Finally, happy mii

This weekend didn’t provide all the knitting time I anticipated, yes I joined a good friend of mine to knit Friday night and I got a lot accomplished, but knitting time on Saturday and Sunday was scarce. Saturday brought a nice visit with my in-laws to celebrate Steve’s b-day, and Sunday we got this.

Needless to say a lot of time was eaten up, but Steve and I had a blast. One thing I never expected was that the boxing would be one of my favorite games. Steve and I really worked up a sweat trying to knock each other out, and I kicked his butt in bowling. I also found out I suck at baseball, I was never good when I played softball when I was a kid so I sort of expected that. Now we need to decide what game to get next. We already put a deposit down on the upcoming Wii Fit which is due to come out in May, but we would really like to get at least one more game to keep us busy until that comes out. Any suggestions? We also purchased Wii Play, but neither of us were impressed with those games.

Even though I didn’t get the sweaters done this weekend I had some extra time at work today and I cranked out these babies.

I only had the buttons to add to Taylor’s, the pink one, and I had to sew on the sleeves and the buttons on Chace’s, which took longer than expected. As I went to sew on the second sleeve I realized that I didn’t do the decreases for the cap of the sleeve so I had to take out the bind off and frog back 8 rows. However, in just over an hour and a half I had both sweaters complete, and they will be going in the mail to my sister tomorrow.

Now I don’t have to feel guilty if I want to knit on another project. In addition, to the Central Park Hoodie, and Pink Fetchings, I am also working on a new sock pattern. I also have another shawl to finish up as a TEST-Knit so I will have plenty to keep me occupied. Although, I can’t see that I will be getting much knitting done at home in the coming weeks, with the new gaming system and all. Steve has already challenged me to a bowling tournament, and claims he was letting me win yesterday. We will just see about that. 
  

Oh how I love hand knit socks

Oh how I love thee. Yes, I love hand knit socks, but I don’t seem to wear them as often as I would like. Primarily for the fact that I wear every pair I own, which currently amounts to seven pairs, in about a week’s time and then they sit on my dresser for what seems like weeks before I finally take the time to wash them. I know I am a major procrastinator when it comes to washing my hand knits, and my socks are no exception. I just always seems like I never have enough time to give them the proper washing so I let them sit until I have the time. Okay that is not total true, I also forget they are sitting there until I go to bed each night and in the morning I tell myself I will wash them when I get home from work, but then I forget again and it isn’t until bedtime when I remember once again.

I know non-knitters and even knitters who haven’t knit socks ask the question “why knit socks”. Well, I have to admit I was once in that group. When I first started knitting, the process of knitting socks seemed so overwhelming and I didn’t even want to attempt it in fear that I would totally botch the job. But with a little direction from a LYS and a fabulous book, Sensational Socks, I found my way to loving sock knitting, even on size zero needles.

The first pair of socks I knit, which were on size ones, went a lot quicker than I ever imagined; and I was ready to start a second pair as soon as the first pair was complete. Since then I have had at least one pair of socks on the needles at all times, because socks make for great travel projects.

I like to keep a simple pair of socks on the needles; one that doesn’t take a lot of brain power, so I can easily pick it up and knit a row or two without having to pay a lot of attention to a written pattern. This type of project is great for when you have to take your car in for service and wait for it, or when you are headed to the doctor’s office without a clue how long it will take for the doctor to see you. Doctors seem to have their own time continuum, and it never seems to coincide with the rest of the world. I use to take a book everywhere I went; now I take a pair of socks.

Anyway, a few of my knitting friends were comparing notes the other day about how much sock yarn we have, and I don’t think any of us was really willing to confess to exactly how much yarn was in our stash. In fact, I am going to bet that no one really knew exactly how much sock yarn they had. One lady mentioned that sock yarn does not count as stash, so you can have as much as you like and not feel guilty. As much as I wish this were true, I am finding it hard to convince myself that this is a true fact. The reason being, I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 pairs of unknit skeins of sock yarn. At least that was how much I had the last time I took it all out of the bin it is safely stored in to count it, and that was something like 8 months ago. Something tells me that a few more skeins of yarn have found their way into that bin since then. Sock yarn is so easy to buy because you only need 50 grams per sock or a total of 100 grams for a pair. That is 1 to 2 skeins depending on how large the skeins are. I actually think that sock yarn is trained to jump off the shelf and into your basket as you walk by and you don’t even realize it is there until you get to the register. At that point, you may feel embarrassed to say you didn’t really want that yarn and you buy it in lieu of asking the cashier to take it off your bill. Walla, more sock yarn.

