When You Take a 3 Hour Nap You Can Stay Up Late

I started the second sock to the pair that I began on Friday yesterday but ended up frogging the whole thing and beginning again. I wasn't happy with the stitches I picked up for the heel. I restarted them today and finished the second sock.
One little problem though...the second one came out a wee bit bigger than the first. This isn't something that I've had a problem with before. Granted I've only made one other complete pair of socks, but still.

I'm hoping that I can block the first one out to make them the same size. I was surprised that I had almost a full ball (50 grams) of the Classic Elite yarn left from making the socks. So, I cast on for a hat.
This is the perfect baby hat. It turned out a great size. See, perfect for little baby heads :)
And the spiral at the top turned out great!

Very productive knitting this weekend. Both of these were knit for Warm Woolies and will be sent off with a sweater that I may have bought some yarn for today...

Socks:
Yarn-Classic Elite Beatrice in Aspen Grove
Needles-US size 9
Pattern-Warm Woolies 2007 Socks

Hat:
Yarn and needles-same as above
Pattern-Warm Woolies Phat Hat

Epic Sping Cleaning

I spent all day today cleaning. It was truly an undertaking. My mother came over to help me sort through some things, clean my bathroom, and steam clean my hallway. I have to say the apartment looks amazing. I never realized all the stuff that I had collected over the 3 years since I moved in here. I must have thrown away 60 pounds of junk. I know I recycled at least 2 years worth of magazines. But it is so nice to look around and see everything in its place. I'm really going to work hard to keep the clutter down. This can be hard when you spend your free time collecting yarn, but I'm going to try.

Penelope helped me by making sure the end table was ready for books.
A very thorough inspection revealed it was, indeed fit for books (and yarn jugs).
What kind of books? Why, knitting and cross-stitching books of course!
As for the knitting I did manage to cast on a more acceptable tank top. I decided just to go with a long tail cast on and hope it's not too tight.
And today I was tinkering around on the web before my mom came and got the inspiration to start these tonight:
They are thick little socks, on circulars no less (a first for me)! I get these weekly emails from Lion Brand yarn and they have been highlighting some charity knitting groups this month (I want to say it's national charity knitting month or something, or maybe everyone likes to highlight charity knitting at the same time, I have no idea) and they were featuring a group called Warm Woolies. These folks knit clothing to give to children in extreme poverty in some of the coldest places on earth. They donate to orphanages in Eastern Europe and Russia and Native American Indian reservations. This is exactly the type of thing I have been looking at getting into. There is something that really speaks to my heart about helping children, especially children who don't have a family or a place to call home or any of the luxuries that you and I live with daily. They listed a simple pattern for socks and, since I love socks, I immediately did a little stash diving to find some Classic Elite yarn and cast right on. Working on circulars is interesting. Can't tell if I love it or not but it is definitely something different. I will keep you updated on how these go.

And Then There Was Knitting

I started the second knee high purple and red sock. Please ignore the power cord and broken laptop. Just pretend there are only socks here.
I messed up with my make one increases on the second sock and got these lovely holes but I'm too stubborn to go back and fix them so I'll sew or graft or work some yarn magic when I'm all done to close those up.

Don't they look like evil little gnome eyes?
And I started this:
"This" was supposed to be a tank top designed by handmade mom (it's from her old blog, beak knits). However, I'm unhappy with it. Why? Well...
My waste yarn left these wonderful, dark colored, tufts of itself all throughout my cast on. And I'm not so happy with how my cast on looks either.
Gahhh! Plus I found a place where I carried the yarn in a totally incorrect way. Stupid, stupid, stupid! And I wanted to have this done for summer. I don't think I can unravel the thing and start again because of the dark tufts lurking about but I'm going to try. And if that doesn't work, well, I bought a whole cone of this cotton. I don't think a few yards will be missed.

In closing I give you...Penelope the Queen of Persia.
I hear what you are saying but I seriously doubt the validity of your statements.

DUDES!!!

I. Made. The. Blog.

The best parts: 1. I look really happy and not at all dorky (ok, not dorky for holding a knee high, Dr. Suess colored sock). 2. I got a big picture. Not a little thumbnail. 3. There is a witty comment about me.

:::sigh:::

This was just another great thing about today.

