Purlene’s Corner

(aya here)

It’s been awhile since ames or I have posted here, but I’m here to remedy the situation! I don’t have much going on in the way of knitting lately. My life has been consumed by an evil project at work that has been going on since the last week in April. I think I finally wrangled the beast into submission today though, and hopefully I will be done with it completely before this coming weekend, which is conveniently a LONG weekend. I really need the time to unwind.

It’s hard to believe it’s the end of May though. I mean, I know where the time went and all, but still. End. Of. May.

Amazing.

Here, have some pictures! You’ve probably seen them on my Ravelry, but I shall give you fun details with them:

First up, we have Socks that Rock in the Space Dust colorway.

I bought this a few years ago, before I went to visit sparkli, when she lived in St. Louis. I got her a skein too, actually. We both decided that though the yarn looked so pretty in the skein, that it was pretty close to fug when it was knit up. So, I frogged the sock, reskeined the yarn, and shoved it into the bottom of the stash pile.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I fussed with the cast-on and got a fairly good result.

Not as much pooling as my first attempt, except around the gusset decreases, and you know? I can live with that. They’re just short anklets, since I wasn’t sure if I could deal with a whole lot of fug. Turns out, they’re keepers, and they sure are comfy. Or the first sock is. I’m about *thisclose* to finishing the second one. Maybe this weekend.

The other sock that I’ve got going on is the Fox Faces pattern by Nancy Bush.

This pattern has a very retro feel to it, like something out of Vintage Socks. I think it’s the simple repeating pattern on the front, with the very plain back. I like the extra ribbing that goes down a couple extra inches in the back. I’m sure it’ll keep slouchy sockiness at bay. Yes, I made that word up. :p I also cheated and didn’t do the weird braid thing at the top, between the ribbed cuff and the pattern. It was hard – I tried it three times and then gave up and did a simple purl row there to delineate instead. Honestly, I don’t think it looks much different than what her pattern called for. Sometimes I wonder why people go about things the hard way, when there’s a much easier solution. I guess that’s why it’s a hobby for me though, and a career for others.

The yarn is a gorgeous yarn that sparkli picked up for me at a wool festival. It is so soft and luxurious! It also happens to be very slippery – I ended up having to switch over to bamboo dpns, which I haven’t used in years.

Not much else going on, knitting-wise. I got pretty far into a sweater, only to try it on and have it be too small. That’s being ignored and punished right now. I’ll figure out what I want to do with the yarn when I’m not so cranky over the ordeal.

There’s about six more inches of knitting that I did past when this picture was taken. Like I sad, I’m cranky over the ordeal.

(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!”

(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*

(aya here)

Been a busy couple of weeks on the blog here, with finished socks. And here’s another pair!  I started this while I was traveling on Memorial Day weekend. I started the second sock while I was traveling for Labor Day weekend, and I picked them up yesterday and started knitting on them again. I finished them about 30 minutes ago.

No-Purl Monkey, Sugar Bunny Blvd Emeline in Cranberry.

It’s hard to photograph the pattern using my flash. Here’s a close-up without the flash.

And, of course, a picture of my own sugar bunny, Stan, with the Sugar Bunny Blvd yarn.

Check out his hair, heh.

(aya here)

It doesn’t look like much yet, but that’s where my mother’s Feb Lady stands after four days of non-stop knitting:

I am done (done done!) with the boring garter, and the next row will be the first of the gull wing lace. Four rows of that, and then the sleeves get separated.

Close-up of the boring garter:

I have a mere 33 days to get this done – less, really because I need to wash/block it. So we’ll deduct two days for that. 31 days to knit this up. Thank goodness I’m knitting her the XXS. I’m hoping that will help.

I am going to knit on this exclusively, which means that it’s coming to Chicago with me this week. I really really want to bring one of my second socks with me, but I know me – I’ll knit on that instead of this, so I can’t. WOE.

