Mikknit

I am knitting a pink hedgehog. The things we do for our kids… I’ll have a picture tomorrow (I hope).

As I’m knitting this, I keep giggling to myself, thinking that maybe it needs to be sent to Ron Jeremy. *snicker*

Battery’s almost dead, gotta go offline. Goodnight!

This has been a heck of a week, so I’m unwinding with some of Chris’s homebrew - some cranberry wheat beer. Yum. And when the cranberry wheat keg was blown, I was poured some mustard-peppercorn ale - lovely!

Of course since I’m a lightweight when it comes to drinking, the beer has left me unable to do much more than stockinette stitch. Good thing I’m done with the ribbing on this sock! I finally finished the first of the Opal Flamingo socks I started last month after it had languished for a goodly amount of time. I think I’d originally decided that it was too baggy around the ankle and needed to be undone. Of course I’d discovered this after turning the heel, so I abandoned it a while to think about it. When I picked it up again and tried it on, it fit just fine. I hope this doesn’t mean my ankles and calves have grown since then…

I was finishing up the toe of the sock over at our neighborhood coffee shop this afternoon, when a young woman walked through and asked me what I was making. I held it up and told her that it was a sock. Her comment? “Man, that’s a huge sock!” Why yes, I do have gigantic flipper feet, thanks for noticing. Undeterred, I finished the knitting shortly and put it away to await a time when I could use my full brain to kitchener the toe. And a time when I had the danged needles with me. Nevermind that I was about 20 feet from a yarn shop where I surely could’ve borrowed a needle to do the kitchener and that kitchener is so ingrained into my brain that I could ostensibly do it with my eyes closed. It’s done now, regardless.

Purchased some yarn for chopper liners for my grandpa - some superwash ragg yarn, grey and black. It’ll be lovely knit up and warmer than the thin cotton liners that came with them. And machine washable because he said it would be nice but not crucial. Maybe I’ll get that started for when I need something a little less socky.

The Cherry Tree Hill scarf is on hold - I’m not too thrilled with the drop-stitch pattern. It’s just too fiddly and slow for my liking. I’m going to have to figure out something though, maybe flip through my Barbara Walker stitch treasury and find something lacy and pretty. I did promise to knit this scarf for my friend’s mom, so I should get on it posthaste.

Time to get off the computer, knit, and watch Anthony Bourdain. Love Anthony Bourdain! I’ve been a fan ever since I read an excerpt of his book Kitchen Confidential that was published in the New Yorker in 1999 or 2000 - right when I was really starting to think I could pull off the working in a restaurant kitchen thing (I couldn’t). I still love the books and Tony, though.

Yesterday I alluded to today being a very special day. Well, a year ago today, there was a baby born in my dining room. Today, he is a walking, woofing, cute-as-heck, fiesty little boy. Where did my baby go?

Shortly after birth, getting to know my (not so) little guy. He was 9lb 2oz, born 16 days after his due date after a 2.5 hour or so labor. Whee!

This morning - it’s really tough to get a picture of this kid. He doesn’t smile until after the flash has gone off, the stinker.

I finished sockapaloooza sock #2 last night, hooray! I just need to block it and then I’ll get a picture of them before I wrap them up to be sent. I still need to find a postcard to tuck in with them, though. We’re going to the zoo today, so hopefully I can remember to buy one there.

Both of the Nantasket Baskets got finished and felted in time, but both need at least one more trip through the washer - they’re a little floppy yet. I ended up using some dark green WoolPak 8-ply that was left over from another long-ago project, as well as some purple Cascade 220 left over from Grace’s Wonderful Wallaby. I’m planning to toss those in the washer before we leave today, hopefully I’ll remember. Being woken at 6am after a night of restless sleep does not do well for my memory.

I’m rather at a loss for a project now. I started a lacy scarf in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock last night, but it’s not an easy mindless pattern. I need to rip my sweater out completely because I goofed up the increases more than I thought, but I need quiet and concentration to figure out just how many stitches I need to have. That’ll be a while. I have a sock I was working on but abandoned due to bagginess, but I may just rip that back to the ribbing and do some more decreases. Not sure yet. I should figure something out though - it’s fairly likely that one or both kids will fall asleep on the way home from the zoo and I’d like to have something on hand to knit. I suppose I could just go rifle through the stash and grab something, too. We’ll see.

