I'm running late (surprise, surprise) on mailing out my last Secret Pal package, so I'm not going to do the Great Reveal until I mail it (most likely the day or two after I mail it, so when she comes here it's easy for her to see the post *grin*)

*hyperventilates*

Brief non-knitting content: Hell Hath Frozen Over. I'm surprised New England still exists after last night.

Back to knitting. I even have pictures today, since I bought new batteries for my camera. (Finally switched to rechargeables. Happiness.) Since my Powerbook does so well at modeling (I mean, it *is* dead sexy...well, for a computer anyway), it continues to show off the knitting for me.

First, proof that I've completed half a pair of gloves:

I'm finished with the cuff of glove #2 by now. I wish I could have gotten some detail of the cabling on the back, but with such dark yarn, it doesn't show at all.

Now, a beautiful swath of ribbing:

Need to start the cable section tonight while I do laundry.

And ruffles:

This is my baseball knitting...but baseball's over. So I have to save it for April and the beginning of baseball season again, right? :-)

Have to send out my last Secret Pal package today. I can't believe it's almost November...I'll have to sign up for SP4 in January.

Project update (w/o pictures)

Here's an update on the projects I have going right now:

Pinup Queen: Still crawling along on the sleeves. Possibly a third of the way there. This will be my priority this week.

DNA Scarf: Finished the ribbing Friday, yay! Time for more cabling, double yay! This week this will be my "I'm sick of 2x2 ribbing" project (in other words, when I get bored of the sweater).

Grandfather Gloves: Cast on for glove #2 on the bus today. Good portable project.

Ruffles: I'm still going. It's about a foot and a half or so now. This is my baseball watching project, because I don't have to look at it much when I'm working on it.

I know, I know, I'm fairly boring today. Happy Monday to me. I'll post pictures later today most likely.

Still trying to find a pattern for the *censored* for Mom. I might just have to design it myself. I've still got a couple of months....crap! Christmas is exactly two months from today! *gets cracking* Mom, have you told Debbie about this blog? Basically, can I talk about her Christmas present here or no? Because that's the next one on my list.

GO SOX!

I know, I know, Sox != knitting. I just had to get that out. I'm a rabid Red Sox fan, and just so excited that they're going to the World Series for the first time since I was 7. My grandfather must be thrilled. (And the fact that they beat the Yankees to do it....*blissful sigh*)

Anyway. Back to yarn-al pursuits. First off, the gift my Secret Pal sent me:

Mmm, Sockotta. And isn't that little sheepie the cutest?

I've actually been trying to teach myself how to crochet lately, and here is one of the fruits of that:

My very first granny square, made out of freaky colored Red Heart! (How the heck do you weave ends into crochet?) Go me! I totally want a granny square scarf.

My Powerbook continued to model for me, and here is my progress on DNA:

Alpaca is so very very soft. I did about half an inch on the ribbing last night, but I plan to get some good work on it in today

Since this picture, the glove has gained a thumb. Now to avoid SGS (Second Glove Syndrome):


I need a picture of Ruffles. It looks kind of cool in the variegated yarn.

I've been teaching my friend Amanda how to knit, and she's been doing so well! Her first practice swatch turned into a scarf of alternating bands of stockinette and reverse stockinette. She was wearing it last night, and I wanted to get a picture, but I was too distracted by the baseball game. She's working on ribbing now, and getting a little frustrated. Took me a while to get the hang of ribbing though too. She does really well at remembering to bring the yarn between the needles rather than over them, but she tends to lose count and doesn't really have the hang of recognizing her stitches. (Doesn't help that she's trying to use dark colored yarn...I might have to bring her something different.) It's so cute though...she's working on it every chance she gets. *squee*

Feel my pain :-(

X-posted to the LJ knitting community.

I'm KIPing on campus while waiting for a friend to get out of class...I'm working on a glove (my first ever, but I digress). I only brought the skein of yarn with me that was attached to the glove, as I didn't think I'd get much time to work on it today.

