Christmas Knitting Finished

Kathleen-
Grandpa's socks are safely off in the mail. This picture was taken immediately after casting off, and pre-blocking. I wove in ends on the plane, and blocked these in my hotel in Seattle. I didn't get another chance to take a picture before I sent them along. They're beautiful and cushy, and I'm pretty sure they'll fit well.To review, the green is Smooshy in Blue Lagoon, and the heels and toes are Louet Gems Pearl in Caribou.

As this was my only Christmas knitting this year, I'm now done, and I'm working on two things:

Jeanie. I'm just past the first dropped stitch row, and I'm loving this pattern and fabric.
This is also Smooshy, in the color Nightwatch. That bit of green you see at the bottom is my provisional cast on, which I did with one of my ends from finishing Grandpa's Socks, which was all I had on the plane.

Also found on the camera: a picture of our Christmas tree.
I'm just starting the Embossed Leaves Sock (also in Smooshy, this time in Visual Purple. I think I'm in love with this yarn.) Nothing to show yet, as all I've done is cast on.

I Could Blog

Kathleen-
I could blog about the lovely job we did decorating our Christmas tree, which makes me smile every time I walk in our front door,

or

I could blog about casting off for Grandpa's sock #2 last night,

or

I could blog about swatching for Mike's hat,

or

I could blog about my new knitting project that's all for me.

But. The pictures documenting all of these things are on either the camera or one of our house computers....and I'm in Seattle.

Hmm. So. In order of mention:

We decorated the Christmas tree, and bought our ornament for the year. I love it. It literally puts a smile on my face every time I walk into the room.

I cast off Grandpa's sock last night, and wove in all the ends on the plane this morning. All ready to go, and quite handsome, if I do say so myself. :)

I seem to have forgotten how much yarn it takes to float across the back while swatching in the round. Swatch attempt #1 got ripped on the plane.

I started Jeanie! I had a serious mental block on the setup row, and I can already read the knitting well enough on row 5 to be able to only glance at the pattern for each row.

Calm Before the Storm

Kathleen-
Warning: long, picture heavy post to follow.

I believe we've now reached the calm before the storm in my job. After a chaotic late Nov/Early Dec, we've now got a touch of downtime before craziness starts again in the New Year. I'm off to Seattle at the end of this week for 4 days for work- anything I shouldn't miss in my downtime in the evenings? Several people got the dates of my Seattle trip mixes up, and therefore called me during last week's flooding to make sure I was ok. I was completly confused until I figured out that they thought I was in the NW!

I've been VERY focused on Grandpa's Socks. Current progress:

That would be sock #1 done! And sock #2 only needs 2 repeats of the pattern and couple inches of ribbing to be done. I'm beginning to think this is going to happen on time. In the past week, I've knit on these socks at home, at work during lunch, on the bus, in the car (as a passenger!), at knit night, while bowling, while playing board games, at a really excellent concert, and at a party. They've been quite promiscuous about being knit in public.

Here's a closeup of the texture- the color is inaccurate in both the pictures, as we're officially experiencing "dreary" weather.

Friday Mike and I picked out a Christmas tree. It turns out I have an interesting relationship with the size of our living room, but it worked out. We'll be decorating it tonight:
Friday I also experienced credit card slippage at Borealis:
That would be 3 skeins of Smooshy in Nightwatch for Jeanie from the new Knitty: I'm hoping to cast on before heading for Seattle (as soon as Grandpa's Socks are done). Here's a closeup of the shade:
I also ended up with one more skein of Smooshy for socks for me, this one in Deep Seaflower.

Today once I finish cleaning up the living room and start dinner, I'm planning on working a bit on the following secret project... not knitting, blocking!

And last, but certainly not least. I won a contest on Shelly's blog, and the prize was a copy of the Knitter's Book of Yarn, which is fabulous! I've already read most of it since it arrived yesterday, and its chock full on interesting information about yarn.

Back from NC

Kathleen-
Less than 36 hours in NC, one very successful wedding, and some knitting too! Although I had work to do on the planes, I knit quite a bit in the airports.

