Getting Around To It...

I have a lot of things I've been putting off. I've been really tired lately and just haven't felt like it. I've actually gotten some of them done now, and it feels pretty good.

The other night, I read the Yarn Harlot's post about moths. I then saw a moth in my house. Nevermind that in three years it's the second moth I've ever seen, I knew.
It was time.

I finally bagged up my yarn. I'm sad not to have it sitting out all nice and pettable, but being safer from the moths is more important.

You can see I've bagged my fibre sitting on the side, and some of my cones up top.
I haven't done the rest- a lot I won't bother with because it's acrylic and it's in a bin anyway, or the stuff in my little footstool container because it's just bits and bobs. But the wool and the nice stuff is bagged, so I feel better.


I also finally grabbed some pictures of these socks. Even those these are a little big on me, I love them. I know it'll be a bit of a slog, but I am definitely making a pair in sockweight for myself. They're done vertically with sl st blo and sl st flo and they are so snug and nice and cozy.
You can see the rest of the yarn I made these with above- I have enough to make at least half a dozen pairs. They may be christmas presents for my ski-loving family next year.

This is a job I'm only partway through. I made this sampler scarf for a class I'll be teaching. It's 24 different shell and cluster stitch patterns. Now I need to write them down and make charts for each of them. Why did I agree to the charts? Oh, I know why- I need practice making charts. It's going to be a lot of work. I have 4 charted now, and it took me about an hour. Hopefully I speed up, because that is a lot of freakin' work for one 2 hour class. And I still have to block the thing, and write up the pattern.

I've been making a lot of progress on big, long term projects that have been sitting around for ages. I feel good about it, but I have a feeling I'll be jumping to some smaller projects soon enough. I'm also planning on starting some embroidery, which is exciting. I've never done any, but we sell these great floursack tea towels at work that would be perfect. We really need a set of good tea towels, and tea towels with nerdy embroidery would be such a nice touch for our kitchen.

Finished Socks and New Job!

I finished my awesome knee-highs! Now if only it was cool enough to wear them... Ok, I don't really mean that. I like that it's warm.


Aren't they pretty? Right now I'm working on the Botanical Pullover from the new Interweave Crochet, but I'm making other socks now too. They're something that basically I'm working on while on my way to work. This is how I figured out I can make a toe in about 30 minutes. Yay!

That does mean that I finally have a job! It's just a part time position, but I'm really liking it- more than I expected I would. It's at an awesome new trendy ice cream shop. My boss is a really nice guy, my coworkers seem really cool, it's a great neighborhood and we've gotten some terrific customers, and I'm making a reasonable wage. All in all, it's been really fun so far.
That said, I hope it's not warm enough for me to work tonight- I want to go to stitch night!

Some Pretty Yarn and Socks!

I've been making socks. I'm pretty pleased with them- I've been planning them for quite some time.
They're knee highs based on two patterns I've made before. I'm getting there with the heel to these socks- I just need to figure out how many rows and decreases and such to work. But I have the stitch pattern figured out.

They're comfy- and I've gotten so much done from the first ball. Seriously, the sock and a half up there is from the first 100g. I'm gonna be able to make another pair out of this yarn!

I went to Mary Maxim today to apply for a job. At knit night last night, Sarah mentioned that they were hiring a part timer. I need a job, I love yarn... I had to apply! I've been applying like crazy to jobs, and have a huge batch of applications to go out on Monday.

I also had to pick up some yarn while I was at the store. This is for a present I'm planning for someone!
I also got two more balls of the self striping sock yarn I've been using a bunch- On Your Toes. For 8$ a ball, making two super awesome pairs of socks, totally worth it. I am seriously getting a good sock yarn collection. I'm excited! I shouldn't have bought more yarn- but I also did over 12 hours of babysitting Monday that really burned me out. Spending a bit of that money on pretty yarn to be my therapy. It's definitely cheaper than real therapy... and softer and prettier...

This is more of my new sock yarn. I guess it's not so new anymore- I got it about a month ago from KnitPicks. I love Stroll Tonal <3! So many pretty colours. I can't wait to make something from these. I'm gonna keep doing the same as the socks above- basically a plain foot with a fun ankle. I like it. I might try working the ankle pattern onto the top of the sock.

The project I'm designing with sl st is made from this pretty yarn- Cool Crochet. I love it, I'm so sad it's discontinued! It's just got a really great sheen to it.

Some FOs

I have been busy doing something I'd been putting off. I'm making my demo reel and preparing to start applying for jobs later this week. I need to do it, and I need to get a job, but that doesn't make it any more fun. I'm waiting on an email from a former employer right now, hoping to get some old work.
I don't like applying for jobs. I know it's not how it works, but I want to just be given a day or two to show them how hard a worker I am! They can call my references, they'll tell them I'm a good employee. I don't mind working really hard at a job- but I'm intimidated by the work that goes into applying for jobs. Walking into a place and handing over my work is scary!
But it needs to be done. Hopefully I'll have done all my applying by the end of the week. Even better would be having a job in the next two weeks. Fingers crossed.

