Bam!

I feel so accomplished! I actually finished the March socks a full week before the end of March. It’s surprisingly invigorating. I might even try to finish the rest of my monthly socks well before the end of the month. Well, we’ll see.

These socks turned out well in the end, despite the horrific amount of pooling. I’d still rather they have come out truly random, but I guess what really matters is that Ty likes them. And I like to think that I’m vastly improving Ty’s sock drawer.

Before

After

I’m hoping that I’ll get over the mismatching on the foot and just be happy that the swirling on the leg matches. Ty’s encouraging remark was that only the swirly part will be visible when he has shoes on. I guess I can deal with that.

Happy Knitting!

(A whole week of March left!)

 

Before the Deadline

At the end of each month now I have a sense of impending doom. I am finding myself constantly checking the calendar to see how many days I have left to finish Ty’s socks. I’m proud to say that I have completed approximately 17% of my new year’s resolution. Meet the February Socks: “The best socks yet” ~Ty

We spend quite a bit of time last night looking for new socks patterns to add to my Ravelry queue, as well as picking March yarn and pattern. Now that Ty knows about ease, and how much he likes in his socks, it will hopefully be easier to make “the best socks yet” every time.

In non-sock news, I finally started the hat Ashley’s been bugging me for since October (I don’t know why she isn’t making it seeing as she knows how to knit…) and I cast on today for my Rose’s fingerless gloves. This came after a much welcomed push to revisit my patterns like I’ve been saying I should. Last Tuesday at Looped I met someone new, as I do most Tuesday, and she commented on how much she liked my yellow hat, which I’m pleased to say isn’t the first time someone’s mentioned it. However, this time, she told me that she needed the pattern, that she wanted to make that hat and she would pay for the pattern. Well, that got me thinking about my desperately lonely patterns, which prompted me to cast on for the gloves. The hat pattern is still tucked away in one of my notebooks, but when I have a few hours where I’m not worried about a sock deadline I’ll type it up and post it.

And in conclusion, pictures of my Fuse cardigan! (complete with me squinting at the sun)

Happy Knitting!

New Year’s Resolutions

I finally finally finish the Java socks for Ty. I feel like they’ve taken me forever! I’m certainly not the worlds best planner, but really I need to make sure I know what I’m doing before I convert a top-down to a toe-up when I’ve never done a toe up or a heel-flap and gusset! And although the lonely foot of the first sock sat for months while I procrastinated figuring out the heel, once I sat down and put some thought into it, the second sock practically finished itself. And of course, now I’m an expert.

This moment of triumph inspired my first new year’s resolution of 2012. I will knit a pair of socks for Ty every month of this year. And to make sure I’m not starting the new year off on the wrong foot (haha), the Java socks don’t count, and Ty now calls them his ‘December Socks’. The January socks are started and coming along nicely, thanks to the brilliant fastness of stockinette in the round (with some stripes going on so I don’t get bored). I’ve yet to decide if I’m allowed to get ahead on my monthly sock making, but maybe I’ll wait for the January socks to actually be finished in January before I worry about that.

And for your viewing pleasure: better pictures of my January selfish knitting!

The cowl looks rather brown here, but I swear that it is in fact a pretty green.

Fuse Cardigan update: No joy on finding Shelter yarn in Faded Quilt, both in DC and NYC. Will have to wait at least a week. Boo.

Happy Knitting!

Mouse!

I believe this is the cutest mouse I have ever seen! It’s really quite amazing to make something so small in such a short amount of time. Hopefully I’ll make a few more of these soon before I forget the pattern. Everything worked out on the first try except for the ears, which Ty described as dumbo ears of the first take. Unfortunately I didn’t have any catnip lying around, but maybe next time!

And here’s the underside!

And here’s Ty playing with Socks, not with my little mouse though!

Good luck to everyone on their holiday knitting! I better get going on mine!

Happy Knitting!

The lessons we learn, or not.

Whoops, missed yesterday I guess. It probably had something to do with asking the bartender to just surprise us, three times. Fortunately, the bartender knew what he was doing. Before that, while I was not eating, Ashley, Ellie and I were all at Looped. Ellie’s never been, and Ashley’s been a slacker, so it was great to be there. Although Ellie pointed out that I know my yarn brands scary well, or at least some of them. She had grabbed some Fresco and I knew what it was, though I spaced on the name. I’ve been meaning to buy a few skein, I think it’d knit up really soft. Looped also had some new yarn in, Wandering Wool, which is a local dyer. Their Rock Creek Sock looked so nice, and her colors were gorgeous, very saturated. Every time I go to knit nights at Looped I wish I could go every day and stay there all night. The people are great, and the store is great.

Ty’s been talking recently about what he wants to do with his life. And despite our having talked about this hundreds of times, it seems like it changes every day. Fortunately I think we’re finally getting somewhere. Although we’ve been talking about going to school either in Boston or New York, the more we talk about it, the clearer it gets that New York is much higher on the list for multiple reasons. It would be tough to turn down living so close to my family in Boston, but New York has amazing school and work options for both of us, and it’s NEW YORK! I guess I can’t really say that I was never the girl who dreamed of living in the big city, and with the lifestyle and culture in DC, I’ve gotten used to city life, and Boston just might not cut it. I’m not-so-secretly hoping that the JetBlue job Ty will be applying to soon (his dream job) will offer him the job and we’ll have no choice but to go to New York. We’ll see what happens, but as I’ve learned in life, and especially since meeting Ty, things tend to come together better than you expect.

Happy Knitting!

P.S. Hopefully these gloves will too. Custom order – red and grey stripes, which surprisingly looks like a candy cane…