Happy Merry

It's raining here and all the back door is open. It's beautiful. We've been thankful and opening some gifts. I got a fancy hotel bathrobe and Schott's Miscellany among other awesome gifts. I gave Nick a comforter because I will never finish making the cover for his seven year old twin comforter (the one he took to college his first year and wouldn't set aside because I had promised him the aforementioned cover). So the new one fits his bed.

You may notice that no knitted goods were mentioned above. There might be some face cloths for some extended family made tonight. I did not get any yarn or yarn accessories, and that's ok.

Nick got his pair of birthday socks a few weeks ago, but hasn't worn them because, well it's Florida and he's not the biggest fan of extra warmth when it's 80 degrees outside.

I'll post pictures later. Or rather, I'll see if I can get Nick to pick some pictures tonight.

Hope your holiday is awesome and full of love. I'm glad mine is.

It's been so long

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

I've been ignoring my blog willfully. Sorry about that. I got my first one skein secret pal package and just heard from her that she's mailing July and August together, and I am very excited about that.

I had a job and now I am waiting to start another. It looks like back to waitressing at the breakfast shift. A particular hotel chain treated me well right out of high school and even though I'm in a different city they seem excited to have me back. I can't start any sooner than Tuesday though because my pee test happened on Friday and the results don't go in till Monday.

Knitting Content ahead: I have finished three whole socks. Nick's second sock is on the needles and I have completed all the toe increases, so we'll just barrel on ahead through the foot and make it match the first sock. My pair, with the Lorna's Laces Vera has a bit of discrepancy in the greens, on one sock it appears a little teal and on the other it is more forest-y. From afar nobody notices. I cut all the socks from their balls at the LYS this afternoon after my sock coach inspected them and deemed them great. Now I just need to weave in the ends and find an excuse to wear them.

Holy Moly

We're on vacation At the shore. Happy 4th of July!

I'm to the heel on Nick's sock and done the ribbing on my sock. I need help in person, so tomorrow I'm going to ride in to Ocean City to get some big needles for the kiddos to learn with and to ask some quick questions about socks.

I'd take myself in this afternoon, but I'm not listed on Nick's dad's rental car. Time to break out the Vogue Stitchionary.

Memory

I was reminded of this by another blog Two Straight Lines I'll wait while you go read that.

I have siblings. An older sister, a younger sister, and a brother who is the baby of the family. This particular story involves my younger sister. With any luck she might comment and let us know if she remembers these events any differently.

When she was a young teenager (13, I think) she went to a doctor for consistent and troubling ear aches. Consistent, like, she had them for years. Nobody really had taken her seriously about this, so I'm not sure who took her to the doctor. But there she was, and he pulled something out of her ear that I had put there years before. When she was 8, I think. Or maybe 9. What was this item?

Popcorn Kernel. In her ear. I still feel bad about that one.

As promised

Photos. The burgers didn't want to hold still long enough to show the length of the sock! Isn't that needle roll beautiful? Love it.

So, it's been a while

I have a long post from Tuesday night. It's whiny. Here's the distillation: I don't have a job yet, and my sock is moving along.

Now that we've got that taken care of, the sock is still moving along, we're in the home town for an extra day and will leave tomorrow instead of tonight. As I type, Nick is photographing my sock. Wait, no, he's eating pizza. Hopefully there will be photos also of the new needle roll I got at the yarn store. Peace Fleece makes them, so I was happy to support two good things at once. The store is very new, and I hope it doesn't go out of business.

Did I mention that I don't have a job?

Anyway, we went out and saw a band at the bar last night. A great big banjo sound. Loved it.

Some of Nick's extended family are here in town working on a business venture that is off to a fantastic start. So proud of them for making their dream work. Such nice people, too. We all went to dinner with the other business partner last night and had lots of fun. In fact, my venture to the yarn store was not with Nick, but with his very generous Aunt and Uncle, who helped me support the store by gifting me the needle roll. Yay.

