Socks 101 KAL - Fini!

Socks 101 KAL
Originally uploaded by maxfun47.

Yeah! I finished my socks this morning. When Larissa's book comes out with the pattern in it, try it out. Very quick and easy to do and they will be toasty warm to wear around the house.

It's New Year's Eve! Wow, time has flown. Tonight I'll be working a party at a private residence. Should be fun. However you spend the evening, have a great time!

BTW, do you make resolutions? I don't tend to do any, but if I were, they'd be. . .

1. Complete at least one lace shawl from Victorian Lace Today.


2. Travel! (A Caribbean cruise and a trip to Italy are already booked.)


3. Declutter this house!


4. Continue to have as much fun as legally possible. :)

What are yours?

My first sock! (almost)

Today I took the plunge. I bought some DPNs and started a pair of socks. I put aside my feelings of intimidation at working with more than two needles at once. I pushed down the fear of making one sock a different size than the other. I picked up the needles, yarn, and pattern and dove in head first!

And for my brave pursuit of sockdom, I have achieved the following:

Yes, it's an actual sock and it's just about ready to have the toe worked. Not bad for starting it around 5:00 this afternoon. (Okay, I know some of you could knock this out in a couple hours, but for me, this is working fast!)

To be fair, this is not done in sock yarn. It's Manos del Uruguay wool worked on size 10 DPNs. Why? Because I signed up for Socks 101 pattern test KAL that Larissa over at Stitch Marker is doing for her upcoming book. I decided if I was going to try a pair of socks, this was a good way to do it. So far, I've found the pattern very easy to follow. I only messed up once and had to frog a few rows, but quickly figured out where I skipped an instruction and fixed the problem.

Now the problem is that I will have to put this aside for a day or two so I can get some work done that I actaully get paid for. :P Tomorrow is a trek to Sunriver to deal cards. Long trip for a three-hour gig, but I'm carpooling with some other folks, so it won't be too bad. I might take the socks with me, but I doubt I'd be very successful working on them in the car, especially since a lot of the time it will be too dark to do anything. Maybe I'll just take my iPod instead. Bummer.

I'm working parties the rest of the week, including New Year's Eve and I have almost three hours of a medical conference to transcribe by next Wednesday, too. Vacation time is over!

As of right now, I have four WIPs on needles and two on looms. EEK! That's what happens when you have a short attention span, I guess. The thing is, when I knit the time goes by so quickly! I'll start working on something and the next thing I know, four hours have gone by! If I didn't have to use the bathroom and feed the cat, I probably wouldn't stop at all! Now if I could only figure out a way to get PAID for knitting, that would be totally cool. Oh well. . .

Merry Christmas!

Or happy whatever holiday you celebrate! :)

Being on my own at Christmas has the potential to be very lonely. But I'm lucky that it doesn't happen that way for me.

Yesterday, I went to morning service at church -- something I haven't done for quiet a while due to my work schedule that keeps me up so late on most Saturday nights -- then spent the afternoon and evening at a friend's house sharing Christmas with her and her family. They've been so wonderful, practially adopting me as another sister in the mix. I love hanging out with them! They spoiled me rotten yesterday with gifts and tons of good food. Love you guys -- you know who you are! :)

Christmas eve ended with 11:00 candlelight service at church, complete with a beautiful rendition of "O, Holy Night" sung by a friend who has a wonderful operatic soprano voice. It's truly special to hear her sing. And the candlelight service is always part of what makes the holiday truly special for me. The only thing that would be better is if our former pianist could have been there. Unfortunately, he's away for another couple of years and I miss him lots.

My sister sent a package a couple of weeks ago and when I opened the various bits and pieces, I discovered that she spoiled me rotten! She sent me copies of Victorian Lace Today, Arctic Lace, and A Gathering of Lace. Isn't she wonderful! Now my dilemma is what to cast on for first, which is a very, very nice dilemma to have! Had she stopped there, I would have been overjoyed, but there was more! She also included a cookbook from a cancer support group in her area (she's a five-year breast cancer survivor, a true hero in my book), a copy of The Apartment (one of my favorite old movies), and a $25 iTunes gift card! ACK! I told you she spoiled me! I think she has more than adequately covered Christmas, my upcoming birthday, Valentine's Day, and at least one ' just because' occasion. Thanks, sis, you rock!

