Off again

We are off to see the inlaws today, for a long weekend in the cool of the Rockies. There will be a county fair, and some playground time, and drinkin' with Gramma, and walking along the river, and maybe, if I'm lucky, some knitting. If I'm really lucky, there will be yarn pr0n when I get back. (Well, there will anyway since my camera will be home from the hospital and I will finally get to do a photoshoot with my JenLa sock yarn and stitch markers, but maybe JenLa will have a supporting cast. )

Stay cool, y'all, and I'll see you in September.

Alas, with pictures

I knit my little heart out last night on the husband socks. The yarn (Misty Mountain Farms Jubilee from The Loopy Ewe) is yummy and squooshy and soft, and makes a great fabric, and I love the way the colors line up, and it's overall just great.
Except that they're too big.
So I have discovered the issue with knitting two socks at a time - if they go kablooie, it's twice as much work to rip out. Oh well. Sadly, since DH pointed out how pointy my normal socks are (16 stitch cast on, a là Magic Judy) I doubled the size of the cast on. It's too big. Must rip all the way down. Waaah.
Oh the other hand, I noticed DH's feet are, well, different. His big toe is MUCH longer than the rest of his toes, so I wonder - if I do the magic cast on and increase more on one side of the toe than on the other, will it fit his feet better, or will it just fit weird? Has anyone out there done this or seen it done?
Anyway, the other benefit is that I have knit two enormous, soft, squooshy, gorgeous swatches, and that will help me to knit better fitting socks for the DH.



I haven't worked on the Mystery Stole in a few days, but I think it's SO cute. It has been sitting on the table in the living room, and occasionally I just walk by and pet it.



You can see the little greenish copper beads if you click to embiggen, but that's just a lotta lace to look at all up-close and personal-like.

Two more days to Montana! Cross your fingers for me that I get to see some moosies!

More FOs

I loved that little bag I made for La so much I decided to make several for myself. Blogless Lynn and I got together yesterday with our stashes and grand plans. We called it the Afternoon of Unrealistic Expectations. I wanted a sock bag, a padded bag for my camera (still in the shop) and a bag for my iPod. Lynn wanted a padded camera bag and a larger sock bag.
We got to working. She was more ambitious than I and tried a jacquard fabric for her camera bag. It came out great after much fussing, except the padding ate some of the extra room and it wouldn't close. It became a sleeping bag (an oh-so-luxurious sleeping bag) for the little softie mouse she made the other day for her daughter. My iPod bag came out just the size I wanted, but I forgot to account for the extra fabric needed to close over the top of the iPod. Sigh.
Instead, I decided it would be a notions bag. After Lynn left, I got to cutting and made a sock bag with the same fabrics I'd used for the iPod notions bag, only reversed (the lining of one is the outside of the other, etc.)



I'm thrilled with them. I haven't put the drawstrings in because the cording I have is too fat, and I want something a little prettier. I'm trying to decide what style of cord I'll make out of cotton embroidery floss.

Blogless Lynn has talked in the past about having a coordinating strip on the outside of the bag, and that inspired me further. (As designed, the inside of the bag has a strip of the outer fabric at the top - see this post for a picture.) I made a few changes to the size of the fabric, and violà!



A coordinating sock bag and notions bag! I lurve them wholeheartedly. Ironically, the two socks-in-progress I have will coordinate nicely with the bags themselves, although that wasn't planned. (It just happened that I got the purple/green fabric stash box out, and those are the colors of the two socks I'm currently making.)

Would you like a set for your very own? Go here and donate to Norma's OFA scholarship drive, and maybe you'll win one, in your choice of colors (limited only by what's available in my obscene fabric stash).

ETA: HOLY SHAMOLEY.

Back, for now

We had a lovely time in southern California. We played for hours and hours at the beach, and the Bug got his first real taste of the ocean. We'd been there with him once before, early last year, but he was too little and the water was too cold to really enjoy it. This time we played in the waves, and he dug, rolled in, and ate sand to his little heart's content. I got to swim and jump and roll in the waves, DH got to lay around and relax in the shade of the umbrella while he played with the Bug, and Peaches the dog got to enjoy some cool weather away from her sisters. Unfortunately, my camera was in the shop and DH left his sitting on his desk (though he did bring the camera case... [sigh]). So, no pictures.
We even had time to visit with La and Mr. La in Irvine for dinner. It was good food, great conversation, and an all-around pleasant time. DH and Mr. La hit it off and spent half the time commiserating about their wives' fibery obsessions while La and I chased Bug around Irvine Spectrum. My only complaint about that was that the chasing left little time for more conversation, and the evening ended far too soon. (Note to self: make sure you have spare diapers next time!) La posted a picture of our sunny selves (and even managed to get one of the Bug hugging Mama's limited edition Dizzy Blond sock yarn in the JenLa colorway) here. Both the stepdaughter and DIL tried to claim the yarn as socks for them, but NO WAY. Those socks are for MY feeties!
For now, it's back to the grind, and next week we leave for a quickie trip to visit the inlaws in Montana. The Geek Squad people tell me my camera will be home from the hospital by then, so I will try to get some good photos of Montana scenery for y'all. If it's not home, maybe we will remember DH's camera this time. o.0
Knitterly pursuits were had, as well. I did a few repeats on the Vermont blue sock, and started some for DH. (Funny how he stopped complaining about my knitting as soon as it was for him.) I am trying two at a time on Magic Loop, a là Sarkasmo. They're going a little slower together than they would individually, but I enjoy the process, and the yarn (Misty Mountain Farms sock yarn in Sand River from The Loopy Ewe) entertains me with the color changes when the stockinette threatens to bore me. They were the perfect car knitting, too.
This weekend I plan to make a few more of those little bags from the last post. They really are fun and easy, and so quick they make for good instant gratification. I want a sock-sized one, a padded camera-sized one, an iPod-sized one. I LURVE them.

