I'm on a Mac? I'll edit it later. Okay, that should be fixed now...) instead of actual socks, and my sister's boyfriend's socks were only half done and my dad's a little more than a quarter. But the boyfriend sock fit, and I'm turning the heel on the second one RIGHT NOW. Then to finish my dad's socks... then knit a hat for my sweetie that matches the scarf my mom knit him, then to knit Best Friend socks, then Sweetie socks, and then finally I'll knit myself some socks. Ironic that I haven't done that yet. There's an "It's Not a Gift" knitalong (scroll down, it's at the end of her post) and I'd love to participate but I don't think I'll be done with all these gifts in time.

Anyway I got a swift and ball winder, and they're so much fun! I'll try to get some pictures up soon, but wanted to update regardless.

He's dead...

and I have no idea what to think about it. Oddly, I almost want to mourn him, but how does one mourn a monster? Or was he one? After the first year there I never was sure. But at the very least he is a "father" who was crippling and deforming his own children's lives, whether knowingly or by his own inaction.

And yet...what will come after? In 5 years we may well wish we had him back.

I want to call, call all the people I've had no contact with for fear of putting them in danger. When I was there I was constantly aware of the attention from, let's say, unwanted third parties. I knew that some of my friends informed on me. There was a faceless, alien presence everywhere I went and no matter what I was doing I didn't forget that. So when I left... I was afraid for all those friends. The stories coming out since I'd left were getting more and more horrific and it's impossible to know the truth even when you're there. But I'm almost more afraid to call them now. Because no one knows what will come next.

Anyone know?

I'm considering trying 2 circulars instead of dpns, but it seems
Knitpicks don't come any shorter than 16". Would that get in my way using 2 circs? I seem to remember my sister using fairly short ones. Hmm, maybe I'll have to suck it up and actually visit a real yarn store for once...

CRAP

CRAP
Originally uploaded by rahime.

I'm psychic...looks like the sock will probably fit though (didn't get it all the way onto my foot before I heard the *crack*). Well, somewhere I have a set of metal dpns...maybe I'll pull them out.

Stash II

Okay, experimenting with that pixelly-ness. This is the rest of my Sock Memories stash (well, okay, half of it - I have two skeins of each colorway, of course!).
From left to right: Fly Fishing, Peony, Hawaii, Geranium, Cape Cod.

Sock Memories is really addictive - the pictures on Knitpicks' website don't show the colorways well, and once you see the real thing it's hard not to like any of them.

Stash I

Well, I'm procrastinating and it seemed like a good idea to post some stash pics. Sock yarn only - and I realized it's all from Knitpicks - I need to branch out.

First up is Sock Memories in Yukon - intended for socks for my sweetie, who's been sulking a little that I've been knitting for everybody else but him.


Next is yarn for Best Friend Socks - Sock Memories in Morning Glory.

Hmm, my pictures are kind of pixelly. I guess I'll have to tinker with that - posting the rest of my embarassingly large Knitpicks sock yarn stash will be good practice...

Still-life with sock

Here's a blurry picture of the progress on Sister's Boyfriend's sock. (Camera phone again... I guess I'm procrastinating on work, but I get these sudden urges to blog stuff when I have a planning period at school....)

I want to show it on a foot, but every time I try it on I give up because I'm afraid my massively wide feet will snap those dpns like the little twigs they are. That was one of the best things about Magic Loop. I wish I could find a size 0 40" Addi - Knitpicks' biggest size seems to be 32" and maybe I'm doing something weird, but I find I pull a little much on the joins even with 40" needles.

Anyway I need to find out how high up the leg he wanted these to go. I'm also afraid they're a little long in the foot, but hopefully I'm just being paranoid because of the long-and-skinny effect that the ribbing pulling in gives it.

After days of playing tag

the flu has caught me. I avoided it for quite awhile...drinking Airborne, sleeping extra. My poor sweetie was sick for days before I got it. But finally I ended up with a splitting headache, raging fever, and sore throat - I got up to go to work and he sent me back to bed and called in sick for me (Do I hear a chorus of 'awwww'?). And I proceeded to sleep until 3.