My brother kept the merriment rolling by sending three bottles of Napa Valley wine. I'll have to make sure to keep the lace knitting and the wine drinking on different schedules or they'll surely wreak havoc with each other.

I have been doing a little knitting since I finished all my Christmas projects. I've made three more cranes for the KnitNotWar project -- formerly referred to as KnitNoWar until someone else grabbed the domain name out from under them. Only one has been felted so far. They make up really quickly and I plan to make a whole host of them, way beyond the ten that the project requests come from each knitter. I think they'll be lovely strung together for decorations for next Christmas or just because. And it's a great way to use up leftover wool yarn, too.

I also started a pair of felted clogs, using the tried and true Fiber Trends pattern. One is almost complete. I used Patons Classic Wool in black for the sole and Lion Wool Prints in Majestic Mountain for the upper. It's true what they say -- half way through, I decided the designer is a genius. I think these are going to be a very warm and cozy item to have around in the next few cold months. I also forsee lots of them being given as gifts next Christmas. Wow, is it conceivable that I could be planning that far in advance??? Amazing.

A bit more progress has been made on the Feather and Fan shawl, but not much. I think I'm going to invest in a size 9 bamboo circular to finish it, though. The yarn is quite slippery and I think the bamboo will be a better fit to help keep me from dropping stitches -- something that's happened several times but is, fortunately, easily and quickly fixed in the simple stitch pattern.

I did a swatch with the alpaca I have that will become something from one of my new lace books and it's perfect for many of the projects. After turning pages all morning, I've decided to start with an 'intermediate lace' project from Victorian Lace Today. I cast on for the Large Rectangle in Spider Net on page 24. My ambition is to finish it before next Christmas! :)

So for the rest of today, I'm curling up on the couch with my cat and my knitting and watching movies. On tap we have several Christmas regulars -- A Christmas Story, Trading Places, Love Actually, and perhaps It's a Wonderful Life -- as well as two from Netflix I haven't had time to watch yet (Hitch and Calendar Girls) and many others I haven't watched in way too long. I will run out of time well before I run out of movies I'd like to watch!

I hope your day is filled with things that make you smile. May your toes be warm, your tummy full, and your heart overflowing with joy!

Happy Festivus (for the rest of us)!

Today, December 23, is the official day of Festivus. While I don't have a Festivus pole and I have no one I really need to invite to dinner for the official Airing of the Grievances, I do want to acknowledge this day because. . . well, because it's fun!

So may your Festivus pole stand unadorned and straight, your Festivus Feast be hearty, your Airing of Grievances be short, your Feats of Strength be victorious, and your Festivus Miracles be many!

1,000 cranes = Knitnowar

In my last entry, I mentioned the Knitnowar project for peace. Well, today I tried the pattern and found it very easy to do. My first crane came out fairly nicely. The second one is knitted, but not yet felted. I plan to make a bunch of them and then felt them all at the same time.


The one on the left above is ready to be felted. The one on the right is complete. Bonus alert! If you want to make some of these, they make a great holder for a small gift. The one above has a small lip balm container inside to give it weight so it wouldn't fall over for the picture. It would make a great gift wrapping for a small gift. :)

Now to make some more!

New on the block

Okay, so maybe 'new' isn't really true, since this has been done since (eek!) November 23 and I'm only now getting around to blocking it, but. . . I present to you, the Spring Shawl being blocked! It's still wet, so the color is darker than normal. As you can see, the blocking is a little crooked. I fixed it after I saw the picture, but didn't take time to shoot another shot. Ellie the cat is in charge, obviously, although she's now banned from that room while the shawl dries. Final measurements: 71"x35" which should be perfect for my friend! I sure hope she likes it.





I also decided to put the smal bag through another wash cycle and see if it felted a bit more. Noro yarn is wonderful, but sometimes a little reluctant to felt. It came out quite a bit smaller, but much more "together. I really like the colors, too.




I have found something I'm going to try and participate in. It's a project called Knitnowar:1000. The object is to have at least 100 knitters create 10 knitted origami cranes each by May 1, 2007. The finished cranes will be displayed as a public art installation for peace here in Portland, Oregon.


