Purlene’s Corner

(aya here)

It’s a lazy Saturday morning here. I’ve got my second cup of coffee next to me, and thought I’d post some pictures from my latest finished socks. I finished these within the last week, and it’s so nice to have two pairs of finished socks so quickly.

These socks have been hanging around since November. I finally bit the bullet and cranked out the second sock. They’re just some simple socks, which normally aren’t hard to crank out, but the yarn was a bit scratchy, so I wasn’t a big fan. I *am* a big fan of the color though. They’re pretty:

The yarn is Lime & Violet’s Sasquatch Sock, in the Buster Keaton colorway.

This second pair of socks, I think I’m in love with them. Ames got me to cast-on for them, and I’m glad she did! They’re big comfy slouchy socks, and I know that I’m going to wear them to bits.

The pattern is Mock Wave Cable socks from Favorite Socks. The yarn is Claudia’s Handpainted in Yo! Sailor Boy! A pretty dark bluish-purple.

I’ve also got one Glynis sock done, from Sock Innovations.

I had this plan that I was going to cast-on for the second sock, and therefore have three finished pairs of socks during the Olympics, but then I got sidetracked when I saw a pretty pair of socks on Ravelry. I thought to myself, “Hey, I have that pattern! And, heeeey, I’ve got yarn in a similar color!”

So I cast-on for the Meida sock instead of starting the second Glynis. I’m an easily distracted knitter.

No picture of the in progress sock, but here’s the yarn that I’m using. It’s Knitpicks’ Palette in Grass.

I’ve had this yarn in my stash FOREVER. I think it might even be discontinued in this color now. I’m about halfway done with the first sock – it’s a quick knit because it’s a short sock. Not quite anklet, but shorter than I’m used to knitting. Maybe just 4 inches before the heel flap. I normally knit 7 inches before the heel flap. Picture to follow as soon as the first sock is done.

Now, it’s offf to figure out what to do for the day. More coffee first, and then I’ll decide.

Happy weekend, all! :D

(ames)

Here, have a sneak peek of a project-in-process!

A sweater! This is the back, and off screen are two sleeves, all done and blocked and waiting. I’ve got the front well on its way.
Basic Sweater Pattern
Dream in Color Classy, Happy Forest colorway
US9, and I have no idea who this will fit. I went for the size that would use up my yarn, haha.

Look how pretty this yarn is! I love it.

(aya here)

So, ames came to visit last weekend, and it was wonderful! I missed her as soon as she left. :(

We knit lots and we watched lots of tv. Our typical m.o., heh.

She even talked me into knitting the same pattern (Mock Cable Waves from Favorite Socks) that she was working on, and of course, I listened. I almost always listen, because she has good knitty mojo, and has very rarely led me astray. HA HA, don’t get a big head. (or you can, and then that really cute green/pink hat won’t fit and you can give it to me. *covet*)

I finished the first sock tonight, and it’s absolutely slouchy and cushy and I love it.

Dark blue is a bitch to photograph, especially at night.

It’s a yarn-eater though. I normally have quite a bit of Claudia’s HP left over when I knit socks, but I ended up having to chip into the second skein during the first sock, about one repeat from the toe. I went and ordered a third skein last week, so I’ll have enough to finish the pair. The color is “Yo, Sailor Boy!” by the way. Exclamation included. :D

It’s fun because there’s no ribbing for the cuff – you just dive into pattern. Now, I love a nice ribbed cuff – a 2×2 or a 1×1, doesn’t matter, but every now and then, it’s nice to change it up. The pattern isn’t difficult, sort of a shift every couple of rows, and a few rows that repeat – but I just could not get it set in my mind, so I knit the whole sock with the book next to me. That’s okay though- it’s not like I don’t normally have a pattern glued to my side (especially when attempting a cookie a pattern).

It’s been a while since my last post, at least a couple of months. I went on a mitten tear – two pairs of fingerless mitts, and a full set of mittens for my mom:

They’re made with some really soft yarn – Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton & Silk. Since they’re actually indoor mittens, the yarn works. I wouldn’t recommend it for snowy adventures outdoors though. My mother is always cold, and on the days where she just can’t warm up, you’ll find her curled up on the couch under a couple of blankets, wearing a shirt, a sweater AND a fleece, and with mittens on. We keep telling her that all her meds have over-regulated her, but she doesn’t listen. So – MITTENS.

