Girlfriend Socks

Hurrah, they are finished! Math Guy can stop hovering!!!!! Whoo Hooo! I had hoped to finish these yesterday, but took a nap in the afternoon instead.

Project: Girlfriend Socks (modeled by The Teen who begs your forgiveness for the jeans she has on) A gift for her birthday from Mr Fix-it and me

Yarn: Claudia's Handpaint Caribbean Blue in fingering weight

Needle: Size 2 Inox

Pattern: Turkish cast-on, stockinette foot, Abigail's short row heel, Waterfall rib from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Thoughts: Love the color--again, it is much richer than the photo shows. Like the pattern too--lacy, so she should be able to get some wear out of them this spring. The photo doesn't show the pattern too well either.

I tried a close-up, but it still is just 'eh'. I'm looking forward to trying more patterns from the book, as well as getting More Sensational Knitted Socks with my gift card from Valentine's Day.

And Now....The Rest of the Story

First, thanks so much for all the empathy and commiseration over the loss of the sock yarn to internet issues on Friday evening.

Second, I give you the rest of the story. I will be getting my Vesper yarn in Aquamelon and Astro. Yippeeeee!!!! Just told the shop proprietor right away about the screen I was stuck on and then the sold out yarn. She had some backorders and added me to the list. She didn't have to do that since the problem wasn't hers~~just one of those glitches the 'net will throw our way at times, but she's a kind soul and 'hooked me up'. Thanks, Julia!

Score: Internet 0 Goodness of the human heart 1

I can't believe it......

I can't. I. Just. Can't.

You remember my favorite socks of all time, don't you? The ones I gave to The Teen just because she asked? The ones she hasn't worn since then? Yeah, those.

Well, I decided that I was going to splurge on my last yarn purchase for myself before we become the parents of a college student with all the financial burden that entails. The splurge.....why Vesper sock yarn, of course. So I can make myself a really cool pair of socks like the ones that were intended for me in the first place. So I pitch my tent over at the shop around 4 pm for the 5 pm update. You know the drill, refreshing the page every 2 minutes so I don't miss the update. Oh no! Not this time. I am Jenny-on-the-Spot! Around 4:15pm I get the all white page that says the shop is being updated, stop back later. Yeah, like I'm gonna leave now. You should have seen me bouncing in my chair. I keep refreshing, each time tensing up, ready to pounce on the Aquamelon and Astro striping sock yarn. Lather, rinse, repeat, every two minutes from 4:15 until 5:05 pm. There has to be something wrong, I say to myself. Surely it doesn't take this long to update the shop. Did I mention that I was all signed in and ready to go with the order. Yeah, I thought so. Anyway, I reentered the shop. The main page pops up, saying the the shop has been updated. Uh oh. Hmmmmm.....click on the sock yarn link..........scroll down. All. Gone. Every single skein of sock yarn. GONE. This is not to be believed.

Is it okay to cry over missed sock yarn? If you think it isn't, just look away. A grown woman crying over sock yarn is not a pretty sight.

Decisions Reached

As I mentioned in my last post I had a couple of projects in limbo since I just wasn't sure they were working out in their current state. The consensus was that my gut feeling was right. Neither was 'Just right'. Hidcote is now moving along on the smaller size needles, and it does look much better in the tighter knit. I was going to lose all stitch definition once the original one was blocked. The Flower Basket Shawl was not working out either. In this case it was the variegated color of the yarn that obliterated the lacework. I'm using the same yarn and needle, but this time I'm using the Kiri pattern. It's better than FBS, but still may not be as just right as I would like. I'll check with the gals again tomorrow night.

A Little Bit of Knitting

For many reasons my knitting has dropped off in 2007, the major one being that since I started working out at the gym 5 days a week I am just exhausted by the time prime knitting time rolls around in the evening. Most evenings I'm choosing the bed over the needles. Although this is true the majority of time, I have been working on some things.

Hidcote Garden shawl is my project of choice most afternoons. I have dared to knit on it a bit at SnB, to the amazement of some of the other gals (Hi, Christine). I'm using Alpaca Cloud in Iris for this project on size 2 (could be a three) Addis. At this point it's about halfway through the 6th chart (there are 10). The rows seem miles long now, and I had a major bump in the road at the orthodontist on Monday (The Teen got her braces off, a mere 3 years and 9 months after having them put on!) I can't decide if I like the way the shawl is knitting up on the needles I started with, hence the itty-bitty shawl in the lower left corner. That one is being knit on Addis one size down from the original. But, I don't know, it may be too tight. So Hidcote is in a holding pattern until tonight when I get the gals at SnB to take a look at it and give me an honest opinion of which looks better.

