Then there were 4.5

Now after some plying this weekend I have four and a half skeins of my lovely self-striping kool-aid dyed yarn. Not sure what I can make out of it. I really have no ideas when it comes to things like this. Right now, I think it'll take me all four and a half skeins to get a scarf. But in total, this was 8 oz of fiber (before dying), and I feel like I should have more than enough to make a scarf.

Sock Wars.

So I joined Sock Wars this morning. Maybe it's a mistake. Maybe I won't have time to do it seeing as how I'll be in school. But it should be loads of fun trying.

If you haven't joined.... go do it now. It looks like some serious fun.

The wheel is calling.

My spinning wheel is calling. I did some spinning earlier this morning before I sat down to work on my candle flame shawl. I did a little, but I just need to spin. That's my problem. I spin because I want to spin. I like spinning. I like fiber. I never have a specific project in mind when I start spinning. Because of this I don't make much with my handspun. I'm always afraid I'm going to run short. I guess I just don't know how much yarn it takes to make everyday kinda items.

I've played with the idea of selling my handspun, but I just don't know if it would sell or not. I don't know if people would want it. AHHH! It drives me crazy... What do you think? Is it worth selling it just to see if there's much of a market for it? I guess if it doesn't sell I could always keep it, or even gift it. Does anyone out there actually sold some of their handspun?

Does this count as a FO?

I made this.
Actually I made this on Tuesday, and it was drying when I was posting about Adamas. I would have updated yesterday about it but I spent all day in Delaware, OH, because we went down to visit my sister for parents night at band camp.

In other not so great news... My cousins apartment burned to the ground. They barely got out in time. The more we find out the worse the story gets. The smoke alarms had been beeping so apparently they took out the batteries. So then of course, when the apartment caught fire there was no warning. Two of my cousins, and the oldests baby live in this apartment. The baby is not two weeks old. So the boyfriend/father of the baby was staying the night. He heard an explosion and woke up, to flames. No one else was even awake, so he woke his girlfriend up, grabbed the baby and then got the younger sister up. They made it out by pure luck. The pets survivd too even though they were forgotten about in all the chaos. So three families are without homes, it was arson, and everything is gone including the car that was in the garage.

Adamas-finally

Finally I can post a picture of Adamas. It isn't the world best picture. I've found that this shade is very hard to photograph, or at least it is for me. I tried going outside, where the sun, and furniture just washed it out. Then I tried the living room. It was okay. The pure glory of the color doesn't show through, but you can see the general shape.

Pattern: Adamas from Knitpicks
Yarn: Shadow in color Oregon Coast, also from Knitpicks

Okay.. I know, not that exciting.

Also, I finished square number 7 for charity. Square 6 was finished either earlier this week or late last week, and because I didn't include a picture before, there's one now.I've worked on Pomatomus, it's coming along.

Fun with Mail.

I would love to post about the shawl and show you the finished pictures, but my mom took it to work with her to show everyone, and it probably won't be back till tomorrow night.

Until then I will entertain you with what came in the mail today. A cute little package from my SP!

All sorts of goodies.

There's a crochet hook/dpn/other random thing holder, cute little notecards with a knitter on them, some magnet like things, dark chocolate (which looks amazing), and of course there was yarn. Hand-dyed sock yarn to be specific. The yarn has all sorts of colors in it. There's lots of blue and some browns. One skein seems quite a bit darker than the other, so I'm not sure if I'm going to do the whole every other row with a different skein kinda thing, or just knit one sock with each color and ignore the fact that there's a slight difference in color. I guess I could just make each skein into two smaller balls, then just do the whole alternating thing.

Blocked...

It's been blocked. Looks great.

Only took about 10 hours maybe to dry.

I was eager to get it off the blocking board, especially since my cats took a liking to pull the pins out and chew on them.

I tried to take a picture but it just wasn't happening. I hope to get one outside tomorrow, and maybe eventually I'll get a picture of it on me. Who knows. I'm not very photogenic.

Completely FO

Finally got some buttons today when I bought a blocking board for my shawl.

