love is all you need

Finding and sewing buttons on the February Baby Sweater:

Watching a sock grow like magic:

And making the enchiladas I've been craving for the past three months:

I’ve never considered myself as having good luck, but I did win a radio contest once.  Joey and I were driving down the highway listening to the radio and the DJ mentioned something about calling in to win a 6-pack of Lenny Kravitz CDs.  I had my cell phone in my hand and for some reason got a wild hair to call in.  Surprisingly, I won.  I was pretty non-plussed as I gave the DJ my info to send out my free CDs.  Then about a week later, I got a call from the radio station telling me that my name had been put in the drawing for the Grand Prize and that I had won.  The guy was kind of put-off by the fact that I wasn’t screaming with joy.  “Do you know what the grand prize is?” he asked me.  “Actually, no” I said.  Turns out, I had won an all-expense paid trip for two to Miami to see Lenny Kravitz and his band perform at their practice studio right before he kicked off his 2002 World Tour.  I was pretty surprised; as I hadn’t even heard anything about that when I called in.  It turned out to be an awesome trip, we stayed at a really cool art-deco hotel right on South Beach .  Mr. Kravitz was actually really sick the night of the “intimate show,” so he ended up performing acoustic, but it was really fun.

 

My good luck streak has resurrected itself this week, as I won Leah’s blog contest.  As my prize, she is going to knit me a pair of socks!  That has to be the most generous prize I’ve ever come across for a blog contest.  I have to say that I’m really excited as I’ve never had someone (other than myself) knit me a pair of socks.  I can’t wait to see how wonderful they are!

 

Oh, and my mom sent me some better pictures of Doc the horse, so I’ll share one of my dad riding him.

 

 

I finished these about 45 minutes ago and man, does it feel good to not only have another project off the needles, but to say that I now have my first pair of socks under my belt. (Well, they're on my feet, actually.)
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, Monet colorway
Pattern: a pretty badly-written one that was given out at my sock knitting class. (Actually, its not horrible, it just wasn't written with a beginner sock knitter in mind.)
Needles: Size 2.75mm US 2 Brittany DPNs
Thoughts: I'm amazed at how socks come together and am so glad to finally have a reason to buy all the pretty sock yarns I drool over. I can see why a lot of knitters always like to have a sock on the needles, regardless of whatever other projects they have going on. I hope to make a lot of hand knitted socks in my time.

Quick Mouse Update: Our PestChaser RF-Frequency Ultrasound Unit arrived on Friday afternoon and I half expected to see the mice line up and march single-file out the back door as soon as I plugged it in, but I haven't spotted a mouse yet. The instructions say that it can take up to 9-10 days to rid the house of all mice, but I'm crossing my fingers that they're already gone. Nonetheless, I still have our other "mouse hotel" trap all set up with birdseed and cheese underneath the bird cage.

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!

I really have no idea why my blogging of late has gone by the wayside. I haven’t stopped knitting, that’s for sure. To sum things up, we decided not to do the bazaar this year which means I can breathe a little. (And be selfish and knit only things for myself.) I’ll admit it- if I’m spending that much of my own time knitting something beautiful, I think I should be the one that gets to enjoy it. Plus I have about a gazillion things I want to make right now. (Not to mention the things I want to finish before the cold arrives.)

I got my set of the new Knit Picks Options Harmony wood needles in the mail today, and I really think I'm going to like them (maybe even better than the nickel ones, because they are lighter.) They are very smooth and the points are just as pointy!
My sock is really coming along nicely- I’m down to the plain stockinette portion of the foot. What’s funny is that we’re supposed to start the toe decreases next class, so the instructor told us to stop the stockinette about two inches before the end of the toe. This little instruction resulted in my realization that my second toe is exactly two inches long. Now I know I have some extremely long toes- possibly even Guinness Book worthy- but I have to know, how long is your second toe? Can you guys do me a favor and measure your toes and report back?

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!

Last Thursday, I spent an absurd amount of time online looking at hand-dyed sock yarns. I've been so excited about my upcoming sock class this weekend because once I learn how to knit socks I actually have a reason to buy some of that beautiful Vesper Sock Yarn that I've been seeing everywhere- the kind that makes those beautiful self-striping socks that you just HAVE TO HAVE. I have even tried to dye my own self striping yarn. I got it dyed and dried, but it was the re-skeining that killed me. Well last Thursday, I happened upon the knitterly things shop, and she had just updated it with many beautiful skeins of Vesper sock yarn. I immediately loaded my cart with six skeins and then had to narrow down my order to only three (absolutely necessary) skeins. And they arrived yesterday!! Wanna see?
Love Stinks (yeah yeah)

Meteor

Astro

Sock class starts this Saturday, and I've got my school supplies ready!

Last night I had my sister Kasi and my sister-in-law Heather over for some knitting. Our goal was to get comfortable knitting on DPNs, since we're all taking a sock knitting class next month. I've played around with DPNs once before and I was pretty bad- I had ladders of loose stitches running down everywhere. After a few false starts, I can now say I'm pretty comforable working with them. Heather is doing pretty well- especially for someone who's only ever knit about 10 inches worth of scarf. Kasi's swatch looks really good, too- hers is the self-striping yarn. I think I'm starting to see why sock knitters are so obsessed with all things sock related. Plus, it's kind of fun showing off to non-knitters that you can knit with four needles at once. (Joey was pretty impressed!)