One more FO

Stopped in today for a sit'n'knit with the gals at Yarn Forward (in between shopping and step-building and then just plain falling down... boy will I be glad when this move is over!). Asked when the Chemo Cap contest/collection was over - I thought it was end of July. Nope, next week! CRAP on a STICK!

So, dug into the yarn bins (already shifted to the "staging area" in the garage) and found the cap-in-progress, and finished it off tonight. Again, sorry no pics but the camera is in a box buried under other boxes. Anyway.

The hat was in Mission Falls cotton, and after having done a bunch of dishcloths earlier this week and finishing up Mom's cotton socks, I've discovered what I believe many others before me have - knitting cotton makes my hands hurt. I don't know why, maybe it doesn't have the same "give" as wool / acrylic / whatever and so the same tension is more ... tense? Anyway, it makes my hands just ache after a couple of hours. So, I think I'll be avoiding cotton in future (except for more dishcloths as necessary, but maybe not a big binge of them all at once!).

That's it for now. Tomorrow the last of the packing happens, and the computer will be unhooked so no blogging until probably Sunday. So, if you're reading this on Saturday...

HAPPY DOMINION DAY EVERYONE!

I've been meme'd!

I was surfing a bit this morning and hit this on "Sock It to Me", so decided I'd play. You play too! Or, if you're here strictly for knitting content, I cast on a new pair of Marble socks yesterday and am halfway down the foot of the first one. Dang, these are a quick knit! Pictures once the move is complete and the camera found again. Now, PLAY!

Book Meme

From here
1. Copy & paste.
2. Bold the ones you’ve read.
3. Add four recent reads to the end.
4. Tag! - you're it!
(I'm adding an asterisk after ones that I haven't read, but are sitting on the shelf waiting)

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown *
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger*
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald *
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger *
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) - J.K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) - J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden *
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) - J.K. Rowling
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5) - J.K. Rowling
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown *
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Book 1) - J.K. Rowling
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt *
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) - J.K. Rowling
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender’s Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson *
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving *
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien *(yeah right, I'll never get through them!)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Unberable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
The Nature of Blood - Caryl Phillips
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules -Ed. David Sedaris
I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb *
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - Adam Cohen & Elizabeth Taylor
Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Seeing - Jose Saramango
White Teeth - Zadie Smith *
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaardner
Ursula Under - ingrid Hill
Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
The World According to Garp - John Irving
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
* The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
* The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett
* How to Practice - the Dalai Lama
* Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

Procrastination in Pink

I'm on vacation this week so that means lots of sleeping in and general lazing-about, mixed with short bursts of productivity. Yesterday I finished a pair of socks (Mom's orange safety socks, sorry no picture - the camera is packed) and sewed in all the ends of my dishcloths for the new house. Then I watched two movies and read a whole book. NICE!

Today I caught up newsgroups and blogs, and saw that Teresa had added this avatar-thingy to her blog, and I thought, "that looks like fun", so I just made one myself. It looks a fair bit like a cartoon-me, except for the figure. They really should have options other than "anime porn princess" for figure type. Note to Teresa: It's sheer coincidence I came up with the same outfit as you. But it's okay, we're in different provinces. :)

Well, the avatar-thingy didn't look right with the old blog format, so I decided to pink things up for awhile, just for a change. Which is helping me avoid the last two assignments of my correspondence course (only for awhile, they have to get done today, period). But first there will be - SHOPPING! I have to buy new bed linens (for the new bed, woohoo), and a few odds and ends of householder-type stuff, because moving day is coming up fast. Still a few things to pack but I've run out of boxes, so they may have to wait for a later trip.

Unfortunately, all the knitting is packed, except for the red&white headscarf, which I frogged back to zero (didn't like the way the edging was coming out), and the beginning of a blanket in White Buffalo, which is hardly 30+ humidex knitting! I could go dig something out of the bins I suppose, but I'm not really motivated to start anything new right now. I had to frog my second purple sock back too - messed up the heel turn and it didn't fit at all, so it's frogged to zero and re-balled as punishment for misbehaving. ;)

Mostly I just feel like sleeping, which I do have the time to do, but opportunity is something else again. Hard to nap here (the old place, aka Mom & Dad's) and we don't have the keys (or a bed) yet for the new place. That's something I'm greatly looking forward to, actually, is being able to have a nice quiet nap in my own home. Provided, of course, that the neighbours are reasonably quiet too - the guy on one side of us might be a problem, but then again maybe not.