Shawl is still blocking. It feels dry to me but I'm scared to take the pins out. I have this horrible feeling it'll just bounce back to the way it was before.
In the meantime I sewed the buttons I bought on the sweater. They were perfect for the top and bottom button holes that were done in the size 6 needles. They were too small though for the other three holes. I was upset, and I mean upset. (I might have been a little tired) So I went back to the store and bought some bigger buttons for the middle 3 holes. Doesn't look too bad.

I really want to do some spinning.

Adamas

Adamas is blocking. The cats are quite interested in it. Kitty number 1 was caught sitting on it, he wandered off, and no sooner than he did kitty number 2 showed up and took his turn.

This could be potentially problematic.

I might just spend the rest of the day spinning while babysitting Adamas.

Cross my fingers, maybe it'll be dry by tonight? Not likely, but possible.

I really don't like thinking of titles.....

I came close to finishing Adamas before I left. Not close enough to get it off the needles though. I have maybe 1/4 of it casted off, so it should be off today. I'm really thinking I might go get a blocking board. I was going to just use a cardboard box but I have a bad feeling it won't be big enough. I'm waiting for the 40% off coupon that we will hopefully get in the paper today.

Still need buttons for my baby sweater. I need to start another one too for a baby that's been here for several months. Last September my other cousin had a baby, and I had been working away on a baby blanket but it had 222 little pieces and after sewing them all together and weaving in 21392083928 ends, I wasn't giving it up. But I saw the baby again yesterday, I really think he needs a sweater... he's just so cute!

Started the second Pomatomus, I have a cuff so far. There really hasn't been much knitting happening. Hopefully I'll have more to show in the upcoming days.

Adamas

I was hoping to have a blocking Adamas to show you today. I'm going to be away from home for the next few days and it would have been perfect. Finish it, block it using my bed. Leave it there for a few days. Take it off when I got home.

Looks like it won't happen. There's still a small chance, but it's a very small chance.

The Headband.

Casted on for this while tutoring this morning. I was only there for an hour which was amazing! The girls got their work done in record time. I'm so proud of them.

The older of the two who play my little points game got her mini Jaywalkers and was excited. I told her she couldn't see them till her work was done. It's amazing how motivated she was. After getting them she stuck them on her feet and slid through the house. Is it just me or are all hand-knit socks really slippery? She loved them, her mom loved them, the neighbor who just happened to be there loved them. Everybody is happy. Finished the headband this afternoon. I think it took a total of two hours from start to finish. I'm happy with how it turned out. I love how the light blue in the varigated just happened to match perfectly. It was knit back and forth and the side that you see is actually where it was seamed. I love what varigated yarn does by itself. I've decided I should probably include in my blog the source of the pattern, yarn used and all that other junk because it always seems to be my luck that I can't remember which book/magazine/website that I got the pattern from.

Pattern: Child's leg warmers from Winter 2005 issue of KnitSimple.
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver color 0984 Shaded Dusk.
Modifications: Childs head was 20 inches so I did a gauge swatch, took away 10% so it would be snug, then added stitches to get a multiple that fit the pattern. Casted on 58 stitches with two strands held together, followed pattern until my final piece measured 3 inches. Nothing to it.

She'll be thrilled when she gets it tomorrow.

My day has been made.

Jeanne totally made my day with the comment on Adamas. She said she started her second ball of yarn in the 12th repeat, and I started mine about halfway through said repeat. I'm thrilled. Her's was a good size, and she used the same yarn. So technically mine should be at least half as great as hers. That is assuming I don't screw it up blocking it.

Nothing new and exciting in knitting to show. I've been working away on Adamas, and a square for charity. I really should start the gift headband tonight. Wait no! Need to measure kid's head first. I need to find the magazine that pattern's in.


ETA: I lied... I was in the very beginning of the 13th repeat when I started my second ball of yarn. Maybe I'll just add an extra 10 rows and cross my fingers.

Two new FOs... sort of...

Finished the Jaywalker surgery... I now have fuzzy cuffs on my mini-Jaywalkers. Went much better than planned.

After finishing that I finished up the knitting and even wove all the ends in on my orange baby sweater. All that's left to do there is finding some cute little buttons and
sewing them on. Practically done, but I guess it can't really count as an FO.