A Japanese legend says that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish. In 1955, a young Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki was diagnosed with leukemia -- the result of exposure to the atomic fallout from the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 when she was just 2 years old. When a friend told her of the legend of the paper cranes, she set about making them with the hope that her wish to be able to run again would be granted. She completed 1,000 cranes before she passed away and I like to think of her running free from pain and worry even today. A statue in her honor stands in Hiroshima's Peace Park with the inscription "This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world."


The paper crane is now an international symbol of peace. If you'd like to participate in the project, or just make a crane or two for yourself or others, you can find the pattern on Yarn Boy's Website or, if you're in Portland, Oregon, stop by Lint and ask for a copy. The pattern includes information on how to officially join the project. You can see a picture of a completed crane here.

Almost finished!

I'm almost finished with Christmas gifts! YEAH!

Last night, I finished that last of three sets of coasters and felted them. They came out quite nicely, if I say so myself!





While the washing machine was doing it's thing, I grabbed one ball of Noro I had left over and started knitting a small handbag using a pattern from my copy of One Skein Wonders. The Noro I had was a different type than the one specified in the pattern and had slightly less yardage in the skein. Part way through, I thought I would run out of yarn, but figured I could make the flap and strap out of some black Paton's Wool I have on hand, if needed. Well, as it turned out, I didn't need to do that. I finished the strap and had about six inches of yarn left -- just enough to graft the end to the other side of the bag (my first attempt at Kitchener stitch). I popped it into the wash this morning with some jeans and it came out quite nicely. I might run it through one more time, just to see if it tightens up a little more, but I like it just the way it is, too. Fun!


Anway, here's a shot before felting and two afterwards. The ruler lets you get some idea of the size change. Now I just need to get something for the closure (instead of the darning needles).

I visited a favorite little store yesterday afternoon that carries lots and lots of artsy/craftsy stuff made by local folks and some retro things as well. While I was there, some beautiful retro brooches arrived and I snagged two of them. One will go very nicely with the airy scarf I made for a friend. The other is being kept for when I make a lacy scarf for myself. :) I also purchased some handmade soaps to pair with the washcloth sets I made. And I got a great design idea that I will gleefully "steal" from whoever made the ones in the shop. They took some vintage handkerchiefs and made envelope-style pouches of them, then inserted a separate pouch containing lavendar buds. I have a whole drawer full of vintage hankies that belonged to my mother and didn't know what to do with them. Perfect! So I bought some bulk lavendar buds and will make some of my own vintage hanky sachets. I think that will be a great birthday gift for my sister in February. :)

Now all that's left to do is sew on the 'handmade by' labels, block one shawl, and package things up for either sending or giving directly. I think I'm going to make it! Just barely, but . . .

Still plenty of work to do on the job front, too. For casino parties, I have one tonight that's not too far away, then two tomorrow (one in Vancouver, WA and one in Canby, OR -- not close to each other at all!), then another on Saturday. That will pretty much wrap up the pre-Christmas parties except for one short one next week. As for transcribing/editing, well, that's been pretty busy, too, but it's a living!

Right now, the wind is kicking up. We're supposed to get gusts from 15 to 70 mph, depending on location. Hope the power doesn't go out!

By golly, it's a Major Award!

With a nod towards my favorite seasonal movie, "A Christmas Story," I won a Major Award! The UPS truck pulled up this morning and there was my very own "fra-jee-lay" box containing, not a leg lamp, but a beautiful Ott-Lite! What a nice addition to the holidays.

Unlike Darren McGavin's character in the movie, I didn't win this by completing puzzles. All I did was fill out a form on the Crochet Magazine Web site and click 'Enter.' And viola! An email arrived announcing my win and about three weeks later, the Ott-Lite showed up on my doorstep. Thanks DRG Publications! :)

So now all of you who have entered multiple online contests (like I have) can know that people really DO win stuff. :)

14 days left!

I'm still in denial that Christmas is here. Why is it that when you're a kid it seems to take forever for Christmas to arrive each year, yet the older you get, the faster it seems to come? Strange how time can be like that.

Anyway, no pictures today. Sorry. I worked most of the weekend and knitted in between gigs. Managed to get one and a half sets of coasters completed and ready for felting, but that's about it. So much more to do!

