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

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!

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.

I've been feeling both must-knit-for-others and must-destash at the same time. Every so often long-planned, but not yet completed let alone started, projects start weighing down on my shoulders. I've found this tends to happen especially when my stash is getting a bit unwieldy (I've been buying lots of cheer-me-up yarn lately - mostly for specific projects). They buying finally caught up with me and I can't see buying any more yarn for awhile now (unless I need something for a specific gift).

I think I'm in the minority of knitters where I keep for myself a majority of what I knit. I don't have a lot of people in my life that I can knit for (that are grateful or appreciative, that is, and I only knit for those folks) and those that I do, I fear if I deluge them with knitting, they will either become sick of it or expect too much of it (lol). And I'm not great at knitting for a present months ahead of time (like I just can't bring myself to start Christmas knitting now).

In addition to my Earth Day bags, I'm also planning an afghan for a friend and some charity knitting. I especially want to do some stuff for Afghans for Afghans and some baby hats for the hospital my mom works at (not charity, per se, but unselfish knitting).

Part of the knitting-for-others has come from feeling the need for some good karma and kind deeds because of some craptasticness in life lately. Doing things for others always lifts the spirits.

Earth Day

We had absolutely miserable weather here yesterday. I'm big on traditions and one thing I wanted to do with Little Scoot was to do something on Earth Day each year. I think I'm relatively environmentally conscious, so I know that will be a quality that he learns. Maybe next year we'll be able to plant something or pick up garbage somewhere.

So for my contribution this year, I bought yarn. How, do you ask, does this contribute to Earth Day? Because I bought yarn to make BYOB bags - enough for four, I hope (three with coordinating colors - ie the MC of one bag is CC1 of another and CC2 of a third; and then I bought some multi-colored yarn for the fourth, where I'll probably skip the striping). I've wanted to make these since the pattern debuted, but just haven't felt (much) of a desperate desire to.

Well, I was inspired by Knit Picks' new Knit 1, Give 1 campaign to finally make those bags! I needed something a bit more economical though than the KP kits, which is why I went back to the BYOB. I chose Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn for its price and that it comes in tons of fun colors. If my planning works out as it should, I shouldn't have much in the way of leftovers.

I think the bags will make really great gifts for people (or add-on gifts, like using it in place of a gift bag or wrapping paper), since a lot of folks these days are more market-bag friendly. I've wanted to stockpile a few household-type knits for when I need a quick, small gift for someone, so this will be the start to that.

I personally bring as many of my own bags to the store as possible (I'm keeping one of the BYOB bags for myself!) and refuse bags if I get only a couple items that I can carry or stuff in my purse. When I do get plastic bags from stores, I find uses for them around the house when I can and if I can't, they get recycled.

so....that sock yarn stash plan?

And because I have no self control over yarn buying when I've had an absolutely miserable couple of days (It's my consolatory, self-pity thing. I have an especially crap time and buy yarn to make myself feel better. Some people eat. Some people buy shoes. Me? I splurge on yarn I wouldn't normally have purchased.)...I've gone and bought 16 skeins of sock yarn (that's 8 pairs of socks!). I was going to buy only one expensive (to me) skein (for one pair of socks), but instead decided to spend a bit more than twice as much and get 8 pairs of socks worth of yarn. It was all on sale. >_>

So, yeah. I basically just negated my plan to use up a large portion of my sock yarn stash this year. The good thing with this recent purchase is I definitely plan on using some of it for gifts and some of it could even be used for things other than socks.

socks, socks, socks

I have decided that this year I'll be doing my own monthly sock club, so to speak.

I possess sock yarn stash of mountainous quantities. I am one of those "sock yarn is not stash enhancement" folks. That means I buy a lot (too much?) of sock yarn. And I love knitting socks; they are one of my favorite projects to do. They are the reason I wanted to learn to knit. But it seems that socks always get shuffled way back on the queue of Things to Knit. The only reason I can come up with is maybe I think "Oh, pish, I can knit socks anytime" and pass over them when I'm contemplating a new project. I keep a pair of simple socks in my bag, but I don't get many opportunities to knit anywhere but at home anymore. Having to keep track of a very busy two-year-old will do that!

I've been on a real sock kick lately because I got a new book last month - Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarn, which is fabulous and inspired me to start knitting up some socks!

So, I decided to help quell the sock yarn "stash", I shall endeavor to knit one pair of socks per month this year. So far I've done these (January), these (February) and am working on these (sorry there's no photos of any of them up yet!).

These socks for my club will all be for me - socks for others (which I don't do a lot of), don't count. My other intention with doing this is to keep me motivated to knit socks so they don't fall by the wayside anymore.

yarn for sale

I have some hand-dyed sock yarn for sale on Etsy! Lots of different color combinations.

Check out my shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=58093

dyeing

I bought some bare sock yarn eons ago with the intention of dyeing it. I finally got around to it this week. Ohemgee it was so fun! There was a learning curve with this, but I'm happy with how it turned out for my first foray. In fact, I was so pleased, I bought more bare yarn and will dye it up when it arrives and I'm going to try my hand at selling it on Etsy. I'll post the info here when that's all set up (probably late next week). Worst case is that it doesn't sell and I've got some extra skeins of yarn to knit up and had some fun dyeing it!

But! Here are photos of my dyeing (I meant to photograph the whole process, but sort of forgot).

I keep the amount of chemicals in my house to a minimum, so buying a bunch of acid dyes didn't seem to fit into my philosophy on that. So, I chose to go the Kool Aid route. I also chose to use the microwave, because it seemed easiest.


I had to experiment with containers to find three that would fit in the microwave. Afterward, I remembered some smaller bowls I had and dontcha know they would've done the trick.

Part of the learning curve was the bleeding process. As you can see by the pink color, I actually ended up with a much larger chunk of that than I intended and it ended up nearly two different shades. However, I like the way it looks. There are also some white spots between colors where I anticipated more bleeding than their was.


And here are close-ups of the three colors I used. Strawberry:


Berry Blue:


And Lemon-Lime:


Here is the yarn twisted into a skein.



Finally, here is the yarn after I re-wound and skeined it to make it look prettier.

newfound loves

1. Garter stitch. After knitting two blankets, being on my third and have yarn and planned for a fourth, it is safe to say I cannot get enough of miles upon miles of garter stitch. I get a hell of a lot of knitting done when I really don't have to think about what I'm doing. Those 47 million times during the day when I have a spare 30 seconds I can pick up my knitting and knit 12 stitches and not have to worry about where I'm leaving off. Ah, bliss. And then I can crank through it after the wee one goes to bed and I am watching TV.

2. Mufflers. Of the kind you wrap around your neck, not the car variety. On a whim yesterday because of our so-cold-it-hurts-to-breath temperatures this week, I decided to knit Scoot a wee scarf. I found a muffler pattern, which would be a cozy muffler on an adult, but makes for an even cozier scarf for a tot. (I refuse to take him outdoors in these temperatures unless absolutely necessary, but unfortunately he starts a class on Friday, so alas, we shall have to venture out.) Scarves are not generally the done thing for toddlers since they're likely to strangle themselves with one, but tucked into his jacket for quick jaunts outside, I suspect he'll survive. I finished it up tonight whilst watching Brideshead Revisited (the new one, not the miniseries version) and decided to wrap it around my own neck because I was freezing (despite being wrapped up in layers upon layers) and Lo. I think I need to make a muffler for myself for wearing around the house. Much less get-in-the-way-y than a scarf. I also envision wearing mine to bed at night to keep me toasty (and again, lacking the strangulation factor of wearing a scarf to bed).