De-Stash De-Tox

Pink Orient is finished! I changed the name to Fan Girl, as it's for my fan girl. Here's a closeup of the border fabric. I just pulled it out of the stash and it seemed to have a place right there. Yay--no extra shopping!
Here's a closeup of the quilting: it's a color-change thread that I had a big spool of just hanging around, wanting nothing more than to be a part of something greater, much like the rest of us.
And the back. I just hosted a De-Stash party with some of the knitters I know. One was moving out of the country and wanted to clear stuff out. So I went through my yarn and separated it into the stuff that could go... ...and the stuff that wanted to stay.But not everything that I was willing to part with was ready to leave the house that night. I have to go through and decide what to reabsorb and what to send to charity.My Nonsense and Sensibility Socks got done: hoop-de-doo! I had to block the cuffs because they're lace. Worked just fine but looks a little creepy in process. Here they are, all done! Am I standing on a book, you ask? Um. Maybe.

The Rest of the Story

This was lunch today. Do not fear the Spam.
I had some fun yarn shopping yesterday and decided to get creative with the pictures, so, I present to you my new acquisitions:

Tiny wants arm warmers in Griffindor colors--that's gold and red to you non-Harry Potter fans--so I think these will do handily. (The worsted weight we picked up earlier was just too thick for the pattern.) Besides, the gold is shiny. Ooh, look, shiny!

Also, Tiny got seduced by these luscious glittery purples and wants a hat. I will comply.

Knit Pix is so cool! They have a very good return policy. While I was knitting the Sense sock, I experienced a horrible knitting-related accident: the end pulled off of the needle! Instead of calling the insurance company, I called the seller direct. They will replace my needles, no problem. As long as I wasn't skydiving or shark-baiting, they are very cool. And since they were sending needles, I ordered a book. This one.Because... there's a new baby coming! Yay! My cuz is all preggers. I started a new set of booties, too.

The Non-Sense & Sensibility Socks:

Sense is done. So glad to say I'm halfway there. As to the pattern: I've never done a triple decrease for a toe. It looks pretty, but we'll see how it feels under a shoe. On to Sensibility.

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. (the beginning of the story is here.) I got an email back from my pet TV star: David H. Lawrence, XVII. Here's what the man himself had to say: "Yeah, that's the story of my life - a chick stalks me, and then is distracted by something shinier... than my head." He's got a point. It is shiny.

Knittin' Sittin'

I'm not a slug. I'm not. Really. I have a good excuse for not blogging and it involves doctors (not mine) and beds (okay, mine). But I'm not tellin'. So there.

I will reiterate my blog commitment: I commit to bogging three times a week, with absolute forgiveness if I don't. So there. Again.

In the meantime, I've been getting a fair amount of knittin' sittin' time. I finished the Koolhaat, and Tiny loves it. Yay!

I got the yarn for the Griffindor arm warmers, but I'm still waiting on the pattern. (Boo.)

I've started on another pair of soy socks, since I LOVE them. I'm calling these Soy-Lent Green, seeing as they're soy, it's lent, and well, green. These are my TV watching project, although NonSense has been there for a while.

Speaking of which: Yay. Sock #1 is almost done! Almost toe-time!

And here's the weird one. It's a headband. It is too. Really. I started out following a pattern but was running out of yarn. Um. Trust me, it looks pretty good on. Okay, but it only took two days.

So, yes, knitting galore. But hospital light is too freaking dim for stitching. And they frown on setting up a sewing machine there. They get really upset when you start up with the iron and rotary cutter. (But doesn't it make sense to be in a hospital if you're going to burn and/or cut something off of yourself that you normally have attached?)

No, Really. Who Am I?

As I'm working on the Sense & Sensibility socks, I decided to take a quiz and find out which Austen character I am:

Take the Quiz here!

Go figure it's one I know nothing about! Well, that'll be remedied. I plan to read six Austen novels this year.

1. Sense and Sensibility a
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Mansfield Park
4. Persuasion
5. Northanger Abbey (you mean I gotta wait 'til October?)
6. Emma

So, anyway, here's the sock progress:You can kind of see how pretty the chevron pattern is becoming. I'll block it when I'm done, (get it wet and pin it out to dry) then you'll really be able to see it.

I've got a little further on Pink Orient quilt. Stashbuster Alert! I wanted to use up the three fabrics in the blocks, so I cut it pretty close. All the fan fabric (black background and cream background) is gone and I have just enough of the pink to go around with one little 2" border. Measly, I know, but if you look in the upper left hand corner of the photo above, you'll see a little squarish piece of pink: that's all that will go into the scrap bin.

Detail of Pink Orient

Welcome to Sock World

I've--eee!--started the Sense and Sensibility socks. The pattern was tough to start but I got into the swing pretty quickly after the first two or three rows. There's a technique abbreviated as p2tog tbl. Supposedly it means purl two stitches together through back loop. What it actually means is: twist your knitting into a mobius shape, stretch your wrists in ways that the greater apes (man included) have long forgotten, force a camel through the eye of a needle, stick your tongue out and curse because you just dropped the stitch. Okay, maybe it's not that bad... And the edges are starting to scallop: back to happy!The Soy Toy socks (made of soy and something artificial) are officially finished! I sewed 'em closed on Tuesday and wore 'em. On Wednesday, I noted that I had dropped a stitch and was getting a nice little ladder going, so I had to use a crochet hook and some more yarn to fix that, but no big deal. They are now wearable and gorgeous. Okay, they're not exactly identical twins--they're fraternal!

And since I've finished two knitting projects...

I done went shopping! But only for projects I have in the planning stages. This green and pink soysilk (actually a by-product from the manufacture of tofu!) is going to be a lace scarf. (The shoes are just shoes.

And this wants to be a hat for Tiny.

And meet my new hand towel... I guess it still needs some work.