Xmas issues

Christmas knitting is done and mailed, both pairs of socks and a hat. The knitting was fun. Once it was over, I fell apart a little.

(Side note: I washed the red socks this morning and dried them in the oven. 200 degrees, about thirty minutes, turning frequently. It was scary and nifty and amazing.)

My family is not so pretty and nuclear as it once was. This is hard for me, and sending the three presents I made to two different addresses, one I've never visited, was difficult. This is also the first Christmas I haven't been down south for, and despite the fact that I'm really happy to be spending the holiday here in my new home, this is a huge change.

So I'm a little goofy and emotionally twisted. I need to find some knitting to help that, don't you think?

Oy. Ow.

I've got four ends to weave in. And then done. 36 hours for half a sock, basically. Although there were some mistakes that needed fixing. And I slept fed myself and husband and taught a 3 hour lecture in there. These socks are full of stories, I screwed them up so many times. Only one mistake didn't get entirely removed, and that's probably ok, because if it had, they wouldn't be done yet.

Tomorrow I mail Christmas, and then I get to knit what I want. I'm thinking my sweater's been awfully patient the past couple of days and my hands could definitely use a break from 2.5mm needles.

Snowy Knitting weekend

We were expecting much winter weather this weekend, so after I turned in grades Friday, I went to the store to stock the cupboards for the weekend, and then settled in for a cabin-fevery weekend. I had knitting to do, and tv on dvd, so I'd be fine, right?

Friday night I got my second sleeve on my sweater to match the first one. The SciFi channel aided in this, because they decided to show four hours of Firefly on Friday night. Saturday morning, aided by TiVo, I strung all three pieces together and did a couple of rounds to secure it. Here, look!



This is huge. I am psyched. Saturday evening and Sunday morning, this happened:



It's Quant, from the new Knitty, in a random ball of SWS I had in the stash. Quick and easy, Entrelac is pretty nifty. I am amused. I also kind of love SWS now. Well written pattern, too, this just flew from my needles. It needs blocked, but I have to take it off long enough to do that.

Of course, somewhere around the ending decreases on Quant, I realized that Christmas is a week from Tuesday, and for the first time ever, I am MAILING presents. Which means they really need to be in the mail by Thursday, thought I'd prefer to get them off Wednesday, and at the time I finished Quant, I had ONE pattern repeat done on the second sock of the pair. So the rest of Sunday was spent in Christmas sock mode, and I managed to start the heel flap before bed last night. This morning I turned the heel. Here we are at noon.



I'll let you know when this gets finished. The first sock was ten and a half pattern repeats, I'm closing in on the end of the fifth. Of course, the 4.5th through the end are only on one side, which makes it faster. This can be done, but I don't get to touch the sweater till it is. Wish me luck!

Finished Kaylee socks:


They're very pretty. The pattern is kind of exhausting, something's happening on every row, although only on one side. I don't think I'm a toe-up kind of girl, but that's ok. If I did them again, I'd leave the foot plain, I think the lace stretches vertically more than I want.

Progress pic for the sweater:


Need to keep on with that second sleeve. I'm getting bored with it again, but I have tv on dvd that might get me going again on it.

That is, if I don't get distracted by this:


Fawkes socks for Mom's Christmas. According to the pattern, I'm ready for the heel flap, but my current wish for longer socks is making me think about extending the leg. I probably won't, though, because I'd be cursing myself for that decision on the second sock. I'm wondering what it is about the red yarn, I'm having a hard time getting good pictures of it.

Oh well. I've been procrastinating housework and real work all day so far. Better fix that before it gets too late. Have a great weekend, all!

Finishing more.

No pictures, though.

Finished the Kaylee socks this weekend. You might get pictures eventually, but go back a couple months, look at the picture of the first sock. The second one looks just like it and I'm just kind of glad to be done with 'em.

Started a new pair of Fawkes in solid red for Mom's Christmas. Still love the pattern. Here's hoping they go quick.

I'm past the increases on the second sweater sleeve. I'm about to put it on my 16" circular, that'll make the rest of the sleeve go faster. I hope.

Walking about in the cold today I wanted knee socks. The Tyrolean Stockings from the fall Interweave might come out to play soon. I also wound my job application reward sock yarn into a bright shiny ball, because I'm getting close to done on that stuff and should get to play with neon-colored merino soon.

Casting about for other new things to do. Not really wanting to start anything right now, though. I think it's a year-end, semester-end kind of thing. Once the new year starts, I'll probably have a bad case of startitis. But right now I just want to get done what I've got going.

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.