Socks of Doom

I wore the Socks of Doom today. I think it was appropriate.

Dead and Loving It

*Cough cough*

It's the end of Sock Wars for me. I didn't even realize it started until the other day, and I'm dead already. Well, here are the International Socks of Doom. They're very lovely, Handsome Pete. You were a worthy opponent. Maybe next year I'll take down one opponent....

Who knows, maybe some day I'll actually finish a pair of attractive socks? Wouldn't that be interesting?

Done enough to blog about

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the Rectangle Bobble Bag of the Geometric Accessory Bags from One Skein. It really is just one skein, with a little left over. I'm done with all the crocheting, but I still need to put a zipper in before I can actually use it. I probably didn't need to tell you that, and could have just pretended it was done here, but that would be lazy and wrong. Instead, I'll just stick with lazy.

This is some of the yarn that I dyed in Veronica's class. It's just plain old Lamb's Pride worsted, originally natural, then dyed with Kool Aid. I think the stitch pattern shows the colors off really well, though the flash from my camera doesn't.
I'm getting creative with the photos here. I think this one is a bobble garden.
I highly recommend the book, and this pattern in particular. I'm tempted to make the other little bags in the series too.
It's a vicious cycle, really. Find a great yarn, so then you have to find a good pattern for it. Then you find another good pattern, and you have to find the right yarn. On and on it goes, until yarn and pattern books are taking over your wallet and apartment like a pervasive creeper moss. Oh well. I surrender.

Sock Wars!

I'm so going to get killed soon. I didn't even realize Sock Wars started Friday until today! I was browsing blogs, and people are already saying they have their first socks done. Yipe! I'm a little short on knitting time too, and I have sock issues.
But....I'll try. I really will. And I'll get a pair of socks out of it.

Finally

Those of you (Mom) who have been following my blog since the beginning may remember this scarf. You may ask why I have just finally finished it.
Because it was tedious. Painfully so. Worfy apparently likes it, as he wouldn't get out of the picture.
At first, I was fully enamored of double knitting. Both sides of a fabric at one time! How cool! This enthusiasm lasted only for about the first four inches. Then I realized that it combined all the pain of ribbing (moving the yarn from back to front) with all the pain of Fair Isle (twisted color strands).

I have to admit, it is really cool looking. I'm glad I did it. But I couldn't stand to knit more than an inch or so at a time on it. The pattern is Iris Schreier's Double Knit Striped Scarf, bought as a stand-alone pattern. (It's not in Modular Knits, though I do have and love that book.) The yarn is, I believe, Rowan Cotton, a 50/50 cotton/wool blend, one skein of each color. I lost the ball bands so long ago, I really don't remember. I know it's some kind of natural cotton blend though, and I bought it at Sheep's Clothing. It took me about 6 months to finish, but only because of my 6 minute attention span. I have absolutely no memory of what it cost, but I want to say it was about $30 including the pattern. Will I be making it again? NO. But I may pass it on to an unsuspecting friend.
*Edit* That friend is Amanda. Muahahaha.

Just in time for the cold weather

I sold my hats last night! I meant to take a picture of them, but I finished the second one while I was at the bar, and gave them both to Angel right away. He's thrilled, though, and says they fit perfectly.
I really didn't know how much to charge for the hats until I talked to Nancy at the yarn shop. She said 2-3 times the cost of the yarn. The yarn, one skein of Malabrigo and one of Aurora 8, cost about $20, and I sold the two hats for a $25 each, exactly 2.5 times the cost of the yarn. I guess I'm good at taking instruction. I probably could have asked for more, but I'm such a sucker when I actually like the person I'm selling to.
Still, in the end, it's all profit. I bought the yarn on store credit I earned knitting for the shop. Now if I can only find more people like him to sell hats to...
Actually, I am working on a crochet shawl for a woman I met through the shop. I'll be sure to get a picture of this one. It will be very colorful and unique. But she's a massage therapist, and has offered to pay me in massages. Sounds awfully good to me.
Does this make me some kind of fashion designer? Well, in my daydreams it does, anyway.

