skittermagoo!

Socka socka!

Today when I got home from work I went out to get the mail as usual, and what did I find? A package!

airmail . . . from London!

And nestled inside were the Sockapaltwoza socks that Anna made for me. She's a talented one, that Anna -- she designed these beauties herself!

Here they are basking in the sun . . .

they seem to like the sun. like a cat.

And fitting perfectly on my feet! (this is the foreshortened "stumpy leg" shot -- God, I hope my ankles aren't really that tree-trunky in real life!)

mmmmm, Koigu

Since they are knit of Koigu, it's almost impossible to capture the color well, depite the fact that I have what's supposed to be a "good" camera. Hm, maybe it's because I don't really know how to use said camera, as evidenced by the very blurry closeup shot of the Koigu goodness . . .

I really need to learn how to use the functions on this camera, starting with the closeup mode

Thank you so much, Sock Pal Anna! You rock!

p.s. For those of you keeping count, this is the second time that I've totally scored in the Sockapalooza swaps -- both times I've had a pal in England who knit me beautiful Koigu socks! When does Sockapalthreeza start?

About freakin' time!

Wow . . . it's like I've had a loss of time or something . . . I don't think I've been abducted by aliens or anything . . .

Anyway, tiny metal implant or no, I'm back! Whee! And I've got so much to catch up on.

First, the fun stuff . . . this one is for a couple of other Pocky addicts. My friend Ellen from work recently went to Japan and brought these back for me:

One of the pocky looks like it's cookies-n-cream flavor (do they even have that in Japan?), and the other seems to be a chocolate cookie tube filled with pink-flavored stuff. Hopefully strawberry. Both are varieties I've never seen before! Anyway, I haven't broken these open yet, amazingly . . . I think I'm a little hesitant because what if they are the most awesome Pocky ever and then I get obsessed with finding more and can't? Crazy, I know.

My other current obsession has been these socks. You know, the toe-up ones out of Knitpicks yarn? Here they are as of today:

I'm almost done! Actually, I started the ribbing on the cuffs today, so they should be done soon (they will be either short socks, or will have normal length ribbed cuffs, I haven't decided yet). A couple of my local girlz have asked me what I like/don't like about the toe-up and both at once thing; I'm planning a little discourse on that to be forthcoming. Like when I'm actually finished with the socks. In any case, they don't really photograph well at this point (I know, you're thinking, "Socks? Those are socks? Hmmmm.").

I've also been working on the front to Hub's flame sweater and that badass fair isle bag, but they aren't really photogenic right now.

And, a bit of catching up . . . A week or so ago, NanC and I met my mom at the Ft. Worth quilt show to see, well, quilts. My mom had two in the show, one judged, so I was really there to represent (I don't quilt anymore, so the rest of the show wasn't that big a deal to me). As a matter of fact, I took all of three pictures there, and two of them were of my mom's work.

The first is the judged entry, and her first wedding ring quilt (she said it's her first and her last). I was told that under no circumstances could I put her photo on the internet, so she's all blurred out below. Trust me when I say she's pretty cute.

The other quilt she had in the show was her first ever larger-than-a-wallhanging quilt.

I'm so incredibly proud of her for taking these to an actual quilt show!

In other news, we had very little Hurricane Rita action this weekend, which is good and bad. I was hoping for at least a little rain, since we are so incredibly dry around here (my poor lawn!). But all we got is some really cool clouds (did I take a picture? nooooo.) and a lot of wind, and I think I saw four raindrops. Kind of a letdown after all the predictions that we would get tons of rain when Rita parked herself over our area.

All for now! Hope I don't get abducted again! Gotta go read the new Yarn Harlot book now (got it in the mail on Friday, whee!)

Blurgh

A week and a half? Not a record for time lapse between posts here at Skittermagoo, but probably a little on the lazy side.

I dunno, I guess I just have the blahgs. Combined with feeling like I've been worn down to a nub this week, and you have a perfect recipe for nonposting.

BUT, I have been knitting (and unknitting), and I have a bunch of stuff to share, so a post is surely forthcoming sometime this weekend.

I hope.

Self-torture . . .

Why do you people let me do this to myself? Why?

So I was telling Stalker Angie earlier that I somehow have gotten a reputation with my local grrrrlz of being a "no fear" knitter . . . but this time I think I may have taken it too far, too fast.

Y'all know that those Sockapal2za socks I just finished were my first cabled items, right? Right. And they were easy-peasy cables, just one twist every 8 rows, always in the same direction. Nice. Relaxing. Fun.

And then (dum dum DUMMMM!), a certain purling pirate had to go and send me a link to this. Hmmmm.

So tonight when I finished the flame sweater sleeve, I really didn't feel like casting on for the front (so many stitches! in black yarn!) and starting the miles and miles of k6p1 rib. Instead, I thought to myself, "Self, while your size 8 needles are free, why not try that cute little Celtic cable swatch?".

