Autumnal Anklets

So, I've been wanting to post about these damned anklets for about a month or more now! I've been holding off to allow me time to go outside to photograph them against the beautiful backdrop of autumn leaves. Dudes, if I held off photographing them any longer, you were not going to see them until 2010 or later. So, tonight, I snapped snapped snapped some photos and came back to my computer and promptly uploaded them.

I knit these suckers using size zero needles. It was my first time knitting non-baby socks on such tiny needles and I found it to be slow going, but I ended up loving the look of the tiny knit stitches so much, I might be a size zero needle convert. The evenness of my stitches. The perfection of my stitches! It was amazing. If only I liked this colorway or yarn more. I ended up not loving Schaefer Anne yarn, sadly. I find it slightly scratchy while knitting and slightly fuzzy once knit up. You can see the halo of the yarn a little better in this picture.



I'm quite happy that my remaining untouched sock yarns are all semi-solids as I've been unhappy with my variegated yarns recently. I will say this for Schaefer Anne yarn -- it goes through a washer and dryer beautifully. While sick, I decided to toss them into my wash to see what happened. They bled hideously and I now have a slightly pink (previously light blue) tee, but they held their shape perfectly and are now soft enough for wearing around the home comfortably. They are also one of the few sock yarns I've worked with that make gorgeously thin socks that fit perfectly into my shoes.



As for the fact that they are anklets, as are most of the socks on my site? I have a horrible confession to make for a sock knitter. I hate socks. I only wear anklets at all (machine made or hand knit) and I mostly only wear them into bed. The anklet size allows me to kick them off once I get warm and sleepy enough. If you're wondering why I hate socks, it's all about constriction. I hate clothes that make me feel constricted. I also dislike tight clothing, shoes with backs, and turtlenecks. Dear God above, I really hate turtlenecks.

Saying all this, I'm still tempted to work some Cookie A socks next with my semi-solid yarn. That is, I'm tempted to do so if I ever get my scarf done. Chances of that? Slim to none.

Love you all and I hope to post soon. I am actually crafting once again!

Finished Object, FINALLY

So, I know it's the usual cool thing to apologize for not writing, but... dudes. For the combined months of September and October, Nathan and I experienced about fifteen colds between us. We were like germ factories, constantly cuddling new colds onto each other. Paul managed to luckily avoid most of the bad, but the last cold I got was the worst. Remember when I was all, "I'll post when I get better"? Yeah, after that I got better for one week, during which I did things like clean our house and get laundry back into normal shape. Then, Nathan got another cold, and I got a killer cold/cough. It was hideous. Yesterday was the first day in roughly two or three weeks in which I don't sound like I just got home from a really smoke filled bar.

But, anyways. I told you I had two finished objects to tell you about, and, guess what?! I didn't take pictures of my anklets yet. That's okay -- they're boring anyway.

Isaac's Blanket (ravel it!)
Pattern: Sweet and Simple in Leisure Arts #3219
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton (?)



I did get pictures sent to me from my friends Tom and Paula! See, they used to live in Philly and it was awesome and we saw them all the time. Paul and I miss them horribly still, but they have moved on to bigger and better states, apparently. I hope to go visit them soon. Well, approximately early summer of 2007, Paula announced to us that she was pregnant. We, of course, got very excited, and I promised to make a blanket for the wee little one (code name Pom Pom at the time).

Since I did not sew at that time, and my crochet is crap, I decided to knit a blanket I've done once before. I ordered up some beautiful yarn, Rowan something or other, and it was machine washable, and peach. Why peach? I'm really not sure. I think I should have picked green, in retrospect, but, since I can't go back in time, let's appreciate its peachly majesty. I got the yarn, started on the blanket, and promptly got pregnant myself.

Unfortunately, my pregnancy was both mostly hidden and nauseating. You know how some women 'glow'? Yeah, not me. I was more of 'tired sick mess'. This left me little time to knit since I was still trying to keep our house perfectly clean and plan our babymoon!

This was a very simple simple pattern. The most complicated part of it was probably the fringe. I enjoyed knitting on it once I felt better, and while it looks pretty and lacy, it can be done (by a non-beginner) knitter in front of the television. It's also very fast, though I believe I did finish it post-baby delivery. I will state, the first time I knit this (half a year into casually knitting) the constant changing number of stitches threw me off so badly that I ended up with a gigantic knotted hole in the blanket, the memory of which embarrasses me to this day!



