3/30/13

Rawr

Sock monster says hello.

3/27/13

...Well

I'm basically done, I just need to graft the sides together. Yes, I did a lot of knitting today. No, my wrist doesn't feel too much worse for wear. Most of the knitting happened during battles while I was playing games. Which means I knit for a few minutes, picked up the controller and went back to wandering around trying to figure out what I need to do to save the world. (What video game doesn't have you save the world? Though right now I know what I need to do, replaying though I've never actually beat the game.) Which means that I really wasn't knitting for long periods of time, unless you count boss fights. Also? in the interest of showing the most blob like pictures of this sock look below.

Ever so timely Christmas

So, when I went to Lincoln to pick up my sewing machine and the sheets I also took my brother and his girlfriend their Christmas presents... after my brother's birthday. We aren't always a timely family. (which reminds me, I need to send off my parent's Christmas presents.) To the left we have the scarf I made for the girlfriend. I know she likes blues and scarfs, and I was tempted to try "new" yarn. Wasn't really all that hard, just had to get into a good rhythm for the knitting. It certainly wasn't completely mindless knitting for me. I jokingly call it "The million ruffle scarf," partly because I feel like it has close to that many.
For my brother I just made socks. I was kind of rushing at this point, and had started with a fun cable pattern then my gauge shifted on me and I didn't want to mess with it. So, yeah, plain socks for him. Not that he really minds, They're socks, he'll wear them. That's about all I care about.

Bright Blessings!

3/25/13

Voice Free

At least for now. I was able to get several rows done today without much discomfort. I'm two ridges away from starting decreases. If my wrist was feeling better I probably could have gotten a lot more done, but as it is discomfort means that knitting stops until it at least passes. I do have an am wearing a brace at night to at least help keep things from getting too bad. Plus, I'm not likely to get bored enough to go pestering the pizza people tomorrow, or feel secure enough to go to a spot where I can't really see my register.

Also, I just realized because of the curve of the needles it just looks a little blob like and not really much like a sock. I could always flip it over to where the heel shaping is, but I'm not sure how much that would help. Might just be a funny shaped blob of knitting.

Bright Blessings!

Out and About Again

So I've finished the heel turn and am working on the leg. I do let myself pull this out once a week and work on it if I don't get a chance to work on it during the week, which tends to happen a lot. So, not a lot of progress will show from week to week. Then again, it's not something you'll see every day.

I managed to get my wrist to get ouchy in the last couple of days. (16 inch pizzas from work are a bit heavy to carry, I think that's what did it.) I'm going to be nice to it, but it will cause productivity and progress to dip a little bit. (I do have something in mind that will cover one day if I don't feel like I have much progress to cover.)

Bright Blessings!

3/23/13

Sorry

I have a cuddling cat whom I don't have the heart to disturb. See for yourself.

3/22/13

Another block

I really should get around to getting the block pictures before it gets dark, I think the flash on my camera washes out details. Anyhow, this is harris tweed. Seems like another good pattern for a scarf. Heh, just to prove that I just looked and I took the picture of the side that I would think of as the wrong side. I couldn't tell without finding my cast on edge. This one isn't all that hard. You have your blocks and then the strips between are either knit a row, purl a row, knit a row, or just the opposite. Nothing too bad. The one I'm working on has twisted stitches, nothing too horrible, but I'm not pushing it. My wrist was acting up at work, so it's good not to push things.

Bright Blessings!

3/21/13

Hopefully I'm Good

I actually did some knitting today. I know, you probably can't tell since I ripped the sock and you haven't seen it since before the rip. I'd point out the locking markers mark the same point just on different sides of the sock, but you can't really see where the one in the picture is actually attached. Meh, such is life. Oh, the two glowing points in the upper left of the picture are cat eyes. I didn't notice one of the fuzz butts was there until after I had uploaded the picture. Too lazy right now to go take a new one.

Anyhow, it's late, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow an update on the crazy pants!

Bright Blessings!

3/20/13

I forgot

And have a confession to make. I didn't knit at all yesterday or today. I actually haven't done any crafting. The work on the block you see to the left was all done on Monday. Right, this probably tells you that I've at least come up with a temporary solution to the missing spool pin, and I have. I taped a knitting needle to the back of the machine. And I would have gotten more done, but my sewing machine decided to go weird on me on the last section I sewed. (Which is one of the triangle pieces in the middle.) So I took it all apart, got the extra random thread free and out of it and re-threaded everything, but at that point I was a bit tired of sewing, and I haven't gotten the machine back out of it's corner.

Honestly, on Tuesday my left wrist was being ouchy, and it's being that way a bit right now. That and just getting caught up in whatever random archive dive I was in (I do this often when I'm bored) was why there was a lack of a post last night.

Bright Blessings!