Which leads me to another thought - rather than clutter up here with non-knitting content, I think I'll start me a second blog. Ooh, inspiration has struck. More to come...

Pack and purge, pack and purge...

First it was movies, then books, now yarn - the "pack and purge" fiesta continues! Tonight, after running out of boxes in which to pack books (again), I decided to bite the bullet and purge the yarn bins. Managed to empty out one full and about 1/3 of another of the big-ass Rubbermaid totes. Now I can use the totes for packing/storing seasonal clothing (very little closet space at the new house).

So, two big green garbage bags full of yarn, which happily have found a home already - there's a local lady who's teaching knitting to kids at a summer program and was looking for yarn on FreeCycle, so the timing was perfect. And I was ruthless, too - if I didn't have definite project plans, or if ball bands were missing, into the bags it went. Lots of wee part-balls and like that, also some novelty yarns that had lost their novelty! (ha ha I'm so funny...) I hope the kids enjoy it and I've asked her to pass off any surplus to the Project Linus ladies here in town too - I've a feeling that yarn may be travelling for months to come...

Not a lot of knitting time unfortunately but I have finished a few dishcloths for the house and worked a couple more inches on my funky purple sock. Pictures will have to wait - the camera's already packed. The frog and re-knit of Mom's second sock foot I'm hoping to get done this week while I'm on holiday but I don't know if I'll have the patience. Time will tell.

On the upside, the purge/stash dive unearthed a whole bunch of balls and part-balls of Shetland Chunky that I'd been hoarding, so there will be lots more work-boot socks for Peter and house-socks for me come wintertime. I even found the dark green I'd been saving for his sweater collar/cuffs trim, whenever I get that sweater going. I've got two sweaters for him and three for me planned, so I think I'll alternate - once we get settled in of course! Still so much packing to do...

Lots of news!

Here it is, just in time for Father's Day - dad's "Service Cardigan". This sweater gave me more than a few headaches but did come out beautifully in the end. It even fits!

Now that it's done I think I'll do small projects for the next little while - especially since I'll be MOVING! Woohoo, yes, Peter and I are finally "shacking up" and will be moving in less than two weeks - EEK!!!! I have to get packed and organized tout suite - fortunately, the new place is basically move-in ready; just a good going-over with dust & mop and we'll be ready to go. It's a bit on the small side (read: "cozy") and when we were measuring for furniture, etc., I forgot to factor in my stash bins! However, there's a fair bit of storage room in the front porch so they may find their home there.

I'm excited beyond measure about this - we've been waiting SO long to be able to do this, and it literally fell right in our laps just this week. When things are meant to be, they work. :)

In other news, Mom's second sock is finished but requires a semi-frog. Somehow I messed up the decreases at the toe and it's about an inch shorter than its mate. Hrm. So I will rip and restart tonight - hopefully can just rip back to the problem area without going too far!

So, there probably won't be much blogging for the next couple of weeks because there's so much to do. (Like set up Internet at the new place!) In the meantime, think "good weather moving day" thoughts for me and I'll post pics of the new place (complete with my planned knitting corner) as soon as I can.

Happy Father's Day bloglanders!

Christmas in June

The KnitPicks order arrived! Look at these goodies...

At the back, 16 balls of Wool of the Andes in Winter Night (blue) and 1 of Coal (black). These, along with either the two Cranberry (red) or Hollyberry (burgundy) - the four balls at the left - will become Peter's Christmas sweater. Probably the Cranberry, because that will make it perfectly Habs colours. Very cool.

Then from left to right, we have:
Shimmer in Morning Mist
Shimmer in Deep Woods
Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool
Alpaca Cloud in Stream
Alpaca Cloud in Moss
Alpaca Cloud in Autumn.
All these are laceweight, some of which will become "Elizabeth I" scarves and the rest, something else lacy. The "Moss" has been reserved by Mom for her birthday gift next February (she wanted three, but is getting one. Yes, I'm mean).

Finally at the far right are two hanks of Sock Memories in Smores. SMORES! I'm gonna have toasty feet in these socks, for sure.

