None of me

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Does this mean that I don't exist? Or that I live on my own little planet?

Some of you may be wondering whether I do, in fact, still exist, since this blog has been quiet for so long. But I'm hoping to remedy that. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution. Forget those resolutions about exercising more, or using up my stash. Maybe I can actually accomplish a resolution to blog more.

Actually, there are 137,986 people in the U.S. with my first name, but no one with my last name. I guess that's one reason to hyphenate your last name when you get married -- to confuse little programs like this.

I'm tempted to convert my blog to use the new Blogger format. However, I've spent so much time pimping out my template I'm afraid to switch. Has anyone done so successfully?

Well, I'm off to update my Gallery. More soon, hopefully.

ETD 10:38 AM

The UPS guy had a package for me today, and, since I haven't ordered any yarn lately, you know what that means... I'm dead.

Socks of Doom received from my assassin, Mlle Udah

So, no more Sock Wars for me. Too bad, it would have been fun to kill more than one person, but with all the international mailing involved there was just no chance of that. Although this game was fun, I think the downside was that no matter how quickly you knit your socks it could not save your life. It was just luck of the draw as to whether you got a fast assassin or a slow assassin assigned to you.

I think it would be fun to have another sort of sock war where knitting a sock quickly would actually SAVE your life. I'll have to give that some thought...

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In other sock-related news, here is a pair of socks that I finished recently. I made them with the Socks That Rock that I won in the Sock-a-Month KAL. Here are the specs:

Pattern:

just a run of the mill top-down sock, but inside out

Yarn:

Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rock, mediumweight [100% superwash merino],
color: Farmhouse

Needles:

US 2

Gauge:

7.5 sts/inch

Comments:

This was the first time I've used STR yarn and I have to say, I can see what all the commotion is about. This yarn is great. Very boing-y and soft. I wonder how it will hold up to wear though? It seems to be getting fuzzy rather quickly.
You may be wondering why it looks like my socks are inside out. Well, that's because they are. I decided I liked the way the colors mixed better on the reverse stockinette side of the sock, so I decided to make that the outside. I knit them normally (with the knit side out) and just turned them inside out at the end before weaving in the ends. All I did differently was to pick up the stitches on the sides of the heel flap as to purl instead of as to knit.

Which do you like best:

the interesting reverse stockinette side,

or

the boring old stockinette side?

There was a bit of color pooling with this yarn at the ankle (as you can see in this picture) but it doesn't really bother me very much.

Oh, and by the way, my index finger seems to be better now. Yay, back to knitting.

Persnickety Knitter, in the Office, with the Cleckheaton 8-ply

So, I did it. I killed someone today. My victim in Sock Wars just received her Socks of Doom from me and she is now officially DEAD. Here is the weapon I used.

Socks of Doom, made with Cleckheaton Country 8-ply, in size 9.5

I tried to lessen the pain of my victim's demise by sending her some hematite, crystal, and silver stitch markers that I made. Beading was my previous hobby, but it has been sorely neglected ever since I was introduced to knitting. If you think my yarn stash is crazy, you should see my bead stash. ;)

Before taking her last breath, my victim (in Georgia) was able to send off her finished socks to kill her victim (in England), so I will now be responsible for killing my victim's victim's victim (try to stay with me here). My victim's victim will not be officially dead until she receives her socks in the mail, and in the meantime she will be knitting socks to kill someone in Canada. However, since a little birdie told me that she hasn't started yet, I'm thinking she won't finish them before she gets her package of doom. So, all I can do is sit here and wait for my victim's victim in England to die and mail me her uncompleted socks.

With all the international shipping this could take a while, which is fine with me since my stupid right index finger STILL hurts. I am trying not to knit until it is better, but that is sooooo hard. [I'm sure you can relate.] In the meantime, I may be killed by my designated assassin who is in Utah. However, I emailed her on Saturday and at that point she had not started knitting and seemed rather unaware of the rules. So, who knows. What a confusing, but fun, game this this is turning out to be.

My finger hurts

Due to technical difficulties (hurricane in Northern Ireland which caused power outages) the Sock Wars pattern was not posted until about 3:30pm EST. This was good timing for me, since we had just finished school for the day (we're homeschoolers). Well, I cast on instantly and knit almost non-stop for the rest of the evening.

I lost a little time when I hit the turning of the heel and discovered that there was an error in the directions for that section (making the heel off-center). I spent some time posting a correction to the Sock Wars forum. Yes, I know that I may have helped my own assasin by doing that, but hey, there are a lot of newbies in this challenge and I'd rather be killed by receiving a pair of socks with a nice, centered heel than a pair with an off-center heel.

Anyhow, after that I think I paused only long enough to eat dinner and check my email about a thousand more times. By 11:30pm, here is what I had:

Not bad for about 8 hours of work, huh?

I can't finish these socks because I have not yet received my "assignment." I do not know the shoe size of my victim, nor do I even know WHO my victim is. Hopefully the email difficulties will be resolved by the morning and I can finish these off and get them in the mail before the post office closes at 1pm.

I have to say that I really like these socks. The pattern is simple but it makes a nice and cozy pair of socks, especially with the DK weight yarn we had to use. Hopefully my target will like them and not be too sad to die such a quick death.

Oh, and now the joint in my right index finger is suddenly rather painful. I think it was all that ribbing that did it. I'd be happy to be killed quickly to get out of this crazy challenge. My hands can't take too much more of this speed knitting.

Ready to Rumble

So, Sock Wars starts tomorrow. Are you ready?

Me? Oh, I'm ready.