Yo, I sewed a FO.

I felt a little sewing bug. It's all Blogless Lynn's fault - I think she's making a career out of getting people addicted to enabling the rest of Tucson in new crafts... (Hi Lynn!)
Anyway, she pointed me to this little tutorial.

And I made this little bag.







Happy sock bag the first.

I am in LOVE with this bag and I need to make a million more. (Fortunately, even though my sewing skills aren't perfect, they're very much better than my late-night photography skills.)

I would take more photos tomorrow with better lighting, maybe a tripod, but alas, I can't. I'm off to the beach!

ETA: If you are a reader of JenLa, their blog is mangled and is currently in the process of being reconstructed. They should be back to their drinking, swearing and fiber soon, I hope - I will miss it.

Cop out

We spent the weekend at the lake, and had a great time. The Bug got to float in his super-duper life jacket, I swam in lake water for the first time in my adult life (despite my aversion to floating above 80 feet of murky water with who-knows-what swimming around underneath me), and DH got his ski on. I also got a whopper of a sunburn, despite two applications of SPF 30. I am sore and cranky. No knitting happened. Move along, folks, there's nothing to see here.

Craft vs. Art

There has long been tension between the two. Some think that art cannot be utilitarian, some say that anything made by hand is art.
What I wanna know is: where does farming fit in?

Art.

Habits and attitudes

The doldrums are a thing of the past (and probably, the future, if we think far enough ahead to next summer). The sky is blue, the humidity is low, the plants and trees are practically singing with happiness over all the rain, and I am a bitch. Sigh. I have noticed these last days that even though I feel pretty good, all I can do is snark and complain. Upon reflection, I believe this is a left-over side effect of the doldrums. When I was wallowing in them (oh how I love a good wallow) I could only feel tired, used up, cranky, creativity-free, crabby, and nasty. I'm pretty darn sure I complained a lot. And the habit of complaining has stuck with me, even though I really don't have much to complain about. Cattiness and sarcasm are indulgences I wrestle with (and I usually lose) on a regular basis, but I seem to have gotten into the habit of kvetching again. Okay, well, I always kvetch, but most of the time when I'm feeling good I can counter it with at least as much positive thinking. I have lost the habit of feeling good, and it's tiresome. (I'm pretty sure the people I deal with regularly grok the tiresome when they listen to me whine.) Do you do this? Are you a person who kvetches out of habit, or are you one of those who perks up when s/he starts to feel good, and is all sunshine and rainbows again?

In the interest of returning to sunshine and rainbows, I shamelessly rip off something I already ripped off from Big Alice once before - the List of Things That Make Me Happy.

-watching the local prairie hawk from my desk
-the way the bushes in the medians are completely drenched with lavender flowers
-the smell of the pine trees on the first warm-but-not-hot day in a while
-finally going out for a walk
-my morning latte
-driving my old '70 Maverick
-soft yarn and lace
-Bugs

O thank God

And the saints, Buddha, Hestia, the FSM, and knitting Kali:

The Socks of Interminable Unendingness are DONE!





Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, African Grey
Pattern: My own
Started July 16
Finished (several times, but the last one was on) August 5

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be lacing.

Pictures at last

I finally took the time to snap a few photos of the sock. I really love the way it's coming out. The colors are bright and vibrant, and the yarn is lovely and squooshy.



I have less than two repeats left, but they're taking forever. Tomorrow I hope to have the guest room finished for family that arrives Saturday, and that gives me Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to collect the items for my pal's package and post them. Honestly, it probably won't make it out until Monday, but that's pretty close.
Today some pink cashmere laceweight arrived from Colourmart.uk. I aim to make a lace stole or shawl for my MIL for Christmas. I am not going to kill myself on it, and I'm not planning to knit any other presents, so if it doesn't get done for Christmas, I don't care. I am done with knitting deadlines!

Yesterday we were reminded that the Bug likes milkshakes.