Lo and behold, I have only the thumb left, which is a good thing, right? Except....

I have 4 feet of yarn left. No way will that make a thumb...will it?

And the fact that I can ALMOST get a glove out of a single skein of this yarn....doubly annoying.

I wanted to post some pictures....

But of course I left my camera home. Bah. All I really had was a progress pic of the Grandfather Gloves. The cable doesn't come out on the pictures, since the yarn I'm using is charcoal gray.

Eyeleen: I'm using Silk Garden #84. It's the red/pink/orangey one. Don't expect pictures of Rosedale for a long while...there are way too many things ahead of it on the queue! :-) I'm thinking that I might have enough left to make matching gloves or a headband. Yay for sets!

Frogged the experimental Splash scarf. It wasn't coming out right. I'm actually tiring of Splash a bit. It feels nice knit up, and I did just find the yellow variegated at the LYS, but garter stitch is TEH BORING. After I knit up the yellow, I might put the other balls I have on eBay. Novelty yarn in general is just....eh.....to me right now. I suppose that's a sign that my knitting sensibilities are growing up. (Despite the yellow Fun Fur I bought at Walmart yesterday. Anyone seeing a trend in my color choice? I like yellow, and it gets so gray here in the winter that bright accessories are good for cheering myself up.) So instead I started another experimental scarf, totally not expecting to like it at all, but I do. I was looking through Scarf Style (wonderful book, BTW) and saw the ruffle scarf. I don't like ruffles. I'm not a girly girl, but I was reading through the instructions and they were just not making sense in my head. So I started it. And it's some nice easy knitting, but not boring like garter. The short rows give me just enough difference to make me not want to stick the needles in my eyes from sheer boredom. But I don't have to look at it...heck, I did about a foot during Saturday's dismal Red Sox game. I don't know if I'm going to keep it or find someone to gift it to. But it's soothing.

Worked on the gloves and the Endless Sleeves last night. I know, I know, it was smart to do both sleeves at once, but lord, it seems like they aren't getting any bigger! I'm almost done with the middle finger on the first glove too.

Gonna put some stuff on eBay tonight when I get home. Or maybe this afternoon...since the pics are on the computer. Christmas is coming up....need gift money.

Only another knitter would understand.

I have a bunch of Silk Garden from eBay a few months back that I have reserved for making Rosedale whenever I have the time. I decided to order a few more skeins (also off eBay) in case I wanted to make the next size up...I figured I could use them for half of the corrugated ribbing or the intarsia or whatever. I was putting them away today (finally taking them out of the Priority Mail envelope!) and decided to hold one up against the original set to see how different they were. They were remarkably similar, so for the hell of it I checked dye lots, even though there was no WAY they'd be the same, right?

THEY TOTALLY WERE!!!! *squee*

I know...the strangest things make me happy.

Pictureless post

I found two more UFO's. One is an experimental Splash scarf...I'm knitting it up in purse stitch to see what it ends up doing. The other is a simple garter stitch bag made from Plymouth Turino Silk. They were lurking in the bottom of my project bag. Silly them.

Got a package from my secret pal today. It contained a drawstring bag made by Amy of Boogie Knits with a sheep on it and a ball of blue and teal Sockotta. I love me some Sockotta. Enough cotton to be cool, enough wool to be resilient. Now I really have to get with the making of the socks. Thank you secret pal!

I ended up frogging the ribbing of the DNA scarf and starting over. Sarah had some excellent advice in her latest entry about different styles of knitting when knitting ribbing, and I tried them all out...the Reverse Combined Knitting (as I call it...wrapping your knits backwards and purling TBL) was slightly neater, but not enough to really make a huge difference. Now I'm just really watching the tension and knitting tighter than usual, and it looks like any weirdness using this method will block out fairly easily.

Making some progress on the Grandfather Gloves. I'm done with the ribbing, and I'm setting up the cable and increasing for the thumb gusset now. There's a chance I'll get all my Christmas knitting done before Thanksgiving! (This statement is going to come back and haunt me later, right?)