Luckily sock yarn doesn’t take up that much space so my husband doesn’t seem to notice when it is multiplying. I just need to start knitting more quickly so I can have more pairs of hand knit socks to wear. Socks, socks, and more socks, I don’t think I will ever have enough.

To date, my favorite sock yarn is Sweet Feet by Hill Country Yarns. I used this yarn to enter a sock contest they were having and after wearing the socks just once, I fell in love with how they feel on my feet. The yarn is a super soft merino wool that seems to sort of felt together on the bottom of your foot as you wear them, making them smoother and smoother on your feet. I can’t wait to make more socks with this yarn. Right now Discount Yarn Sale is having a sale on all their in stock Hill Country Yarn. Go check it out, because for under eight dollars you can have a pair of socks, not including shipping of course.

Bad Girl, Good Girl

Yesterday I didn’t do exactly what I said I was going to do, which was to focus my knitting efforts on finishing Chace’s sweater. Instead I started this.

I did have a good reason. I was trying to read through my friend’s blogs and I didn’t think I could read and do Fair Isle work at the same time. So instead of feeling unproductive I started a pair of Fetchings to match my Cabled Soho Scarf, which still has not been blocked. I didn’t get much done on this project because it was more difficult to read and work with double points that I had anticipated. I did read all the new blog posts though. Hopefully, I can take some time this weekend to continue to read the blogs because I am sure if I wait until Monday I will be reading blogs all day.

Even though I was a Bad Girl during the day, I did redeem myself and became a Good Girl when I joined a friend for a night filled will knitting and friendship, and I worked on the sleeve and got nearly all of it done.

Today, I hope to finish up this sleeve and seam both sleeves to the body. Then all that will be left is the buttons and I will have two finished objects. Yay!

Happy Friday!

After I posted yesterday, I did pick up the socks for a little more knitting. I wasn’t quite ready to start the second sleeve on Chace’s sweater, although my goal is to get that sweater, along with the pink one in the mail by Monday, so I guess I had better focus my attentions on that project today, and for the rest of the weekend. On the socks, I am now ready to do the short-row heel on both, and I will find it very difficult not to pick up this project today. Must stay focused! I have to keep telling myself that otherwise I will not finish in time. As soon as I finish the two sweaters I can knit on whatever I want.

Work wise yesterday afternoon was pretty much the same as the morning. Although, I did stretch my legs for a minute to walk out to the mail box in front to get the mail. Five bills to open, yahoo. Oh and don’t forget the date stamp, that was the highlight of my afternoon. Today should be much of the same. A little knitting, a little gaming and hopefully I will also be able to remain up-to-date on reading blogs.

I also posted another FREE pattern; check out Cable Two by Two to the right. It is a very simple pattern, but it makes for a nice sock. I hope to get it posted on Ravelry later today. Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

What to do with my time

My boss left yesterday for a little get away vacation in Florida, and so far today it has been pretty slow around the office. The most work that has needed to be done today has been to pick up the Spam faxes off the fax machine and toss them in the trash and answering the phone when an automated solicitor calls to tell me how much money they can save me if take out a loan with their company. And for those of you who know me well, I don’t do so well when I don’t have anything to do.

So this morning I have been reading my friends blogs from Ravelry, and I have actually read every blog post that was logged yesterday. Which is a real accomplishment since I haven’t read a lot of the blogs I follow in some time.

And because sometimes I feel like surfing the web is a waste of time I was also knitting on this, so I could feel as if I was also being productive. 

This is a project you haven’t seen since January 19th, yikes, and a project I haven’t made much progress on since then either (see next picture.)

And technically that picture was taken on December 18th, which is even scarrier. Right now, I am almost to the point where I can do the short row heal on both feet, but since I have read all the blogs for today I think I will put this project away for the day.

This afternoon I have plans to play Hotel Dusk on my Nintendo DS and maybe read a little. I still have 3 more hours until I can go home so I need to find something to keep myself busy. I might even pick up the second sleeve for Chace’s sweater.

How can this happen..

