(Very) slowly, but surely

As I said in my last post (two weeks ago – yikes!), I got the socks back on one needle. I knit about 10 rounds on the pair over the next few days, and on May 6th, I took a few pictures of them while the hubs and I were having breakfast at Steak ‘N Shake.

Here’s the best of the bunch:

Looking rather more socklike than before, don’t ya think?

It’s taken me this long to get my camera, cord and computer in close enough proximity to download the pictures and post this for you here. You’ve all known me long enough that I’m sure you weren’t holding your breath in the interim. And I’ve knit only a few more rounds since, after establishing a k1p1 pattern all ’round. That meant increasing a couple of stitches, and the socks fit better as a result.

The urge to knit has been intermittent these last two weeks, so I’ve been carrying these around everywhere and knitting a round here or there whenever I feel motivated. As they’re for me and I don’t have a project waiting in the wings (pestering me for a chance to take center stage), I’ll just let myself toodle along on these oh-so-pretty purple socks. Eventually, I’ll finish them. I always do.

—

On the writing front, I’ve decided it’s time to, um, write again.

More specifically, last night I took up the romance novel I abandoned at 5400 words about 6 years ago. I’m planning to post my progress on my writing-specific blog, but only as word counts. I’m not brave enough going to post the fiction itself as I write it, as first drafts have a tendency to, um, suck, and none of us needs that all over the interwebs!

My first night’s progress: 442 more words! (The writing plan I’m following was suggested by Chuck Wendig, my unofficial online writing guru. It involves writing 350 words/day, 5 days/week.) After a year, that would add up to about 91,000 words and 260 days of writing.)

Wish me luck!

Imagine, if you will…

… both sock heels done and the pair reunited on one long circular needle, plus about 5 rounds on the leg.

And the reason I titled this post “Imagine”?

You guessed it:

No new photo of them.

(I know.)

(And I’m sorry.)

Here’s something else to distract you from the crushing disappointment brighten your day:

Ohmyyes!!

FYI, if you turn your TV onto TNT weekdays from 9-12 a.m., you can watch these fine young men (Jared Padilecki and Jenson Ackles) saving world over and over again. (Why, yes, Supernatural is playing as I type this! How’d you know?!)

 

Half-heeled: sock progress

Friday night, I worked on my purple K1P1 socks, stopping when they were about  7.25 inches long. I compared them a previous pair, one that fits well, to see where I wanted to start the heels. Then I knit the top half of each sock and split the pair, each on its own circular needle, as the heels are much easier to work when there’s only one sock per needle.

Saturday night, I started the heel of one of my purple K1P1 socks. Here’s how it looked when I finished the first half of it:

All blinged out with stitch markers.

Last night, I picked up where I’d left off and finished the heel of the above sock. Here’s how it looks now:

The view from the top…

And one more shot:

… and of the sole.

Knitting the heel hurt my left hand quite a bit, especially in the picking-up of the wrapped stitches. OMG, so tight, so hard to work with, especially in this mostly-not-wool yarn. That’s the reason I didn’t get to the second one yet: my hand needs time to heal before I mess with another heel.

I’m off work tonight and Tuesday night, so I hope to get through the second heel before Wednesday. Then I’ll recombine the pair on one circ and work the legs.

Yay for progress… and yay for getting through with the painful bits soon, without further damage. (Knock on wood.)

One of these days, I really am going to have to learn how to do the short-row heels without wraps (and without holes). There are tutorials about it, but I didn’t have that resource when I did the heel above. And since I want my socks to match, I won’t be trying it on sock #2 of this pair.

Perhaps on my next pair?

Makin’ it up as you go along**

So, as promised, here is a pic of my socks-in-progress, taken this a.m. just before I put them away for the day:

Topside action!

As you can probably see, the toes are in stockinette, then I did the 33 stitches on the top in k1p1 rib, ending with a k1. I want them to cling to my feet a bit, as the yarn has little elasticity. It’s mostly bamboo, which makes it soft and drapey, but not clingy.

Currently they are 6.25 inches long (yes, each). I am planning to knit until they’re about 7 inches long, then work a short-row heel.

And because you’ve been so patient with my overall slackenbloggen, here’s a photo of the other side:

Blurry bottoms, boo-hoo!

In case it’s not obvious, I stuck to plain stockinette for the first 4.5 inches or so, to keep fabric smooth under the ball of the foot. I was worried that ribbing there could be annoying. Of course, I picked up with the k1p1 ribbing for the arch, to help the sock cling there, too. There are 33 stitches on this half, too, making a total stitch count ’round of 66 stitches.