Meme

How am I feeling today?
Stay a little longer
Bob Wills

Will I get far in life?
Guitar Town
Steve Earl

How do my friends see me?
Billy Lyons and Stack O'lee
Furry Lewis Traditional

When will I get Married?
Bowling Green
Neko Case

What is my best friend's theme song?
I'll go on Downtown
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

What is the story of my life?
Thump the clouds
Adrian Legg

What was high school like?
Lover By Appointment
Lefty Frizzell

How am I going to get ahead in life?
My wife died on Saturday night
New Lost City Ramblers

What is the best thing about me?
A long December
Counting Crows

How is today going to be?
Things to Remember
Willie Nelson

What is in store for this weekend?
Fine and Mellow
Alberta Hunter Holiday

What song describes my parents?
Gathering Flowers for the Masters Bouquet
Blood Oranges

What song describes your grandparents?
You Win Again
Jerry Lee Lewis

How is my life going?
Come Pick me up
Ryan Adams

What song will they play at my funeral?
Someday the Waves
Iron and Wine

How does the world see me?
Walk you Down
Jay Farrar

Will I have a happy life?
If all Else Fails
My Morning Jacket

What do my friends really think of me?
I'm so Happy Tra la la la la la
Lymon, Lewis and the Teenchords

Do people secretly lust after me?
Mom and Dad's Waltz
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

How can I make myself happy?
I've Wasted my Life
Dolly Parton

What should I do with my life?
One Little Song
Gillian Welch

Will I ever have children?
Goodbye's all we got left
Steve Earl

What is some good advice for me?
Miner's refrain
Gillian Welch

What is my signature dancing song?
You tell me our love was wrong
Lefty Frizzell

What do I think my current theme song is?
Darkness on the face of the earth
Willie Nelson

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Steamboat whistle blows
Flatt and Scruggs

What type of men/women do you like?
Cahoklan
Jay Farrar

What kind of kisser are you?
Accident Waiting to Happen
Billy Bragg

What's your style?
Telephone Road
Rodney Crowell

What kind of lover are you?
The song of Wandering Aengus
Hanz Araki with Finn MacGinty

What would be playing on a first date?
Kentucky Mandolin
Bill Monroe and Doc Watson


Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
The Longest Night
Tin Hat Trio

The Fair

It's not till March. And it's in Miami, so it's kind of far from here. But maybe I'll enter a pair of socks when it comes around.

This is the next sock

I wound this ball by hand. The colors show up pretty accuraly on my monitor. Never again, unless I can find a person to hold the hank. Or, more likely, not until I finish this sock and it comes time to start Nick's second sock. I will have to wind that ball. Nick is at the store getting the materials for a nice salsa. While he's out, I've taken liberties with his camera and can show you my cats. They no longer have any pride.

Here, Mable wears the aforementioned sock. There is nothing more to say about this. She was already awake, so I don't feel bad about, you know, torturing her.

Next, we have John, in her pose as napping champion of the world. She is, really, quite the champ, and no one outnaps her. John will sometimes open an eye while I tell her to, "Get down!" but she really isn't listening. She moves her paw over her eyes and exposed ear at the same time to prove that she cannot be moved to action.

The colors in the sock really aren't that bright. It's more like an army camoflauge outfit with an equal amount of pink thrown in for fun. Nick's sock didn't pool one bit. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to say the same of this colorway (the vera) as well, but I get nervous when I see some of the colors matching up for five or so stitches on two rows.

Now, for the moving content, mostly unrelated to knitting:

The boxes are more unpacked.

I've had some interviews, two at the same practice with a staff lunch scheduled for Tuesday, and some others. I'm very impressed by the long interview office, and would work there without hesitation except I would have a 40 minute commute each way. Also the doctor at that practice suggested that I might knit him some socks. I don't have a stock response (it's really not polite to say, "No way in hell, mister") so I didn't respond.

I finally got my first piece of forwarded mail, an issue of Jane Magazine.

There are some pretty good places to eat nearby, but we feel mocked by our local Publix, which belongs in a slum. We drive two miles to a nicer one and only walk to the near one for, you know, emergency type stuff.

I made brownies that were very good. Do not ask about the Andes' chocolate chip cookies or the coconut chocolate chip kisses. The recipe for the latter will be thrown away.

Finally, someone asked to me to take a trip and do some visiting. I fear I had initially hurt some feelings in my declining, and was sad that there will be no airplane in my near future. I don't think he reads the blog, but either way, we've discussed it and he understands that now is not the time, and I can't generally travel with three days notice. So maybe some other time, soonish.