Need to experiment with the Cousin Afghan. The pattern I chose uses two different colors, and I want to see if the dark gray Homespun I already have works with the Mission before I go out and find a different accent color for it. I really need to get this afghan done and sent out...it's a graduation present from this past summer! *blush*

One FO and one half-FO

First off, a message: Secret Pal, you still out there? I haven't heard from you for almost a month and just wanted to make sure you're okay.

Now for the FO:

Yes, the socks are both the same size, just one seems to be folded over on itself. They're from just under one skein of Colorado Yarns Knitaly (100% superwash wool), on sz 6 needles.

And this picture is already out of date:

Since I took it, I've finished the first cabled end and gotten about a third of the way into the ribbing. Which I might have to frog...my ribbing looks like ASS. My transitions between knit and purl are horribly sloppy and loose. Anyone got any solutions to that?

And one more thing.....

I NEED yellow Fun Fur. (2 different links....2 different shades of yellow.) Must. Have.

I'll most likely pick some up while out with Kelly tomorrow. I saw it at Walmart a bit ago....

Well, damn.

Amazing what I can do when I put my mind to it. I told myself that I was going to do another repeat of the DNA scarf last night, so I could be on track to start the ribbing this weekend...by the time I put it down, I'd done over a repeat and a half and only stopped so I could go eat omelets with friends. That's 3 1/2 done. I'm hoping to finish the cabling tonight and start the ribbing. I'm into the second ball of yarn now, and I actually spliced the ends together to join the new ball. Yay, no end weaving! Question though...is there a secure way to splice cotton yarn? This is alpaca, and the splice felted together slightly, which is the only reason I trust it to stay secure.

Almost done with Ernest's socks too. Yay! They're getting boring...yep, more stockinette in the round. I have maybe an inch to go before starting the toe. That should be finishable on the bus today (especially if I go to the yarn store like I'm considering...no, I don't need yarn, but I like to pet things and say hi to the ladies who work there).

Got a package from Herrschner's yesterday, containing yarn for my cousin's afghan (8 skeins of Homespun in Mission....I know, I know, I'm going to be swearing in such a way that a sailor will be impressed by the time I'm done), some Crystalites crochet hooks, and some Patons Divine for a sweater I've been drooling over in Hip Knits. So very fuzzy. It's...pink. Yes, I seem to like pink all of a sudden. Someone tell me what's going on in my head!

Oy. Oy indeed.

Ugh, apparently now that school has started I only end up blogging once a week. Not exactly what I had in mind for this thing. I've been knitting a little bit, I suppose not enough to blog about.

I'm up to 2 repeats on the DNA scarf:


With any luck I can get 3 more repeats done by the weekend, so I can work on the ribbing while SnB'ing with Meaghan and Shana.

I have 2 more inches of Ernest's Sock #2 before starting the toe (no picture here). I've decided that Roger's socks will involve 1) a short row heel, 2) different ribbing on the leg, and 3) a less pointy toe. I may just have to design them myself. Maybe a mini-twist rib. Something a little more exciting than 2x2.

And I worked on sleeves for Kelly's sweater. I'm going to get through them soon. WIthin the next week or two. The thing I'm worried about with this sweater is finishing. I'm horrible at mattress stitch, and I hate sewing, so I hurry through it. Hopefully there's someone local-ish who can help me.

Next projects on my plate:
Gloves for my grandfather
*censored* for my mom (that's right Mom, you're not going to get a hint from my knitblog about what you're getting for Christmas!)

Those two projects won't take long. Though I'm tempted to make half of the pair of gloves I plan to make myself, just so a gift glove isn't the very first one I make. (How's that for rationalizing knitting for myself?)

Taught a friend to knit over the weekend, which makes me incredibly happy. It's a friend who I never guessed would ever want to learn, but it's because one of her classes is doing a service project that involves charity knitting. Found out the other day that another friend is toying with the idea of learning as well. Oh-so-very happy.