A Tale Of Two Socks

Last summer, I picked out 2 small skeins of Crystal Palace Panda Cotton yarn in the colorway "Circus".
Panda Cotton is a 4-ply fingering weight yarn composed of cotton, bamboo & nylon.

I scoured Ravelry to find the perfect pattern and decided on Spring Forward, a top down lacy sock pattern from Linda Welch.
The pattern was originally from Knitty, Summer 2008.

I cast on last July and knit to the heel turn, only to realize that my gauge was off and when I tried the sock on, it wouldn't go over my heel.
Then, I did something I never, ever do. I frogged (to unravel) the sock and cast on with a different set of double pointed needles.
Usually, I get discouraged and leave the project to languish on my needles until I need them for another project. Only then will I frog and rewind the ball.

I knitted away on this sock, it went everywhere with me. It even went camping, and was vigorously inspected by some brazen raccoons when I forgot to put it away one night.
Thankfully, the raccoons determined that the sock was not food and had only torn into the ziplock bag that contained it.

I finished the sock in September 2009, and for reasons unknown, I never closed the toe stitches. They just sat in my stash with 2 double points holding the live stitches.
At that time, I was using the Knit Picks metal double pointed needles which are all silver, regardless of the size, and realized that I had knit this sock using 2 different sized needles. Well, the sock fit just fine and I was cool with it.

When I decided to cast on the second sock, I couldn't remember which assortment of needles I had used on the first sock.
So, I just cast on using size 2 DPNS.
I have since purchased several sets of Boye double point knitting needles which are colored differently - which is good, because I can easily tell if a stray, incorrectly sized needle has worked its way into my project.

As I knitted away on the second sock, it was looking like I had used (3) size 2 DPNs and (2) size 3 DPNs on the original, so there wasn't that big of a difference in the gauge.
There was, however, a HUGE difference in the patterning of the second sock.
The original sock had striped pretty evenly, the second sock was pooling (blobs of the color, instead of the uniform striping or patterning from the variegated colorway)
It was interesting to watch how the pooling of colors kind of mimicked the ziggy zaggy nature of the pattern.

You can view the original pattern here


(I will edit this post to add a picture of my version of these socks later)

In conclusion, I loved the pattern and was "meh" about the yarn.
The finished product is baggy around my ankles, which is annoying, but might change after they're washed.
The yarn was very, very splitty and I found myself splitting the yarn with my needles, a lot.
I love the colorway, though. Even though I hate, hate, hate circuses.

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy!

This past 2 weeks has been kind of rough for me.
I have been in a funk that I just can't shake. I think it's the combination of winter gloom & the oppressive volume of work I have been doing lately, along with a dash of PMS.
In an attempt to hoard all the overtime I could manage at work, I find that I have not left myself very much time for myself and my family.
I feel stretched too thin, and that weekends are just not enough to recoup from the previous week.
Now that work has slowed down, it's been difficult to enjoy the slower pace and being able to sleep in a little bit since the overtime has ended.
Such a Catch-22.
The only thing I have managed to do is knit(and watch 3 seasons of 30 Rock on Netflix). A couple of co-workers are having babies and there will be the obligatory baby showers, for which I knit booties.
I am not really in a financial position to be able to contribute to the monetary gifts being collected for these co-workers, so I decided to knit.
However, it feels odd to knit for people I don't really know, wondering if the booties I have made will be used, or just tossed aside. Even though it was a simple pattern, and that I was technically getting paid to knit them since I knit them at work during down time, I still feel like I am giving a little bit of myself away.
Knitting is the only thing I have been productive at lately.
I have great ambitions of taking walks on my lunch break around our office complex, eating better and using my Wii Fit regularly.
I am a little ashamed to admit that in the last 3 months, I have used the Wii Fit twice, and once was to weigh the dog. As it turns out, she's overweight too.
I also aspire to wake up earlier so that when I dress for work, I don't look like I just rolled out of bed (which I did).
I also find it disconcerting that I have been wearing swishy nylon track pants to work. Our dress code is very lax, and it's common to see folks in jammy pants. I never thought I would have "Windpant Wednesdays" but the "swish swish" sound I make as I change positions in the computer chair have alerted me to the fact that "Windpant Wednesdays" is no longer something I can say I don't participate in.
(insert audible sigh here)
I can't wait for spring.

As I continue to languish/ Sunday Supper

I actually feel a lot better today.
My cold has reached the phase where I sound worse than I feel.

Also, I think the Aflac duck lives in my nose.

Kosta and I make Sunday Supper together almost every week, it's really the only time we have a meal together due to our conflicting work schedules.
He works 2nd-3rd shift (5p-1a, M-F), I work 1st-2nd shift (11a-8p, M-F) so we rarely have any conscious time together during the week.
This week, I made beef pot roast with roasted vegetables & pan gravy.
Kosta made homemade spaetzle and stroganoff gravy. It was delicious & carb-licious!

I knitted a tribble today, it was a nice, quick knit. I plan on making several more!

Well, I am going back to my ass groove on the couch.
Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

In which the blog has nary a name

Whatever happened to Rock Candy? Do they still sell it?

My husband and I have noticed a lot of odd movie choices being made by actors lately, for example: Tooth Fairy with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
We have decided that it's because everyone suffers in a crappy economy and mansions don't pay for themselves.

Speaking of the economy, I made the realization that I am kind of over my "fancy schmancy" yarn phase.
I have really been on a serious yarn diet for the last few months, with my only major purchase being yarn for 2 scarves purchased from Knit Picks in September.
I find myself leaning back towards the JoAnn's & Hobby Lobby for yarn, and reserving my trips to the LYS for more special projects. As it stands right now, I am still working on that yarn from September, so I really don't feel the need to enhance my stash.
The Scarf, which seems to dangle lifelessly from my needles, is in my wonderful Namaste Zuma bag that I got for Christmas. It goes wherever I go, but I find the enthusiasm I once had for it is rapidly decreasing.
I know, I know. I should just suck it up and finish it, but I really do dread it and the fact that there needs to be another foot and a half knitted does not ease my mind one bit.

