love is all you need

The other night at Knit Knite, I was happily chugging away on my ripple afghan when it started to dawn on me that I had a very small amount of the yarn I was working with left. I crocheted a few more inches and then finally admitted that I would not have enough pink to finish out that row of the ripple. That's when it also dawned on me that as it was my fourth stripe of that color, I wouldn't have enough of any color to finish an entire stripe since they've all been used three times as well. That meant either buying 17 more balls of Cascade 220 Superwash, making this the most expensive blanket I've ever owned, or it meant that my blanket was done. Which do you think I chose?

I'M DONE, Y'ALL!!
Final dimensions are 67" long x 50" wide, when I originally was planning on 67" wide x 70" long. This, of course means that my ripples are rippling vertically instead of the typical horizontal ripplage. I have to say I am completely fine with this.

Pick up some pumpkins to carve

Pick up something good to watch

Pick up a snuggly afghan to work on while you watch it

and relaaaaaxxxxxx

I haven't knitted on my sock at all since I've been back from my trip and my Thermal is still languishing in my unpacked suitcase. I did manage to crochet a couple of rows on the Ripple Afghan, but that's about it. This morning was a very rainy one here in North Texas, but it was also pleasantly cool- perfect weather for knitting while sipping home made apple cider. I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from work and picked up some of the ingredients for the cider- cloves, allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, oranges and apple juice and threw them into the crock pot so I could savor the aroma as I arranged my newly purchased pumpkins on my kitchen table. Fall is here and it is just the kick I need to get my knitting groove back.
Oh, and Joey told me that when he was taking the dogs outside this morning, Daisy chased down a squirrel and caught it in her mouth. He spanked her and got her to drop it, but then Henry went and picked it up. After he got Henry to let it go, the squirrel ran off. I'm hoping the squirrel wasn't too badly injured- I didn't see any dead ones laying around when I got home from work. Then I heard that familiar pitter-patter of squirrels in the eaves of my house, and when I looked up a few of them were watching me.

Last night I re-knit the toe of my sock, making sure there was plenty of room for my second toe. When I got to the kitchener stitch, I watched the video from www.knittinghelp.com and followed along. The first few stitches and the last few looked a little messy, so I undid it (which was a total pain) and re-kitchenered my sock. When I got to the point where I only had one stitch left on each needle, I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just kind of secured them down while I was weaving in my yarn tail. It looks okay, but definitely not perfect. Anyone have any good tips for professional-looking kitchenered toes?
I am pretty pleased with my sock. It has all the markings of a true first sock; messily-kitchenered toe, a slight hole where the gusset decreases start, and my picked-up stitches from the heel flap are pretty noticeable. I wouldn’t trade it for any other sock, though. Years from now, when I am cranking out socks as fancy as the ones Nancy Bush makes (yeah, right) I will look back on my first pair of socks and have fond memories of my learning experience.
At the end of next week, I will be going on a trip with my mom and sister to visit my mom’s side of the family in New Mexico and Arizona. There will be lots of flying and driving involved as well as just sitting around and visiting with family, so I plan on getting a lot of knitting done- but what projects to bring? I don’t want to bring my afghan, ‘cause it is just so big that I would have to pack it in my checked luggage, and I couldn’t bear the thought of what I would do if my suitcase got lost with the ripple in it. I’ll definitely bring my second sock for plane knitting, and I should bring Thermal, ‘cause that sweater needs to be off of my needles already, but I wonder if I should bring something else, in case I get bored with Thermal. (Because we all know that I've never gotten bored with Thermal...)

The last sock class came and went, and I learned how to do the decreases for the toe of the sock. As I got to the final 12 stitches of my sock, I realized two things:
*The sock is too short in the foot for my dang-Guinness-book-worthy second toe. I am going to have to rip out those beautiful toe decreases and make the foot of the sock a little bit longer.
*The beginning of my round is right in the middle of the bottom of the sock. I’m supposed to rearrange my needles so that the top 6 stitches are on one needle, and the bottom 6 on another. When I do this, my working yarn is right in the middle of the 6 stitches on the bottom needle. How do I get it to one end so that I can start the kitchener?

At the end of last week, I was really itching to make this cute, quick little bolero. I spent three short nights of knitting with the absolutely amazing Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn and came out with something to wear over my shoulders to the movies on Friday night. It was super quick and absolutely soft and snuggly- perfect quick pick me up!
Thanks to everyone who shared their toe lengths... It appears the longest second toe award should go to my mom, coming in at 2 1/8". I need to remember that in case I ever knit her a pair of socks!

At last week’s knit night, we decided that we were going to apply to be a vendor in an upcoming craft bazaar. (We being myself, my mom, my sister Kasi, and my sister in law Heather). This is the same bazaar that I did last December. SO, that means that my current projects (Thermal, the Ripple afghan) have to be put on hold so that I can crank out tons ‘o knits for the bazaar. I’ve already finished a pair of cabled wristwarmers made with Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies in the Tuscany colorway. These wristwarmers were a big hit at the bazaar last year, so I'm going to be making a ton of them. I also finished up a K2P2 ribbed hat made with the washable and sensible Bernat Softee Chunky.
Oh, and if you were wondering how my first sock class went, it was great! We casted on DPNs and did the leg in K2P2 ribbing. We're doing about an inch of stockinette before we start the heel flap, and that's what we'll be learning this Saturday. I decided I didn't want to "mess up" any of my Vesper yarn in case my first pair of socks turns out to be a disaster, so I'm using Colinette Jitterbug in the Monet colorway. So far, so good!

