Knitamazoo(tm)

It totally amazes me how one day you can be perfectly fine, going about your business and then the next . . . whamo! you have a major allergy attack. This is the story of my life. I was doing fine this past weekend except for a sinus headache. That should have been my first clue. Monday morning dawned like any other day but by the time I got to work my allergies had hit with a vengence. My nose is so red from blowing it yesterday that I look like Bozo the clown. At least I remembered to bring in more Puffs Plus to work with me this morning.

Well, Clapotis II is now the bane of my existence. I was working on it Sunday getting very excited that I was getting so close to the end when I realized that I was not going to have enough yarn. Since I purchased said yarn over 2 years ago, my chances of securing another hank of the same color in the same dye lot are about 1 in a bajillion. When I purchased the yarn I noticed that I had way more yardage than the pattern called for. I figured I could add some length to my Clapotis and happily set off. Now I’m short and will have to frog the entire thing. It’s been shoved into a plastic grocery bag I’m so mad at it right now. (I don’t want to hear how it was my fault that I misjudged the amount of yarn I had and not the fault of the Clapotis . . . it will always be the knitting’s fault!)

In other knitting news, I was so mad Sunday that I wound up my Socks that Rock and started some Coriolis socks for myself. I am totally in love with this yarn! It really does rock! My only issue right now is that I didn’t realize I needed to do a different toe if I wanted the Coriolis to spiral all the way up the leg of the sock. So I have to rip back the toe and start again. At least I know my stitch and row gauge, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Now for the turkey. The hubster decided that he wanted to try some turkey burgers (eating healthier, less fat, blah, blah, blah) so he bought some at the store. He took them out of the freezer on Saturday and wrapped up two to put back in and wrapped two to defrost. He set them on the counter for about half an hour to get the defrosting started before putting them in the fridge. When he went back to the kitchen, he found them on the floor and one of them was more than half eaten. There were only two suspects and one was eliminated when he was the only cat begging to be fed at dinner time. Here is the mug shot of the infamous Turkey Burgler.

my fat cat puking his guts out 2 feet from my bed! It woke me up from a sound sleep and I sat straight up in bed. I reached over and whacked the hubster and scared the crap out of him. He thought something bad was happening. I tried to explain to him that something bad was happening but he didn’t buy it. So at 2:30 this morning I’m flipping on lights and doing my best hurdler impression over the piles of cat puke to get something to clean it up with. Not only had the cat left a huge pile 2 feet from my bed, but there was more in the hallway and then the entire second step down on the staircase was covered. Try hurdling over that while still half asleep. It only took us about 10 minutes to clean it all up (we’ve had so much practice that we are possibly the fastest Pit Crew in cat puke clean-up). After all was said and done, I couldn’t get back to sleep so now I’m tired and cranky. Not a good combo.

In knitting news, I must rave about my wonderful hubster! Over the 4th of July weekend we went “up north” and he actually took me to several yarn stores, went in said yarn stores and picked out sock yarn for another pair of socks for him! Yarn pr0n can be found here along with some pics of finished socks. As I was browsing the photo album this morning before writing this post I realized that I neglected to photograph the cabled toe-up socks that I’m working on. So that will have to wait for another post (which will hopefully be sooner than later).

We’ve been on a few camping trips in the last month and you can see pictures of our trips here and here. I would have included pictures in this post but I didn’t get them uploaded to my server and I can’t do it at work. We don’t have any more camping trips planned until August when we will be visiting the hubster’s mom down in Indiana. Til then, I’ll be catching up on housework and trying to knit up some of that lucious yarn!

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last blogged. I’ve just been so busy with work and biking lately that the computer has moved lower on the list of priorities. So what have I been up to? Let’s see . . . biking! As of today, we have biked 16.7 miles for the week and 28.4 for the year. Not bad for two novice riders. We did 6.7 this afternoon as it was sunny, warm and just perfect! Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain so that will be a knitting day.

Speaking of knitting, I’m sure I’ve finished up some stuff since I last posted. Let’s see, I finished the mate to my ankle socks and that’s about it. I started my toe-up sock class this past Tuesday. The figure 8 cast-on tried to kick my butt, but (heehee!) I finally conquered it and here is the result of my perserverance. I used Schaffer yarn’s Lola on size 5 circs. The color is accurate here and you can see my perrenials coming up in the background. Hooray for spring! I’ll be casting on for the second sock tonight so I can work on it during the hockey game tonight. (Go Wings!)

