Not much to say

Sorry for the lack of posts! I've been pretty busy painting the house and training the pup that I haven't been able to knit NEARLY as much as my sanity needs. Just the other day I found myself in a verbal argument with Fez.... It started with me calling him fat, he responding with some non-verbal that played through my head as an insult and then me insulting him again before I realized what was going on and laughed at myself.

I'm hoping to get the painting done before the end of October... I actually wanted it done before the beginning of October but my helpers (my family) thought a break might be in order and we aren't painting for the next two weeks. :( In my head we have nothing to do for the house after the painting, not for a while anyway. Get new carpet is first on the list and we have to save up some more money (how much does carpet cost anyway?) and make sure that Anya is sufficiently house-trained so that we can leave her loose during the day without having to worry about little 'accidents'. I know she can hold it all day, her crate is clean when I come home from work but on the weekends when she's loose with us home she has to pee more since she's not sleeping all the time.... The other night Michael and I left her in the laundry room with a baby-gate at the door... she wasn't there when we got home and the baby-gate was still perfectly upright! Not sure what the next step is from here....

Knitting... well I started the second sleeve to my pink summer cardigan, it is now sitting in the car for my stuck-by-a-train knitting. And I've been knitting a bunch more on the Irtfa'a shawl, nowhere near half of the border is done. I've also received the yarn for the rest of my Equinox Pullover. I'm really in a 'finishing' mood because I feel I've got too much stuff on the needles and I can't keep track of it all. Hopefully after I finish up a thing or two I can get back to some 'gift' knitting... that's what I'm calling it but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't finish the projects in time for wearing this year...

Also, I had a 'photo shoot' with Anya this weekend, hoping I can sort through the pics soon and get a few posted.

Pic Updates

So, here are the pictures that I promised!

Michael's Fingerless Gloves:
He insisted that I post this pic! This next picture shows a very close idea of the color:
Here is a good image of the finished project:
Ok, I hope that satisfies your need for pictures of the new project! I sure loved knitting with this yarn and the satisfaction of a quickly finished project was very empowering! I hope to knit up a similar pair (but without the fingers) for myself using some Olive yarn I bought from Abby.

I took this picture of my Nebula Ringwood socks over the weekend but they have since been knit up past the beginning of the calf muscle and cast off for a finished pair! Just in time for the supposed snow we'll be getting over the weekend. I LOVE everything about these socks: the yarn, the fit, the pattern. Can't wait to wear them!
Finally, this is my new project:
The spring sweater out of some yarn that I have still forgotten to check the contents on... and I just realized that I threw away the ball bands after winding them all into center-pull balls.... oops.

Anyway this yarn is knitting up very smoothly and quickly with great texture. My only concern is that the drape isn't very nice and that the sweater will take on a 'stiff' appearance once I finish it....

And, since it's been soooo long, a pic of Fezzy!

I'm BAAAACK!

So lately I've been thinking about jumping back into blogging again. Things have calmed down at work and I have time to formulate a blog post every once in a while. I don't really want to blog when I'm at home because I'd much rather be knitting but I feel bad when I knit at work. I don't feel any remorse if I look busy aka blogging, so this might work! I take pictures when I'm at home, post them to flickr where I can use them for both the blog and ravelry, which I've become quite smitten with lately. :)

Recently I finished a pair of Log Cabin Socks (from Holiday Knits) for Michael because his feet get quite cold in the evenings. I made them toe-up, which seems to be my preferred method of late, and so the heel flap doesn't have the cable pattern on it. These took me about a week and a half! I'll try to get a picture of them on the recipient some time!
A side note, I imagine that many of my pictures will have to be taken with no natural light because I take them when I get home from work and after my workout, by then it's pretty dark!

Here is a picture of the socks I'm currently working on for myself. They are just a general toe up sock pattern made with Trekking XXL in 147 Burgundy. I've worked a bit more on them since this picture was taken on Friday and have passed the heel turn. I find that when I'm knitting both socks at the same time I am actually able to finish them, and in a decent amount of time too! I started these last weekend I think... I also really enjoy being able to try them on as I go, ensuring that most, if not all, of my work will come to fruition!