Today is my brother's birthday, I happily sent him his birthday text message this morning wishing him a good day.
Do any of you have birthday rituals in your family?
Ours started as a phone call, then evolved into voice messages with "Happy Birthday" sung by my brother in law, who puts the phrase "mother f***ing" between Happy & Birthday, which may seem tasteless in theory, but it's really, really funny.
Now, we do birthday text messages and as thoughtless as it may seem to others, there really is nothing like getting a text every few minutes throughout the day wishing you Happy Birthday.

Update on the mysterious vocal "chord" (thank you, Melissa!) scraping I had done, without my knowledge: It now causes intermittent voice outages & a cough that makes me feel like a horse. Yes, horse, not hoarse. I don't know why I feel like this is a horse cough, maybe it's because it makes me suck down Ricola lozenges like a mare out to pasture, eagerly taking sugar cubes(the original rock candy) from the hands of a small child?
"Keep your palms flat, Jessie!"

Last night at Walgreens I stood, throat aching, in front of a rack of cough drops for 10 minutes trying to decide which ones I wanted.
I knew they had to be sugar free, since I would be eating a lot of them (I am an inbound call center rep for a payroll service, and it's tax season.)
There were a lot of choices, I did eventually settle on the Ricola - but what flavor to choose? I couldn't pick, so I bought 3 different kinds: Honey Herb, Green Tea & Echinacea and Lemon Mint. I am pleased with my choices.

Also - rock candy, horse cough, Ricola, sugar cubes(the original rock candy) ? Did I just come full circle in this blog post?

So, who's going to come and offer this old mare a lozenge? Anyone?
Fine. I'll do it myself.

What's that smell?

For several weeks, when my car gets toasty, I start to smell bubblegum.

This is odd because I have no air freshener in the car, and if I did it wouldn't be bubblegum scented anyways.

On the way home tonight (racing home to see Keith Semple's audition on American Idol - my least favorite show of all time) I noticed that there is a candy cane hanging from my rear view mirror.

When the defroster kicks up, it blows hot air on the candy cane thus producing the mysterious bubblegum smell.

Well, that's one vehicular mystery solved.

The other? Paw prints. Paw prints all over my car.

Last Thursday, when I should have been making a complete stop at a stop sign, I noticed my windshield had paw prints all over it. Like kitty paw prints.

Completely baffled by the paw prints (my car is garage parked over night) I made a "California Stop" at the aforementioned stop sign and got pulled over.

Now, I hadn't noticed that I didn't come to a complete stop at the time. When the officer asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, I really didn't know.

Then I imagined him watching me peer ridiculously at my windshield.

He gave me a warning, and I didn't mention that I had been distracted by cat paws.

I think it was for the best. I didn't have time to do a field sobriety test.

In knitting news, I am still working on The Scarf.

Ugh, I am so bored with it and can think of several other projects I'd rather be doing but I am committed to finishing it.

I am also knitting myself a hat, this also bores me. I need to motivate to get these things done so I can knit fun things! I guess I will just keep reminding myself that once these things are done, I can go back to knitting without deadlines and commitments. Fun things! Baby things for my friend, who is expecting a baby girl in March.

Happy Cat Paws, Everyone!

Bloggity blogging

December 10th, 2009

Bloggity blogging

10:43 am

So.
I keep forgetting to blog. Maybe I should RSS feed off someone who blogs regularly, and that would remind me to blog here?

I dunno.

I am currently knitting like a fiend, having made knit-mitments (knitting commitments) that I may not be able to fulfill ("2-4' long celtic cabled scarves, knit and blocked by Christmas? SURE!")
Knitting on a deadline doesn't really work for me. Something always happens and the plan gets sabotaged.
Example, one of the scarves I am knitting was supposed to be a celtic cable pattern, well, after knitting for a bit I discovered that the cable pattern was far too complex and since most of my knitting is done during down time at work, I worried that I wouldn't be able to keep track of the pattern. Also, the cabling made the scarf really dense and heavy. Since it's meant to me more of a ladies' fashion scarf, than one to keep warm - I tossed out the celtic cabling.
OK, now to find a pattern that will work with the yarn, the needle size I have and be a more delicate knit fabric. Also, the pattern needs to be pretty mindless and easy to remember, but still look like I worked really, really hard on it(Ha!).
I found a Wave Stitch scarf pattern, and for some reason, it just wouldn't work. I am assuming that I was knitting the pattern as written. However, I suspect there was errata that was not my fault.
OK, the pattern search is on again - I found "Summer Scarf" which had a delicate V pattern in it. After knitting for about a foot and a half, I noticed that every few rows there wouldn't be enough stitches on my needles.
While listening to Meghan on the Stitch It! podcast, she was talking about the fact that in lace patterns, every decrease needs to have an increase - ex: one row of this pattern was k2tog, yo, SSK - well, that's 2 decreases and only 1 increase, so I was ending up short.
When I held up the scarf to inspect, I found that the V pattern was pretty askew.
Alright! So, that got frogged.
Meanwhile - I have had this yarn since October, it is now 2 weeks until Christmas and I have about 3.5 more feet to knit on this FIRST scarf.
I have the same amount to knit on the other scarf, which is the celtic cabling that I can really only do at home, without distraction.
I found the correct directions for the wave stitch in my stitch dictionary, and even though I can't tell the difference between the first pattern and the new one, it's turning out really nice. I amy dying to see what it will look like blocked.
Alright! Had enough? Good! I'm done!