Flower Basket Shawl~~I started working on FBS this past weekend using the Kid Merino I bought with my Valentine's gift certificate. I had wavered back and forth between FBS pattern (which I already owned) and Casino shawl which needed to be ordered. I went with what I had. Not so sure I'm liking it. If you check out Robknits she has some similar concerns about this yarn and the way it knits up. She came up with a brilliant idea of carrying it along with some other yarn. I have some Alpaca Cloud in Autumn in the stash, as well as some brown handspun alpaca, but I don't think either of those colors will work. I'm looking at some Shadow and other Alpaca Cloud colors to see if there is anything that would work better. So this one is also in a holding pattern, albeit a more lengthy one. The gals will also be consulted about this one tonight.

Girlfriend Socks~~These are barely started, but Math Guy keeps hovering around my knitting encouraging me to work on them, afterall they are for his girlfriend. I'm almost finished with the toe increases and after getting some housework finished this afternoon I'll work on them for a while. I really do need to concentrate on these since her birthday was almost a month ago.

Not to be photographed or even contemplated at this point are the second Cambridge Jacket~~the back is finished and I'm almost to the armhole shaping on both fronts. Yep, I'm knitting them both at the same time using Magic Loop. Almost out of all memory is the Shenandoah stole. I ran across this the other day in my knitting box and pulled it out. It looks pretty good~~I was going to rip it out, but reconsidered after looking at it again. I'll get back to it eventually.

Pardon the Dust....

while I rebuild. I'm getting there and think I have the Haloscan figured out.

Just have to run to The Teen's ortho appt. I'm playing around with the colors, so things will be changing here for a few days.

Edited to Add: For those who are interested, I finally figured out why my upgraded Blogger wasn't working with the updated Haloscan the way it should. Even though I had updated to new Blogger, I hadn't switched over the blog template to one of the new layouts. You can tell if your blog is set up with the new layout by going to your Blogger Dashboard and looking on the far right side of each blogs info. If it says Posts, Settings, TEMPLATE you are still working from old Blogger template/layout. If it says Posts, Settings, LAYOUT you are working with the new customizable Blogger template/layout. It really is quite cool--gives you the ability to change the colors of just about everything on your blog. Also supposedly makes it easier to load photos, code, and stuff. I've learned about code since starting with my blog, so this is a bit of a change. I took a look at the template to rebuild with all my buttons and stuff, and just went back to the Add/Arrange Page Elements page. Anyway, all that to say that I had to be using the new Layout of Blogger before I could get Haloscan to work. As you may have noticed, it is now working, and I think I've rebuilt most of my stuff. I was looking for a comment template that would have pink and brown like my current blog theme. I couldn't find one--but there are tons of them to look through. If you happen to know of one, give me a shout so I can change my comment template. Hopefully now it will be easier to respond to your comments since I can zip and email off without having to go search for it in my address book or track you through your blog.

Ugh!

You know, I should have just left well-enough alone, but I read that you can use Haloscan and contact those who comment directly by email. So I tried it. Lost my template and all the customizations. Stupid me. Didn't save a copy of it first. And I still can't get the screen that Haloscan says should be present in order to get it. Sigh. Frustrated. Headed off to watch Idol.

Drop what you're doing and go look at this new design by Eunny! It is absolutely gorgeous--modern yet classic! The most beautiful Fair Isle work I've ever seen. She's sending it off to Jamieson's.....JAMIESON'S, you guys!!!!! I tell you I gasped and my hands were itching to knit it as soon as I saw it. Ah, to be so young, and so amazingly talented! Way to go Eunny!

Edited to add on March 12, 2007: Check this out, too! Not only is she a fantastic designer and writer, but Someone has noticed her skills in both areas and is putting them to use in one place. Yes, Eunny is now the editor of Interweave Knits! Congrats, Eunny!

A Mom's Sacrifice

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on the bright and cheery AquaMelon socks made from yarn dyed by the amazing Julia Vesper. They have been my project of choice when not working on Hidcote. Yesterday I could see the light at the end of the tunnel on the socks, so I kicked it into high gear because I simply couldn't wait to get them on my feet. After what seemed like miles of ribbing and hours worth of afterthought heels they were done. Just as I was weaving in the last few stray pieces of yarn I heard a quiet voice over my shoulder.

"Hey, you're almost finished. Who are they for because they are really cool, and I want them," said The Teen.

