Sunday, May 17, 2009

I've just cast on some basic, self-striping socks for my upcoming longest-car-ride-ever. My grandma passed away Saturday morning and we have to drive 750 miles to get there for the funeral.

I can't decide if it speaks poorly of me or well of the healing nature of knitting (one reason I love knitting so much is because it calms me. most of the time.) that one of my immediate thoughts upon learning we had to drive (stupid airline prices!) was "Crap! I'm not working on anything currently that is good travel knitting!" Hence, the socks. Then I remembered I have a drop-stitch shawl that I can bring too. Still, socks I can just shove in my purse too.

And this whole situation made me laugh because really? I'm not going to have a lot of knitting time. I'd like to think I could knit the entire journey in the car, but I know I'll have to pull out all the stops for The Toddler who is not going to be happy that he's strapped into a car seat for 12+ hours. But, god, I never want to run out of knitting when I go somewhere. I'm a light packer otherwise. :D

Sunday, May 10, 2009

knittng i've been up to

I got two pairs of infant socks and one hat done for afghans for Afghans. The stuff had to be received by the 15th, so I wanted to ensure I got it mailed out in plenty of time (sent it Friday). I probably could've got one more pair of socks in there if I'd really cranked them out, but I'm happy I got to do what I did. I'll definitely be knitting for their organization again.

Meanwhile, all other projects are on hold while I do some knitting for some friends who could use some pick-me-ups! I completed one sock this morning and will cast on the second tonight for one friend. I'm trying to crank these projects out relatively quickly so they are timely! So I'm being pretty project-monogamous at the moment so I can get one done after another and get them to their recipients.

There will be another baby blanket to knit soon also! A close friend of mine just found out she's expecting again. And she's already almost halfway along! It was a very unexpected and unplanned pregnancy, so she was in a bit of denial. I'll find out soon what sex it will be then I'll have to buy some yarn for that (I do have some leftovers for both sexes from the last two blankets I did, which is handy). Her daughter won't be quite two when this baby comes (!!), so I am thinking of knitting her a stuffed toy, as well. I've wanted to do a stuffed toy for quite some time, but have never been able to justify the effort for my own kid lol. Plus, I've always thought it was thoughtful when folks give gifts to the elder siblings too, especially when they're so young. It's not fair that the new baby gets everything!

For Mother's Day, I received a Knit Picks gift certificate (whoo hoo! I can never get enough of those!). I think I've chosen what I want, so will place my order sometime this week, probably. I really want to try out their new City Tweed, so I've found a project that I think it will suit nicely. I considered holding on to it for a bit, but eh, why wait? ;) I also sold some more yarn on Etsy today, so am going to put that money toward some lace blocking wires. I have some serious lace knitting planned for the near future, so I'd like to have those on hand.

As soon as the little guy wakes up from his nap, we're off to my parents for mom's day dinner - takeout of our choice! A Happy Mom's Day to all the moms out there!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

the wonders of knitting

Knitting made me clean this weekend. Yes, you heard that right. I wanted to CO for my friend's afghan this weekend. The recommended needle size was way too small for the yarn I'm using (this was shocking because I usually have to go down several needle sizes to get gauge in a pattern).

So I went looking for my size 15 circular - nice and big and should've done the trick. It wasn't that long ago that I used it for a project, but the place where I keep it (do not ask me why I kept this one singular needle in a separate place from all my other needles) came up empty. I double checked to make sure I didn't have a rogue UFO using it and came up with a decided "no".

I peeked under the couch. And was horrified. Who KNEW so much stuff could accumulate under a couch?! Not to mention the mounds of dog fur and various food odds and ends, I uncovered old magazines, a couple of missing DPNs, a few darning needles, a CD case, a couple of Scoot's books and a few toys too! Alas, no size 15 circ.

It was so repulsive under the couch that I had to bust out the vacuum and suck up the funk. I checked under and in a few more pieces of furniture (including the couch cushion, almost as repulsive) until the cleaning end of this search got to me. Hey! Wasn't this supposed to be a knitting-related activity?

Never did find those needles though. William has a habit of stashing things, which usually turn up months later, so they'll turn up eventually. Yesterday, I went and bought a size 17 circular to do the job in the meantime.