I'm currently at this point in Grandpa's socks. Two heels turned, remaining yarn split in half, and I've commenced knitting up the first leg, and it's going fast! These are still the priority, since the dreaded date of Dec 25th is fast approaching.

The morning of the wedding, Mom and I had some extra time in Asheville, and we went exploring, and found a truly excellent LYS: Purl's Yarn Emporium. This is a little gem of a store in downtown, where the yarn was organized by color, which is quite a sensory experience! Not one to turn down souvenir yarn, I ended up with 2 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Azul Profundo.

The skeins are actually slated for different uses. I'm planning on using 1 skein to line Mike's snowflake hat, and to knit it at an extremely tight gauge (goal: virtually windproof, and super soft). The other skein I think I'll turn into a really soft wristwarmers for me!

Day 25

Kathleen-
Can I put in a plug for the always lovely Smooshy sock yarn from Dream in Color? I buy mine in Borealis, and its what I'm using for Grandpa's socks. I think if his feet weren't so big around, I'd have no worries about getting a full pair of socks out of them. Certainly I think I could get a pair for myself easily out of the (450 yard!) skeins. And its machine wash and dryable (though they suggest taking it out of the dryer before totally dry).

I buy mine at my much adored Borealis Yarns, and I would of course be happy to enable you with some with some color guidance (try that top link).

Last night I pulled out the last repeat of Grandpa's socks (stupid mistake), but tonight I think maybe I'll get to turning the heel on sock #2!

Today I spent time browsing Ravelry with Mike trying to get a handle on what he wants for a hat. You see, he's decided that a new hat would be a helpful thing to have. Of course we already did Christmas presents, but I think this might end up being an early Birthday present. So far we've established that it will be two color with snowflakes on the brim, and will have a double layer over the ears. I'll be searching for the perfect yarn (I'm actually thinking of using Smooshy in Summer Sky as the blue, and then find a white.....)

Day 23

Kathleen-
In the squeaking in under the wire category...as I type it's 11:48 pm.

I spent all day today discovering fiber tools in antique stores, none of which we bought. A bunch of old spinning wheels, a swift, carders for spinning, a flax comb for making linen, and a needle sizer, all old and interesting (and out of my personal price range).

In other news, I'm just about to start the heel of sock #2, and Mom and I went to Borealis today, and are probably headed back tomorrow. Need to get all her yarn shopping in since she lacks a LYS.

Day 22

Kathleen-
Happy Thanksgiving!

We're back from a raucous Thanksgiving gathering with Mike's family (it's a patented family tradition. If there are 11 people at the table, there are at least 13 conversations going on). Our requested contribution was rolls and JAM. The last said with the proper emphasis by Mike's Grandma. I'm one to follow directions in these things, so this morning I baked rolls, and I took a selection of jams to Thanksgiving. Blueberry, Peach, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Grape Jelly.

An enormous quantity of food was eaten, and a good time was had by all, complete with much discussion of hockey, and a tour of his Aunt's workshop for her fleecewear business.

I'm off to work on my gusset increases on Grandpa's socks. Mom and I are planning on going antiqueing in Stillwater tomorrow, along with a bit of yarn shopping (imagine that!).

Day 21

Kathleen-
Mom and I are having a quiet evening at home watching old episodes of CSI and knitting on the socks. Did I mention this? As I'm racing to knit socks for Grandpa, Mom is knitting socks for Grandma.

Best of luck on your bug bitten foot, the emphatically speedy knitting, and the cooking for your most favorite holiday of the year! I'm making rolls and bringing jam to Mike's family's Thanksgiving, which, if all goes according to the norm, will involve a lot of discussion of hockey.

Happy Turkey Day! I'll be feverishly knitting on the sock!

Day 20- Flight Status Edition

Kathleen-
I just got back from knit night, and I'm sitting on the couch checking the flight status of Mom's flight approximately every 30 seconds. Mom arrives tonight and stays through Sunday, and we're doing Thanksgiving with Mike's extended family this year, it should lead to some good stories!

