finished socks!

i really thought these were going to take forever when i cast on for them but the knit up really quickly! they also took a lot less yarn than i thought they would. at the point when the below picture was taken i had only used 2 balls of yarn (1oog). only 3 inches of sock were knit from that 3rd ball of yarn. i finally have sock yarn leftovers!



and i only used 20g of the third ball. woo hoo. there is plenty of grey left for a pair or argyle socks! not that i'll be casting on for those any time soon. one pair of color work socks is enough for me right now.



i also thought i would have to crochet some elastic into the tops to keep them up but i wore them around the house yesterday evening (dave thought it was ridiculous to wear them in july) and they didn't slouch once! actually dave may have thought it ridiculous to wear them at all. we shall see if he still thinks that they are silly come december. mental note. get a nifty wool skirt!



i did have a bit of trouble with the calf shaping. first i knit it as directed but it didn't fit right. then i had an epiphany and knit it my own way and that didn't fit. finally i did a cross between the two and magic. it worked! after that these socks were a snap.

better photos to come soon i promise. i just couldn't wait til dave gets home to take them!

the details:
pattern:
lacey cables knee socks by susan gutperl
yarn:
sock it to me 4 ply by elann in grey heather used 120g (2.4 balls)
needles:
sole, back of leg to calf to shaping, and inside of picot hem on 0's, instep, front of leg throughout, and calf shaping on 1's.
modifications:
some kind of wacky increases at the back center to get enough stitches for 2 pattern motifs up the back. decreased those increases away after calf so socks would stay up. 2 pattern repeats after decreases before picot edge.

friday foto

this is one of my favorite photos ever. several years ago i took a school trip to some telescopes down in new mexico with my photometry* class from C.U. we took a side trip into white sands national monument. we spent the day playing in the dunes, rolling and sliding downhill, making sand angels, and taking photos. i guess there had been a storm the night before because there was this giant puddle in the parking lot. pretty neat huh? if you ever get the opportunity to visit there do. it is absolutely beautiful.


*a fancy name for an astronomy science class where you use telescopes with spectrometers to take data and use computers to reduce a nights worth of freezing your butt off at the observatory into a stack of numbers :)

mary mary

way back in february or something silly like that i planted my vegetable garden. we only have a patio so everything is in pots. but seeing as it hardly ever freezes i doubt the winter will be a problem next year. i love the climate here! we have such even temperatures that everything was just able to keep growing without a problem!

well this is how we started out



tomatoes on either end (cherry and early girl) with peppers in the middle (banana and jalapeno) around the tomatoes i planted green onion seeds thinking that we would have enough onion tops for a few baked potatoes this summer...

well just look at them now...



the onions are almost taking over. the good news is that they don't seem to be slowing down the tomatoes. and the onions seem to have dissuaded the aphids from taking over the tomatoes.



just a few more days and we'll be eating fresh tomato salad!

if anyone knows why those tomato leaves are curling like that and how i can correct this please let me know. it is really weird.

oh and the peppers



they hardly look like the same plants do they?
and neige just couldn't stay out of the at least one shot!



the peppers are still babies but when they grow there should be dozens. the plant is doing really well considering that it took a dive off the patio railing a few weeks ago during a bad windstorm. it just lost one branch but i thought it was a goner! it lives on the patio floor now!

we've also got a few herbs.

the mint, oregano, thyme, and sage went from this



to this!



the rosemary is doing well also



and of course you can't forget the flowers!

the nasturtiums i started from seeds are just beautiful. i haven't planted these since i was a kid at my grandmother's house. we had a whole row in the garden one year!



they have been blooming so prolifically that i can't keep up with pulling off old flowers. they are even going to seed! i hope the gardeners for the apartment complex won't be too angry when they come up in the downstairs flower bed next spring! the flowers smell so sweet. and i have heard you can even eat them! the best part, they are attracting hummingbirds.

although we have had a bit of an aphid problem the petunias and snow carpet are recovering nicely



i don't usually go for chemicals, but when after months of dish soap, vegetable oil, boiled garlic, spraying with water, organic commercial sprays, and lots of love were not working on the bugs i had to resign myself to using bomide. it seems to be working. i'll have to apply it once or twice more to be sure, but so far the plants look much happier. i had to throw out a couple of the plants that were too badly infested to save, which was truly sad. but hopefully if i get things under control i will be able to get a few more before the end of summer :) i'd love to hang a nice geranium from the ceiling and get another mum. and i really do miss the violas. they were so sweet.

bad socks!

almost a year ago now i was working on my pomatomus socks when i realized that i had one sock with 67 stitches, and the other had 73...the pattern calls for 72 stitches around the leg. d'oh!



these guys promptly went in the bad knitting basket to think about what they had done.

when i cast on for the cappuccino socks last week i couldn't figure out what had happened to my size one addi's.
then i remembered.
so out they came.

the 73 stitch sock was an easy fix. i knit two stitches together. switched to my contrast yarn. and knit up the twisted ribbing.



the second sock, well that is going to take some frogging. i have to figure out where the last correct stitch count was and re-knit from there. in the meantime. check out that twisted stitch pattern. neat huh?



gosh it sure is a pain to p1, k1tbl over and over and over again :)

well i just could let well enough alone. i knit through the gimpiness and just held my bandaided finger out of the way and figured out that it was only in the last row that i got off on stitches. what an idiot. i could have been wearing these socks for a whole year! oh well. into the basket with you! i'll wind in ends another day!



from left to right:
hippo, colofornia, ditto, grumpy, rainbow

knitter down

so dave and i went to the farmers market. collected fresh eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms. and brought them home for dinner :)

but while i was slicing veggies i sliced my finger. oops. and it's my index on my left hand! you know what that means right? no knitting. at lease for a couple of days. dang-it. and i was doing so well on my socks. oh well.

so after i washed the blood off what did we do with those veggies?
well dave cubed up the rest (my chopping privileges have been revoked for a while.) and we tossed the pieces with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, some sea salt and fresh pepper, and some dry herbs. then, we roasted them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes (which was may have been a bit too long) and served them up with a box of celery, onion, and cornbread stuffing and a rotisserie chicken from the grocery. what can i say? sometimes i take shortcuts :)



finish it off with a glass of what we like to call 2-buck-chuck* and you're done.

so, what's a broken knitter to do?
see, i know you think all those socks i crank out are actually done when i post pictures.
well, i have a confession to make...



i actually have a few ends left to wind in :)

*there is a line of wine available at trader joe's by charles shaw nicknamed 2 buck chuck. it is called this obviously because it only costs $1.99. before you run screaming, it is actually ok. perfectly acceptable table wine. we usually keep a bottle around the house. the shiraz or cab sav. are both good. and this trip i picked up the sauv. blanc just to try. decent wine, though i doubt i would serve it for guests :)

cappucino

so the plan is to knit 2 socks before the end of september.

first you have to make sense of the chart.



i know there are mistakes in that but don't worry i fixed 'em.

then you knit the world's smallest swatch.



i realized i was carrying the pattern color in the wrong hand because it just didn't pop. so i switched for the socks.

then you wind up 4 balls of yarn and cast on. at like midnight. cause it is finally july and you can.



i learned the last time that 4 balls of yarn.
2 socks.
and 2 circs.
is a recipe for disaster.
so i am working these socks one at a time. magic loop style. so that is still 2 socks on 2 circs. just separate.

so i knit the toes together. why not. then i separated my socks and started the first sock.



and then the second sock.
leapfrog fashion.
when one sock gets to half a pattern repeat then i set it down and knit a whole pattern repeat on the second sock. then i knit a whole pattern repeat on the first.



so far i am 3/4 and 1/2 of a repeat in.

but let me tell you. i usually carry the yarn in my right hand when i knit. my left is seriously bad at keeping tension. and holy cow is it sore. bring on the tiger balm cause these socks are going to give me a knitting related injury i can see it now.



the pattern is looking pretty good. i think these will definitely need blocking. especially the sides where the magic loop thing happens. sigh. i never had socks with ladders before. myst be the colorwork and uneven tension. but i still love the yarn!

quizzie

Your Result

You are a Knitter, with the capital K.
You are never found without needles and yarn in hand. Your favorite place is the yarn shop and you can never seem to leave without buying needles or wool or a pattern or those fantastic stich markers. Darn yarn fumes.
Your stash of yarn is the kind that spills out of closets and is taking over the house. And it's still growing. Beware of SABLE (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). You may need to bequeath yarn to people in your will.
Knitting is a lifestyle for you, not just a hobby. You do it for fun, to make presents, or to cool off. We need more of your kind in the world. Go start a knitting club at your school or local coffeshop.

well, that's me now you try :)

happy fourth of july.

friday foto

it only seems fitting that since dee started all this that i show florida a little love.



mom came to visit us in orlando a little over a year ago. we took a trip down south to the everglades and while we were there we made the long trek down to key west.
we had some shrimp.
and some pie.
and drove back just in time for sunset.

sock yarn from your stash swap.

can i first just say that this is the best idea for a swap ever! everyone has a little ball of wonderful in their stash that they frankly just don't want or would be willing to part with so why not just trade it out? right?

so i know get to the point already!

i had a note in the mailbox today that they had a package for me at the office. the girl sorting through her junk mail in the mailroom looked at me weird when i squealed...so what if i'm thirty. i can squeal when i know there is yarn waiting for me! then i was at the leasing office to get my package and they handed me some media mail package for dave. and i saw in the teetering pile of boxes that there was a message on the side of another box saying "sock yarn swap." so i asked if i could have my other package too? they said that dave's stupid book was all i had. but i knew different. that yarn had to be mine! and it was!

karen. my swap partner. is awesome! by the way. check it out!



super cute notes right?



and great color choices. this is so me!



karen, you must know someone who works at starbucks cause that lotion is the only stuff we have ever found that will seal up the destruction we put our hands through every day. and there are the sweetest little and i love the chocolate. i heart cadbury!



the tealight is neato i've seen the electric ones but have never had one. and the bird holder is great. it goes with the bird theme i've been leaning towards in my half of the office! and can i just say that the guys at the loopy ewe are brilliant. that book has spots to write all the stuff you ever needed to know about your socks, yarn, patterns, and stores in one convenient and cute little book!



and yes. how did she know that we were changing over to green here in gravity land! this project bag is absolutely perfect. and from what i have learned reading her blog; i bet she sewed it herself! its perfect. i can put that new little sock book, a pair of socks in progress, as well as my pattern in there and still have room to spare for a piece of emergency chocolate!



and the last and best, trekking. heck yeah! nuf said!

karen you rock. thank you so much!

W.T.F!

i mean really.

is it so much to ask that a product does what it is intended to do without crapping out on you?
there i was knitting along minding my own business when...



yup.
thats a sock.
half done with my first ever lifestyle heel.
you know i don't like change. i am perfectly happy with my plain-jane ordinary short row heels. heck when i try something new something always goes wrong...
but i was willing to try.
you know me i don't frog things.
i just go with it.
well i had frogged this stupid heel 4 times to get it how i wanted it...until disaster struck.

yeah see there.



here lemme help you out.



the cable just popped out of the needle.
the stitches just zipped off the cable.
and the heel with to hell in a handbasket.

stinking knitpicks circs.
"durable fixed circular needles" my @ss.
i had heard that this happens.
but never to me.
not til now.

sigh.
you'll be hapy to know that the sock was saved.
the heel navigated without further drama and the second heel went great.

see



not half bad if i do say so myself. i may even use this method again. its relatively straightforward. no holes at the turns - as advertized. just don'tattempt it when you're sleep deprived like i was the first time.



i am loving this yarn. it's elann's sock it to me in grey heather.
love love love.
did i say love?

soft. it is feeling like it will be sturdy. i get great stitch definition. it doesn't squish down to nothing on my 0's but i get a nice solid fabric on my 1's too.
i'm so happy i might just have to cast on for some more socks.

with one of the other 3 colors i got :)
yeay.

and cause i know you want to know the recipe is lacy cable knee socks.
i can't wait to get a spiffy wool skirt to wear with these this winter.

oh and as for the needles...
fortunately i had a couple more sets. unfortunately another one of my 0's did the same thing. yesterday. i will be contacting the company after i cool off. but do i really want them to send me replacements? heck it will probably just happen again. sigh. time to buy more addi's. this would never happen with addi's.

and i would have used my addi's but they are tied up right now.
with another sock disaster.
but we're not gonna talk about that right now.
maybe someday i'll try to figure that one out.
in the meantime.

knit knit knit.