Purlene’s Corner

Aya has been visiting me this weekend, and today she sat me down and made me update Ravelry with all my yarn stash. Such an undertaking! She took over fifty pictures of all different types of yarn, and I pretty much never need to buy sock yarn again. Which I already knew.

She also gave me the prettiest pair of socks!

Aren’t they LOVELY? She dyed the yarn with Kool-Aid, and got this gorgeous semi-solid pink shade that is perfect. Pattern: Waving LAce Socks from the 25 Favorite Socks Book (Interweave Press).

And in more sock news, I finally finished the Bayerische!

Aren’t they nice? I’m very proud, and very sick of twisted stitch cable patterns. Next sock – plain old stockinette. Or at least something simple.

(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.