SP Revealed!

Got my last SP10 package...here is the haul!

Tofutsies - which I will be very curious to try out.


Some Knitpicks Memories sock yarn...she didn't realize you need 2 skeins for a pair. I really love the colors though so I am trying to see if I can find a pattern for ankle-socks that I might be able to squeeze out of this.


Finally, blocking pins and a needle sizer. Thanks Megi! It has been great getting to know you over the last few months.

And, before I wrap up - I have made a little more progress on Bayerische:


It is sort of hard to see the stitch pattern here, but trust me it's there. I am now halfway into the second repeat. I got some Knitpicks circs to use instead of the DPN's and my speed has about doubled since I switched. It's still by no means fast, and it does still kill my hands so I can only do about 3-4 rounds at a time.

I also started a new pair of Monkey socks now that my smaller needles are here, am one repeat into that as well. But my camera battery died, so no photos of that just yet.

Ta!

4 rounds, 90 minutes.

I suppose this is progress compared to yesterday, but it still feels pretty sucky to be going this slow.

Still doesn't look like much.

Eunny Jang is Satan's Spawn.

How else would you explain this...

7 rows of ribbed cuff - 45 minutes.
1 increase round (not counting my bonehead mistake that I had to fix) - 10 minutes.
1st row of charts - 30 minutes.
2nd row of charts - SEVENTY-FIVE MINUTES.
3rd row of charts - 50 minutes.

After all this knitting time, here is what I have to show for it:


Seriously, on most other sock patterns I would be most of the way to the heel flap by now.

The only positive I can find here is that this makes the Grasshopper socks look easy and quick.

I anticipate I will be finishing the Bayerische sock sometime in 2016. And then I can cast on for the second one.

Yarn and Insanity

...or is the yarn part insanity too?


Here is my alpaca sock yarn - yay! 2 pairs' worth. Even though I am amazingly otherwise engaged with socks, I can't wait to knit this up.


A bunch of people were going in on some dischcloth cotton to save on shipping, so I jumped in. I wish I could impress upon you how HUGE these cones are. Each of them weighs a pound. All this only set me back $22 (no that does not include the sock yarn).

And the insanity that includes Bayerische:


First I would just like to point out that certain CHEATERS* started knitting before yesterday evening. Those socks that are only halfway through the cuff ribbing are the ones that were started at the proper time (mine is the red one, eh?). I do forgive the cheaters though, because I got some tips from them that I can use when I get further into this. I am wondering what the heck I got myself into. After all the pre-talk about how easy this was going to be, I sat there last night watching people curse and say how they wanted to cry. These are knitters that are WAY more experienced and competent than I am. And I did say last night that if I mis-cross a cable, so help me I am not going to fix it (I don't know if this is actually true, by the way). I am really scared of this, to be honest. If it is any indication, right after I finished the first round I pulled one of the DPN's right out of half the stitches it was holding. I managed to pick them up again, but, uh, LOSER! I'm going to try to finish the cuff tonight.

Um, and why is the Yarn Harlot's blog not working today?

*I'm really just busting the chops of those who started early. :)

New loot!

My new STR club kit came today! Here's the yarn:

It's STR lightweight and the colorway is "Firebird". Now I need to really get cracking on those Grasshopper socks so I can work on these!

My Loopy Ewe order was also delivered today...


I have been wanting some sock blockers...when I got some for Julie in the Monkey swap, I knew I should have bought some of these for myself...so when I needed to place another order, I went for it.


This was the reason for the order. Tomorrow is the start of Summer of Socks, and I'm going to join a Bayerische knitalong that starts tomorrow. Between that and the Grasshoppers, I'm definitely not going to win any quantity awards, but that's OK. It should be fun. Anyway, I needed a good length of solid color yarn for the Bayerische. This is actually very slightly variegated, which you can't really tell in the photo. It won't be enough to interfere with the stitch pattern, but should make it a little more interesting for me (I really don't like knitting solid color stuff...)

Worked until 6:50 tonight - then the drive home. I drowned my misery in wine and peanut butter ice cream (not at the same time).

Nice change of pace.

I didn't have to go into the office today...instead we had a community service event which was about half the driving distance for me. We did some building and cleanup at a facility for an organization that does equestrian therapy for kids with all sorts of disabilities (physical and mental). I was assigned to a cleanup team, which meant LOTS of cutting branches and clearing brush. There was lots of poison ivy, but as far as I know, no one got into any unfortunate situations with it. It was HOT though, about 90 degrees and very humid so I was wiped out and in desperate need for a shower.

We were done there a little before 3:00 so I actually got home at 3:15. By 4:30 I had showered, done all the Monday evening chores, run a load of laundry, and gotten through all my work email. Whee!

I came home to a huge surprise from Julie - a lovely thank-you package (absolutely not necessary, but extremely sweet of her).


I love Julie's origami bookmarks - I use the ones I have all the time, and it's great to have more, especially since she uses such fun paper for them. (Look at the totally cute tiny purple ones!)


These are a little hard to see since I didn't remove the plastic wrapping, but they are some beautiful note pads - one is a long shopping list format, and the others are sticky pads, which are probably the prettiest ones I've ever seen.


Some absolutely gorgeous yarn that she dyed herself...the color in person is actually a little bluer than this, so what looks pink is actually closer to a lilac. I am already itching to knit with it.


Whee - bubble wrap!


These were inside the bubble wrap...


And inside there - handmade soap! I've been watching Julie make soap for awhile now and am very impressed. I have molded glycerine soaps but you won't get me anywhere near lye! I can't wait to try these out. Plus they are wrapped in such pretty fabric, I will need to find something I can use that for since my sewing skills are abysmal.

