Birthday Socks and WIPs

so... wow. Where have I been? hmm... Well, you know how you sometimes have to plan your day around nap schedules when you have babies and/or small children? Yeah. My days for 3 weeks were scheduled as follows: Wake up at 7:30 am. Make coffee. Eat cereal. Climb back into bed with laptop and log in to work. Work for 3 hours from a nearly horizontal position (due to the magic of my awesome wedge shaped pillow that i made years ago). Sleep for an hour or two. Lunch/shower/brush teeth. Lie down for a bit. Work for another couple of hours while watching the Olympics (and then later the nearly endless CSI marathon on Spike TV). Lie down for another couple of hours (possibly sleep). Find something to eat that doesn't take much effort to prepare or eat. Lie down for another few hours until it's time to go to bed. This past week I was at work until 3pm when I would come home and crash. It's been fun. Most days I've not even felt like knitting. I can't believe how tired I was that I couldn't even do that!

However, I've been able to get back on the horse somewhat and I finished a pair of socks for my friend Julie's birthday:


Pattern: my own. I charted a Diamond pattern with knit and purl stitches, knit toe-up with short row heels.
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed Sock Yarn in Auburn Kettle. I love this yarn!! I bought the Essential Kettle Dyed sampler earlier this summer and I am so excited that I have enough for 5 more pairs of socks!


(modeled by me)

These were a present for my friend Julie. She loved them, which always makes me glad.

Now that I'm back to knitting I've been WIPping it up (hahaha, I'm hilarious).


Today I finished off the body of my Sahara. I'm using Super 10 Cotton which I recycled from my Modified Mesilla. Somehow I seem to have gained weight since I made the original (I have NO idea how that happened... cough cough) and the Mesilla, which I LOVED no longer fit. I had a whole extra skein of the yarn so I decided to go ahead and make something I could wear now, rather than wait for my weight to comply with my fervent desire that it go back to normal... (apparently wishing it has not made it so. Which is strange. cough cough).


I love the hem in this pattern. The shirt-tail hem made up with short rows and this lace rib is a really great touch. I was going to start on the neck line and then the sleeves but I need a break from the yarn. I love the look of mercerized cotton but I do not like working with it.



I've also been working on my Sunrise Circle Jacket. The yarn is 100% wool that was unmarked, sold in 1 pound bags at Walmart a few years ago. It's mill-ends and is similar to Patons Classic Wool. I need to block it because I realized, after I was already half way through the left sleeve, that my gauge was smaller than called for... I started the back in the spring sometime and apparently I thought I had checked gauge at that time, but apparently I did not.


I have no idea how this will look on me, but it's so fascinating to knit. I knit the sleeve in the round (the pattern calls for flat) but switched to back and forth for the start of the front. The front grows out of the edge of the raglan decrease on the sleeve. I'm really looking forward to finishing this for fall.


As soon as I finished Julie's socks, I decided I needed to knit a pair for myself with the Essential Sock yarn. This is the Spiral Boot Sock from Interweave Knits Summer 2007.


I am into the ankle section of the leg and have about 4 inches to go before the heel. I love how this yarn looks (colorway: Oak Kettle according to the number on the ball band) and feels. I'm sure these almost knee high socks will be a favorite in the winter.

And... um... I can neither confirm nor deny that I started another sock on Friday because I couldn't seem to find the Spiral Boot sock (it was in my bag)(duh).

Pattern: Spring Forward from Knitty Summer 2008.
Yarn: Silver Pine from Gaslight Dyeworks Etsy shop. So soft and i love the color.

So, now we're (pretty much) caught up. Gotta go. Geek time (i.e. new Mythbusters).