(aya here)

I’m sitting here, waiting for the plumber to get back from his run to Home Depot, to get the pipes for under my sink. This is the current state under my kitchen sink:

Fun stuff, huh?

At least while I’ve been waiting, I got fun stuff delivered to me in the mail!

My mother requested that I knit her an FLS, since she liked mine so much. My one restriction was that it NOT be blue, so she picked out this DiC yarn, called Absolute Magenta. It’s more of a light cranberry color, if you ask me, but it is pretty. This is going to be her birthday gift, if I finish it in time (Oct 23) and if not, her Christmas present. Thankfully I’m knitting her the smallest size. Whew!

And, because I couldn’t just order the yarn that I needed for the FLS, I also happened to accidently pick up a skein of sock yarn. Couldn’t help it, it’s mmmmmalabrigo. In Violeta Africana.

I mean, who could blame me? Look at that color, and the shine. PRETTY.

I’ve been fairly good about knitting from the stash, but sometimes you just need some new blood in there, to inspire you. Which reminds me, I have a second No-Purl Monkey that I’ve been neglecting…

(ames)

It’s been a fairly crazy time lately.  I feel like I’m rushing around like a fool, going here going there, squeezing things in and inevitably losing time and losing little bits of quiet.  Two fairly major life events happened in the same week, neither of which I think I’ve processed yet.

First, my best friend moved to the West Coast. She packed her entire life in her car, threw out or donated what wouldn’t fit, and took off to move in with her brother and his family in Oregon. I am incredibly proud of her, totally supportive of this move, and I miss her tons.

Second- I moved apartments.  I didn’t go far, just about a mile or so up the street, in the same neighborhood.  I thought about branching out from the northside, maybe going west, maybe going a little further south, but I love Andersonville.

Andersonville at night

It’s got just enough quirk to not be boring, but isn’t so quirky that I feel out of place.

Best cheap sushi in the city. Plus, if you dine in, you get free green tea, miso, and cucumber salad before you even order!

Third, and this isn’t one of the Big Huge Things, but it could save my sanity, is that I signed up as a volunteer with Chicago Volunteer Legal Services , hoping to work with mostly probate and adoption cases. I got my first prospective case last week, and am just waiting on the client to call me to schedule a time to meet. I am just a tiny bit terrified (because what do I know about any of this?) and a lot excited (because I have a freaking law degree, dammit), and I hope this works out and I enjoy it. For all my whining, I lead a pretty self-indulgent life in my off-hours, and it’s past time I gave back.

In trivial news, look at who signed the Coffee Mug of Awesome!

AMANDA TAPPING, PEOPLE. I loooooooove her.

Anyway, I’m not done unpacking and moving in yet. My new place is exponentially smaller than the old place, by choice, but I have a lot of stuff to squeeze in. I’ve decided that Friday night of a three-day weekend is not the time to start things like this, and I left for here:

George’s Ice Cream & Sweets, the new dessert place that replaced the old dessert place

And I am doing this:

Autumn is almost here, if you go by the calendar, and totally here if you go by the actual weather. It’s going to be a good season, I can feel it.

(aya here)

Look at this ugly sock:

It’s just all over the place. It’s got big fat spirals of color, then some pooling, then it calms down a bit on the foot.

I did a k2sl2 pattern on it, figuring that it would tame down the pooling. I’ve tried these as zens, and it didn’t work. I tried them as monkeys, and that failed too.

This yarn wants to be ugly. So I’m letting it. I’d been avoiding it in my stash for so long, that I figured it was time to bite the bullet, and get them done. I carried the k2sl2 down along the heel flap.

Once the gusset was done, the yarn tamed down a bit, when I was only doing the k2sl2 on half the stitches.

See? The foot part isn’t so bad now.

One sock down, and one to go. This may be my travel knitting next week, just so I can get it over with.

I will say, k2sl2 is a comfy sock, even if it does border on fug.