Happy

Happy thing the first: I am working on my sister's Christmas socks.
Happy thing the second: I have found a way to work them that actually might let me finish them on time. (Toe-up, who knew?)
Happy thing the third: The socks fit perfectly on my cardboard cutout of my sister's foot for the Fish Lips Kiss Heel. Note to all: I have not yet successfully managed this yet. This is a first.

Now, that we're done with happy, here is the sad:

Do you see that?

Maybe now?

 Well, it's a line. On the toes side of the line, pretty cream white. On the foot side of the line, ugly greyish blackish whiteish used-to-be-creamish. What. The. Heck. No, I did not change balls of yarn. No, there were no attempts at dying this yarn. I'm thinking it might be from my black backpack, since I took this project to school, but why isn't it on the toe, then? I'm so confused, and I'm hoping this will wash out or not be noticeable to people besides me. Here's to hopin'.

Finished objects!

Well, I finished my mom's Mother's Day present. I'm only a month or so late, don't judge. ;)

Here they are:

Oh. Wait. No... my computer thinks the files aren't actual pictures, so I can't upload them to Blogger. Bugger. XP Suffice to say, they're gorgeous. I'll link to my project page on Ravelry

I had 17 grams of yarn leftover, which is great, because I heard somewhere (I may have this wrong, be ye warned) that a hexipuff takes 15 grams of fingering weight yarn. This is fingering weight yarn, and I have more than 15 grams. Also, I'm planning on knitting a Beekeeper's Quilt, someday, so that is a plus as well.

Annnnyyyywaaaaay... I also finished a baby cardigan! You never saw this on the needles, as it took less than 24 hours to knit it, and that is no where near enough time for me to get a picture of it AND post it on the blog. So, here it is, blocking!:

Or not. Stupid computer. I'll link that one as well to my other project page

And I've begun swatching for my sister's Christmas present. They're a pair of cabled knee socks, and they're going to be a bit of an undertaking, but they're going to be fun. I just hope I'll have enough yarn!!!!!!

Cream Cables

Bookses, precious.

 Hey, all! No new updates in the knitting area, except for the little fact that I've abandoned my schedule - big surprise there - and I have glued myself to my mother's socks. (Anyone just randomly stumbling upon this blog will be completely confused about that sentence. Sorry, for anyone who saw that. It's normal, I promise.) I'm over halfway finished with the second sock, and I'm hoping desperately that I'll have enough yarn. The first sock took up 36 grams of yarn, and the ball of yarn leftover had 54 grams in it, so hopefully it will all work out, but the ball is starting to look mighty small.

On an entirely unrelated note, I've finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Very interesting book, completely bonkers, but a fun read. It does have a few swear words in it and a few slightly inappropriate references, but all in all, it's a very good book. (If you want to read it, it's the first book in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, which, oddly, has five books in it. That gives you a taste of the kind of humour that's in the book.)

I'm nearly done with The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien, which is the last in a trilogy that is accurately named. I've about twenty pages left to read, which is a great thing, since I'm rather tired of the story. I can't believe I'm actually saying that, but I've just drawn it out too long. I think I started the series in the beginning of July, maybe end of June, so I've been reading it for about a month, and it's beginning to be a bit boring. Only twenty pages, less than a half hour of reading, I can do it.

Then... last, but certainly not least, I just began reading Les  Miserables by Victor Hugo. I am not too far into it, I think I just finished the first chapter, but so far I love it! The Bishop of Digne, or Monseigneur Bienvenu is my favourite character. (Admittedly, he's practically the only character you see in the first chapter, but he seems lovely.)

So, I'm not knitting today, I normally rest on Sundays, so today is dedicated to finishing the Return of the King and reading at least another chapter of Les Miz. And maybe doing some Pinteresting. And definitely doing some Raveling.

Half an FO

Now, this will be a short post, since I have to go to bed soon, but looky! A sock is finished! Directly on schedule. I was supposed to finish the toe of the sock today, and I did that, plus knit one finger of my brother’s Christmas present. Isn’t this exciting? Okay, so maybe just for me…

Anyway, observe: 

I used a rounded toe, which I've never done before

Waffle rib with mistakes that I kept as "design features"

It shouldn't lie this flat without blockers...

 

 

Annnnnd the whole thing.

 I am proud of the whole endeavour, I like how they turned out, though the yarn colours are a bit much for the stitch pattern. I can't knit the next one til I'm caught up on all my projects, which will be at least two weeks, but this is exciting anyway. I am off to knit the next finger on my brother's Xmas gift.

