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.

The fluffy-haired one in the back

It's been a busy week here. Now that softball season has begun, I have been spending many hours freezing my butt off watching my daughters' games. It's a perfect opportunity to get a lot of knitting done, but the games are in the evening and it's been very chilly lately. It's no fun knitting when your fingers are numb. Anyway, they are both doing great and Daughter#1 is even pitching this year, so it's fun to watch. I just hope it warms up soon.

I tried to finish those damned Jaywalkers, and was almost done with both when I tried them on and noticed that the arch area of the foot is baggy. Uggh! Now I'm trying to decide whether to rip both socks back to the gusset and accelerate the decrease rate, or to just say "screw it" and finish them off and be done with it. I am leaning toward the "screw it" option, but these are for Sister#1 and I'd hate to give her a 'faulty' pair of socks. So they are back in time-out again.

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In happier news, I did manage to finish something recently. I knit two beaded bracelets. Behold:

I made these from a kit that I got from Patternworks a couple of years ago. They don't appear to offer it anymore, but it looks similar to this one, just with different types of beads. I discovered this kit (which I had forgotten I had) when I was reorganizing my stash a while ago. Look at all this stuff I'm finding -- I should organize my stash more often, huh?

Anyway, the two bracelets are knit in such a way that the beads are offset on each side, so the bracelets twist by themselves. You can wear them separately as two bracelets, or you can wrap them around each other and wear them as one thick bracelet. I think I prefer them worn separately -- they have more character that way.

If you look closely you can see that the beads in each bracelet are different: one has matte cube beads on the outside of the twist and shiny seed beads on the inside, the other has shiny cube beads on the outside and matte seed beads on the inside.

Matte cube beads on outside, shiny seed beads on inside

Shiny cube beads on outside, matte seed beads on inside

Pattern:

Twin Twisters Beaded Bracelet Kit

Needles:

#0000 DPNs

Beads:

4mm cube beads and size 8 seed beads, in both matte and shiny irridescent finishes

Thread:

25 yds New Metallics (2-ply metallic polyester thread), made by On the Surface, used doubled

Comments:

Although these needles are tiny and the thread is slippery I still enjoyed knitting these bracelets. They were very quick to make and not difficult. I would just recommend that you work in very good lighting too avoid going blind when trying to pick up a dropped stitch.
I might make some more of these, but I think I would use a different clasp -- this one is just a little too visible.

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Oh, and, as you know from my last post, I went to see the Yarn Harlot speak at WEBS last Friday. She was GREAT -- very funny (of course) and very down-to-earth. It was definitely worth the two-hour trip to see her.

I checked her site and I'm in her pictures. Here they are. I'm the one with the fluffy hair and the bright green sweater in the far back. I was sitting next to Melissa, but you can't see her in this picture -- she's too petite. ;)