Wanted: more time.

My ravelry invite came last week. In fact it came the same day as the Harlot visited Seattle. Me and my Jayne hat made her blog! So today I've been playing around on Ravelry. My ID is Visionsister, let's be friends! I've done some things from memory, but have realized that I'm going to have to sit down at home and devote some time to sorting out my stuff so I can list it. Crazy! It's the new crack.

I have officially given up on the idea that I'm going to be able to wear my mystery stole any time soon. I still love the project, but the charts require a level of concentration that I don't have available just now. Since I have sort of set a precedent of wearing something hand knit for Samhain I was in a bit of a pickle. Until yesterday. I accidentally fell in to Village Yarn & Tea and bought yarn. And a pattern. And beads. oops! It's a lace wrap with a simple pattern that shouldn't take too long to memorize. I'm using Misti Alpaca lace in a berry sorbet kind of color. It's 2-ply and each ply is a different shade of berry. I'm loving it so far. Luckily the beads are only on the border. You knit 2 halves and graft them together in the middle. That being the case, I'm knitting both halves at the same time. I did the beaded bit last night and have almost finished the first lace repeat today. I have 5 weeks to finish. Think I'll make it?

Slip Slidin' Away

The summer has really just slipped by me. Again. It's been busy and crazy and fun, but I am ready for things to slow down to a more sane pace. So catching up then...

GenCon was wonderful. Four full days of geeky bliss! I hope we can go again next year, I'd like to actually sign up for a game or two next time. There was knitting on the plane, but that was it. I'm still trying to finish the socks I started at Stitch 'n Pitch.

MS3 is still in the same place it was before we left. Collecting dust most likely. I would like to finish it by the end of October, it would be great to wear it for Samhain. I'm starting to get the knitting jones pretty strong. They keep promising the weather is going to cool down, but it's 80 degrees again today. The internal clock is certainly telling me it's time for fall, I was having a fantasy about beef barley soup earlier.

Some friends of ours introduced us to Guild Wars. I never got into online pc games, but I asked about it while strolling around GenCon and next thing I knew we were completely sucked in. I'm really enjoying the game and the ability to hook up online with friends for a couple hours of adventure. The down side is that our evenings at home are now spent with the game and not the knitting. That's going to make it trickier to finish anything. Ever. Like I need anything else to get in my way there.

Once again I have too many books out of the library, too many projects on the needles, and too many things I'd like to do in my free time. Clearly I need more time. Can anyone spare an extra couple of... months?

Oh yeah, and I just checked and there are only 642 people left ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list. I'm sure that'll help!

This and That

No pictures today because as usual I am lame. I have more MS3 pics, but haven't had the time to deal with the fact that my computer and my camera don't like each other. So, that will have to wait. I have not yet received socks from my Sockapalooza pal. I mailed the Sangria Monkeys on the 2nd and they have safely arrived in California with Cpurl.

Tomorrow we fly to Indianapolis for GenCon, the four biggest days in gaming (or so their website says) for a geek filled vacation. Tonight I will be packing and deciding what knitting will be going with. I'll have to decide if MS3 is worth packing along to knit on the plane, or if it's better to stick to socks the whole time. Such a dilemma!

Mystery Stole 3

Yes, I am another one who has fallen down this rabbit hole. And what's more, I've taken my mom with me. She's in town this week for tonight's Stitch & Pitch game. We had a nice chance to sit and compare our work on this project so far.

First there was this.

Which quickly turned into this.

Right after that dried and I was happy with the guage, this happened.

It didn't take long to finish the first clue. I'm loving the beads and the look of this as it grows. It's fun to see how the chart pictures become real in the knitting. I'm currently working on clue 4 and I have progress pics of clues 2 & 3. If I can manage to get my camera and my computer to play well together, I'll post those soon.

ETA: If there's a way to reply to comments, I don't know what it is. I'm using size US 3 addi lace needles.

Sockapalooza Socks Finished!

I hope my sock pal likes these, I sure do! It's a good thing that my pal's feet are smaller than mine, or I'd be tempted to keep these.



Specs: Monkey socks, no mods. Fleece Artist yarn in the Sangria colorway. US 1/2.5mm addi lace needles (magic loop).

I loved knitting these so much that as soon as they were finished I cast on a pair for myself! Also Fleece Artist but in the Renaissance colorway. This stuff is like crack, must... get... more...

And then it was June...

Wow, it's been a month since my last post. Let's see... My birthday was great. It was nice to see friends and family and celebrate another year. I didn't do much on my day but sit around and spin and knit. Quite frankly that was just what I needed. It was nice. Thanks to those who sent birthday wishes, much appreciated.

June has been just as busy as the last couple months have been. Some friends got married, it was a lovely event. The Hubby had his wisdom teeth out and was doing a really good bruised chipmonk impression for a couple days. His advice is to do that when you are young. You just don't heal as quickly at 42. Father's Day was nice, much hanging out with the Dads occured. All good things.


This last weekend was the highlight for me. I went to
Black Sheep! My mom and I met in Eugene and had a great time wandering through all the vendors and seeing the animals. I'd love to show you the pictorial of all we did, but the truth is that my camera never left my bag. I had plans, lots of plans to take a ton of pictures, but it just never happened. All I have is a couple crappy shots I took with my camera phone. Alas, I am a bad blogger.

