the rest of the FOs

Right. So, the deal with my landlord was that our dishwasher is broken, and I am desperate for them to fix it, since I really really really hate doing dishes with the fire of a million suns. And they wanted to tell us that the repairman was coming the NEXT DAY to look at it. Well, the upshot of all that is they needed to order a part, which is still not here. Meanwhile, the dishes are piling up on the counters and in the sink. Ugh.

ANyway, I had more to say about my first Sock Memories sock. Namely that all those colors that I loved in the ball, like the forest green and the deep blue, ended up being all muddy when I actually knit it up. The blue and the green together end up looking black from a distance, and only the light green and the rust colors stand out. It is a bit of a disappointment in that regard, but the yarn feels really good on my foot. I guess I'll be starting the second one tomorrow, since I have to take a business trip to Minneapolis next week, and the other project I'm taking with me utilizes size 7 straight metal needles, and I don't like taking them on planes, because you never know. I travel a lot for work, and what gets through security is really at the discretion of whoever happens to be working the machine when you go through. I've never had a problem with wooden needles or circulars, but I always worry about the long straight metal ones.

Also:

1. Baby blanket and matching hat:



Yarn: Blue Sky organic cotton in Oat, I think. I really loved working with this, and in fact am going to make this for one of the other pregnant ladies at work again just so I can use it. I like the design of the blanket too--talk about mindless knitting. It just lets you work with the luxurious yarn without thinking too much. I got the yarn from Kpixie because it was the lowest price, but it came really fast and they were so nice, that I am planning to order from them again the next time I need the yarn. I've always heard good things about that site, but I don't go on much for fear of my impulse buying.

Pattern: from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding. I've talked about this book repeatedly, but this is the first pattern I've been disappointed by. The hat is tiny, tiny, tiny, and there is only one pattern size. Also, the blankie is really not blankie sized. It is just big enough to maybe tuck around a baby in a car seat or baby buggie, or use as a changing pad, but not big enough to cover a sleeping baby who may be moving around or something. Grr. Next time I make it, I'm going to buy an extra skein and just make the whole thing bigger.

2. Dog toys!



Yarn: vintage acrylic in these horrible garish colors. God only knows what someone was doing with this yarn originally. I got it in a box of miscellaneous yarn I ordered off eBay a long time ago. I always meant to use it for toys.

Pattern: The one in the front is the Sweet Potato Chain from Knitting for Dogs. This is the first thing I've made from that book, but I also really like the fair isle dog sweater with the matching hat, so once I'm done with the baby knitting, I'm going to try my hand at both of them.

The cube I made up myself. I knit six small squares and then clumsily (yet sturdily!) whip-stitched them together:



I filled it with poly-fil and two squeakers. I showed it to Stella and she wanted it badly, so I think it will do for the dogs that are going to get the toys. I'm glad those are done. I can mail the package when I get back from the Minneapolis trip. If anyone reads this and knows of any yarn stores that I should check out, I'd love to know. I'm going to have lots of free time and no company.

So that leaves me with the second sock, and this:



Yes, I fell off the wagon yet again but I'm taking this yarn to Minneapolis with me to make Monica for my neice for her birthday. So it isn't actually going into the stash. It will be my project while I'm away from home, and the sock will be for the plane.

I've never used Cotton Fleece before, but I think it will be fun. It feels a bit stiff in the skein, but I'm sure once it is washed it will be fine.

I decided the other toys I'm planning were too fiddly for the plane.

FO roundup

I wanted to start this post yesterday, but no such luck. I have no will-power for anything when I get home from work. I'm SO TIRED. I don't know what would happen if I actually worked AND had kids. You working moms out there, I salute you! You're amazing. Seriously.

Anyway, that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting. In fact, I'm almost (almost) out of previously started WIPs!

Things that are in progress now:

1. Second Sock Memories sock--got two skeins of "Fly Fishing" colorway of Knit Picks Sock Memories (100% Merino) from Lisa at Continue in Kind, who was having a stash sale. I loved the colors so much that I was happy to relieve her of them. Thanks, Lisa!!