I love this yarn so much (it’s 100% merino wool - superwash!) that I just had to add another hank to my growing stash. Since it’s a DK weight these socks knit up super fast. Gotta love that instant gratification! I also went out and bought a 3-drawer plastic bin on wheels to help store my growing yarn collection. (I think the yarn multiplies on it’s own but my wallet says otherwise.)

So I emptied out a basket that had yarn in it and now it’s filled with something else. He’s just too cute!

(Now if he would only stay in the basket and off my chair I’d be super happy. Bad kitty!)

What a day it’s been. They handed me an IBM Thinkpad T40 laptop and asked me to replace the motherboard. YIKES! I’ve built a couple of desktop computers but have never done anything hardware related on a laptop. So I sat down, got out cups to hold all the little screws, set out the screwdrivers, took a deep breath and dove in. An hour an a half later I had about 12 cups with little screws in them and a completely dismantled laptop. I took a short lunch break and came back to put in the new motherboard and put it all back together. After 2 hours I had it all put back together with no extra screws. Now for the big test . . . will it boot up. I took it to the bench, plugged it in, took another deep breath and turned it on. AND IT BOOTED UP!! I about screamed. So I’m pretty proud of myself right now.

In knitting news, here is the long promised picture of the finished felted booga bag. The colors in this picture are pretty close seeing as there was no good natural light available. I love this bag and it’s become my newest bag to carry around my socks in progress.

Speaking of socks, I’ve got two pair going. One pair is a little over half done. I haven’t decided what to call them yet but here they are. The yarn (which I can’t remember what it is) is very soft. These will be nice warm, comfy socks.

I’m also working on my disco socks. I really like the subtle sparkles in the yarn. So I continue on in my sock knitting madness.

They are calling for an ice storm, snow and high winds here tomorrow. Too bad that I live so close to work. If I lived a little farther away I could call in and say I can’t make it and knit all day. But maybe that will mean it will be a slow day. I just hope that things clear up so we don’t have to cancel our knitting group tomorrow night. I had to miss last week due to a migraine.

Well that’s about all from my little corner of the mitten. Here’s a really cute kitty for you to ohh and ahh over.

Well Christmas has come and gone and my house is now empty. Mom and Dad were the last to leave and they left Thursday before New Year’s. I didn’t move from the couch for a couple of days and managed to finish these socks. (I know this isn’t a picture of the finished ones, but I haven’t gotten around to taking it yet.)

I had a wonderful time over the holidays. My Mom, brother, his fiance and I did a special musical program for church. We even remembered to take some pictures while we were still dressed up. I just now noticed that my hubby was the only one not wearing dark colors. Guess he didn’t get the memo. Anyway, you can see that we did have a white Christmas. It warmed up and rained after Christmas day so all the snow is gone but I’m sure it will be back very soon.

Santa was very good to us. I couldn’t believe the amount of gifts under our tree. I don’t know how we got them all under there but we did. Cosmo was the only kitty who was interested in Christmas at all this year and his interest was limited to this stupid pink troll head that was in the stocking of cat toys that we bought.

My Mom did such an awesome job shopping for me! But really, how could she go wrong buying yarn and needles? It was so funny when I unwrapped the sock yarn. I bought the exact same color of Sockatta yarn earlier this year when we went to Frankenmuth. What was really strange was that the ball she bought was the same dye lot as the one I bought. Crazy! She also got me some Addi Turbos, some Inox (since I haven’t seen them around here), Fiddlesticks dpn’s in size 1 and Clover bamboo dpn’s in size 2. Now I can have both socks of a pair going at the same time.

My lovely future sister-in-law gave me a gift certificate to one of my LYS’s. Isn’t she just the sweetest? I spent that and some of my Christmas money on this yummy yarn. Three skeins of Noro Kureyon, a ball of Sockatta, 2 hanks of Koigu KPPPM, 1460 yds. of some yummy laceweight (and no I can’t tell you what it is as I’m at work and I can’t remember), and a 52″ (I think) Denise cable. The Monday after Christmas Mom, Dad, hubby and I went to Frankenmuth. While there we hit the outlets, Bronner’s Christmas store and I of course made them stop at Zeilinger’s Wool shop where I found the patterns for the Fibertrends Flower Basket shawl and the Sheep shawl. That laceweight is destined for one or both of these.

So vacation is over and I’m back at work. My new position at work keeps me fairly busy so I haven’t had as much time to update my blog or join chat which is a bummer. But my days are going by pretty quickly. And speaking of jobs, my hubby got a call yesterday and was offered a job that he had a phone interview for the day before. It’s a 6-month contract back where he was before. Even though it’s only a 6-month thing at least he’ll have his foot in the door and other projects are coming up all the time.