Next up on my To Do List? One more Pomatomus sock (so I'll have a whole pair). Also to be cast on in the near future is the headband for the other girl I tutor. She changed her mind. She no longer wants a Pomatomus headband, which I found very disappointing, she now wants the same pattern used for her scarf and her legwarmers, what she doesn't realize is that they were two completely different stitch patterns. The scarf was lace and the legwarmers were a purl/knit combination. She chose legwarmer pattern so that should get finished really quick.

I'll also be attempting to finish ADAMAS! Haven't worked on that one in awhile. I watched P&P yesterday and started listening to the Craftlit they did with P&P. It really made me miss my shawl. My big worry is the final size. I never did a gauge swatch and I've barely used more than a skein of yarn when the pattern called for two. Maybe I'll take the time to put the whole nasty thing on scrap yarn and see how big it is. That seems like so much effor though and I really don't want to do that. Maybe I'll just guess, bind off, and hope it stretches when blocking.

Mini-Jaywalker surgery

They've been driving me mad. I finished both socks and fixed the little hole created by the pattern. Life was good. Then I got out my fun fur that I was going to just slip around the top of the sock to make the cuff fuzzy. Apparently just weaving in fun fur may work well, but it completely kills the stretch that the cuff originally had.

This I found out yesterday. I want to get the socks out of my life forever. I had to restart that first one so many times it makes me want to scream. I kept sewing in the fun fur, then ripping it out, then sewing again, and ripping out again. That's all I did as far as knitting/crochet/spinning goes yesterday. I played with fun fur. It really drove me mad, and I drove my boyfriend mad worrying about it. The thing with him is that he likes to give advice. Impractical advice that would never work in the real world.

Him: "Staple the fur to the socks."
Me: "That won't work."
Him: "Sure it will, and staples are cheap!"

He loves to suggest things, even when he knows it won't work. The best advice he gave was to unravel it backwords and knit it again.

Waking up this morning my mind went back to the socks and the fact that I should blog about it because, maybe, just maybe some amazing idea would come to me when I'm blogging. Then it hit me. One of the many blogs I read showed where they had to fix the middle of a sock before, and how amazingly easy it was. Then it occured to me that I could just use the same technique to fix the cuff. So I'm off to fix, I'll take pictures once completed.


ETA: One down, one to go. I'm not sure that I have the energy to finish the second one today, but it will be done this weekend. I want to get some new projects on the needles.

Late again!

So I took out my new needles last night and cast on the first sleeve of my orange baby sweater. I immediately hated the needles. They drove me mad. I like plastic better than wood needles, but I still feel like the yarn just sticks to them. But I had no choice. I couldn't just post about how the needles were driving me insane... that would be mean, especially after my SP was so kind to send them my way.

This was yesterday. After almost finishing the first sleeve tonight and getting over halfway done with the second sleeve, I'm now in love with these needles. They are amazing.

Yes, the needles I hated yesterday, are my absolute favorites today. I love my SP. I really, really love my SP. Just when I thought I really wasn't going to like them, I figured out the correct tension for using them and things are flying along. I'm very, very happy.

As for the title "Late again!". Baby was born at 11:06 this morning, and as of that time I had just started the first sleeve. She was a little early, so that's my excuse. Apparently mom and baby are good. I now have two second cousins. Both boys. Someone really needs to have girls.

Another FO!

My first finished pair of socks! Wooo! Actually they were finished last night around 7:30 and the ends were woven in as well. I was going to post about it last night but the second I finished weaving in the last end, my sister yelled that the internet was down again. AH! Just my luck.

They fit great. I would have taken a picture of them on my feet, but my feet are sandy because I just came back from kayaking.

I bought a kayak last weekend and I'm in absolute love with it. I was going to take a picture, but I never got the chance. It now lives at my uncles house so we don't have to carry it to the lake every time we want to go out. Hopefully I'll get my kayak out a lot this summer. It was so nice this morning, half the lake was calm, so I tried to stick to that half...lol. Bonus is I get exercise at the same time.

