Sock Marathon!

I've joined the Limenviolet Sock Marathon for 2009 (Ravelry link)! I'm excited mainly because it gives me an excellent excuse to ignore my other projects and concentrate on sock knitting for six months. Here is my accumulated sock yarn, just under 3 miles:

Not a whole lot compared to some of the others in the group, but respectable considering how limited my income has been since I learned to knit socks last spring (i.e., about the same time I finished school and became unemployed). I am also hoping to win a spot in the Loopy Ewe Sock Club (spots are awarded by lottery), sort of...I have wanted to join a whole bunch of sock clubs but can't afford the $200-$300 hit on my credit card. I rationalized putting my name in for this one because 1) I might not get a spot so it's not like I'm definitely signing up to shell out the money (strange logic but it works for me) and 2) it is pay per shipment, not pay up front, so I can pretend that I will be in a better financial situation by the time the first package ships in March. That doesn't mean that I won't feel a bit guilty about spending money on sock yarn when the time comes - I probably will, but my sock yarn lust outweighs it.

I did not get any yarn for Xmas, because I didn't ask for any. I chickened out when it came to revealing my total geekiness (even though my cousin who lives in Seattle could totally have brought me some STR since Blue Moon is in Oregon...oh, just because I didn't ask doesn't mean I didn't think about it). However, my aunt did give me this:

A basket to hold my knitting! I think it is from a food gift basket but it has been successfully repurposed. The sheep is actually from Bath and Body Works, I couldn't resist, it was so cute (and only $5).


And on a rare trip to Wal-Mart, I bought myself this:

I have seen several people use these foam mats as blocking boards, and since my 2009 to-knit list contains my first shawl, I thought it was time to invest in a real blocking surface (as opposed to a stack of towels on my dining room table). That is 16 square feet of surface, which should be plenty. Yay!

Finally, progress on my belated Xmas gifts:

I am 2 1/4 inches away from starting the decreases for the toe, and then (oh-please-let-it-be-over) I will be finished with this sock.

That is about 3 1/2 feet of scarf. I will finish this up directly after I finish the sock, then put them in the mail and do a little dance of joy.

That's all for now...Fingers crossed for me for the sock club, and also for the government job that I still don't know about!

Dead Blog Talking

I didn't realize it had been quite so long since I'd posted here, almost a full month! Maybe I've been subconsciously putting it off because I am reluctant to admit publicly that I am still finishing up Xmas presents. Yes, still. All but one of my knitted gifts were given on the needles (except the single sock, but that still doesn't count as finished). I did manage to finish one coffee cup cozy, from this KnitPicks pattern, and gifted it to my cousin with a Starbucks gift card as I had planned. One win out of five - not great.
Progress? I have turned the heel on the Giant Blue Sock and am working my way through the gusset decreases. I have knitted to the end of the first skein on the My So-Called Scarf and need to wind up the second before I can continue on it. My sister's Druid Mitten, plus yarn and needles, are in a box back home, as I forgot to bring them back with me - she is supposed to send them along so I can finish them up but so far they have not arrived. My partner's Selbu Mittens are in my knitting basket beside the couch (since I no longer have to keep them a secret) and have barely been touched since we got back last week. (See original Xmas post for pictures and linkage).
The holidays were about as stressful as I had anticipated, although it was still nice to be with my family (which was the reason I had decided to head home in the first place, despite the crazy drama). I'm glad to be home now. Really, really glad.
That's enough for now - next time I will share my recent knitting-related acquisitions, and daydream some about what I am going to make after I finally, finally finish these gifts.

Dear Christmas, I hate you. Please go away now, kthxbye!

So, Christmas knitting is not going so well. I finally finished one sock of the pair of the Giant Blue Socks of Doom, and have finished the ribbing and about one inch of the leg on the second sock. Just to show you that I am not kidding about the giantness of these socks, here is a picture of the giant sock side-by-side with a "normal" (women's medium) sock:

Yeah. I am maybe a little crazy.

