Yay, purchasing!

I'm going to be ordering 2 balls of Kureyon from someone on Ravelry. Which makes me all nervous, since I've never really done business with anyone online other than eBay or e-stores, but it's one of those things I have to suck it up and do some day. And I am so very in love with this yarn. Even if it does go from sewing thread to climbing rope in a matter of inches. I just wish I had made the scarf half the width - I wouldn't need to buy any yarn at all. But I'd have to change balls more so the colors would be more different.

I learned spit splicing for this project, which is awesome and hilarious. And it works really well.

I'll be hearing back from the job I really want tomorrow. And if that falls through, the LYS may be hiring. There was a sign in the window, but the owner wouldn't give me a real answer about if they actually were. Bad sign and all but seriously, working in a yarn store? Match made in Heaven. And if I got a discount, they wouldn't even have to give me a paycheck. I'd just grab a few balls of Regia Silk on my way out.

I have my last meeting of Library Knitters on Saturday, which bums me out. That's my one bit of regular socialization at home, and the only knitting group that's easy for me to get to. Why would a library not be open weekends in Summer?!

I'm sorry... WHAT?

So I'm making a Lady Eleanor Stole with Kureyon, and I'm on the last ball and know I want two more. The closest yarn store doesn't carry it, so I started looking around online. Found a place with the two colors I wanted to order, and they were even on sale for $4.35 or something like that. Awwwwwwesome. And then I go to checkout, and discover that my order will be cancelled unless I bring it up to $25, pre-tax and pre-shipping.

...

What. The. Fuck.

For me, the only time I buy yarn online is usually to finish off a project with something that I didn't buy locally or can't find. So not really any huge orders. So there'd really be no way I could even buy from them without forcing myself to buy so much more than I actually wanted. Wonderful.

The stole, however, is absolutely beautiful. It's actually a scarf - I cut the pattern in half. I should have cut it again, though, because it's really twice as wide as my usual scarves. Which annoys me to no end, but I was fearful - my first entrelac, even. So when I inevitably make another one (Christmas present, perhaps) or five, I'll just do it that way. And I'm so in love with the technique that I already have mental plans for a red, black, and white felted clutch. Like I use clutches, could stand constantly holding something, or have the patience to felt a swatch. But still.

Finished two pairs of socks since I got home, and had requests for socks and a Dr. Who scarf. Not sure when/if I'll follow through on either. My aunt wants the socks, which are a carbon copy of one I just made for myself. I might just give her these - or at least, I would, if I had joined the yarn a little less sloppily on the first sock. I make so many socks that I can't even get them in my sock drawer anymore. But yet I'm constantly planning more. I am not a person of moderation when it comes to knitting, I guess. Well, I don't have the sort of insane monster stash that some of my group mates have, but at least with socks, I just keep making them. I always make them for me because I have a hard time feeling like anyone i might make them for would actually appreciate them or care for them the right way. I just found a group on Ravelry called "Selfish Knitters," which is a tongue in cheek name, for a group of those of us who have been burned by too many people thinking it's totally ok to ask someone to dedicate so much time and money to doing them a favor. Which reminds me, I better get started on that 22 foot garter stitch scarf. Yeah, right.

The first day of the rest of my life

So I graduated college yesterday.

University of New Hampshire, psychology, Summa Cum Laude... no big.

With no job, no prospects, and no tolerance for my omnipresent grandmother, assume there's about to be a whole lot of knitting going down. When I get bored with WoW. But my character hit 67 last night, so I'll probably get bored once I'm 70. I got 4 balls of Noro Kureyon for my birthday yesterday, but I for some reason only said I needed one ball per color, so I have four different colors. Crap. Well, at least half of each pair of socks is financed. Or who knows, maybe I'll actually make something different for once. Considering I have socks on the needles and in my lap in the moment and another pair queued up - you should have seen my top drawer when I packed up yesterday - all socks. And I had already sent a bunch home. Blanket squares should be getting a workout, too, if I find some more waste yarn.

I'm planning to reverse engineer an old crappy project into a purse, too. I just have to find said project. I looked through my trunk yesterday and it wasn't there. I hope I didn't have a fit of sanity a few months ago and toss it. Crap.

FO is finally a FO

I sewed the buttons on to my sweater last night, finally. What can I say, using sewing thread on a worsted weight sweater intimidates me. But I made it happen. Took forever just to put on four buttons, but everyone loves it, they mostly work, and I'm happy. I showed it off at knitting group today and everyone kept remarking about how well it fit and how good it looked. I felt so proud. And, they liked RPM, too, which is moving along nicely. I have one sock done, and I just started the gusset of #2 at group today. I might read for a while, instead, though, since I sort of need projects to last me a while.

Knitting break

Oh, man.

