Computer is Fixed

My computer is now back up and running. Granted, it needed a new hard drive because the old one completely and totally died. Thankfully, my husband had been backing up most of the important stuff on an external hard drive, so the loss was minimal. It was still a giant pain in the backside. And he has been working hard getting me back up and running.

On the knitting front. I'm probably a couple of days from being done with my Mosaic socks, so I'll have pictures up soon. I do have a bit of email and blog catch-up to do.

Alison can't come to her blog right now,

she is experiencing serious technological issues with her computer. Hopefully, these will be taken care of soon and she can go back to her regularly scheduled blogging.

Ten Years and Counting

I had to post a Happy Anniversary to my husband of ten years! Hard to believe I've put up with him that long. Or that he's put up with me :) I think he realizes by now that he's pretty much stuck with me and my stash.

On the knitting front, I've had a couple of positive knitting days. One mosaic sock is done and I've started on the other one. I'll post pictures soon. I've made a little progress on the sweater sleeves. Maybe I'll finish before the winter is over.

Negative Knitting Day

Come on, we've all had the "Negative Knitting Day". It's where you pick up a project in progress and realize that you have to frog or tink several rows, then you might knit a bit more and realize you have to take that out as well, so you end up with an overall net loss for the day.

Yesterday was that kind of day. I'm now working on the foot to my mosaic socks; the foot is worked in stripes, two rounds of the handpainted and two rounds of the black. The jog is at the sole of the foot. For some reason, my jog didn't just not align up (which doesn't really bother me, especially as it was on the sole of the foot), but there was a tiny hole every time I changed colors. Now, little holes in the sole of the foot bother me. So I frogged a bit. Now every time I change colors, I knit two or three stitches with both colors. No hole. Of course, after I figure this out, I'm knitting happily along. Then I realize that about three rounds ago I had knit not two but three rounds of black. To be quite honest, I'm probably the only person who ever would have noticed it, but it would have bugged me to no end. I'm not a perfectionist by any means of the imagination, but this would have bugged me. So I tinked three more rounds.

Sweater update: The sweater pattern I am using is from a Rowan book, so of course, it uses a particular Rowan yarn called Rowan Denim. Of course, I'm not using the suggested yarn, so here we come to the problem. Rowan Denim is supposed to shrink lengthwise the first time it is washed, before the pieces are sewn together. The pattern is written with this in mind. Remember, I'm not using the suggested yarn. The actual length of the sweater is not a problem. I just knit to how long I thought it should be from bottom to the armhole without the shrinkage factor. The problem I think I might run into is the armhole length, so I've decided to do the sleeves before I finish the back and work on the fronts, so that I can adjust accordingly and not have to frog.

By the way, did I mention that the Color-Your-Own Wool of the Andes comes in skeins and I don't have a ball winder? That $35 doesn't seem so expensive right about now.

Sweater Progress

I've made a bit of progress on my sweater. The back is nearly done.


I am on the heel flap of the first mosaic sock. My lace-knitting has fallen by the wayside, but I promise to pick it back up once the sweater is complete. (Sorry, but I'm very cold-natured and since we are trying to save a little on heating bills, the sweater just has to take priority.) I am accumulating a bit of laceweight yarn from my spinning, so I have to come up with something for all of that. And I still have to finish at least one of the shawls in progress so I can start on this. If only there were more knitting hours in the day. *Sigh*

Christmas Socks

Now there are two.

One of the Fair Isle patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks using size 1 dpns and Knit Picks Essential yarn in Pine and Burgundy. I'm not so happy with the short row heel. I just don't think it fits my foot as well as a heel flap, so I will probably avoid it at all costs in the future. And here is another sock started for the Sensational Socks KAL. How cool is this pattern?

Knitpicks Essential in Black and Sock Landscape in Rocky Mountain Dusk.

And here is a bit of knitting that my mother did.

Look at the nice even stitches. And this is my aunt's.

I had her try a bit of lace since she already knew how to knit. She didn't care too much for it, so she went back to stockinette. Both my mom and aunt complained about the small needles (size 6). The size 7's I'm using on my sweater seem huge to me.

Rebekah asked in the comments on my last post "How long did each take you to knit?" My answer: I started at the beginning of September and did one a month. I figured out the absolute minimum I had to do each day in order to finish each in a month giving my self about a week and a half leeway. So I didn't knit on them every day and most days just did the minimum. Slow and steady. Don't know how I kept the discipline.

Mystery Christmas Presents

As promised, pictures of the Mystery Christmas presents:

And the closeup:

And the specs:
Estonian Scarf by Nancy Bush from Piecework, July 2005, scarves measure around 40 inches across the top and 16 inches high
Needles: Size 2
Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow in Grape Jelly, Oregon Trail, Lost Lake; they went to my mother, aunt, and grandmother.

There's One in Every Crowd

Warning: this post contains very little knitting content.

Currently, my blog is being quite neglected because I am on dial-up. It is amazing how quickly we become accustomed to high-speed. Anyway, I'm visiting family in Georgia, a 13-hour drive which we survived despite the psycho truckers and now I have to survive on dial-up for a week.

A couple of nights ago, we went to an event known as the "Fantasy in Lights" at a local botanical garden. This is a very Christmas event. (It is the Bible belt, after all.) This event consists of scene after scene of snowflakes, flowers, Santa and his elves, three hens holding French flags (think about it), and frogs with Santa hats jumping into ponds, all crafted from Christmas lights, eight million Christmas lights. That figure is not an exaggeration, by the way; that is the figure that was given on the tour. You can either drive your own car through or take the open trolley (with blankets, of course).

And so we come to the "one" in every crowd. You know the one, the obnoxious person who feels the need to comment on everything - the one who must point out that it is cold, the one who points out the big lighted wreath that no sighted person could possibly miss, the one everyone wants to strangle and toss into the cold lake by the end of the tour. Our "one" was an older gentleman, 81 he felt the need to tell us. His first complaint was that it was cold. It was rather chilly, but everyone already knew it. He complained that he didn't know how he had been talked into it. (I know we were wishing he hadn't been.) And he complained about having to wait for the trolley to start.

He felt the need to sing along, quite loudly, with all the carols along the route and each time one of the workers along the route, frozen I'm sure from standing in the cold, shouted "Merry Christmas", he would reply with a "Baa, Humbug". After each scene, there was a short area of dark drive and each time we reached a new scene, he said "It's not over yet?" I truly wanted to throw him into the lake at the end when he asked if my girls had a good time.

And now for the obligatory knitting content: I'm nearly done with the second Christmas sock (but I'm on dial-up, so you'll have to wait for pictures) and I've made progress on the sweater. I've given my mother and aunt knitting lessons. My aunt is actually the one who taught me to knit on chopsticks when I was younger, but she has not knitted in years and my mother never knew how. They are progressing.

I should post in a couple of days the Mystery Christmas presents that I know you've been awaiting so anxiously. (I pre-loaded those pictures.)

I Won Something!

I'm so exited! I won a prize in Christine's Thankful Contest. My prize? Melanie's beautiful Moon Dance Stole pattern. It's so tempting to break my vow of no new projects, but I'm going to hold fast. As soon as I finish a couple of things though... Thank you, Christine, for hosting the contest and thank you, Melanie, for creating such a beautiful stole!

I've finished the first of my Christmas socks based on a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I have cast on for the fraternal twin.