I cast on a My So-Called Scarf with the pretty Peruvia Colors I picked up last month, and have managed a couple of feet so far. I had to rip this back and start over more times than I care to admit, but I finally seem to have gotten the hang of this pattern. I actually really enjoy it.

I have made next-to-no progress on any of my other Xmas projects, including my partner's mittens. I am so screwed.

Besides the knitting-associated stress, I am just not looking forward to the holidays this year. My mother died around Christmastime (four years ago this January), and though it has gradually gotten better over the years (meaning I generally don't burst into tears at random moments), I still miss her most around this time of year. There is also some Family Drama going on at home that I don't want to be dealing with. It stresses me out. We are not a Family Drama kind of family, we actually are more of a repress-all-your-feelings-and-pretend-everything-is-okay kind of family, so I haven't had a lot of practice dealing with this kind of conflict. Unlike my partner, who seems to regard family in-fighting as normal and can't figure out why I am so bothered by it. Oh, well.

Anyway, here is a cute cat picture to make everyone feel better (please ignore my ghetto toenails in the background)!

Hope your holidays are shaping up to be cheerful and conflict-free!

I think I need to lay off the drugs...

...because last night I had one of those weirdly vivid dreams that are only possible when you are on mood-altering substances. No, I don't have a habit - I am on medication for chronic stomach problems, and this is one of the side effects. This particular dream featured some James Bond-like plotlines involving sharks and nuclear explosions, followed by a visit to a convenience store that sold ice cream and yarn (STR, to be specific). That part was pretty awesome, actually. Maybe I'll keep the dreams.
I am also on drugs because I somehow managed to convince myself that the Seattle Seahawks colours are turquoise and purple. They are not. They are, in fact, a mid-blue, navy, bright green and white. It might be the result of wishful thinking on my part (see blog header...). Anyway, I had already bought some turquoise Cascade 220, which will now have to be repurposed. I also made the mistake of assuming I could mix purple Cascade Pastaza (llama and wool) with the gold Cascade 220 I bought for a stranded University of Washington coffee cup cozy - I cannot. The weights and textures are too different. So now I also have a skein of Pastaza that has to be repurposed (purple Cascade 220 is on its way to me now). The Pastaza keeps telling me that it wants to be a slouchy beret, but there are only 132 yards in the skein, which is probably not enough. I don't think it is justifiable to go and purchase more of the yarn I bought by accident for a project that is intended to use up said yarn (because of course I cannot return yarn..that would be sacrilegious).
Back to my Seahawks problem - I do have some navy and white Cascade 220, which is currently tied up in my partner's Selbu Mittens (literally...ah ha ha I kill myself). Should I ever finish those mittens and should there be enough left over, I would still have to acquire some "Seahawks blue" and some bright green. For a simple, inexpensive project this is starting to be complicated and expensive (relatively speaking, but then relative to my NEGATIVE INCOME everything is expensive).

Solutions:

1. suck it up and buy some more Cascade 220 in the appropriate colours
2. turn purple and gold yarn into a scarf instead of a coffee cozy and forget about the Seahawks thing
3. feign ignorance of actual Seahawks colours and use purple and turquoise anyway
4. give up on this whole handmade gifts thing and buy everybody a book

Option 4 is starting to look more and more attractive since it is DECEMBER FIRST, PEOPLE! Holy crap, where did that come from? Gotta get going with the Xmas knitting since I only have one gift completed (out of the multitude I have cast on, but we're not talking about that today). I also have to prep for a job interview on Wednesday (yay for interview, boo for job location that is NOT Montreal), which I am a little worried about since I think my brain may have atrophied.

Happy December everyone!

Over-zealous Xmas knitting

As promised, my Xmas knitting list. With pictures!