Tomorrow’s a very special day! Anyone want to guess why?

I had to close this post to comments - I’ve been getting an unholy amount of spam comments on it and it. is. driving. me. nuts.

I finished Sockapaloooza sock #1 Sunday night, but it’s taken me until now to upload my pictures and post. Something about chasing after a nearly one-year-old walking baby and dealing with a 3 year old’s well, 3-year-old-ness…

Anyhow.

Here’s Sockapaloooza sock #1 in all its glory:

I love how it turned out! So pretty. And jeez, do we need to paint the back porch or what? Or replace it… Ugh.

Now, in a fit of what appears to be insanity, I decided on Monday that I would knit two Nantasket Baskets for the kids’ Easter baskets. No problem, I should’ve been able to crank one out in two days. Then I went to bed at 9 on Tuesday and couldn’t find the orange yarn I wanted to use for basket #2 last night. Bugger. So basket #1 is done and waiting to be felted, basket #2 not even started. I *hope* to get this felted today, but seeing as I sometimes have a hard time even keeping the diapers washed, I’m not too hopeful that I’ll get down to the basement.

Here’s the Nantasket Basket pre-felting:

Lamb’s Pride Worsted in Lotus Pink and Aztec Turquoise. Recognize these colors from another project? I think Grace might have a favorite color combination, just maybe.

And finally, I got time to ply the $2 Romney! It’s so nice and soft and a pretty cream color. I haven’t calculated yardage yet, but I’m guessing around 500 yards or so. No clue what I’ll do with it, but I’m thinking about dyeing it. I suppose once I figure out a project for it, I’ll think about a colorway.

And a close-up:

And now, off to run errands! And it looks like it’ll rain anytime now. Great, I guess our playgroup won’t be at the park today…

How many days ago did I promise you pictures? Eesh. I think I need someone to nag me and keep me on my toes. In my defense, it was an outside-all-day kind of day on Wednesday, so no knitting then, and it rained yesterday, so the light sucked for taking pictures. But today it’s pretty outside but cold & windy. So here we are:

The $2 Romney, spun and wound into center-pull balls. Just waiting for me to have time to ply it. When will I get time to do that? Good question.

This is what I did Tuesday night. It’s KnitPicks dye-your-own sock yarn, dyed with Wilton dyes.

This is what I’m doing with that sock yarn - it’s for my Sockapaloooza socks. The pattern is Elfine’s Socks, and it’s a leaf lace pattern. I figured the yarn needed to represent the various colors of new leaves, and I think it does that fairly decently. I love how it’s knitting up!

I haven’t yet ripped my sweater back, since I have so little time to work on the Sockapaloooza socks. I’ll get back on that once I’ve got the second sock in progress, hopefully. I love working with the Silky Wool, so I’ve got to get these socks knit up fast!

I’m working on a top-down raglan (a la Barbara Walker) for myself in Silky Wool. Lovely stuff, a delight to work with, should be lovely to wear. However, I’ve gotten carried away with the raglan increases and now have an extra 5″ or so worth of stitches. Great. So I get to rip back a ways, lucky me.

Although now this means I can just concentrate on the v-neck increases and get on with it. Yay, sorta!

Think I’ll just put this away for now & spin tonight. I want to finish up my $2 Romney so I can spin the contents of the package I got from PippiKneeSocks last week. So. Gorgeous. I love her stuff!

I decided to order the Peace Fleece in Sakhalin Salmon - the red was just too nice to pass up. It’ll be nice to have a sweater that color during the dreary MN winter, I think. I also ordered some batting in Firebird Orange. Love it!

Pictures of random things tomorrow!

I’m going to place an order for some Peace Fleece shortly, I think the co-op closes tomorrow. I’m trying to decide what color I want - I usually wear reds/orange/greens, occasionally brown and black.

I like Sakhalin Salmon, Siberian Midnight, Baikal Superior Green, and Hemlock.

I’m leaning toward either Sakhalin Salmon or Baikal Superior Green right now. I wonder if my attraction to the Baikal Superior Green isn’t partly because I miss Lake Superior so much…

Anyone want to weigh in on this and make my decision a little easier?