Here's the little baby (my Godson!) that got the blanket.



Yeah, he's cute enough to deserve a better blanket! Maybe I'll quilt you one, someday, kid!

Also, hope to talk to you all soon.

Setting my craft corner in order

When Jenn and I were hanging with Jared Flood, I told him (and everyone else there) that I knit in the winter, not in the summer. And it's not a lie! I even knit and finished something just last week! But I had to finish it in a hurry, so no pic. Sorry. But, if you looked at the state of my ravelry stash, you would be forgiven for calling me a liar.

But knitting or not, I do photograph all year round. So, in my blogtator's honor, I photographed all the hanks of yarn waiting to be knit, and stashed them (ravelry). And saved an extra delightful pic for y'all to open my post.

If you were bored and looking at dead stashes recently, you might also get the impression that I last knit when nubbins ruled the earth. I discovered in this cleanup that you must declare items in your stash all used up! They won't go away on their own by your careful calculations of yarn used to equal 100%! So, now my stash page looks a whole lot more like my yarn basket.



Time to get knitting!

Two Finished Objects... SOON!

I'm sorry for the delay in posting, my small, but incredibly loyal, audience! I am sick with something or other. I generally feel like I've been run over by a very large truck and my remains have been thrown in icy water. The only part of me left whole is my throat which is all screwed up and pained.

Paul's been picking up a lot of the slack around the house with cleaning, and my mom (who can drive me crazy) is a saint when I'm not feeling well. If I told her I needed her here tomorrow morning at seven in the morning, she'd be waiting on my doorstep at six. I will probably go visit her tomorrow.

Unfortunately, between Nathan's odd allergic reaction to a virus (which made him break out into a very very spotty rash all over his whole body) and my need to sleep about 12 hours a day, I've not had time to post and process photos, including photos of my finished objects.

Normally when I'm not posting it's because I have nothing to say. Today? It's because I just want to watch some Glee and get some sleep.

Talk to you later. Also, if any of you have any advice on how to handle a baby that's starting to get opinionated and talk-backy (amazing, considering he can't talk), please let me know. Today, when I told Nathan not to touch the cat stratch toy, he looked at me deliberately, and ran his hands up and down it really fast. I managed not to laugh, but I was at a loss for what to do.

Met Jared Flood And All I Got Was Yarn!

This post goes to out to making Sophy envious! As I had not seen Helen in about a week and a half, I contacted her to make plans to eat and knit and pet kittens. She suggested that we attend Jared Flood's meet and greet at Loop, and, after a quick discussion of feasibility with Paul and Nathan, it was decided.

We were very late getting there, which was all my fault due to a combination of Nathan and traffic, but it turns out that this was for the best. By the time we got there, no one was around! There were about five other knitters there besides Helen and me. We spent several minutes browsing the store and talking about visiting Spool before Helen tried to egg me into meeting Jared on the basis that I was the 'better' knitter. This is a complete lie as Helen has probably knit more than me by now and she's actually knit some of Jared's designs. I hesitated on sitting near Jared and lingered over at the sock yarn area and tried to push her to sit first, but Helen kept going on about buying yarn for another knitting venture.

After a while, the owner of Loop noticed our odd behavior and tried to push us both into sitting at the table. I ended up grabbing some Madelinetosh Tosh Sock to avoid sitting.


I mean, it's super pretty and I love me some semisolid sock yarns (colorway Clover), but at least fifty percent of that sock yarn purchase was bashfulness at meeting people.

See, here's the thing you need to know about me. I hate meeting people. I'm not sociable in person and I have few social skills. I tend to alienate people I've just met by being standoffish or super opinionated or shallow. I make jokes that are offensively cold. A lot of people dislike me upon first meeting me, and I've had this verified by people who have later become my friends!

Knowing all this about myself has made meeting people even worse. I just hate being in group situations with people I don't know. I am always sure that the second I sit down, there's something about my face or voice that makes people dislike me.

I did not want to sit anywhere near Jared Flood or the other knitters or the owner. However, after a few more minutes, I realized I couldn't avoid sitting at the edge of the table, so I did. I talked with a nice guy named Alex about where we both lived. I forgot to tell him that I really liked his t-shirt. Helen joined me shortly after, but I needed to buy my sock yarn then. When I got back, she was in the middle of the table discussing her food blog with everyone. (Helen's a serious Philadelphia food blogger. She's got mad Twitter followers and she meets with all kinds of other food bloggers.) I finally sat down at the table again and started talking with people. No one seemed to hate me, and everyone was interesting, and we stayed until closing. This meant no Spool for me, but I hope to go back down on another Friday.