There is still hope for me though. I do have some loot! And if I can get my you-know-what together I'll post pics of my stash enhancement. It was fun shopping with mom. We each had a set amount of cash to spend. We made our first pass through and saw everything that was there. Then we went and had lunch and pondered what really called out to us. After lunch we hunted down the things that we couldn't pass up. We didn't realize until we got back to the hotel that mom had purchased all fiber and I had got the all yarn direction.


We spent Saturday night watching the Mariner's game in the hotel and each of us bouncing from project to project with a bad case of crafty ADD. The whole experience was a little overwhelming. There was so much to see there's just no way to take it all in. I got a little knitting and a little spinning done, but not much. I had a great time and am looking forward to going again next year. I'll be sure to get my registration in super early next year!

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, my actual birthday isn't until the 31st, but I usually have the birthday bash on Memorial Day weekend. This year has been pretty low key. There will be karaoke on Saturday night and a BBQ on Monday, but I have been too busy and tired to put much effort into big plans this year. I don't even know what I'm going to do as my special treat for myself on Thursday. Perhaps a pedicure, I've been wanting one for a while now and haven't found the time. Last year I did the whole spa package and it was nice, but again with the meh this year.

The knitting has been pretty slow. I haven't found a gauge I'm happy with for the Jayne hats so they've been put on hold. I think I'll need to go back to bigger needles and try doubling the yarn. The sockapalooza socks haven't seen much action because I haven't memorized the pattern and haven't had much uninterrupted knitting time with the brain cells to work on them. Hopefully this weekend will provide some time for those. The pattern for the cotton wrap store sample is totally easy and now memorized, so that's been getting the most consistant work. The yarn is still splitty, the pattern is almost boring at this point and I'm just about to join the second of 5 skeins, so you can predict the boredom factor kicking in there...

It's my birthday and I feel a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Lame. At least the lawn is mowed.

Time keeps on slippin'...

Well I see it's been over a month since I posted anything here. Where does the time go? Partly it's been a matter of work life being really busy. Since I mostly get my blogging done at work, there just hasn't been time for that. I have knit (some) I have finished a thing or two, but I have no pictures.

The biggest news is that I finally (yesterday evening) finished pair #6 of what should have been holiday socks. The pair that became "your effing socks" when discussing them with the hubby. There's a long story that I don't really feel like telling just now, and probably don't have the time anyway. Bottom line? They are done, they fit beautifully, he wore them around the house last night, then I said "give them back, I have to take them to guild tomorrow to prove I finished them and didn't just stick them in the closet of doom." He was bummed, but said he's wear them tomorrow and that was ok. He's a good one!

What next? I'm working on a store sample for Ben Franklin so I need to keep that moving. I'm also trying to pick up and finish some things that have sat too long on the needles. I do have to start one pair of socks for my Sockapalooza 4 pal and I have to make 3 Jayne hats before we go to GenCon in August. But I think that will be all the new stuff this summer. Mostly I want to finish things right now. I'd like to clear the slate a little so I can turn my attention to some spinning projects I've been waiting on until I had more time... heh!

Happy Little Hats

Here are the happy little hats I finished last weekend. This weekend I have another finished hat and have started a fifth one. I've got plenty of yarn left, we'll see how long the happy little hats keep coming.

If you are interested in making happy little hats for Dulaan, (or anyone else) here is what I am doing.

Using US 8 needles and LB Homespun yarn, cast on 80 stitches. Join without twisting, knit and knit and knit until you have about 7 inches. For me that's about from wrist to fingertips, so it's an easy measurement. Decrease 8 stitches per round - K8 K2tog around, then K7 K2tog... you know how that goes. Thread the tail through those last 8 stitches, pull it tight and weave in the ends. Badaboom, happy little hat.

With 80 stitches on size 8 and my knitting, these hats fit me. I, however, have kind of a pin head for a grown up, so I'm hoping that they'll work for a variety of noggin sizes. The roll of the brim also allows for some variability in the size. I'm completely content to knit these for a while, though I hear the call of socks and lace in the distance, so we'll see how long this lasts, eh? At least I will have my 5 for sure.

I am a Dorkfish.

I think that I'll blame it all on pms. It was a weird weekend for me. Friday before I left work my boss and I were having a conversation in which I cried. Not that he's a bad guy, he's not. In fact I like him quite a bit. But we were talking about the state of the office and what we'd both like to see happen in the upcoming months and I brought up some stuff that had been frustrating for me... tears. Saturday the Hubby and I ran some errands because he couldn't sit in the house all day. I totally could have, but I went with him anyway. My contact lens was funky and hurt my eye all day. Sunday I did not leave the house, nor did I leave my jammies. Sunday evening I cried again. Actually, while sitting on the couch knitting and watching episode after episode of Clean Sweep and What Not to Wear, I had several tearful moments. At that point I decided I must be hormonal. Today, as if all that weren't clue enough, I have the dropsies. Does anyone else get this? I spilled my lunch on my sweater and my pants. Classy! Then I knocked a full cup of tea off my desk onto the floor. Sweet! I didn't really want that tea anyway... I took pictures of the 3 hats for Dulaan I made over the weekend, but I can't get my camera to talk to the computer and be able to use the mouse or the keyboard work at the same time. I was planning to work on our taxes tonight, but perhaps it's better I don't touch anything.