I also have a pair of zens that I’m ignoring.

I like the yarn, but they’re very boring. I’m almost halfway through the second sock. Maybe I’ll finish them up once the MWC socks are done. Or not. I’ve been wanting to tackle a pattern out of Sock Innovations, so they may have to wait.

After knitting almost exclusively from the stash last year, thanks to 8 months of unemployment, I’ve taken to rebuilding the stash. When ames was here, I added two yarns to it (see previous entry from ames for pics). I kind of sort of maybe added to it again, when I ordered that third skein of Yo! Sailor Boy!. Hrm. Okay, I added quite a bit. But, I have to squirrel yarn away in the case of new unemployment, after all.

More Claudia’s, this time in periwinkle:

Madelinetosh tosh sock in norway spruce:

Cherry Tree Hill supersock semi-solid in fuschia (it’s not really fuschia though, more of a bright cherry color, like kool-aid):

And lastly, some ShiBuiKnits in bare. These are destined to become those Austrian socks from Favorite Socks:

(ames! Always in green-ish, aya types in black, oh the fun of the shared blog)

It is Sunday of a fun fabulous looooooooong weekend of ames and aya being in the same place at the same time. HOMG.  I flew in Wednesday afternoon and we had dinner at aya’s parents’ house (mmmyum roast beef) and picked up the car that her mom was graciously lending me for my adventures on Thursday.  Then it was home to aya’s, where we did nothing.  Possibly there was a little bit of knitting.  Possibly not.  We were tired.

Thursday!  Poor poor aya had to work, and was very sad about it.  Oh, the pitiful text messages I got!  I slept in a bit, then hopped in the car to drive into the city and meet my friend Jo for lunch.  Jo and I haven’t seen each other in six years, and it was like not even five minutes had passed.  <3 <3 <3 She looks exactly the same, and we laughed and gossiped and giggled for almost two hours.  Also – the lobster bacon macaroni and cheese at Laurel is possibly one of the most amazing dishes I’ve ever eaten.  Aya came home, we played with her cute little bunnies, and started many tv watchings, beginning with The Plan, which is the Battlestar Galactica miniseries where everything is told from the Cylons’ point of view. Very good, but holy cow does Edward James Olmos like to throw in totally gratuitous (and fake) t & a. ANYWAY. Moving on.

Friday was yaaaaaarn daaaaaaay. We bought these!

Sheep Shop Yarn Company, Sheepfeet DK Merino, very pretty, and on SALE. We both have this, and need to pick a sock pattern. We’ll be all matchy-matchy.

Trekking XXL, my favorite sock yarn for gifting socks. I love it, I can’t wait to use it, and it will be fabulous.

Artyarn Handpainted Merino, Colorway 110 (wtf with the numbers, how hard it is to say pink, for pete’s sake). These are aya’s, and they’re so pretty. Artyarns does good work, man. Pretty pretty.

And there has been knitting! I started a new pair of socks on the bus to the airport Wednesday, and I’ll be finishing them today. No pictures yet, but it’s this sock . Mine is an odd but pretty slate grayish blue. Very nice, and I’ve almost finished the first one. Woo-hoo, I will finish it tonight. I’m loving this pattern, and raved about it so much that aya decided she needed to knit it as well. HA. Anyway, it’s the Mock Wave Cable from Interweave Press’s 25 Favorite Socks book. (I am chipping away at my goal of knitting every pattern in the book.)

We went to see The Book of Eli yesterday, which aya really enjoyed and I didn’t totally hate, and capped off the evening with three hours of Sanctuary, my current favorite tv show. (Last week’s episode, and then the two-hour finale of awesome from Friday night.)

Today? We stay in. Most likely. Who knows. We’re low on milk for lattes, and aya has a fancy new espresso machine, so we may be crawling out of the house at some point. I go back home tomorrow, sadness. I miss my kitties, though. Rabbits are cute pets, but they don’t snuggle.

aya says “type, minion!”

(ames)

It’s been a bit of a chilly winter here in Chicago. We’ve had days of single-digit temperatures, and snow, and frigid rain, and it’s still not as bad as it was my first and second winters here. That second one just about killed me. This year, I’m a little more hardened to the extreme chill, and ventured out for some picture taking fun.

There is a bunny in the snow! In someone’s front yard! Looking cute! (Smack in the middle of the picture, with a glowy eye. I had to stalk him veeeeery slowly.)