3/18/13

Okay, now I feel stupid

Well, so that's how the sock looked last night. It's about half that now. Someone forgot to figure in the 10% negative ease that most socks have. It couldn't have been me because I never figure out my own numbers for things like this. Nope, couldn't have been me. I've had a long serious talk with her, and I think we have everything worked out and things worked out. Hopefully there won't be a need to rip this out for a third or fourth time. Honestly, I lost count on that, but I'd rather rip and get the sock right to wear then make a sock that doesn't fit. I don't care if people say that it'd fit someone out there, I don't have enough time to make socks for random people and myself. Plus, you make socks for random person for free, they are going to expect more socks for free. I'd rather not invite that kind of headache into my life.

Though I haven't worked on the sideways sock any today. I did knit a little on crazy pants, but no sock knitting. Probably me being mad at it for the moment. We'll see if I pull it out tomorrow.

Bright Blessings!

3/17/13

Out and About Sock

I practically never am without knitting. This is the project I keep clipped on my purse or belt loop is what I pull out and worked on when I need to wait. Generally this is worked on when I'm on break at work. As I took this picture yesterday I'm actually almost done with the heel, but to the right I've just started turning the heel. This isn't always the fastest project finished, but that's not the point. The point is to have something to do when I'm waiting.

I thought it was funny that on St. Patrick's day I was going to talk about a project that doesn't have any green in it. Then when I sat down at work and pulled it out I did notice some green in the yarn. But I don't think of it as having green, it's a blue to bone or sand yarn, and of course it doesn't show in the picture I have. But it's how I think of the yarn being. In the ball at the top you really see the bone/sand part of the yarn. I think it has a really long repeat, because it hasn't really shown up in the sock itself.

Bright Blessings and may your hands always have something to do!

3/16/13

Night time knitting

Well, kinda. I haven't been feeling like knitting before bed. That's an hour's worth of work. Probably not all that bad. I'm half curious how long it would take me in another year to knit a pair of socks. (Yeah, this might end up being a yearly thing now.) The last time I timed myself was a couple years back, clearly I've made a lot of improvements over the years. One notable thing is that I went from just holding the yarn to a more traditional way of tensioning the yarn. That might have sped me up a little. Oh, I did measure it, and so far it's at two and a quarter inches. Need to be at three and a quarter before I can start instep increases. So probably not too much longer if I actually get back to it.

Actually, I've been trying to set up a nightly routine that would help me get to sleep even on nights where I really don't want to. It probably doesn't help that my sleep schedule is all sorts of wacky at the moment. That's partly my own fault for telling work that I can work whatever hours they want to give me.

Bright Blessings and restful nights!

3/15/13

More Crazy Pants

One more block down. Vandyke check, though a long pattern repeat row-wise, but once you understand what's going on in the pattern it's not that hard to follow or memorize. The tricky part is the diagonals, but it still wasn't that hard. To memory, the different directions are worked in the same way, just one starting on the right side and the other on the wrong side. So all in all, not that hard.

I'm still trying to think of uses for this. Might be nice on a sweater or something, but I'm not always big on textures in clothing. We'll see, I'm sure I'll come up with something sooner or later. (Also, I'm planning on getting a better picture of the block tomorrow and editing it in tomorrow. Okay, new picture up, much better to see.)

Bright Blessings!

3/14/13

I math failed again


Though this time it didn't cause me to need to rip out any work. No, this time it was on my math for how long I've been working on my timed socks. Some how, I had 37 minutes of knitting take me from 2:58 in work time to 4:01 in work time. Don't ask me how I thought that was right the first time. Honestly, I wasn't really looking at it hard when I noticed the mistake. So I took the calculator on my phone and refigured all the math. I use erasable pens for most of my knitting stuff. (Yes, it's the same pen from when I was writing in my planner.) That means you don't actually see the mistake to the left.
Now, I've been quoting 17 hours for a pair of socks to people. That put me at 8.5 hours per sock, this sock finished at 6:31. A bit of an improvement, don't you think? Though I do have to admit that it's not a complete apples to apples comparison, the last sock was 9.5 inches long and worked on size 2 this one is 8.5 inches long and worked on size 1. Make of the difference what you will.

Bright blessings and great improvements to you!

3/13/13

That's a Bummer...

So, I don't have much progress to show on anything today, especially that it was a day for sitting around on my tush to do nothing. Well, that's not true. I ran to the next town over and got my brother and his girlfriend their Christmas presents, finally. I was also there because I have stuff stored away in the shed out back. I was going to pick up some craft things.

Okay, confession, I'm actually a multicraftual, and am in the process of getting my grandmother to teach me to quilt. But I don't want to be forced to just go there when I want to practice, and anyhow, if I want to make quilts, I'll need to figure out how to piece. Well, one of the things I went to get was a sewing machine my grandmother gave me who knows how long ago. The other is a box of bed sheets that I was given full creative and destructive rights to. I come home and find out two things:

  1. My box of bed sheets is mostly one comforter and a little pile of sheets in the bottom.
  2. The spool pin is missing from the sewing machine.
Now, the first one isn't so terrible. I can still get fabric from that comforter, and maybe reuse the innards in a quilt. (I'm nothing if not a pack rat.) The missing spool pin? That's a bit of a deal breaker there. Unless I can get a replacement or rig up something the completely working order machine is a brick. Now, it doesn't look like the replacement would cost that much, and I'm sure if I said something to my grandma she'd even give me the money to get it, or if I said something to my grandpa he'd be able to rig up something so I can use the machine. Nothing that will stop me in the long run, but for now? It's a bit of a bummer.

