Hey look! More stuff finished!

Friday night I finished these, slapped them on my feet, and they've hardly been off since. I figure I'll wash them today so I can have them ready to go for Thanksgiving road-tripping.



Garter Rib socks - pattern is from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks, which had a lovely way of stepping through the simplest of patterns. I liked the garter-stitch edging on the heel flap and the attention to detail throughout. I will be knitting more from this book.

And my great accomplishment lately:



Giant grey socks. Okay, so they're not really giant, but they're much bigger than they would be were they for me, and they're grey, finished just in time for the weather and the rest of the world to become the same color. These are Christmas for my Dad and it's a huge load off to have them done.

Down to two single socks needing mates and a total of only 5 works in progress. I've decided I'll start Mom's Christmas socks after Thanksgiving, and meanwhile I'm working on finishing things. First is my job applications, then there's the cabled sock pattern, and my still-unfinished first sweater. I'm going to get road-trip knitting time this week, though, so that'll be good for making things happen.

I doubt I'll be posting before the holiday, so have a good one, all!

Hey Look! Content!

In a remarkable aberration from my usual behavior, I was entirely monogamous last night at knit night, and therefore, the Nuclear Winter mittens are finished, with ends woven in, even! (okay, once they were done, I started playing with the charts for the cabled socks, but still...)



More pictures are on ravelry, showing that I did make left and right ones and they do match. Norwegian Mittens from EZ's Knitting Around, Classic Elite Lush, one ball each of black and lime. I shook hands with almost everyone at Panera last night so we could all enjoy how soft and yummy they are. I'm very pleased with them.

I finished Fetching on Tuesday, and today I gave up on the search for Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade and went ahead and dyed them. I'm guessing the crappy Kool-aid selection right now has to do with the fact that it's no longer summer.



I soaked the mitts in water and vinegar and went to town. I used a piece of straw to drop dye where I wanted it, with a plastic baggie inside to prevent bleeding through. Microwaved for a minute, allowed to cool and rinse. Not my favorite thing ever, perhaps, but they'll do. Here they are next to the Lemon Twist hat:



The blue in the mitts is Berry Blue, so there's a little difference. With the hat on my head and the mitts on my hands, it should be ok.

Wow. Finished two things in a week. Now I get to cast on something new, right? Maybe. Maybe not. The grey sock will get some done during the Georgia game tomorrow, and I'm going to knit a lot this weekend, I hope. Mom's birthday socks are on their way to her, so it's time to start her Xmas socks, but I'm still having trouble choosing a pattern. I'll figure it out sometime, I'm sure.

In other news, I'm down to one job, so that's a happy, and it's teaching math, so that's even better. My brother is going to run out of work soon if he hasn't already, and so I've been spending a lot of time today reading about the WGA strike. I've got a book due at the library Sunday that I've only read a third of, so that's something to do. I'm keeping busy. And that's good.

Not remotely knitting-related

Click for video

I know I told this story at knit night this spring. The PA that John Krasinski mentions is my kid brother!

What priorities? and Switching sides.

This working two jobs thing has definitely killed my weekday posting. We'll see how things shake out once things change this week.

So I'm on ravelry, right? I have my projects in, my yarn is not all there yet, but maybe that can happen over christmas, or maybe I'll just decide to do it. And I have a queue, with about thirty things in it. I try and keep it in priority order, but that doesn't work usually. Stuff hopscotches up or drops away altogether. It happens.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to clear my needles. Part of this is a feeling of being overwhelmed by WIPs, and trying to get Christmas knitting prioritized and done. And I'm considering switching sides, and going from english to continental, which is a bad idea mid-project. (Two-handing the Nuclear Winter Mittens is what's got me thinking of the switch. They're getting close to done, but for thumbs.)

And this weekend Fetching leapfrogged my queue altogether and jumped onto my needles. Oh well. The pause for this post was brought to you by my anal realization that the symmetry of the fingerless mittens will be thrown off if I do the thumb trick at the start of a round on both hands. Since then I realized I can center the seven thumb stitches over the first purl column (note: a one-stitch shift - but to me, it matters) and all will be well. The first mitt is to the thumb, and but for the first few rounds and parts of the cable rounds, they've been knit continental. As per Mandie's suggestion Thursday, they're going to be dyed with Kool-Aid after they're done to match the Lemon Twist hat.

Okay. That's all I have to say. Maybe next weekend I'll have FO pictures of the Nuclear Winter Mittens or More Lemon Twistiness for you. But I'm not promising anything.