I'm new!

Yup. Just had to cast on again. Not sure who this is for tho. LOL. Depends on who it fits when it's done. :P

(After lunch hour, and in focus! Mostly.)

Thank you, Felting Gods. XOXO, Me.

also...



Now, as long as it fits, everything is great!

...and we're off!

Off the needles, that is. Still have a tad bit of "assembly" to do, and weaving in the ends, but I'm officially halfway done with that. Again, I'm being vague, because MBF reads my blog, and I don't want to spoil it completely! I'm felting it tomorrow, so everyone cross your fingers for me! I've taken a TON of pics, never fear, it will all be revealed in full (ETA: get it? in full? Oh...I kill me!) after the holidays. :)

Everyone, have a Happy Thanksgiving (to those of you "stateside") tomorrow! To everyone else, Happy Thursday!

11th hour

Here's the thing...when you live across an ocean from someone, lots of things require advanced planning. It took 2 weeks for Thuja to get to MBF back in June. Therefore, I need to mail his xmas to him next week. I want to allow double the time for it to get there, just in case. Also, there is no way for me to track an item send to the UK, unless I send it via UPS, DHL, etc. The last package I sent him cost me $18.00 to send via the Postal Service (which wasn't bad) and would have been $89.00 via UPS. I guess I just have to take my chances. I am contemplating sending two separate packages just in case, you know...not putting all of my eggs in one basket. I think I would die if my package with handknit stuffs went missing. It would be so much easier if he lived in Duluth (no offense to Duluthians, it just popped into my head as a place that seems remote) [that's Minnesota, I think], or something.

So yeah, kinda obsessing about it. lol. (me? never!)

Oh yeah...I thought of a 4th and 5th knitted project for him. All of this for a guy who doesn't want scarves, hats, or gloves. Per the vote, I'm not allowed to make a sweater (see bottom of page). He would love the sweater, he says to knit it. He does LOVE the socks (I was skeptical, but he continues to tell me he's wearing them, and I believe him. :P). So I'm limited to socks...and um...other inventive things that occur to me from time to time. (Heh...the Thing Sling (tm) is still in development. I, er...need a model for it. NO...that was not a call for volunteers. Anyone got a banana and a couple tangerines? lol.) Right...where was I?

Oh yes...if there are felting gods, please pay attention to this next bit. I need this project to felt nicely. As in, not too much! and also, evenly! I really don't want to have inadvertently knit something for myself for xmas. or Barbie. I really don't want to have knit something for Barbie. Oh...and if it doesn't felt at all? I guess it might look alright on the elephant at the zoo... Elephants deserve handknits, too. Right?

I think MBF is secretly holding out for a "felted willy warmer". I tried to explain that that's probably an item that should be felted "on site" and then tried to explain that felting involved really hot water and lots of agitation...and then I really don't remember the rest of that conversation. Where the heck is my head today? Yeesh. I'm gonna end this post now, before I start talking about pr0n.

Hai! I'm in ur knitting, makin' a heel.

Yep. Success!

A few things knitting, a few things not

Well, the MBF sock is going to have to lose it's heel, for a myriad of reasons. 1)it's off center by two stitches. I was going to over-look that...ya know...knitterly denial. BUT... 2) the sock is too short. I was going to over-look that, too, at least until I found a size 11 foot to put it on to try it out. BUT 3) I dropped a stitch...about 10 rows ago. I think even the Harlot would agree that the forces are trying to tell me SOMETHING. :P So...the heel will come back off.

But, what I think the sock is really trying to tell me is, "DO YOUR XMAS KNITTING YOU IDIOT!!! PUT ME DOWN! PICK UP THE THINGS THAT HAVE A DEADLINE!" That's right. "In the Navy" socks are not for xmas. I have THREE projects that I wanted to get done for MBF for xmas. I only think I'll get one of them to him. I'll be sure to pad the box with chocolate, then he'll not notice, or if he does, won't care! :P Oh yes, he is the perfect knitting companion. He'll talk yarn, stitches, patterns, etc. (i.e. ask intelligent questions) And he lives for coffee and chocolate. The very best part? He likes dark chocolate...like that 70% stuff? So...he never, ever has to worry that I'll swipe his chocolate, and by the gods, he better keep his paws off mine. lol.

As we all know, this is his second pair of socks. Thuja was great fun, my first REAL socks. But I was so petrified of running out of yarn (and rightly so...I only had a few grams left and had to make two toned toes) that I made the cuff very short. Now, if you're gonna have a pair of squishy wool socks for the winter, really you need a longer ankle, right? These were/are more like anklets or calflets. :P. So the next pair (In the Navy) is being knit toe up. The only problem with this is that I should have taken measurements of thuja before I mailed it away. I texted MBF the other day to see if he could take a measurement for me. Here's the response, "Gonna have to take them off to measure. Oh noes, chilly toesies." I guess he's willing to brave cold ankles for a nice squish. :P You wouldn't believe the photos I've sent with lines drawn on them for where to measure. :) You also wouldn't believe the 800 questions he's asked about where to measure, I think he's more scared of getting it wrong than I am. heh.

The "trendy fibers" thing? It's getting really close. One more BO to go...then weaving in the ends, and off for a good washing. That's really good news, since the washing "date" is next Thursday, Thanksgiving. My step-mom has a toploader. Gonna need one of those. lol.

On to the other news. I have a boobrock. Well, it's more like an armpit rock, and more like a pebble, but armpit pebble doesn't sound nearly as COOL. I have to go in soon for an ultrasound. I'm not sure when, the referral hasn't been set up quite yet. The Dr. thinks it's a fibroid thingie-whatsit and is nothing to worry about. Right, the damn thing ACHES and is tender...I'll just ignore it, no problem. (Miss V, I apologize for stealing the Boobrock(TM) wording.)

Other weird news... I can hear my pulse in my right ear. Used to be (a year or so ago) that I could only hear it at night (when it was really quiet) or when I elevated my heart rate (then it would be LOUD). Now...I can hear it all the time. The sound like when you hear your baby's heart in the womb on that little machine. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, in my ear, all the time. The doctor thinks this is not normal either, and is sending me for an MRI/MRA (the MRA is the MRI, but with dye to show my blood vessels). I don't know when this appt. will be, either.

So really, it's no wonder I dropped a stitch. That was while I was in the waiting room at the Dr. Wed. Night.

P.S. If anyone has a Transporter Room like on Star Trek, please let me know. I could really use an MBF hug. KK...thx.

um...yeah...

I don't think this is right. Well, I think it's knit correctly, but I think my measurements are still off. I'm in knitterly denial and decided to keep going to "see".

Ummm...

I got the thing back on the needles, finished up the gusset, and...I figured out the heel.

See? Isn't it turning out pretty?

Now, if only he wore 9 1/2's instead of 11's...it would be perfect.

Somebody shoot me. Please?

I guess I'll back the heel out and do a few rounds plain, give it an extra 1/4". Near as I can tell from photos on Wendy's site, the turn actually starts at the very "point" of the heel on this type. Maybe the flap type heel is deeper?

ARGH!

That's what I get for gloating yesterday.

:(

I am the boss of my knitting!

Remember the "In the Navy" socks for MBF? I barely remember it either. I was working it toe up to maximize yarn use (just knit until it runs out!). When I got to the heel, though, I couldn't wrap my head around any of the directions! I set it aside, moved it to "Hibernation" status on Ravelry and promptly forgot about it. Then I needed some size 6 DPNs. I grabbed the sock, yanked the needles out and left it for dead, figuring I'd rip it out later. I put it in a drawer...life (edit: LIFE?..ugh...LIVE) stitches pointed all over...



It had been on the needles so long that the stitches just stayed perfect. That's kinda scary.

So last night...I get it into my head that I really should just do something with the sock. (Shit or get off the pot, right?) I don't like frogging. Especially 9 inches of sock. So, I think, why do I dislike this project? Why is it so much more annoying than the last pair? Well, I changed the pattern, and I'm working it toe up. I like the toe up change, gives me a challenge and all. The pattern change? Not so much. I managed to take a nice simple pattern (row 1: Knit, row 2: K3, P1 around) and make it more difficult (row 1: K3, P1 around. row 2: P1, *K3, P1* around). Still easy, but now I have to count EVERY row, and pay a bit more attention to things lining up and all. So. I had to face that I was NOT going to finish it as it was. Was I going to rip it? Nope. I decided to drop one of the 2 columns of "seed stitch" and turn it into all knit instead of knit/purl. Easy.


This shows the columns of knit and the columns of seed stitch.


This is the start of the stitch I'm going to drop down.


This is the stitch I need to drop down to.


This is a photo (blurry...sorry) after dropping the column of stitches down.


Here is a close up as I start back up the column. "Zipped" stitches below the needle, "unzipped" above.


First column "fixed".

I feel...like knitting a sock!

I think I'm going to use Wendy's toe up "thing" she's been doing recently that isn't short row, isn't flap and looks really cool. Maybe that will fix my heel confusion.

A question....

As you can see, I've added a poll. (Shut up Tasha, they are not interested in the back story!) The reason I'm asking is because I came a across a pattern I like...and MBF doesn't wear hats, or scarves or gloves. He likes sweaters (and socks...yes...I KNOW!). He would totally wear a sweater (assuming it didn't have three arms and no neck hole). So yeah... what do you think?

Problem.

That is a problem. You see...there isn't that much of it left. And it's going into a felting project, so I really don't want to louse it up (my FIRST felting project).


That's not a lot of yarn, and I have quite a bit of black to go...some of it double stranded black. I need more yarn. Panic.


Clasping this label to my chest, I went to Michael's today (the place I got the first batch), in hopes that they'd still have some of the same dye lot. I cannot explain why...WHY...I bought 3x the amount of the Other yarn used in this project, when the black is carried double thru the entire project (sometimes with the Other yarn, and sometimes with another strand of black). I'm an idiot? Guess so.


This is the yarn I got (both times).


This is the back of the yarn I got today. Notice the lot number. Notice that it is THE SAME as the one above. Is a victory dance too much? They had the dye lot! Yippee!!!

Oh...and this:

Might have jumped into my hands. I'm just sayin'.