Tomorrow I will donate platelets here at the local blood bank. It takes 90 minutes, but otherwise they have to separate 8 or more whole blood donations to get an equal amount of platelets.

Still with boxes

But fewer of them. Photos tonight or tomorrow. I hope.

The boxes.

Oh, the boxes. They are all in the apartment. We return to the old city for the cars tomorrow. And the cats. No knitting this week. Maybe some knitting tonight. We'll see. Made a mistake on the most recent row of the house of blue leaves scarf, so I must tink that. Darn.

Much to report

I have a job interview tomorrow, in the new town. Which requires getting up really really really really early to depart the hometown, so that we can make the 11:00 time.

I'm nervous.

Then we go home and we pack. A lot. For the next 5 days. After that, the truck gets rented and we shove all the boxes in and move to the new town.

In case you were wondering, Nick has but one birthday sock. It's not because I got bored with sock knitting. It's because I don't have a ball winder and there was (understandably) much tut-tutting when the lys made a ball of the first hank of Lorna's Laces for me. After the dirty looks I decided that I would try my hand at well, hand winding. Ha. Of course, the hank I wound was for my socks. And I haven't successfully cast on for those yet. But Nick is happy with his sock. Excited. Can't wait for the other one. I don't think, however, that he's forgotten about the comforter cover that I've not finished in the three years since I've started it.

Light on the pictures around here. We'll all live. Oh, he's playing Freight Train by Elizabeth Cotten on the guitar. Going to go sit in that room.

Continuing progress

I've gone down a needle size to tighten up the top of Nick's sock. Should be done with that tonight. Graduation is happening this evening, and then the big party on campus. I'll stop in for a bit but will probably be in bed early.

Yesterday was my last day at work. Mixed feelings on that. Mostly glad to be going. I sort of wish I had a source of income over the next three weeks, and/or a job lined up in the new city. While we drive through on Tuesday, I'll drop resumes off there. We'll be on our way through to another place for a few days and then coming home to pack up the rest of the stuff.

I'm debating whether or not to bring some samples of things I've made for a little shop in my hometown next week. The owner has expressed interest in at least looking at the cards I make by hand, though she doesn't have much display space for cards. I've thought about putting together some knitted cotton purses with lining and handles. I've thought about smell good sachets. I've thought about some ipod socks. I've thought about lots of things, but have made nothing. Maybe after I've packed a few more boxes I can think more clearly about whether I really feel like making things to sell. First I'll have a bowl of ice cream.

The photo you see above was taken after dark this evening. The only important part of this photo is that it involves an actual sock. That I knitted. If I finish it tonight it will have taken me slightly less than a week. The other one might even be done on Monday. Were it not for all the frogging I did on the first sock, I might laugh at the suggestion. But it can be done. I hope.

Good night.

Suggestion

Do not get within three wrapped stitches of the end of a near perfect first ever short row heel and then discover that you've split the wrong needles for the heel. I did that. It's true. You will just have to take my word for it, because I cannot bear to photograph the evidence. I just cannot. The slightly better news is that the foot of the sock really could use a few extra rounds anyway. So now I'm not going to be feeling bad about giving Nick a pair of socks that might be a wee too short in the foot. No, these socks will be perfect.

On a brighter note, there is chocolate melting on the stove in harmony with butter. There will be brownies this afternoon for an awesome picnic. There will also be dates wrapped in bacon. I will take photos of these good things, and put them here soon enough. For now, I leave you with John and the Kins.

Swimming in Ribbing

Three by one ribbing. Still the Baltic Sea yarn from Lorna's Laces. I am going to make some brownies today, but am procrastinating because the sock knitting is lots of fun. I got a haircut yesterday and promised the cutter some brownies, so I will make good on that. My hair looks and feels great, just in time for summer.

Oh, but Nick just said he's going to Whole Paycheck soon, maybe I'll tag along and knit in the car.

We discovered this morning that these socks were too wide, so I took out four stitches, which also required taking the sock down the inch or two (I couldn't bear to measure) that I knitted last night at the Lost Kangaroo. Thankfully I was able to pick all the stitches back up and get the marker back where it belongs, so I didn't have to fiddle with another figure 8 cast on.

Socks!

I guess technically I am swatching for Nick's birthday socks. I haven't chosen a pattern because I don't know the gauge that I will get with this yarn. The colors are awesome. Here is it on the pig's head.

Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock, Baltic Sea colorway



There has been other knitting, but no other worthy photographing. Nick took this one for me, since all the others I took earlier this week were tainted by poor judgment (lighting issues) on my part.

A little bit of everything

It's not just yarn here at souptoknits, we also have car repair (see below), and dirty dishes and cats. And some other dusty stuff that I'm unearthing as I prepart to move in less than one month. More tomorrow.

Wherein our heroine saves herself (a ton of money)

I changed the alternator in my car this week. I will take all of the credit for this automotive transformation, but I must say that my boyfriend started that last bolt, and my neighbor finished it off. I made them both cookies after I got the replacement part and installed it all by myself.


The chocolate chip recipe is a big hit. Thanks Alton Brown. There was a really bad photo of my cookies that I wanted to post. But it was very bad. They are chewy. The cookies.


Travelling back in time, I learned three new cast ons at the yarn store on Friday. One of the ladies asked who taught me how to cast on, and it was my great grandmother. She said, "and where is your great grandmother now?" My response, "Dead, but it wasn't from casting on this way." Nobody laughed. So I practiced the new casting on. We had gone to learn about socks, but since I was remedial and my friend lost interest in socks and decided she wanted to make a tank top out of mercerized (am I right?) cotton in purple and pink, we bought yarn. Ok, my friend bought yarn (hey, friend, is it ok if I use your name in here? It's a little tedious trying to find clever ways to euphamize "this other person who knits") and I was so impressed at the process of another person winding a hank into balls of yarn, as a kindness, that I suddenly needed yarn. So I bought some for all of the mothers' day presents I will be making. For my sisters, my godmother, my aunt, and my boyfriend's mother. (Hey boyfriend, can I use your name here, too?)

Progress on the House of Blue Leaves Scarf. This is a picture from last Saturday at the cardboard regatta, it's probably at least ten inches long now. maybe more. I haven't measured it.

Socks

There might be sock knitting today at lunch time. I am planning to go with another knitter whose garage sale I totally interrupted last weekend to stand around her bedroom and fondle her yarn and talk about local yarn shops. She even lent me At Knit's End. This knitter is so sweet and I am sad that we will both be moving away from this town so soon. We've never knit together, and this makes me even more motivated to find a knitting/crochet community in Hollywood,FL when I get there. (Except that she pointed out the pattern for cupcakes in One Skein and said, "This is what gives knitters a bad reputation!" I, uh, still want to make those cupcakes. I might crochet something similar from this site


We've been planning this all week and now we are both having car trouble. Hers is in the shop for tranny work and mine is in my driveway, waiting for me to take the alternator out. Yes, I will fix my own car. Unless Pete comes to rescue me. But I won't ask him this time. I mean, it's just two bolts and a wire. Where's my socket set? Hopefully there will be photos of that adventure.

**Edited to add, we're not going. I can't leave the office for the half day following lunch. My knitter friend doesn't have her car back. Maybe we'll go tomorrow if I can wash the grease off myself in time to knit and then have my massage. (It was a gift from the therapist who visits our office, and boy do I need it!)

Waiting

Waiting to leave the office, waiting to get onto the knitting kitty ring, waiting to be a millionairess, waiting to upload photos onto my computer so you can see the beauty of the blue alpaca.

From the Office

Since I'm at work and can't upload pictures of my three repeats of blue "cascading leaves" I will tell the naming stories.

Mable came from the back of a beaten up pickup truck at a big box store a few days before my birthday. I won't tell you how pitiful I sounded when I turned to my boyfriend and said, "We won't go look yet at the kittens that are there. We will go get all the things we need from this huge store and when we are done, maybe there won't be any kittens left. If there are kittens, I will look. And maybe I will take a kitten home." Obviously, there were still some kittens. I picked the one that jumped out from the writhing ball of kittens in the cage to run over and bite me. I started calling her "Princess, go get me a beer," (I don't drink beer, that's the only reaons this was funny) which was fine until I was standing with her at the counter of the vet's office, shortening it to just "Princess" because the woman at the front had no sense of humor. Fast forward 6 weeks and many hundreds of veterinary dollars, in front of the vet counter again, but this time being asked if I had Princess the Kitten or Princess the Pit Bull. "Uh, how about Princess the name change?" Clearly, I wasn't enjoying calling my pet Princess. So we drove home from another expensive peek into her ears and backside, stocked up with piles of medicines and talked about a name. (Mable probably talked about getting out of the car and getting the greasy crap out of her ears, but let's not split hairs.)

We drove past the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum. And there it is, the name that every word processor tells me is misspelled. I guess that was more an acquisition story with a bonus naming blurdb. Onward.

For a year I joked that Mable would need a husband, and that next cat I rescued would be called John. In the same breath I insisted that I will not own a boy cat. They spray*, and sometimes they spray even after they're tender bits are removed. Enter Mittens, a white footed kitten that my neighbors were giving away. I was polite and called her John Mittens for about 4 hours and then she was just John.

Mable is the favorite, I am not ashamed to say. We have the most nicknames for her, she has cuter habits, and she is the cat that secretly binged on diet cat food under my sink for 4 months after we got the new kitten and had to feed them both kitten food. John is just bad, but I love her dearly, too.

*Yeah, that came back to bite me in the ass when John was a year old and living in a house with a third cat who is not popular in the cat world. John peed on my bed and at least once, me in the bed, every morning, and sometimes in the evenings when I returned home from work.

Happy Easter Knitting Day

As promised, these are the booties for the twin girls my sister had a few weeks ago. The pattern comes from the book Knitting Pretty Yes, there are three pairs for two kids. They are twins, they will share for the rest of their lives. They can start now. In fact, they probably already have. I will put them in the mail tomorrow, along with some yarn pieces so she can pick a few more colors. She insisted that no pink gifts arrive, and though it was hard, I stuck to it. I will include some red and maybe one pink (just in case she's changed her mind) and some lavenders and blues.

There were Peeps this morning. And then french toast with nice Grade B syrup and some bacon for breakfast. Dinner was extra special, a replacement pb&j lovingly crafted after I almost threw the first across the room when the wildlife crawled off it and up my arm. I'm not one to be afeared of wildlife, and I have taken a phrase from my grandmother that I realize offends some of my friends, "It's just protein, dear." She was a scientist. But this was too much, and I had skipped lunch, so I was a wreck anyway, so before my boyfriend went to his music meeting, he made me a sandwich. I won't even tell you why I had left the first one on the counter long enough for someone else to start snacking on it.

The newest scarf swatch...

You can see the curling that still happens, blocking would probably fix that. You can also (maybe) see the moss stitch border that I added. The pattern is 16 stitches wide, on a background of reverse stockinette stitch. All the way at the bottom the side borders are five stitches of moss and then the five of reverse stockinetter. Clunky. So for the next pattern repeat I went to three moss. Still clunky. Then to just two. I like that, but in Worsted weight yarn, this 36 stitches is a bit much for a scarf. So I might try it in something finer on smaller needles. I have some blue Alpaca Peru, and I can get that in a green or a brown if I like the way it knits up. This is Plymouth Encore right now, which I like for knitting, but sometimes it's scratchy when it's knit. Also, the skeins I've gotten lately have all been huge messes on the inside, requiring at best a long concentrated untangling, and at worst, as with this skein, some scissors.

And as a final Easter Treat, this is one of my cats, Mable. The feet of her friend John can be seen in the background, and that sad thing she is, uh, holding, is a toy we call "Fat Mouse." Which goes pretty well with her, because we call Mable the Fatkins. As an aside, Mable and John are both girls. They are both spayed. John sometimes finds herself feeling confused when people refer to her as he. I tolerate that, since I caused the confusion with the names. At a later date, the kitten naming stories.

I'm knitting swatches from a book of knitting and crochet patterns. I want to design a scarf, and now that I know I enjoy this pattern, I need to swatch again to see what can be done with the edges of this scarf. This will be my first lace project.


Here is a scarf whose pattern is from the One Skein book by Leigh Radford. This is my third rendition of it, and I can see that it's good practice for my tension. Also, people are impressed.


Next up, photos of the baby booties I made for my sister's twins. I actually finished knitting them before they were born, sewed them up shortly after, and though the kidlets are nearly a month old, they are still not in the mail. My sister still hasn't gotten her wedding present either. So, uh, as long as they fit the feet when they arrive, I'm in the clear, right?