Knit Night was a banner laughing time tonight. I don't even know what we were so amused about, but we were laughing and laughing and laughing. Naturally, I worked on Grandpa's Socks. Almost to the gusset on sock #2. Just one more repeat to go.

Oops! Her flight is in. I'm off to the airport!

Day 19

Kathleen-
I'm squeaking in under the line with a brief post for the day. But the excitement of the day is that we spent all evening cleaning in preparation for my Mom arriving tomorrow night for Turkey Day.

I knit exactly 2 rounds on Grandpa's socks today, so its not even worth picturing.

So that's my quick useless post for the night. I said I'd blog every day...not that the blogging would be up to my usual standards.

Day 18 (Geeky Post)

Kathleen-
We spent all day playing a game called Here I Stand, which is about the Protestant Reformation in Europe. (Told you it was geeky). This would be a giant board game with about 8 billion pieces, and very complicated conditions on everything.

And for the first time in the history of me playing big complicated games, I managed to win! Much celebrating ensued.

And I knit on Grandpa's sock #2. A lot. However, no pictures, as I still haven't replaced the batteries in the camera.

Day 16

Kathleen-
I'm alive (and back home, hooray!). I also even have pictures. During my travels in Southern MN and WI this week, I was faithful to Grandpa's socks, which means:
Sock #1 is complete to the ankle. I'll start knitting up the leg as soon as I get sock 2 to the same spot.
Sock 2 is cast on, past the toe, and in the first repeat of the textured pattern.

I even have evidence:
You'll note that there's only one ball of yarn. This is because I wasn't smart enough to divide the yarn in half at the beginning. Thus sock #1 being on hold until I get to the same point on sock #2.

But that's not the real excitement in our house today. The real excitement is that Mike and I came up with mutual Christmas presents for the year, and decided to get them early. They arrived yesterday.

Behold, my extremely cute ipod nano. (Mike has the same model, but in silver instead instead of blue.) Sorry for the blurry picture, the camera ran out of battery right after I took it.

Day 14

Kathleen-
The answer to your question last post is that I pretty much have 3-4 sets of all my sock size needles (1, 2.5, 2, 3, and 4)...and I bet that's the norm for sock knitters.

Today I turned the heel of Grandpa's sock. Twice. The first time I managed to forget to start the contrast color at the usual place, which I could have lived with....but then I realized I'd somehow gotten it off center. So that was ripped out, and now I have a successfully turned heel.

And that, sadly, is the entirety of my post today. Sorry. Hopefully more tomorrow.

Day 12

Kathleen-
I envy you the Veterans Day holiday! Mike, of course, didn't work either, but I had to work, and I'm headed into travel (Southern Minnesota) for the rest of the week. The only fun thing about working today is that I wore one of my new and very cute Ann Taylor sweaters to work, and got compliments.

Last night we went pub-quizzing, and though we didn't win, we did quite well, and I even managed to make progress on Grandpa's socks.

I forgot to say! On Saturday, having to work the morning was somewhat mitigated by the arrival of a package on my doorstep. My long awaited Ravelry t-shirt had arrived! I'm wearing it at the moment (black, "I swatched Ravelry" with a swatch grid on it), and it makes me laugh every time I look down. A lot of people ended up with shirts that were either too small or seemed to small to them (because they're more fitted shirts than many people are used to wearing), so I'm counting myself lucky that I like the fit!

I'll be blogging from hotels the next few nights, so wish me luck on the internet connections!

Day 10?

Kathleen-
The dance show last night was fabulous. Funny, creative, and thought provoking. As promised, I knit on my Kermit socks during the show, and ended up accomplishing a couple of inches of ribbing on sock #1. Sock #2 is pretty much ready to have the heel turned.

But I'm going to behave! I'm back to knitting on Grandpa's socks!

Like Norma said today, "We said we'd post every day. We didn't say they'd be great posts."

I had to work this morning, so after a few errands, I think the rest of today will be about relaxing.

Dilemma of the Week

Kathleen-
Last night I only knit.....maybe 10 rows. Therefore, I have a dilemma. Cast on for the next toe for Grandpa's socks and try and knit that at the dance show tonight (dark brown yarn, fiddly increases)? Try to finish the gusset increases on Sock #1 (fiddly increases, counting)? Or to pick up a no thinking knitting project, thus breaking my Only Grandpa's Socks rule?

