so casting on for socks won.

and i knit the first one in 14 hours. which is super fast for me.



i think i was feeling a bit deprived.

it's some joann's sensations soles and more in the pink/grey/purple colorway that my inlaws got me for christmas. 75% wool 25% nylon. it's very nice in general and awesome for inexpensive sock yarn (well, at least i think it's inexpensive. it was a gift so i don't know for sure, but last time i checked joann's doesn't sell $20 sock yarn.) a tidge scratchy, but my feet don’t care….and it’s super warm, which i love. the colors go really well together (very me) and i can’t put the damn things down.

i've always kind of turned my nose up at plain socks in self striping yarn. my first sock was a pair of jaywalkers (that don't really fit well) in fake isle self striping sockotta. after i finished those, self striping yarn didn't really interest me. i think i had a block about it, that should've "moved on" past "easy" socks. besides, i can just buy plain socks. plain socks are boring.

yeah....turns out i love plain socks in self striping yarn. at least i love them when my brain is tired, which definitely was this weekend. my husband got in a car accident the day after christmas. he's fine (thank God) but the car, unfortunately, is not. needless to say i was really glad to have something soothing on the needles that i could just pick up and knit. and since it's terribly entertaining to watch the stripes appear, it made me happier. yes i'm easily amused.

mmmmm eating your words is yummy. :)

i've been on a bit of a podcast binge this month. the hosts of one of my new favorites, the knitmore girls, seem to knit a lot of these "vanilla" socks in self striping yarns. gigi talks about knitting her heels with the other end of self striping sock yarn balls. that way the patterns aren’t interrupted on the top of the foot, which appeals to her “design aesthetic.” :)

i didn't notice the pattern being interrupted on my first stripy socks so i didn't think it would bother me on this one. (i'm not exactly known for my attention to detail) turns out i didn't notice it on my sockotta socks only because the short row heel took exactly one pattern repeat to complete. with these, it's really noticeable (or maybe i'm noticing it because i've been listening to episodes back to back so it's been mentioned a few times). either way i'm going to try that on the next pair.

i've also had time to spin again. i'm 1/2 done with the merino madmoon sent in the cpaag swap.



it's getting easier and easier. i finally have the drafting thing somewhat down...i understand what's supposed to be happening even if i can't always do it, i'm not parking and drafting as much, and things are becoming more even. yay! i'm going to buy an ashford spindle set with some of my christmas money and ordered some fiber from the dizzy sheep the other day. i've definitely come to the dark side. i want my cookies!

otherwise i've just been enjoying not having anything pressing to knit. well, that's not entirely true. i found out on christmas that my SIL baby shower is going to be in the second week of january instead of february/march. my masochistic baby blanket (9 squares from the great american aran afghan) is kind of stalled right now....i burnt myself out doing four squares in a month. i informed her that her big present won't be ready by her shower. i think i'm going to make a ruby sweater to wrap up. or maybe just a hat and socks. we'll see how ambitious i get.

so i owe everyone (or all 10 of you that read my blog) some quiviut. although in my defense, there wasn't much more to post after the day i blogged....it poured for the next three days. we did have a wonderful bbq at my sister's house during one of the breaks in the rain, complete with awesome food, family, laughter, a ukelele playing friend and another who does fire dancing. it was like our own personal luau. :)

and i finished my socks.



since then i've been a gift knitting machine. i have dubbed this year insanity gift fest 2008 because i had the absolutely nutty idea to knit/crochet things for my entire list. well, all the adults anyway. *headdesk* i made things for the baby neices and nephews as well but those items have been done for a while. and the older ones, the kids who are at the "santa brings toys! yay!" stage got store bought presents.

surprisingly though, i am not stressed at all over this prospect. i have the attitude that if it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. i figure if worse comes to worse i'll stick my FO in a gift bag on christmas morning (or whenever i see the person), needles and all, let them unwrap it, then take it back. when they get their gift at the end of january, it will still be awesome and i will not have put undue stress on myself. this laissez faire approach has served me well...and i've managed to complete 90% of my list. (yes, i know you all hate me right now. but try it! it makes the whole process much nicer.)

i made crocheted beaded necklaces for my sisters and friends (7 in all, although i might make an 8th) using some seed pearls i found in hawaii and a veriaty of other beads and pearls from a local bead store.

i found the tutorial on youtube and really enjoyed making them. i think they're my favorite FO of this holiday frenzy which also includes the following:



pattern names from top to bottom: a hat fit for a boyfriend (i made 3), a hemlock ring blanket and a simple crochet skater beanie (which is actually the very bottom picture) all from ultra alpaca , a raleigh hills hat out of aslan trends invectia (LOVE), and my constant companion out of ella rae classic and galaway highland worsted. i also started an afghan for my mom from lion brand pound of love (her present was seeing the yarn i bought) and something for hubby (but i'm not sure if he reads this, so no more info that that). not to mention the pair of bulky weight mittens for myself because it freaking SNOWED here. at the beach. i know, i know. pics or it didn't happen:


anyway more info in my ravelry notebook (on my knitting, not the snow. all my gifts are tagged with insanitygiftfest2008).

i still want to make a pair of peekaboo mittens to match the aslan trends hat and the purse still needs a lining (which i have all the stuff for, just haven't sat down and done). after that i we'll see. i'm conflicted. i'm really on a hat kick and i've found a lot of great hat patterns in my search for gifts....but i don't wear hats. i also really enjoyed working with beads in the necklaces. i'd like to try beaded knitting and i have all the things required to make ice queen...but again, i would never wear it. so half of me wants to knit some of these really great patterns which would eventually be gifts. the other half wants to cast on socks for me. i'll probably do both.

the hard thing about not blogging often is when you do, you find seventygajillion things that are mention worthy....but then the entry ends up with teel dear running all over it. so i'll stop while i'm ahead. :)

hawaii. is. awesome.

i promise on quivit to blog more completely (and soberly) about it when i get home (not that anyone but ktb reads my blog) buuuut in the meantime i have timeshare presentation bribery money (because the free car wasn't enough) that i don't have time to spend at the hotel bar between now and when i check out on saturday....soooooo y'all get to listen to my rum induced ramblings. lucky you!

retail value on rum induced vacation ramblings? $9.95+tax. just so you know what a value you're getting. :) although really glad i'm not actually paying real money to access the internet right now....it's kicked me 5 times in the last hour.

as i've stated elsewhere 'round these parts ("these parts" = completely pointless and arbitrary group on ravelry....this started as a forum post and got out of hand) this is the longest i've gone without interwebs since i was 10.

hubster (who didn't get interwebs until moving out of his parents' house) finds my woe endlessly amusing. although, because of lack of wifi i finished three inches of cuff on a second-sock-that-makes-a-pair (plane) and all but 1 inch of cuff on a simple stockingette i-can-knit-this-whilst-drinking-and-talking tofutsies sock. tofutsies is awesome warm weather knitting by the way. don't know that i love the end product....but in sticky heat it can't be beat.

i experienced my first KIP (quasi-)discrimination at dinner tonight. it was from my closest, youngest, bluntest sister so it almost doesn't count. but on the other hand it's a Knitter rite of passage....so i'll blog it anyway :)

we went out to dinner as a family. and when i say we went out as a family....i'm talking 12 people. step-mom, daddy, husband, three sisters, brother, two babies, aunt, grandmother, sister's awesome roomie (one sister and roomie are local).

we ate at the plantation gardens and it was amazing. if you're ever in poipu, kauai it's definitely worth a look up. take the wiohai marriot turn off and follow the signs. we had awesome service, the food was amazing, and the drinks...well. someone was having fun when they came up with those. i had a cucumber mojito with local ginger....it came garnished with a mini cucumber salad.

so.

good.

they also have a green tea infused vodka "garden iced tea" that a few of my family members really enjoyed.

anyway. between ordering my amazing mojito(s) and waiting for the server to come back and take the dinner order, i pulled out my vacation sock. like i said earlier....simple stockingette. (tofuties color 727 (ravelry link) 72 stitches on size 2.5 susan bates aluminum needles.

because i tried to consolidate my knitterly packing, i only brought the wrong size needlesfor tofutsies. i mostly use 2.25mms with fingering weight. since i was already working on a pair of fingering weight socks i assumed i could just throw another fingering weight sock yarn into my carry one....because of course knitpicks fingering wool = tofutsies fingering wool blend. plus i'm new to knitting on dpns, which also changes my gauge. not to mention, i prefer magic loop. (another gauge changer)...but boomer dog ate the cables on my favorite 32' nickle plated knitpicks sock needles right before i left so i had to make do. (hopefully my replacement sock needles are there when get back)


erm. i bet you can see where this is going......

newbie sock knitter learning experience. sign up here!

it's turning out okay though. in a perfect world, with my gauge, i would knit tofutsies on 1.5mms or even 1 mms..... but i'm letting the aloha spirt lead me. both with my socks and with my story. :)

back to my sister:

sister: um. are you knitting?
me: yes.
hubster: it's kind of what she does.
sister: at the dinner table?
span style="font-weight:bold;">hubster: like i said, it's kind of what she does. you know what they say about idle hands.....
me: *smitten smile* besides, it's not dinner yet. we haven't even ordered.
sister: dood. you're weird.
me: you're saying that like it's new information.

meanwhile my certifiably crazy (srsly) grandmother was trying to interject. as soon as the conversation broke, she went off on a rant of the idle hands puritan morale leading to working your fingers to the bone for no pay off (tangible or intangible) which led to a one way discussion of the horrible treatment of slave laborers in the third world. oh. and republicans are evil incarnate and control the whole thing....including why i'm not pregnant yet and why my husband is a tool of the government. (this led to another smitten smile at hubster because when it comes to my gram and biting his tongue.....he bleeds like Jesus.)

no one on that end of the table got a word in edgewise for 10 minutes. thankfully i had a sock and my amazing cucumber infused mojito had arrived.

ooh. and yarn and tape measures? best. baby. distractions. ever.

i heart my family. times eleventy. :)


apparently this is my real smile. hubster is teasing me about my fake photo smile. waimiea shrimp shack 2pm 11/18


waimiea canyon national park. 3pm. 11/18 curvy-est road ever.





wiamiea canyon. 3pm. 11/18

these are the only pictures i've managed to load on the ridiculous cable internet that has now kicked me 22 times. yeah. i get a little OCD when i'm drunk. :)

like i said. i swear on quivit, more when i get home.

ALOHA!

i half half a squillion things to do on this cold, damp blustery day including but not limited to:

laundry
fighting the furball army from over taking my house (aka vacuuming)
laundry
packing for hawaii
laundry
dishes
paint my nails corally pink
laundry
finishing the heel of my sock
cleaning the computer desk
laundry

but what am i actually doing?

eating nutella from the jar
drinking hot coco cinnamon coffee
reading yarn harlot archives

mmmm. guilt tastes yummy.

i just fished an entire 8 quart tupperware container's worth of cat food out of the toilet. miss pheobe is getting spayed tomorrow, which means i put all the food out of reach of both kitties. seems brutus was not happy with this no food arrangement and took matters into his own hands.

it is never dull around here. so why can't i find anything to blog about? :)

(actually i'm pretty sure my lack of blogging is directly related to ravelry. i started this as a place to put pictures of my projects, keep track of ideas, notes, etc. except ravelry takes care of all that...and i'm too lazy to type it all twice.)

my foot is about 80% better. with the help of my industrial strength strappy brace thing (aka ninja foot) i'm relatively mobile and even back to waitressing 3x a week. yay!

it was slow today at work so i pulled out the garter stitch washcloth i always keep in my purse to work on. which of course led to a discussion about knitting. one of my co-workers asked if i knit every day...i had to stifle a laugh. and then i realized...amidst all my downtime this summer i somehow transformed from someone who knits into a capital K Knitter.

it's been coming on for a while now. i tried watching the 2nd season of heroes last week but couldn't...because subtitles mean no knitting and i kept getting anxious about wasting time. in realized i didn't have to buy any books for my upcoming hawaii trip because i have a stack waiting for me to put down the knitting and read them. the last few books i have read were pattern/technique books or audio. i knit everywhere...and people don't even comment on it anymore because it's just expected that i do so. if i meet someone new and they ask about my knitting, whomever i'm with answers with "it's just what she does" before i can even start to reply.

and i'm getting pretty darn good at it too. i can do tricksy patterns and read charts, cable and work in laceweight. it's pretty amazing that in about six months i've gone from this (which took about 15 hours):


to this:

(same sock pattern...modified slightly because i can. and about 8 hours for the whole set)

from needing a pattern to make a stockingette baby blanket with seed stitch trim to tackling an aran afghan for the next baby born in our family. (which i just finished another panel for...4 down, 5 to go!) from my family tolorating my knits because they're from me and made with love...to requesting things because they actually admire my work. from homemade to handmade.

it's nice to have a hobby. but it's so much more than that too. it's helped me feel creative for the first time ever...which means a lot when you come from a family of artists but can't draw to save your life. i can produce something in my free time. i can learn new techniques, excersize my brain, and actually excel at something despite a lack of natural talent (unlike the sports and music i tried as a youth). i am connected to a long line of women who kept home and hearth...even though i burn dinner and forget to dust.

hi. my name is meghan. i am a Knitter.

its kittens not knittins....but i'm sure you don't mind. they're cracking me up today.


baby kittehs are in a laundry basket that they’re quickly outgrowing. brutus (the biggest stripy-est one) is big enough to almost get over (he actually toppled over once today but he was using a sibling as a step stool.)

anyway earlier today he was trying to climb over again. he had his little paws hanging on the top while his bottom feet scrambled in mid air trying to connect with something and making a TON of noise.

enter mama kat.

she looked at him for a second then thwapped him (hard) upside the head. he was so startled he fell over onto his back and just laid there for a second!

he hasn’t tried to climb over again. :)

fast forward to this afternoon. i'm sitting here, waiting for the new version of windows media player to load (so i can instanetflix dr who) when i hear this horrible shrieking kitten wail come from the basket. i lean over to check (only slightly panicked) to find that while mama has little brutus pinned down giving him a bath (concentrating mostly on the back end of things) one of his sisters decided that was the perfect time to nom his head with her pointy little bebeh teefs!! i've been on the receiving end of those teefs in the last couple days....i really feel the little guy's pain.

poor bebeh! it's just not his day.



(brutus is on the far left. i'm not going to admit that any of the others have names because i'm not supposed to be getting attached.)

unlimited knitting time for the next six to eight weeks? sounds like a dream right?

i. am. so. bored. curse you klutziness!!

not bored with knitting per se. but with sitting and pain and my house and immobility and all those other things that make it hard to concentrate on (let alone ENJOY) what you're doing.

i've been on bed rest since the 7th from a chipped and fractured talus bone. it's the bone that forms a big part of your ankle joint between the tibia, fibia and "heel" bones. (the heel bone has another name, calsomething....but i don't remember and you don't really care. in case you do google is your friend.)

long story short: as i left my niece's adorable pirate/peterpan (ie tinkerbelle) themed birthday party at an adorable pirate themed restaurant, i missed a step/tripped over my own feet and took a spectacular fall. could only have been better if i walked a plank. really. i wish i'd walked a plank...at least that's a better story. the sad truth is i've been trying to master this walking thing for nearly 25 years and still don't quite have it down. i'm a bit slow.

luckly i probably won't need surgery. but i've been on bed rest for two weeks already and i'm looking at two more (although the conditions of the next two weeks of rest are far less restrictive). thank GOD almighty and baby Jesus too for my amazing supportive husband. he has been helping me from the first thirty seconds of this debacle onwards...everything from bringing me tea and changing the dvd at my every whim to explaining medical terms and calming my fears. not to mention putting up with my cranky butt (to my credit i'm making a HUGE effort to stay positive...and doing a kick ass job at it, if i do say so myself. and i do.)

he is caring and calm, patient and kind. i don't know what i would do without him. seriously. i can't even get to the bathroom alone (corralling dogs, unlocking doors, and moving random obstacles all whilst hobbling on crutches? near impossible alone. and painful.) i really wish i could clone him for my single friends.

another big shout out to casey, jess, mary heather and jeninmaine for ravelry in general and CPaAGg in particular. i'm sure they're all sick of hearing of my woe but at least they give me cake and entertain me when i'm too gorked out on pain or pain killers to be productive. i'm lucky to have found a place where productive is frowned upon. :)

on the bright side the boys' spiderman afghan for is nearly complete. the double crochet, skip two chain/two every once in a while pattern is about the only thing the percocet and pain have allowed me to concentrate on. i did decide to add an extra skien to the pattern though. partly as a time occupier for myself, partly as a fight prevention for my dear friend who is mother of said boys. i figure if the blanket is big enough (and the three little monster loves of my life are tired enough) everyone might consent to sharing.

one can dream, no?