On Friday, I had two gigs. In the afternoon I was at Kennedy School and then had about four hours until the evening party at the downtown Marriott. Since it didn't make sense to drive all the way home and back again, I stopped at a small LYS called Close Knit and bought some pretty wool for making felted coasters. Close Knit is a nice shop with lots and lots and lots of yarn packed in a fairly small space. From there, I went to Lloyd Center, did a little bit of shopping, got something to eat, and then plunked down near Santa and his elves and enjoyed watching the children get pictures taken with Santa while I did some knitting. I count that as a nice afternoon. :)

For now, I need to get some editing done, then head to another gig tonight in Vancouver, WA. I think I'll go up early and try to beat the traffic! Of course last time I did that, it still took me an hour to get there. I'll post some pictures soon, promise!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

New day, new technique learned!

Ah, the joy of taking a day off! Well, to be honest, I didn't take it completely off because I still dealt blackjack at a party in the evening, but the rest of the Wednesday was mine, I tell you, all mine!

I started the day by watching one of many taped episodes of Knitty Gritty. I have only started watching this show in the last month or so and now have it set to tape daily on my DVR. Anyway, the particular episode I watched is titled "It's So Mod" and focused on modular knitting designer Iris Schreier, whose book I already own, but whose techniques had pretty much mystified me thus far. Watching her demonstrate the modular technique made it all clear. Sometimes books just don't cut it -- I need video! The star coasters demonstrated on the show seemed perfect to whip up for some gifts.

I decided to try making the coasters with some wool I had and then felting them. My logic being that a felted coaster would be more water-resistant and thus protect furniture better than a non-felted version. Having no pretty handpainted wool on hand, I used the red and white I did have hanging around. Here are the results -- the white one has been through one wash cycle for felting, the red one is fresh off the needles (color balance is bad, the red is really brighter than this).

I like them! And they are fun to knit and work up quite quickly once you get the hang of the pattern. (Although my ability to finish one in 15 minutes, as Iris suggested is possible, is highly unlikely.) Now of course, I'm itching to get some handpainted wool and do some more.

Today I'm working at two different parties, both across town from where I live. One ends at 3:00 and the other doesn't start until 8:00. Since I don't want to drive all the way back and forth between home and party locations, I think I might have to go visit at least one LYS in a part of town I don't get to very often and see what I can find. Of course, I'll take my knitting bag with me, complete with projects to work on. While I'd like to keep working on my shawl, it's been put aside for now and I'm making coasters like crazy instead. I received my Knit Picks order yesterday (I ordered the yarn for the Come in from the Cold coasters and started a set last night), so I'll take that with me, too. Of course, I'm sure I'll come home with at least one skein of handpainted wool to make more modular coasters!

In the meantime, I'm off to deal blackjack this afternoon and three-card poker this evening. Last night was roulette, wherein I managed to throw the ball at guests three times! EEK! If you ever happen to be at a casino party where I'm the croupier at the roulette table, please accept my apologies in advance!

Merry! Merry!

Simmer down now!

Okay, so I ranted a bit. I think I'm okay now. As the saying goes, the only thing you can control is yourself. So, a few deep breaths later, I think I've taken the reigns in hand and done just that. Finished the med conference (whew!) and told my employer that I needed a breather. Poof! No more work until at least the end of the week. Well, not from them anyway. I will, however, be doing casino parties Wednesday through Saturday nights. From blackjack to roulette to three-card poker, look out gamblers, here I come! It's work, but it's a lot less stressful than typing. :)

To further placate myself, I decided to 'knit selfishly' and put aside gift projects for a day. Instead, I cast on for a feather and fan shawl in the yummy Rick Rack II yarn from Interlacements that I bought at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. It took me a bit to wind the entire skein into 'cakes' -- one skein made four good-sized ones -- and then I cast on using the free pattern that came with the skein. It's the basic feather and fan pattern done on size 9 needles to give a nice open feel. The picture doesn't really do justice to the colors. They're much more vibrant than this shows.

I love the feel of this yarn. It's rather silky to the touch and has a wonderful drape. When I first got it home, I was concerned because there was a quite strong smell of dye to the skein. I put it through a few cycles of soaking and a considerable amount of color came off, along with 99% of the odor. Fortunately, there's plenty of color left, so no worries about fading too much. Once the knitting is finished, though, I will be soaking it again and doing something to lock in the color. The last thing you want is to wear a shawl over a light-colored top and have color transfer.

So the rest of the week, excluding casino parties, is mine! WHEE! Maybe I'll decorate the house after all. I should make a bunch of cookies for the church "Cookies & More" sale this Saturday. I have a bracelet I want to make for a friend. I'm awaiting an order from Knit Picks to make some more coasters, this time from their actual pattern, I think, although I still may improvise with my own snowflake designs -- depends on my mood.

So, the moral for today is. . . take control! I had to slap myself around a bit and remember that I could control some portion of my December. Sure it cuts into the paycheck a little bit, but my sanity is worth it.

Not a creature was stirring, not even a. . . gerbil?

Busy, busy, busy!

I wanna know one thing. Just one thing today. Okay???

Who decided to make December the busiest month of the year? I mean, really, does everything have to happen all at the same time? And does it really need to coincide with icy roads and fog so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face? Come on. Can't we rethink this a bit and spread things out a little bit? Okay, so maybe that's more than one thing.

I'm only half kidding. Truly this is my busiest month of the year and today is only the third day and I'm already stressed out. I have to keep reminding myself to breathe and relax, which is no easy task when you have deadlines and places to be where you must arrive on time.

I'm fortunate to be able to work from home. However, sometimes that backfires on me a bit. For example, I accepted a transcription job this weekend that should have been okay. About three hours of tape from a medical conference, transcript due on Monday. What I wasn't informed of, and hadn't counted on, is that it's an international conference. There are accents from Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK. They talk fast. They use $50 medical words that I usually have no problem with in American, but with a heavy Italian or French accent at staccato rates of speed. . .well, let's just say it's not pretty. I seriously doubt I'm going to make the deadline on this one. One of the doctors talks in a rhythm that's like a seesaw, barely breathing it seems, and making it very difficult to tell where one sentence ends and the next begins. Top that off with a thick Italian accent punctuated with lots of 'ums' and 'uhs', throw in some medical terminology, and you've got stress with a capital S for this transcriber. I can only manage to work on it for about 20 minutes at a time before screaming in frustration.

I also deal casino games for a local place that provides a "Las Vegas Experience" at private parties and fundraising events. It's what I term my 'fun job'. December is our busiest month and this year it's off the hook. I worked two parties on Thursday, one Friday, one Saturday, and another tonight. Usually I deal blackjack, but occasionally I run the roulette table (like last night) or deal Three Card Poker or Let It Ride.

Needless to say, this cuts into my time for dealing with the aforementioned, heavily-accented medical conference transcript. ACK! Something tells me it's not all going to get done. Frantic email has been dispatched to the transcript folks and hopefully we'll figure out some alternatives.

On a brighter note, I've had contractors crawling around my house for the past week and yesterday they finished! My upstairs bathrooms both have beautiful tile floors now where once was wall-to-wall beige carpet. Yep, you read that right. Wall-to-wall, even around the toilets. UGH! It's something that I've been meaning to have done since I bought the house. It's only taken me six years to get around to it! In addition to the floors, I have brand new, low-flow toilets that are what they call 'comfort height,' which means they are the same height as a chair. It's strange at first, but I'm getting used to not plunking when I ascend the throne (so to speak).

The contractors also 'relocated' a starling that had gotten way too clever for its winged self. It had figured out how to lift the flap that hangs over the exterior opening of a vent on the side of my house and had made itself right at home in there. Every morning and every evening, I'd hear it scratching and squawking in the wall (fortunately confined by the metal pipe). My cat went crazy and I looked like a madwoman pounding on the wall and shouting such hospitable things as, "Get out you _____ing bird!" Which of course had little to no affect on the starling, except perhaps to cause it to squawk a little louder. So the other day, upon its return from a day of gliding on the wind and hunting for various grubs, it found the entrance to it's little haven blocked by some heavy-duty screening. Took the little bugger about two days to give up trying to get back in. I can only suppose that it's now found a new home in another vent on someone else's house! Ah, peace!

With all this going on, I did have one day that was kind of slow. Gee, it seems long ago now. I remember it fondly. Here is the result:



Three more wash cloths, these are designated for another friend who recently purchased, with her SO, their first house. Thus the houses, dual hearts, and first Christmas tree. She makes her own soaps, but I'll get a nice bar to go with these anyway. Or maybe some scented massage oil. Hmmmm. . .

Until the next flurry, my bloggy friends! Hope your December isn't as hectic as mine!