I did forget to tell Jared Flood (who is kind of a cutie and I'd probably die of embarrassment if he saw that, but he will never see that I said that because no one besides ten people read this blog) that I want to knit Girasole. That would be such an awesome blanket to pull over oneself in the middle of winter, as one lounged in front of a roaring fire with a bagful of hot chestnuts. Don't you love how I create these picturesque scenes in my head?

After all this was done, Helen and I got some Indian pizza (DELISH!) Then, we went to pet the kittens and knit and watch Glee. Are you watching Glee? If not, what is wrong with you? Do you not like fun and music and dancing and joy? Helen also presented me with a belated birthday present. I took it outside and cuddled it today.


Is that Malabrigo you see before you? Yes, it is three skeins of Merino Worsted in Sapphire Green and it's for Shalom. I do dislike the name of the colorway because sapphires are most commonly blue. Here you can see a real sapphire and the yarn. Are they the same color?


I had a fun Friday night, got some great yarn, and tried to blog about my latest pair of knit anklets. Unfortunately, every series of photos I've taken has come out blurry, so that'll have to wait. But, please note that I'm back down to one WIP! So exciting a life!

I Love Getting Stuff

I'm a fairly greedy person, in case you are not aware. I love to receive gifts and I love to win prizes. This is why this will be one of my favorite recent posts! It's about things I've both received and won!

Quite recently, I began to follow the blog Knitter in the Kitchen, mostly for her beautiful photography. She's not a frequent blogger, but then... neither am I. I must forgive this fault, or I am simply the pot to her kettle. Really, if you go to her site, you'll see that her photography more than makes up for her infrequent posts. However, I tend to follow craft blogs for their photography. A bit after I subscribed to her feed, she ran a nice post about her craft room that included a giveaway at the very end!

I have recently stopped trying to win giveaways because they are often swamped with comments and I don't want to win something unless I really want it. I couldn't ignore this, however. First was the fact that her sewing area is the most gorgeously coordinated sewing area I've ever seen. I'd weep with joy to sew in her room every day. (Seriously, check her ironing board out. My own ironing board is a mini version with a stained white cloth cover.) Second was the fact that she decorated the room in orange, brown, and white with a lot of linen. I love a color combined with brown and white. If you know me in real life, you'll know that Nathan's room is primarily done in green, brown, and white, and my own bedroom is Tiffany blue, brown, and white. Lastly, she was giving away two Amy Butler patterns and she hadn't advertised the post as a giveaway, meaning it looked like I had a shot in hell of winning. So, I took a chance. AND WON!

I now have my very first Amy Butler pattern and it's sitting on my pattern shelf silently intimidating me.



See? There it is, going, "I need interfacing to work, Kitten." I have tried to shush it with the fact that I want to do eighteen hundred other projects first, and I don't have any fabric worthy of it, but it makes chicken sounds at me.

Thank you, Knitter in the Kitchen. I hope I make something gorgeous.

Next up? My birthday presents from Paul's parents. I say parents, but let's get real on who picked out these gifts. Thanks, mom!



What you see there are Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson, a cute circular knitting needle holding case from Della Q, a tiny ladybug tape measure from Lantern Moon, and a gift certificate to Knitting to Know Ewe.

My mother-in-law was super cute when she gave it to me and told me that she was now obsessed with Lantern Moon. A long time lover of their rosewood and ebony needles, I understood where she was coming from. She told me we would have to go together to spend the gift certificate, and I am happy to do so. I love going yarn shopping with people, and I imagine it'll be fun shopping with her for yarn. I would say that we would likely have nothing in common yarn-wise, but I have looked askance at Helen's purple yarn purchases, and Christy has called some of my yarn loves "unicorn puke colored", I believe. Just because you have a lot in common with someone doesn't mean that you'll have similar yarn colorway tastes!

Someone help! My tape measure is attacking me!



I love getting cute tape measures!

How are all my readers doing? I see you all blogging about your crazy knitting, so I assume well. I'm still chugging along myself, and I expect I'll have some anklets to model for you all soon, as well as the start of Shalom. Helen, when do we get together?

Darlings, I've Missed Sewing. And You.

