Knitting is a disease

One ball of this:

Can knit into about this much sock:

I finished them last week, on Sunday, I think. Since then, I've been working on my lace scarf (on the 5th repeat out of 27...) but I actually have to pay attention to that one and read the pattern, meaning that I can't knit and watch TV.

I'm also working on a felting project- pot holders. I ended up with a lot of Patton's left over and it is supposed to be great wool for felting. My mother has been after me to knit potholders and I figured I could manage to knit and felt a potholder before finals week.

I bought three skeins of Opal sock yarn off of eBay this week, two arrived today. I'm excited to start with those, though the yarn looks super tiny. Lots of little stitches on little dpns. Woo!

I also ventured out to Stitch Your Art Out today, the local yarn/quiting store. Cute little shop, lots of awesome and yummy yarns. Sadly, there is a yarn store closer at school than at home... Bah. Oh, well. Should just encourage me to buy online or in bulk. (Somehow, that doesn't seem like a good thing for my wallet...)

So, now I have three balls of yarn to start for socks so I'm looking around for patterns. And I'll be able to start my SixSock knit-along socks, which will be awesome.

I handed in my Honors College application today. I watched the Honors Advisor sign it, so I have a fairly decent chance of getting in. He has mentioned oh.. 4 times that every student he nominates gets into the college. But, it is out of my hands and has two recommendation letters to go with it.

Hopefully, I will also be getting paperwork for concurrent majors signed tomorrow. YAY for insanity!

In other news, the second sock is zooming right along. I'd show more pictures, but I am lazy and that requires finding the camera cord, unplugging the printer, plugging in the camera, and remembering to plug the printer back in when done, so that I don't think that the printer has broken again when I attempt to print something. (Yes, it happens on a regular basis. No, I do not learn.)

I bought some yummy wool/silk blend to attempt lace with. I found a pattern on www.knitty.com that I just love and I want to attempt lace. And since I'm going to have a good bit of yarn left over from the socks, I'm wondering if you can felt lace. Anyone know?

And since I like pictures, I'll leave you with a few shots from my trip to NYC last month. MOMA, Phantom of the Opera, and a random shot.

seriously, what is there NOT to like? And besides, it can
totally be my theme picture for days like today.

Dali! I lurve Dali. Anyone who can paint a skull out of nude female
bodies and have it both awesomely cool and very weird is cool in my book.

Ah, the national debt clock. Only in America?

The Evolution of a Sock

I blame the Yarn Harlot for my decision to make a sock. (ok, two. Socks are not useful if you only have one unless you plan on making sock puppets.) But first, one has to learn how to knit in the round on dpns.

So cute! So tiny! So pointy and hard to hold!

Then comes the swatching and the measuring (of swatch and foot) and the calculating. Then one can cast on the sock, join, and knit.
I think my aunt has had that table cloth since forever.

I ended up knitting while reading for class. And while watching TV. And on the bus to NYC, during Phantom of the Opera, the bus ride back.

Also, while reading knitting blogs.

The leg warmer became a leg-and-ankle warmer, which then grew to warm a heel and part of the foot as well.

I also knit when I should be working on a study guide for an exam.

Eventually, I ended up with a whole sock. That I knitted all by myself in less than 3 weeks. I'm proud to announce that I've already cast on the second sock and am over 4" into the 6" cuff. Funny, how the second sock seems to go faster, once one actually has some idea of what one is doing.

A sock! Made by me! And yarn and sticks! And it looks very sock-like!

After the sock, I want to knit with some mircospun by LionBrand. Problem is, I can only find patterns that require more than one ball of yarn. I, the nearly broke college student, only have one ball of lilac and one ball of white. I'm really liking the way it knits up on smallish needles- solid, dense, and soft fabric. But what do I do with it? Right now, I seem to just be admiring the swatch. Any suggestions? Any? No? Ok then.

life taught me to die

12:14am of the day my 6 page paper is due. 20% of my grade in a class I need an A in, to get my 4.0 for the semester. (Yes, I'm a Type A personality.) (and I like parentheses.) I'm on the top of page 5, with one person yet to comment on and then a conclusion to add. 

And somehow, I need to make the introduction fit the rest of the paper, thesis statement in particular. 

In other news, the sock is completed. My very first sock! It looks hand-made, but I'm ok with that. I pretty much made up the pattern as I went along, so I'm not too surprised either. Next time, I'll try a knit 3/purl 1 pattern, rather than knit 2, purl 2 and continue the pattern onto the top of the foot. And maybe try a different toe. But first, I need to knit another sock to match the first one. And maybe finish this paper and go to bed.

Band-aids

If I were smart and hard working, I whould be editing a paper that's due on Thursday.

Clearly, I am not all that smart and hard working.

My family always gathers at my aunt and uncle's house for holidays such as Labor Day, 4th of July, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving. Last year, my almost-sister Tina brought her boyfriend, Brandon, along for the day. Her mother, visiting from Arizona, also came along. And somewhere in the weeks before that particular trip, Tina had learned to knit from her mother.

She finished one project, started on another. My sister, Tina, Brandon, and I ended up bored - and at Micheal's. (We celebrate holidays early. Something about avoiding traffice and time and a half or double time.) Brandon had decided if Tina could knit, so could he. He struggled all afternoon with US size 4 needles and really crappy yarn (100% plastic). But he eventually figure it out.

Me? I got some awesome soft, fuzzy wool/acrlyic blend and knit me a scarf, learning both knit AND purl from the help of Tina, her mother, my mother, and my aunt.

Scarf curls in on itself, as stockenett stitch seems to want to do. But I knitted it. All by myself. And somehow, there were the same number of stitches when I finished as when I had started.

Then life set in- work, work, more work, sleep, work. Then school. I had brought my yarn and needles to school by mistake, not planning to knit and then stumbled across the Yarn Harlot.

Since then, I dragged a friend to Micheal's (hey, it is near Walmart and he wanted bagels. Plus, I was driving.) Bought some yummy yarn and more needles. Knitted another scarf. Then a cable purse, once I figured out how to cable.

Now, I'm working on a pair of socks. Well, in theory, a pair of socks. As TheBoy would say, I currently only have a heel/ankle warmer, but it shall be a sock. See?














Now, as I'm attempting to figure out what my thesis statement should actually say to reflect what the paper ended up being about (what, you're supposed to write your paper based on the thesis statement? Yeah, right) I was knitting a round on my sock.

And discoverd that my yarn smells like band-aids.