I think we all know the answer here.

I'll be knitting on the socks fondly dubbed the Kermit socks from that green and yellow and brown sock yarn you gave me. Since they're almost done, I'm basically knitting stockinette with maybe an inch of ribbing (or till the yarn runs out.)

Never fear though...I'll give a good measure of time to Grandpa's Socks this weekend...one way or another!

The Dreaded Deadline

Kathleen-
Oh, that dreaded December 25th deadline...you had to mention it. didn't you!

Today I drove all over south-central Minnesota for work, and though I had knitting in case I was early to my appointments, today was apparently my day for getting lost, so no knitting was accomplished.

Currently my solution to the problem of the dreaded deadline (and lets keep in mind that I'm only knitting one Christmas gift this year) is to only allow myself to do the deadline knitting till I'm done.

Therefore, at least till I finish Sock #1, there is no Rogue, and there is no Henry. Only Grandpa's socks.

Last night I cheated and spun for a couple hours while I watched the Country Music Awards. (Yes, I watched. They were pretty good entertainment. Lots of performances. It of course helps that I like a lot of country music.) As Vicki at Knitorious said today, I can be a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n roll.

I Remembered

Kathleen-
I was getting my sandwich for Knit Night last night, and it occured to me what I had meant to blog about: SNOW.

It snowed (flurries, no sticking) on Monday as I was walking to lunch with Eily. Not heavy big flakes, more like little frozen pellets, but snow nonetheless.

Guess its time to really get going on winter accessories.

Last night at Knit Night we had the novel presence of a knitting man (who was lovely and funny), and it didn't curb our conversation one bit! He's married to one of our regulars, and though a relatively new knitter, has jumped in with gusto.

I spent much of the night bemoaning the very large feet of all the men I knit for, but I did manage to get to the gusset increase point for Grandpa's socks (I was a solid inch away and didn't know it till I measured).

I just reserved tickets for a dance show this weekend that some friends are putting on, so I need to either turn the heel first, or start the second sock so that I have knitting in the dark knitting for the show!

Hodge Podge

Kathleen-
Ack! I'm sorry to hear about your Dad's injury...I hope he's doing better and not lifting anything, and that he's being a good patient for your Mom's sake!

Yesterday involved a lot of digging and gardening. After I posted I went and bought a big bunch of pretty bulbs, and planted them out front, and pulled a ton of weeds (how do the weeds get out of control so fast?!)

After all that, I didn't knit much...a bit on Henry, and a bit more on the socks for Grandpa. I'm succumbing to the group opinion and keeping the toe/hell brown. Actually, the further I get with the green, the more I like it. I'll be measuring tonight...I think I'm almost to the gusset increases for the first sock!

There was, however, no progress on Rogue. I just couldn't face the thinking required.....

There was a bit of progress on a super secret knitting project, but being super-secret, I'm not going to spill the beans!

Gorgeous Fall Weather

Kathleen-
Today is a gorgeous Minnesota Fall day. Fall has been a bit strange this year, but the tree in our backyard has been changing:

as has the ivy on the back of the house.

In celebration of the weather, Mike and I headed to the Como Zoo and Conservatory, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch from Nelson's (YUMM) and visited the animals. Since you moved away, they've opened a really cool rain forest exhibit with tropical plants, birds, snakes, and a sloth. I spotted him just as we were about to leave:
and then he woke up:
Then we had to visit the big cats (some of my favorite exhibits). There were mountain lions, tigers, lions, and leopards. The only pictures that turned out were of the lions:

and the tiger:

And as promised, I have actual knitting progress. I've worked some on Henry:

and a closeup shot of the texture on the front:
and the back:
and then I've been diligent about knitting on the socks for Grandpa. Here's my problem. The knit night ladies were adamant about the brown as the best choice for the contrast toes and heels. At the time I agreed....but now that I've knit a few inches, I'm not so sure.
What do you think? I'm considering a different blue/green shade...