I'll cover the finished one below, but I still need to cast on for the second one. I have to say, though, I'm feeling the first twinges of second sock syndrome--the first time for me. That first sock just took SO LONG (i think it was like two weeks--that's a long time for me!) to finish and was SO BORING. I can't wait to have two matching socks FOR ME though.

2. Second dog toy for my dad--left over xmas present. I made one (see below), but he has two dogs, and I have so much crappy yarn that I decided to make two-one for each dog.

This one will be a cube--I'm knitting 6 small squares and will stitch them together, stuff, and fill with a squeaker I ordered from here. I got 25 for $6.50! I'll be able to make dog toys for Stella too! YAY.

Really, that's it. I'm sort of in a knitting funk. This yarn diet is really killing me. Last night, Spanky chastised me for how much yarn I have in my stash too, (I think she finally noticed it all...!) so I really can't buy any more. After the sock and the dog toy, I have to finish the baby knitting:

1. I think I'm going to make the dolly from Jess Hutchison's toy booklet, which I was SO LUCKY to get before she stopped printing them, for my boss's two year old, so that I can send her the thing I made for the new baby too (see below).

2. I also need to make one of her Robot toys for a three year old boy, to send along with a baby sweater I need to make for another new baby--this one I really didnt expect, and I don't have one picked out yet. Sigh. I guess I'll figure it out when I get to this.

3. One more baby item--another Blue Sky organic cotton combo like that below for another co-worker who is due in June. Think I can get all this done in the next few weeks?

After that:

1. This for my neice. I may need to buy yarn for this one... I don't know yet.
2. Finishing my starburst sweater from Knitpicks.

That's not ambitious or anything, right?

Anyway, on to the FOs!!!

1. Mittens for Co-worker:

yarn: Berroco Touche
needles: size US6 dpns
pattern: from Natural Knits
notes: These were really easy, and I still love the yarn. The blue was left over from a baby hat I'd made earlier (and is apparently behind the mitts in the picture), and I added some pale green that I had in the stash left over from the other Natural Knits baby sweaters I made for one of the other endless parade of babies. The blue and green looked really good together. I did the twisted cord between the mitts, but it wasn't too sturdy, so I don't know if it will actually work, or whether my co-worker will end up just taking it off, but the mitts should have been useful for a little bit.

2. baby hat for second co-worker: I don't think I have a picture of this one. I made a umbilical cord hat matching the booties and arm warmers here. Except that instead of doing the big i-cord knot at the top I just left a little nubbin. It was pretty cute.

3. Regia silk socks for Spanky: Oh GOD these are finally done!!!

yarn: Regia silk, color 183 (shown here)
needles: US size 1 Susan Bates aluminum--first time I used this size. Yarn. So. Thin. Needles. Sharp!
pattern: Spun Magazine's Basic Ribbed Sock
notes: Did I mention the tiny needles? The colors of the yarn are very muted and I found them rather boring, but Spanky likes them, even though she thinks the black is green (it is the silk--black silk always looks a little green). They ended up fraternally striped, and the color repeats weren't long enough for regular striping anyway. They are sort of half-striped, half zebra-looking. They fit her well, and she assures me they're very comfy.

4. Knitpicks toe-up sock:

yarn: Knitpicks Sock Memories 100% merino yarn in "Fly Fishing"
needles: size US1 KA bamboo needles (bought these for the plane to UK)
pattern: Wendy Knits' toe-up pattern, with a cast on from this article.

I'll have to do the rest tomorrow. Our landlord just came downstairs (at 11pm, mind you) to let me know they called an appliance repair person to come tomorrow between 11 and 2pm. Of course, we have no notice, the house is a mess, and we have the dog and cats, who are going to be all out of sorts. So now I have to go clean up the house and figure out a dog/cat containment strategy for tomorrow. Gotta love renting.

All knitting will be covered in another post.