No longer failures

Passing through the region on my way to a football game (we're not going to discuss which one, or how much we lost by), I stopped at my parents' house for a night. As entertaining as it always is, this is one of the more interesting visits in recent memory.
I woke up in the morning, and stumbled into the kitchen, deperate for something caffeinated. I found a cat staring into the space between the cabinet and the wall. I looked too. It was a second mouse. My dad came into the kitchen a few moments later and asked what I was doing. I informed him about the mouse situation, and he snapped awake. "Keep him there!" he said excitedly. What am I, a cat? He burst into the garage, and reemerged with a 5' tall, 1" diameter copper pipe and a large flashlight.
The flashlight, of course, was too see the dark mouse in the shadows. The giant piece of plumbing was apparently to root it out. He poked in the corner for a while, and the mouse came racing out. I had no idea those things moved so fast. Apparently, it ran across his foot, because he screamed like a little girl. (Please, take a moment to picture this. This is my father. 6' 2", 230 lbs., ex-marine)
The mouse ran into the opposite corner of the room, hidden behind an apron. The cats went wild. I told my dad to catch the mouse, and he responded, " Oh yeah, like I want to get bit!" "Catch it with something," I insisted, gesturing at the plethora of containers available in the kitchen. He reached for an oven mitt and a plastic dish. When he scooped at it, the mouse leaped at least two feet into the air. I didn't know how fast mice moved, but I also didn't know they could fly. This thing was airborne.
It made it across the kitchen and under the fridge somehow. My dad, determined to catch this mouse once and for all, decided to move the fridge. "Here," he thrust the pole at me, "Hold the pike." He backed the fridge out, and the mouse reemerged, moving so fast it was almost blurry. The cats chased it under the kitchen table, one gumming it for a second, then it ran across the dining room into the living room and under the couch.
Not to be outdone, my dad bolted into the living room, and started shaking the couch. The mouse was apparently on to our dirty tricks, because he disappeared. Or so we thought.
I saw it once later in the day, and tried to catch it, but they really do move like bullets. If the cats, who are much more nimble, better equipped, and less in need of caffeinated beverages than I could not catch it, I had no chance.
I left for a football game (which we're not going to talk about), and didn't return until late. I wound up getting stopped in traffic, and the normally one-hour trip took three. I do mean stopped; a double-trailer semi had turned over and was blocking the entire road. Everyone shut their cars off and were walking around. That's not the point. The point is that I was really, really tired when I got home, and just wanted to get into bed.
Except that there was a dead mouse in it.
I burst into the hallway and announced, "There's a dead mouse in my bed and I'm not dealing with it!" Despite my parents' roaring laughter, my dad actually did go take care of the mouse. I insisted he take the comforter it was lying on too.
I'm sure this was a present from one my parents' dear cats to show me how much they missed me. I made sure to pet them very nicely in the morning. But next time, cats, I could really just use a gift card.

Tee Party

As you know, I am madly in love with the Ballet T pattern, and I begged Nancy and Veronica at Fringe to let me teach a class on it. They had an even better idea. Since the T can be mostly finished in a matter of hours, why not up the sense of instant gratification by making it a special day to pamper yourself? Enter the masseuse.
Yes, that's right. Included in the cost of the knitting class was a 20 minute chair massage. Are these girls brilliant or what? Dawna, our masseuse, was fantastic. *When I get all her information I will edit this post and put it in. The woman deserves more business.*
And the tees came out lovely as well.
Valerie barely needed me at all. Here she is with her tee made out of Trendsetter's Dune. I think she used about 7 skeins, not a bad investment. She's committed to knitting things that are "over the top," and I think she succeeded.

Here's newcomer Karen, making the tee for herself in Cotton Fleece (just two skeins needed). She got about halfway done with hers when the class was over, and is coming back in to finish it up. She plans to make more, including one for her adorable little girl.

And this is Jeanne, with hers in Aurora 8 doubled. It really looks great in that yarn. She was past most of the shaping when she left.

And here's my little start. This is a random yarn I picked up in Prague. It has little bits of leather and several different yarns held together. It made it a serious pain to work with; the different yarns kept getting tangled all over the place. I even had to cut it and restart once. I had no idea how much yardage I had, due to the nature of the store I bought it in and my inability to speak Czech. I had hoped it was enough to make a full Ballet T out of it, but it isn't looking like it. However, I had the idea of making it empire waisted and including and eyelet row and cord. The trouble will just be finding the right yarn to finish it in. The deep, deep navy blue is kind of elasticy, and the turquoise is a cotton tape, both of which will be really hard colors and styles to find. Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

Overall, I'd say the class was an amazing success. Lots of people have seen looking at the tee in the shop since then, and lots of others have been asking about the massage. Hopefully, we'll do both again. Though if you want to put in a good word for me at Fringe, feel free.

