Behind

What a week! It's just been one of those, a million things to do and just not enough time to complete everything. If I owe you an email, I'm sorry, I'll get to it. Eventually. My sister comes to visit on Sunday. So on top of it being a hectic, I've got massive amounts of cleaning to do. There are things that I haven't gotten around to since Royd deployed so I'm using this as an opportunity to get them done. It's amazing how far behind I've gotten. Those few hours that he would be home a day really help! I do, however, have something to show you: Pattern: Asymmetrical Cable Hat from One Skein Yarn: Knitpicks Sierra in Cranberry This lonely skein was bought to swatch and test durability. I'm thinking of using it in a sweater for myself and needed to see if it would be a good choice. You just can't beat those prices, but sometimes I'm not quite happy with the yarn itself. Anyway, I saw the hat in the book and knew it would be perfect. He needed a new hat as it is. I had to make a few modifications based on that I refused to use the needles that I got gauge on. My only 8 mms are plastic and I hate them. So I opted to use the bamboo 7.5s instead. I casted on three extra stitches for his size and then did a 10 row repeat instead of a 8 so that the cables weren't all smooshed. What should have been a nice one day project took me two day and that's all I worked on. I haven't touched the stole or any of the other poor neglected projects. I don't see much progress until next week either. Okay, back to cleaning and errands. Have a wonderful weekend!

21 Done

Current state of the stole is at 21.5 repeats. Originally I hadn't planned on doing the full number since my gauge should be larger, but i'm rethinking that. At this point, it is still quite small. I did a test dry block and it didn't get as huge as I thought it would be so I do believe I'm going to keep going. I'd much rather run the risk of it being bigger than smaller. In anticipation of Socktoberfest, I pulled out this Cherry Tree Hill yarn and started a toe up sock. Honestly, I have no idea about what to put on the leg. Feather and Fan jumps into mind, but I'm not sure. Any ideas? I plan on using October as the time to get those gift socks done along with the Manly socks. I'm almost done with one except for toe shaping, but there isn't a rush on those, yet. The other pair that I need to do will be these in some Swish Superwash that has still not arrived. I'll admit that it's been hard to stay focused when new things keep showing up: Seven skeins each. I'm thinking that the green would make a great Rogue and the purple as a West End Raglan. I'm of course free to change my mind at any time. :) I belong to that craft book club and when they offered me books for 9.99 each, I couldn't pass it up. I'm quite happy with the purchases except for one. The Yarn Girls new one wasn't as good as their first kids book. I just didn't feel that it was very inspiring and the models looked like they were drowning in the sweaters. Maybe I just don't like chunky that much. In a personal note, Royd and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Friday. It was alittle sad knowing that this our third in a row that we haven't been together for. Hopefully this will be the last deployment for us and we won't have to worry about him missing important events anymore.

Weirdness In the Eye of the Beholder

When Keri tagged me, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Heck, Royd is constantly telling me that I'm weird. Then I sat down to write this post and was stumped. Suddenly things that seemed weird before, seemed a little mundane and some a bit more neurotic. How much of my craziness was I going to let be aired in cyberspace for everyone to see? Well, after some deliberation here's my five things: 1. I must have chocolate every night. I used to think it was just something sweet, but realized that after I stopped buying the stuff that it must be part of my dessert. I really don't care in what form (pudding, cookies, bar, cake, brownies) but it has to overpower whatever its in. Yum. 2. I cannot stand to be licked. I have two cats that just love to hop into bed everynight with me. Inevitably one of them will start in and it sends the heebie jeebies all over my skin. It's worse on the face. 3. I hate calling people on the phone. I would rather go without knitting for a day than pick up the phone and talk to a stranger. Unfortunately I can't do everything on the internet, so it's something I have to suck up. Seriously, it takes me about a half hour before I'll actually dial the number just to make a stupid checkup for one of the kids and Royd always calls the pizzaman. 4. I stash more than yarn. Favorite styles of t-shirts, bandaids and cleaning supplies are a few. The worst is my pantry. I really don't know where I get it from, but I keep enough food in the house to feed the family for at least a month. It's not just regular day to day food either, I've got the makings for a party or two as well. Stashing IS a sickness people. 5. I cannot stand to have dirt on my feet. Of course when I'm outside it doesn't bother me, but inside it drives me bonkers. Well, with two kids that breed crumbs, it's hard to keep the floors nice and clean. That's why I vacuum every day, if not twice, and I use it on everything. Sweeping always leaves dirt that I'll feel afterwards. A day that I don't means I really don't feel good. So there you have it, my little piece of craziness. I'd love to see what everyone else has to say about themselves. You're all it!