Now I think I'm feeling better... but that could just be the two straight days of X-files dvds and knitting. Although I didn't pick up the knitting until the second day - I'm turning the heel on my sister's boyfriend's sock and really I should be quite a bit further. It's already Hanukkah - so I have less than a week to finish them (and mail them!) if I want to acheive any semblance of being on time. I might settle for being fashionably late. Or I could mail one on time and send the other on later! Only I'll probably need it for stripe matching reference... beh.

The most excruciating,

boring day ever! Jury duty! I was excited to go but reality didn't exactly match up. And I couldn't knit - although I bet I could have gotten bamboo dpns through.

But now it's over - for the next 6 years.

Just for the heck of it...

dadssock
Originally uploaded by rahime.

Here's the sock I'm knitting for my dad - I'm juuuust ready to turn the heel. It seems freakishly long, but again, I'm following a pattern where I plugged in his foot measurements, and again, he has big feet. The pattern worked for my mom, so I'm hopeful.

A picture!!! A sock!!!

sock
Originally uploaded by rahime.

Sorry for the pixelly, blurry, color-distorted picture but I had free time at work and just had to post, which meant using my cell phone cam. The red is much less orange and much more burgundy in real life. I'm liking the stripes so far, but leaning towards maintaining thinner stripes rather than continuing the Fibonacci increases. But my sister assures me the recipient will appreciate the mathiness of the stripes...I'm reserving judgement and continuing the increases for now.

Double yay

The Fibonacci stripes are looking really cute - and seem to be moving along a lot faster than my dad's purple checkerboards. That's good because I've got about 2 weeks!

Yayyyy...

I knitted today! Finished the toe and moving on up the foot of my sister's boyfriend's sock. I've decided (with her advice) to do fibonacci stripes, since she said he'd like geeky, mathy things. Now I just have to not get lazy and actually finish knitting something for once...

An eensy bit of progress, thank God

My dad's sock is moving along - almost ready to turn the heel. I think I'm going to have to add in some stripes - he has big feet and wants tall socks, and I've definitely gone through most of one ball of yarn. It's Knitpick Memories in Rocky Mountain Dusk, which I have 3 skeins of, and I do have some plain purple, so I guess I'll do the heels in purple and then think about seeing what stripes look like if it still seems like I need them.

I'm also in the process of starting my sister's boyfriend's socks. I finally decided on burgundy and cocoa brown stripes, after much dithering. He tends to be a bit staid (and also picky) but surprisingly, requested funky, interesting socks so I had a bit of a dilemma. These seem staid to me but I guess the tastes of the general public vary substantially from my own and stripey socks in themselves may be a bit out there for most people. In any case, there's no time for more dithering, I have to get cracking!

I guess I have to stop whining

about other people not updating their blogs, if I don't either.

Haven't been knitting hardly at all - I want to kick myself in the butt, I don't know WHY, but I just can't seem to do it. However, I have cleaned up and organized my living room and it is much, much improved and makes me feel all calm and happy when I look at it. Now for the bedroom and kitchen, and life will be goooood.

I'm supposed to be working on lesson plans, and also just can't seem to do it. I'm browsing various websites instead. But, but, my house is clean! Kind of! So I am a virtuous person! Who will be whiny and grouchy when she realizes, later tonight, that she is in no way ready for Monday. Sigh.

I also had my first real shopping Black Friday. We FINALLY got a wireless router, and a navigation system (for less than half of what we'd budgeted! We have $70 left over from what we had saved up for it), and a wireless headset for my husband's phone when he drives, and, AND - I got a sewing machine! Completely unexpectedly. I'd been tossing around the idea in my head, because it makes a lot of sense, but I was afraid I'd buy it and then never use it. But I walked past one on sale, deeply discounted, and decided to go for it. I got some clearance fabric, a pattern and some remnants and now I'm really really thinking about opening it up and trying it out (instead of doing the aforementioned lesson plans, of course) but the thought of those same aforementioned lesson plans is stopping me.

Someday I'll be one of those people who wakes up early and jumps right into their to-do list...right? How do I go about that? It's like a secret club I don't know how to join.

The demise of my knitting funk has been greatly exaggerated...

Blah. My mom's socks fit her, so maybe I'll finish up the cuff, teach myself 3-needle bind-off and be done with something.

Started my friend's sweater over, but in seed stitch and I can't keep track of whether I'm supposed to knit or purl and keep ending up with ribbing. Beh.

No progress on anything else...and I don't feel good about it. I just got an ipod so maybe I'll do a quick knit or - ooh!- crocheted ipod cover to get my groove back...

AAUGH!

The fuzzy blue mohair with white speckles I'm using for my friend's wrap sweater is coming up short, AGAIN! It's vintage and I don't know the yardage. I just guess. With disastrous results, twice. Boo. I picked out a different pattern and have cast on for it - I'm praying that I have enough yarn for THIS one. Also that I can still finish it for the holiday. Sucks.

A Bright Day for Knitting

I'm out of my knitting funk! I took another look at Mom's almost-done socks, which I had decided to rip back because they had "so many" dropped stitches, and could only find two. TWO. One of which I fixed right then. I must have been in a really bad mood (and being somewhat of a drama queen) when I made that decision. So happily, I can just keep knitting since they're almost done and since I have at least 2 and a half more pairs to knit before mid-December.

I'm also reconsidering the Magic Loop vs. dpns verdict - picking up the Magic Loop socks and knitting on addis again after bamboo dpns? Really, really nice. I love the feel of the metal needles and how smoothly the yarn moves over them. And it sure is nice to have both socks done at once...

It's looking like I may just finish that wrap sweater in plenty of time for Eid - although nobody seems sure exactly when Eid's going to be. Sunday? Monday? Something like that. The kiddies at school love to ooh and ahh over how fast I knit it - they're used to typical progress on size 1's with fingering weight yarn, so the sudden switch to 10.5s and two strands of yarn makes a big impact.

I've been not busy per se as much as overwhelmed - although fasting has gotten much easier for the past 10 days or so, it's still hard to keep up with my normal daily routine.

My Knitpicks order arrived, so I've made a little progress on my circular shrug. Mom's socks have been set aside for now, unfinished and needing to be ripped back. I cast on for Dad's on dpns and am midway up the foot - I have to admit, I like dpns better. I think I'd rather work the two separately but simultaneously on two sets of dpns than do Magic Loop, which is sad because Magic Loop is really pretty neat. Oh well...

My current goal on the wrap sweater is to finish the one I spontaneously decided to knit for a friend before the 23rd or 24th, since that'll be Eid (Ramazan bayram) and I want to gift it then. The back of mine is knit but set aside until hers is finished.

In other news... I finally got my long-awaited last year's birthday present! Sweetie promised me a diamond ring one very romantic night in Manhattan last year - and then I waited... and waited... and waited. And then I finally asked where it was. And then I waited some more. And then I realized it was a week before my NEXT birthday, and I still hadn't gotten it, and I laid my foot down. He wanted to get it from Turkey, and we couldn't go this year... so I had to point out which guys we know bought their wives or fiancees nice jewelry HERE, and if they could do it, he could do it... so one week after THIS year's birthday, I finally have a diamond ring. And it's so pretty and shiny and makes my hand look elegant and feminine, and I'm very happy.

Minor Update

Still haven't finished mom's socks, but I'm almost there. I should get cracking, it's Socktoberfest plus I'm really, really behind my own sock/holiday schedule.

Finished the back of the wrap sweater - I've decided to make one for a friend at the same time, piece by piece (hers should go fast, she's tiny) so it's time to cast on for the back of *her* sweater. I might give hers sleeves if I have enough yarn...but there's time for that later.

Had to order dpns from Knitpicks to finish my circular shrug, so I'll have to wait for those to get here.