As you may be aware I have been working on two sweaters, one for my niece Taylor and recently I started the matching sweater for Taylor’s twin brother Chace. I have just about finished Taylor’s sweater; all I need to do is sew on the buttons that I picked up yesterday.

It is a very cute sweater but I like the colors so much better in the version for Chace. I don’t think I had enough contrast between the colors in Taylor’s sweater. Live and learn. I am not knitting it again in different colors. She will still look very cute in these colors.

One thing that puzzles me is I am working with the same yarn, the same pattern, and making the exact same modification, but Chace’s sweater is almost an inch longer. I just pray that the arms will still fit on Chace’s sweater. I may have to make some additional modifications to get it to work out okay.

It just seems very odd that I can do everything identically and come out with something so much larger. Now, I am not complaining because it just might be that Chace can wear his sweater longer than Taylor can, but I just cannot believe there is that much variation. I realize that sometimes it has to do with how loose or tight you knit, but I can’t image I varied this much.

Anyway, I am glad to be nearing the completion point of these two sweaters. One thing that I have not had to worry too much with other projects is that in this case if I procrastinate to long on finishing the object the recipient will grow out of it before it is off the needles. I just hope that has not already happened.

This week

I have finally just about gotten over my addiction to SIMS 2. Okay, so I am not totally over it, I am still playing a little bit, but I am not spending hours upon hours playing the crazy game, and I have actually been getting some knitting done. I finished up the KNIT for Hire that I was working on, and I am nearly finished with the twin to the sweater I made for Taylor. This week I would like to finish the sweater for Chace (picture to be posted soon) and actually get caught up on reading some other blogs. I have also been neglecting Ravelry and my knitting scrapbook so I really should update those as well.

The other major thing I would like to accomplish this week is to find a way to make an additional $100 a week. Yes, I have a job now, but unfortunately it pays a whole lot less that my last job. Sure, it pays more than unemployment, which is what I had been accustom to the last few months, but I still don’t seem to have very much extra spending money to buy all the things I want, like more yarn (like I really need more yarn) and a Nintendo Wii (which I really do need, it is imperative to my survival. LOL).

Does anyone have any suggestions for making a little extra money? I don’t really want to get a part-time job working out of the house, I would prefer to find something that I can do from home or on the internet. I have thought about signing up for one of those survey companies, but so many of them are scams and I can’t afford to get burned. As you know, I have also been doing KNIT for Hire work, which does add a little bit of money to my entertainment spending fund, but if I don’t start knitting some of my own projects every now and then I will never get my projects completed (which would mean I would never need to buy any more yarn, and that is totally unacceptable). I have also thought about posting my greeting cards on Etsy, but the last time I did that I didn’t get even a little nibble. For those of you who have Etsy shops how do you promote your wears?

In addition, my plan to post my stash on Ravelry has completely unraveled. I was on a roll for the first day or two when I started posting it, and then I totally stopped posting all together. I really would like to post at least 5-10 new yarns in my stash on Ravelry each week, and eventually have all my yarn online. That way I can just click a button to see what yarns I already have. For those of you who have posted your stash on Ravelry does it help you curb your need to buy more yarn? I am hoping that once I can see all my yarn at once, I will make the determination that I really don’t need any more yarn. Yeah Right!

OMG..has it really be nearly 3 weeks

I can’t believe that it has been nearly 3 weeks since my last post, and unfortunately I don’t have a lot to show for my time. I did start a new job, which I don’t remember if I mentioned in a previous post, but that isn’t what has kept me busy. Over the last few weeks I have been hopelessly addicted to SIMS 2. I know I am a game geek, but that game is way too funny. I have owned SIMS 2 since it came out, I don’t know how long ago, but a few weeks ago I decided to buy an expansion pack to enhance the game and since then I have spent a lot of time playing. My husband thinks I am totally nuts when he hears me laughing at the game. I have had so much enjoyment from the game over the last few weeks that I am not going to feel guilty about neglecting other things in my life, like my knitting.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have been knitting, but it hasn’t been a project for me. I have been working on a knitting for hire job for a designer. I really want to get this project completed so I can focus on finishing a sweater for my niece, and start and finish one for her twin brother.

I don’t have any pictures to post today, since this was sort of a spur of the moment post. I promise to take some pictures soon, and I haven’t forgotten to show pictures of the finished basement, for those who couldn’t come to CLUB last Saturday.