Okay, so when I start thinking things like that, watch out . . . nothing good can come of it, only pain and suffering.

I got out my "new technique" yarn (some crappish acrylic that I bought before I knew better) and gave it a go . . .

it was so tangled that I couldn't even frog it completely!

Accompanying this was much swearing and funny looks from the cat. But since I apparently have a reputation to uphold, I thought I'd better give it a second chance and see if I could make something other than a pile of tangles.

And my second attempt? Somewhat better, but I don't think it really looks anything like it's supposed to. Again, lots of swearing was included, as well as olympic-level squinting, and maybe a couple flingings of the cable needle. And perhaps a shoe was thrown? I'll never tell . . . and I've paid the cat to keep quiet about it, so you won't get anything out of her, either.

Not the best picture, but my camera resisted focusing with no flash tonight (with the flash you couldn't tell that it wasn't just plain stockinette). Then it ran out of battery power in protest.

All that squinting and cabling wore me out . . . I think I need a nap.

Disclaimer: any trouble with this swatch was entirely due to my boneheadedness, and not due at all to the way the instructions are written. If you follow the pattern and don't try and overthink it, it'll work out just fine!

Save often.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's the first thing they tried to teach me in Intro to Computers in college. 'Cause we didn't have computers in my high school. Okay, yeah, we did (they might have been Commodore 64s or the like), but you couldn't even look at the door to the room they were in unless you were in Advanced Math, which I wasn't. Until college that is, when my science brain gene kicked in and math started to make sense.

Anyway, I digress. I learned the hard way the other day that if you don't save your blog post often, your browser (which is usually very very stable) will crash and lose the post. Especially if you have pictures. Forcing you to try and recreate it two days later when you don't remember what you were babbling on about in the first place.

So this Clapotis thing, right? I finished it, and was immediately dazed and confused because not only did I not have a sock on the needles (oh! the horror!), but I found that I only had one single solitary project in progress (dishcloths don't count)! I think this is the first time I've only had one project on the needles since the day I learned to knit, and that was because I only owned the one pair of needles (made quick work of solving that one, I did!).

Of course I was forced to cast on for two new things, immediately. I mean, I couldn't go around all dazed and confused, right? At least no more than usual.

The first on the list? Why, socks, of course! I cast on for a pair of toe-up socks (my first with the toe-up!) using the Queen Kahuna book instructions. Ooh, and I even got a wild hair and thought I'd knit them both at once (also a first).

mmmm, KnitPicks sock garden . . . soo sofffft!

And then I had to cast on for the felted fair isle bag (Kristina is her name) that I originally saw on Kathy's blog. Another first, as I've never done fair isle other than on that weird sweater sampler thingy.

This thing is sooo addictive . . . c'mon, just one more round! Oh, wait, I can quick knit another round before anyone notices . . .

I can definitely already see knitting this one again in a bigger size. That's dangerous.

Oh! And we can't forget poor flamey the flame sweater, can we? That's the only project that was born B.C. (Before Clapotis). After I finished the back, I decided to treat myself with a sleeve, because the thought of immediately knitting the front, with all that k6p1 rib in black yarn made me crazy. So a sleeve it was . . . and what a cool, fun sleeve at that!

flameliciousness!

I will say, the intarsia flame, as badass as it is, was a bit of a bear at first . . . at one point I had three balls of yarn and two bobbins hanging off it, all of them either black or red. Oh, and the yellow. I have lots of duplicate stitch to look forward to . . . and I just LOVE the duplicate stitch (NOT! That was sarcasm, people!)

I'm further along on the flameity sleeve tonight; I'm almost to the point where it's time to start the decreases (it's raglan, so the sleeve cap is lonnnnng)

OH! I almost forgot!!! I was at Target the other day, and look what I found!

YARN! Yarn at Target! Did y'all know there was yarn at Target? And in the dollar bins, no less . . . yarn for a dollar. Granted, the Target yarn is not what you would call "Luxury yarn" by any means . . . most of it is fun fur or pure unadulterated acrylic. But the boucle was kinda nice (soft), and the furry stuff above? Very soft. I think I'm going to knit it into a little muppety pillow or something.

Hmmm, what else? Oh, yeah . . . I sent my Sockapal2za socks off today! I hope they get there in time, 'cause they have a long way to go (hint!). As soon as I gave the package to the insane Post Office Worker, I was hit with Sockapal2za anxiety. What if my pal doesn't like them? What if they don't fit? What if they get lost in the mail? AGH!

New Knitty!

The new Knitty is up!

I haven't even had a chance to look at more than the splash page . . . but usually I like the Fall issue, so I can't wait to take a closer look.

Grrrrrrrrr.

Safari just suddenly crashed on me just before I finished a post full of pictures and lovelies for y'all.

But I'm yawning my head off, so it'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Stupid browser.