Updates in the Life

First, I give you belly pics, because I know you all are just panting to see them:



And now, what's really exciting:


This is our house! Ok, technically the bank owns it... but don't banks technically own most people's houses? This one's ours; we got the keys on Friday, and we've been taking several trips a day since, moving smaller pieces. This is why I'm late posting belly pics this time. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

It's not a big house - barely bigger than our apartment - and the brown isn't all that great, and the astroturf on the front porch has GOT to go asap... but it's ours! It was built in 1915, and for all its age and oddities, it's really lovely inside, with tons of cabinets in the kitchen and gorgeous moldings around every conceivable doorway and other opening, and a wood stove, and quite a nicely large back yard. It needs some love (read: elbow grease) here and there, but truly, it was an amazing house to find in our price range and time frame, not to mention the very nice neighborhood it's in! We're very happy to be moving in and having it be OURS!!! Apartment living is the pits.

We plan to be living in the house by this weekend (especially if we can get the gas line put in by then... for the stove :) ), so my next set of belly pics will be in a different bathroom!

Yes, there has been knitting. Just not much, because even though I can't do any lifting in this move, there still isn't very much time for knitting right now.

Cherry-Poppin' Momma!

I got to go to my first birth last night! It was a very fast, intense labor - I left home at about 5 in the afternoon and was home at about 2:30 am, with 4 hours of active labor between the mom's water breaking and the delivery of her bouncing baby boy. If I wasn't hooked on birth before, I am now!

There were times I felt a bit at a loss for how to help, but I'm sure experience will help fill in those gaps. And boy do I want more! (Experience, that is.) I did feel, however, like all my training for the moment did, in fact, adequately prepare me, which I'd been anxious about beforehand. But actually, it was easy for me - just follow my instincts, as honed by my training and reading and discussions with other doulas. And honestly, I think the mom's labor was so fast and intense that maybe even a much more experienced doula might have been a bit at a loss at points (I hope my mom doesn't have an issue with that comment if/when she reads this!). All in all, though, I think it was a very positive experience all around, which makes me happy. :)

Feeling a bit blue

This has been a pretty hard week for me, emotionally. I ran out of brain meds last weekend, and of course the pharmacy was closed on Saturday, so I couldn't get my new supply until Monday. Well, Monday night my WoW guild ran smack into a humongous pile of drama, and I lost it. I think I would have been ok without all this; just sailed on until the meds kicked in again, no muss, no fuss. But the drama, which would probably have made me upset anyway, took my unbalanced brain chemistry and threw me off the Grand Canyon. I'm still trying to pick myself up.

And then today I hear that one of my oldest friends had her baby last night. Now, this friend (more like an acquaintance these days, but friend is shorter to say, and we did used to be quite close) is notorious for avoiding all possible discussion of emotional topics. I was hurt, but not very surprised, when she barely acknowledged to the email list we're both on (all my contact with her these days) that she was pregnant at all, and of course didn't mention a due date or anything like it. I had to get a few bare scrapes of info by making my brother (who saw her about three weeks ago) screw it out of her; all he could say was that she was due this month. And then he told me this noon that she popped last night; turns out he found out from another friend, who had just the most basic birth announcement information. Well, I can see not having the brainspace to make announcements yet, but to send it to some friends and not others makes me grumpy. It's like being annoyed at water for being wet, but there it is.

Personally, I can't imagine not wanting to shout the news to the whole world, much less to my general acquaintance - having a baby is exciting! And then, of course, I personally am obsessed about birth stories these days, one way and another. ;P

Anyway, I got a little mild revenge (which satisfies my super-sensitive, rather petty-this-week self) by posting gushing congratulations and such to the list we're all on. Snarky? Guilty! Petty? Damn straight! Exactly what I would have said for real? Definitely! What made it snarky and petty was posting it before they made any kind of announcement at all. ;P But I don't feel at all bad - they might never have done so anyway.

But being petty and then dwelling on it makes my soul all sticky, so here's a kyoooote kitteh picture to leave you with!

Bleh.

Igor has been apparently trying out for gymnastics and karate championships simultaneously today. I can't blame the little bugger, it won't have the space for it too much longer... but still. It's not painful at all, but it's not precisely comfortable, either.

I have been wondering, on and off, whether I'll miss the feeling of the little one moving around inside me. I'm sure that by the time Igor's born I'll be glad to be done gestating, but... Just one of those random pregnancy wonderings, I guess.

For Br. Vincent

This takes you back, doesn't it?

(for everyone else, this is supposed to be a .gif that's a LoTR parody... but Blogger apparently doesn't like animated gifs. :( )

Has it really been two weeks?

Astonishingly, it has. I have been terribly distracted with house stuff, game stuff, knitting, and even baby! I'm still knitting furiously on the kilt hose; I'm about halfway done with #2, with ambitious plans to have it finished this week. I don't have any current in-progress pictures of that; if you really want some, scroll down to the pix for #1, and assume they're identical. House stuff is progressing; I still don't want to post much until everything is definite (like, we have the keys in hand), which will be about two weeks, depending.

This will be a picture heavy post, though! I took a few minutes this morning to slightly alter a lovely smocked maternity blouse my mom sent me, that could so easily roll over into being a nursing top, too, with just a few modifications... first on the list, however, was eliminating the silly band across the front neck which severely restricted the neckline size:


First step was cutting the silly thing across the middle.


Second step was folding the ends over and stitching them down (ignore my unmanicured hands). Converting this to a nursing top will involve gently ripping the seam down the middle front and adding buttons - I'd love to raid my mom's collection of tiny antique pearl buttons for this, but failing that, I'll use commercial plastic baby buttons. Upon examining the inside of the center seam, I find it's not even solidly French seamed or anything, just one side lapped over the other and sewn down. This will be cake to alter.

While getting to my sewing things to perform this minor adjustment, I was struck once again by the question of the ages: how did my sewing basket


become a knitting basket?


Visible are my nearly-finished BSJ made from favorite old socks and two skeins of KnitPicks Gloss, one green, one purple, both mates to to socks in-progress. I'll finish the BSJ when the wedding knitting is done.

Last but not least, I have my bi-weekly belly pics. The more observant among you will recognize the shirt I'm wearing as the afore-mentioned smocked blouse, post surgery. What's really astonishing to me is that I still have a waist, even at 26 weeks and with my baby belly getting more obvious!




I do wish the maternity jeans would stop falling down, though. :( This may be endemic to the design, however, and I'll gladly put up with it, anyway, just to wear jeans again!

V-Day

I'm shocked, shocked I say - posting for the third day in a row!

Anyway, it's V-Day, and I feel the urge to get a bit political. Not political like presidential elections, but birth politics, which I'm up to my ears in these days. V-Day is about countering violence towards women... and if a doctor playing the "bad mommy" card to get a laboring woman to do something she doesn't want to do isn't violent and abusive, I don't know what is.

I say this coming from a background of abuse - not physical, thankfully, "merely" verbal and emotional. I feel lucky, because I feel like of all the members of my family, I probably got off with the least exposure to the situation... but that doesn't mean I am not still deeply scarred and affected by it. It also means I know abuses when I see them, and am angered on a deep, frustrated level. However it makes me extremely happy to know I got myself into a profession where I can help mitigate some of the birth abuse I encounter - and I didn't even realize it when I signed on!

I finally got to see "The Business Of Being Born" last night. This is Ricki Lake's documentary about hospital birth vs. home birth, and it is very powerful. I really want to own it, when I can afford such things. I've heard it criticized for being skewed, or "fringy", or just in bad taste for showing video from Ms Lake's own home birth where she happens to be naked because she's in her tub giving birth. Hello, most birthing women end up naked! Now, you could accuse me of having a skewed perspective on this issue that's so near to my heart, but honestly, I don't think it's possible not to be skewed to one side or the other. To me, either you actually look at the evidence, and say, oh yeah, huh, home birth really is safer for most pregnancies, and then decide what's best for you and your situation, or you shut your eyes to the evidence and fall in line with "doctor knows best".

This post has been brewing in my head since early last week when the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a formal statement decrying homebirth, in which they not only play the "bad mommy" card, but use untruths in so doing. I'm not very good at being articulate with this kind of thing; I mostly tend to froth at the mouth incoherently, and then fall into a frustrated silence because I can't clearly speak about the things I know intuitively are just wrong. Fortunately, not everyone out there is as bad about this as I am. Rixa, an excellently articulate researcher and unassisted homebirth advocate (although she also recognizes that that's not for everyone), has a lovely response to the statement here, and a list of other people's responses here.

One thing that strikes me very deeply about the research and who knows it is that midwives and doulas all know the research, and can generally render it into easily understood language, while OB/Gyns, even those in favor of more "mother friendly" procedures tend to hem and haw and say not much of anything while trying to obfuscate clearly spoken facts. There are a number of beautiful examples of this in Ms. Lake's documentary, but it's even more striking when you get to listen to midwives and OBs together, answering the same questions. I had the chance to do so after the showing last night, and I was just blown away at the differences. I came away feeling that I would not want to be in the primary care of the OB who spoke on the panel, despite feeling that she's probably pretty good at her job. I'd much rather have the homebirth midwife who spoke for my primary care, and go to the OB if (and only if) things went sideways.

So where do I fall into this for my prenatal care and birthing plans? Well, I'm lucky. Although my insurance won't cover a home birth (and actually very few insurance companies do, although possibly more in this area than most others, the Pacific Northwest is pretty awesome that way), it does allow me to go to the only Mother Friendly hospital in the state, a mere 45 or so (depending on traffic) minute drive away. I have a wonderful CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife - RNs who go on to complete a Master's program in midwifery) who not only knows what doulas are, but loves them, and respects that I am a doula myself and want to birth as naturally as possible. I haven't toured the birth center yet, but I understand that Barbara Harper had a hand in its design and construction.

I just wish all moms had it so lucky.

I'm Shocked!

Ok, I hadn't meant to post again today, but I went and picked the mail (a weeks or so's worth... finally..) and found the new Interweave Knits. I just spent a good portion of the last hour reading it, and holy moly! I actually want to make a whole lot of the patterns!

I still had trouble distinguishing the start of the garment descriptions from the ads that came before them, but at least that only took me about a half a second to figure out, as opposed to the minute or so it took for last year's spring issue. I wish the designers would use more yarns I can get easily (read: afford as much as have physical access to) - hello, KnitPicks, anyone? - but I suppose the ones that work for yarn companies have to use their employers' products.

Anyway. Go back to whatever you were doing.

A Plethora of Pictures

Here are the pix I promised yesterday.


For Norma, our first generation microwave (not a very great picture, I admit), and those Dutch Letter cookies I made back at Christmas (finally!):



This is actual knitting!!!! The Monkeys I made for my fellow doula Amy and the first of the kilt hose I'm making for my brother - the Monkeys are finished, the hose is only to the heel. Guess which I've been having more fun with (don't hurt me, Tom!):



And finally, baby belly pics for those fascinated, taken just minutes before posting:



Yes, I am having fun with alliteration today, why do you ask?

Life keeps rolling..

I took a couple of pictures today of current knitting; I'll try to publish them later tonight. I"m kind of under a time crunch right now, and don't feel like going through all the steps to get them on here. But I did feel like posting to fill some time; go figure, right?

What's going on in my world: the biggest thing right now is that we're house hunting. Running around with our very sweet realtor, finding that the houses we can afford all look like crap (well, almost all), all that fun stuff. I'm learning that offers get made and withdrawn pretty often when you're at this stage, so I'll post more definite news when I have something solid; I don't right now.

Igor is doing fine, by the evidence; I'm just shy of 24 weeks and feeling movement pretty often now. I'm suspecting something of a growth spurt, because I've been hungry a lot recently; on the other hand, that could also be that I've fallen out of my good eating habits. Still. The baby belly grows, the pelvis turns to rubber, you know, dead boring. Except that it's me, right? :) I have evidently hit the part of pregnancy where one is too hot all the time, because I have been for the last several days. Funny how your fingers and toes can be cold while you're sweating under a light shirt... Maybe I'll take some fresh pics before I post the lot tonight. I know you're all champing at the bit to see!

I'm pretty low energy right now. I didn't sleep at all well last night, mainly because I was anticipating our realtor coming over at 6:30 this morning (!!!) to sign some urgent paperwork; however, I also have a dental appointment this afternoon.. such fun. At least I"ll have knitting to do during the parts where I'm waiting around.

More later!

Carcassone

We acquired a really nifty board game a few weeks ago that we've been playing a fair amount. It's called Carcassonne, after the French city, and while it's competitive, it's not highly so; it often pays quite a bit to cooperate, which I like. You can read more about it here. We only have a couple of the expansions so far, but we're really enjoying every bit of even the basic game!

Anyway, that handsome devil I post pictures of now and then, my husband, has decided that he likes the nifty patterns you can come up with as you play the game, and will be documenting them at http://carcassonneworld.blogspot.com/. Maybe it will inspire one of you to start playing as well!

Because I promised Ann...

Here's a couple of belly pics taken this afternoon. Yes, you silly people, of course I'm wearing clothes for them, I'm not posting semi-nude pics on my blog! Please note that I'm actually wearing preggo clothes in these pics - I have jeans that fit again! Even if they do keep sliding down because they're still just a tad big around.

A meme that's going around the knitblogosphere right now is the Make My Day award. I have been put up for it by both Ann and Peggy. Thanks, guys! You rock. If I were going to do this meme (which I'm not, because I don't feel like it ;P), you guys would be at the top of my list. You have both, in your very different and yet strikingly similar ways, become very dear to me. Ann is a brilliant dressmaker (who also knits quite well) with a deliciously biting wit (oh, the snarktastic emails we exchange...) and three lovely daughters who shine from every entry they appear in. Peggy is an absolutely brilliant knitter who happily tackles complex projects I set aside as too much trouble, as well as making up and/or unventing random projects (like her BSJ snowsuit! that's for the bump in my belly!!) as she goes. What's more astonishing is that she hasn't been knitting that long - less than two years! I count you two as some of my closest friends, especially in the knitblogosphere, and I look forward to your posts, as well as your comments and emails.

No pics this time.

Why is that I impelled to post when it's snowing? It's coming down pretty good right now; I get the feeling we're not going to be able to get together with Peggy this weekend. :( Oh, well, there'll be other times...

The back of the bump sweater is done up to the armholes - yay for being done with miles of 2x2 rib with no shaping! Now to keep on with it up to the neck, and then do the sleeves - *with* buttonholes, thankyouverymuch. I started a sleeve about a week ago, and when I got home from my meeting, I found I'd forgotten them. Oh well, I'll just call it practice!

I have one Monkey finished, and am waiting to start the next one until I have finished one of my brother's kilt hose - I'm not confident I have enough yarn for the pair, so I need to find that out asap!

moar funny pictures

I just woke up from a nap where the Fat Cat had, about the time I was passing out, curled up with her butt to roughly the area of my bladder. The warmth felt good to me, so I didn't protest at all... but having found this on my Google Reader as I sat down to check it while waking up, now I understand everything. I have no questions now why she sat just so. ;P

nom nom nom

Blueberry waffles from scratch and a strawberry-raspberry smoothie.

I didn't get a picture of the Fat Cat begging for waffles.

ZOMG, another post!

This time with illustration!

This is the sock I'm knitting for my doula colleague.
Pattern: Monkey
Yarn: STR Mediumweight, unnamed colorway, but I think of it as Rainbow Sherbet.
Needles: US 2

This pattern knits up so darn fast... You may not be able to tell from the photo, but as of this writing, I'm much of the way through the gusset decreases, and I really haven't spent all that long working on it.

Still Not Dead.

Just being bad about posting.

I don't have any pix ready for posting right now, one big reason I haven't posted lately. Yes, Tiennie, the mittens were striped, and their recipient LOVES them. I like them a lot, too, and will probably make some for myself at some point.

Igor (that's Eye-gor, like in Young Frankenstein, just a use-name until the weevil arrives), also known as MendyBaby to any Knitty types, is now twenty weeks and moving more than the San Andreas Fault. The genetic testing came up completely clean (yay!), so I'm just waiting for the ultrasound on Monday to completely confirm my assumptions of perfection. :) I am now indisputably showing, even if it's not obvious to anyone who doesn't know me (my favorite ginormous green sweater that I wear all the time is probably a good muffler, even if I don't intend it that way). I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to get very big at all, given my proportions - tall, relatively long-bodied (in absolute terms, if not in proportion to myself), with wide hips for Igor to nestle into when I'm upright... I'm definitely in need of proper maternity clothes now, though, from the skin out! The only things that even come close to fitting properly right now (besides the assorted comfy pants I'm living in most of the time) are the new bras I insisted we get me last weekend - and even they're a little off, because I bought bras with room to grow!

Knitting! I've actually been knitting a lot more the last few weeks. Part of that is that I want to get my bump sweater finished before I don't need it anymore (although the miles of straight 2x2 rib I'm working on at the moment aren't very enticing), and part of it is that I want to get my brother's kilt hose done in good time for his wedding at the end of March. It's also that I just plain have energy for it now... some of the time, anyway. :) I'm also working on a pair of Monkeys for a doula colleague - she's also expecting, about a week ahead of me, and is making me a sling. I'm making the Monkeys partly in exchange, partly just to make her something. And it's finally the perfect project for the STR that I bought at OFFF last September, because it's just in her all-time favorite colors. So that project is win on all sides. :)

That's probably enough of a book for now. I should go make food and get dressed and stuff like that... More posts soon! I promise! (maybe)

Merry Christmas!

I looked up about half an hour ago to see it just beginning to snow - and it's getting heavier! And it's cold and dry enough to stick! So, looks like this will be a white one for us!

I am about to stop apologizing for not posting very often... if you're still with me, you know I'm terribly irregular. Maybe I need some blog fiber? I promise to post knitting and baby updates soon!

Storms and a Book Review

I had a rotten morning. Every once in a while I remember how very lonely I am here; I'm not good at making close friends, and that's when I'm regularly participating in activities that put me in frequent, nay, daily contact with other people. In my current life, I don't see many other people at all, and the few I do see, I only see once a month or so, if that. My geographically nearest best friend is hundreds of miles away, and while we're in frequent email contact, it's not the same as when we used to sit at the coffee shop on campus and talk about classes, instructors, and life in general. Combine this loneliness with pregnancy hormones and morning sickness that currently feels like it's not going to go away for six or seven months, not to mention throw me new and surprising curve balls each of those months to come (last month I exchanged constant nausea for vomiting, this month it's rotten headaches that are almost worse than the vomiting, who knows what next month will bring), and you have a recipe for breakdown. Which I did. I'm not usually one to cry a lot, but this morning I pretty well soaked my favorite hanky. I would have soaked Josh's shoulder, too (he was home for lunch), but he was wearing his jacket. I'm still feeling pretty damp around the edges, but I'm at least presentable. I tried to nap while watching a movie, a favorite "lullaby" technique; while I didn't actually sleep, I did rest and collect myself somewhat. When it was over, the sun was actually shining, so I decided to throw some clothes on and get out of the house for a bit by walking the whole block and a half to our local Borders to drink a beverage and stare at knitting books I can't buy today.

Which was not a mistake! Staring at the (somewhat limited) knitting shelves, I actually found a copy of Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits, a book I had not previously had a chance to meet in the flesh. I want this book! (I wishlisted it. ;P ) I'm not entirely sure what I think about all of Japel's knitting philosophy, and as a pregnant mama planning to be breastfeeding this time next year the extreme fittedness of most of the designs felt a touch lacking (although in previous stages of my life I would have been swooning - those parts of me still were :) ). Still, there were aspects at least in every design that I liked and want to adapt for my own work - I'm not really into bulky knits, but hers at least have intriguing details I want to borrow. There were several designs I want to make as written (well, almost!), such as the coat with lace lapels, or the pretty summery dress, or Elizabeth Bennet's Cardigan, which seemed more 1950s than 1810s to me, but was gorgeous and covet-worthy nonetheless. I don't often find designs in knitting books that I want to make as written!

Yet another WIP

Yes, Peggy, they are striped. :)

I mentioned a month or so back that I had something distracting me that I couldn't post about yet. Well, the time has come that it looks like I can finally come clean and public about it, so I am!

As of today, I am thirteen weeks pregnant. I'm due more or less the first half of June, assuming everything goes well. Other than as-yet unpredictable morning sickness (will I be functional today or not? let's spin the wheel and see!), I'm doing ok. I think I'm out of things to say about it right now! Nothing exciting, other than the fact itself, which is as it should be.

I LOL'd.

Image via icanhascheezburgr.com

So Josh came home to this pic today, on his regular post-work cruise of assorted intarweb stuff (I get it all day on Google Reader). His first comment? "Block your cat!"

After I finished hooting, I had to explain that most "muggles" don't call it blocking...

Baaaa!

I feel like a sheep. So many people (who all live in colder climes than I do) are making and posting about gorgeous mittens; ok, mostly just Stephanie and Norma. But I've been bitten by the bug nevertheless... too bad I own one pair of mittens, which I only use about 3 days a year! However, it occurred to me that my Dutch sister-in-law, who just moved up this summer from California and suffers from chill and damp pretty fiercely, might want a pair. Happily, she does!


Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style in Cornflower and Iris
Needles: US 3 dpns (these are the largest dpns I own - I really need more sizes!)
Pattern: EZ's Mitered Mittens from Knitter's Almanac

Yay, I'll have something new to finally post to Zimmermania!

eta: I still want to make some fancy colorwork mittens.. but those will have to wait on money and shipping..

Not much going on..

..so I haven't had much to say. Been feeling ucky a lot, and not really doing much knitting in consequence.

I did reactivate my FFXI character, so I've been playing that happily.. and knitting here and there in the inevitable stretches of waiting.. but I've also been not playing a fair amount. Reading, reading is good, and leads easily to napping...

So yeah. The title pretty much says it all - not much going on chez moi.

But I thought I'd leave you all with a cute kitteh picture, courtesy of icanhascheezburger.

FFXI, how I miss thee...

I've spent large portions of the last 3 1/2 years playing a little MMORPG called Final Fantasy XI. We decided to cancel our accounts for this last month for a number of sound reasons, but I shortly began to really miss it. Not only do I still thoroughly enjoy the game itself, but a large portion of my social life is involved in it. So this afternoon I've spent several hours cruising Youtube, jumping from video to video, trying to satisfy my thirst for this long-standing activity of mine, and to pass the time until a few days from now when I can reactivate my account.

The above video is in no way representative of actual gameplay, and I wouldn't ordinarily listen to the song for more than a few seconds, but it does give a bit of a feel for the sense of community, as well as showing pretty well the gorgeous graphics of the game. Besides, I really like the video as a whole, and have for years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Hrmm.

You spin me right round, baby, right round...

But first, another sewing installment. Not the most flattering picture ever, and the dress needs a good pressing, but meh. I'd started refurbishing this gown - one of my earliest renditions of a cotehardie - back in June, when I didn't have a camera to record the "before". Basically, after ten years of adoring this gown, the long sleeves were shredding, and I was tired of the neckline treatment. So I pulled the sleeves off and made new ones, then picked the black linen border off the neckline and cut the front down two inches in the middle. Aaaaaaand then I got distracted and didn't finish the neckline until today when I had some ENERGY!!! I could probably stand to go over the seams and check for popped stitches, but again, meh. The skirt is actually quite full, more so than it appears in this picture - it stands out better with the correct undergarments (in this pic it's just a bra and yoga pants). Properly I should be wearing a chemise and kirtle underneath, and possibly false sleeves pinned on at the shoulder. The gown itself is a lovely handkerchief weight linen that has survived the wear and tear of ten years of abuse astonishingly well. The seams at the shoulders and armscyes are wearing; when I stitched the new sleeves in, I had to sew the new seam a couple of millimeters in so the it wouldn't simply tear out again instantly. All in all, it's great for the kind of summer weather you don't see much of here in Oregon. :/ However, given enough correct under- and overgarments, it should do all right here, as well.

Construction details: I adapted a commercial princess-line dress pattern to have a longer skirt, and originally a higher neckline - I think this refurb put the neck basically back where the original pattern had it. The seams were sewn by machine to begin with, and the original neckline serged (I had a friend who let me borrow hers occasionally), but all repairs and alterations since have been by hand. Because of the way I adapted the commercial pattern, the skirt was originally fairly narrow. I added the black gores (and the black neckline no longer extant) to honor my foster father, whose colors are yellow and black, as well as general decoration and skirt-widening. I was asked to march as a part of the procession (along with his other adopted daughters) when he was awarded his Pelican, the highest SCA award for service. Now, with the navy sleeves, the dress looks pretty Halloween-y; maybe I'll wear it for dress-up this year. I wouldn't make another "cotehardie" in this manner again; I've learned a great deal about patternmaking and construction in the decade or so since I made this, and all the gowns I've made or refurbished since show my improving knowledge. However, this remains a favorite gown because it's so incredibly comfortable and well-fitting - there's even room to let the bust and waist out a bit if I get any curvier!

On to the spinning!


This is 52 yards of the Icelandic/Red Mohair roving I bought at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fest, spun and plied. Please note, this is my first plied yarn! I still need to set the twist, though. It came out a fairly dense sport-type weight - not too bad for having been aiming for fingering weight! I don't know wraps per inch, I didn't have a ruler handy. It's not the most even spinning ever, but although it's perceptibly thick and thin, I'm fairly pleased with it, and also pleased how the plying more or less evened it out. The color reads overall as a sort of oatmeal; the Icelandic wool is a pale gray-tan, and the mohair is reddish brown - so if you look close, it's oatmeal with cinnamon stirred in. :)

And Now for Something Completely Different.

I've spent entirely too much time today writing long emails back and forth with Ann, and she's got me going on a project I'd kinda been inspired to do, but the inertia... Anyway, I originally started this blog to talk about my costuming projects, which you may still see if you look at the nice list on the left and open up the very earliest entries. I have quite a number of finished medieval costumes in my closet (and others, but mostly medieval) because of my interest in the SCA. I also have a few garments half-finished or in the middle of modifications, but we won't go there today. It's not pretty.

Instead, I have for your delectation one of my favorite wool tunics, only recently restored to me. It's a true, brilliant red, something digital cameras have a hard time capturing. I fulled the fabric before cutting the pieces out, so it's quite warm and cozy, and entirely hand-stitched - although I'm pretty sure it needed a few... reinforcements? before I was quite done. It certainly needs them now! It also spent the last three years in a plastic bag on my mother's garage floor, with a few other garments, so it's pretty crumpled and even a bit motheaten. :( As you will see from the photos, it's technically a WiP, because I have never finished the embroidery, but I may never finish that during the life of the garment, and I have never let it stop me from wearing the tunic!


This tunic could have been worn anywhere from Roman times up to the sixteenth century or so; in the last couple of centuries, it would have been more of a working class garment than a fashionable one. The embroidery design is from a Dover book of Celtic knotwork transfer designs, possibly this one. The embroidery itself is executed in silk floss, in backstitch for the outlines and chainstitch for the fill. The neck is lined about four inches deep with linen, quilted to the surface for stability.


Yes, that is a needle poked through the work. I always figured that if I didn't give myself permission to wear it while I was embroidering, I'd never get to wear it! It does mean I have to be careful with my hugs while wearing the tunic. I'm not quite certain how I'm going to finish the colors... but that's the fun of it all! I've always thought it would be fun to fill in the eyes with some kind of semiprecious stone bead, like my favorite garnet, but that's a ways off.

A Rainbow of Socks!

I haven't posted recently because I'm pretty distracted with a big chunk of life right now. Maybe I can post about it soon.

In the mean time, I was putting my socks away after washing a couple of days ago, and realized that I can do the classic ROY G BIV with them - well, I wore the greenurple ones yesterday, so they're not in this picture... but you get the idea. :)

Still here.

I meant to post last Saturday, after having a blast at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fest, but I got my pictures all wibbly (trying to post them, not the pictures themselves) and gave up from exhaustion. I keep meaning to post.. I do have pics, both of the stash I acquired and of the people (including the lovely and brilliant Peggy and her adorable boys), and someday I will post them! I promise! But this week I've had some life rear up and grab me, and it has been both distracting and fatiguing, so I have not done so yet. Maybe I'll just post the pics to Flickr and post a link here...

Spun out...

How is it that time slips away so fast when you're trying to figure out what to do with yourself? It's almost 10 days since I last posted, and I feel like I've done nothing in that time. That's not true, of course - just look at my pile of F.O.s and almost F.O.s.. I'm almost done with my Celtic Swan socks;just need the toe on the second, and I suppose I should see about washing and blocking them - as much as I ever block socks, that is. I made a hat out of the gorgeous Merino/Tencel I won in that MasonDixon contest, and I'm almost finished with a Scholar Collar-type scarf out of the rest. I figure I"ll just use the rest of the ball on the scarf, and it'll be nice and snuggly.



I promise, it's much longer now!



I've been haunting the spinning section on Knittyboards lately, and this morning dug out the basket with my spindle and wool. After pulling out a section of the last fluff of a chunk of sliver I had, and reminding myself how to spin, I got the carders out as well as the random fleece I was given... um... musta been at that Stitches about 4 years ago? I'm not sure what kind of wool it is, but I"m beginning to suspect merino, given its softness and the shortness of the locks. I carded three rolags and spun them, and really surprised myself with how much I"ve picked up about controlling my draft and such.





I'm really looking forward to going to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival next weekend. While the monies are low, I'm kinda hoping to pick up a couple of tools - like a nostepinne, and maybe another spindle or a Viking comb - and some spinnables.

Hot Diggity!

I am such a good cook. I say this not because I'm bragging (much), but because I am. For dinner tonight I made Leek and Potato soup, with flatbread (made from homemade pizza dough) on the side. YUM! a big bowl of soup for each of us later, and I had enough left over to put TWO containers in the freezer!

It's really too bad I don't have the energy (mental, physical, whatever) to cook like that every night. I wish I did. We would eat so much more healthily if I did!

Amy Carpenter's Round Dishcloth. A very easy, pleasant knit, even when I found I needed to make seven sections, not six or five, to make it lie flat.

I am so enjoying having a camera again!

Knitting story for Peggy

I’ve known how to knit most of my life, but what got me going as a KNITTER was my first pair of socks. I was at Stitches West four and a half years ago (wow, that long?!) and found some yum-tastic Louet Gems Merino - fingering weight, not sport - in a gorgeous dark purple. I met my first Brittany Birch needles there, too. Anyway, I made Mom buy me the yarn (poor college student b(^_^) ) and rushed home and opened my copy of Knitting Without Tears to see what EZ had to say about socks - and haven’t looked back. Those socks weren’t very well made; the gauge was awful, I made an accidental YO right under the ball of one foot so that they had a huge hole in just a few months, but I loved them.

I would attribute my continuing passion to two books. The first is the Twisted Sisters’ Sock Workbook, and the second is Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks. I still refer to both.

Cross posted from my comments here.

Soooo Cuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just taking a couple shots of my current socks (for the nice lady at Celtic Swan Forge), and mah kitteh had to come investigate.

Peppar likes to investigate; here she is investigating my dear friend's baby Megan. Megan is styling my very first BSJ; this picture was taken two months ago, and I doubt she can wear it anymore!

Flickr Pics

Took a few more shots, posted on Flickr here.

Yay Camera!

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been knitting a lot! I finished my Monkeys (no pics of them yet, but soon, I promise!) and cast on for a pair I'm going to trade to the nice lady at Celtic Swan Forge for a set of spiffy hand-forged dpns.

Even more exciting, though, is that I finally have a digital camera again! So if you go check out my Ravelry listings, you can now see some pretty pics of the projects I've been working on recently! I'm very excited to finally be able to do this again, and the camera is a very nice one, which is even more exciting. :)

First Sock Syndrome?

Most knitters have heard of Second Sock Syndrome - where you make a first sock, and then when it comes to making the second, you're bored or frustrated or whatever so you can't stand the thought of making it. Startitis is another common ailment, where you're so excited about starting things you don't get around to getting past the start of several or many projects. I've been known to have a mild case of startitis now and again, but I've never really had much of an issue with SSS.

Well, I don't have either of those, but I keep re-knitting first socks over and over. The Harlot would say, why worry, it's all knitting, and with my limited stash, knitting a first sock 3 or 4 times with the same yarn keeps me occupied for weeks without using up precious yarn. I'm a perfectionist, though, and frogging and reknitting so many times is.. distressing.

It started with my greenurple Lorna's Laces socks I finally finished a few months ago. It was a new yarn to me, and with two coordinating but mismatched skeins I had to experiment to find not only the gauge I liked with it, but also a pattern that would use the colorways to best effect. It took several tries! I started with a pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks, but decided it wasn't working so well for me, so I frogged that and tried again with the pattern I finally made them in... and because of the tight gauge, it took me a while to finish them (my poor damaged hands!).

Then I got some KnitPicks Gloss that I started making Nancy Bush's Chalet Socks with.. and got about halfway down the first before deciding the pattern was too much work for me, and I dropped that sock and started over with the yarn on a Waving Lace variation. Due to gauge issues, I frogged those about 3 times... so I really started that pair 4 times! I have yet to frog the started Chalet Sock, but I finally finished the Waving Lace a couple of weeks ago - 3 months! For a pair of socks! Ridiculous! Exclamation points!!!

At the same time I got the Gloss, I also bought some Memories in a couple of colorways, one for Josh, one for me. I decided to make Jaywalkers out of Josh's.. and ran into several issues with the first version. I started it on #1s (my standard needle for socks, as I don't like the fabric anything bigger makes in most fingering weight yarn). First off, I didn't like the feel of the yarn through my fingers. It felt almost plasticky, especially compressing it down to work on the #1s. Then I noticed that the yarn itself - made of several plies, not the two-ply I'm most used to after several years of working as much with Koigu as possible - was catching on one of the needles. What was happening was that the imprint on one of my beloved Brittany Birch shorts had cut into the wood just enough to barely catch on the yarn. Well... I could live with this. AND THEN... about halfway down the foot - the standard place I try socks on for length - I decided it was time for a fitting. This was the worst news yet! The fabric of this sock is almost completely stockinette, and on the bias, at that, which makes it far less giving that the lace and ribs I was used to. It was too tight! (Smart readers will have seen this coming.) I nearly gave up on the socks then and there, but my yarn budget is so slender that I really can't afford to not use any. So... I frogged and reknit on size 2 needles. Muuuuuch better. The yarn, allowed to be fluffier (the fabric on the #1s was too tight for the yarn), no longer feels plasticky, the colorway stripes better, and the socks fit! I'm still not in love with the pattern, and at this writing have only forced myself just past the heel on sock #2. I have them designated as TV knitting - when I'm curled up on the couch watching TV, those are what I'm supposed to be knitting, nothing else right now. I don't follow that all the time, but I do enough that the socks should be done by the time cold weather hits (well, cold weather as in fall/winter with the rain and the frost and the occasional snow, not merely a Pacific Northwest summer with fog and threatened rain).

This brings me to my current active socks (ok, the Jaywalkers are active, but they're not what I'm excited about, so they don't count. ;-P). I purchased a skein of Cherry Tree Hill - closest I can get to Koigu from my nearest LYS (and don't get me started on that place!) a few months ago, and it landed in stash until I a) figured out what to do with it and b) cleared some projects from my plate. I almost succeeded in that, but then the June Knitty came out and I fell in love with the Sweet Pea socks. Setting the Waving Lace and the Jaywalkers and the other projects I have going aside (non of which I've finished yet, btw, including the Oxfam sweater), I immediately cast on and dashed through to my standard try-on point, where I discovered that yes, 4 stitches less at that gauge really does make a difference. *sigh* RIP-IT! RIP-IT! Then I finished my Waving Lace... and Becky posted her Monkeys. I'd been considering the pattern for a while, and decided the time was right. So I cast on while we were driving my brother to the airport... worked eagerly all that week... and right about the time we were beginning to talk money at the car dealership (oh yeah, we had to buy a new-to-us car last week. Sux0riffic.), I had the foot finished up to the toe. Now, talking money at the car dealership is not a good time to pull your sweaty stinky foot out of your Birkenstock to try on your sock, so I had to wait until I got home to discover that - you guessed it - it was too tight! Disdaining the directions as written (I did mention my dislike for the fabric from #2s?), I had decided in my infinite wisdom that the pattern is lacy enough that I would be just fine with my usual #1s. Boy was I wrong! There is far too much plain knitting (and not enough ribbing) in the pattern for it to stretch over my size 11 heels when knit on my usual #1 gauge! I did manage to discover that I really liked the fit over my feet, though. RIP-IT! RIP-IT! And reknit.. with #2s on the legs and heel flap, swap to #1s on the foot, and I started sock #2 last night! This pattern I am in love with.. although I'm beginning to think that the Monkey referred to in the name is not the hairy primate, but rather the vicious Monkey Puzzle tree the Victorians so loved. Those things is dangerous!

To make this long rambling story short, I've been learning a lot about gauge, and getting a lot of knitting, out of it, but not so many socks.

Welcome...

To everyone poking their noses here from MasonDixon! And everyone else, for that matter. ;)

It may appear that I am a poor knit blogger because I have very few pictures up, and none of my knitting. There are reasons for this! My digital camera is as dead as Marley (choose one), and the household budget is too slender to acquire another. Rest assured that I do in fact record my knitting (when I think it's worth it.. socks comprise most of my knitting, and much as I like them, I don't usually bother photographing them), and when I get a chance to develop the roll, I'll get them on disc so I can post! Because I want proof of my awesome knitting's existence, too. ;D

Project updates: I'm about 5" down the leg of Jaywalker #2. Josh thinks they're very warm, and isn't impatient for them before the weather gets cool, so they're not a high priority. My Print o'the Wave is... on hiatus, sorta... I'm very distracted by my Monkey! Plus baby alpaca isn't the most fun to knit with in high summer. Did I mention the distracting, addicting Monkey yet? Maybe I should say some more about that. I did 8 repeats down the leg instead of the recommended 6, turned the heel, and am mostly done with the gusset. I'll prolly have that finished by tonight, especially since I'm going to a BBQ with a lot of people I don't know and I hate being social with strangers. Knitting's great for hiding behind!

Why, you may ask, am I subjecting myself to this social indignity? Well, it's not for Josh's work. I'm a volunteer for the Gentle Birth World Congress, in the hopes that doing work trade will actually let me go. Tonight is a BBQ to meet other volunteers and (I think) form committees.. not sure on that last part.

*sigh*

I finally got a spam comment.. so I'm enabling some moderation. I hate it, but I don't want to be all excited about a new comment and then have it be spam.

And yes, Peggy, Monkeys really are all that.

Still not dead! Honest.

Anyone have any idea what can cause you to suddenly develop sciatic aches on both sides (not to mention what to do about it)? They've made my last 4 nights (and days, too, to a lesser extent) rather suck. I am pretty much an achy mess the last couple of days in general, from my wrists/elbows (too much cotton lace *cry*) to.. well, pretty much most of the rest of my body, one way and another, mostly probably attributable to hormonal stuffs. I hate this part of the month anyway, but this time it's ridiculous!

Anyway. Finished my latest Waving Lace socks; they feel *wonderful*. No pics still, but I posted details on Ravelry. Started the second Jaywalker on Josh's pair, too, and then (I'm so bad) I finally succumbed to Monkey on the way to dropping my brother off at the airport yesterday (hi Tom!). I'm most of the way through the first cuff, according to the original directions, but since I'm using smaller needles (1s vs. 2s) and I like my cuffs longer anyway, I'm going to go for a couple more repeats. Why didn't anyone warn me how addictive this pattern is?! So easy. So fast. So satisfying. They could easily take over my life.

On the excitement front, I finally got my Super Sox Box Swap package yesterday!!! Many very cool goodies: Almond biscotti, Toblerone, Orange Earl Grey tea. Cute-yet-handily-sized bag for sock-knitting-on-the-go. Merino/cashmere sock yarn. Pink and purple point protectors. Cute-as-a-button sheep picture. AND (this is the part that made us laugh) Canadian memorabilia in the form of a keychain and coaster! My buddy was Canadian... I suppose now would be a bad time to mention the part about how often we make Canadian jokes. Awesome package, though! Well worth the long wait.

House sweater

I had a couple of queries about what I meant when I said "House sweater". I took a look on Ravelry, and hardly anyone has posted about it... but I did find one here. The project is in Charmed Knits - it's a sort of standard conservative school sweater with Hogwarts House colors in discreet bands edging the ribbing at wrists and hem. In HP5 the Movie, they had them in a very dark, almost black charcoal gray, as opposed to the much lighter gray she suggests in Charmed Knits. I think I liked the darker gray better... I'll have to see what I can find when I'm in a place to actually buy yarn.

HP5

Just got home from seeing Order of the Phoenix. I know, I know, I didn't think I'd get to see it til video... but circumstances changed, and Josh and I were treated to it.

Knitting stuff first: lots and lots of very cool knitted things, from Umbridge's infamous fluffy pink sweater to awesome Weasley hats, scarves, and sweaters. The item that really caught my eye was the cabled vest Ginny was wearing at very end. I wanted to see Hermione knitting... but I understand that they had to *sniff* cut most of the subplots, just to be able to fit the main storyline (barely) into a standard movie length.

I thought they did a pretty good job of shoehorning the main storyline into a standard movie length - no way could they get the leeway Peter Jackson did, with a 4-hour RotK! Which is sad, because there's that much and more they could easily have done. It never really felt rushed, but it never got to slow down, either - except in the spots where it did for a few seconds, which then you knew had to be important, because the pace of the rest of the movie was so frenetic. I also liked just the few very subtle touches of shots that lingered on someone's face for just a split second - significant if you know the next book, not very noticeable if you don't. Interesting imagery; who says what when and how, and in what setting (give me credit, I'm trying not to give spoilers here!).

I remember coming out of the second movie speculating about how very attractive our characters were going to be when they grew up. I have not been disappointed! Wow. Even Neville, oh-so-Norman-horsefaced Neville, is... wow. Really handsome.

In reading HP5, I always have the most trouble coping with Umbridge, but in the movie, I was distanced enough that she wasn't too bad. The thing that got me where I live was Kreacher. My grandmother was... a very... special... person. Not the kind of special you want to deal with. There was a shot of him (in the Tapestry Room) where for a moment I was wondering how they got my dead grandmother on film. Kreacher looked like her, sounded like her, acted like her... very disturbing, and I'll leave it at that, but I hope, dear reader, that you get the picture.

I did find out that they have the same director on board for Half-Blood Prince, which is very exciting.

Anyway, off to try to finish this book so I can read Half-Blood Prince again by Friday - and to dream about the House Sweater I've been wanting to make!

Still not dead.

Just not much to blog about.

It's actually being quite hot here in Oregon - well, one day was. Day before yesterday it got to over a hundred... if you don't live here, you should know that it rarely gets higher than the mid 90s! Fortunately the weather's appearing to be ashamed of itself, and has reduced itself to more usual temperatures since.

Given the heat, not much knitting going on! Although I'm thinking hard about picking up my Waving Lace again... Silk/wool will be better to knit in heat than wool alone, right?

Yay!

Got my Ravelry invite. Now I have to learn to use Google Reader finally..

In other news, I finally finished Jaywalker #1 this morning.

Stuff.

I know, I know, I suck for not having posted in a while. I just haven't had much to post about.. not much going on right now that's postable. Knitting is going slowly - the Jaywalker is back about to where it was when I frogged it, I frogged the Sweet Pea (which was too tight as written) to work on later, and the PotW has a few more repeats on it. We've been playing a lot of FFXI lately, which has been a lot of fun, but definitely eats into the knitting time!

The last few days we've been reaming out the apartment and rearranging what's left to make room for my brother and his partner moving in tomorrow. I hate housework. And I hate moving. Happily, I'm not the one shifting domiciles this time! But it's been really good... getting rid of garbage that we've had hanging around through multiple moves, and sorting through and reorganizing the rest has been invigorating, despite my detestation of parting with anything. Not only do I hang on to things I think will be useful, but I'm also very sentimental, and keep things that remind me of events or people. Josh, on the other hand, takes a very bare-bones approach - if we don't need it right now, and it's cheaply/easily replaced, toss it! Lots of garbage, lots of loads to Goodwill, even an item posted to sell on Craigslist... and the bedrooms look almost like we've barely moved in. The front of the place shows two years' occupation, but there hasn't been all that much to edit, just a little reorganization (needs cleaning, too. did I mention I hate housework?).

So that's what's been going on chez moi.

Is sewing the new craze?

Over on MasonDixon today, Kay talked about a fancy new sewing book that a favorite blogger of hers wrote and just had published. Yay for people getting published!

I've seen a lot of cute little books about sewing little bags and things coming out lately, and a lot of knitters picking them up and beginning to sew things from them. Cool, more people sewing, that's good. What's bugging me is that these books are picking up the "hipster crafter" vibe all over again - you know, the annoying "Not your mother's ". Well, I've been sewing a looong time, much longer than I've been knitting seriously, and you know what? It is my mother's sewing. It's my mother's knitting, too. I don't make cute little totes, either, I do complicated period costumery, and believe me, as long as I've been sewing and as experienced and skilled as I am at it, I'm very much still the apprentice at it. Well, ok, maybe more like a journeyman - but by no means am I a master, and I probably never will be, just because I have neither the resources nor the interest to pursue it that deeply. I don't need to do the primary research on my chosen areas of interest - I'm happy to reap the fruits of other people's work. I sometimes feel like I'd like to be able to do more of the heavy-duty research, but I also know that I never will.

I could make cute little totes if I wanted to. But they're boring! Here's a few things that inspire me to sewing:

The Tudor Tailor: absolutely the bee's knees on making and wearing Tudor-era garments.
The Medieval Tailor's Assistant: fantastic instruction on making high medieval garments from the skin out.
Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: I own this. Somewhere. Primary research at its most amazing.
This lady from my costuming forum. She gets paid to *do* the primary research!

I could go on and on, but I won't. I will try to have patience with all the knitters discovering the delights of sewing, much as I have patience with all the people discovering the delights of knitting. I think it will be much harder, though, since sewing is my foundation.

Can't Sleep, Clowns will Eat Me.

Bleh. Too warm and too wired to sleep. Note to self: large mugs of even mildly caffienated tea in the evening do not sit well anymore.

Presented the Monk Socks today, to much approval by the presentee - he promptly put them on and (to my knowledge) has not yet taken them off, despite it being a warmish night. Yay, the recipe worked! He will doubtless get more along those lines in the future, as budget and knitting time permits.

Frogged the Jaywalker today as well. It was only about halfway up the foot, and I suddenly realized that I did not know if the tight gauge (the yarn seems to want larger needles, for me) and mostly stockinette would even work on his foot; when checked, it did not. So I frogged it, and I plan to restart on a size larger (2s instead of 1s), possibly with a slightly smaller stitch count to compensate, possibly not. Maybe I'll like the yarn a little better at a different gauge; I hope so, I was starting to hate it at the gauge I had been working in. I can't start these until I finish getting the baby sockies off the needles, tho, as I only have the one set of 2s; however, all I have to do on sockie #2 is graft the toe. Yes, I thought grafting would look cute and not be too much trouble, for some wierd reason. No, I don't know what I was on when I decided this. Maybe I'll do it before trying to sleep again.

The season's Knitty came out Monday if you didn't know; it took me all of 24 hours to fail to resist starting these. I had a skein of Cherry Tree Hill in a very orange (but it has purple and red and yellow and stuff too) colorway that was just begging to be used, so I spent the time while my lunch was cooking on Tuesday winding it, and had the pattern memorized by the time I hit the pool before DH was home. Just lovely, I can't wait to be finished!

Yesterday was very productive as well; I finished and felted (fulled?) the bowling bag for my swap buddy. It just needs to dry. Well, and wait for payday to get a zipper and be shipped... details! I have all the bits I'm sending her ready as well, and I know the pattern I want to point her towards; I'm just not sure how I'll do it. Maybe I'll do what my pal did and email it when I let her know it's all together/in the mail. I sure hope she likes it all... I definitely thought about things I would like to receive when I was shopping, even if I couldn't get absolutley the exact items I would have preferred. Speaking of my secret pal, she emailed me to say my package was going into the mail in a few days about 3 weeks ago, but I haven't seen any trace yet; I'm beginning to suspect she must be international! Either that or realized that she was going to make the rest of us look bad by being so on top of things. :-P Having an international pal would be exciting, though.

Must try to sleep nows. Tired and stuff.

Baby Sockies part next

The sockie I have on the needles atm is aimed to fit a ~2-3 month-old with long feet. I said 'daringly' because I usually hate #2s for socks (I think the fabric they make is too loose and rough, but it seems to be not so rough in the Lorna's, and in a baby that's not even crawling yet, the soles aren't going to see much wear)but I wanted a looser fabric for these than I get on #1s. For your (Peggy's) little guy, I would say, do the standard sock-fitting measurements and go from there. I don't know how much is left on your ball(s), but I would guess you can get socks for him. After all, your feet are almost certainly smaller than mine. ^^;

Two books I found invaluable for learning to make socks: The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook and Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. Twisted Sisters I only look at occasionally anymore, I've absorbed all the sock wisdom out of it I need at present, but Folk Socks sits easy to hand at all times, and I still refer to it frequently, for both technique and patterns, and this is 4+ years into my sock-making obsession. Nancy Bush's other socks books are, of course, also great, and I want to own those I don't already, but I think Folk Socks is best for sheer basic technique.

Update replies!

Peggy asked about my baby sockie recipe. No clue how much yarn (by weight) my baby sockies take. I usually go by numbers, and I don't have a scale that'll do yarn (but I want one!). I just take what's left when I'm done with adult socks, and cast on a bunch of stitches - 32 on my current, on standard sock needles. I'm going daringly big this time on #2s. Then I work down the ankle for as many rows as stitches I cast on, turn the heel, do the foot for the same number of rows as the leg, and then do a toe. Depending on the yarn, I can get 2 or more pair out of the end of a ball; Koigu not so much, as my socks out of Koigu take nearly the whole skein per foot. I usually can get a partial sock - each leg or so - out of what's left from even that tho! With this Lorna's Laces, I'll bet I can get a couple pair out of this skein-end. For one thing, it was socks for Josh, and his feet are shorter than mine (big surprise), and for another, skeins of Lorna's are ENORMOUS!!!

No pics of Yarn Harlot (or anything else) until I finish the roll and get it all developed... which will be the beginning of next month at the very soonest (payday, dontcha know). I know, I'm a tease.

The Great Harry Potter re-read has me up to just starting Goblet of Fire. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll end up reading them yet again in July... but hey, I've been running low on reading matter. :(

Uh.. the Oxfam sweater: being that I'm tired of knowing no one here, I decided to take a class at my LYS, to be able to meet a few people and maybe make a friend. Sadly, I'm way past the skill level of just about any of the knitting classes offered anywhere around here (that I know of). However, the free (yay free when you're on a small budget!) class to make a sweater for Oxfam sounded like a good chance. Well.. it turned out I was of course miles beyond the other students in skill, which mostly meant that the instructor had an unexpected teaching assistant. When I asked about classes in advanced techniques, she said, well, nowhere around here, really, but suggested that I practice something on the sweater, since she wants everyone to walk away from the class having learned something. Since I've been wanting to learn entrelac since forever, she suggested I try it out on the sweater, which I did. I think it looks horrible on the sweater, but what can you do, it's acrylic? But I learned entrelac. Now I have to finish the sweater in a relatively timely fashion. >.<

Updates...

The Monk Socks are done. I should photograph them before they go off to their monastic home. I'm still not confident that they'll fit... but that's only because I didn't have their intended feet in front of me. If they work well, I can use the recipe again. :D I actually found (when I sat down in front of the latest disk of House to finish them the other night) that the second sock was exactly the right length, compared to the first one. So I cast off and enjoyed sarcasm and medical oddities without distraction. And ate chocolate.

I need to spend today working seriously on my Oxfam sweater. I need 9 inches of body length before class this afternoon, and I have 7 1/2, if measured generously. This is a trial because the yarn I selected feels like it was made from saran wrap - great for keeping food, crapola for knitting. But I learned entrelac! Pretty much everything else is on the back burner until my homework on this is done.

My Jaywalkers for Josh and my small-gauge Waving Lace are progressing slowly... they both got a couple inches this weekend. But they're definitely low on the priority list right now. I also started a new pair of baby sockies; my dear friends brought their 2-month old to visit from New Mexico. It was raining, and chilly, and I couldn't let them leave without trying some of the baby things I've made out of ends of sock balls over the years. The Baby Surprise Jacket (Koigu)? Perfect. The sockies (random German or Italian self-fair-isle-patterned)? Great fit, yarn was too scratchy. So, I assured them that the socks would soften with washing, grabbed the end of some Lorna's and had cast on for a new pair of sockies practically before they hit the freeway north to the next set of relatives. I may be able to get them posted before my friends head home; we'll see. First I have to stop distracting myself from the Oxfam with blogging (and laundry, and my other Monday chores...).

Duuuuude...

..it was awesome. And I got to hold the sock! And I have photographic proof!

Which y'all will have to wait to see til I finish the roll and get it developed.

*gloats*

We're off to see the Harlot, the wonderful Harlot of Yarn...

*ahem*

I'm so smart. My digicam's still dead, but I remembered that my regular camera still works just fine, and while it was a few shots from the end (kitty and knitted things took care of that!), I did in fact have an untouched roll of film in my desk drawer. So I'll be able to take pics tonight. Yay!

Entrelac is fiddly but easy... why, I wonder, did I put off learning it so long? Oh, well, the learning swatch I'm making will have a place of honor in the sock yarn afghan I'll eventually make enough squares for. Maybe I'll make more entrelac squares, this one's been a good small project.. but horrors, that would take away from sock knitting time! Maybe now I knw why I never did any before.

Weirdly, it took me 3 days to finish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Such a short book would usually take me an afternoon or so... Maybe I was slightly bored from having read it so many times (although I did pick up a few significant lines this time that I didn't really notice before), maybe it's because I've been so tired this week I haven't really wanted to read! zomg! You know I'm really flattened when I don't want to read.

Anyway, enough blogging, back to my Oxfam sweater!

And so begins...

...the great Harry Potter re-read of 2007, in anticipation of book 7 coming out in.. a month and a half? Should give me plenty of time to drag through Book 5 and its teenage angst.

In other news, I am finally learning entrelac.

Super Sox Contest #3

Ok, ok, I'll bite. I think my ideal summer knitting right now would be MasonDixon's After-Dark Nightie and Robe in the suggested colors of Euroflax. Every girl (I use the term advisedly) can use another pretty slip/nightie/slinky dress, right? Plus I absolutely adore working with and wearing linen! Well, I've never knit with it.. and I'm pretty sure that its inflexibility would give my incipient carpal fits (that is, make it less incipient). But for linen, I would happily endure the pain!

Too bad I just blew my yarn budget (and then some!) on my buddy. BUT she will have the honor of receiving my very first felted object! I hope she likes the colors I chose... I promise to get pics! and get them developed! and post them! (After my buddy gets it, of course.) stupid broken digicam...