I'm not going to be able to buy any new yarn for a while. Well, I'm able, but it's probably not wise. I had a major computer emergency this week, which resulted in needing to buy a new one. $1000 later, here I am. Yeah, I know I could have spent less, probably a lot less, but if I'm gonna be forced to do something, I'm gonna do it right. I wanted awesome performance, lots of memory, and most importantly, a totally kickass video card so I can play an unholy amount of World of Warcraft. Except, one little problem. I installed Burning Crusade so I could use a free server a few weeks ago, and once you upgrade to a BC account, you can't open your account on a computer without it. I left BC at school, not really thinking that would be an issue. Oh, son of a bitch. So I spent a lot of today patching and updating regular WoW. Of course, I still won't be able to play when I get back to school because I have a paper due in early April that I haven't done a damn thing for. I don't feel this is entirely my fault, as the professor has never said a single thing to us about it. I really like the guy, but geesh.

So yeah. There won't be much knitting going on between now and... a while. I have stash, and I'm still working away on RPM, but I don't foresee any new sweaters now that CPH is done. I was hoping to make Jaden, but I guess it's long sleeve anyways and it wouldn't really be worth it by the time I actually finished it.

What a bummer.

My God, it's pictures of a FO!

Here's the CPH, at least, some of it. I just bought the buttons, and I haven't sewn them on yet, but I'd say it's functional regardless - wore it out and about today! It's so cozy. I love the sleeves especially. They're a little long, but I actually really like that. I am SO excited to wear it to knitting group on Saturday.

So hot right now.

With bonus Jenna feet. I can never get out of my own way when I take pictures. Hi, Regia sock yarn.

And bonus UFO!

RPM from Knitty in Plymouth Happy Feet. Oh, it looks so cool in person. The pattern is really fun when you get started and can see it. I was afraid the color would dominate everything because it's kind of dark in person, but it's going really well. So excited. I'm totally going to have to go to Grace Robinson in Freeport before I go back to school to get the yarn for my next project. Which might be Jaden. When did Knitty get so good? I always used to think everything was either really above me or really ridiculous. Now I've got one Knitty on the needles and one on the WANT! list. Neat.

FINISHED.

I finished my infernal Central Park Hoodie!!

God, I blocked this thing, sewed it up, went to put it on, and HATED IT. Hated it so hard. It just flopped off me and I wanted to cry. I knew I still had a hood to do, though. And I'll be damned if that hood wasn't the most obnoxious thing ever. The numbers didn't add up at all - I had something like at least 100 extra stitches. It lived in a ball of anger on my desk until yesterday. I came home for Spring Break, and brought it to the library knitting group and threw myself at their mercy. After 15 minutes or so of trying to figure out the issue, a woman realized - I never sewed the shoulder seams! Durrrr. Wow. So, with a borrowed tapestry needle and some blushing, I sewed the goddamn things. Guess what, it fit great. And I started the hood there, with no issue at all. Finished it around 2 am last night.

Today was button band day - in between making a birthday cake for my aunt. I even made my first buttonholes. So now all that's left is picking out my buttons. Right now, I have dangly earrings hanging from where they should be. It works.

Pics soon to come. Gauging for RPM right now.

Sleeves!

So, I've got a vest. I finished knitting both fronts and the back's long done, so now I'm on the first sleeve. Sleeves always terrify me. I have skinny little arms. And a history of things going VERY wrong. Like the extra foot I ripped out of Mariah. Of course, that also makes me believe I can handle any cable pattern thrown at me. I have this weird fear with knitting, though. I don't want to put things together. Everything looks fine when it's just assorted pieces, but I never know if it really fine until I put it together. And that's when I tend to freak out. I'm not a great finisher, in that I just don't do it, so I don't tend to see problems as easily or actually fixable. I mostly just panic.

I know that's something I really need to overcome, in every sector of my life, really. So hopefully when the CPH is done, I'll actually go down to the drug store and get a cardboard display board so I can block the thing the way it should be done. I just can't stand the smell of wet wool (like old hot dogs) and I can't leave the room with the door open since I don't have a roommate anymore. I'll have to figure something out.

Blogging from work again. There was a staff meeting so my boss actually told me to "look busy" if I ran out of things to do. Jackpot. I wish I'd brought the sweater in the first place. I could have at least another inch by the time I'm out of here at 3.

Sneaking on at work

It's a boring life, being a secretary's secretary.

So I've been working on the Central Park Hoodie for about 2 weeks now. I finished the back on Sunday and the left front last night. And as I was working the right front, I got an e-mail about corrections. To the back and right front. It was too late and I was too lazy to rip, though.

I initially wasn’t sure about the pooling of the yarn – Plymouth Galway Paint. The persimmon seemed more prevalent on the ball, of course, and without it, I think the colors are a bit dowdy. But it’s working out well. I sometimes to slip or not slip a first stitch depending on if I want to start moving the colors around. I hate when the best color gets squeezed off to the edges.
The yarn is wonderfully soft. I loved using Galway for a felted bag I made, and a shrug I’ll never finish. I surprised myself by picking out a combination of reds, a color I usually hate, and a variegated yarn for a sweater, something I usually avoid like the plague.

