A Quickie

Alright- super quick today. We are T minus 45 minutes to departure for the OBX and Family Vacation of Fun! I wanted to post before I left so no one worries when I go quiet for the next week and a few days. There is a slight chance I'll be able to blog while beaching it - but I'm not pushing it. So, anyway, I finished something. Yay me! Where's my cookie?
The Ribbed Noro Socks. Sorry no foot modeling today. I'm not about to put on a pair of 100% wool socks in 90 degree heat and humidity (I obviously am not dedicated enough to my blog). I did these 2-at-a-time style, so I used both ends of the ball of yarn, which means that the sock stripes match...
In reverse order. So cool. Anyway, now I just have to wait for Autumn to roll around to wear these pretties. No hurry though. I am very ready for a week of lazy summer days.

Counting Up Counting Down

Today was nephew Elliott's second birthday. Happy birthday little man! Can't believe he's already 2.Which means that yesterday was his big b-day bash. The cake was tasty, and more was eaten this time around.
He made out with the presents... again. Here's him driving (yes I just said a 2 year old was driving) his Gator. Can't tell you how jealous I am that he has a Gator and I don't. Need to talk the school into getting me one. And just so Mr. Mason doesn't feel unloved, here he is in all his cuteness.
Seriously. Cute. So in the car on the way back from the party, I finished sewing in the ends of the first "Toe Up with a Difference" socks. AKA -Charm socks, because the third pattern's a charm with this yarn. That's right, this is the 3rd pattern I've attempted with this yarn. And I finally have a winner. Love the pattern, love the yarn. Yay.I'm also very close to finishing the Noro socks. Like, finish them tomorrow at SnB, close. Yay! The goal was to get these done before vacay - and I will. Which, means new socks for vacation knitting.

Speaking of vacay - the countdown is on! T minus 4 days. Well, 5 if we're counting how many days until I'm actually on the beach and not just out of the hometown. Which means that blogging will cease for a week. A strict luggage rule is being enforced, and only one laptop is being permitted in the car, and it's not mine. And seeing as Dad will have work stuff and Ellie will have school stuff... I'm not thinking that blog stuff is going to rank very high. But I'll try.

And so I'll leave you with some photos from last week. I did some puppy sitting for BFF Bridget. And my favorite thing about Seamus sitting, besides Seamus, is this...
The view from their neighborhood park. I love walking down and looking at the lake and letting Seamus run wild.
He likes it too.

Bad Blogger Me

I am a bad blogger. I have been told by my brother - who is blogless. How dare I not post every 3 days? My only explanation is that I haven't had anything blogworthy lately. Not much knitting, not much to report about work.

Tommy came home last Wednesday night. Last weekend, I went down to States for the baseball game. It was a heartbreaker. Up 4-3 going into the bottom of the 7th, and the guys lost 5-4. It was very sad, and disappointing, but there's always next year - as any Cleveland sports fan knows.

On my way home on Saturday, I had a bit of car trouble. A new light started blinking. We all know how much I love to see an odd light on in my dashboard. It was the "Check Transaxle" light. So I called home from a rest area and was told to add transmission fluid. Okay. Mile and a half down the highway is the first exit. Okay. Four different gas stations. Okay. The Shell has transmission fluid. Okay.

And an hour and a half later, the fluid was finally added. I won't go into the details. It would take too long. I just have to say thank goodness for Steve at the tractor/riding lawn mower service station who came to my rescue.

Saturday was Mom's birthday, so we went out to dinner at Smoky Bones and then had ice cream cake. Had a cookout on Sunday and Tuesday nights so people could come over and spend some time with Tommy.

Yesterday, I went to the Riverfront Irish Fest with Bridget Chris and Kaylee. No pictures - I took my camera, but managed to forget my memory card. But it was good to get out for some Guinness and good music. Can't wait for Berea.

And now for the lackluster knitting content. I finally managed to finish plying up the "Mother of Pearl" roving. Here it is.270 yards of fingering weight-ish yarn. I haven't done the wraps/inch so I'm not entirely sure on the weight yet.

At some point in the last couple of weeks, I managed to finish spinning up the first 2 oz. of the "Wander" Corriedale roving. This is what it looks like.
I prepped the second half of the roving today, and now just need to wait until it's cool enough so I don't felt it while spinning.

And here's the only knitting progress I've got to show. I've passed the heels on the Noro socks.

See, no longer Hokie like. Alright, that's it. Just wanted to drop a note in case anyone was worried.

Noro is my anti-depressant

Sorry for the delay in the presentation of the fibery goodness. This week has not been the best. My car started making a horrible noise late last week and I took it in to get fixed on Tuesday. It's now fixed, but my bank account is broken. Anyone know where you get to get that fixed? I'm already working, any other suggestions?

