Yarn P*rn and an FO!

Well, I finished my mom's Ringwood Hose, they come up to the calf muscle and I tried them on to make sure they'd fit :) and man oH man am I going to have to knit a pair for myself. Not only did I finish these in (more or less 5 days, including work) but these are the best fitting pair of made yet! I kinda just made up my own pattern, knitting to fit my foot.

I cast on about 50 stitches around the toe (note: this is too many and made for a very square toe) and then knit up until I was past the big toe before starting the pattern. I didn't increase in the toe at all, I didn't increase until I reached about 1.5 inches from the end of the foot and started making the gusset. I increased 5 times with 2 stitches per 2 rows (one plain knit row in between). Then I followed the recipe for my toe up heel flap. I knit up quite a ways before beginning the calf increases (I tried to somewhat follow the leg directions) and increased as the pattern is written. I only knit about 27 rows of ribbing though, the 40 that the pattern calls for seemed like it might be a bit much.

I also received my yarn from Abby:
I also got some black that I really could not photograph, but you can visit her site to see any of these! I LOVE every color and have to tame myself into knitting up that blue I got from her a while ago first. I want my own pair of Ringwood Hose and that vibrant blue would be perfect.

Chinese New Year

So one of my coworkers decided that she wanted to prepare a lunch for Chinese New Year and since we have a small lab (12 people in toto) we had, in my opinion, just the right amount of people!

Because everything took so long to prepare we didn't start the 'lunch' until 2:00, but it was well worth the wait:
Also, I've been making great headway on the socks for my mom and I love the pattern, yarn and fit!
I think I'm going to end up either keeping these for myself or making some for myself. My mom already knows I'm knitting these for her, she's seen them, and will probably not be happy if I chose the former. :)

Oh my goodness! I almost forgot to mention that my Grandma got her shawl and she said that she almost cried when she opened the box! Both her and her husband were shocked that I was able to knit something like that in 3 weeks! I made her day, and she made mine!

Ringwood Socks

I have started some Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. These are for my mom and I'm quite enjoying the pattern. It is a fast knit because there is only one K1, P1 row but it gives a lot of bang for your buck and I could see myself knitting this pattern up for myself. The yarn is Knitpicks Essential Tweed in Flint.; it is from that grab bag of sock yarn my mom got me for Christmas.

I know I've knit with Essential before but I'm really enjoying it this time! I was wondering if there was a large difference between the tweed the the plain essential.... there is! The tweed has less superwash wool in it that is replaced with donegal.... interesting that my feet (!!) could pick up on that... The yarn is very soft but still feels substantial and like it will wear well as a pair of socks. I really want to have this pair finished by the end of January but would love it finish them up this week!

I've been conversing with Abby about buying some more of her yarn, so stay tuned for some more of that yummy stuff!

Finally, but most importantly, the bad news from this last week. When I was still living with my parents we had two dogs, one of which I (more or less) took care of so I still refer to her as 'my dog.'
She will be 7 years old on Valentine's day. My mom told me on Tuesday that she was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. On Wednesday my parents took her to the CSU canine cancer center to decide what to do. They decided to start a chemo regimen that will last for 19 weeks and the vets estimated that will give her 6 to 12 months. I plan to spend much of whatever free weekend time I have with her, and I would like to post as many pictures as I can.

Long post... includes wedding stuff!

Ok, I'll start at the beginning.

First, I got my Blue Nebula from Abby and I SWEAR it feels even better than the last batch I bought from her!
Can't wait to cast on for my own pair of blue socks, but I really should at least get started on my mom's! I finally decided on the Nancy Bush's Half Hose because it's got some interest but not so much that my mom won't wear them. Also, I think the tweed will look great in it!

Second, last night the man and I went to see Bugs on Broadway.
The gist of it is that a symphony plays all the music for various Warner Brothers cartoons, my favorite being 'What's Opera Doc?': the opera that Bugs and Elmer Fudd do starring the ENORMOUSLY fat horse! We had a blast!

Third!! (This is what I'm currently still excited about) I had a trial hair and make-up today for the wedding!


I think everything turned out REALLY well and can't wait for the real thing! These pics were taken back at my mom's after we did a rough redo of the hair because the stylist took it down for me at the place (WAY too many bobby pins for me to deal with if I don't have to. Also, ignore the jewelry it's just what I happened to have on).

And on a side note, I am currently a little over halfway through chart E on my Grandma's shawl. I thought I might be able to finish this weekend but I'm thinking that something more realistic would be by next weekend. :)