I'll try to get pics up soon, now that I actually have my camera cord. I just never remember to charge the camera itself.

Socialization!

So, I went to my first ever Maine SnB today. I was watching the community access channel at 3 am, because that's just how punk I am, and there was an ad for "Library Knitters" at the town library on Saturdays from 1-3. Cha-ching. So I actually went today! The most awesome parts?

• I was the youngest person there by at least 25 years
• I taught a woman who could be my mom and had been knitting longer than I'd been alive (she had a 27 year old WIP with her!) how to connect DPNs for socks
• Everyone was fascinated by the fact that I can knit without looking
• They wouldn't leave until I finished my sock
• Did I mention the 27 year old WIP?

Basically, it was awesome. And of course, the library is closed next Saturday so I can't go again before going back to school.

It was also the grand debut of My So Called Scarf, which was very beloved. Definitely made the right call on the yarn. I wore it to my friend's house tonight and looked quite fab. Eventually I'll get a pic of it up.

My grandmother's socks are in progress. I finished one today and I should have the other by this time tomorrow. I like the yarn, but the color and pattern are just too old lady for me.

Old lady socks fit for... an old lady

So my grandma decided that I should make socks before I go back to school. Uh, okay. So we went to the LYS yesterday so she could pick out a yarn. For once, she didn't pick out the first thing she saw. I ended up with Rowan True 4Ply Bounty, a yarn who's very existence is dubious, according to the internet. Maybe because it has such a stupid name. (OH, BURN, ROWAN!) I love the feel of it, but she really picked out the most Old Lady Gray Blue shade she could. I'm working them in garter rib, which also looks henny to me.

She loves them.

I'm on the first sock, and I'm just now starting the foot. I've gotten into extending the leg pattern on to the heel flap, which is big for me, as I may never be bold enough to extend it to the top of the foot. My comfort zone: let me show you it.

And eventually, I'll find a mini USB around here to post pics of them, as well as the finished So Called Scarf.

Glitter Socks (FO) & My So Called Scarf (WIP)

I finished my socks and even worked in the yarn ends tonight! I really thought this would be one to be finished in the morning. It let me cast on for my next project, My So Called Scarf, which I of course found on Ravelry. There was a video posted in the comments that made the difference between success and tossing the needles across the room for me. I'm just a little concerned, because instead doing it in the admittedly beautiful Manos, I'm using some stashed impulse yarn, Patons Rumor. It's a color called Moonstone Heather, which is a shiny rainbow spun with black. It's got alpaca in it and looks great. I'm just afraid it's too busy to let you really appreciate the stitch work. So maybe I'll just have to make another one of these scarves later.... I really want to make this and also really want to use the stash yarn, so I think I'll just hope it shows up better, or let the detail be special to me, not the not-so-close world.

Going back in time

I absolutely love how my Glitter Socks are turning out. One is done and the other has a close-to-complete leg. But it makes me think about some of the socks in my drawer that I don't wear. I used to make socks really badly. Too baggy in the leg and no shape to them at all. Most of this is the fault of how I used to make heels. I used to do just a short row heel, no flap, no gusset, so it barely looked like they had a heel at all. They just looked like sacks. I'd really like to just frog the life out of them and redo them. But I still have so much sock yarn for original socks. I don't know. They're not getting any use just being in my drawer, and adding some pieces and probably length (they always looked longer on the DPNS because a lot of the leg gets sucked into the heel) would also use some scraps. It might be my next Really Big Project. Last January, I had sort of an epiphany about how bad all my socks were, and thus, my "Stop Being So Lazy" socks. All the parts they should have, plus a cable pattern. Ever since, my socks have been beautiful and I've been more open to risks. There's more to life than 2x2 ribbing.

These are the socks that changed me so. Yes, the heel is weird because I wanted to try something new that gave them a weird nipple. And one leg is a bit bigger because apparently, I couldn't fudge my gauge as much as I thought. I love how the ribs make the legs look so skinny.

How fab.

Okay, attempt #3 at a knitblog. Probably knitblog #3 to be abandoned. But I just joined Ravelry and I want to have blog entries on there, and I looked back on my other posts in the old blog, and just, bleh. And I misspelled my username. How horrifying. So, I have 4 things up on Ravelry, not that that's even close to the amount of socks alone I've finished, and it's looking decent. So are the socks I'm making right now. Some glittery yarn that I can't remember. I think the label looked like Plymouth Sockotta, but I don't think that's what it actually is. I charted the pattern in Excel, because I'm nerdcore like that. Fairly basic cabling, but I never used to do cables on socks so it's still a big deal for me. And if I ever locate a mini USB while I'm in Maine, before I go back to school, I'll actually put up a picture.