I decided that I would probably get cold shoulders at my wedding reception and, thus, should knit myself a shawl! I also thought that I would like to wear the thing after the reception and for some reason white did not seem the best choice. I went to Shuttles about 2 weeks ago and purchased a cone of Bambu in this green:

I had the idea of knitting something with a springtime theme, since the wedding is in April, and decided on Nancy Bush's 'Lily of the Valley' found in Lace Style. The stitch gauge works out fine, but the row gauge is almost HALF what it should be! I chose this pattern because I thought that it was fairly calm and wouldn't draw too much attention from my GORGEOUS dress. If I double the repeats to account for the decreased length I feel that the pattern would be too busy for the simple style I wanted. I started looking for another pattern..... And decided that the Lotus Blossom shawl might be a suitable substitute. That pattern has been ordered and is on its way, but I don't expect it before Thanksgiving.

After I finished Michael's socks, before Lace Style arrived and before I started on the Trekking socks, I learned just how dangerous it is to be without anything on the needles... That's why I bought that sock yarn, knowing full well that I have PLENTY more at home. That's also why I bought this sock yarn in cabernet... I was caught off-guard at work and put in the order so fast I sent it to the wrong address! It hasn't come in yet, but you can bet I'll take a picture as soon as it does. This new colorway in prosperity is also REALLY calling my name! Don't you snatch it up until I figure out what to do with myself!

At work, this is my baby:
For those who know a little bit about science, this is a Western Blot set up. For those of you who don't know much about science, it moves DNA from a gel to a piece of paper that can be manipulated a little easier.

I'll be going to Kansas from Wednesday through Sunday to visit some family and won't be able to blog then, so don't think I've abandoned you again!

And, in closing. The obligatory picture of Fez!

A miracle!!! A post!!!

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I had plans to finish another skein of yarn before posting and then I never finished it and the post never went up. So a lot of stuff has been going on around here. I think I'll limit this post to stuff I have pictures of and talk about my new job in a later post because not much has been going on on that front.

So.... I think I'll start with the rambouillet that I finished spinning up. I think it turned out WONDERFUL!
I don't plan to knit the pattern that came with it but I'm not quite sure what I should knit from it. I have a little over 600 yards of thin sock weight yarn. So, I'm thinking socks, toe-up and possibly little anklets. Then I was thinking that I should get a new sweater going because I scrapped the cardigan that I was working on and I was also thinking about knitting this up with that purple-y fiber that I bought quite some time ago. I thought that I should knit up a swatch of the rambouillet so that I could see what the gauge might look like with the purple-y merino if I modeled it after the grey.
I LOVED knitting with my own yarn. I can't wait to be able to make a whole garment out of my own hand spun yarn. Another thing I'm very proud of is this:
Yeah, the yarn has no extra twist at all! It's just laying there quite happily on the floor, in whatever shape I give it. All of this talk about my own yarn is reminding me of why I started this whole thing in the first place... I might just finish it up....

So that second skein of yarn I was trying to finish was the purple. That didn't happen. I have two full bobbins, I just need to ply them but I've really let it slip away from me.
Lets see... I finished the green ankle socks:
I really enjoyed the pattern and how quickly these knit up. But... I hate the yarn and the way these socks have hardly any stretch and the way they feel when I walk around. Apparently, I have sensitive feet. Huh. It's a superwash wool from knitpicks and has great stitch definition but I'm thinking that is it's only redeeming quality and it isn't enough to make me want to knit another pair of socks for myself out of this.
On the other hand, I am really enjoying knitting with the tofutsies. I'm also doing a toe-up sock and finding that I like it much more than top-down. I like how the toe looks and feels and I enjoyed knitting the turn of the heel much more than the other way and now this way I can see how much yarn I have to work with. However, I'm not sure how tall the socks should be so I think I'm going to have to go pick up another set of needles and knit from the other end of the yarn so that I can get the most out of my yarn!

I've been making a lot of progress on my shawl:

I love the way it smells and the feeling of the yarn as I knit it up.