Bright blessings, and creative solutions to you all!

3/12/13

Sideways sock

So, you remember how a couple days back I said that I was about half way done with the first of my sideways socks? (There's a picture to the right if you need to refresh your memory.) Yeah, well, I wasn't worried about running out of yarn, as I explained there. But that little voice that a lot of knitters talk about having? Yeah, she was talking again. You'd think that for something for me I'd be alright. And I would be, if I was knitting a sock toe up or top down. (Really, I don't have a preference, just whatever strikes my fancy at that time.) Yet this sideways fashion has it's own kinks to throw at me. One of them being math and understanding what I'm doing and where I'm adding stitches to and if I actually have the right starting amount of stitches. So I plopped the thing on my foot, and the heel did not end up where my heel is. I checked my gauge and it's still pretty close to where it was when I was writing out my notes for what I was going to do, which I've now pretty much committed to memory (it's not that hard). But I had to adjust at least one number and start over.
 So what you see above isn't what I have at the moment. I ripped it out last night. What you see to the left is what I have now. Not a whole lot, but I haven't spent all of my free time today working on it. Partly because mornings is for crazy pants, and then I had to scamper off to work before I was too late. And now I'm home. We'll see if what, if anything, I have to report on tomorrow.

Bright Blessings!

3/11/13

More blocks

So the first block up right now is (runs off to get her book, sorry it got moved from my normal place a couple weeks ago) little check. Pretty simple and easy to get the hang of, and no twisted stitches to fuss about. Though, so far I'm not quite sure what I'd use most of these for, but I'm sure something will rear it's head at some point and I'll have just the thing. That and I like looking for stuff for socks every so often. (Like it looks like I'm going to be making a few pairs of thigh high socks, partly for the heck of it partly for skirts in winter.) The other block is garter and rib check. I liked it. I'm not sure if I can explain why, maybe looking at it will help you understand.
I think some of it is the differences in how rib and garter stitches act and they you put them together and make them play nice. It's certainly not something that I would have come up with on my own. Might be able to find a use for this. We'll just have to see. If any of you have ideas, feel free to share them in the comments.

Bright Blessings and happy crafting!

3/10/13

Knitting! Shocking!

There's been a lack of actual recent knitting content lately. (that's probably because I haven't been doing much knitting, more wasting time reading comics I've already read or playing games.) I was going to do work on my timed sock as my main during the day project. But that just wasn't working. I wasn't working on it because the notebook I'm keeping time in is usually in my purse that generally lives in my room. My days are usually not spent in my room. Becoming aware of this I just flipped what was my night time project and my day time project. Granted. from that shot of the sideways sock you probably can't tell a whole lot of progress. I've finished heel/toe increases and am at a point of just knitting for the time being. I know it looks like I might run out of yarn. I think I'm about half way done with the sock. I'm not too worried because I have the rest of the yarn hiding in a basket in my room. (I think I can find it when I need it, but I am a fan of rainbows.)

I'll get myself around to an update on the crazy pants tomorrow. (that's not got lots of work done on it either.) Granted it'll probably get up later than this is, so don't stay up if you can't.

Bright Blessings!

3/9/13

Happy Birthday to Me

So today at 10:15 am I turned 26. Honestly, I've never really gotten that deep into numerology, and don't know if there's anything significant about it. But it's really just another year older and some people ask if I feel different, and it really doesn't.

Was able to head out for a nice supper with somewhat nearby family. (I live in the midwest, somewhat nearby is about a two hour drive from home.) We went out for supper and ate well. I'm not a fan of being sung at in a restaurant, and lucky didn't have that happen. Was yummy food and dessert and I ended up leaving too full. (And maybe a little tipsy, surprised I didn't get carded, but my uncle figured that it was because there was enough older people that probably wouldn't let me order alcohol if I wasn't old enough.)

And an aside, I'm likely going to use the "fluff" tag to denote when I feel like I'm off topic of the main intent I have for the blog. (ie, I felt like I should post, but was too lazy to retrieve the camera from my car that fell out of my bag.) Hopefully this doesn't happen too often.

Bright Blessings to you all.

3/3/13

Long over due

Really, I finished binding off the day after I showed you the partially finished bind off. I've still yet to block the thing though. Not quite sure how I'm going to do that at the moment. One is a question of space. I'm sure that if I just cleaned my room, I'm sure there'd be room there, but it's getting the floor cleaned and all that. There is an empty clean room that I could possibly get use of. Mostly it's just that I'm lazy. I enjoyed the knitting and was quite proud of getting it done. Granted, there where only cats around when I finished, and one must always remember that cats are unimpressed with finished knitting. Even when you throw them on said knitting to be impressed by it.
See? Unimpressed cat thrown on knitting to fully be able to admire it. Any how, I'll do my best to keep timely on updates. Just a kind of busy life. (That and for some reason playing games seemed more fun than knitting. Crazy, I know, but it happens.)

Bright Blessings!