Ahoy there matey!

Eyepatch is done, and while I still think it's awful strange for grown men to go out dressed as pirates to drink at any other time other than Halloween, I made the eyepatch for the husband. And here he is modelling it:



Earlier this week, I was working on the tank on the train home, and a stop before mine, I started to pack up, and I heard a snap. The circs that I was using had broken. Addi Naturas, nonetheless. I lost about 10 stitches just as the train pulled into my stop. Thankfully, there was a bench just as I got off, where I carefully put the stitches back on and packed it all very carefully back into my bag. I then ran to the daycare to pick up my son, and requested rubberbands to hold the rest of the stitches on til I could get home and transfer needles. I took the broken one back today, and the shop took it back no questions, and gave me a new circ. My only problem with the whole thing was that the shop was in Staten Island, and I had to pay an $8 toll to get into SI to exchange the darn thing. Oh well. Next time I know not to get anything from that shop that may need exchanging/returning.

I'm still slowly working on the Victoria Tank. I have reached a point where I just want to be at the armholes already, and want the thing to be done. I feel like no matter how many rows I'm doing, it's not making a dent in the number of inces I need to move to the next portion of the pattern. This could have contributed to screwing up the pattern and forcing me to frog a few rows. Here's the WIP:

Tank along!

I joined the Tank Along today. I'm doing the Victoria tank and thought a tank along would be cool to do. The tank is coming along nicely. I have about 5-5 1/2 inches done on it. It's a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. In fact, I like it so much that I may have to make one for myself!

I spoke to my sister again today. She's taken to knitting so well, that she finished her first scarf on Sat. night...two days after learning how to knit. Yes, she's an addict. :)

Hubby is working on a button for my site here...look for it tomorrow/Wed. I think I want a button, just to say I have a button. :) In return for a button, I am making him a silly thing: a knitted eye patch for an outing with the boys. I really don't think you should ask...I just go along with the madness. I'll post a pic of him in it when I'm done.

Photo Gallery added

I finally added a link to my finished objects. I had stuff in Photobucket and Shutterfly and I think some of the stuff from Shutterfly is saved at work, so I still have one or two more things to add to the gallery, but it's almost all there.

I have finished the Jenny socks:


I started on the Victoria tank (Interweave Knits, Spring '04) for my sister for Xmas. Here's a pic of the WIP:


My sister called yesterday to ask about needle sizes and crochet hooks. She was in Michael's and she was purchasing her own supplies. She said that she was up til late knitting, and that the first thing she did when she woke up was pick up the needles and knit. I think I may have created a monster!

Meetup

The meetup last night went well. I got there and there were a large group of women that were already there and as Jenn said, they seemed unwelcoming and catty bitches. Thankfully one was nice and invited me to start another table with her. The women that ended up sitting at the table I was at were really nice, and they included two women that I met at last month's meetup. I am hoping to meet up with several girls next week before I have to go to a party.

My son is sick today. Bad stomach ache, which I think I have as well. Neither one of us wants to eat/drink anything. So I stayed home from work today to care for him. He seems fine, other than an episode this morning, he's been bouncing off the walls. So I decided today was the day that I was going to venture into Staten Island to a yarn shop that just opened in May, that a fellow knitter (hi Nancy, if you're reading!) told me about. I called my sister who lives in SI to see if we could drop by. I ended up bringing with me some extra yarn and some nice size needles and taught her how to knit. She picked up on it quite quickly, and then when I went to the yarn shop, she was ogling yarn. I think she's going to quickly become a knitting addict. Yay! One more on my side!

You'd think that with the whole day available to me, I'd have done more knitting. I had to frog the heel that I did last night, and I've only just started the decreases before the foot. BUT, I got the needles today that I needed to start the tank for my sister, so I may just swatch for that today. Something tells me it's going to be a late night tonight.....