So Freakin' Cute

It's probably not legal to be this cute. This is the Sock Monkey blanket and hat from the Happy Hooker. It's on a size N hook, so it went really fast. Normally I get really bored with granny squares, but these were big enough that I didn't mind. And there are only 16 of them, so that minimizes the sewing up. The monkeys were made separately and sewn on afterward, but they were so cute, I didn't mind. Worfy wasn't all that thrilled though.
I actually made two hats, one of which is going to go to my friend Steph, who loves monkeys and has a hope chest.

The yarn is Bernat Softee Chunky for the plain colors and Denim Style for the sock monkey color (it's called Rodeo Tan, but I think Sock Monkey would be far more appropriate). I think I got most of it at Walmart, which is wrong because it's both acrylic and from Walmart, but it's actually what the pattern called for. I'm not normally a stickler for that, but if they're going to call for cheap but not too nasty yarn, I'm going to go for it. I don't know where else I would have gotten a color that good.
Of course, I've forgotten how much it actually cost. I bought it a long time ago and never got around to making it because I didn't have the hook that big. In the interest of cleaning up the stash a little, and because it was ridiculously cute at the trunk show at Fringe, I finally got it done. I'm glad I did.

Take that, computer languages!

Please note the shiny new link setup on the right hand bar. I did that all by myself by messing around with the template. I don't know anything else about html. I'm pretty darn proud of myself. That is all.

I knew this thing would come back to haunt me

I just didn't think it would be this soon. Sure, my friends have teased me about it. But since there are about 5 people that read this regularly (hi, Veronica), I thought I was pretty safe in my nerdiness.
That is until recently. I've been (ahem) talking with this guy, and we got the bright idea to google each other. Now, my last name appears absolutely nowhere on this blog, yet somehow, he found it on a simple google search. And it's pretty obvious that physics + knitting + sarah = me. There aren't too many other people that fit that equation.
Generally, when one has an intense interest in a hobby (some might say obsession), one introduces it to new people slowly. You sneak up on these things kind of quietly, like with a nervous dog. I was going to work my way up to the blog. But no, right at his fingertips are six months of knitting frenzy. His response? "Wow, you really like to knit..." Yes. Yes, I do.
At least the ladies at the yarn shop were sympathetic. To quote Veronica, "That's like 5th - date, sleeping - together information!" She said it, not me. Ah well, the truth is out.
Note to guy: Yes, I'm blogging this and I'm aware you might read it. The knitting public has a right to know. Just remember I have the video clip now.

Can you find the cat in this picture?

I'll give you a hint: it's that lump in the middle. I actually made my bed this morning (the bedroom being the only clean room in my apartment), and when I went back to get some socks, this is what I saw. Worf always likes to hide under the covers, but this was particularly cute. When you disturb him, he gets all confused and meows. Naturally, I do that every chance I get.

Ballet T (encore)

I finished yet another Ballet T about a week ago. I think this is the 7th one I've made, but seriously, how can you resist something cute you can finish in three hours? This is using a cool cotton tape yarn I got in Prague. It took a lot less than I imagined. I still have a little over half of what I bought of it left, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Sure, I could do a matching hat and/or scarf, and I may actually do that with part of the leftovers, but that seems a little cheesy. I don't think I'd actually wear them together. I could make another Ballet T out of it, and give it to someone, but then I lose that whole one-of-a-kind thing I've got going on. I guess it just goes back in the stash unless someone has a good suggestion.

I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of myself wearing it, so here's Hello Kitty. It fits me a little better than it does her. And these are the cute purple flats I'm going to wear it with ($2.99 at Goodwill). The picture didn't come out so well, but I promise, it's adorable together.

Need mouse traps....

I was back visiting my parents yesterday. Although they have three cats, they evidently still have a mouse problem. As my mom and I were leaving go shopping, we found that my dad had left this note: