FO (finally): Charade Socks

I finished Brian's socks finally!

The colorway in this picture is dead-on. Kindly ignore the weird bright greenness of the other pictures below.

Yep, the first of the Christmas presents are finally done. Which leaves my current sock queue like so:

1. Charade socks for Brian
2. River Rapid socks for Jennie
3. Vinnland socks for Van
4. Millicent socks for Sam
5. Rhiannon socks for Mandy
6. Spiral boots socks for Leila
7. Socks for Mom
8. Socks for Stepdad
9. Single cotton sock for Jen?
10. Indestructible socks for Jon

Whew. Load off my mind. Onto the knitting details.

Yarn - I finally found the yarn tag! I had to look all over for it, though. I found it in our bookcase -- as if someone (maybe me, I don't know) was using it as an erstwhile bookmark. Actually, it probably wasn't me, as I tend to dog-ear pages. In my circle of friends, this is basically as greivous a sin as eating babies. So it was probably Jon.

Anyway, the yarn is handpainted by wooldancer in the sublime marina colorway. It's 100% superwash merino (around 380 yards), and I have to say it was pretty awesome. Brian's got excellent taste.

Needles - size 2 addi turbos. Same ones I used for these.

Pattern - Charade by Sandra. This stitch pattern is super easy, which makes for good mindless knitting. Like always, I basically ignored the actual directions and just winged the sock construction, resulting in major modifications:

• The toe-up fairy strikes again! I casted on 24 sts (12 per side) using the figure 8 CO, and increased until 72 sts for the toe.
• For the foot, I worked about 50 rounds with a stockinette sole. This isn't a mod...it's just hear for completion's sake.
• I learned how to do short-row heels! Or, as I shall now call them, "heels brian-style." For these, I wrapped 10 sts on either side.
• I worked about 2" in pattern for the leg, and then worked 2" in 2 x 2 ribbing for the cuff. For that, I continued the plain ribs up the cuff and changed the textured sts to purls, cause I thought it looked cool.
  

On the non-Christmas knitting front, I've decided that weekends are for selfish knitting. So, I started a pair of gloves! I almost finished the first one.


The design is based of the ampergrabbers I made in May, and the traveling ribs are from these socks. They don't have a name yet.

Quick little update

I think this will be the first of many such posts. Unfortunately, this semester is scary-busy, like not-enough-time-to-shower-busy. I'm not proud of it, but it is so nonetheless. So wee little posts somewhat lacking in content is just the way it has to be.

All that aside, I do have actual knitting news for you! The Eton pullover is coming right along, see?


I've joined the arms to the body and I've been working on the yoke. I'm pleased with the progress, but on inspection this weekend, I'm not entirely sure everything's going right. Like usual, I'm kind of winging it until something goes wrong and make me write everything out. It's the way I roll.

Thing is, I've never made a sweater this way, so I'm not sure if it's wrong or not. It could (maddeningly) go either way - turn out just fine or horribly. So I'm faced with a dilemma: keep on knitting and then realize I need to rip out about 4 straight inches of dense, twisty cables, or rip back now and take innumerable hours trying to work out unforseen logistics. I'm still on the fence about which way to go.

Happy Blogiversary to me!

celebratory yarn cake

Dear blog,

We've been together a whole year! What a committed long-term relationship we have. You've been there through the bad times and through the good, and you've been patient with me during the long silences.

But more than that, I think we've been good for each other! I mean, you do kinda owe your entire existence to me, but I've gained a lot from hanging out with you, too. For instance, I probably wouldn't have gotten through all this Christmas knitting without your encouragement. And I certainly wouldn't have developed such a crippling addiction to socks without your support. You've even helped me make new friends!

I love you knitting blog, I really do. You're the cat's pajamas. Here's to 365 more days of wooly goodness.

Pumpkins: The Final Tally

We made more jack-o-lanterns...even though it was after Halloween. We couldn't help ourselves. Here are the newest additions:


I made this one. Jon actually got this pumpkin for free! He was at a group meeting for some library science class he's taking, and apparently some campus group was holding a 'Celebrate Sober' type thing in the student union on Halloween, where you could eat theme-related cookies or decorate teeny pumpkins. It was also totally deserted, so Jon snagged a pumpkin for me.

We call this one Bailey Cat-Face, after a girl (named Bailey) in Jon's aforementioned class group. She signs her emails with an anime cat face that was the inspiration I used for this particular pumpkin. This is what the cat face signature looks like: =^_^=

Jon made this one. We call him Gandalf, for obvious reasons. This one we paid for, but let me tell you, we got a helluva deal. He cost about $5, but he weighs....(drumroll, please).....26 POUNDS! That's 1/6th of my weight. That's more than our two not-skinny cats put together. That works out to less than $.20 per pound. I think Gandalf may be bigger than the leviathan that outmatched us back in our Obie days.

Jon made this one too. We call him Ol' Sawtooth. Jon says he's the most evil pumpkin in the tristate area, and that he's made several attempts to eat Fatty the Cat¹. Jon really likes to anthropomorphize pumpkins.

All totaled, we carved 7 pumpkins. Here's our family portrait. We're considering using it as a Christmas card.

top row: Sailboat the Harelip, Pissed-off Albino Punkin, Bailey Cat-Face, Maslow
bottom row: Grandma Gormless, Gandalf the Punkin, Sawtooth the Intimidator

We may continue carving up unsuspecting pumpkins until they go out of season. Then we might move onto squash or other gourd-like things. Until then, I'll leave you with this:

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¹The cats just had to go to the vet for a checkup. During said checkup, we received external confirmation that Fatty is actually fat, and that his nickname is therefore an accurate description. Too fat, actually. The vet wants us to put him on a diet.