New Knits on the Needles

What's the best way to celebrate the casting off of an extremely large sweater? Why, casting on for some extremely large socks, of course! The yarn is a lovely mouline with three strands of different blues and one grey that I had bought last summer. I'm just getting around to knitting them up. That purple shriveled mess is The Print O' The Wave Stole. When the pattern first became available, I printed it out and put it into the stack of possible knits. There it sat languishing while other things were casted on for. Well, Keri announced that her and Angelika were knitting it and said that I just HAD to do it too. :) So, what you see is nine repeats. I'm using Alpaca Cloud from Knitpicks in the Iris colorway and I'm double stranding it. Initially I had started with a single strand but it was just too airy for me. I'm sure that I'll have to take out a few repeats so it isn't too big, but I'll worry about those numbers in a few days. Also, I'm not going to do it in two pieces. That seam line just looks too funky for me. I think that maybe I shouldn't even be posting today. I'd had a great post in my head yesterday, but now I can't recall a thing I wanted to say. Between an average of five hours of sleep for the past three nights, the gloomy sunless day and three cranky boys, I think that I need either a pot of coffee or a babysitter so that I can sleep. I can not wake up! Well, I hope everyone else has an energy filled day!

Whew!

I think this says "I love you" !

Saturday Randomness

Okay I know I usually don't post on Saturdays, but I'm bored. It's a beautiful day outside and we should be outside enjoying. Instead Reilly is sick. As an added bonus, he woke up at 5am and promtly woke everyone else up. We're all off schedule and cranky. Especially me. Last weekend I visited with Kathleen and this is some of what I came home with. Knowing that I don't get to the yarn stores much, she picks me up cool yarn when she sees it. I in turn get her stuff from the States. We've got a good thing going on between us. Since I had the camera out, I figured I'd show the latest indulgences. Claudia Hand Painted, Socks That Rock and J. Knits I'm looking for opinions on some yarn from everyone. I want to know about 1. SWTC Bamboo--softness, stretching, overall opinion 2. SWTC Phoenix--softness-would it be comfortable for next to skin wear? Any thoughts would be appreciated very much. I don't have a sweater to show you so I'll leave you with a picture of the kids the other night right before bedtime. Have a great weekend!

One Down

Pattern: Embossed Leaves from Interweave Knits (I think Winter '05) Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock in Peaches and Cream What can I say, it's a great pattern. I did make a few modifications though. First, I didn't do the cast on method as written. I tried it and it was just too tight even after doing it again with a larger needle. I reverted back to the long tail cast on and although it doesn't look as pretty, it's got enough stretch. Second, I did the heel just a bit different. I didn't read the pattern right and messed up, but it was an easy modification that resulted in the same look. Since these are to be gifted away, they will be blocked later on for a prettier presentation. I'm still mulling over my choices for the rest of the socks to be made for gifts. Surely there will be another pair going on very soon. That is, as soon as I finish knitting Scoop. I'm on the last sleeve and expect to start the finishing details tomorrow. I ordered some buttons and they just shipped yesterday so it'll be another week or so until I can get that far. In sadder news, we lost two soldiers over the weekend and it's been a bit sad around here. Please keep their families in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.