Attention Deficit Knitter

Pee-yew

My neighbors are burning their trash outside.  Again.

That makes it sound like I live out in the boonies of rural Alabama, but really I live in a suburb just next to a major metropolitan area.  The sixth largest city in the state, we are.  However, I live right at the very tip-end of it.  Over the back fence of the house two down is apparently, The Country.  That's where you can burn your trash outside with impunity.

I have nothing against The Country, and trash burning.  Except that the stink of the trash burning is coming over here and getting inside my house and making me cough and wheeze.  My hair now smells like trash smoke -- bleagh.

Also, it is windy today, and I have some concern that the trash fire may migrate over here into the yards and shrubbery of my house and my neighbors'.  We have been in a drought for about a year, and I'm fire-shy.

I didn't mind so much when the Country neighbors had goats and chickens that used to visit our yard.  The chickens were fine.  The goats, too, except at Christmas when they ate the red bows off our mailbox.  They don't have the chickens and goats any more.  Just the trash fire.

I should be knitting.  I just read Yarn Harlot talking about knitting one thing when she should be knitting another.  She's knitting some fabulous socks out of wonderful multi-colored yarn that just changes and changes and changes.  Who could put those down?  Sometimes I feel so inadequate reading others' blogs.  Stephanie was talking about wanting to finish the Must Have Cardigan before leaving for a trip.  In 48 hours.  Lordy, the back of the Must Have Cardigan would take me 48 DAYS to knit.  We should not compare our knitting speed to that of knitting goddesses.  It just makes us sad.

Two...two...two socks at once!

I am a desperate sufferer of second sock syndrome.  It almost takes the enjoyment out of knitting socks for me.  Who needs more guilt, right?

But there are just so many luscious sock yarns out there, and hand knit socks are so beautiful and cushy.  How can I not knit them?

So.  I bought Melissa Morgan-Oakes' book  2-at-a-time Socks and I bought a long size one circular needle, and I started a pair, both socks at once.  Now, Melissa's book includes top-down patterns and I was going to use Wendy Johnson's toe-up pattern, so that made things a little complicated.  But I finally got both socks started, and adjusted correctly on the needle, and I got the round and round, first sock, second sock thing going.  I've got it down now.

The pros?  Well, THE pro is that when I get finished, I'll have two socks.  Done.

The cons?  Ladders.  It is harder to pull the first stitch of each side of the sock very tightly on the circular, so I'm having some ladder issues.  It is getting better as I go along, so maybe it is just a skill issue and I'll overcome it.

Also, I have to get used to how slowly it seems to go when you're doing two socks at once.  They just don't grow very fast.  I knitted for an hour or so this afternoon while I listened to a couple of chapters of an audiobook, and, jeez, it doesn't seem I have much to show.  But I do believe it will be worth it when I FINALLY bind off two finished socks at once!

I'm using Claudia's Handpainted in Chocolate Cherries (like everyone else in the world) 'cause it's coming up on Valentine's Day.  I'm doing a plain foot and I'll do a lacy leg (lace to be determined).  If these turn out nice, I'll give them to my friend L, who LOVES and appreciates hand knit socks.

I'm still avoiding the green Refined Raglan because of the yarn issue.  It taunts me.

A couple of rows got done this morning on Little Rivers.  I'll take it and the socks with me tomorrow to work in the hospitality room at my son's high school.  It's parent/teacher conference day and we put out snacks for the teachers.  I'll be sitting and making sure there's ice and cups and whatever anyone needs for a couple of hours, so that should be some good knitting time.

Pictures tomorrow.  I'm too lazy tonight.

Nothing kills the ride like running out of yarn

I decided that this would be the weekend I would finish the green Refined Raglan.  I was cookin', too.  I was in that groove you get in near the end of a project when you just knit and knit, and you can see the end, and it's all coming together.

Then I went to the bag to get another ball of yarn.  Yikes.  I just attached the next to last ball of Mission Falls 1824 wool.  Am I right to be worried?
Okay, maybe it's not as bad as I thought.  I am decreasing every other row, and the rows are getting shorter and shorter.  And I had already decided that I would not do the hemmed funnel neck, but a ribbed crew neck instead.  But this is scaring me.  Mission Falls 1824 only has 85 yards a ball, and I've been chewing through some yarn on these long rows.

I'll let you know how it goes.

The thing that had me stalled on the Refined Raglan is that I started Alice Starmore's Little Rivers last week.  I know, I know.  I have tons of stuff I need to be finishing up, and I started THAT monumental project that will probably take me a year????

But it is just so pretty, and as Starmore sweaters go, it is an easy pattern.  It is one I will really wear and enjoy, so there is incentive to get it done by next winter.
Here's the progress:
But I can't touch it until the raglan is done.

We had snow!