Random Monday - Idea stolen shamelessly from The Yarn Harlot, who did the same from someone else

Now, it seems I am terrible at updating my blog. I’ve tried a couple of times, but I’ve never been able to get a good start.

So, this time ‘round, I’m just going. Whatever I type is what gets published. (With a few spellchecking run-overs.)

First: I broke my replacement yarn bowl (Long story short: I bought and painted a ceramic bowl, shattered it, bough a new one and painted that…and broke it.). It is still slightly useable, with a bit of Polish-fix-jobbing. (Gotta love binder clips.)

Second: I got a replacement yarn pitcher (didn’t paint this, got it for a buck at a garage sale) for my replacement yarn bowl.

Third: I have finished no projects since, like, Father’s Day.

Fourth: I have started other projects, though.

Fifth: I am behind on projects.

Sixth: Mainly because I ran out of yarn. Yay.

Seventh: The yarn is out of stock at my local Joann’s, and the website doesn’t work on my computer, and my mom can’t find the yarn colour on her computer. So, we go in store on Wednesday and order it from there.

Eighth: Speaking of which, I need to check how many balls of pink yarn I’ve used so far in my weather blanket, so as to buy the same amount to finish off the year. Where do I keep about 10 balls of pink yarn? I have no more room in my room… (Weather blanket explanation to come later.)

Ninth: I’m halfway through my weather blanket. Which means… we’re half way done with 2014. Scary-wary!

Tenth: We went to a museum.

Eleventh, just like Matt Smith: We are now brought to the actual project part of my post. You see, in the above picture, me holding a half-finished sock, knit in KnitPicks Stroll Tonal (Lullaby), in the stitch pattern Gingerbread Rib. My own improvised pattern. So, I shall catch you up with what is in the works.

Project #1: Mom’s Mother’s Day socks. Yes. You read that right. Mother’s Day socks. Do not mock, you know you have projects like that. So, these are farther along in real life than in the picture, I’m past the heel and I’ve got about 4.5”(11.5cm) of the foot done. I have a deadline of finishing these by tomorrow, and that’s right on schedule. (I was supposed to knit 3.25”(8cm) of the foot today, and the rest tomorrow. Boomsauce.)

Okay, so I may have mislead you in a past statement… this is only the first sock. I have another to knit, and probably not enough yarn. Story of my life.

Project #2: My brother’s Christmas gift fingerless gloves. This time you have no cause to mock… 2014 Christmas gift. I’m SO ahead. Thing is, I’ve got to knit the fingers and thumb yet, and I don’t look forward to doing that, since I modified the pattern and I’ve got to figure all the math out. Ew.

 (*insert picture of beige half-finished fingerless gloves here... can't seem to locate this one on my computer. They have a 2-stitch cable design on the back...*)

Project #3: A swatch for my sister’s Christmas socks. Again, 2014 Christmas gift. I have the bottom garter border done, and I need to get it to be at least 4”(10cm) tall, plus an inch border, so 5”(2.75cm). They’re going to be cabled knee-high socks. I think I will also run out of yarn on this project. Can I just not run out of yarn on a project? Please?

(Again. Another picture of cream garter stitch on a green needle. Sorry, folks!)

Project #4: Weather blanket. This is part of an –along that I’m doing with a group of Ravelry people (Still open, if you’d like to join. Explanations of it all are at the Weather Knitting or Crochet group on Ravelry). I, personally, will be crocheting one row of single crochet every day for a year, to end up with a blanket. Each day I will pay attention (heh…heh…I’m funny, aren’t I? Pay attention, what was I thinking?) to the weather, and note whether it is sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowing, or hailing, and crochet a row in a colour that corresponds. For example, I have pink for sunny, black for cloudy and raining, and white for snowing and hailing, so if Monday was cloudy, Tuesday was rainy, and Wednesday it hailed, I’d do a row each of pink, black, and white, in that order. I’ve been doing this since January, so I’m halfway finished.  Now, I’ve been out of pink yarn since July 2^nd, so I’m just the slightest bit behind. 

Pencil for scale

 

I plan to finish all four listed projects (or catch up, as the case may be), by July 31^st, so as to be done by the missions trip my youth group is going on. I have things sorted out so that if I stay on schedule, which is hard for me, I can finish all my projects on July 30^th. Then again, it may take a longer time than expected to get my yarn, so I may have to be a teensy bit late on my weather blanket.