I almost forgot. Now that hubby is employed again, I signed up for my first ever knitting class at my LYS. I’m going to learn socks on 2 circs! I really want to be able to do them both at the same time and am really excited to be taking a class. It starts next Wednesday and I am about to burst!

Well that’s it for now. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And now I think I’m going to go join Cosmo.

At least I hope they can’t get any worse. The countdown to family arrivals has begun. My brother and his fiance are arriving tomorrow and my parents will be here on Thursday. Will I have everything ready? Well, if hubby completes the “honey do” list then the answer is yes. (I think.) Anyway, I lost 3 days of preparation last week. Thursday I went home early from work with a migraine that lasted until around 10 pm. I couldn’t even knit. Friday I came back into work and the entire building smelled like natural gas. I had another horrible headache and was so sick to my stomach by the time work ended. Then Saturday . . . Saturday was the worst. I got up with a nasty case of Montezuma’s revenge. Not a good morning.

Saturday afternoon my hubby wanted to take a drive up to Grand Rapids and show me where he worked the temp job he did, check out the covered bridge in Ada, eat at the Macaroni Grill and go to the mall. I was doing much better (no running to the bathroom) so I said ok. By the time we got up there I had pain building in my stomach. We managed to drive by where he had worked, stop for 5 minutes at the covered bridge (it was way too cold to be outside long) and eat dinner. I begged off the mall and we came home and watched hockey while I knit. The covered bridge (click pictures to make them bigger) was great and Ada is a really cute town. As we drove through Ada, hubby tried to show my this really cute little house that had been for sale. I was to busy looking at the yarn shop, Clever Ewe, across the street. Can you imagine living directly across the street from a yarn shop? I would love it but my wallet probably wouldn’t.

Sunday I was able to get quite a bit done around the house as well as knitting. I scrubbed the floors in my two bathrooms as well as my kitchen floor. Plus it was Kitty Spa day and both cats got the works. We started with pedicures for both cats and ended with aroma baths. I’m not sure the cats enjoyed it so much (the bruised bite mark on my forearm bears witness to that fact) but after baths and a good brushing, both cats look (and smell) wonderful. They were a little camera shy after their baths but I managed to snap a couple of pictures. Poor Roscoe looks like a big fat porcupine. He tolerated the bath fairly well but managed to bite me while I was trying to towel him off. It was worth it though as his fur is soft he smells nice now. Isn’t he just adorable? Cosmo howled through most of his bath. He doesn’t bite or scratch but tries to escape every chance he gets. Poor thing has so much fur that it takes forever to get him wet and lathered up. It takes twice as long to rinse him. He tolerated the toweling off but after I released him, he hid for several hours. I finally found him and placed him on the loveseat for a picture. He wasn’t too happy with me but after he had dried off and I started to brush him, all was forgiven.

I did get some knitting done this weekend. Hubby’s scarf is coming along nicely. I’ve started on the second ball of yarn and should have it done by Christmas. I finished up the first ball on Sunday afternoon, used up what was left from him mittens and started the second ball. It’s an easy pattern to do and not as boring as garter stitch. It’s a two row repeat. Start with a 3×3 rib row followed by a 1×1 rib row. It makes an interesting rib which lies nice and flat. I’ll block it a little wider so the pattern shows better and the scarf will be wider for him to wrap around his face and neck. It’s knitting up really quickly and it’s keeping me on my toes. I’ve had to tink back a couple of times because I did two rows of 3×3 rib.

So bring on Christmas! I’m ready! Cats are clean, house is clean, presents are done (almost)! So I say again . . . bring on Christmas!

I got up Sunday morning to discover this in my living room. I’m pretty sure that Cosmo is the guilty party as he seems to be the only cat that has any interest in the Christmas tree at all. I’m happy to report that no garland was eaten (I’m basing this assumption on the fact that I did not find any glittery cat barf anywhere in the house) and I was able to repair the damage quite easily. I bought them a kitty stocking for Christmas filled with catnip toys but I’m thinking of replacing them with hairball remedy and coupons for the kitty spa. Speaking of the kitty spa, both cats have appointments next weekend. They are both scheduled for pedicures and aroma baths. Gotta smell nice for Christmas!

On the knitting front, I finished the SIL scarf last night. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Vital statistics: Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style, Rowan Soft Baby yarn and Clover 16″ size 8 circulars. Again, the bamboo was a little too grabby for this yarn in my opinion and I wouldn’t use them again. The picture is a little dark (what can I do? It’s still dark out when I leave for work.) but you get the idea. I’m not sure if I want to block it or not and I have a few days to make up my mind.