So very tired

I've been up late every night, knitting and watching tv.  Damn that VH1 and their I love the 90's!  I finished the Florida socks, and started on socks with the Lorna's Laces from Threadbear.  I'm calling them Jenny socks, because my friend Jenny is getting them.
 
I frogged all of what I started on the shawl.  I had extra stitches, and I didn't want to leave them and fudge the pattern.  I did start it again, but don't have as many rows done as before.  I'm doing one pattern repeat at a time.  Hopefully I can stick with it and it comes out nice.  It's just too nice of a yarn to swap for something, and I'm too selfish to want to make something for someone else with it.
 
I just got the yarn in the mail (must remember to hide it from the husband) for the Victoria tank in Interweave Knits Summer '04 issue.  It's so cute.  I just knew it was perfect for my sister, so that's what she's getting for Xmas.  It's a lacy sort of tank...something makes me think that I'm not just on a sock kick...I'm on a lace kick as well.
 
My poor baby...he keeps seeing all this yarn and keeps asking if I'm making him something.  Must remember to buy some yarn to make him a sweater for the fall/winter.  Speaking of my baby, I thought I'd share a photo of him.  Ignore the mess around the child... 
 

Darn firewalls!

I used to be able to update on Blogger from work.  Between 4:30 pm yesterday and 8:30am this morning, the firewalls changed and I no longer have access.  Maybe they did just my computer.  :)
 
Anyway, knitting is coming along quickly.  I have one Florida sock done:

 
I have started on the second:

 
I got the yarn from Threadbear today.  This after I went to the LYS to get some stitch markers and my son said, very loudly, Mommy, we're not buying yarn!  Hubby must be teaching him to say things like that.  :)  Here's the yarn from Threadbear:

 
And finally, the lace pattern on the Easter socks inspired me to do a larger scale project in lace.  So I finally pulled out the Blue Heron yarn I bought at the yarn crawl in May and the Lily Chin shawl pattern and started it.  Here's what I got so far:

 

Thus my need for stitch markers.  Anyways, my son is asking for juice...must comply or else he won't let me buy more yarn!

Easter socks

Ok, the first of the couple Easter sock photos:


Me getting a little creative on layout:


And me modeling the socks:


A friend of mine is pregnant and requested an Onde sweater, in maternity size. I gently steered her away from that and said that warm cozy socks would be lovely on swollen feet and gave her color choices. So Rob at Threadbear so kindly sent out a package today with some great Lorna's Laces. I think I'm sock obsessed!

Another finished object!

My Easter socks are done! I still need to take pics of the two together. Was going to do it last night, but the battery on the camera died. So, definitely tonight. They're really cute together, even though the heels are different. I breezed thru the first sock so quickly, that I didn't notice that on the knit round of the heel, you're supposed to S1, K1, repeat to end. So it's all K. The second sock is the correct way. I don't think it's that big a deal. Anyway, it makes my socks even more unique, right?

I started socks for a friend of mine for Xmas. Laura lives in Florida and I chose the colorway because it reminded me of the beach. Well, I've only done a few rows on the cuff, and it no longer reminds me of the beach, but still of Florida. So, they're the Florida socks. Maybe when I take pics of the Easter socks tonight, I'll take a WIP pic of the FL socks.

Something cute for today: My son (4 in October), said to me this morning, "I will get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And then I will be Spiderman!" Ok, maybe not so cute to others, but definitely cute to me. :)

Surprises in the mail

The last two days have brought knitting related items into my mailbox. First, I received size 1 needles, 2 circs, and 2 sets of dpns, from Monkeemaven, as an exchange. Was very excited about the needles. Then yesterday on the way to the doctor's office, I found the newest Family Circle Knits in my mailbox. Have dog earred pages in it already. The nurse at the drs office said that if I wanted business, she'd hook me up with people who would pay $$ for ponchos. Do I have the time to do this? I'm seriously considering it. But isn't there copyright laws or something that say that I can't accept money for knitting from patterns not written by me?