So, anyway, Tuesday I needed a bit of a pick-me-up after I got the quote on my car. And since my bank account was broken and I couldn't order the pretty yarn that was in the Loopy Ewe's Sneak up (first time in weeks I've wanted to order stuff and I can't - because that's how my life works) what did I turn to? Noro of course. I started some Noro socks using the 2 socks at one time on one big long circular needle (a circular needle has the two knitting needle points attached to one flexible cord, thereby allowing you to knit in a circle). As of right now, they look like this:

I'm doing a knit3, purl 1 rib. Nothing fancy. And they kinda look like some Hokie socks at the moment. But this is the ball of yarn that will eventually become the rest of the sock:So it won't stay Hokie-ish for too much longer. Sorry Krista. But onto the haul from Saturday. Clockwise from top right, 2 oz of gray angora from Sheephaven Hutchworks, 2500 yds of hand-dyed alpaca lace-weight yarn from Briar Rose, 100% baby Suri alpaca from Stargazer Farm (that's only one of three hanks I got) and 4 oz of a 50/50 blend of alpaca/llama roving from Midwest Fiber Company. And here's the spindle I got:It's from the Rouge Lucette, it's .9 oz and made from curly koa wood, which is only found in Hawaii. And it's currently holding some Corriedale roving from Squoosh on Etsy. Which I'm loving.Not bad fro my first ever fiber festival. And so, we move on to the knitting. This is where I'm at on the previously unblogged sock.It's just a plain stockinette sock, therefore it will be known as the Plain Vanilla sock. Out of some very not vanilla Stone Barn Fibers "Adrianna" from the Loopy Ewe. It's very pretty yarn and works up really well. I've also started some Christmas knitting (I know, hard to believe I'm attempting to get an early start for a change) but since recipients or those close to recipients may or may not read the blog, they will go unblogged to maintain the surprise that should be Christmas presents.

Okay, for a reward for my knitting muggle readers who made it this far into the post (the term "muggle" comes from Harry Potter, all non-magical folks are referred to as muggles, therefore, it's been adopted to be used as a term for those who do not belong to a particular sub-culture) some sports related updates. My baseball team is playing in the regionals today down in Lorain, against a team that no one has ever heard of, Maple something. They played a game Tuesday against Beachwood that didn't count for anything and managed a come back from 9-1 to a 13-11 win. The win, if they count it, gave them a new school record for most wins in a season. Yay them.

The LAX team played Rocky River in their first play-off game on Tuesday and they won. Which means that we play the hated US team today. I will be attending that game. Track ran at Navarre yesterday for the regionals or whatever level they're at. And that's it.

Happy May

I actually have knitting things to show today. Nothing finished of course, but I'm getting there. Looking back on my trepidation about the log cabin bag, I'm a fool. I mean, I know that Kate is a good knitter and pattern designer, why wouldn't I trust the pattern? You would think that I would have learned to just go with it. But I haven't. Anyway, went to KotS on Tuesday morning and Kate said I was doing everything correctly, so I continued. And by the end of the night (SnB was Tuesday as well) this is what I had:

So cool. I loves it. Notice the difference in the two sides. Totally brilliant. Haven't had a chance to sit down and do the handle (which is all that's left on this bad boy before felting). Maybe Sunday. Onto something else. This is how far I am on the Clapotis. Loving this alot. Doesn't it just remind you of the crocuses and it's all springy and stuff. here's a close up of the stitch pattern.Gots to love intentionally dropped stitches. They're so liberating. Moving on. I started spinning the "Wrightwood" superwash merino I got a little while ago on etsy. It's my Earth spinning for Project Spectrum. It's very cool. I love the tweediness. In the department of no picture knitting, I finished the I-cord edging on the tomten for Elliott (finally) and just need to get a zipper and it's done. Voila. It's seriously high in the cuteness factor. Will photo when the zipper is in and I have a model to do it justice. Now that it's May, I've decided that my sock hiatus is over. I actually knit on a sock yesterday! For the first time in a month. Need to get the gift Noro socks done so I can start other ones without guilt.

In non-knitting news. there's not much to report. The baseball team has been rained out or away most of the week. They beat US twice, I just don't have any details. The JV game the other day, of which I saw about an inning due to LAX being home at the same time, ended badly. Really badly. 25-8 badly. Ouch. The LAX team won that day. Softball beat Hawken yesterday. Had another track meet Tuesday. Boring. I had to rush down to the finish line because someone was "hurt." Right. The girl in question landed funny in the high jump and bruised her elbow. Definitely a medical emergency.

Other than that, it's busy around home. Gearing up for the big Derby Day party tomorrow. Should probably go clean something now.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Hope nobody is sick on jelly beans yet. I have been chastised for neglecting the blog, so today I will make up for it with a nice extra long post. And to my beloved family - you don't need to read much more because it's all about knitting and spinning and I know that you are not interested.

I do not yet have a sock for this week. I know, it's Sunday and I don't have a sock. How is that possible? Well, the Knitting Fates were against me this week. I think I may have angered them with my flaunting of the fact that I'm ahead on my sock count to date. So they threw their heads back and laughed at me. And still are. Here is the first Jeweled Step sock.

It's pretty right? The yarn is very gorgeous (Seacoast Handpainted in "Ambergris") and great to work with. I chose this pattern from the New Pathways book because it matched the gauge I got (see, I even swatched and still the Knitting Fates decided to screw with me). So I cast on for this sock last Friday night. Yeah - it was that long ago. And things were going well, until I looked at it and looked at the picture in the book, and re-read the directions, and said, "Crap, I did this wrong." And proceeded to rip out the arch expansion. And then, just to make sure I was clear, I re-read the directions and said, "Crap, I was doing it close to right, I didn't need to rip. Oh well, this time it'll be perfect." And re-knit.

Saturday, I continued re-knitting and almost finished the arch expansion without any trouble. Didn't work on the sock on Sunday (went to see Brigid's Cross at the East Side Irish American club with friends - yay for Guinness!), and then picked the sock back up on Monday evening at Meagan's house. Knit the heel, and got the part about the wing stitches, and realized I had skipped a step and forgot to add some stitches. Boo.

Tuesday at work, I ripped back and fixed the problem. And re-worked the heel and turned it and everything, and decided to try the sock on. Crap. The arch expansion triangle thingy is supposed to go up the side of the foot (the name of the sock architecture is after all, Sidestream), and instead, it was smack dab center of my foot. Hmmm. Hmmm. So I put aside for the trip out to SnB. Then I pulled out the book and started reading line by line to figure out where I went wrong. Yeah, forgot to move the markers after I added the stitches and so therefore worked the heel in the wrong place. So, it was time to rip, again. I spent the first hour and a half at SnB ripping and reconfiguring the stitches so that they would all be in the correct place. And somehow I was a stitch short. How it happened I don't know. But I fudged it and added one, I was not about to rip and redo again.

So on Wednesday, I re-knit the heel. Again. And started to turn the heel. And about a third of the way through, I look down at my lovely sock, and realize I've dropped a stitch. Way back 5 rows ago, in the part of the heel that's already been turned. Which means that there is no way to fix it without... you guessed it, ripping. Yay!

So I said to myself, because the Knitting Fates are seriously messing with me this week, instead of just ripping back to the mistake, I'm ripping back to fix the number of stitches correctly and it will be perfect and they can stop laughing. So I did. And when I ripped back, put the markers and the stitches in their correct original position, I counted. And had the correct number of stitches. WTF?!? Like I said, they're seriously messing with me at this point. Trying to cause insanity from knitting.

So, on Thursday I sat down with the sock. And re-worked the hell (that's 4 times now, if you're counting) and moved on. Got to the leg, and re-read the instructions for the patterned bit, and realized that I had been soing it wrong the whole time, that the first time I had done it, way back before ripping at all, it had been right. So, in my attempts to not take scissors to the sock, I put it down, and walked away. And did other things. So it remains incomplete. We'll get there eventually, I'm just so sick of it I can't stand to knit on it.

Alright, enough with the saga of the sock. Onto happier things. I did manage to work on some other stuff this week - just to maintain my sanity. This is Elliott's Tomten - about to start the second ball and start the part with the armpit holes and what not. Yay.

And this is the first of the Fuzzy Feet pattern. Just what I needed to get my sock mojo back - or so I thought. I finished it in less than 3 hours. Yay fun. I just need to do the other one so they can be felted and become the slippers they're meant to be. More about that later, when the time comes.

And Friday, I started another sock. Well, I ripped out the sock the Noro yarn had been, and am re-knitting it in the Spiral Eyelet pattern, and am liking it much more. No pics because I'm thinking this will be a gift pair of socks. But it's really pretty so far.

And now onto spinning. On Monday, at Meagan's, I managed to finish spinning up the spindle kit wool. Here it is. So pretty, I love love love it. I don' care what the family or non-knitting friends say, I like spinning, you cannot buy this at a store, and even if I had a man, I would still knit and spin, so enough with the comments already.

And here's the "Erin" wool that it will be plied with, when I finish spinning the Erin. I can't wait.

And for the record, I kept my Lenten sacrifice, I did not buy one single bit of yarn the whole of Lent. And the major bingeing has to wait a week, because Knitting on the Square is closed this week for the Maple Festival (but, on the bright side, the week after, everything in the store is on sale!). But, this did come in the mail last week.

It's the first of my Hill Country Yarn Sock Club skeins. I paid for my membership way back in Decmber, so this does not count against the Lent thing. It's their DK weight yarn in "Lilacs". It's so soft and pretty. Can't wait to finish the socks in progress so I can make these.

Alright, I think that's it for me. Thanks to those of you who made it through. I'll have to start posting more often to avoid such long and tedious posts. Happy Easter again!