Thanks so much Julie! This really was a nice surprise and everything is wonderful.

Busy day

It was *really* hot today, so we stayed inside most of the day. I made some Shepherd's bread to use this week, did a little housecleaning, and a lot of knitting. C put up a new mailbox (the old one was falling apart) before it really started getting hot.

After supper it had cooled off a bit, so we went out to harvest strawberries:

All that took us about 10 minutes. Most of these will get used in recipes...these berries are great in things (waffles, jam, sorbet), but not as good on their own.

While we were out there - we saw a hawk! I had never seen one so close before.

He is on top of the next door neighbors' playset. When we went to go outside, he was sitting on our patio, but he moved by the time C grabbed his camera (you didn't think I took those nice photos, did you?)

My photos are much more mediocre, but of more interest to knitters...

I opened up a skein of STR in Fire on the Mountain:


And wound it up.


I swatched for Monkey this afternoon (no photo of that). Yes, I've made them twice before, but they have been a bit small for me, so I went up a needle size. Unfortunately, with those needles my gauge is TOO much bigger. I need to try to find something in between. Of course I discovered this AFTER I placed a Loopy Ewe order today. (I may have done a little too much online shopping in general today.)

I can, however, show you my progress on the Grasshopper sock. It is very slow going, but I am moving forward. I think I have about 2 1/2 inches to go before starting the heel, according to the pattern - it says to go until you are 3 inches from the edge of the recipient's (my) heel.



I will be so glad when this one is done. I'm only pressing on because I love the way it is looking.

Ready to move somewhere there are no cicadas.

Last night I went to leave work and as I was driving through the parking lot a cicada jumped onto the back of my neck (seems it snuck into my car) and started screeching into my ear. I threw the car into Park, opened all the doors, and tried to get the thing out, but I couldn't find it anywhere. All seemed to be OK, so I went to leave again, but I could hear it chirping even though I couldn't find it. It "talked" to me the whole way to the grocery store...so when I got there I went into the hatch of my car and shook everything in the hatch, and finally the cicada flies out, right into my face of course. But when I was done with my grocery shopping and got in my car, I heard the chirping again! I heard it all the way home, when my husband finally folded down the back seat and found it, not in very good shape.

He dispatched it for me. :)

I will be so glad when cicada season is over.


So I've been tagged for a meme by someone whose name I don't know... seems it is the "7 random things" meme. I just recently did a 100 things about me post, but we'll see if I can get through this one without repeating anything.

1) I hate Starbucks. I love coffee, will not touch that burnt-out crap they try to pass off as coffee.
2) I refuse to frog my knitting in almost all cases. I usually either leave an error as is (if you can't really see it), drop a stitch down to the error and pick it back up, or tink.
3) I work way too many hours. Either I am at the office way too long, or I am doing work at home on my laptop. I am trying very hard to gradually reduce this (but it's definitely not something I can do quickly).
4) I dream about tornadoes when I am under a lot of stress. I really hate those dreams.
5) I was a Goth in high school (this tends to shock everyone who didn't know me back then).
6) I smell like chlorine all the time. I swim often enough that no amount of showering gets rid of it.
7) For some reason, people always assume I am a vegetarian. I don't eat meat as often as most people, but the truth is, I'll eat any meat that doesn't come from a cow (beef or veal).


As for the Grasshopper socks, I made a lot of progress last Sunday, but then Monday I found a dropped stitch. The pattern is weird enough that my only recourse was to tink back about 10 rows, which took me all week. I am now back to creating instead of destroying.

Invasion

The 17-year cicadas have emerged. Luckily, we don't have them by my house, but at work we have them by the hundreds of thousands. They are so loud I can hear them sitting at my desk, and when you walk outside it is so loud it hurts your ears. Today I was on my way home when I saw this on my passenger seat:

(sorry for the blurriness, cell phone photo) Anyway, eek!

In better news, I got a new SP package!

Colorful Opal sock yarn...


This is actually more of a teal than the navy the photo looks like...


And fun fur, except it's silk instead of acrylic. I am imagining what might need a fun fur border :)


And fun candies. Thanks SP!


Julie has a fun meme where you list the things you are doing to help the environment. I can't stay away from this one -

1) I drive a hybrid car.
2) We have replaced most of our lightbulbs with compact fluorescents.
3) I carry canvas shopping bags and use them for most food purchases. Sometime I will remember to bring them along for other types of purchases.
4) We compost all food garbage except meat and bones.
5) We don't eat any processed food, so we have very little packaging to throw away.
6) We have an organic veggie and flower garden.
7) We keep our heat at 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer. When it gets too hot in the summer I go hang out in the basement.
8) We recycle every unneeded scrap of paper that comes into the house.
9) We use a manual lawn mower.
10) My husband takes the train to work (we used to carpool until he started working in downtown Chicago).
11) We try to buy as much local food as possible, in season.

I know there is more - we are absolute fanatics about this - but I'm too tired to think of it.

And there's more...

Here are my BMFA club socks (OK, so I'm only a few inches into the first one), started at the hotel on Wednesday night (and ripped back a few times, but who's counting?):


As others have said, the p2tog lace knitting is SLOW going...even with following people's tips. But I love the way it is coming out, and these are going to be incredibly comfy socks, so I am persevering.

Meanwhile, I have decided to engage in some retail therapy to soothe some disappointments I have had over the last few days - I found a source for locally hand-dyed ALPACA sock yarn. Yum. I am also pondering some sock blockers to further take away the sting.