now you don't. bu-bye charade sock! it was nice knowing you.
taking a page from laura's book, i decided that these charade socks were just not going to work out. this has nothing to do with the pattern (the pattern actually rocks hardcore) but with my execution. man-sized socks on 2.5mm needles would take me FOREVER to knit and the 72 stitches that i cast on were just not enough. i had KP try them on last weekend and they were tight and damned if i'm going to rip and re-cast on more than 72 stitches. looking back on my progress it took me months to get where i am (or was before i ripped). so my plan is to find thicker sock yarn that i can knit on US4 needles and make faster man-sized socks. any suggestions? i have nothing in the stash except for this that might fit the bill.
so socktoberfest has started and i thought, hey, now that i don't have the charade socks maybe i should gather up my sock yarn leftovers and make baby socks for the peanut! i have quite a few leftovers...
a little leftovers can go a long way
and i think that i can whip them up during october. i really want to try and do it seeing as i failed so miserably at project spectrum. at least i've been mainly knitting from my stash! what little i've knit..
except for this.. (you knew there was an "except" coming, right?) but it does lie within the rules. we're getting the nut baptized in late november and i thought it might be nice to make her a christening gown. one that i can dye when said christening is done and turn into a sweater for the winter and a keepsake for all time. i bought some filatura di crosa 501 on elann.com for a steal and have been knitting this up.
me, a model?
hard to tell in this photo (the peanut is not a good model.. she cries whenever i put this on her!) but it's a top-down raglan-type sweater dress. i got the basic idea from the february sweater and the rest i'm making up as i go along. don't ask for a pattern. i have no idea what i'm doing.
and in regards to my miters, they are just sitting on my couch. i'm enjoying the fairly mindless stockinette of the christening gown while watching "heroes" on DVD. oh god, i'm in love with that show! it's a nice cross between "LOST" and "the 4400". i'm glad i'll have something to watch this fall since none of my shows are coming back till 2008. i was smart enough (amazingly) to start recording this season on the DVR while watching last season on DVD. i should be done by the next week, methinks.
oh, and i'm thinking about starting a project for myself once i get through the majority of this christening gown. i'm thinking flair in artfibers ming. mmmmm, can't wait!
yes mommy!
the peanut approves!
p.s. i'm making adjustments to the full text feed RSS. admittedly, it's changes that i've wanted to do for a while and i'm just now getting around to it. i put comments in the RSS feed about a year ago as an experiment and i think that my experiment is now complete. if i were answering more questions in the comments, it would be a "value-add" as we call it in the business, but it's not. i generally write people back via email or amend the entry if there were more questions to be answered. so, as of today, the comments have been pulled from the full text feed. it will only update when the entry has been updated. i will still occasionally break up a long entry and make you click-through for the full entry but otherwise, you'll get it all! i'm sure this will come as a great relief to many of you ;) no need to thank me.
so here i am, back at my desk at work. it feels very strange. strange indeed. it was emotional for me this morning to look at my peanut and say good-bye, see ya later! at least KP is home for the month of august to take care of her. then we need to figure out what we'll do.
again with the hat!
she must have known that i was going back to work today and needed the sleep because for the first time in over a month, she slept well. we put her down for bed at 7:30PM with one arm out of the swaddle and her new blankie and we didn't hear from her until 3AM. i actually woke up at 2:30AM and thought, "is she alive?" i had to go look at her on the video monitor to make sure she was still breathing! for the past month she had been waking up at 11PM, 12AM, 3AM, 4AM, 5AM, and then around 6:30AM. it was grueling doing that every night. i wanted to cry every morning when i realized that i got a total of 4 hours of sleep and not even in a row. maybe she's turned a corner? i hope it's not a fluke.
tummy time
we've been trying to give her as much activity time as she can handle every day and tummy time is my favorite. why are they so darn cute during tummy time? she's rolled over once on her own and i think that it surprised her because i started cheering so loudly. she hasn't done it since.
mommy and peanut
she's my girl and i already miss her! (before anyone comments on how i look, please know that i photoshopped myself heavily. today is the first time i've worn makeup in a long time. what you see in the photo is .. let's say it's a digital fib.)
more photos in this flickr set. and of course, it wouldn't be a peanut-related post without a little video.
ok, on to the knitting! i now have 10 miters complete. i know, big deal, right? 10 miters. but the good news is that i already wove in the ends on them. yep. i'm industrious.
miters on the couch
i keep them in a pile on the couch and just add to them as i go along. i start miter #11 tonight and when i'm done with #12 i'm going to decide how big to make this thing all together. i'm thinking 3 large miter blocks across and 4 large miter blocks in length for a total of 48 miters. i need to look at my colors and decide if that's the best approach.
and i'm making progress on my charade socks. i knit on them on the ride into work this morning. wow, i forgot how much knitting i can get done on the train! notice how they are sitting on my 25th anniversary VK? the "collector's edition" that the post office decided to mangle? yeah. i hate our post office. bunch of lazy bastards. the same lazy bastards that delivered my harry potter book at 5PM on the day of its release. man was i in a bad mood that day!
there are other pictures i need to post of the spiders' bbq but that'll have to wait. gotta get back in the swing of things here. ugh. so many changes in the five months i was gone!
still no peanut, in case you were all wondering. my doctor says that i'm progressing (as of when i saw him on thursday) but otherwise, it may be a few more days. i go back to the city on tuesday (if she isn't on her way by then) to get a sonogram to see how she's doing in there, then i'll know if i need to be induced or not. in the meantime, i'm getting a lot of sitting done on the couch, and of course, knitting!
speaking of which, here's the monkey socks. all done.
love them. wearing them right now! i made sure to block them when i was done with them and it really opened up the pattern. i know it's hard to tell in these pictures though. the variegation of the koigu kind of obscures it, but i love it none the less. once again, sock #2 didn't pool either!
here are the heels.
love the short rows and will probably smack them on every sock from here on out. i have a little formula for making them look all neat and pretty which i'll put after the jump.
the toes turned out nice too.
these are just the standard decrease (ssk on the right side and k2tog on the left) toe and i turned the sock inside out at the end and did a three needle bind off. very comfortable.
so, to wrap up...
yarn: koigu kpppm (don't know the colorway, but obviously, browns and oranges) needles: 2.5mm addi turbos pattern:monkey socks by cookie a.
i'm now on to knitting some socks for KP. i've chosen the gentleman's sock with lozenge pattern from knitting vintage socks by nancy bush using the knitpicks sock yarn that i picked up from veronique. i will probably keep the toe on these but sub out the heel for my short row do-jobbie.
i also started a few mason dixon washclothes with some light green and white sugar and cream i have lying around. if you aren't familiar with these lovely washclothes, check out the MDK knitalong. i have no photos yet.
oh, but here's some yarn porn because i know you all love it.
this is the sunshine yarn that i bought on etsy this week. top: rampage triple dyed, bottom: camo.
by the way, i'm on the lookout/prowl for leftover skeins of tahki cotton classic to make a crocheted rippled afghan. unfortunately, i've totally caught the crochet bug (damn you joy!) but thought that i could put my kyoto leftovers to good use this summer if i can get more colors. if you have some you want to get rid of, let me know. we'll work out payment on a case by case basis.