The doctor's appointment yesterday was to find out results from the xrays done on my wrist. Am pleased to report that I do not have carpal tunnel, nor arthritis. There are calcium buildups on my tendons, which the doc says is nothing to worry about and is sending me to a specialist to see what can be done about it. There was mention of giving me injections of something or other. Not thrilled at the prospect of something being injected into my wrist, but if it takes the pain away, great.

Of course, you know, the first thing I did after finding out I don't have a major problem: go across the street to the park and pull out the knitting. I am almost to the heel of the second Easter sock. It's coming along slowly, I think, because I want to post a photo of the finished pair on the webalong site (see side bar for link if interested), and I read that the deadline for this particular sock is 7/31. I hate deadlines.

I started Thursday night the pair of Broadstreet Mittens for my bro for Xmas. Got to the part where I start the fingers and tried it on and it's huge. I accidentally started on a different size needle than the first pair I made and voila! It's huge. Thankfully, the hubby said that he would wear them if I made the thumb fingerless. So the hubby gets a pair of mittens, and I'll have to start again with the correct size needles for my bro.

Picture time!

The husband didn't realize that he signed up to play photographer to my knitting. Here's what we have today:

The finished Onde (pay no attention to the pink bra beneath the sweater):


The first of the Cloverleaf (I call them Easter) socks:


You may notice, if you're looking carefully, that there's a tattoo under the sock leg. So, for your viewing pleasure, the tattoo:


It's a butterfly, specially designed for me by a now deceased friend, with my son's initials on one of the wings.

That's all folks.

The first Easter Sock

Ok, hopefully the blogger comments thing will work.

I finished the first of the Easter socks. Will have a pic later. I did the sewn cuff technique, given in the pattern, and well, it was easy enough, but, it's too tight and I can't get the sock over the heel. So, I've got to undo it and fix it. Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of the sock; it's the most complicated one I've done to date. And it's so purty.

I still have to finish the sewing of the Onde. I may just do that now. I had a full day of no knitting yesterday (!), because I had to go out of town to a funeral for my grandfather. So to make up for the lack of knitting yesterday, I am home today and will knit til it's time to pick up my son from school, and may stay home tomorrow to knit. :)

Pics of FO's later today. Ciao.

Finished Onde

I still haven't fixed the comments.

I finished all the knitting on the Onde this weekend. I started sewing it up, and have finished one sleeve seam and one side seam. I love mattress stitch. It's the greatest.

I started working on Thursday night, the Easter socks. I am doing them from the toe up and am now to the leg part with the Cloverleaf pattern. The pattern is a 6 row repeating pattern, and I did 3 or 4 rows of it and screwed up royally. So I ripped it out and will start again from the beginning of the pattern. But the rest of the sock is really nice. I love the way that the colors look on the sock.

When I'm done with the Onde, I am going to start on Xmas gifts. I think I will start with Broad Street Mittens in a black merino wool that I got on the yarn crawl back in May. They're for my brother.

Changes!

I hope anyone reading notices the changes to the blog. I felt it was time for a change. Hope ya'll like it. I still have to figure out how to get my Haloscan comments back in..I took out the comments for now...it's not working right...but they'll be back. If you really want to tell me something, there's a link on the side to email me. I also need to create a gallery for finished objects. But one step at a time.

The second sleeve to the Onde was finished last night. Yay! Now for some blocking, sewing and a bit more knitting (collar and tab for the buckle) and it's done. So, onto the next project!

I joined the Six Sox KnitALong (I still have to make a link) and have started on the first sock that they're doing. It's called Cloverleaf and I'm using this yarn to do the socks with. It's Anne by Schaeffer Yarns. The colors are more pastel than what the picture shows, and it makes me think of Easter. Makes me think of pretty little frilly dresses and white buckle shoes. Easter egg hunts and streaming ribbons. Ok, so maybe I watch too much tv. In any case, I've named the socks, Easter socks. You can watch my progress on the side.