Finished scarf

Finished my scarf for charity. Feels great to get something off the hook. Unfortunatley I still have yarn left. I was hoping to use it all up. Looks like the yarn's going back into the stash until I have some use for it.

Square 5

Look what I finished. My guilt of having not worked on charity stuff is over. I finished another square. Now I'm down to one charity project on the needles... or well crochet hook in this case.

I still have two me projects on the needles and two gift projects on the needles. Two of those could be considered travel projects so really as soon as one more project is off the needles I'll only have four. Yay! Hopefully things will be flying off the needles in the future, as soon as September comes around school is going to cut into my knitting.

MAIL! MAIL! MAIL!

Guess what came in the mail from my lovely SP. It shouldn't be too hard to guess because she told me what it was on the blog. lol. Needles! More specifically DPNS in extremely cool colors. Bright colors! Like pink! I really love pink.

I'm looking forward to using them too, but first I'm going to try to finish these Jaywalkers. I think I'm going to try to cut down on my current WIPs. My goal is to have only four WIPs by the end of August. One Gift knit, one for me knit, one travel knit, and a charity knit. Speaking of charity I wanted to finish 50 squares... gotta get working on that.

semi-FO

I have a Semi-FO! I casted something off the needles! (at least until I run into needles for the sleeves.) Yup. This sweater looks long. Really long for how thin it is. I'm really hoping when I add sleeves it'll even out a lot. I'm starting to think about the next baby sweater, and the other 2130298098 projects I want to start. There are now 3 shawls I really want to make, but every time I see another shawl pattern I want to run out and buy it. Speaking of buying yarn... I'm on a yarn diet. Not so much that I can't buy yarn because I have to much, but an actual food diet. So I was looking for motivation. I like yarn! Let's use that! I like point systems. Do something good you get points! Do something wrong... points go bye bye... After I get so many points they will turn into yarn money. My boyfriend is in charge of my points... and he's not nice about stuff like this. I find if I lock myself in my bedroom and don't go near the kitchen, I'm not hungry at all. But it's the second that I walk into the kitchen, or living room that's attached to kitchen, that I'm starving and I need to eat everything in sight. So while I'm hiding out in my room expect many, many posts. Hopefully my hands will be kept busy knitting.



I'm still working on the mini jaywalker. It will be tried on tomorrow.

And it will fit like a dream!


ETA: It fit! It fit! It's a little snug but she seems to like it.

Third time's a charm

This is the third attempt at this post today. Cross my fingers and blogger will like it.

First off Knitty updated. Lots of feet/leg/arm/wrist/hand warmer things. I really like this knitty. I like sock patterns and there were several and i'm looking forward to the toe-up lacy pattern that's on there. There were lots of cool patterns... I like the beaded socks too.

Oh... I decided last night (after finishing and sewing the ends in on the mini jaywalker) that it was too big. So I frogged it and started over with one size bigger. Things were still going quite well when I sat down with my mini jaywalker to watch TV this afternoon when blogger wouldn't let me update. While watching TV I finished the gusset and thought to myself... "it looks like my foot would fit in here." It did. my foot is about 9.5 inches around... hers is 7.5. So I ripped it again and am re-starting the original sock.

Cross my fingers and this sock will get finished and it will fit.

lots of projects!

I've made so much progress lately it's amazing. I'm going to credit it to the fact that I've been at home and I haven't worked lately.

I've been working on red sock #2 and I'm at the halfway point.

I've worked on the orange sweater and have just one inch of ribbing left to go before I start the sleaves. As soon as the inch of ribbing is finished the sweater is going to take a little break until I wander upon some size 8 DPNs.

I also worked on the mini Jaywalker socks some. I got them out on Sunday, along with a childs sock pattern I had, ripped the old one and started a new one on bigger needles. This time I actually read the label and saw the recommended needle size was 3-6. I was using 2s. Usually I use the smallest size they recommend so I upped my needles to a 3 and it's going much smoother. The yarn is just too thick for 2s. This means my 2s are now free! I could start my other Pomatomus!

I think I'm going to hold off though. I have so many things started and almost finished. Note my percent bars in the side, everything is well over half done (aside from my Pomatomus), I really should finish some of them up.