Has it been a month since I last posted??? Crikey! I'm saying crikey because that's like, British or something, right? Because, you see, I've not been idle, lo, these many weeks. I've been very, very busy. After I got back from my overnight jaunt to Florida, home of beach-goers, old people, and my parents, my freaking assistant quit, and then I had to go to the London office. My boss is pregnant, and since the baby is cheekily pressing against mom's diaphragm, making it hard for her to breathe, said boss/mother had to move up her maternity leave by a few weeks, which meant that I had to rush over and do all my annual goal keeping/routine setting/corporate BS all in one go, so that she could stay at home with her feet up and wait for the little pudding to burst open. Or whatever.

But this trip was different. Spanky came with me (her birthday present), and we celebrated her birthday in Edinburgh (which for some reason is actually pronounced Edin-burra, not Edin-burg, which is really irritating, but I suppose not any stupider than some of our strange American idioms, right? Is idiom the right word there? Probably not.)

ANYWAY, Scotland. Ahem. Edinburgh is built on a large volcano. There are many bridges with long stairways leading from one level of street to the next. We had the good fortune to be there on the day of the World Rugby match between Italy and Scotland. Scotland lost, if you must know, on their home turf. A sad, sad day for the mighty Scots team. I got lots of pictures of this:



This is Edinburgh castle. It is really fantastic, and although the audio tours aren't free anymore, I suggest that people with lots of extra dough or a better exchange rate than mine pick up said tour anyway, because we were left dragging jet lagged and listless up one level after another where Spanky's short attention span for history was sorely tried. Also, the Scotland crown jewels were totally not worth the sixteen rooms full of historical dioramas that you had to suffer through in order to get to them, but the STONE OF DESTINY was totally worth it. The Brits stole the stone (where Scottish royalty was crowned) to London with them and put it under their own king's throne, and it stayed there for SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS until 1996, when it came back to Scotland. Gives me a shiver just thinking of that even now!

Edinburgh from the castle:



Next, we took the train down to London, where Spanky got to know the city, and I worked. We walked around at night, and also saw:


The London Eye, which if you didn't know, is sponsored by British Airways. The pods don't stop moving along the platform as you get in and out and once each pod empties of tourists, a team of strapping youngsters goes in and checks each pod out with metal (bomb?) detectors to make sure nothing was planted during the ride. It was fun, but also scary, and I stayed on the bench much of the time. Can't beat the views though...


London from the London Eye

We also saw the Gilbert and George exhibit at the Tate Modern. Yes, we saw the slides, but we also saw the line to get on them, so rather than wait, we just watched. Just as fun!

On Saturday, we took a coach (that's 'fancy bus' to us Yanks) tour to Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge. Contrary to what my boss told me, there were no old grannies on the coach, just this guy:



This is David, our tour guide, who talked the entire day long, and didn't give us but TEN MINUTES to look at the Magna Carta room and no time at all inside here:



Salisbury Cathedral. Apparently that tower on top is French, unlike the rest of it, and is actually buckling the metal poles put in to prop it up. The whole mythology about Salisbury is fascinating--how they built the city (and church) up on top of a flat hill so that they could see enemies coming, but after the area came under control of England, they felt like they would be more protected and anyway there wasn't any water on top of the hill, so they moved the entire city, stone by stone (including the church) down the hill and into the river valley a few miles away.

And then there was this:



Didn't we have beautiful weather? By the way, that picture of David, he's leaning on the two different kinds of stone that were used to make Stonehenge. The one on the right in the picture is very hard, and the one on the left can be carved. I don't remember what the difference was-like which were used for which. You can see in the Stonehenge picture on the left the little "nipple" on the top of the stones that were used to keep the transverse stones up there. David really liked saying "nipple" and used the word a lot during our tour.

We also went to Bath, but the only cool picture is me standing in front of the Roman bath that still has the water in it. Again, we had like 20 minutes to explore the whole town INCLUDING going through the baths, so I was a little irritated by this point.



Anyway. Then we flew home, and I've had assistant interviews (2nd interviews tomorrow!) and I have to move my office on Thursday, and I have another work trip coming up at the end of the month, to Minneapolis.

BUT on the plus side, I did get a TON of knitting done. I'll cover it all in the next post. Man, I am so glad to be back where a dollar is a dollar, and not .45!