Knitting, Knitting, All the Time

I've made a bit of progress on the Pink Ribbon socks. I'd begun the ribbing, and that was dragging on forever. I'm not entirely sure which project got started, displacing the socks from their "main project" position, but displaced they were.



However, now they're back, and I'm very excited about them. I didn't bother doing a swatch, thinking that if they were too big (according to the pattern) that I'd just keep them for myself. As swollen as my legs and feet are these days, they're well off the sock charts. And yes, they are big. Perhaps even big enough to fit me. I think they might be. (I must be the loosest knitter in the world or something.) I'm shortening the leg significantly, both for comfort and to (hopefully) leave me enough yarn for both feet. Just over half of the ribbing that's called for in the pattern, and I'm only going to do 2 repeats of the ribbon pattern, instead of 4.



And I can always buy more yarn if I have to. It's a cotton/nylon/spandex blend (came in a kit), and I'm not exactly in love with it. I'm constantly afraid that I'll end up leaving this too loose or pull it too tightly. I'm using my new KnitPicks dpns though, and I love them.

Hat!

It seems like I've been knitting along for weeks with nothing to show for it, but tonight I finished something that is Not for my Spoilee for the Swap. Without further ado, let me present the Coronet Hat from Knitty.
not quite done yet



The finished product:




Mickey Mouse modeling


It was wide enough for his ears to fit, but unfortunately it caused him to go blind.





and on an (allegedly) actual human

Something New, Lots of Blue

I'm participating in my first swap, as I mentioned last post. And I got my package! Woohoo!

Wanna see?


Everything: yarn, candle, stitch markers, card, signed mystery, crochet hook / DPN / pencil case, and a "ring light" (a light to be worn on your finger -- adjustable via velcro, and with strobe option)



The yarn, close-up. Sock yarn! My first for-me socks!



The small stuff -- with and without a lovely blue effect from the LED light.



Close-up of the stitch markers.

Yay Yay Yay!

Also, if you want some stitch markers of your own, check out her Etsy shop. She also makes and sells jewelry.

Blah. Again.

Still nothing much going on in my life. Same old job -- never heard anything after that interview. Same old school, albeit I don't have to go to the campus very often this summer. Same housing situation. Same medical crap. Blah.

I've joined a new (to me) group on Ravelry -- Swap on a Budget. The limit is $20, not the $60 or so that I've seen for other swaps, so this is doable for me. I bought my spoilee's yarn today, though I'm not telling what it is, just in case she's reading this. I know that a couple of people in the swap are working hard on finding out who has their name. Wouldn't want to make it easy for them to eliminate me from their potential spoiler list(s). It's beautiful stuff though, and so soft. Definitely petable. I've got the other stuff that I'm sending, too. All that's left is to finish the handmade item(s), currently about 60% completed.

I've been playing around a little with my camera, trying to get a good picture of Lilac, perhaps to post here. Unfortunately, she hasn't been cooperating, or the camera hates her, or the lights in the house hate all of us, or something, because she inevitably looks possessed or like a cardboard cutout in the pictures. I'll keep working on it though. I don't like not having access to any snapshots of her. (My mom does have some, but they're stored in the great Somewhere.)

Off to knit another traveling scarf now. This yarn isn't quite as squishy, but it's still nice, and it matches Every. Single. Yarn. that's already in the scarf. I didn't think that was going to be possible.

Well, it's been about forever since I've posted anything. School's the same. Work's the same -- although I'm still faintly hoping that I might get a (much closer, better paying, with benefits) job that I interviewed for a few weeks ago. Since I've been knitting a bunch lately, have some pictures.

(Also, I apologize for the odd photo placements. This is my first try at getting pics into Blogger.)




This is my Twin Trees Afghan, about 1/4 done.











The back of my mom's cardigan-to-be. I'm much further along now -- even have about 2/3 of both fronts done. It's miles and miles of garter stitch though. The pattern should come with a warning label.



Tulip Sweater, now finished.



Kids Socks (I've done 2 pairs of these, but the stripes don't match on the other pair -- I was running out of yarn.)



And these are the first 4 Traveling Scarves I've worked on. It's a Ravelry thing. My section is always the one closest to the stitch holder. And, just for the record, none of them are blocked yet. My sections are truly the same width as the others, it's just that one section or another is almost always curling at the edges.








Yup. That's my life.

Definitions

Beccaie --

[noun]: A master of storytelling

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Quizzes like this are all over one of the knitting blogs I've been reading lately. I kind of like this one.

Knitting

I've been knitting a lot lately. It's funny; this all seemed to start back in November, with NaNo. That led me to The Spork room, and the Sporkers declared February to be Craftbruary. That seemed like an excellent time to work on that afghan kit that I bought last fall. So now I'm a better and more confident knitter; I have about one third of the afghan finished; and I've branched out into hats (2) and socks (almost 3).

I've also found knitting blogs and knitting humor books (especially the Yarn Harlot's). Knitting has definitely become my Spring obsession this year. We'll have to see if it continues into the summer or not, but I suspect it will. There's something so very relaxing about knitting -- and many of the blogs are really funny and well-written.

But this definitely isn't where I thought I'd end up with I started NaNo.