Garter Rib socks, from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. These are being knitted for my cousin, who (as mentioned in my previous post) is 6'2" with size 13 feet. Ugh. Since he is a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan, my original plan was to make blue and white socks with a maple leaf on the heel. However, I could not for the life of me find a pattern for a maple leaf, and I don't have the time or the skill to make my own. So, blue socks (Berroco Sox in Doon). I might embroider Go Leafs Go on them somewhere.

Druid Mittens, from the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting. I originally started these a while ago in a different yarn, but they didn't turn out so well (too short). These are made in Dream in Color Smooshy, in Good Luck Jade (link to The Sweet Sheep, where it is on sale). They will most likely be given to my sister, who loves green and who admired them when I forced her to look at the magazine with me (I was trying to figure out what kind of sweater she would actually wear. No luck so far, which is just as well since I really don't have time to make a sweater now!).

Selbu Mittens, from Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski. These are for my partner. I am possibly the slowest colourwork knitter ever, so I am actually kind of worried that these will be gifted on the needles. It doesn't help that I can only work on them when he's not home, either. Yarn is Cascade 220 (beloved Cascade 220...inexpensive, many-coloured wooly goodness).

Nutkin Socks (free pattern!), by Beth LaPensee, in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colourway 403 (Tuscany) (link to The Loopy Ewe). I'm not sure who these are for yet. I bought the yarn in the summer, and I wasn't really thinking about Xmas knitting at the time (which means that they were supposed to be for me, but now will most likely be pressed into service as a gift. Sigh.)

Ditto on the original intention for these - Monkey socks by Cookie A., from Knitty.com, in Koigu KPPPM P531 (I know I'm not the first to say it, but Koigu really needs to come up with some names for their colourways.). I loooooooooove this sock, and it will be very difficult for me to give it and it's unfinished mate away. Le sigh.

I also have a couple of things planned that haven't been cast on yet. I really want to make the Waves of Grain scarf from this past fall's Knitty for my aunt (the only other knitter in the family). I have some alpaca laceweight kicking around somewhere that would work, and I can get beads at the local dollar store (suprisingly, they have a pretty good collection.). If I don't start it soon, though, that scarf will have to be abandoned in favour of the My So Called Scarf, which I will make with the Berroco Peruvia Colors I picked up the other day - since it is worked on 8mm (US 11) needles, it will be a fast knit. I also had a brainwave last night about a gift for my other cousin who lives in Seattle - I was going to make her a scarf but decided instead to make her a couple of coffee cup cozies, one in Washington Huskies colours and the other maybe in Seahawks colours. Personally I think this is genius - a personalized gift that I can probably make in a day or two, and that she is more likely to use than a scarf (she does love her Starbucks, and warm woolies not such a necessity on the west coast). The only problem is I don't have the right colours in stash, but that can easily be remedied (more Cascade 220, perhaps?).

Other fast gift ideas - I know I can knock off a Calorimetry in a day, and I have a couple of hat patterns stowed away as well. I've also already purchased a couple of books, which I don't think violate my intention to stay away from commercial crap gifts - no matter what you may think of the publishing industry, at least a book is something crafted by an artist.

For post-holiday knitting (yes, I'm already looking forward to it), I need to finish my February Lady Sweater, which I really would like to wear someday. I have the yarn and pattern for a shawl (Evelyn Clark's Forget-Me-Not) that I am excited to start - it will be my first major lace project. Also, back when I had more money than sense and was still in the major stash acquisition phase, I dropped quite a bit of cash on the yarn for the Modern Quilt Wrap from Folk Style (that would be 9 skeins of Kidsilk Haze...yeah.). At the time I was not an experienced enough knitter to deal with the slipperiness of the mohair and silk, so I abandoned the project. Now I think I might be up to the challenge...maybe. Hopefully. I also have my beloved skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts to turn into socks...and my Malabrigo Sock (link to Valley Yarns, a Canadian web retailer) that I want to make into a stole...and...and...well, I think you get the picture.

So that is what I am making for the holidays - what are you all making? Good luck with your knitting, all!