There’s one last piece of absolute must be done Christmas knitting to be completed. That “thing” for my brother. I may end up making my first foray into Magic Loop for this one and I really don’t want to go out and buy size 13 dpns just for this one project. I’m not sure that I’d ever use them again. But this is very close to being complete. Then if I can figure out what pattern I want to use I can try to get a scarf done for hubby by Christmas. I’m just glad that I’ve got most of the knitting done now. Maybe I’ll have some time to clean the house before everyone arrives.

I had this wonderful plan in my head for a nice relaxing weekend. My kitty, Cosmo, had other ideas. It all started innocently enough Saturday night. Hubby and I were holed up in the rec room knitting and watching a hockey game. (Well, I was the only one knitting but that’s not important to the story.) Around 8:30 we decided that we wanted to have some ice cream, so we paused the game (gotta love TiVo!) and went upstairs. I got the ice cream out of the freezer to soften up a bit. A couple of minutes later we scooped out the ice cream and were getting ready to return to the hockey game when we noticed lightning and thunder. Hubby went to the front door and stepped out on the front stoop to watch the show. I didn’t want to step outside because the front stoop looked wet and I was wearing my fuzzyfeet. So I cracked the door opened and stood in the opening to block any escape attempts by the cats. We stood there for a few minutes and for some reason hubby looked down and the next words out of his mouth were, “The cat’s outside!” I never felt the cat go by my legs. As hubby bent down to grab Cosmo, he took off into the neighbor’s yard. I whipped off the fuzzyfeet and grabbed a pair of shoes from the kitchen and took off after the cat. This is not the first time he’s escaped, and his usual MO is to head for the neighbor’s back yard and hide out under their deck. Of course I couldn’t see him under there as I neglected to grab a flashlight but I knew he must be there. Then the rain started to fall. So I ran back inside our house and started to cry. Poor kitty is out in the rain, poor kitty will get hungry, poor kitty is going to get hit by a car, poor kitty is all alone . . . and it’s all my fault! Hubby just sat there while I blubbered and tried to tell me that the cat would come home. No way, I said, he’s free now. He won’t want to come back. By this time the rain had let up and I decided that I was going to go look for the cat again. So back outside I go, calling him like you would a dog expecting him to come running to me. What was I thinking? Hubby came out into our backyard with a flashlight and we’re looking for this cat. I hear something rustling in the leaves along our back fence and I’m sure it’s Cosmo. I tell hubby to shine the light back there and what do I see . . . a possum . . . walking on the top edge of the fence not more than 3 feet away from me. I hear the rustling again and it sounds like it’s coming from the back corner, so I tell hubby to shine the light there and what pops out of the leaves . . . a rabbit . . . his eyes turn red in the glare of the flashlight and he proceeds to charge right at hubby. (Later, hubby told me he felt the rabbit go right past his leg.) As hubby swung around to watch the rabbit I caught a glimpse of Cosmo in the neighbor’s driveway under their SUV. I yelled at hubby that I found the cat and he told me to run around the front of the house and he would chase the cat towards me. As I rounded the corner to the front, I saw the cat on the front stoop with his paws up trying to get in the front door. I cautiously approached but he spotted me and jumped down into the bushes along the front of the house. I tried to trap him between the bushes and the house but he was too sneaky (read: fast!) and managed to get by me. He took off around the side of the house, paused to look at the kitchen door, looked back and saw me gaining on him, then he bolted towards the backyard. As I rounded the house, I saw him on the little porch to the four-season room on the back of our house. I had him trapped but I knew he could easily squeeze through the railing. He looked at me and then at the railing. He stopped to think about whether or not he would fit through the opening and I pounced. I snatched him up and hauled him in the house, yelling to hubby that I had captured the cat. So he was home safe and sound, my white sweats had streaks of mud from his paws, and my ice cream had turned to soup. But the cat was home where he belonged!

Now on to the less stressful part of my weekend. After being tossed into the “attitude adjustment pile” for a couple of days, I pulled out my bed sock to see if it would behave. I compared it to the first one I made and wouldn’t you know it, I knit way too far on the foot before starting the toe decreases. I carefully figured out (read: guessed) how far back I would have to frog. I ran a lifeline, frogged, slipped the stitched back on the needles and finished up the sock in no time. AND it actually is the same size as the first one I made. I must be a good guesser!

I also worked on Kepler for awhile this weekend. I love making the cables! I finished one cuff and started the second one. Here’s a closeup of the cable pattern. The color is a little off in the picture but the cable pattern shows nicely. Once I get the cable bands done then it’s just a stockinette sweater. Hopefully that will make for some good tv knitting. I have to concentrate a little too much on the cabling to do it while I’m watching tv. It’s more of a throw in a movie that I’ve seen a thousand times and knit away.