My standard Lakefront shot, this time with snow. It’s just strange to me, this juxtaposition of lake, beach, and snow. Snow on the beach – how strange.

Pretty snow and pretty red berries against a white white sky. The sad thing about snow is that when it’s actually snowing, you lose the blue blue sky. (Obviously.) But the nice thing is that when it’s done, it’s breathtaking.

It was so chilly right before Christmas, that this was all you could see of people – hats and scarves, heavy coats and cold noses.

One of the girls in my local knitty group had a baby recently, and we did some sneaking around and yarn shuffling and secret knitting, and made her a pretty pretty blanket.

Under construction! Everyone knit one or two stripes, then Jenny and I settled ourselves in her basement, listened to holiday tunes, and learned how to seam garter stitch. It was fun, but after four or five hours, we still were not done!

This is the closest I have to a picture of the finished work. The part of me that likes symmetry wants to add another strip vertically and horizontally, so the squares aren’t cut in half, but I think it’s pretty darn cute as-is.

I also knit mittens for Lola and the warmest hat I’ve ever made for me. I was pondering giving it away while I was making it, but it’s mine mine mine.

Frog Tree Alpaca, basic mitten pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, on loan to me from Amy M. Awesome book, I’m too lazy to find a link right now, but I love it. Lola’s hands are a bit larger than mine, so I sized them by trying them on over gloves. Perfect fit!

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, Malabrigo Worsted, and completely yummy.  Please excuse the pink face – you can only do so much when your poor skin is pelted with ice on a regular basis.

I’ve been on a serious salt-diet for a few months now. I’m at the point now where I don’t really want it, except for some food that really needs it to bring out the taste. It’s amazing how much salt is in food! I’ve got a tub of what used to be my favorite chicken salad from the old deli, and it is so salty I can barely eat it. I miss ramen (so bad for you but so tasty), but can’t eat it for all the salt. :\ It’s probably better for me, it is better for me, but I’m having food mourning.

(ames)

I’ve got copious amounts of free time right now, as I was laid off from my job a couple of months ago.  (If you know of any legal jobs or benefits/HR-related jobs in Chicago, let me know, resume available upon request.) You’d think this would translate into a massive knitting fest, but it has not.  I blame Plants v Zombies, lots of reading, and the startling realization that I am a situational knitter. When I was working, I spent two hours of every day on public transportation, which is prime knitting time. It would be me, an audiobook or DVD commentary, and the current knitting project. I would do it all on the train – a sweater, delicate lace, hearty socks, a blanket. When I came home, I would sometimes knit, but would be just as likely to read, play on the computer (FFXI ftw), chat on the phone, or do anything else. But those two hours a day of dedicated knitting time got me through many a project.

But now I have all the time in the world to knit, and little inclination. I have projects that have actual deadlines, projects that have been hanging around for far too long, a sweater that is one re-knit front and a buttonband away from being finished, and umpteen million other ones that I want to do (gloves for a friend, socks for me, another sweater for me) – and yet I don’t do them.

What I do instead is read!
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – a great book set in a small village in China back in the 19th century, a place where women’s feet were bound. It’s a gorgeous story of the deep friendship and love between two “old sames” – Snow Flower and Lily, bound together at age 7 in a ceremony designed to form an emotional bond between them that would last a lifetime. The girls’ friendship is immediate and powerful – they send each other small gifts andnotes, but save the most important messages and life events to write on their shared paper fan, which is sent back and forth.

Hyperion – Written in the style of Canterbury Tales, this is the story of seven pilgrims who journey to a world named Hyperion to answer the mysteries of their lives. It’s the first in a series, and I’m eagerly waiting for the next one to be returned to the library so I can get my greedy little hands on it. The seven stories are each fascinating in their own way – the father, the priest, the warrior, and others, each with an unresolved question that they hope to have answered. Loved this book, and sent it to my older brother almost immediately after finishing it.

I’ve been watching tv! Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Fringe, a re-watch and finishing of Pushing Daisies (which ended far too soon, but beautifully), and a rewatch of the entire 10-season run of Friends. It may be cheesy, but Friends is my desert island show. I love it, I love that I can see my friends and myself in it (Erin = Ross, Meg = Monica, and apparently I am Ms. Chanandler Bong), and it still makes me laugh and cry. I’ve been watching Horatio Hornblower, and have plans to go see the new George Clooney movie next week.