And that, my good Bloglanders, is the last yarn to enter this house until August. But ooh, is it ever pretty! I want to start a lace scarf and those Smores socks right away... but other things have priority right now. This evening I will be assembling Dad's cardigan. Mom's second sock is still waiting to be finished, and I really need to start those teddy bears soon. Besides, most of this is in skein form and really needs a swift to be wound properly - which I don't have. Maybe I should ask for a swift for my birthday?

In other news, we have a house! At least, we're at 99% of having a house, still a few details to iron out. But it looks good for cohabitation by the first of September. JOY!

Of course, part of the cohabitation involves each of us weeding out some non-essential "stuff", so the last week of June will be sorting and pre-packing and setting stuff aside for a yard sale in July. All good. There may be some yarn in there - some of the current stash falls under the "what was I thinking" category and really should go to a new home. We shall see.

Dad's sweater is done!

Well, it's all knitted, anyway. Sat down tonight with the last 1/3 of the 2nd sleeve and watched Star Wars Episode III: You wasted your money again. Except I saw it free on TMNOD, so neener. Movie was crap but just long enough (2 1/2 hours) to finish the sweater. Exactly, actually, I cast off the last Sith... er stitch - just as the final credits came up. So woohoo!

Which means now that I have to sew the darn thing up - the least-fun part of knitting (IMO). I think I'll reserve that particular segment of cussing and squinting for Sunday afternoon, since I'll be spending Friday afternoon on bookkeeping, Saturday afternoon on homework, and Friday/Saturday night sleeping - a lot. I've been very very tired again for oh, about a month, and finally saw the doc about it, who ordered the usual blood tests, etc. It's probably just the heat and usual early-June work stress, but it's smart to get things checked out.

So now the sweater is done(ish), there's just that dang orange sock to finish (gods, it's taking FOREVER and makes my hands cramp). Then I can do fun things and charity things and more socks and those teddy bears for the impending twins. Gak. The twins are due any day now, but unlike the Harlot, I will not begin the knitting until they actually arrive safe and sound. Besides, you can't really appreciate a teddy bear until you're at least 6 months old, I think.

Tiger balm and bed. Goodnight bloglanders.

I will buy no yarn in June or July

There. I told Peter, I told Bundy & Kid, and now I've told the bloglanders. I WILL BUY NO YARN IN JUNE OR JULY. Nor any knitting needles, pattern books, magazines or other knit-related accessories. In fact, I may just have to ground myself from even visiting my favourite LYS because I have basically no willpower when I go there. Like zero - I have spent my last $5 on half-price sock yarn just because it was half price. No more of that. Discipline!

'Cuz, here's the thing. Peter and I want to live together. Soon. Then we can be married (JOY!) and all live happily ever after, etc. But this living together thing ain't cheap, and sacrifices need to be made. I currently have 4 almost-full-to-the-brim Rubbermaid totes (big'uns) full of stash. I have stash in my trunk and stash on my bookshelves and somewhere in my closet is stash I was looking for in the totes and couldn't find. So. I DO NOT NEED ANY MORE YARN. Not for the foreseeable future, as I also have a huge project list which will entail knitting up a lot of that stash.

However. (or, if you prefer, BUT - - - )

August is my birthday and also our vacation to Manitoulin Island. While we are at Manitoulin I will be visiting the fine proprietress of Freshisle Fibers, to get more of her lovely Suffolk wool. Maybe even the watermelon sock yarn, if she ever catches up her Harlot-induced glut of orders. :) And for my birthday I totally intend to ask - maybe even beg - for gift cards at Yarn Forward. Because, simply, I love that shop, and the ladies that run it are my knitting-mentors and also good friends. Plus I have a whack of discount points to use so I want to make the most of it. :)

So in August, yes, I'll be getting some yarn. But otherwise, it's time to be responsible (*sigh*, she said) and look at the bigger picture, which involves things like curtains and throw rugs and probably a few gallons of paint and yeah, the car's going to need new tires by fall, etc. etc. But it's all to the good. I'm looking at it as a delayed Lent season sort of thing. So y'all are my witnesses - knit from stash only for the next two months. Pointe Finale.

Oh, and if the Ottawa SnB gals are reading this - I placed my KnitPicks order in May so it doesn't count. Neener.

Tomorrow will be update on WIP time. I knit my tuckus off this weekend!