Turned Heel(s)

It's taking all my concentration but I turned the heels of the Socks X2. Next comes the gussets. Dun-dun-dunnnn.

Heel Flap(s)!

I've been working on the Socks X2 at home now that I'm at a point where I have to concentrate and look at the book. I finished the heel flaps last night and will start on turning them one by one later today. It should be interesting to do without getting all the cables and points and yarn balls in too much of a snarl.

More Christmas Hats

My skiing son and daughter-in-law are back from British Columbia and sent me a pic of them in their gift hats. His is a reef scene with fish and seaweed, hers is a ski hill with pine trees. Don't they look happy like newlyweds are supposed to? I miss them.

Lesson Learned

I was very thrilled at the cleverness of making a little "thumb hole" in the thumb of the convertible mittens I knit for Christmas gifting--until I made myself a pair, that is. Putting that little 3-stitch hole in a convenient spot for thumb use also puts it right in the perfect spot to expose the wearer's thumb to the icy steering wheel. It took two weeks of trying to shift the thumb around before I admitted defeat and grabbed a length of yarn and sewed that hole right up. Not very tidily, I admit. I will be mailing a similar length of yarn to DS and DD so that they can close up the "thumb hole" in their mittens if they so desire. That's one idea that looked great on paper and isn't so good in real life. Oh well.

Progress Report--Week #3

Progress is being made. Nothing got finished this week, but everything is closer.


The Accidental Sock #2 made the most progress, I think. Hitting the heel flap a week ago at Harmony Cafe kept me hard at work over last weekend at home to turn the heel and get the gusset finished so that the repetitive foot knitting could be done in public. In about 2-1/2 inches I'll start the toe decreases. :-)





When the sock moved to at-home knitting so I could focus on the tricky bits, DIL's Silk Road Purse took the Friday Night Knitting slot. It's the perfect project to work on during a lively discussion--and we always have a lively discussion.





It was a bit busier at the dive shop this week so the rate of afghan fish blocks production stayed the same, but I'm always happy to put down my knitting to wait on a customer.




The Socks X2 got neglected since we had a retirement party to attend on Thursday. I felt sorry for them so I picked them up when I got home Friday night and finally got frustrated enough to exchange the shorter of the cables for a longer one. It has made a world of difference.



I'm very tempted to shirk all this knitting and make some toys for three little girls I know. Their grandpa was the retiree we celebrated Thursday night and I had a ball playing with them. Samantha, almost 3, and I flew to the moon and exchanged manicures. Alison, barely 1, kept my lap warm and played with my necklace during the speeches. Natalie, 2 weeks old today, slept like the princess she is in Mama or Daddy's arms the whole night. This being the middle of flu season her mama rightly kept her away from all us germy admirers. So, I'd love to pull out the acrylic and knit or crochet a whole whack of toys for the girls but I'm practicing patience until I get the Accidental Socks finished. Then I can treat myself to some quick toy knitting. Sammi loves elephants. I'll bet I can make one of those. She put her head on my shoulder and told me I was her best friend. I am putty in her hands.

Zooming!

She turns the second heel and speeds down the gusset in record time! I'm going to have a pair of socks and another FO in no time. Vroom, vroom.

Knitting in the Dark

My DD gave me some light up size US15 knitting needles for Christmas. This might seem like too big a size for someone but it's actually perfect because that's the size I need to make my favorite hat, the Meathead Hat. I had plenty of bulky yarn to choose from in the stash so I didn't have to buy more to try out my new needles. Here I am knitting and here's the hat. Evidently I knit so fast I'm a blur!

FO!

Just a quick post to say that I finished the Circus Convert Mittens this afternoon. They fit perfectly and I love the colors.

Progress Report #2

Here I am at the end of week 2 of Finished 2009, motivation courtesy of Samurai Knitter. My idea to designate a project for each knitting venue seems to be working well.



I managed 3 and 1/2 afghan fishes at work this week. I'd have the 4th one done and maybe even the 5th one started but Monday morning one of the red/purple/orange ones kicked my arse and I had to frog and restart it three times. Three times! The whole thing's only 47 rows long and a max of 20 stitches wide, what was the problem? I haven't got a clue but I overcame whatever it was and plunged on.


At home I got the body and thumb of The Converts mitten #2 done. Today I'll pick up the stitches for the flip top across the back and hopefully finish that project this weekend, or maybe even tonight.

As soon as the mittens are finished, DIL's Silk Road purse will step into the "at-home" slot and get some quality knitting time.



Thursday night at Patti's Yarn Shop I worked on the Socks X2. I probably added 1/2 to 3/4-inch. Switching from one needle to the other slows things down especially since the needles are the same color, but it's making more sense to me so I'm a little faster.





At Harmony Cafe last night I worked exclusively on Accidental Sock #2 and got half way through the heel flap. Once the heel's rounded the foot should go faster, except I have a size 10 foot, but that's okay, as long as I keep working on it even once a week I should get it done way sooner than 10 months.



I'm well pleased with my re-organized knitting life. I can see that I'm making progress on projects and I feel a greater sense of order (which pleases my inner-Hitler no end) and accomplishment. Yay, me!

Belated Christmas FOs

Warning: Picture Heavy Post

I realized the other day that I hadn't revealed most of my stealth knitting. Then I realized that it was so stealthy that I neglected to take pictures of some of it. Grr. I have a plea out for pictures from the recipients, but they're off skiing at Whistler, British Columbia this week so it'll be a while.