I have been crocheting still. I need something to relax me- and while I'm waiting to hear from my old job, there's not much else I can do. My resume is in order, my reel is just waiting to have the work dropped in.
I finished these socks last week. The first one was a pain, the second was relatively easy. I made changes between them- the second one, on the right, has a nicer heel because I figured out crochet stockinette worked flat. The heel uppers on both need to get changed next time- I worked sc for height, but it would have been much nicer in stockinette. Next time! I also need to remember that ankles will stretch and I should work them tighter than I think I need to. They're still really comfy and cute though!
Once I finish my current project (the stockinette one) I will be starting in on a pair of knee-highs. They'll have this plain foot base, then I'll start in on a pattern from a different pair on the ankle. I'm excited!

I made this shawl mostly while my nephew was here in the mornings when he and my sister in law were sleeping off the jet lag (by the way, I have the cutest nephew in the world, just thought you should know!).(the sweetest guy in the world wearing a hat and booties made by his auntie!)

Finished it in a week and have been really loving it. I will definitely make another in just one solid yarn- I don't totally love the combination of the two yarns here, and it really doesn't help that one is lace and the other is fingering weight!
Speaking of shawls, my Nana seemed to like hers. She wore it all weekend and thanked me for it, which is about all I needed! I'm happy.

This was what I finished the day after I finished the socks. I'm loving this shirt! It's a mysterious cotton blend- I'm thinking cotton/acrylic. It feels nice and soft and drapey and has a great sheen to it that I need to get a picture of. It's like a thin band of mercerized cotton twisted with something matte, and the yarn is almost ribbon like.
The shirt is great. I want to add more to the bottom band, but otherwise I'm pleased. It has a tendency to slide off my shoulder, but it ends up looking really cute. It's just really comfy and a nice addition to a simple tank top.

Alright, back to my stockinette top- almost finished the back. Then it'll be just the sleeves left. Yay!

Presents in the Mail and WIPs

Isn't it cute? This is the little owl hat I made for my nephew. He'll be in town in less than a week. I CAN'T WAIT! I finally get to meet him! I keep making baby noises whenever I talk about him. My boyfriend has been laughing at me a lot, in totally unrelated news.


I got a present today in the mail!
The doorbell rang and I plodded downstairs in my pj's, only to find the mail carrier holding my package from ebay! My very own swift! EEEEEE!
I also got a set of bamboo crochet hooks. Aren't they pretty? They're so pretty!

So of course I had to cake up some yarns I'd been avoiding winding. The brown ball on top is the same as what I've been using for a shawl for my Nana. Winding it on the ball winder without the swift took me almost a freakin' hour. With the swift? Pfff, not ten minutes.
In the background sits something else that I wouldn't have thought of winding without a swift- an indecent amount of laceweight from Habu. Seriously, without a swift, winding that would have been HOURS of torture. Maybe days. With a swift, I still think it'll be getting into at least an hour. Heeheeheee, I kinda can't wait. My arm will hurt, but it'll be worth it for the look on my boyfriend's face.
The golden yellow and yellow/pink cakes are for a shawl. I don't know which, but I can't wait. It's Lorna's Laces and Fleece Artist, and they are both just gorgeous! I'm really excited, but I am trying to finish my other projects first. The stuff that has priority, like mother's day gifts.

Speaking of which, this bag is for my mom. She has totally proven herself worthy of the most gorgeous gifts when her response to the scarf I made for her birthday was "Oh my gosh, there are so many stitches! It's beautiful! This much have been so much work!"
And who doesn't like a good mesh market bag? I love this cotton- I got a mill end bag of it. Yeah, 6$ for a pound of pretty rainbow cotton? Sold! I am so tempted to get more. Except that, you know, I've bought about 5 pounds of yarn this week. Shh...

And the socks I'm making. Or, the sock. I ripped that damn heel out no less than 4 times. And that is some sticky, grippy freaking yarn. Ugh. I was about to cut the yarn off and stick my tongue out at it, but it's really pretty and expensive sock yarn. So rip I did... rip rip rip through the three times I'd cut it for the first go at the heel/ankle. Sigh. Finally getting somewhere with it, though.

Frustration!

I've been doing nothing but crochet lately. I finished my mohair pullover- I am pretty pleased with how it turned out!The fit is nice, it's comfy and it's just the right temperature for spring/fall. I am pretty pleased with my 2$ of thrift store yarn, I gotta say.
The sleeves were a bit short when I finished, so I did the laziest blocking job ever. I just got the sleeves wet and then hung them pulling down to dry. Now they're plenty long enough and I didn't have to redo the blocking on the body!
My desk last week. I bought more buttons. I don't use buttons very often, I have two boxes and now my felted bowl full... but I love them!

So I had to decorate my next felted bowl with them. I'm planning a blue and green bowl with button flowers and clouds and things next.

But yeah, frustrations. Today, like yesterday and the day before, I sat at home and watched TV and crocheted. On one hand, I'm watching 30 Rock and crocheting, so it's awesome, but on the other hand, I want a job. I want to be working! Of course, since my nephew will be here in two weeks and I want to be unemployed then so I can spend as much time as possible with him...