My arsenal

I've got my DK-weight yarn, my US 5 needles (2 circulars, my weapon of choice), and I've swatched to make sure I've got the required gauge.

Let the carnage begin.

Some Catching Up To Do

Howdy! I'm back. My work should be over for a while so I should now have some more time to do things like reading blogs and posting to my own sadly neglected blog. I may not have posted much this summer, but I sure have been knitting. I've got a lot of FO pics to take and post about. Here are a few things to start us off.

First up, we have the Frost tank from Rowan 30. I made one of these last year for Daughter#2 (see pic in my gallery), but it was getting a little tight in the chest for her, so I decided to use up the rest of that yarn and make a bigger size. We passed the smaller one down to Niece#3 who seemed very pleased to receive it.

Daughter#2 and Niece#3 in their matching Frost Tanks.

Here they both are modeling their tanks which they wore to Tanglewood two weeks ago. We went to hear a violin concerto by Dvorak and Beethoven's 3rd symphony, but we got caught in the continuous POURING rain partway through the performance (we were sitting on the lawn). Luckily, we had raincoats and umbrellas ready, but still -- it was a drag. I got leg cramps from sitting all squished up under my umbrella, followed by a wet butt after getting up to stretch my legs and sitting back down again. Oh well, the music was great (particularly the violinist, Hilary Hahn) and we did get in a very nice picnic before the rain started.

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Next up, remember THESE annoying socks from early July?. The ones where my gauge was completely and totally off? Well, I ripped them back to the ankle and knit the whole sock on the 2.5mm needles (with LOTS of trying on along the way).

What did I learn from this experience? Well, let's hope I learned never to ASSUME that just because you are using the same damn yarn and the same damn needles that you will get the same damn gauge. [You know, it's stuff like that that just sucks all the fun out of knitting.] Anyhow, here they are finally, on Sister#1's feet. She seems to like them.

Trekking XXL, color 71, on 2.5mm ndls, with picot trim ankle.

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With regard to current projects, I am working on Meg Swansen's Super-Spiral Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I'm using some laceweight yarn I got this summer from handpaintedyarn.com. It's their Kettle Dyed Pure Wool Lace Yarn in the color Paris Night, which is sort of a purplish-grayish color.

This is a circular shawl that's worked from the center out. In this picture you can kind of see the center (bottom left) with the spirals moving out from there. I love how it's coming out so far. Sure, it's super monotonous knitting, but that's what I needed for the summer. Something I could just pick up and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit without thinking about it. And this shawl seems to be the perfect project for that.

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Oh, and I received by prize yarn the other day and it is WON-DER-FUL! That yarn in the upper right corner turned out to be Artyarns Ultramerino4 (as a couple of you guessed). Also, Melissa wanted to know the color nbr of the Lorna's Laces. It's #18, Watercolor. And, no, I'm not trading it. ;)

I have already almost finished a pair of socks with the Socks that Rock, and I am loving that yarn. I've also started some socks with the Knit Picks Simple Stripes. The yarn is a bit splitty, but I really like the colors. Hopefully, I'll have finished pics of those next time.

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Well, that's it for today. I'll leave you with some pictures my garden (which I should probably go water).

One final thought: Don't these flowers remind you of fried eggs?

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Oops, one more final thought: I signed up for Sock Wars. I'll be on vacation in Maine that first weekend so I'm betting I get killed before I kill, but it should be fun anyway.

In which I get off my lazy butt and post something

So, you've probably noticed that I haven't posted in quite a while. Nor have I been reading any blogs (or leaving any comments -- sorry, people). And I have no great excuse: no long vacation, no major illness, no overwhelming work schedule. I'm just a lazy blogger. Sorry about that (hanging my head in shame here). I just don't know how you dedicated bloggers can keep it up so regularly. Hats off to you.

Anyhow, I have been getting some knitting done. I finished the socks for Sister#1 (the annoying ones from my previous post -- the socks, not the sister). I'll be giving them to her this weekend, so wish me luck with the sizing. Also, I have very nearly finished a Picovoli tank for me. It think it's just a touch more "form fitted" than I would like. But it's cotton so maybe it will grow with washing. And I'm maybe 2/3's of the way into a spiral shawl (can't remember the exact name and too damn lazy to look it up). No pictures of these items, because again -- I am the essence of blogging lazitude.

You may be wondering what finally inspired me to post again. Well, because I was looking for a way to avoid work this morning, I decided I'd waste some time and check my blog stats (assuming they'd be way down since I haven't posted in eons). I was surprised that they weren't really down and started looking at the referrals. I noticed several referrals from Knittin' Mom, which I thought was unusual. So I visited her site and discovered......

I won one of the grand prize baskets of sock yarn in the Sock-a-Month Knitalong! Woo hoo! I am SO excited!

My prize. Yay!

It's just what I needed to get me out of the funk that I've been in. Also, I'm thrilled because I haven't tried any of those yarns yet. I've especially wanted to try Socks That Rock for the longest time, but I kept telling myself that I really should use up some of my sock yarn stash before ordering more. Lorna's Laces has also been on my "must try" list. And that yarn in the upper right corner looks very nice -- anyone know what it is? I didn't even know that Cascade made sock yarn, so I'm interested in trying that. Those bright colors will make some fun socks for me or the girls. Also, it will be nice to try out the two kinds of KnitPicks sock yarn.

OK, enough excitement and chit chat. I've got to get back to work. Then I've got to finish ordering homeschool curriculum materials and organizing our schoolroom/office for the new school year.

I will try to get back to more regular posting and commenting soon. I hope you are all having a great summer.