The first measurable snowfall in Birmingham in eight years fell yesterday!

It wasn't really all that measurable.  The photo below was taken out my front window at about 10:00 a.m., and it snowed a little more after that.  By lunchtime, it had stopped and most of it was melted by late afternoon.  It was fun to see my little next door neighbors who had NEVER seen snow, playing and squealing outside.
I had to rip the second sleeve of the green Refined Raglan.  I started it out on the wrong size needles.  I managed to convince myself I could fix that with blocking, but then I worked the increases too close together -- every six rows instead of every eight.  I don't know what I was thinking.  After about seven inches, it was clear that it was wrong, so I ripped it and started over.  I really don't enjoy doing the hemmed cuffs, but I am doing this one over so it will be right.  I think I can get the second sleeve finished by tomorrow, and then it will be time to put it all together and do the fun part, the raglan decreases with the lacey cable insets.  I love the part when the sweater is getting smaller and smaller at the top.  It seems to fly.

I do plan to do a different neck finishing on this sweater, instead of the funnel neck that the pattern calls for.  I haven't decided what it will be yet.  I may experiment a little.

My promise to myself is that every time I finish a project, I will finish or frog two WIP's before I cast on anything new.  I'm going to be ruthless about frogging some things I have been hanging onto for a long time.

In non-knitting news, I've discovered another computer time-suck.  Library Thing is to book collectors what Ravelry is to knitters and crocheters.  I'm in the process of cataloging all my books.  My library is seriously out of control, and I'm going to use Library Thing to get a grip on what I have, and what I can let go of.  I have no idea now many books I have, but I think it is in the neighborhood of 500.  Yikes.

Massive knitting weekend

I had one of those knitting in the zone weekends.  I Produced Some Fabric.

I will show you a picture if you won't judge me.

Yeah, it's a big old stockinette thang, y'all.

It's really the body of the Refined Raglan.  I knit one last year for my friend, L. She says her 16 year old daughter steals it and wears it a lot, so I'm making E one of her own.

I photographed it up close because it looks like a mess.  It's all curly and freaky and looks wider than it is long.  It also looks MASSIVE.

I hope I don't ruin the body image of a young woman by presenting her with a sweater that swallows her whole.  "Thank you for the enormous sweater, Aunt Liz.  How big did you think I was????"

(I know some people actually measure their intended giftees, but I went another way.)

Here's the beginning of the first sleeve:
I'm doing picot edges to give the sweater a little more youthful and feminine look.  Of course, the picot on the body is totally rolled up -- vertical picot, as it were.  Another reason I didn't photograph it.  But not to worry.  It WILL submit to me in blocking.

I'm using Mission Falls 1824 Wool.   I had never used it before, and it is lovely and soft.  It's allegedly washable, but it seems so delicate that I'm afraid of excessive pilling.  Anyone care to share experiences with this yarn?

Well, that was quite a break!

I've been feeling the pull of the blog again lately, so I finally decided to sit down and post.  The knitting has actually been going very well for me.  It's the rest of my life that is a mess.

Last summer and fall were insane.  As a full-time wife, mom, and homemaker, I justify my lack of income-producing work by doing tons of volunteer work, mostly involving my kids' public schools and specifically their fine arts programs.  Our small city has been in turmoil for the last three years since a new mayor and city council were elected and started a junta against the school system.  I have spent countless hours reading, attending meetings, e-mailing and writing, to keep myself and others up on the changes in our community.  We moved to this city, with its expensive property and high taxes, because of the excellent public schools.  I'm so angry and worried that our leaders don't seem to value education and are willing to let a good school system deteriorate.

Anyway, it is a long story I don't have time to tell here, but the bottom line is that I have just about exhausted myself with political activism and volunteer work and had reached a point of exhaustion and depression before Christmas.  But then we took a much-anticipated family trip to Arizona with my son's high school band --- they marched in the Fiesta Bowl Parade last week.  The trip did me tons of good.  It was great to get away from here and see another part of the country.  And you just can't be depressed when you are traveling with 220 teenagers -- you have to be at the top of your game -- ready to sew snaps into a uniform jacket, or fetch water bottles, locate safety pins or clarinet reeds, have tissues and Dramamine at the ready, and always -- ALWAYS -- know where the nearest restrooms are.

Here's some pics:
This is where the marching competition was held.  That is our band, heading down toward the tunnel to go onto the field.  At the left is the area where they roll the whole field out into the open to let sunlight reach the turf -- no kidding.

Here are the kids on the field:
This was a really high-level competition.  Our kids are just starting to compete at this level, so everyone was pretty nervous.  They did very well, though.  They made the finals and improved significantly in the second performance.  I was very proud of them.

Next day after the field competition was the parade:

Don't they look awesome!

Check out that most handsome trombone player:

That is my older son, W, age 15.  How lucky that he happened to be on the end of the row!

After the parade, we packed up the instruments and uniforms and the fun part of the trip started.  Here we are on the way, by train, to the Grand Canyon.  We left from Williams, AZ at 8:00 a.m. and it was FREEZING!

That's me on the right in the blue hat, and younger son B with the hot cocoa.  That is my best friend, L, behind us.

Okay, just so there is SOME knitting content in this post, here is a shot of my hat at the Grand Canyon:
Did I mention it was COLD?

That is the Sister's Hat, designed by Janet Gallagher.  Her pattern is available here.

We celebrated the arrival of the New Year in Sky Harbor Airport, and made it home around 5:30 a.m. on New Year's Day.  After a short bout with a stomach virus acquired on the plane, we all are now back to normal.

This post is long enough, so the knitting content will have to wait until the next post.

I did get on Ravelry this fall and have my notebook pretty much up to date.  I'm LizW9294 there (there was already a LizW!)

Oh my god, oh my god.....

I don't even know how to describe the calamity that is taking place in my kitchen.

I'm helping to give a reception tomorrow.  Long story short, I was assigned to make part of the punch.  No biggie, I've done it before and it's pretty easy.  It consists of mixing up the punch base, freezing it in zip-lock bags, and taking it to the reception where the slushy concoction will be mixed with ginger ale.

Now, the only hard part of this process is the positioning of the liquid-filled gallon zip-lock bags (9 of them) in my freezer.  They are all flopsy, and it makes me a tad nervous to have these flopsy, gelatinous bags of gallons of super-sticky liquid rolling around my freezer.

But I'm experienced.  I know that you  buy the good freezer bags, and you set them inside pans or Rubbermaid boxes, and you clip the tops of the bags together with clothespins to keep them from flopping over.

The last time I did this, it was totally without mishap.

Hmph.

I should have known it was a bad sign when the last bag I filled immediately sprung a tiny leak at one corner.   I should have clued in.   But no, I saw it as an aberration, and I simply double-bagged that one and packed her in the freezer.

Well.  Just now (it's freaking midnight, by the way) I went to get a something (I don't even remember what) out of the refrigerator.  When I opened the door, I smelled the sweet smell of the punch very strongly.  Strange, you say, since the stuff is sealed in bags, right?

Yeah.

I opened the freezer, and some bag, I can't even tell which one (hell, maybe several) is LEAKING ALL OVER MY FREEZER!!!  The still-liquid, super sugary punch base is all over the place.  It is overflowing the Rubbermaid box and puddling under it.  It hasn't run off the shelf yet, but it's only a matter of time.

I don't even know what to do.  When I touch the plastic box, more spills over.  I crammed paper towels around it to soak up what is puddling.  All that will be frozen solid by morning if I leave it.  (Or, Jesus, Mary and Joseph -- it might not be frozen -- It might just keep coming out and coming out -------  Oh, my god.

If I just go to bed, do you think it will make its way out the door and across the floor????  I'd have to have a sleeping pill as big as my head to get to sleep now.

Needless to say, Hefty One-zip Freezer Bags are dead to me now.

Spring Break begins!

The boys are in heaven this morning.  They got to sleep late, and have absolutely nothing planned for the whole day.

I got up early and went off to shop for groceries.  I tried to be a good mom and buy healthy snacks.  But I did cave on the big bag of M&Ms.  It's more for me than them.

Here are the pics I promised yesterday.

The purply-blue sock:
The color is not great here.    This yarn is really more purply and less blue.  It's Claudia's Handpainted.

And next is the beginning of the vine lace sock out of Fleece Artist, colorway "midnight".

I've made more progress on the vine lace sock since yesterday, enough to go ahead and sew down the hem so I could make sure I liked the look.  I do, very much.

And then, I got sidetracked.  I read about the No-End-In-Sight Ripple Along.

Oooh, pretty.

Next thing you know, I was digging around for a crochet hook and my book of crochet stitches.  I'm not a proficient crocheter.  I have to look up how to do a double crochet every time, and for the life of me, I never come out with the right amount of chain stitches to do the first row.  But every now and then, I just have to do it.

Crochet is fast, friends.  It eats through yarn like you wouldn't believe.

And it also makes my right wrist hurt a little.  Maybe I just don't have the crocheter's muscles built up yet.

Anyway, I have done three colors of my own ripple throw.  I'm not going to show it, because the colors are heinous.  I know lots of people on that Ripple Along said they were random with the colors, but my random makes me cringe a little.  Maybe I'll show you when I get a few more colors done.  And I'm going to do a black ripple.  Black always pulls things together.

Funny kids

I have two sons.  The older one, W, is almost 15, and the younger one, B, is almost 13.  They crack me up.

It's Sunday, and they are playing a game together on computers.  B is on the living room computer and W is on the one in his room.  B just yelled to his brother, "I SHALL SMITE YOU WITH MY SMITEY POWERS!!!"  When W laughed in response, B ran down the hall and skidded to a stop right outside W's door and boomed out, "SMIIIIIIITE!"

I'm actually enjoying having teenagers.  I'm the afternoon carpool mom and I love it.  I pick up my own teen at the high school, plus several others, depending on their after-school activities.  I love to listen to the things they talk about.  Sometimes I'm just amazed at how smart they are, and how sophisticated, and how open-minded.

Of course, the other day, they recited the entire You-tube video "Charlie the Unicorn" all the way home.  So, they have their weird days, too.

In knitting news, well, there's not so much.  I did rip out the Monkey sock, but I kept the twisted ribbing.  I just did a plain, stockinette sock.  It was all I could concentrate on last week.  We had a ton of appointments, and there was lots of waiting around for kids, and several meetings, and I just couldn't do a pattern.

I would love to post photos, really I would.  But it's Sunday morning, and on Sunday morning when both kids are on the computer and our network has everything moving at a crawl, Typepad just won't work with me.  I'll be lucky if this post goes through.

Pics later, I promise.

I did not cast on immediately for the second blue sock.  I had some Fleece Artist merino in the colorway "midnight" that I just had to wind up and start a sock with.  "Midnight" is an awesome colorway.  I had thought I would make a pair of socks for my husband, since on first glance the yarn looks like several shades of brown and gray.  But as I looked at it more, and in several different lights, I saw that it also has some very subtle blues and blue-grays, and purples in there.  So, I changed my plan and decided to knit a fancier woman's sock with it. 

I'm calling this my own design, but really it's something many have done before.  I'm knitting top-down, starting with a hemmed picot edge.  Then the cuff will be vine lace.  It is one of my favorite lace patterns, because it looks complex, but it is very, very easy.  I would like to continue the vine lace down onto the top of the foot, but I will decide that when I get there.  I haven't decided what kind of heel to do yet, either, but I'm leaning toward short rows.  I will probably do that, and see if it fits okay.

So far, I have done the hemmed edge and have completed two repeats of the vine lace.  I'm liking it so far.  The yarn knits up beautifully!  Looks much prettier knitted than in the skein.  I had a little trouble getting the vine lace going in the round, but now it's good, and I can "see" how the pattern should go.

In blog land, I'm lusting over Cara's green Katherine Hepburn Cardigan .  Oh, I want to make that!  Isn't it beautiful?  But I still have poor neglected Ariann on the needles, which I bought new yarn to make.  And I don't have anything in the stash that will do for the KH.  So, (sigh) I must wait.

Two -- Count 'em -- TWO socks!

EFF OH, baybee!

Oh, yeah, I know most people finish two socks before breakfast every day, so maybe my excitement is misplaced and inappropriate.

But -- I finished TWO socks!  Dos sockas (as we non-Spanish speakers say).

Here is the pair:
And here is the lovely foot model shot:

These are in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in the colorway Black Purl.  I knit them top down making it up as I went along.  I used size U.S. #1 dpn's.  I cast on 74 stitches and did a little k2, p1, k2, p3 rib I stole from the "Country Socks" in Nancy's Bush's Folk Socks.  Then I continued in plain stockinette.  I had planned to do some ribbing down the leg, but the colorway was so interesting, that I just did them plain.  I decreased  twice down near the ankle (down to 70 stitches) and did an almost plain stockinette heel flap.  I did three stitches in garter stitch at each edge of the heel flap, like in the Embossed Leaves pattern.  Makes picking up the stitches easy.  Did a regular ole heel turn, picked up stitches, and then did gusset decreases until I got back down to 74 stitches.  About mid-way of the foot, right at the arch, I decreased once (2 stitches) down to 68.  I don't know the names of all the different kinds of toes, I just did one I thought looked good and kitchenered the end together.

This was my first time to use Shepherd Sock, and I liked it a lot.  The fabric feels great, and the colors are lovely.  The yardage was awesome, and I could actually have made these a little longer.

Next up are Monkey socks in Claudia's Handpainted that I ordered from the adorable Sheri at  The Loopy Ewe.  It is so awesome to order yarn from someone who writes little hand-written notes on your packing slip and sends along little gifties in the package!  And it came in, like, no time!

Here's Monkey, the first:

It's looking tiny to me.  This might be a ripper.  (Gah.  All that twisted rib, in vain.)

On the non-knitting front - the 12 year old is sick.  Fever, barking cough, congestion, the works.   The doctor said yesterday there's lots of flu going around in this age group, but the fever didn't seem high enough, and the throat didn't seem sore enough.   But today, the fever is higher, and raging headache has come on.  We may be back at the doctor tomorrow.