I NEEDED a new sock book... preferably a toe-up book, but that doesn't exist so I had to 'settle' for this magnificent thing!
The plants have been growing, but no blooms. Everybody else's flowers are blooming and mine are just growing taller and green... I'm not if this means I'm a bad gardener but I continue to water them and wait.
I bought a new purse, it's soo cute! And a perfect spring purse to transport knitting around in!
I got a new haircut in preparation for my new job. I thought that perhaps I should try to thin some of the bulk out and look like a person rather than a head with a mop on it:
The other day Michael and I were running errands and we saw this:
It's a little blurry but that's because we were driving and this man was driving his motor cycle and the two cars had a hard time working together. Anyway, strapped to the front of this man is a small dog with rider goggles. Now at first I was shocked and thought that this man must be doing something cruel to the poor dog. But then I realized, if the dog was really that scared he would probably pee all of this man so the whole thing took on a much funnier mood.

And finally, some cute pictures of Fez:

How I spent my evening

Knit, knit, knit, knit....... food and liquor.... knit, knit, knit....

12:25 Fezzy tries to tell me that I need to stop when I finally cast-off the damn thing for the second time and it's still an inch short....
12:35 I didn't listen to Fezzy
1:45 The damn thing is done and tomorrow is busy day so I might not get to do as much work as I might like to.... I need to learn up on how to do seaming so that it looks good and then I have to do it as well as add a collar to 'finish' the cardigan.

Eye Candy Friday

Not much to blog about since the post last night. I knit another inch of the cardigan and a couple more rows of the shawl. I realized that if I didn't get going on the next chart of the shawl I would get something similar to second sock fever. Speaking of socks, tonight I plan to work on my Jaywalkers while Michael and I drive a friend to the airport and then while we are out hanging with some friends.

So, for Eye Candy all I have to offer you is some pictures of Fez being Fez.

WOW!!

So today I was just clicking along... reading the many blogs that I like to read in the morning... I got to the Yarn Harlot and noticed that she had referenced an email I had sent her... I looked a little closer and she actually linked my blog!! This is VERY exciting for me! I, of course, HAD to click the link.... and then I came to that horrible picture that I took of my grandmother's socks on my way out the door. I thought, well that won't work! I'm trying to get more people to read my blog, not look at the worst picture they've ever seen and click away!

And so I give you.... a day in the life of Fez:


I've also been discussing things over with Val again, about spinning wheels that is. I haven't mentioned here how heart-wrenching this deciding on a wheel thing is. I used to be in love with the Ashford traditional simply because it was gorgeous. Then I spun on the Schacht for a week. I fell in love with that wheel, the one that I never thought I would like because it looked much too modern for my tastes. I feel like the Ashford isn't quite working with me when I spin, at least not the way that the Schacht did. And of course it isn't! It doesn't cost $900... unlike the other one. I could get either one, I have the budget. Actually, 'the budget' means the money that I got from various sources for graduating college. Anyway. I could get either the Schacht or the Asford and a new chair for the living room in which I could do my spinning. This is the chair that I want.

Val convinced me that I should get a wheel that I love in every way, one that won't fight me when I want to spin some yarn. I wouldn't want to buy, for example, a husband who just sat in the living room looking pretty instead of working with me to make my life better. I shouldn't settle for something like that in a wheel. It has been decided. And just for the record, this is more money that I will be spending in one place than I ever have before (not including education, living space, and cars).

A Fezzik Update

Not a whole lot has been going on around here since I last posted. Mostly knitting on my grandma's socks and a little spinning. Michael and I spent the day just relaxing with each other and Fez. And, for the record, Fezzik was not named after anyone at all, it's just a name that Michael remembered and we thought it described our new cat perfectly. Here are a few images of our Sunday together:




"Mom, I really enjoyed being your model for a while but will you give it a rest, woman?!"

Here you can see my progress on the first sock. I have turned the heel and am working on the gusset decreases. I wouldn't be surprised if I finished it tonight. But I also wouldn't be surprised if I didn't. :)