I haven't been completely ignoring the ripple afghan- just slowed down a little. (Mainly because I started to feel guilty about ignoring a few other projects.) The ripple is still lovely, and I cannot wait until I'm finished so I can have the most wonderful blanket in the world to snuggle under!

My Thermal sweater is getting a small reprise, as I had gotten lost in the never-ending world of waffle stitch on fingering weight yarn and size 3 needles! I'm getting closer and closer to the 12-inch mark, where I can finally split for the neckline.

And Ms Marigold is thisclose to being finished. I did the single crochet around the armholes last night, and (once again) worked on seaming the center of the v-neck. I have seriously seamed and re-seamed this part at least four times. I can't figure out how to make it look right. Got any tips?

I'm also planning on ripping out the bind-off on the bottom ribbing, because it is too tight when worn. After that there are just a few ends to weave in, give her a blocking and she's ready to go!

Oh, and I'm totally counting down until my sock class.... only 9 days left!

Last Friday, the Last Official Day of My Week Off, I wanted to really relax and spend my day in a pleasing way; sleeping in, drinking coffee while reading beautiful knitting blogs, crocheting a little on my afghan, thinking about my next quilt, etc. It started out pretty nicely- I woke up and decided I’d pick up a coffee at Starbucks and then drop off our disposable camera from the kayaking trip at the photo store and head to the fabric store for an hour while the pictures were getting developed. I threw on my wrinkled jeans from the day before and a pair of old flip flops and headed out to Starbucks which is about half a mile from my house. I realized as soon as I started up my car that I would need to get gas first as my gas light had been on the whole day prior and Joey and I had been driving my car all over town trying to get a tire valve stem replaced. I did not make it to the gas station. My car started to seem like I wasn’t pressing down on the gas pedal, or that I was pressing on it very erratically- at first I thought I was just driving weird cause of the flip flops, but then my car s-l-o-w-e-d down and I steered it over to the side of the road. I was pretty shocked that I’d run out of gas, but there was a gas station in my line of sight and I could just call a friend to give me a lift. I grabbed my purse and started rummaging through it—I had left my cell phone on the kitchen table. Dang! Nothing left to do, but hoof it down to the station. I was fortunate in the fact that it wasn’t that far away, but I was actually still closer to my house than to the station. By the time I got there I was stinky and sweaty and relieved to see that they had gas cans. I bought one and went outside to fill ‘er up. The fates must have decided not to completely crap on me that day, as there was a nice Constable filling his patrol car up at the same time, who offered me a ride back to my car where he filled it up for me. I was completely relieved to feel the burst of the air conditioning as the car started up and I headed straight back to the station to top off the tank. I was able to get my Starbucks, and I spent way too much money whiling away that hour at the fabric store waiting for the photos to develop. By the time I pulled into my driveway I was pretty exhausted and ready to relax for the rest of the day. As soon as I put the key into the back door, I could see through the window that my dogs had gotten into the trash can. (Why oh why did I forget to put it up on the counter before I left??) Now, when my dogs get into the trash, they GET INTO THE TRASH and they get it everywhere. This time it was gross trash- we had just vacuumed and emptied the bin, so there was dirt and hair mixed with random tomato slices and mushrooms and a bunch of paper towels where we had cleaned up some dog pee from a visiting dog. Well, of course one of my dogs smelled the pee-towels and decided they needed to pee right on top of it. So not only was this stinky disgusting trash scattered everywhere, it had been peed on as well. Not how I had planned on spending my Last Official Day of My Week Off. After picking up, wiping down, sweeping and mopping, I promptly decided that I would do my best to start this day over by crawling back into bed for a few hours. Needless to say, no knitting, crocheting, or crafting of any sort occurred. If I had tempted the fates by crafting, I could have lost a finger or something!
Since then I have added a few more rows to the ripple afghan- it is probably about 43 inches long by now. I was working on it last night while Joey and I were watching Northern Exposure and when I finished a row, I folded it up and laid it down nicely on the ottoman in front of us. A few minutes later Joey said, “man, that looks really nice,” while running his had over it. I was secretly thinking the same thing, having been distracted by its beauty in my line of sight to the TV. I smiled at him and we went back to watching the show. Two minutes later: “but it really does look nice,” and he had to touch it again! It was the best compliment ever- that it was distracting enough that he had to comment again, and that its attractive forces were so strong that even a fiber-oblivious just had to touch it.

I got Harry Potter on Saturday around noon and finished it Sunday night. It was wonderful!
Lately, Joey has been really into Man Vs Wild on the Discovery channel, and his obsession has transferred over to become my newest obsession as well. We watched tivo'ed episodes last night, while I completed the 35th ripple of color on my ripple afghan. The 35th ripple is the unofficial halfway point. If I continue on at the same rate I've been going (extremely slow), I'll be finished by early September. I guess that's not too bad considering it doesn't get cold in Texas until around November! (I plan to finish it sooner, though).

I'm just treading water, slowly making progress on my ripple afghan. I really wish I could crochet faster- each color (two rows, about 1") takes me about an hour and a half. My goal this weekend was to get past the halfway point- but I didn't quite make it. This blanket is 67 1/2" (171.5cm) wide, so I want it to be at least 70" (177.8cm) long. That is 70 color repeats, and so far I'm at 30. I'm still really enjoying this project- I've gone back and seen pictures from the start and I really have made quite a bit of progress. It's starting to get heavy, too- so far it weighs just over 2 pounds!