A Conversation Between Me, Myself, and I

Me: It's hot.
Myself: It's Thursday. It was hot yesterday.
I: But we had someplace to go yesterday.
Me: I don't wanna be hot.
Myself: Where can we go that's cool? What is cool?
Me: Cheese is cool. Can we go to cheese?
Myself: (sighs) No. We can't go to cheese. (looks at I) What else is cool?
Me: Fonzie is cool.
Myself: That's nice. But cool to the touch.
Me: (waving hand) Ice! Ice is coo--
Myself: Thanks, anyway. Back to the subject.
I: No, wait. Ice is a good idea...
Myself: What? Iceland? That's kind of a long commute.
I: No! The ice rink!
Me: I don't wanna go skating...
Myself: No need. There's chairs and tables...
Me: And people to watch!
I: And I can bring my knitting!
All together: Score!

And I finished a pair of socks while I was there. What? Two socks make a pair, right?

Little Things Mean a Lot

My own homemade row counter. I used jump rings and soldered rings and a pretty lampworked bead. I like how it goes with my Cherrytini Jubilee socks. I've almost finished the first one. Squee!I call this top Jane Austen. Somehow that blue always takes me back to her. All the blocks are Mile-a-Minute blocks made from tee-ninecy scraps. Yes, made that since the last blog entry.

My exciting new hobby: Geocaching! Have you heard of it? You go to this site: Geocaching.com. Here. This movie clip explains it really well.

When I looked it up, there are 32 (!) caches within a mile of my house. Some are urban--found one attached to a fire hydrant--and some are in the wild, just off a hiking trail. This is what I found in one cache in a local canyon.
Who Says Size Matters? These socks fit perfectly. And I can do the finger can-can in them. La-da! Da-dee-da-da!

Sweet!

Hartfield is happily under way. I haven't been sleeping really well (it's hot) and this project is very engrossing. I've never knitted on something that required so much attention. Gotta say I like it! Gotta say it would have driven me crazy last year. This is a close-up to show the pattern a little better.I purchased this yarn recently: Sugar Rush. Yes, it's made of sugar cane fiber! (So I can nosh if I'm hungry--can you just imagine me like a goat, with a strand of this stuff hanging out of my mouth?) It's got a sheen, like granulated sugar. It's a pale lavender and I've got the pattern all picked out: Clapotis.

Podcast highlight: Stitch It!

Meghan is like a good friend, just talking about what crazy projects she's got underway. She's a real "can-do" kinda gal, which I find inspirational. While it's ostensibly a knitting podcast, she also talks about spinning, gardening, hair products, her adorable kid and husband and extended family. There's always a section called "My Favorite Things": it could be music, food, or anthing that strikes her fancy that week. I really enjoy listening and this is one of my Favorite Things.


I'm planning to do some quilting today. We'll see. I also have housework. (blah)

Kitchen Knittin'

The Girl's Best Friend socks are finished. Of course, it helps that I only had to make one to have myself a pair! (Thanks, Faith! Your second sock syndrome was my bonus.) Anybody else want to pass on their half-done sock projects?

Cherrytini Jubilee is chugging right along. I really like to look at this one--pink is such a happy color! Check out my new cable needle. Turns out I had a box of 'em in the kitchen all along!

Yes, I know it's really a toothpick. Dur. It was Faith's idea. It's also handy if I've been eating corn.

And speaking of things that come from the kitchen, a new pair of tofu socks are in the making. I started 'em during Comic Con and got a good inch and a half done during Harry Potter. Always good to have a brainless project in the pipeline.And then there's the reason for a need for brainless projects: Ai-ah! This one is seriously charted with a new type of stitch: the twisted right-leaning decrease (Say that one five times fast.) The pattern is called Verdigris. It's a pair of fingerless gloves and is patterned so pretty. Go to the link for the picture and the free pattern. I'm calling this project Hartfield Gloves, for the home of Emma Woodhouse in the Jane Austen novel, Emma, which I'm currently reading. The project seems ambitious enough for Emma herself to begin, if not finish. I think I've got a little more staying power, though.

The yarn is alpaca and a bit fuzzy and soft as all get out. Sport gave me the yarn from her stash. I'm a little worried that the fuzz might obscure the pattern, but it'll probably be fine. Seems okay in the photo, huh?

Holy Sheet, part deux

You may not remember my Holy Sheet post, where I was so pleased by my repair work, gosh, a whole month and a half ago, but I do. Notice anything? Like the tears around the repairs? Since I couldn't find any online advice, I patched it with quilting cotton and used a buttonhole stitch around it. That heavy stitching seems to have emphasized the surrounding weak fabric. I'd say the further damage was caused by my thrashing around style of sleeping. (And you wonder why I knit.) Here's another view.
So I decided to cover the whole weakened area with fabric from an old pillowcase. I made a very large patch this time (the ruler's 18" long). I started with a blanket stitch, but that seemed to be leaving a lovely little perforation around the patch (not a good start!) so I quickly switched to zigzag. Yes, I know the whole thing's wrinkled. I forgot to take a picture before I folded it up and put it away. I ironed it to work on it and that's enough. Ironing sheets is for those who love the iron way more than I do.

Runnin' With the Night

Ah, yes, I finished the Ooh, Shiny! hat. Tiny squirrelled it away so fast I didn't get a picture until now. (And I still had to use a lampshade.) I can't believe that child is fifteen years old (and I'm still only 22!) and she's taller than me. sigh
Also, I used a panel of that horsey fabric and a bunch of 2.5" x 5.5" scraps to make this top: Midnight Ponies. I started it before Comic Con and had to fold it away until I had time to work with it. As you can guess, it's much less work than a fully scrapped quilt, yet I think it's more impressive.

Five Socks

Who is the Knittin' Fool? She be me. I brought my completed Beach Dwarf sock to Earth Mother to see if they'd fit her, 'cuz they're clearly way too big for me. I thought I might have to frog the toes and knit 'em smaller but I was in luck. (And so was she: free socks!) This gave me the impetus to knit the last inch or two on the second sock, so.... All done! (yay) The clips are there to show where the ends of my feet are. So glad we don't all have the same size feet!

And the Socks for Cutting Hair are done, too. The last of the knitting was completed on Main Street, Disneyland, so I think I knitted some fun into them. I wasn't able to get the Man of the Place to model them until last night, though. "Oh, the light's not good." "You want me to model now?"(shaking sudsy hands at me) "I'm working." Last night I ambushed him. "Put these on and pose!" He obeyed.

And I figured I had freedom to cast on a sock I've been wanting to try. The pattern is called Cabletini from Wendy Knits. Here's a pdf link that will immediately download the free pattern. I'm calling mine Cherrytini Jubilee. This is the second pair of two-ups I've tried. The designer has written a book of toe-up socks so I have hope that these will actually fit me.So I think this will be a no-stitch summer. The reasons are two-fold:

1. I don't want to sweat on my projects (hello, it's summer. duh.)
2. I want a chance to miss my cross-stitch. Then I can come back to it with happy-happy joy-joy attitude.