My socks were not helping today, either. I started a new pair with some awesome rainbow yarn last night at yarn night. I got the foot done today and started on the heel.
I hate doing heels. Not because of the heel itself, but because I can't find a heel I like. I redid the heel on this sock 3 times and I'm pulling out for a 4th try now. I finished the sock.. and it looked weird. All my heels are too short so I have to do these annoying back and forth slip stitch rows to make them tall enough. I don't want to have to do that every time- it's my least favorite part of the socks I've made.
I want to try another heel but I'm not sure it will work if it's not sc. I want it to be sl st, because it's more comfy... Hmm, I just had an idea. I want to do the type of heel where you decrease at the end of rows, get to the last 10 stitches and then work back increasing and sl stitching to the ends of rows. What if I did sl st going out and then sc coming back?
The sc would be taller, so the heel would go up higher and that's what I want, and the bottom would be nice flat comfy sl st.

Ok, I have something new to try. Of course, now I have to go and finish pulling back the yarn (and it would be a sticky kind of yarn that's just miserable to pull out. And I would have cut the yarn in three places making the dang heel and ankle).

Pretty Yarn and Silly Yarn

I was back at work today after my awesome 4-day weekend. I really enjoyed the whole thing, but after lazy napping whenever I wanted and the DST change, going back was tiring. Still, I had a day where I actually figured things out and had challenges, which was fun.

I decided to head up to Mary Maxim on my way home to see if I could find more of the sock yarn I was using. They were sadly all out, though. They had a different colour, so I grabbed it. The pinks in the two yarns are the same, so I'm going for totally silly socks and doing the heels in the opposing colours.
Who knows how they'll turn out, but it should be fun! They do look somewhat clown like anyway, in a way I like. The entrelac is fun- sort of a mini-tunisian crochet thing, but it's fairly slow going. Well, you do so much at once that it really isn't, but it seems like it.


While I was at the yarn store, I decided to grab some skeins that called my name last time I was there. I felt this yarn before and it was so soft and gorgeous, but out of my budget. Since I've had a bit of extra money, I decided now was the perfect time to grab some. Of course, the question was, what colour and what do I make?

I really wanted to make something that would touch skin. This yarn is too soft to be a hat- I was thinking more cowl or gloves. Then I saw this gorgeous ruby colour and decided that it would be perfect as a little shrug over some of my summer dresses.

The yarn is Diamond Yarn Mulberry & Merino- 50% merino, 50% mulberry silk. Yummm! It's staining the bamboo hook I got with it a little bit, but it's gorgeous. I can't get mad at it! And my very first all bamboo hook is working perfectly with it. The grippyness of the hook is good with the soft slipperyness of the silk.
I'm working it in a simple open pattern to get as much as I can out of the yarn. They only had 3 skeins- and that was about my budget limit, too. That's less than 300 yards, so simple and open it is!

I'm planning on a ribbed border around the front and sleeves. We'll see how much yarn I have for that! I'm almost through the first skein and have almost finished the back, so I'm thinking I'll have a nice bit of ribbed band. This is one time where I wish I could work scblo ribbing like you work knitted ribbing, so I could just keep going 'til I ran out of yarn! Still, it'll look good.

I came home to find that my Paton's order had arrived. Sort of. I got this big but not very long box and was kinda confused. No way could blocking wires fit in that, right? Yup, no blocking wires. Just a big old box with lots of packaging... and one tiny little booklet. It's beautiful, but where are my blocking wires? I've emailed them so hopefully I will soon know.

Maybe they had to send them separately- after all, they sent this part in a giant box when a little bubble mailer would have done, so maybe they're sending the blocking wires in a refrigerator box.

The Pain of the Frogging...

I had to frog a lot today. I tried not to. Oh, did I try not to! I don't like to frog. It's giving in and saying that I made a mistake- but more than that, it's a lot of work and I'm so extremely lazy.

I'm working on entrelac socks. It's pretty fun as I've never tried entrelac before. I finished the body of the first sock and chained the heel space and started in on the pattern.

And then I tried them on. Oh yes, you can see where this is going.

The heel chain was too tight. Too tight by a lot. It hurt my foot. I kept trying to stretch things out, hoping that would be ok. I even kept going for awhile, pretending it was gonna be fine.
I mean, I was this far already!


But this morning I woke up to the truth. I needed to pull them back and redo the heel space if they were ever going to be comfortable. I tried to pretend again- I start the first round of the heel, and of course that made no difference. So I sighed and began to frog.

Then I added a few more rounds to the body of the foot and made the heel chain, and made that heel chain as loose as I could.
I'm back to the end of the first entrelac row. I'll catch up to where I was soon enough, and this time, they fit.
I don't think I have enough yarn for a second, though, so I might have to go back and hope there's still more of this on clearance! Otherwise I'll just have to make mismatched socks.



In better news, my pullover is dry and looking nice, and my gray mitts are still making me happy, which means they're done. No more adding to them- just done done done!