Let's not speak of the week we were separated, let's talk about our future together. Wait, let's talk about the last week. After all, it affected my blogging. First, Paul had off all week, so we took one of those fancy Staycations! A year and a half ago we did the Babymoon. I love these trendy new terms so much that I must do them. We celebrated my birthday with dinner, a gift, and a cold. (Nathan provided the illness, screaming, general lack of sleep, and bad temper. I provided the cuddles. Paul provided the gift and dinner.) I then spent several nights playing on my new Xbox 360. It's even dragged me off the internet prior to midnight. It was a miracle and it has helped ween me, slightly, off the need to hang on my computer to all hours. Says the girl blogging at one in the morning.

Either way, after several days of devouring Fable II, I came up for air yesterday and decided to start crafting again. I finally cracked down on that make-up bag I've been wanting to make, and I started to actually sew. You can see my awesome sewing area here.



Do you see that fancy zipper? That's nearly as far as I got before I realized I needed Elastic Thread. Damn you, Heather Ross! I've never worked with this stuff before and now I'm all nervous about it. In fact, I think most of the reason I haven't been working on this make-up bag before is that I'm terrified I'm going to screw it up. It looks so complicated. The zipper part of this bag took me roughly an hour. I had to figure out how to use my zipper foot, figure out where to sew on the zipper, figure out how to pin three layers of fabric evenly.

The pattern called for me to pink some of my fabric at one point, so I pulled out my mom-mom's awesome pinking shears. She was born in 1901, I believe, and as you can see, she paid a high price for these shears!



Today, I went to Jo-ann Fabrics to grab the thread I needed, but also to pick up some fabric for a button down shirt for Nathan. It's some awesome train fabric, which I got two yards of. I should have enough to make him both a shirt and some PJ pants.



I will now end this horribly written post. I'm clearly too tired to blog.

Trying To Update Blog URL

I'm having some troubles, folks, and I beg you to bear with me. Both Helen and I posted recently, and neither of those updates appeared in my feed reader (Google), so I decided to go back to my old URL of a blogspot.com domain. I suspect that I need to be able to update both my CNAME records and my A records, and, unfortunately, I can't do so currently.

I Said Blogs Without Photos Suck

And yet... My blog is photo-less. Sure, it has a sexy new URL, but it takes more than URLs to run a blog. It takes photos, good writing, and a regular posting schedule. Since I'm never going to have a regular posting schedule and the chances of good writing drop, I need photos. (Please note, this is not a comment on Helen's writing. Her writing is good and gets posted at shops and linked to and adored.)

So, I thought I'd do an update on where my knitting projects are at. But with pictures! I'm still working on my Schaeffer Anne anklets, and I've decided against knitting Nathan a pair in this yarn.



The mohair pretty visibly stands out as you can see from a close up of the first sock.



I'm fairly sure you get put in the Time Out For Bad Mothers corner if you give your child a rash due to something you knit him, and with my luck, he'd be allergic to mohair.

Due to August's heat I stopped knitting on my Slytherin scarf for a while, but the weather is cool once again, and it's time to start knitting this sucker up. I've pretty much given up the dream of having this scarf done this winter, but we'll see. It is pretty long already.



Do I really need all the repeats? (Yes, I do. I ordered extra yarn because I ran short for Paul's Gryffindor scarf.)

Lastly, I bought a new tape measure for my sock knitting bag.



Coincidentally, my plain white tape measure, which I lost months ago, came out of hiding the day after I received my new tape measure. Maybe my new tape measure is the kitten, and my old tape measure the ninja.

So, did I bring the sexy back?

Ravelry is powered by 10 calculators and a puppy on a treadmill.

One of the many things I do in real life is blog and tweet about email. So, I keep an eye on a bunch of feeds to supply me with materials. Then, in yesterday's review, I came across a post about the backend of Ravelry.

Reading this post, the very first thing I wanted to do was go buy something from their store. I would call Ravelry one of the most useful websites I've ever encountered. It's got SO MUCH. And it's basically running out of a paper box. Ok, not that bad, but they are running a LOT of stuff on a very little hardware (and Amazon S3), and they're bootstrapping the whole company from their ads and tee shirt sales and donations.

So, if you love Ravelry, and you've been thinking one of those tee shirts is pretty cute, but maybe a little pricey, remember, you're supporting a good cause!

P.S. Cooking is a craft! I'm doing crafting! I'm just blogging about it somewhere else. Also, who wants french fry grease on their sweaters? Yuck.

P.P.S. Are y'all noting the awesome new URL of this blog? Jenn rocks!