The heels will be stockinette, for the same reason the balls of the foot are, then I’ll pick up the k1p1 ribbing for the leg.

So far, I think the fabric is really purplicious and I love it!

—

I don’t usually buy new purses until my old one (yes, I tend to have one purse at a time… don’t judge me!) is falling apart and/or stained beyond redemption. When I reached that point recently with my old purse, I found a new one at the Evil Empire. I also found a cute purple Tink mesh bag (probably meant for beachy things), that I needed for carrying my too-big-for-my-purse stuff, such as my Kindle and larger knitting projects and adapter cords and assorted thingamabobs. And I found this, which I had to have:

Cupcakes!

Aside from the functional aspects (i.e., it’s perfect for smaller knitting projects plus my wallet and keys and cell phone… for those times I don’t want to haul a bigger bag), I had to buy it because… well… Cupcakes!!!

My inner Cupcake (my singing tavern-wench persona) screeched a protest when I tried to be practical and put it back on its peg. She had to have it! And it was only $10, which made it a very reasonable indulgence.

And look at it… (go ahead, I’ll wait)… it’s totally adorable, is it not? (Yes. Yes, it is. I will hear no dissension on this point! You will gaze upon its cupcakey perfection, and you will like it… nay, love it! But not enough to try to steal it from me. That will not be tolerated! You must adore it from afar. So says Cupcake, who it turns out is pretty pushy sometimes. Ahem.)

Time for me to get my clean laundry out of the dryer and head to bed. Work tonight, you know. If it goes well, I’ll get to the heels before morning. Wish me luck with that? Thanks!

—

** So titled because that’s how these socks are being “designed” (to stretch the word almost to its breaking point): on the fly and as I go along.

Dinna despair!

I havena abandoned ye! I’ve socks (aye, socks! toe-up, two-at-a-time socks! my own vanilla-pattern-in-the-makin’ socks!) on the (long circular) needle and will take and post a wee pic for ye soon(ish).

A fair and restful Thorsday to ye, kittens, as I go to tuck meself into me amazin’ waterbed o’ joy. Ta!

 

I unvented a novelty baby hat!

Check out what I made:

Pardon my paleness. I’m a little overexposed.

I call it the Blue Bear Baby Hat, for obvious reasons.

If you want to read the specs and perhaps knit your own, with your own unique customizing details, go for it! It’s a simple pattern, which you can see on the page for this FO. (Look in the righthand column for the clicky-thingy.) And please post pics/links if you do, because I would love to see them.

I don’t have a recipient for this yet, and it’s baby-sized, so it is currently in my to-give bin. It would look so cute on a little baby’s noggin, doncha think?

Kitts and mitts

Or, more accurately, kittens and fingerless mitts.

Last Monday, Mogwai*, the littlest and most loving of the two neighborhoods who adopted our family several months ago decided to move on in and, in a delightful show of how much she trusts us, to have her first litter of kittens in a cat bed in our dining room.

Here’s a photo from Friday morning:

There are four babies in this picture… promise!

The gray baby’s head is hidden in the pile. You can see his/her back at the 9 o’clock position in the picture. I’d enlarge the picture more, but the focus would be worse. I didn’t want to flash the poor little things too closely or often, so I only took two photos… and this is the best of those.

Luckily for everyone, our older cats have accepted the new cats’ presence with amazing aplomb and have not made Mogwai feel threatened or unwelcome. Whew!

—

On the knitting front, I finished a pair of fingerless mitts for a dear friend whose favorite color is green. I can’t show you the photo of the pattern on the backs of the mitts yet, as I don’t want to spoil the surprise when I give them to this dear friend, but I can show you these:

After one day of knitting…

And here’s a photo of the palm side of the finished mitts:

Palms, thumbs, cuffs… oh my!

I reset the photo size on my new camera (!) before I took the FO pictures, so the resulting pictures are, um, small. I think I’ll have to reset it again and take new (i.e., larger) photos of the backs of the mitts, so you can see the pattern details better.

Sorry for the tease, but it’s a necessity… at least for a few days.

—

Hope your Sunday (Easter!) is filled with love, music and laughter. Mine will be filled with sleep and mucus, as I am heading to bed now (worked last night and again tonight) and I have the crud. Ah, well, c’est la vie. I get sick so rarely that I can hardly complain about it now… but I want to. Oh, goddess of snot, how I want to!

—

Oh, and WordPress has reminded me that I hit my 6-year blogiversary last week. Woo-hoo! Yay, me!

—

* Mogwai from, of course, the movie Gremlins. And, yes, we fed her after midnight… but we didn’t get her wet.