Gulp.

I just kept working, though I had resolved that they would indeed become hers when I finished. Now, I admit it wasn't a joyful resolution. I pouted. I whined. I laid on the guilt trip. Hey, I may be a mom, but I still have that resident teen deep inside that leaks out every once in a while. I finished them up last night right before Id*l, and she wore them all evening--and had them on when I got home from the rec center this morning. Pictures had to wait until this morning, but here they are. Aren't they just too cool?

Details:
Yarn: Vesper Self-striping Superwash in Aquamelon--the coolest colorway in the world. (And Sockotta in neon green for toes and heels. It isn't a perfect match, but when I started I wasn't sure I'd have enough of the Vesper for them. Had more than enough.)
Needles: 40" sz 1 Addi
Pattern: my old standby plain jane, Turkish cast-on, stockinette foot, Afterthought heel, 3x2 ribbing two at a time on Magic Loop.
Start date: February 14, 2007
Finish date: March 6, 2007
Thoughts: Love, love, LOVE this yarn. I got it in a swap last fall and would adore another skein in this colorway so I could do a pair for myself. I think they are my favorite socks so far. The color just brightens everything up. Other than the color, the yarn is really soft and great to work with. What's not to love!?!?! Know of anyone willing to swap some Vesper Aquamelon with me? I have some STR in the stash!

Next Project:
Math Guy's girlfriend shares a birthday with George Washington and my Granny--February 22nd. When she was here for her birthday dinner with us I had her pick out some sock yarn for a pair of socks. Guess what she went for?
That's right, the Claudia's Handpaint Caribbean Blue. I must say, she has excellent taste--in boyfriends and sock yarn. I started on her socks last night. Toe-up, of course, Magic Loop, goes without saying. The foot will be plain stockinette, but the ribbing will come from Sensational Knitted Socks. Likely the Baby Cable or Elongated rib. The color of this yarn is a bit deeper and simply gorgeous!

ACKKKKKK!!!!

Has it really been over two weeks since I posted?!?! I. Hate. Taxes. Been fighting with them for the past two weekends. They are done. Let's leave it at that.

Okay......the contest. Thanks so much for all your great suggestions! Several people mentioned Kiri, which I really love and is near the top of the list. Also in the running is Wing O' the Moth, but I had already planned to knit this in some yummy cashmere I have in the stash. Hidcote is already on the needles in KP Alpaca Cloud~~Iris. I'm just starting the 6th chart on this one. It's a big blob of alpaca right now, not much to look at. So that one is out. The one I'd really like to do is Anne's suggestion of her Casino shawl. Problem is that she was out of town and didn't leave an entry before the deadline. So, in the interest of fairness to all, I'll put everyone who left a suggestion of a shawl pattern in a hat and draw out a number--there were 15 folks who left pattern suggestions.
Sherie #1
Tonia #2
Chris #3
Kim #4
Carrie #5
Opal #6
Trek #7
Susanne #8
Ambermoggie #9
knit_tgz #10
Eve #11
Heather #12
Stitchy Fingers #13
Somebunny... #14
Anne #15

My random number picker (The Teen) just selected #4, which means KIM is our lucky lace yarn winner!!!! (All numbers were placed on slips of paper and drawn blind from an actual hat by The Teen.) I will make a full discloser and say that Kim is one of my knit peeps~~and the only one who comments on my blog, btw, hint, hint to the rest of you guys. If she's at SnB tonight, I shall deliver the yarn in person.

Actual knitting content....I've been working on my Aquamelon socks--I'm into the ribbing, hope to finish this week. Hidcote, as mentioned above, is into the 6 chart and moving along more slowly now as the rows get wider. Cambridge Jacket is in timeout again. The Teen will no longer be receiving an Arwen cardigan. We've found one she likes better......Rogue. Yikes. The yarn I had set aside for Arwen is not heavy enough for Rogue, so I returned it to lys for store credit and am in search of a suitable one for Rogue. I won't be starting on this anytime soon~~planning on making this for Christmas for her. I'm swatching some yarns I have here, but I fear none will be 'Just right,' as The Terror would say. I have my eye on some Cestari if nothing here makes gauge. Stay tuned.

Sorry again about the extended absence. Now that the taxes are finished, I hope to be a little more consistent in my posting. We have a very busy 3 months coming up as Math Guy graduates June 2nd. He finished his dual enrollment course on Thursday at the local community college and will be back at work next weekend. Time is flying, guys! I feel like I'm barely hanging on!