Star Struck

This spring break is starting off great. Today was the Yarn Harlot's visit to Atlanta. I was able to get a seat about 5 rows from the front.
Here's the YH talking a picture of her sock and the crowd.

And starting her speech.
It was hilarious. And, I know, this sounds weird, but I was really interested in hearing her voice. I always imagined it as a "normal" woman's voice. Kind of high and well, typical. I was so glad to hear her voice and realize it's not girlie but a little on the deeper side. This is not a slam in any way. See, my voice is on the lower side too. It's not very girlie in my opinion. My thought was, if Stephanie Pearl-McPhee can have a voice like that and get on stage and tell a combination of stand up comedy and life advice and write books on knitting, then maybe I won't turn out so bad.

And then the best thing happened. I stood in line to have the YH sign her new book for me (P.S. I only bought the book while I was in Knitch. I didn't even touch any yarn. Otherwise I would have bought a hundred skeins.) And when I got to meet her I asked her to take a picture with my knee high sock. And boy was it a picture!

She told me this was a "serious sock," "more like a foot oven." And then she took my picture. I don't know if it will end up on her blog. But I really hope so. And she also signed my book for me (of course).Sorry it's sideways. I forgot to flip it on its side before I uploaded it.

When I got home I sewed in all the loose ends and voila! A knee high, stripped sock.

This is the first time that I got the toe as square as I wanted it (why do my first few Kitchener stitches look all wonky like that every time?).
See how the increases and decreases look so lovely? And how the cat tries to act interested? And how bendy my leg is?
Look at my partridge heel. So sturdy and effective.
I would have liked my ribbing to be a little tighther but I like this sock. Don't you?
I've cast on for the second one but seeing as how I knit at the Knit-In and during the YH's talk today (about 3 hours total) I think I'm going to read through my new book and admire my sock.

"Good" Isn't Exactly the Qualifier I Would Use

Today has been, shall we say, less than stellar. My debit card got rejected this morning at the gas station because it's expired. Stupid, stupid bank not sending me a new one! This, of course, made me late for work where I passed my boss on the way through the door. Avoid eye contact and keep walking. Then at lunch I had to sit through an hour long meeting about proctoring a test. Which I found out I was doing yesterday. Meanwhile, my co-teacher was lounging in his office. I, however, had to rush in as the bell rang and throw something on the board for my students to do. I'm not mad at Jones, just at my situation. Plus I got "The Look" during the meeting because I said something funny and my table started getting loud. Then my students were hell'uns. This resulted in 3 emails to parents and one phone call. I really wanted to be at work until 4:30. And, finally, I come home and the cat has puked up her entire breakfast in the middle of the floor. Did I mention my mom and I spent 4 hours steam cleaning my apartment this fall? I guess I can't be too mad. She just gets really excited about food. And then kind of forgets to chew. I say "finally" because I'm not going to let anything else get me down. I'm going to sit here on the couch with my pudding cup (which I plan to eat),
my cat (Hey! Are you eating again?!?! Stop! You're going to make yourself sick!),
and knit on this knee high sock until such time as I am called away to go have dinner and drinks with my friends N.D. and A.P. Then I'm sure things will look better.

Side note: Now my spell check feature isn't working on my blog. I'm very sorry if anything is incorrectly spelled on here. I was raised on phonics (or is that phonixs?).

No Discrimination

Dear Readers,

I must tell you I have realized something, I have no discriminating spirit when it comes to yarn. One month I will spend $40 on a single skein of Be Sweet Magic Ball. The next month I will spend $6 on two skeins of Red Heart Super Saver yarn. I will make baby sweaters out of Jaeger yarn and hats out of a pound of Joanne's Rainbow brand yarn. And then they all go into the same big plastic bin to live happily together.


Basically friends, I'm not a yarn snob. I'm a yarn hippie. Maybe one day all my yarn and I will get together in our yarny happiness, hold hands, and sing Kum Ba Yah. I love it.

So, yeah, after church I went to Joanne's and picked out some red and black yarn. I'm making some knee high socks. One pair in purple and red and, if my strength holds out, one pair in red and black.
There was much calculating. Which made my brain hurt. I did have to take a test on Saturday. And there was lots of math on the test.
But who doesn't love a pair of knee high socks? That's right. No one. No one doesn't love knee high socks.
And I finished the magic slippers. I wanted Penelope to wear them but she just wanted to sniff at them.