I had a brainstorm to knit everyone in my immediate family a Meathead Hat with decorations to fit their interests. Therefore, Durwood and Ann got bat hats, Ann's friend Anne, who works with a children's theater, got one with comedy and tragedy masks (mostly because I was excited about figuring out how to make the masks), I made a coral reef one for David and a ski hill hat for Abby. The last two are the ones I forgot to take pictures of.














Many got matching gloves or convertible mitts too.











I think my favorite of all are the gloves I knit for my mom out of Cascade Pastazza in a peacock blue. They turned out gorgeous. See? Here's Mom modeling them.

Today's a Holiday!

No, no, I'm not talking about MLK Day. Today's Delurking Day! I just found out about it on Noolie's blog, so everyone who reads this make a comment today on the blogs you read, even if you just say hi. Bloggers like to know there is someone reading their blog, it makes us feel less alone in the cold, dark winter. Did I mention cold?

Progress Report

Even though this is only the fourth day of my Finished 2009 efforts, I thought it would be a good idea to make a report. Things worked out pretty well designating a spot to knit on each project.



I made 2-1/2 fish at work, sorta (I started fish #1 at home Tuesday night [I got excited] and finished fish #3 this morning so I'll start next week with no fish OTN to get a true picture of how many I can really make at work in a week)




I worked on my Socks X2 at Thursday Knit Night and got about an inch done.







The Accidental Socks and Abby's Silk Road purse got attention at Harmony Cafe Knitting last night.




This weekend at home The Converts v.2 mittens will get some needle time.
This time they even fit me! Good, huh?




So far this is working great. Thanks, Samurai Knitter, for the kick in the slats.

First FO of 2009!

Yesterday I decided to join with Samurai Knitter to set the goal of finishing everything I've got started around here. Silly me, I thought I didn't have much OTN until I started making a little mental list. I don't have a "little" list, my list is a fairly long one. So I've sorted through things and today I'm lining them up to see what can be finished quickly. Well, nothing really. Most of what I have cast on is early or mid-process, but that's okay. I've put a few balls of acrylic worsted in a bag with some US10s so I can knit afghan fish at work when it's quiet. It'll take a few months to finish that but now that I'm more experienced I should be able to make a fish or two every time I work. I'll pick one project to go to Thursday knit night at Patty's with me, one for Friday knit night at Harmony Cafe, and another one if I decide to go knit at Loops and Links on Saturday. That way every project will get a bit of attention each week until one gets close to completion, then I'll focus on that one until it's done. Not a bad plan, huh? Oh, and after today I promise to stop buying yarn if I don't know what I'll make with it. I need to focus on the pretty yarn I have. I bought it because I liked it, I should use it, right?


Anyway, here's my first FO of the new year. It's yet another (and the last one for a while) market bag made with the discontinued Red Heart Hula. I made it a bit longer and, as you can see, ran out of yarn while doing the edging. I had a bit of orange left so I used that. I think I like that splash of different color on there.




Oh, what yarn did I buy today? Well, I'm kind of embarrassed to say but here goes. Loops and Links had Filatura di Crosa Maxime Print on the Wall O'Savings and I'm kind of into Accidental Sock #2 now even though I've said in public I'm not sure I like knitting socks but right now I do, and, well, what if I want to make other socks like that to mix and match and she doesn't have the other colors? Well, that'd be bad. So, well, I had this mad money, and I, well, I bought 2 skeins of each of the other colors. It was on sale, you see, and I had enough mad money with some left over so that's okay. Besides I'm learning to make socks 2 at once and that kind of goes faster, or it will if I use a bit longer circular needles, I think.

Sittin' & Knittin'

Out of respect for the "carppy" weather we've had this last week, I've spent a lot of time sitting watching season #1 of CSI and knitting. Last night's freezing rain was especially, um, special. My van looked like an ice sculpture this morning. Lots of hot water and lots of salt helped me chisel it out of the glacier it was embedded in. Ugh.

But I knitted. See? I have inches more Accidental sock. I don't think it's going to take me 10 months to make sock #2. (I did go to Loops & Links to knit yesterday afternoon and there in the Wall O'Savings were 3 other colorways of this sock yarn. Hmm, I could spend a bit of my mad money and pick up 2 skeins of each, just in case I decide to knit more socks like these. See, if I used the very same pattern I could have socks to mix and match that I made myself. (Justification? Isn't that a bit harsh?)





I'm just about ready to start the leg part of the Socks X 2. (If, um, when I get good at this technique the above idea would be a breeze. Really.)






I finished the second quarter of DIL's sari silk purse and immediately cast on the third quarter. I'm not letting socks monopolize my time.





I knit gloves or mitts for everyone for Christmas and I really want a pair of convertible mitts for myself, so I cast some on the other day. I got up past the thumb gusset before I realized that what I was knitting would maybe fit a seven-year-old. Maybe. I frogged it, balled up the yarn (I love using the ball winder), and started over.






Ooh, I forgot to show you the fun things my DD got me. Light up knitting needles! I know they're not new, but I think they're cool and a hoot. I've got some yarn in the stash to make into Meathead hats that needs this size needles. I should cast one on just so I can knit in the dark. (As if I need an excuse. I promise photographic evidence. Cross my heart.)

Ringing In The New Year

Happy New Year, All!
We had a quiet celebration, just the two of us. This is all I'm sharing of Durwood's sinfully delicious Bananas Foster. To. Die. For.