I also purchased some new yarn Friday right after work. I finally had enough money in the “yarn fund” to get this yarn I’ve been drooling over for the last couple of weeks. So as soon as work was over on Friday, I zipped right over to the LYS and purchased three hanks of this yummy Artful Yarns Jazz in this lovely autumn colorway. It makes me think of changing leaves, apple cider and all things fall. The yarn is 50% alpaca/50% wool. It’s soft and warm and I’ve loved working with it so far. Oops! I guess I just admitted that I cast-on yet another project. And just what is this scrumptious new yarn going to become . . . why Clapotis II. I love the first one I made and this is great mindless tv knitting. It’s already to Kong Thong size but I will spare you the picture until it gets beyond that stage.

So, now before I bore you completely, I will stop rambling. Happy knitting!

The fuzzyfeet are done! I got home later than normal last night and then when hubby got home we went to pick up a pizza so I didn’t start felting them until around 7 last night. It went pretty quickly and they are just awesome! Here they are pre-felting in all their gigantic glory. I placed a highlighter on one for reference. I thought about stuffing our smaller cat in one of them but he gave me an evil look and ran away before I could catch him. The Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted felted really quick for me. I think they were the right size after about 10-15 minutes in the wash. I spun the excess water out of them and immediately put them on so they would form to my feet. I left them on for a couple of hours and they enjoyed watching hockey with me. Though the game didn’t turn out like I had hoped, the fuzzyfeet were all I had hoped for and more! The definitely live up to their name and I can’t wait to wear them tonight when they’re all nice and dry. After wearing them awhile last night, I left them on top of the dryer to well . . . dry. This morning they were almost completely dry so I’m sure I’ll be able to wear them tonight. Here they are post-felt after I had worn them. I bought 2 skeins of the Lamb’s Pride and only ended up using one skein. So I offered to make my mom a pair when she is visiting at Christmas.

Speaking of my mom, she made her first ever visit to an LYS yesterday. I gave her a wishlist of sorts for Christmas. She had a lovely time petting the yarns and seeing the knitted garments hanging around the shop. She had such a wonderful time that she now wants to learn to knit! Yippee! So I’m going to get her started over Christmas! I’m really excited about that. Maybe I’ll have her make her own fuzzyfeet!

While I was watching hockey and blocking my fuzzyfeet, I worked on the second bedsock. I’m 6 rounds from finishing and I’ve run out of yarn. It’s the same size of the first one and I had enough yarn with a little bit left over. So now I don’t know what to do. The sock has been put aside until I can decide what to do with it. I have some of the Elsebeth Lavold Angora left over from the other pair of socks I did in another color. Maybe I’ll just finish off the toe with that color and call it good. They are for me, for around the house so noone will see them. I’ll have to think about it for awhile though.

And I’ve cast on for yet another project which is not a Christmas gift. (I know, 1000 lashes with some wet alpaca!) But the lure of cables got the best of me. I’ve started Kepler and I’m in love with cables! I have to stop after every row to see how the cable pattern is coming out. I look at it, giggle, oh and ah, giggle some more and then knit another row. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (Can you tell this is my first foray into the world of cables?) I’ve done 2 repeats of the cable pattern and just love it. But I plan on working on some Christmas gifts this weekend. Roscoe plans to make sure that I do. Just check out the evil look he’s giving me. Either he’s using it to motivate me to knit what I should be knitting or he’s just mad that I took his picture. (Those green eyes just freak me out!)

Just a quick post today. Not much to talk about except the fuzzyfeet. One down and one at the gusset decreases. Soon. Very soon. I too shall have the coveted fuzzyfeet. I love Theresa’s description in the pattern . . . GIGANTIC! It’s absolutely accurate. That’s a 7″ dpn lying on the sock. Eeep! I can get both of my feet in one of these. I am knitting frantically so I can felt them soon. I toyed with the idea of putting the first one through the felting process but then thought better of it. I may be off kilter but I don’t need two different sized fuzzyfeet to prove it. I’m just too excited and anxious. The only drawback to these is the yarn. Now I really like the yarn but it does seem to “shed” quite a bit. When I’m done knitting I have a “fuzzylap” due to the shedding mohair.

That’s all I’ve been working on. The bed socks sit languishing as the fuzzyfeet have my complete and utter attention. I feel badly for neglecting them but I’ll soon be done with the fuzzyfeet and will be back to my regularly scheduled knitting. (And if you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Michigan to sell you . . . cheap!)

And since I think this post needs another picture, here is a fat cat for your enjoyment.