I’ve been taking long walks along the lakefront, although not nearly as many as I should. My tendencies towards sloth and laziness are strong and hard to fight, but I will prevail. I’ve been job hunting and interviewing, although not much has come of it. And yeah, I’ve been knitting a little, but finishing almost nothing.  I’m heading out to the burbs in a few hours – there’s a day trip to The Fold on the schedule tomorrow, and I’m very excited about it!  And there will be knitting. I’ve got a nice hefty commute out there and back today and tomorrow, and projects need to be done.

In conclusion, here are some things that were finished recently. Phew.

Hat and mittens for Baby D! I have to make the mittens a little longer, and he was completely befuddled by them, haha.

Frilly wristwarmers, from leftover Manos. They’re kind of silly, but cute, and I knocked them out in an evening.

(aya)

I can’t believe it’s already November!  Sadly, my funemployment is coming to an end. I start a new job in one week. It was a good run while it lasted though.

After finishing Mom’s FLS, I got into a spurt of needing some quick knitting projects. So, I knit a hat:

And I knit some fingerless mitts (it is very hard to take a picture of both your hands when there’s no one there to help):

That was using some remnant Malabrigo that I had, and to finish off the skein, I made a coffee cup cozy, which would look nicer if it was actually pictured around a cup of coffee:

I’ve also started a scarf, with the yarn that I bought in Charleston:

Also, while knitting on the scarf, I started knitting on a sock from Cookie A’s new book, Sock Innovation, called Devon. It’s not much to look at yet, I’ve only gotten as far as finishing one repeat. Actually, the picture shows less than one repeat.

It’s a bit challenging. There’s a double decrease in a couple of rows of the repeat that took me a few tries to get right, since it involves taking a stitch from the previous round. But the results will be spectacular, and totally worth the effort. Here, have a Rav link of finished Devons. I think that my yarn choice will show the pattern really well. There’s  just a slight shading difference in it. That’s Malabrigo sock yarn in Lettuce, which I totally scammed from sparkli in a yarn swap (she got my noro sock yarn BLEGH and I got this gorgeous stuff).  The pattern is a bit lacier than I’d expected, but I know that I’m going to love it.

Speaking of Cookie A’s new book – I really like it. It has about 50 pages just on sock architecture – how to put together a good sock, its components, and techniques. Then it has about 15 patterns, most of which are pretty involved. Which is not unexpected, given that it’s Cookie A.

I was looking at my stash the other day, and I was stunned, that aside from the yarn for Mom’s FLS, that I’d only bought two skeins of yarn this year – the yarn in Charleston, and some Malabrigo sock yarn (another color than the one above – called violeta africana). I guess unemployment will do that. Talk about stash management though! I’ve gotten my in-home stash down about 20 skeins with the knitting that I’ve done. Of course, that’s all out the window once I start getting a paycheck again!  ;)

(aya here)

Ah, the joy in finishing this on time. The happiness of never EVER having to knit this pattern again!

I finished Mom’s cardigan last night, and I am ecstatic!  All that’s left to do is pick out and sew on the buttons, which I will do today, and then block the sleeves. The body of the cardigan is already blocked.

I think I’m going to go with silver buttons on this one, like I did on mine. I think silver would look better than gold.

Curious bunny…

…wants to know why  I wasn’t paying any attention to HIM.

The details:

Started: 09/16/09
Finished: 10/19/09
Pattern: February Lady Sweater
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Absolute Magenta (it’s more of a cranberry though)
Needles: US8 dpns and circs
Notes: I will never knit this again. Twice was enough!

In other news, it snowed out on Sunday. See?

It never sticks around for long in October though.

(aya here)

I finished up my toe-up zens this morning. I’m thrilled with them!

I used an after-thought heel, and went with a 2×2 rib. I used EZ’s sewn bind-off to finish them up, and it worked perfectly. Not too tight, and it holds the shape well.

Also, I managed to finish the body of my mother’s FLS yesterday. I’m going to block it a bit today, and then start the sleeves in a day or two, once it’s dry again.  The color in this picture is all washed out – it’s a gloomy day here today, and I didn’t use my flash, so that you could see the lace on it.

I have 16 days until my mother’s birthday, I’m thinking that’s time enough to get this wrapped up. *crosses fingers*